The following is a part of the Thanksgiving Proclamation by the Massachusetts Governor in 1861. Read it with thanksgiving for the blessings we have received as a nation, and asking ourselves what is not found in our elected statesman and government today.
Governor Andrew of Massachusetts set aside a day of Public Thanksgiving in 1861, "an important Christian state paper, and is a model of its kind for Christian rulers---
"Proclamation for a day of Public Thanksgiving and Praise, November 21, 1861.
"The example of the fathers, and the dictates of piety and gratitude, summon the people of Massachusetts at this, the harvest season, crowning the year with the rich proofs of the wisdom and love of God, to join in a solemn and joyful act of united praise and thanksgiving to the bountiful Giver of every good and perfect gift.
"I do, therefore, with the advice and consent of the Council, appoint Thursday, the twenty-first day of November next---the same being the anniversary of the day, in the year of our Lord sixteen hundred and twenty, on which the Pilgrims of Massachusetts, on board the Mayflower united themselves in a solemn and written compact of government---to be observed by the people of Massachusetts as a day of public thanksgiving and praise. And I invoke the observance by all the people with devout and religious joy.
"'Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Israel.' -Ps. lxxxi. 1-4. 'O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard: Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved. For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.' -Ps. lxvi. 8-10.
"Let us rejoice in God and be thankful---for the fulness with which he has blessed us in our basket and in our store, giving large reward to the toil of the husbandman, so that 'our paths deop fatness;'
"For the many and gentle alleviations of the hardships which, in the present time of public disorder, have afflicted the various pursuits of agriculture;
For the early evidences of the reviving energies of the business of the people;
For the measure of success which has attended the enterprise of those who go down to the sea in ships, of those who search the depths of the ocean to add to the food of man, and of those whose busy skill and handicraft combine to prepare for various uses the crops of the earth and the sea;
For the advantages of sound learning, placed within the reach of all the children of the people, and the freedom and alacrity with which those advantages ae embraced and improved;
For the apportunities of religious instruction and worship universally enjoyed by consciences untrammelled by any human authority;
For the 'redemption of the world by Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and the hope of glory.
"And with one accord, let us bless and praise God for the oneness of heart, mind, and purpose in which he has united the people of this ancient commonwealth for the defence of the rights, liberties, and honor of our beloved country.
"May we stand forever in the same mind, remembering the devoted lives of our fathers, the precious inheritance of freedom received at their hands, the weight of glory which awaits the faithful, and the infinity of blessing which is our privilege, if we will, to transmit to the countless generations of the future.
". . . Given at the Council-Chamber, this thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and the eighty-sixth day of the Independence of the United States of America.
"John A. Andrew. By his excellency the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Counci. Oliver Warner, Secretary.
(copied from The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States, Benjamin F. Morris, reprinted by American Vision)
Robert L. LaMay
