Today’s Wall Street Journal (21 November 2012) has an op-ed editorial by Melanie Kirkpatrick: Thanksgiving, 1789 about the nation’s first Thanksgiving proclamation.
It was also President Washington’s first proclamation—he had been sworn in as the nation’s first president just a few months earlier, on 30 April 1789. Washington’s proclamation making Thanksgiving an officially recognized American holiday was printed in newspapers around the country including the New Hampshire Gazette (Portsmouth, New Hampshire) 22 October 1789, page 1. Read the entire proclamation here.
It’s as timely today as it was then.
GenealogyBank wishes you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving.