Days of Thanksgiving

 

President James Madison

In response to several requests from Congress, President James Madison announced three separate days of thanksgiving:  August 20, 1812; September 9, 1813; and January 12, 1815 - but he did not declare any one of them as Thanksgiving Day.

There were no more Presidential proclamations until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving as a National holiday.  Although Madison avoids calling "the Great Disposer" by name, here is a small part of the 1815 proclamation he issued:

“No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of Events of the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United States. His kind providence originally conducted them to one of the best portions of the dwelling place allotted for the great family of the human race.”

The early colonists had a pointed way of speaking, and they rarely got to the point without the over-use of a lot of words.  Sometimes their words have to be read more than once to understand what they are saying.

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