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 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, tranquility and Union.
Abraham Lincoln, Oct. 3, 1863
Wednesday, November 25, 1863:Â
In accordance with the respective proclamations of the President of the United States, and the Governor of Minnesota setting apart a day of National Thanksgiving and recommending the people to abstain from their usual avocations on that day, no paper will be issued from this office tomorrow.
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The U.S. Christian Commission have issued a circular appealing t the ministers and churches throughout the land for Thanksgiving collections to be devoted to the alleviation of the wants and distresses of our country's defenders. Not only are money collections desired, but contributions of clothing, reading matter, and other articles which would be valued by men who are debarred, by reason of their position, from the comforts of home. The appeal should not be thrown away upon our Christian people. Liberal Thanksgiving offerings ought to be sent on from every worshiping community in the North. While we remain at home, in the enjoyment of all the comfort, luxury, and safety of our peaceful hearth-stones, the absent, the brave, and the suffering, should be remembered, gratefully and liberally, on every appropriate occasion.
In this city, some four or five congregations will unit, tomorrow, at the Congregational church, in rendering praise to the Giver of all good things. Other churches will doubtless observe the day in a similar manner at their respective places of worship. Let each and all contribute something to the object set forth. If it shall appear hard to any one that we are called upon so often to give, let him or her bear in mind that those for whose behalf we are now solicited, peril all -- property and life. There is no measure to their sacrifice.
Contributions of any kind may be handed over to the president of the Soldiers' Aid Society in this place, by whom they will be forwarded to their proper destination.
Friday, November 25, 1863:
Business was very generally suspended in town yesterday-after 10 o’clock in the morning. Many of our citizens attended church services, and all, it is te be presumed,-found some rational cause for thanksgiving -- if for nothing else, certainly for good dinners.
Mr. Burt's Thanksgiving sermon, delivered at the Congregational Church, was a well conceived effort, excellent in temper, sound in doctrine.
Its import was that man should rejoice and give thanks always; that not even the calamities incident to a devastating Civil War exempt the human heart from the duty of thankfulness for the needful chastenings which are visited, a promise no less for the gifts innumerable which we do receive.
The past year has been one of great sacrifices and calamities. Yet there was much to be grateful for. In material blessings, the loyal North, and our own State, especially, has been abundantly favored. Our population has increased; capital has multiplied; our harvests have been plenteous; or air sweet, and our sky is pure; no pestilence has visited us; the arm of no foreign foe has been raised to disturb our prosperity; quiet has been restored to our frontier; business has strangely prospered, even in the midst of national adversity; in the field of battle victory has crowned our arms in the sacred cause; the domain of liberty has been enlarged; and even now, amidst the thundering of cannon and the clashing of arms, can be described not in the far distance signs of returning freedom, peace, and happiness to our entire land.
The condition of those who had risen to subvert our Government and rend the Republic, was, on the contrary, deplorable in the extreme when put in contrast with the blessings which we enjoy. It was an illustration upon a great scale, of the truth of the inspired maxim -- the way of the transgressor is always hard. The rebels were eating the fruit of their wickedness -- hunger, want, privations, disorganization of society, loss of property, the distruction of their peculiar institution -- all had been visited upon them as the legitimate consequences of their own mad treason.
The peroration of Mr. Burt's address was very fine: a vision of the Republic restored, regenerated, in the noontide of its effulgence and greatness: peace, harmony, and happiness, everywhere prevailing; the arts, sciences and manufactures flourishing, and ministering to the uses, comfort, and gratification of our people; united at home and respected abroad; and all our privileges doubly dear to us in that they had ever been assailed by treacherous hands, and rescued at the peril and sacrifice of many noble lives.
The church was crowded during the delivery of this Thanksgiving address, with a very large and intelligent audience, upon whom the words of the speaker were not thrown away.
