We, Kamehameha, King of the Hawaiian Islands, hereby issue our
Proclamation agreeably to former custom, that:
Whereas, during the year now drawing to a close, we have
enjoyed, as a people, numerous and great blessings; peace and
tranquility have prevailed throughout our islands; we have
been not only free from dangers from abroad, but have
continued to enjoy the most friendly assurances of protection
in our independence from the most powerful governments in the
world; although the times have been hard through the scarcity
of money, and our people have suffered from a drought almost
unparalleled, neither our agriculture nor commerce has
entirely failed; both begin to revive; the crops in most
places have been good; perhaps we have never enjoyed a year of
more general health; our laws have been sustained; religion
and education have been free and prosperous: For all of which
numerous and invaluable blessings we owe, as a nation, a
formal, general and heartfelt tribute of thanksgiving to the
Almighty, on whose favor all prosperity, whether individual or
national, depends.
We do, therefore, with the advice and consent of our Privy
Council of State, designate and recommend Thursday, the 25th
day of December next, as a day of general and public
Thanksgiving to God, our Heavenly Father, throughout our
islands; and we earnestly invite all good people to a sincere
and prayerful observance of the same.
Done at our Palace this 3d day of November, A. D., 1856.
KAMEHAMEHA.