Thanksgiving: The Truth
Thanksgiving is next week and Americans will gather their families and friends to sit down for the annual feast. Some will hold hands and recite all they are thankful for. Some will tell the story of Pilgrims and Indians sitting down for a feast. Many will put out the standard props of Pilgrims, pumpkins, gourds, feathers, etc. They will perpetuate the myth and the lie.
The lie.
The fictional partnership of 17th Century European Pilgrims and New England Indians sharing a celebratory meal appears to be just 100 years old. And it was only after the First World War that a version of such a Puritan-Indian partnership took hold in elementary schools across the American landscape. We can thank the invention of textbooks and their mass purchase by public schools for embedding this "Thanksgiving" image in our modern minds. It was, of course, a complete invention, a cleverly created slice of cultural propaganda, just another in a long line of inspired nationalistic myths such as the Easter Bunny.
The first Thanksgiving Day did occur in the year 1637, but it was nothing like our Thanksgiving today. On that day the Massachusetts Colony Governor, John Winthrop, proclaimed such a "Thanksgiving" to celebrate the safe return of a band of heavily armed hunters, all colonial volunteers. They had just returned from their journey to what is now Mystic, Connecticut where they massacred 700 Pequot Indians. Seven hundred Indians - men, women and children - all murdered. A celebration of murder.
Did the Pilgrims share a Thanksgiving feast with the Pequot and Wampanoag Indians as they celebrated their bounty? No, that never happened. Today our national memory is corrupted by the lie of a fictional event. Let there be no mistake, even 382 years later the American Indians of this country know the truth and they remember. They remember it as a day of mourning.
Thanksgiving Day is coming. We will gather with our families and enjoy a feast. We will celebrate and we will give thanks. But let us celebrate the truth, not a lie. Tell your family and friends the real reason and purpose of Thanksgiving. Have your feast. Hold hands and recite all you are thankful for but include the truth of our national holiday.
The Truth.
What exactly is the origin of our national holiday? The fact of the matter is Thanksgiving began with George Washington and became official with Abraham Lincoln. Two presidential proclamations.
Thanksgiving Proclamation signed October 3, 1789 in New York
A proclamation by President George Washington and a congressional resolution established the first national Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 1789. The reason for the holiday was to give "thanks" for the new Constitution. "...to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed..."
Thanksgiving Proclamation sighed October 3, 1863 in Washington
A proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln created Thanksgiving Day as a National holiday. Prior to this each state had their own Thanksgiving celebrations at various times. Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, wrote a letter to Lincoln urging him to make Thanksgiving a National holiday so all Americans would celebrate at the same time. Fresh from a Union victory at Gettysburg, the turning point of the Civil War, Lincoln made the proclamation creating the National holiday to occur the last Thursday of November for the nation to give thanks to Almighty God and "commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged."
Americans should celebrate the truth that 55 men gathered in 1787 in Philadelphia to design an experimental form of government - by the People and for the People; giving us the Constitution, accepted and signed by all states in 1789 then celebrated by Proclamation on November 26, 1789.
On October 3, 1789, George Washington published his proclamation designating Thursday, November 26, 1789 as the Day of Thanksgiving. Our first President, "George Washington issued a proclamation on October 3, 1789, designating Thursday, November 26 as a national day of thanks. In his proclamation, Washington declared that the necessity for such a day sprung from the Almighty’s care of Americans prior to the Revolution, assistance to them in achieving independence, and help in establishing the constitutional government."
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Source:
Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789 * George Washington's Mount Vernon
" By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."
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 great 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-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
Go: Washington"
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Source:
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
Americans should celebrate that 74 years after George Washington's proclamation, when our nation was torn in half, men and women worked and fought and died to heal this nation prompting Abraham Lincoln to memorialize it as a National holiday.
Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, wrote a letter to Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have the "day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival." She explained, "You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritative fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution."
The document below sets apart the last Thursday of November "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise." According to an April 1, 1864, letter from John Nicolay, one of President Lincoln's secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the original was in his handwriting. On October 3, 1863, fellow Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary how he complimented Seward on his work. A year later the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops.
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"Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, 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. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State"
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The term "Pilgrims" didn't even exist until the 1880's. Around that time there was a popular children's book containing a fictional story of Pilgrims and Indians enjoying a feast together with the setting being the early years of settlors. This story gained in popularity, became a play, and then began to flourish in grade schools across the country. Decades went by and we as citizens just accepted the story as factual. It is not.
Okay then, what is Thanksgiving Day really about?
Standing in the shade of the Tree of Liberty is what sets Americans apart from the rest of the world. Colonial Americans planted the seeds of Liberty at Boston, Lexington, and Concord. From 1775 to 1783 the same Americans watered the Tree of Liberty with their blood so that their posterity, you and me, would enjoy Liberty like no other citizen in the world. Again, from 1861 to 1865 Americans watered the Tree of Liberty to keep our nation whole.
Thanksgiving Day is the day when we as Americans should give thanks for the wisdom of our Founding Fathers and the sacrifices of our forefathers. Historians estimate that approximately 23,000 Americans died for our Liberty during the War for Independence. Less than a century later another 620,000 Americans died during the Civil War. How many more sacrificed their fortunes? How many more sacrificed their well-being and safety? Let go of the myth and celebrate the truth. Be thankful that so many before us made sacrifices to ensure that we are free and enjoy the highest degree of Liberty in the world. Be thankful and ponder what you are willing to do to keep that Liberty.
If you do nothing else, tell the TRUTH.
