setting the precedent
Apparently 150 years ago the United States was free from pestilence and civil strife:
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas it behooves a people sensible of their dependence on the Almighty publicly and collectively to acknowledge their gratitude for his favors and mercies and humbly to beseech for their continuance; and
count our blessed exemptions
Whereas the people of the United States during the year now about to end have special cause to be thankful for general prosperity, abundant harvests, exemption from pestilence, foreign war, and civil strife:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, concurring in any similar recommendations from chief magistrates of States, do hereby recommend to all citizens to meet in their respective places of worship on Thursday, the 24th day of November next, there to give thanks for the bounty of God during the year about to close and to supplicate for its continuance hereafter.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 21st day of October, A.D. 1870, and of the Independence of the United States the ninety-fifth.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
Secretary of State.
generally accepted custom
From the November 25, 1870 issue of The New-York Times:
Of the many good customs handed down to us by our pious Puritan forefathers, there is, perhaps, none that has met with such general acceptance as that of the annual Thanksgiving which they first originated. Indeed, now its observance may be fairly said to be universal, and not all the differences of creed, race, and social customs that on other points so widely divide our cosmopolitan people, seem to offer the slightest bar to their hearty co-operation in and enjoyment of this pious festival. Here they intuitively perceive that they can all bow before a common altar and offer to their common Father praise and thanksgiving for the abundance of the good things with which during the year He has blessed them. The day was never better or more generally observed here, and though the weather was rather chilly and uncomfortable, and in the morning threatening clouds flitted across the sky, out-door pleasure-seekers were in no way deterred from enjoying themselves, and all our leading thoroughfares were crowded with gay promenaders. In the down-town portion of the City business was entirely suspended, and, except cigar stores and places where refreshments were sold, very few business houses of any kind were open. Everywhere a Sabbath-like stillness, so far as business traffic was concerned, prevailed, which was not even broken by the noisy newsboys. There being no evening papers issued, their occupation was gone, and they were allowed to devote themselves to turkey and such other good things as kind friends provided. Along the docks the ships lay lazily at their moorings, while very rarely one of their crews was to be seen about. Most of the vessels had their best flags flying, and presented a gay appearance. Target excursions were to be seen during the day in every direction, many of them composed of Juveniles rigged out in all sorts[?] of uniforms except a uniform suit. But in this motley arrangement of their military outfit, they were entirely eclipsed by processions of “fantasticals,” whose ludicrous costumes were a source of general merriment.
less hawk, more turkey
Tho most pleasant feature of the celebration, however, was the lavish public and private charity that made so many of the poor and suffering, for a brief time, at least, forget their troubles, and partake of the good things set before them. At all the public hospitals, asylums and prisons, the inmates were made to feel the humanizing influences that the day called forth, and to many of them it will no doubt be a green spot in their future recollections. In short, it is safe to say that there were few within the limits of the City, save those suffering from severe illness, that did not yesterday in some way share in the general enjoyment of the day.
In the thousands of our happy and wealthy homes it was, however, that the real spirit of the occasion was most keenly realized, and the wisdom of its observance most apparent. Here around the social home-board, family reunions were a feature; old friends renewed acquaintance; interesting reminiscences of other days were called up and discussed, and even though a vacant seat, at the table indicated that a member of the household had been called away, and threw a shade[?] of sorrow over the gathering, fervent thanks were offered up that so many others were spared to participate.
The inmates of the public institutions were provided for with a liberality that has never been exceeded in former years. … [1]
Memorial Day of General Lee, The Charleston Daily News November 25, 1870
I checked a couple papers below Mason-Dixon for November 25th. There was little news about the holiday. According to a telegram from Columbia published in The Charleston Daily News, “Thanksgiving day has been generally observed in this city.” (I saw no mention of it in Columbia’s The Daily Phoenix for the 25th) The Charleston paper summarized Thanksgiving church services in the city on page 3. For example:
At Grace Church the regular services were conducted by the pastor, the Rev. C.C. Pinckney, and, in addition, a collection taken up for the Lee Monument. The attendance was almost as large as usual on Sunday, and the amount collected very satisfactory and encouraging. The text of the sermon was taken from the 107th Psalm and 8th verse: “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” In the discourse the benefits for which should return thanks were pointedly set forth, and a touching tribute paid to the virtues of General R.E. Lee.
next up – Christmas!
‘we did our part’
The New-York Times began its overview of Thanksgiving church services in the last column on the front page of its November 25th issue. Just like ten years earlier Reverend Henry Ward Beecher preached at Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. His “discourse was devoted to a consideration of the aspects and social tendencies of civilization in this country.” Thanksgiving was a good day to think less about private affairs and more about the community as a whole.
The third exemption that the Grant Administration was thankful for was the absence of foreign war. The Franco-Prussian seems to have been a dominant story in the American Press during the second half of 1870. The Charleston paper front page on November 25th included reports about it, as well as war rumblings between Russia and Britain.
To say that the United States was free from civil strife, well that might have been in general or at least compared to five or six years earlier. That Charleston front page also included reports of outrages throughout the state. For example, blacks dragged a lone white man from his house; the Ku Klux Klan apparently made an appearance at the jail in Spartanburg – only the sheriff’s firmness prevented some outrage. And “Beast Butler Crazy” – Benjamin F. Butler, a Congressman from Massachusetts and former Union general saw a war with Great Britain as a way to unite North and South by fighting a common enemy. On page 2 federal troops were being distributed throughout Georgia to enforce the Congressional election law during voting in December. Also, South Carolina should be proud of its war record – it didn’t just drag the rest of the South into secession, it pulled more than its own weight in blood spilled.
According to the Charleston Grace Church Cathedral website “The history of Grace Church has embraced the tragedy of wars, the destruction of earthquake and hurricane, economic depressions and urban flight. During the shelling of Charleston in the Civil War, many parishioners fled the city, and most other Episcopal churches were forced to close. Grace remained open until January 1864 when a single shell destroyed part of the clerestory. The church reopened in March 1865.” The Rev. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was its second rector, serving from 1855-1898.
According to Virginia Places, “The Hollywood (cemetery) Memorial Association organized the Ladies’ Lee Monument Association which solicited funds for 16 years from all southern states. Their goal was a memorial statue in Hollywood Cemetery. Confederate General Jubal Early also organized a committee of men to raise funds for a memorial with Jefferson Davis as honorary chair. Former confederates throughout the south began to collect funds. By 1877 neither group had raised enough funds. The General Assembly passed an act creating a governor’s board to head the effort – led after 1885 by Fitzhugh Lee, R.E. Lee’s nephew – to which the men’s group gave their funds. In 1886 a legislative act combining the funds of the Ladies Lee Monument Association with the men’s funds for a total of $52,000”. read more about Ladies Memorial Associations in general at Essential Civil War Curriculum
You can find President Grant’s 1870 Thanksgiving Proclamation at Project Gutenberg and at Pilgrim Hall Museum (Thanksgiving – Thanksgiving Proclamations). Pilgrim Hall also includes information about Thanksgiving’s religious roots.
Harper’s Weekly for 1870 is available at the Internet Archive.
From Wikimedia Commons: newsboy by Henry Inman, 1841. From the Library of Congress: 1914’s The first American thanksgiving, artist unattributed; the November 25, 1870 issue of The Charleston Daily News; Sarony & Major’s c1846 lithograph of Pilgrim landing. From Free-Images: Henry Ulke’s painting of Ulysses S. Grant
an earlier first thanksgiving
- [1]The New York Times The Complete Front Pages 1851-2008. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers Inc., 2008. DVD.↩
According to the Charleston Grace Church Cathedral website “The history of Grace Church has embraced the tragedy of wars, the destruction of earthquake and hurricane, economic depressions and urban flight. During the shelling of Charleston in the Civil War, many parishioners fled the city, and most other Episcopal churches were forced to close. Grace remained open until January 1864 when a single shell destroyed part of the clerestory. The church reopened in March 1865.” The Rev. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was its second rector, serving from 1855-1898.
According to Virginia Places, “The Hollywood (cemetery) Memorial Association organized the Ladies’ Lee Monument Association which solicited funds for 16 years from all southern states. Their goal was a memorial statue in Hollywood Cemetery. Confederate General Jubal Early also organized a committee of men to raise funds for a memorial with Jefferson Davis as honorary chair. Former confederates throughout the south began to collect funds. By 1877 neither group had raised enough funds. The General Assembly passed an act creating a governor’s board to head the effort – led after 1885 by Fitzhugh Lee, R.E. Lee’s nephew – to which the men’s group gave their funds. In 1886 a legislative act combining the funds of the Ladies Lee Monument Association with the men’s funds for a total of $52,000”. read more about Ladies Memorial Associations in general at Essential Civil War Curriculum
You can find President Grant’s 1870 Thanksgiving Proclamation at Project Gutenberg and at Pilgrim Hall Museum (Thanksgiving – Thanksgiving Proclamations). Pilgrim Hall also includes information about Thanksgiving’s religious roots.
Harper’s Weekly for 1870 is available at the Internet Archive.
From Wikimedia Commons: newsboy by Henry Inman, 1841. From the Library of Congress: 1914’s The first American thanksgiving, artist unattributed; the November 25, 1870 issue of The Charleston Daily News; Sarony & Major’s c1846 lithograph of Pilgrim landing. From Free-Images: Henry Ulke’s painting of Ulysses S. Grant
an earlier first thanksgiving
- [1]The New York Times The Complete Front Pages 1851-2008. New York: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers Inc., 2008. DVD.↩
an earlier first thanksgiving
