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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2018)
32 Wednesday, November 21, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon A proclamation of Thanksgiving Thanksgiving has long been an American tradition, famously dating back to the Pilgrim settlers at Plymouth Colony. The observance was celebrated at different times and in different places, and the tradition was strongest in New England. It wasn’t until the Civil War that it was established as a fixed national holiday. In the darkest depths of the American Civil War, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln set aside the last Thursday of November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.” The website Abraham Lincoln Online notes that: “According to an April 1, 1864, letter from John Nicolay, one of President Lincoln’s secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the original was in his handwriting. On October 3, 1863, fellow Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary how he complimented Seward on his work. A year later the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops.” Washington, D.C. October 3, 1863 By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. The year that is draw- ing towards its close, has been filled with the bless- ings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so con- stantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, oth- ers 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 watch- ful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magni- tude 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 met- als, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstand- ing the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permit- ted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human coun- sel 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 sol- emnly, reverently and grate- fully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fel- low citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourn- ing 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 disobedi- ence, commend to His ten- der care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoid- ably 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. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. 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 United States the Eighty-eighth. By the President: Abraham Lincoln William H. 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