How Presidential Proclamations Made Thanksgiving A Civic Tradition

Gratitude didn’t just arrive with pumpkin pie; it was engineered through careful words and bold timing. We sit down with Dr. Paris Careese to explore how presidential proclamations by George Washington in 1789 and Abraham Lincoln in 1863 shaped Thanksgiving into a unifying civic ritual—and why those choices still influence how we gather, pray, and reflect today. From early congressional requests to wartime appeals for humility, the story of Thanksgiving doubles as a masterclass in statesmanship.

We start with Washington’s first proclamation, issued shortly after Congress drafted the religion clauses of the First Amendment. His language—monotheistic yet nonsectarian—offers thanks for the chance to “establish a form of government for their safety and happiness,” and invites a nation to seek pardon for “our national and other transgressions.” That phrasing marries gratitude with accountability while honoring religious liberty. We unpack how a proclamation differs from a law, why Congress initiated the request, and how Washington’s measured civil-religious tone set a durable pattern for public life.

Then we turn to Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation, crafted in the thick of the Civil War. Lincoln credits “the Most High God” for national blessings even as he recognizes anger “for our sins,” previewing the moral vision of his Second Inaugural. We discuss Sarah Josepha Hale’s campaign for a national Thanksgiving, Lincoln’s pivot from legal argument to moral leadership, and how this rhetoric prepared the ground for reconciliation rather than punishment. Along the way, we reflect on what endures—pluralism, humility, communal gratitude—and how modern traditions, from service to the turkey centerpiece, echo the civic aims of the past.

If you care about American history, religious liberty, and the quiet power of shared rituals, this conversation will change how you experience November. Listen, share with a friend who loves civic ideas, and leave a review telling us which presidential line resonated most. Subscribe for more episodes that connect everyday traditions to the Constitution, culture, and the common good.

Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-first-president/thanksgiving; George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

See also National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-04-02-0091; and Allen, ed., George Washington: A Collection (Liberty Fund, 1988), 534-35

Source: National Archives, at https://education.blogs.archives.gov/2020/11/22/lincolns-thanksgiving-proclamation/; https://docsteach.org/document/lincoln-thanksgiving-proclamation/

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage: Why Thanksgiving
• 3:16 Early Roots And Saratoga’s Impact
• 4:56 Congress, The First Amendment, And 1789
• 8:16 Washington’s Language And Civic Religion
• 13:31 Proclamations Versus Laws Explained
• 15:41 Lincoln’s 1863 Vision And Unity
• 19:26 Mercy, Sin, And National Healing
• 22:46 Legacy, Reconstruction Hopes, And Culture
• 26:16 Traditions, Turkey, And Closing Thanks

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:46

Welcome back to Civics in the Year. I am so excited to talk about Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I have Dr. Paris with me. And now Dr. Paris and I are not going to talk about the origins of Thanksgiving or any of that kind of stuff. We are actually going to be talking about presidential proclamations and what exactly went into making this a national holiday. So, Dr. Careys, thank you so much for being here. I'm very excited to talk about both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. So to fully understand Thanksgiving as a national holiday, as a civic event, right? Because there are 10 civic holidays. Thanksgiving is one of them. And as part of civic education, why is it important to know about the Thanksgiving proclamations of these two American presidents? We have George Washington's proclamation in 1789 and then Abraham Lincoln's in 1863.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44

Thank you, Liz. I do think it's important to understand our national character as a sort of large question of being a citizen or an aspiring citizen of the American constitutional Democratic Republic. So our national culture and as you mentioned, I think you I think there's probably polling evidence to suggest Thanksgiving is a very popular national holiday. So it's an important part of our political and civic culture. And then I've suggested to you that these two presidential proclamations have a special status and understanding why we eventually did develop in the 20th century the full official national comprehensive holiday that we have. These are two important sort of milestones along the way toward that. But the the two proclamations themselves are full of ideas about the meaning of America that I think it's important even hundreds of years later to think about. So one background fact, as you said, we're not going to talk about the whole history of uh Thanksgiving going back to the pilgrims, or was it the Virginians first, and you know, issues like that. But it is significant that in I'll just mention one prior episode is important to note that the the Second Continental Congress or the or the the Confederation Congress after the Declaration of Independence in 1777, they issue a Thanksgiving proclamation. It's after the Battle of Saratoga has been won, which is a major milestone in the in the Revolutionary War. I'm not bringing that up just because I was born and grew up near Saratoga that has nothing to do with it. No, it's just it was a significant event in the wars. The Ken Burns documentary now will be talking about. And it was astounding that we we actually beat the British in a full open battle, so to speak. This is the world's greatest military empire. So that was there was a Thanksgiving proclamation that was away a national Thanksgiving proclamation under this new form of government. But then in 1789, right? Fast forward, we've got a new constitution. George Washington has been selected as the first president. And here it is the fall of that year. He was inaugurated in the spring of 1789. Here it is, October of 1789, and both houses of Congress in a joint committee have written to the president requesting that he declare, give a proclamation for a National Day of Thanksgiving. So it's coming from both houses, and Washington immediately agrees to this. So I'm I'm gonna read a little bit when we get to each of the of the presidents in turn. But it's significant how this also happens within a very short period of time after at least the House of Representatives has drafted the language of the First Amendment, what becomes the First Amendment. It's the Third Amendment in a list of 12 amendments to the Constitution. But the amendment about freedom of religion, that's the first topic in what we now call the First Amendment. And that this request from Congress for a day of Thanksgiving and prayer to give thanks to Almighty God, capital A, Capital G, this fit perfectly with their understanding of what it meant for Congress to make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. And then we'll note Washington's language. He does it in 1862, 1863, 1864. The custom is that it's in the autumn of the year, it's kind of harvest Thanksgiving. He's been assassinated by the autumn of 1865, so he doesn't issue one in that year. But I've picked the 1863 one because of some of the extraordinary language in it. But it's interesting that in the middle of the Civil War, he does it alone as a presidential proclamation. There's no, I don't think there's a a request from Congress for him to issue a proclamation. He does it, and that sort of kickstarts it. So in relation to Lincoln, it's important to point out that one reason he may have done it himself as a presidential proclamation is that there was a 19th-century writer, editor named Sarah Josepha Hale, who from New England who made this a cause to write about American civic culture, the need for unity in American civic culture, and that the government in Washington, D.C. ought to make a law establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday. And she wrote directly to Lincoln more than once, and this affected Lincoln, and he he then makes the move to declare the 1862, 1863, 1864 Thanksgiving proclamations. And here again, it you know, in a culture of religious liberty, of religious pluralism, of religious tolerance, here you have the President of the United States, without, to my knowledge, any opposition at the time, there was no protest, invoking Almighty God and the Most High God and giving thanks for divine providence in the middle of the war that the Union was was by, he thought, the fall of 1863, having better success with the war, perhaps might, you know, there was some prospect of winning the war, whereas it had been a very bad couple of years for the for the for the Union and the Union Army. And and uh so for both of our, you know, arguably still our most beloved prominent presidents, Washington and Lincoln, that this is part of their presidential statesmanship to have a day of Thanksgiving and prayer is significant, at least to understand, as an historical question, and then to still consider today about how much there's a religious element to Thanksgiving, how much Thanksgiving is a unifying national holiday, those those kinds of questions.

SPEAKER_01: 8:04

Interestingly enough, Sarah Jovi Vahale wrote Mary Have a Little Lamb, the nursery rum that we all know and all love. She's an incredibly interesting person. So now I feel like we might have to do a podcast episode on her. There we go. So we're talking about all of these proclamations. What are some distinctive passages or messages from Washington's 1789 proclamation? And how does this document help us understand Washington as a founding father of our democratic republic and as a statesman?

SPEAKER_00: 8:38

Yes, well, I'm gonna begin by just reading the first paragraph in its entirety, and it's not a long proclamation, and we're we're gonna post it the Civics in a year page. So this is October the 3rd, 1789, by the President of the United States of America, a proclamation. Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor. And whereas both houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me, quote, to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness, end quote. Then he begins the second paragraph. Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign the Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these states to the service of that great and glorious being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. Okay, I'll stop there. So the large quotation that I read, that's from the Congress, and then he begins the proclamation. So it's it's in representative of a public spirit at the time of the American founding to invoke religious belief. But for the Congress, the Confederation Congress, the first Congress, George Washington, to use very general language. So we might say now, well, it's sort of biblical language, but that's significant in of itself. It wasn't one particular Protestant sect or community and their way of phrasing it wasn't simply Christian language. There's no reference, for example, to you know Jesus or the Jesus uh uh figure. So it's it's monotheistic, but there's a this this is characteristic of Washington's statesmanship, certainly, from the Revolutionary War period into his presidency to invoke divine providence, to use general language, partly, you know, kind of enlightenment uh uh Freemason language, and uh but but some more biblical language about this divine being and this divine being's care for human beings and for justice, and then particularly for the United States. It should remind everybody, right, that we we we have four references to a divinity in the Declaration of Independence. Also remind everyone that when Washington gives what's really his first farewell address, he thinks of it as his farewell address, period. In 1783, when he's announcing to the governors of the states in a circular letter that it's it's the war's won, basically, in 1783, that he will be resigning his commission later in 1783 and retiring from public affairs. So this extraordinary event that he's not gonna be the conquering general who says, Oh, I love liberty, and by the way, I'm now in charge, and I'll be in office till I die, right? That's the standard in human history. So he's retreating from the stage and just going to be a citizen. He invokes religious language, prayer, Almighty God, and actually makes one of the very rare references to the Jesus figure in that address that we should all model ourselves on the on the humility and justice of the founder of our religion. So he has this record, and then when he's inaugurated as president in 1789, he does two particular things. He brings a Bible to the inauguration ceremony and swears the oath on the Bible, and he adds the phrase, so help me God, which nearly all presidents have have continued. So the in the in the political civic culture of America at the time, Washington's very representative, and this was i acceptable, expected in a way, that there's some blending of religious belief in a pluralistic way with American ideas about liberty and and individual rights, and that it's not going to be an established religion. So, and just a just a couple of other things. So, by the way, to give evidence of this, right? So you heard the the phrases used about this divinity. Explicitly and the rest of the proclamation refers to God's providence allowing us to establish a free form of government. Giving thanks to this new country having religious liberty is one of the things we give thanks to God and would want to have a day of Thanksgiving and prayer for religious liberty. There is no government that's going to tell you exactly what to believe. And there's just one other passage that he also says that this gives an opportunity for Americans. I'll read this, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and ruler of all nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions. So there's a there's a penitential quality here. We pray forgiveness in a way for for sins. And I've always wondered, when he refers to our national and other transgressions, if he has slavery in mind. He's very cautious in his two terms as president about the question of slavery. Does this extraordinary thing at the end of his life, he and Martha manumitting all the slaves that they can legally manumit? But he doesn't talk about slavery very much. I just wonder if that one, a pardoning for our national transgressions. So i it it's interesting now in the 21st century to think how did this possibility of a national holiday really start to take shape in our constitutional Democratic Republic? It's Washington. Well, it's Congress and Washington in 1789.

SPEAKER_01: 14:57

Can I ask a really quick clarifying question? So there's somebody listening who's like, what is a proclamation? Like what what exactly does a proclamation mean before we kind of move on to Lincoln?

SPEAKER_00: 15:08

Yeah, it's it's not a law. It's not really, you're gonna do a separate episode on this. It's it's not declaring a national holiday in the way we now think of a national holiday, that it's it's it's fixed in law and it's on everybody's calendar and it happens year after year after year. So it's more of a particular occasion for the government to recommend and and designate this day as a national holiday. So it doesn't, you know, it doesn't say all government offices will be closed and the things we think about with it with a national holiday.

SPEAKER_01: 15:55

So I'm gonna ask the same question about Lincoln. What are some distinctive messages from that document? How do they help us understand Lincoln as the great president and statesman and kind of arguably the re-founder of our democratic republic?

SPEAKER_00: 16:11

Yes, well, the the culture of the 19th century can sort of continues in the in the direction that Washington has recommended. I forgot to mention that Washington's farewell address in 1796 has a passage in which he recommends both education and education and religious belief and religious principle as important for the new constitutional republic to sustain it because morality and religion go together, and we need a moral foundation for a free people. So that that custom and culture continues in the 19th century. To speak of Lincoln directly, he does mention a religious element at the end of his first inaugural address that we should be friends, not enemies. He does it somewhat obliquely by speaking about the better angels of our nature. The Gettysburg Address in 1863 in the autumn uses the phrase under God that we should have a new birth of freedom. But biblical language in his public speeches is not a major theme. For 20 years, Lincoln has been arguing on the basis of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, its original meaning, that it's not a pro-slavery document, and arguing about the Dred Scott decision, etc. So the biblical the role of faith and morality and religion is not the primary theme of Lincoln's statesmanship to this point. But in the middle of the war, he begins to shift, I think, in a significant way. Religious ideas and phrases become more prominent, and the Thanksgiving proclamations are a very a major element of this. Of course, his, you know, which one is his greatest speech? You know, is it is it his Daddy's Burgess? Is it the second inaugural? The second inaugural is entirely, almost entirely about religious belief, as the way biblical Christian culture of humility and forgiveness and love, in effect, right? With malice toward none, with charity for all. This is how we're going to rebuild a common American culture. So I think these Thanksgiving proclamations are a very important step toward the second inaugural, which is extraordinary because he doesn't mention the founding, the declaration. He doesn't mention that at all. It's all about rebuilding a common American culture and healing ourselves and being charitable and loving toward each other. So again, this is Lincoln's initiative in the middle of the war, 1862. Now, this is the 1863 address, just the president alone saying we ought to have a day of Thanksgiving. And he begins by, in a rather extraordinary way, as Lincoln is, by saying, in the middle of this horrific war, which has been going on, you know, it's it's into its third year at this point, to that there are so many blessings we have to be thankful for, that there have been good har good harvests and pretty good weather and productivity and the economy and things are going better on the battlefield than they were. And this is all a product of the watchful providence of Almighty God, he says in the in the opening paragraph. And then the second paragraph, I'm just gonna read it. 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, has nevertheless remembered mercy. So I'm just gonna pause there. That is that's the preview of the second inaugural. So here he is in 1863, signaling his way of making sense of this horrific war. Our sins, it's it's not just those wicked, evil, pro-slavery, rebellious, you know, Southerners uh in the Confederate States. It's our all of us. So that's extraordinary. So then the main uh sort of final paragraph. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they, the American people I'm sorry, uh fit that they, these these gracious gifts of the Most High God, 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 to take this day of thanksgiving and praise, he says, to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. So it's similar to Washington's address, the language is not strictly Christian about this divinity. It's you know, the the Almighty hand that gives us these gifts, the divine purposes, the Most High God. They both, I should say, at the end of the documents, they both do refer in a kind of general sense that was customary at the time, the year of our Lord 1863 in this case, and Washington, the year of our Lord 1789. But it's not strictly Christian or and one particular Protestant sect here as well. It's it's general language. And and again, thinking ahead to what might have happened had Lincoln not been assassinated with Reconstruction and with race relations and overcoming the legacy of slavery, th this Thanksgiving proclamation is an important step toward his view that Reconstruction should not be punitive. It wouldn't work, it wouldn't be just, we all have sinned because of slavery, and what might have been possible with with Reconstruction if this if he had survived, he had not been killed, and and this spirit survived. But again, the the the idea that whatever we might think of Thanksgiving now, especially thinking about shopping, you know, football games. You know, that we we we st we're we're living off the legacy of these kinds of presidential proclamations that we have much to be grateful for, and that's a very American political civic thing to pause for a day and think about higher principles and higher purposes beyond our political divisions, beyond who we are and where we come from and any differences among us. We we might have all of this in common, but again, it's keyed to higher principles of meaning and and and purpose that as free people we should be grateful for.

SPEAKER_01: 23:08

And we happen to be recording this on a day that SQDL, the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership here at Arizona State University, actually, we are sitting down today and having kind of our Thanksgiving lunch, which is a nice time for faculty and staff to just enjoy each other's company with food. So I have one more question, Dr. Careese. Because the world wants to know what is your favorite Thanksgiving food. That might be a hard one.

SPEAKER_00: 23:36

Yeah, I I do think the turkey tradition is is interesting. It's more controversial now because more Americans are are vegetarian. Uh but but uh that that's to me still the centerpiece. I know there are all kinds of different favorite uh foods and um America being a pluralistic place and a dynamic place. There seem to be new ones that come up. But I but I still think that having a roast turkeys, a meal uh a main dish and a meal you don't have any other time of the year. That's what's significant to me. You can have pumpkin pie or probably nobody would have cranberry sauce uh any other time of the year, I suspect. You know, but even some kind of stuffing or you know but but the turkey is still is special because we don't I don't do does your family have turkey anything? You know, I mean uh most people don't have we have turkey. We you know, people have turkey sandwiches, but but to have a roast turkey as the centerpiece of a meal is is that is a very Thanksgiving thing. Distinctive thing. It's probably the only day of the year most people have it. So Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 24:43

Well thank you for that and happy Thanksgiving. And I look forward to hanging out with you today at lunch and having our Thanksgiving turkey here at Scuttle.

SPEAKER_00: 24:52

Great. Thank happy Thanksgiving to all the civics in the year listeners.