THE WHITE HOUSE -
Office of the Press Secretary -
For Immediate Release - November 1894
THANKSGIVING
DAY, 1894 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
The American people should gratefully render
thanksgiving and praise to the Supreme Rule of the Universe, who
has watched over them with kindness and fostering care during the year
that has passed; they should also with humility and faith supplicate the
Father of All Mercies for continued blessings according to their needs,
and they should by Deeds of charity seek the favor of the Giver of Every
Good and Perfect Gift.
Therefore
I, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, do hereby appoint
and set apart Thursday, the 29th day of November instant, as a day
of thanksgiving and prayer to be kept and observed by all the people of
the land.
On
that day let our ordinary work and business by suspended and let
us meet in our accustomed places of worship and give thanks to Almighty
God for our preservation as a nation, for our immunity from disease and
pestilence, for the harvests that have rewarded our husbandry, for a renewal
of national prosperity, and for every advance in virtue and intelligence
that has marked our growth as a people.
And
with our thanksgiving let us pray that these blessings may be multiplied
unto us, that our national conscience may be quickened to a better
recognition of the power and goodness of God, and that in our national
life we may clearer see and closer follow the path of righteousness.
And
in our places of worship and praise, as well as in the happy reunions
of kindred and friends on that day, let us invoke divine approval
by generously remembering the poor and needy. Surely He who has
given us comfort and plenty will look upon our relief of the destitute
and our ministrations of charity as the work of hearts truly grateful
and as proofs of the sincerely of our thanksgiving.
Witness
my hand and the seal of the United States, which I have caused to
be hereto affixed.
Done
at the city of Washington on the lst day of November, A.D. 1894,
and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and nineteenth.