Thanksgiving Day Proclamations 1789

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Thanksgiving Day Proclamations 1789–Present

Introduction

The First National Proclamation of Thanksgiving was issued by the Continental Congress in November of 1777, following the Colonial victories over British General John Burgoyne in the Battles of Saratoga. In the Proclamation, Congress "recommended to the legislative or executive Powers of these United States to set apart Thursday, the eighteenth Day of December next, for Solemn Thanksgiving and Praise." Near the end of the Revolutionary War—after the British House of Commons had voted to end the war in America, but before the formal signing of the Treaty of Paris—the Congress proclaimed another Day of Thanksgiving, to be held on November 28, 1782. But the first Thanksgiving Day celebrated under the new Constitution took place on November 26, 1789, the first year of George Washington’s presidency. President Washington issued this proclamation recognizing November 26 as “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” John Adams and James Madison also issued proclamations calling on Americans to observe certain days with fasting, prayer, and thanksgiving, but after Madison no President of the United States issued a proclamation for Thanksgiving until Abraham Lincoln. On October 3, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln made the traditional Thanksgiving celebration a nationwide holiday. Since this proclamation, each of his successors as president has issued a Thanksgiving proclamation every year, appointing the day first specifically set by Lincoln—the “last Thursday in November.” In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the third Thursday of November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season. After a storm of protest, Congress established the Federal Thanksgiving Day holiday following the passage of a joint resolution, H.J. Res. 41, by the House of Representatives on October 6, 1941, declaring the "last Thursday in November a legal holiday." The Senate then passed an amendment "making the fourth Thursday in November a legal holiday."

George Washington
George Washington, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1789
George Washington, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1795

John Adams
John Adams, A Day of Fasting and Humiliation, 1798
John Adams, A Day of Fasting and Humiliation, 1799

James Madison
James Madison, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1813
James Madison, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1815

Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1862
Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1863
Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1864

Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1865
Andrew Johnson, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1866
Andrew Johnson, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1867
Andrew Johnson, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1868

Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1869
Ulysses S. Grant, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1870
Ulysses S. Grant, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1871
Ulysses S. Grant, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1872
Ulysses S. Grant, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1873
Ulysses S. Grant, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1874
Ulysses S. Grant, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1875
Ulysses S. Grant, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1876