Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation (1789)

Summary

Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 3 October 1789 is a short public act, issued at the city of New York in the first year of the federal government under the Constitution. Both houses of Congress had asked the president, through a joint committee, to recommend a day of public thanksgiving and prayer. Washington names Thursday, 26 November 1789, and calls the people of the states to devote it to the service of God, whom the proclamation calls the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. The first movement of the text is gratitude. Nations, Washington says, have a duty to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor. The favors he lists are concrete and recent: care for the people before they became a nation; mercies and favorable interpositions in the course and conclusion of the late war; tranquillity, union, and plenty since; the peaceable and rational manner in which constitutions of government, and especially the new national constitution, have been established; civil and religious liberty; and the means of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge. The second movement is petition. The people are asked to pray for pardon of national and other transgressions (the Richardson and Sparks printings used here read "trangressions"); for the faithful performance of public and private duties; for a national government that is a blessing because it is a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly executed and obeyed; for the protection and guidance of other sovereigns and nations, especially those that have shown kindness to the United States; and for the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science, among them and us. The proclamation is not a private devotion only. It is a civic religious document in which the first president, at Congress's request, teaches a young republic to give thanks for political mercies and to ask for the moral conditions of a just government. It does not establish a church, and it does not pretend that liberty is a human invention alone. Students can read it beside the Farewell Address and the 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport, which treat religion, virtue, and liberty of conscience in related but distinct keys. The same text is already present in the library's Washington collection; this page presents it as a stand-alone work, with a shorter guide, so that a class can study the proclamation by itself.

Plot or Argument

• A congressional request

  Both houses of Congress ask the president to recommend a day of public thanksgiving and prayer after the new government has begun its work.

• Gratitude for political mercies

  Washington assigns Thursday, 26 November 1789, and lists concrete favors: preservation, the end of the war, union, the new constitution, and civil and religious liberty.

• Prayer for a just government

  The same day is to be used for petitions: pardon, faithful duty, constitutional laws, peace among nations, and the growth of true religion, virtue, and science.

Characters

• George Washington, President of the United States

  Issues the proclamation at New York on 3 October 1789, at Congress’s request.

• The Congress of 1789, joint committee of both houses

  Requests a national day of thanksgiving and prayer in the first year of the Constitution.

Lessons

• Thanksgiving as a public act

  The day is recommended to a whole people, not only to a congregation. Washington treats gratitude to God as a fitting civic habit in a republic that has just framed a constitution.

  • Who asked Washington to set the day, and why might that request matter?
  • What does it mean to call thanksgiving a duty of nations as well as of persons?

• Naming particular mercies

  The proclamation does not give thanks in general terms only. It names the war’s conclusion, the peaceful writing of constitutions, and civil and religious liberty as gifts to be remembered.

  • Which mercies on the list are political, and which are more general?
  • Why does Washington include knowledge and science among the things for which a nation should give thanks?

• Asking for more than prosperity

  The prayers ask for pardon, faithful duty, and just laws, not only for plenty. Prosperity is mentioned last, and only as God knows to be best.

  • How do the petitions differ from the thanksgivings?
  • What would it mean for a government to be a blessing because of its laws rather than because of its power?

Context

In the autumn of 1789 the new federal government under the Constitution was only a few months old. Congress sat in New York, and the first president was still setting precedents for how a republican executive would speak to the people.

Composition

Dated 3 October 1789 at the city of New York and issued as a presidential proclamation after a joint congressional request. The library text follows the Avalon Project transcription from Richardson’s Messages and Papers of the Presidents (1897), collated with the Sparks text already hosted in the Washington collection.

Reception

The 26 November observance is often remembered as the first Thanksgiving under the Constitution. Later presidents issued their own thanksgiving proclamations; the modern fixed November date is later still and should not be read back into 1789.

Comparisons

• Farewell Address and Selected Letters

  The library’s Washington collection already contains this proclamation among the selected papers; the Farewell Address later treats religion and morality as supports of political prosperity.

• Washington's Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport

  The 1790 Newport letter states that the government gives to bigotry no sanction and to persecution no assistance, a complement to this proclamation’s thanks for civil and religious liberty.

• The Founding Documents

  The proclamation gives thanks that a national constitution has been peaceably instituted, and it prays that government may consist of just and constitutional laws.

• First Inaugural Address

  The First Inaugural, earlier in 1789, also opens the presidency with a language of providence and public duty.

• A Model of Christian Charity

  Winthrop’s 1630 discourse likewise treats a political community as accountable to God, though it is a lay sermon to a Puritan company rather than a presidential proclamation.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The opening statement that thanksgiving is a duty of nations.
• The particular mercies named: the war, the constitutions, civil and religious liberty.
• The petitions for pardon, just laws, and virtue, not only for prosperity.
• The dateline at New York, 3 October 1789, and the appointed Thursday in November.

Key terms and names

Proclamation

An official public announcement by a president or other civil authority.

Joint committee

A committee drawn from both houses of Congress, which here conveyed the request for a day of thanksgiving.

Providence

God’s wise ordering of events, which the proclamation says nations ought to acknowledge.

Civil and religious liberty

Freedom in civic life and in the practice of religion, named among the mercies of 1789.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Who asked Washington to recommend a day of thanksgiving, and what day did he name?
2. Comprehension List four favors for which the proclamation gives thanks.
3. Interpretation Why might Washington thank God for the manner in which constitutions were established, and not only for victory in war?
4. Interpretation How do the petitions for pardon and just laws change the meaning of a thanksgiving day?
5. Interpretation How does Washington’s language of duty and gratitude differ from a mere announcement of a holiday?
6. Big Question Can a republic give public thanks to God without establishing a church? What does this text suggest, and what does it leave unsaid?

Faith Connections

• Psalm 105:1–5 (Scripture)

  The psalm calls a people to give thanks and to remember God’s wondrous works, a biblical pattern for public remembrance.

• 1 Timothy 2:1–2 (Scripture)

  Paul urges prayers for kings and all in authority, that people may live a peaceable life; the proclamation prays for other nations as well as for American government.

• Washington’s letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport (Great Conversation)

  The following year Washington describes a government that gives bigotry no sanction, which may be read beside this text’s thanks for religious liberty.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Because God has shown particular mercies in the founding of the nation and its constitution, the people ought to set apart a day to give thanks and to ask for the moral and legal conditions of a just government.

Rhetorical device: catalog or list. The long sentence of thanks piles mercies one upon another—war’s end, union, constitutions, liberty, knowledge—before the petitions begin.

Debate: Resolved: that a presidential thanksgiving proclamation is a fitting civic habit rather than an establishment of religion.

Memory Work

it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor

civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed

Writing Prompts

Essay: Trace the movement from thanksgiving to petition in the 1789 proclamation, and explain what Washington thinks a nation should ask of God after it has received political mercies.

Comparison with Washington's Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport: Compare how the 1789 proclamation and the 1790 Newport letter speak of religious liberty. What does each emphasize, and what does each not say?

Creative Prompts

• Essay

  Explain how the 1789 proclamation joins thanks for political mercies with prayers for just laws and public virtue, using at least three phrases from the text.

• Classroom

  Make two columns, Thanks and Petitions, and place each major clause of the proclamation in one column or the other. Then discuss what Washington does not ask for.

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation between two citizens in November 1789, one grateful for the new constitution and one still unsure, after hearing the proclamation read aloud.

Further Reading

• Farewell Address and Selected Letters, George Washington

  The library collection that already includes this proclamation among Washington’s papers.

• A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, James D. Richardson (ed.)

  The 1897 public-domain compilation from which the Avalon text is taken.