Part II
In 1860, as the Civil War was on the horizon, Hale pleaded even more for the national holiday. “This year the last Thursday of November falls on the 29th,” she wrote. “If all the States and Territories hold their Thanksgiving on that day, there will be a complete moral and social reunion of the people of America in 1860. Would not this be a good omen for the perpetual political union of the States?” Between 1847 and 1863 Hale “wrote hundreds of letters to presidents, governors, congressmen and other influential Americans soliciting their backing for a national Thanksgiving.” But each letter was declined. It wasn’t until she wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that her voice was heard in government.
Lincoln received Hale’s letter when the nation was in the thick of the Civil War. Perhaps it was these very circumstances and Hale’s call for cultural unity that inspired Lincoln. Just five days later, he released a proclamation written by the Secretary of State William Seward, declaring the National Holiday. “In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity … 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.”
Seward goes on to list even more national accomplishments and progress amidst the tumultuous time and concludes that “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 … 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.”
[Read Seward’s full proclamation here at Generation Next Ministries on Thanksgiving Day]
Photo by W.S. CODA @WS_CODA VIA UNSPLASH