This is a bit late but since I referenced in my Thanksgiving Day sermon that I have been taking to reading presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations and this one in particular, I thought I would provide for those of you who are interested. Indeed this is a poignant proclamation since President Kennedy was assassinated before he was able to celebrate Thanksgiving that year.
Thanksgiving
Day, 1963
By
the President of the United States of America
A
Proclamation
Over
three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in
Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time
of thanksgiving. On the appointed day, they gave reverent thanks for
their safety, for the health of their children, for the fertility of
their fields, for the love which bound them together and for the
faith which united them with their God.
So
too when the colonies achieved their independence, our first
President in the first year of his first Administration proclaimed
November 26, 1789, as "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer
to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal
favors of Almighty God" and called upon the people of the new
republic to "beseech Him to pardon our national and other
transgressions... to promote the knowledge and practice of true
religion and virtue . . . and generally to grant unto all mankind
such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best."
And
so too, in the midst of America's tragic civil war, President Lincoln
proclaimed the last Thursday of November 1863 as a day to renew our
gratitude for America's "fruitful fields," for our
"national strength and vigor," and for all our "singular
deliverances and blessings."
Much
time has passed since the first colonists came to rocky shores and
dark forests of an unknown continent, much time since President
Washington led a young people into the experience of nationhood, much
time since President Lincoln saw the American nation through the
ordeal of fraternal war--and in these years our population, our
plenty and our power have all grown apace. Today we are a nation of
nearly two hundred million souls, stretching from coast to coast, on
into the Pacific and north toward the Arctic, a nation enjoying the
fruits of an ever-expanding agriculture and industry and achieving
standards of living unknown in previous history. We give our humble
thanks for this.
Yet,
as our power has grown, so has our peril. Today we give our thanks,
most of all, for the ideals of honor and faith we inherit from our
forefathers--for the decency of purpose, steadfastness of resolve and
strength of will, for the courage and the humility, which they
possessed and which we must seek every day to emulate. As we express
our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is
not to utter words but to live by them.
Let
us therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold
blessings--let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals--and let us
resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow
human beings throughout the world.
Now,
Therefore,
I,
John
F.
Kennedy, President
of
the
United
States
of
America,
in
consonance
with
the
joint
resolution
of
the
Congress
approved
December
26,
1941,
55
Stat.
862
(5
U.S.C.
87b),
designating
the
fourth
Thursday
of
November
in
each
year
as
Thanksgiving
Day,
do
hereby
proclaim
Thursday,
November
28,
1963,
as
a
day
of
national
thanksgiving.
On
that day let us gather in sanctuaries dedicated to worship and in
homes blessed by family affection to express our gratitude for the
glorious gifts of God; and let us earnestly and humbly pray that He
will continue to guide and sustain us in the great unfinished tasks
of achieving peace, justice, and understanding among all men and
nations and of ending misery and suffering wherever they exist.
In
Witness
Whereof, I
have
hereunto
set
my
hand
and
caused
the
Seal
of
the
United
States
of
America
to
be
affixed.
DONE
at the City of Washington this fourth day of November, in the year of
our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-eighth.
JOHN
F. KENNEDY
By
the
President:
DEAN
RUSK,Secretary
of
State
