Second Annual National Day of Thanksgiving - 1864

President Abraham Lincoln, on October 21, 1864, issued the second annual Day of National Thanksgiving which was observed on the last Thursday of November.

“As I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid, that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling-place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.”