President Abraham Lincoln penned his mystical Thanksgiving Proclamation declaring Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, while the Civil War slit America open like a mad scalpel-wielding forensic scientist in a morgue.
Though the patient–
our young country–
still kicked and screamed while strapped to the gurney, the South and pro-slavery sympathizers struggled to rip out the patient’s guts & vital organs–
as furiously as President Lincoln and the Union troops struggled to shovel the patient’s heart & entrails back in place & sew him back up…
Tremendous shock had sunk into the citizens of North and South as the War that both originally thought would be a few weeks’ frolic to silence their cowardly cousins and brothers, dragged into a unending series of horrific bloodbaths…
Only nine months after his Emancipation Proclamation was declared in effect for all states in rebellion, President Abraham Lincoln suffered with his people through military defeats and political turmoil that would have sunk a less sturdy vessel of leadership.
Lincoln himself continued to suffer vicious verbal abuse as an “ape” and “imbecile” and worse–
not only by opponents in the Confederacy but in the Union as well.
During every phase of the expanding country’s growing split, Lincoln had tried desperately to save the Union by hewing to the legal principles and wording of the Constitution. But he sensed this profound division could not be cured by military force or legal right alone.
At heart, Lincoln was a revolutionary risk-taker.
No matter how much he’d wrapped his political decisions around what was doable under existing legal precedents, while considering his opposition’s strengths–
no matter how flawed his comprehension of racial prejudice and injustice as his presidency began–
Lincoln couldn’t avoid this fact:
Inside himself, he didn’t believe in the superiority of the white race over the black and red as much as he believed in the Divine Creator’s superior wisdom and guidance over every human being.
He believed–
and he instinctively believed every American could be inspired to realize–
that calling upon God in complete humility could possibly work miracles of revival & transformation, both for themselves and their country.
What greater humility exists than expressing gratitude to God?
And by seeing & admitting where one’s own corruption lurks?
What greater healing power can be aroused than by sharing gladly with your neighbor?
What can purge & heal the human heart, can also guide a ravaged country.
Please read Lincoln’s MYSTICALLY INSPIRED Thanksgiving Proclamation with awareness of the incredible national & private stresses it was penned under. Every detail of this Proclamation addresses a specific point the President saw needed healing, cleansing or reinforcing.
Why not also ask yourself these fun questions:
What do I most give thanks for this Thanksgiving Day?
Who am I going to tell this to?
What good has my Thanksgiving experiences brought me and others?
A last important note:
How could renewing our spirit of giving thanks & sharing help improve USA?
It’s not just our personal destiny, it’s a CHOICE–
Do we continue polarizing ourselves into ideological and economic camps as intolerant & combative with one other as when the North & South slid into the Civil War?
Or not?
Thank you for caring!
Here’s the Complete Original Text of President Abe Lincoln’s Civil War Thanksgiving Proclamation:
“Abraham Lincoln
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 unequaled 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 theater of military conflict; while that theater 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 defense, 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 dwells 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, tranquility 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 Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln”
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Peace to you my friend. May you experience a Happy Thanksgiving no matter what your nationality, race, creed, religion, sex, age, income bracket, history, persuasion, imperfections, hopes, dreams…
No matter what your personal “isms”, do you give us permission to make a better world together?
Bless you and your family,
Rev. Scott Ufford
The Psychic Philosopher
2011
Welcome back anytime Jed, glad to hear from you. Stay tuned for my upcoming special freebies too!
Awsome blog Swami! I am loving it!! Will be back later to read some more. I am bookmarking your site. Don’t want to miss a beat in 2012!
I won’t be able to thank you fully for the inspiring articles on your web-site. I know you’d put a lot of time and energy into all of them and hope you know how much I appreicate it. I didn’t know how badly people suffered back in the Civil War.
Thanks MauryneCecilia, we gladly accept any compliment no matter how vague. Not to sound Clintonesque, but what is the “that” that you’re referring to? In any case, hope you had a Happy TDay!
That sure is purty!