Happy Thanksgiving

Lincoln's Decree of Thanksgiving in 1863 It is well to remember that as troubled as our economy is at this traditional season of Thanksgiving, there have been darker times. During the awful year of 1863, with a vast and bloody civil war raging across the nation, Abraham Lincoln caused the nation to pause and celebrate its bounty and blessings. Andy Malcolm at his Los Angeles Times blog dusts off that eloquent proclamation today along with President Obama's Thanksgiving decree. Enjoy reading them with a profound prayer of Thanksgiving and a hopeful wish for better times - soon - for all the world. Happy Thanksgiving.

The First Thanksgiving

President Lincoln's Proclamation Secretary of State William Seward drafted Abraham Lincoln's proclamation in 1863 establishing the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving and praise "to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." Seward's prose was not nearly as poetic as Lincoln's, but the fact that the president and his chief advisers could look to the Almighty and give thanks in the middle of an awful civil war is most assuredly a testament to their ultimate faith in the grand experiment called The United States of America. The full Lincoln proclamation is here. A happy and blessed Thanksgiving. And, thanks for visiting The Johnson Post.