Okla-homey
10/3/2007, 06:08 AM
October 3, 1863 : Lincoln proclaims official Thanksgiving holiday
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/31296/2000313743437043435_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000313743437043435)
144 years ago n this day in 1863, expressing gratitude for a pivotal Federal victory at the little Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln announces that henceforth the nation shall celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday on the fourth Thursday in November.
http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/30372/2000319139003637187_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000319139003637187)
Signing document accompanying the announcement the fourth Thursday in November is Thanksgiving
The speech, which was actually written by Secretary of State William "Icebox" Seward* declared that the fourth Thursday of every November thereafter would be considered an official U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving.
This announcement harkened back to when George Washington was in his first term as the first president in 1789 and the young American nation had only a few years earlier emerged from the American Revolution. At that time, George Washington called for an official celebratory "day of public thanksgiving and prayer." While Congress overwhelmingly agreed to Washington’s suggestion, the holiday did not yet become an annual event.
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/28476/2000346797879505221_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000346797879505221)
Federal soldiers in the field celebrating Thanksgiving at a sutler's tent. Sutlers were civilians licensed to accompany US forces and sell them tasty vittles, alcohol and other sundries not available through the official supply system. They were the nineteenth century equivalent of the post exchange (PX).
Thomas Jefferson, the third president, felt that public demonstrations of piety to a higher power, like that celebrated at Thanksgiving, were inappropriate in a nation based in part on the separation of church and state.
Subsequent presidents agreed with him. In fact, no official Thanksgiving proclamation was issued by any president between 1815 and this day in 1863 when Lincoln took the opportunity to thank God and the US Army who both had recently handed the Slaveocrats a stunning defeat.
The fourth Thursday of November remained the annual day of Thanksgiving from 1863 until 1939. Then, at the tail-end of the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, hoping to boost the economy by providing shoppers and merchants a few extra days to conduct business between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, moved Thanksgiving to November’s third Thursday.
http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/27908/2000307847997621687_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000307847997621687)
FDR. He shifted Thanksgiving one week earlier to allow for more shopping days before Christmas. It didn't stick.
In 1941, however, Roosevelt bowed to Congress’ insistence that the fourth Thursday of November be re-set permanently, without alteration, as the official Thanksgiving holiday.
http://aycu16.webshots.com/image/28615/2000389325070988343_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000389325070988343)
Therefore, next month, when you're lying on the couch with your top pants button undone while rubbing your belly full of turkey...remember Old Abe. He set the whole thing up.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/30762/2000348166305586130_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000348166305586130)
*William Seward. Called "Icebox" because as Secretary of State, he engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia. His enemies referred to the purchase as a waste of funds, and called the frozen northern territory "Seward's Icebox."
BEAT TEXAS
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/31296/2000313743437043435_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000313743437043435)
144 years ago n this day in 1863, expressing gratitude for a pivotal Federal victory at the little Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln announces that henceforth the nation shall celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday on the fourth Thursday in November.
http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/30372/2000319139003637187_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000319139003637187)
Signing document accompanying the announcement the fourth Thursday in November is Thanksgiving
The speech, which was actually written by Secretary of State William "Icebox" Seward* declared that the fourth Thursday of every November thereafter would be considered an official U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving.
This announcement harkened back to when George Washington was in his first term as the first president in 1789 and the young American nation had only a few years earlier emerged from the American Revolution. At that time, George Washington called for an official celebratory "day of public thanksgiving and prayer." While Congress overwhelmingly agreed to Washington’s suggestion, the holiday did not yet become an annual event.
http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/28476/2000346797879505221_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000346797879505221)
Federal soldiers in the field celebrating Thanksgiving at a sutler's tent. Sutlers were civilians licensed to accompany US forces and sell them tasty vittles, alcohol and other sundries not available through the official supply system. They were the nineteenth century equivalent of the post exchange (PX).
Thomas Jefferson, the third president, felt that public demonstrations of piety to a higher power, like that celebrated at Thanksgiving, were inappropriate in a nation based in part on the separation of church and state.
Subsequent presidents agreed with him. In fact, no official Thanksgiving proclamation was issued by any president between 1815 and this day in 1863 when Lincoln took the opportunity to thank God and the US Army who both had recently handed the Slaveocrats a stunning defeat.
The fourth Thursday of November remained the annual day of Thanksgiving from 1863 until 1939. Then, at the tail-end of the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, hoping to boost the economy by providing shoppers and merchants a few extra days to conduct business between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, moved Thanksgiving to November’s third Thursday.
http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/27908/2000307847997621687_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000307847997621687)
FDR. He shifted Thanksgiving one week earlier to allow for more shopping days before Christmas. It didn't stick.
In 1941, however, Roosevelt bowed to Congress’ insistence that the fourth Thursday of November be re-set permanently, without alteration, as the official Thanksgiving holiday.
http://aycu16.webshots.com/image/28615/2000389325070988343_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000389325070988343)
Therefore, next month, when you're lying on the couch with your top pants button undone while rubbing your belly full of turkey...remember Old Abe. He set the whole thing up.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/30762/2000348166305586130_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000348166305586130)
*William Seward. Called "Icebox" because as Secretary of State, he engineered the purchase of Alaska from Russia. His enemies referred to the purchase as a waste of funds, and called the frozen northern territory "Seward's Icebox."
BEAT TEXAS