Thanksgiving
“With one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings...”
In November 2008 the Wall Street Journal published a piece I wrote about the origins of Thanksgiving as a U.S. national holiday. It was headlined “A Day of Thanksgiving” and began:
When was the first Thanksgiving? Most of us think of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1621. But if the question is about the first national Thanksgiving holiday, the answer is that the tradition began at a lesser-known moment in 1777 in York, Pa.
In July 1776, the American colonists declared independence from Britain. The months that followed were so bleak that there was not much to give thanks for. The Journals of the Continental Congress record no Thanksgiving in that year, only two days of “solemn fasting” and prayer.
It went on…
Saratoga turned the tide of the war — news of the victory was decisive in bringing France into a full alliance with America. Congress responded to the event by appointing a committee of three that included Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia and Daniel Roberdeau of Pennsylvania, to draft a report and resolution. The report, adopted Nov. 1, declared Thursday, Dec. 18, as “a day of Thanksgiving” to God, so that “with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor.”
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After the Revolution, Adams, who was eventually elected governor of Massachusetts, maintained the practice of declaring these holidays. In October of 1795, the 73-year-old governor proclaimed Thursday, Nov. 19, as “a day of Public Thanksgiving to God,” recommending that prayer be offered that God “would graciously be pleased to put an end to all Tyranny and Usurpation, that the People who are under the Yoke of Oppression, may be made free; and that the Nations who are contending for freedom may still be secured by His Almighty Aid.”
A year later, Gov. Adams offered a similar Thanksgiving proclamation, declaring Thursday, Dec. 15, 1796, as “a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Praise to Our Divine Benefactor.” He recommended “earnest Supplication to God” that “every Nation and Society of Men may be inspired with the knowledge and feeling of their natural and just rights” and “That Tyranny and Usurpation may everywhere come to an end.”
These statements were greeted with cynicism and derision by some of Adams’s younger political opponents, who saw them as archaic. One of them, Christopher Gore, wrote a friend that it would be an occasion for a real day of thanksgiving when Adams finally retired.
It turned out, though, that the ideas of thanking God for America’s blessings — and of praying for the spread of freedom everywhere — would long outlast Adams’s career.
Looking back on Samuel Adams’s phrasing about “with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts,” I like how he used the singular and the plural together, with a unity and a diversity that mirrors what became the United States.
This Thanksgiving I am especially thankful for all the readers of The Editors and especially for the paying subscribers. Notwithstanding all the strains and stresses and troubles real and potential, it’s a wonderful time to be an American.
I am reminded of an old joke I heard as an exchange student in 1962. It was the custom in East Germany to say “thank Ulbrecht” (the communist leader) if ever a good thing occurred in officially atheist country. One day the response was “Ulbrecht is dead”. The answer: “Thank God .”
I am thankful for The Editors and the thoughtful commentary you share with your readers. I just became paying subscriber and glad I did. Happy Thanksgiving!