Thanksgiving Day Address

I have the intention to pass this out to my Social Studies students after Thanksgiving. It is the Thanksgiving Day proclamation given by President George Washington way back in the day. I would have given it to my students the Friday before we were out for the holiday, except my kids got sick and I had to go back home to take care of them.

Here it goes:

Since it is right and good that all nations should accept the authority of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful and thankful for his blessings, and to humbly ask for God’s help and kindnesses; and since the U.S. government has, by their mutual agreement, asked me to “suggest to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, and on this day the people should give credit to God with thankful hearts for the many important blessings that have come from God, most recently by allowing us the opportunity to peaceably start a new government for their safety and happiness.”

So, I declare Thursday, the 26^th of next November, to be a day dedicated by all Americans to give thanks and praise to the great and glorious God who is the kind Creator of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. We should all unite and join together to give Him our sincere and humble thanks for:

• His kind care and protection of Americans since before the Revolutionary War,
• to the amazing and wonderful kindnesses to help finish the Revolutionary War,
• to the peace and prosperity following the Revolutionary War,
• to the peaceful and intelligent way we have been able to create a government to help keep safety and happiness for Americans (and including this new day of Thanksgiving),
• to the freedom from unneeded governmental laws and freedom from government-led religious persecution,
• to the way we Americans get and share knowledge to build up our intelligence and economy,

· and for all the other great and many blessings that God has been kind enough to give to us.

After all of this, we should then join together to humbly pray and plead to the great Lord and Ruler of all Nations to:

• ask Him to forgive our nation’s, as well as our individual, sins;
• help us all, whether we work for the U.S. government or not, do our jobs fairly and wisely;
• help our National Government to be a blessing to all Americans by always being a government that makes wise, just, and Constitutional laws, and that the workers in it would be humble and trustworthy in doing their jobs and duties;
• bless and guide all Kings and nations (especially those that have shown their faithfulness to us), and that He would bless them with good governments, peace, and harmony;
• to promote the general knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue;
• to promote the increase of science among all peoples;
• and to give all mankind the material blessings that He knows to be best for us.

Signing this with my own hand in the city of New York on October 3^rd, 1789,

G. Washington