Presidential proclamations

J. Michael Sharman
Published: November 25, 2008

As a sampler of how our nation’s chief executives have called us to thanksgiving and prayer, I have included some excerpts this week of Thanksgiving Proclamations by each of our presidents from 1865 to 1908.

It was true back then and it is still true today that all of us need to consider Colossians 3:17: “Whatever you do, whether on word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Here are the excerpts:
-Andrew Johnson 1865:
Whereas righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any people; Now, therefore, [I] do hereby recommend to the people thereof that they do set apart a day of national thanksgiving to the Creator of the Universe for these great deliverances and blessings.

-Ulysees S. Grant 1872:
Whereas if any one people has more occasion than another for such thankfulness it is the citizens of the United States, whose government is their creature, subject to their behests; who have reserved to themselves ample civil and religious freedom and equality before the law; and to whom prosperity in agriculture, manufactures, and commerce has been vouchsafed; Now, therefore, by these considerations, I recommend that the people meet in their respective places of worship and there make their acknowledgments to God for His kindness and bounty.

-Rutherford B. Hayes 1877:
The completed circle of summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, has brought us to the accustomed season at which a religious people celebrates with praise and thanksgiving the enduring mercy of Almighty God.

Chester A. Arthur 1882:
[F]or the prosperity for all our industries, the liberal return for the mechanic’s toil affording a market for the abundant harvests of the husbandman; for the preservation of the national faith and credit; for wise and generous provision to effect the intellectual and moral education of our youth; for the influence upon the conscience of a restraining and transforming religion, and for the joys of home — for these and for many other blessings we should give thanks.

Grover Cleveland 1886:
And while we contemplate the infinite power of God in earthquake, flood and storm let the grateful hearts of those who have been shielded from harm through His mercy be turned in sympathy and kindness toward those who have suffered through His visitations. Let us also in the midst of our thanksgiving remember the poor and needy with cheerful gifts and alms so that our service may by deeds of charity be made acceptable in the sight of the Lord.

Benjamin Harrison 1889:

A highly favored people, mindful of their dependence on the bounty of Divine Providence, should seek fitting occasion to testify gratitude and ascribe praise to Him who is the author of their many blessings.

William McKinley 1897:
Respect for law and order has been strengthened, love of free institutions cherished and all sections of our beloved country brought into closer bonds of fraternal regard and generous cooperation. For these great benefits it is our duty to praise the Lord in a spirit of humility and gratitude, and to offer up to Him our most earnest supplications.

Theodore Roosevelt 1908: For the very reason that in material well-being we have thus abounded, we owe it to the Almighty to show equal progress in moral and spiritual things. With a nation, as well the individuals who make up a nation, material well-being is an indispensable foundation. But the foundation avails nothing by itself.  That life is wasted, and worse than wasted, which is spent in piling, heap upon heap, those things which minister merely to the pleasure of the body and to the power that rests only on wealth. Now, therefore, I recommend that the people thank the Almighty for the many and great blessings they have received in the past and to pray that they may be given strength so to order their lives as to deserve a continuation of these blessings in the future.

J. Michael Sharman is a community columnist who practices law in Culpeper. His column appears Tuesdays in the Star-Exponent.