Thanksgiving and Praise - October 3, 1863

President Abraham Lincoln declared a proclamation which the Congress of the United States designated as a National Day of Thanksgiving on October 3, 1863.

“I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States...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...[It is] announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord...It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.”