{"id":4843,"date":"2013-11-28T08:32:30","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T13:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/?p=4843"},"modified":"2013-11-27T14:33:44","modified_gmt":"2013-11-27T19:33:44","slug":"george-washington-october-3-1789-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2013\/11\/28\/george-washington-october-3-1789-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"George Washington, October 3, 1789, Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanksgiving has always felt important to me, though I could never really articulate why.\u00a0 It means more and more to me as I get older.\u00a0 It is like all harvest celebrations, where historically we have been grateful for food enough to live the winter.\u00a0 Our circumstances have changed for the most part, but pausing to give thanks, to any and all powers you believe are responsible, is beautiful.\u00a0 A nation doing it together is beautiful.<\/p>\n

Lately, I think we and our government need to be reminded of the great ideals our country was built upon.\u00a0 So here:<\/p>\n

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th. day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.<\/p>\n

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.79<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– George Washington, October 3, 1789, Thanksgiving<\/a> proclamation at the Library of Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanksgiving has always felt important to me, though I could never really articulate why.\u00a0 It means more and more to me as I get older.\u00a0 It is like all harvest celebrations, where historically we have been grateful for food enough to live the winter.\u00a0 Our circumstances have changed for the most part, but pausing to… Continue reading George Washington, October 3, 1789, Thanksgiving<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-4843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-holiday"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9115,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2020\/11\/23\/holidays-in-movies-thanks-giving\/","url_meta":{"origin":4843,"position":0},"title":"Holidays in Movies: Thanksgiving","author":"leems","date":"November 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Celebrating holidays in my house means media saturation. 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I know the great turkey feast doesn't ring too many people's bells, but I love it.\u00a0 I always remember liking it as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Christmaswitch","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Christmaswitch-381x600.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11188,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2025\/11\/26\/lou-rawls\/","url_meta":{"origin":4843,"position":5},"title":"Lou Rawls","author":"leems","date":"November 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/xb8xlNsLIqs?si=jrWRyY9PuOFlZbH9 I LOVED Garfield when I was a kid, so of course Lou Rawls is part of the soundtrack of my childhood. He did some fabulous holiday tunes. I want this one to be longer. Happy Thanksgiving!","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/xb8xlNsLIqs\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4843"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4845,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843\/revisions\/4845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}