Lincoln and Thanksgiving: The Origin of an American Holiday|…
The very first Thanksgiving took place practically 400 years ago– long before the nation was born. How did it progress into America’s ultimate national holiday? Credit mostly goes to two people– one, a name you know; the other, you’ve probably never ever heard– but should. Melanie Kirkpatrick, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, gives us the run-down on how a harvest celebration in between Pilgrims and Indians became our oldest nationwide tradition.
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Script:
In Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the fall of 1621, 53 males, women and children commemorated their first harvest in the New World. The excellent Indian chief, Massasoit, brought 90 of his males to the three-day celebration. From all reports, a good time was had by all.
How did this occasion, which occurred nearly 400 years back, become a part of the American story and our earliest national tradition?
Credit goes to many people, however two stand apart. One you understand, and one you ought to understand: Abraham Lincoln and Sarah Josepha Hale.
More on both in a minute.
Washington was the very first president to state a national day of public thanksgiving and appreciation. It wasn’t till the Civil War that the idea of a nationwide Day of Thanksgiving completely took hold.
In the autumn of 1863– at the height of the Civil War, when Americans were bitterly divided– Abraham Lincoln nonetheless required a day of national thanksgiving.
Lincoln started his proclamation by doing this: “The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of healthful skies and worthwhile fields.” It was an amazing way to identify 1863– the bloodiest year of the war.
But even “in the middle of a civil war of unrivaled severity and magnitude,” Lincoln continued, the country had much to be grateful for and much to anticipate. The day was coming when America would again be unified and experience, as Lincoln put it, “a big increase of flexibility.” It was an exceptionally enthusiastic message, advising Americans of their nation’s capability for renewal.
Lincoln’s choice to call for a nationwide Thanksgiving came at the advising of a far-sighted and relentless magazine editor who believed such an event would have a “deep moral influence” on the American character. Her name was Sarah Josepha Hale. More than any bachelor, she is the factor we commemorate Thanksgiving today.
By the 1840s, lots of states had actually established a yearly day of thanksgiving, however the date differed widely from one state to another. Hale saw the worth of a day in which the whole nation commemorated as one.
For 20 years, she carried out a campaign to consolidate public assistance for her idea. As the prominent editor of among the most popular periodicals of the 19th century, year after year she composed columns making the case for the holiday; she released fiction and poems with a Thanksgiving Day style; and she offered her readers recipes for traditional Thanksgiving meals such as roast turkey and pumpkin pie. And, by the method, she also wrote the nursery rhyme, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
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source
The really first Thanksgiving occurred practically 400 years ago– long before the nation was born. Washington was the first president to state a national day of public thanksgiving and praise. It wasn’t till the Civil War that the idea of a national Day of Thanksgiving completely took hold.
Lincoln’s choice to call for a national Thanksgiving came at the advising of a far-sighted and persistent publication editor who thought such an event would have a “deep moral impact” on the American character. As the influential editor of one of the most popular periodicals of the 19th century, year after year she wrote columns making the case for the holiday; she published fiction and poems with a Thanksgiving Day theme; and she provided her readers recipes for conventional Thanksgiving dishes such as roast turkey and pumpkin pie.
