The American people have always abundant cause to be thankful to
Almighty God, whose watchful care and guiding hand have been manifested
in every stage of their national life, guarding and protecting them in
time of peril and safely leading them in the hour of darkness and of
danger.
It is fitting and proper that a nation thus favored should on one day in
every year, for that purpose especially appointed, publicly acknowledge
the goodness of God and return thanks to Him for all His gracious gifts.
Therefore, I, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States of
America, do hereby designate and set apart Thursday, the 26th day of
November instant, as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, and do
invoke the observance of the same by all the people of the land.
On that day let all secular business be suspended, and let the people
assemble in their usual places of worship and with prayer and songs of
praise devoutly testify their gratitude to the Giver of Every Good and
Perfect Gift for all that He has done for us in the year that has
passed; for our preservation as a united nation and for our deliverance
from the shock and danger of political convulsion; for the blessings of
peace and for our safety and quiet while wars and rumors of wars have
agitated and afflicted other nations of the earth; for our security
against the scourge of pestilence, which in other lands has claimed its
dead by thousands and filled the streets with mourners; for plenteous
crops which reward the labor of the husbandman and increase our nation's
wealth, and for the contentment throughout our borders which follows in
the train of prosperity and abundance.
And let there also be on the day thus set apart a reunion of families,
sanctified and chastened by tender memories and associations; and let
the social intercourse of friends, with pleasant reminiscence, renew the
ties of affection and strengthen the bonds of kindly feeling.
And let us by no means forget while we give thanks and enjoy the
comforts which have crowned our lives that truly grateful hearts are
inclined to deeds of charity, and that a kind and thoughtful remembrance
of the poor will double the pleasures of our condition and render our
praise and thanksgiving more acceptable in the sight of the Lord.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 2d day of November, 1885, and of
the Independence of the United States the one hundred and tenth.