George Washington
Thanksgiving Day Proclamation
"Now
therefore I do recommend and assign 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."
"That we may then all unite in rendering unto him
our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of
this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold
mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we
experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the greatest
degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the
peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish
constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the
national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with
which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful
knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been
pleased to confer upon us."
"And also that we may then unite in most humbly
offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations
and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions..."
