2013 Home for the Holidays Special edition of LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com Page 5
the support and faith of the American people to pray
for peace and a speedy end to the war.
Lincoln’s second proclamation of thanksgiving was
made Nov. 28, 1861.
2
This time the president or-
dered governmental departments to be closed for a
local day of thanksgiving. On this day he invited his
good friend Joshua Speed and his wife and others to
a dinner at the White House. It was not our typical
Thanksgiving meal, but a meal that gave the president
a chance to reflect, along with his fellow Americans,
on what he was thankful for, such as his friends and
family.
During the same month when Lincoln made the presi-
dential order, he also continued to deal with growing
tensions between the United States and Great Britain.
This was caused by the Union navy seizing Confeder-
ate commissioners to Great Britain and France from
the British steamer Trent, leading to what we know as
the Trent Affair.
It was not until April 10, 1862, that President Lin-
coln issued another proclamation, a “Proclamation of
Thanksgiving for Victories,” that displayed a com-
passion for both the Union and Confederates. In this
proclamation, he implored “spiritual consolations in
behalf of all who have been brought into affliction
by the casualties and calamities of sedition and civil
war.”
3
He called on the American people to take time
to remember they were all Americans affected by this
great tragedy of war.
Lincoln made another similar proclamation three
months after the Emancipation Proclamation went
into effect. On March 30, 1863, he issued the “Proc-
lamation Appointing a National Fast Day.” In this act,
he again called on the American people to “confess
their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet
with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to
mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth,
announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all
history, that those nations only are blessed whose God
is the Lord.”
4
This continued until the victory at Gettysburg on July
3, 1863, which led President Lincoln to declare “a
day for National Thanksgiving, Praise, and Prayer”
(Aug. 6, 1863). He asked “the People of the United
States to assemble on that occasion in their custom-
ary places of worship, and in the forms approved by
their own consciences, render the homage due to the
Divine Majesty, for the wonderful things he has done
in the Nation’s behalf, and invoke the influence of His
Holy Spirit to subdue the anger, which has produced,
and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebellion,
to change the hearts of the insurgents, to guide the
counsels of the Government with wisdom adequate to
so great a national emergency.”
5
As a result of this proclamation, Lincoln received an
interesting letter from a woman by the name of Sarah
J. Hale. She wrote:
“As the President of the United States has
the power of appointments for the District of
Columbia and the Territories; also for the Army
and Navy and all American citizens abroad who
claim protection from the U. S. Flag – could he
not, with right as well as duty, issue his proc-
lamation for a Day of National Thanksgiving
for all the above classes of persons? And would
it not be fitting and patriotic for him to appeal
to the Governors of all the States, inviting and
commending these to unite in issuing procla-
mations for the last Thursday in November as
the Day of Thanksgiving for the people of each
State? Thus the great Union Festival of Ameri-
ca would be established.”
6
