As Americans around the country gather with friends and loved ones for Thanksgiving, the expression of gratitude might be more difficult to justify for some. Indeed, Thanksgiving 2023 is amid wars and rumors of wars, one where economic pain and fear of worse to come spread uncertainty and doubt about the cards to be dealt in the days ahead. This, however, is nothing new. In fact, Thanksgiving in 2023 is similar to many in America's past when families and friends gathered amid dark days, yet the meaning and tradition of the holiday is why — even now — giving thanks is right and good.
Through our country's history, Thanksgiving has not been just about finding gratitude in things that happened in the preceding year when times were good. Rather, Thanksgiving has long been about more than just what had happened — it's also about expressing confidence in the year to come and a plea for favor even when the future looks bleak.
This history of Thanksgiving, as a profoundly optimistic and forward-looking American tradition is often forgotten even though it's well-documented in the proclamations issued by our nation's leaders through the decades.
A few years into the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation in October 1780 following what was a devastating winter for the Continental Army and when the future success of the American experiment was anything but certain:
"Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, amidst the vicissitudes and calamities of war, to bestow blessings on the people of these states, which call for their devout and thankful acknowledgments, more especially in the late remarkable interposition of his watchful providence, in rescuing the person of our Commander in Chief and the army from imminent dangers, at the moment when treason was ripened for execution; in prospering the labors of the husbandmen, and causing the earth to yield its increase in plentiful harvests; and, above all, in continuing to us the enjoyment of the gospel of peace."
The fledgling American government set December 7 as the date on which "all the people may assemble on that day to celebrate the praises of our Divine Benefactor; to confess our unworthiness of the least of his favors, and to offer our fervent supplications to the God of all grace; that it may please him to pardon our heinous transgressions and incline our hearts for the future to keep all his laws that it may please him still to afford us the blessing of health; to comfort and relieve our brethren who are any wise afflicted or distressed; to smile upon our husbandry and trade and establish the work of our hands; to direct our public councils, and lead our forces, by land and sea, to victory; to take our illustrious ally under his special protection, and favor our joint councils and exertions for the establishment of speedy and permanent peace; to cherish all schools and seminaries of education, build up his churches in their most holy faith and to cause the knowledge of Christianity to spread over all the earth."
In November 1814, amid another war with the British, President James Madison proclaimed that even "in the present time of public calamity and war" that January 12, 1815, be a day "observed by the people of the United States as a day of public humiliation and fasting and of prayer to Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States, His blessing on their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace."
President Adams said the observances should "call to mind the distinguished favors conferred on the American people in the general health which has been enjoyed, in the abundant fruits of the season, in the progress of the arts instrumental to their comfort, their prosperity, and their security, and in the victories which have so powerfully contributed to the defense and protection of our country" just months after the British had captured and burned Washington, D.C. Still, Adams called for "a devout thankfulness for all which ought to be mingled with their supplications to the Beneficent Parent of the Human Race that He would be graciously pleased to pardon all their offenses against Him."
Amid the Civil War that threatened to tear America apart from within, President Abraham Lincoln still found reasons to be thankful and hope for the future of his splintered country. His 1863 proclamation began by observing a year "filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies" before finding reasons to be grateful in "the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity."
"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," Lincoln enumerated. "Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax 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."
Lincoln reminded his countrymen that "no human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things" which are the "gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy" before, as other imperiled leaders before and since have done urging hope for the future.
"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 if, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union," Lincoln instructed.
Fast forward to the fall of 1942 when, less than one year after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and plunged the United States into a world war against tyrannical enemies threatening freedom, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation marking "the gathering of the harvest" and days in which "we solemnly express our dependence upon Almighty God."
"The final months of this year, now almost spent, find our Republic and the nations joined with it waging a battle on many fronts for the preservation of liberty," Roosevelt's proclamation reminded. "In giving thanks for the greatest harvest in the history of our nation, we who plant and reap can well resolve that in the year to come we will do all in our power to pass that milestone; for by our labors in the fields we can share some part of the sacrifice with our brothers and sons who wear the uniform of the United States. It is fitting that we recall now the reverent words of George Washington, 'Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection,' and that every American in his own way lift his voice to Heaven," FDR instructed.
Just a few weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush issued a proclamation that emphasized the importance of Thanksgiving as more than just a review of the good things from the previous year. "During these extraordinary times, we find particular assurance from our Thanksgiving tradition, which reminds us that we, as a people and individually, always have reason to hope and trust in God, despite great adversity," President Bush reiterated.
"In 1621 in New England, the Pilgrims gave thanks to God, in whom they placed their hope, even though a bitter winter had taken many of their brethren," President Bush recounted. "In the winter of 1777, General George Washington and his army, having just suffered great misfortune, stopped near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to give thanks to God. And there, in the throes of great difficulty, they found the hope they needed to persevere," Bush emphasized. "That hope in freedom eventually inspired them to victory."
Indeed, though Americans have — in each generation — faced dark days, bleak futures, grief, and fear, we've still found reasons to give thanks while holding tight to hope that things will not always be as they are. In the end, and through each hardship, victory has eventually arrived.