The "O" Word
Conservative by Nature, Christian by Choice
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Happy Thanksgiving

November 27th, 2008 . by Cary

…to one and all. A special THANK YOU to the people willing to serve this country who enable us to sit around and give thanks in the safety of our own home.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863, Washington, D.C.

Interesting side note: Lincoln dated this proclamation as “Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.” (emphasis mine)

7 Responses to “Happy Thanksgiving”

  1. comment number 1 by: The Loon

    May God bless all at the Cartter house this Thanksgiving Day with health, happiness, and good eats…………….and a wee bit of football.

    Being thankful for America this day should be important to everyone around the world, but, more importantly, the world needs to be thankful for the men and women in our Military; both Active-Duty and Veteran.

  2. comment number 2 by: cary

    Thank you, Loon – and may the lake be calm, and no feathers be ruffled on this Thanksgiving day…

  3. comment number 3 by: Gary

    Happy Thanksgiving, to you, TMBWitW and Meggy

  4. comment number 4 by: Robert

    have a great Thanksgiving day to you, TMBWITW and the kid as well as your entire readership…

  5. comment number 5 by: cary

    Thanks, guys – we just got back, and are ready to go out on round two just as soon as the littlest one wakes up from her nap…

    Mmmmm – pie!

  6. comment number 6 by: Bloviating Zeppelin

    Happy Thanksgiving, Cary!!

    BZ

  7. comment number 7 by: cary

    And to you, BZ! Hope you had lots of turkey and pie!