Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

1863 was a very trying year in our nation’s history. Engulfed in a brutal civil war, the worst battle — Gettysburg — was fought that July, leaving thousands dead on both sides and tens of thousands of soldiers wounded. It was a fractured land, a divided nation, led by Abraham Lincoln who before the war began may not have been a Christian.

Raised in a profoundly poor environment, Abe lost his mother when he was nine and, by the time he was assassinated in 1865, two of his four children had preceded him in death. Those experiences, combined with a war that seemed to be destroying the young nation, most likely brought the president to the point of recognizing the need for divine guidance personally and as a nation.

Following the end of the Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving and later that year proclaimed another day of thanks which is now celebrated annually the fourth Thursday in November. Along with that proclamation, Lincoln made the following address, widely known as Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others 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 watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude 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 had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding 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 permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

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, 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 solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and 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. 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 disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably 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, tranquility 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

President Lincoln did not start off his proclamation by focusing on the problems of the day, instead he gave thanks to God for what the country had — the proper order of prayer.

As a nation, we have so much to be thankful for. Sure, there are problems, but when was there ever a time in our history when troubles did not exist? Let us always remember to give thanks to God for what we do have regardless of the circumstances, asking him to guide our nation and to allow us to live peacefully among men so that we, too, may one day see the Lord (paraphrased from Hebrews 12:14).

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