Here’s something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving weekend 2024: We had another free and fair election for president of the United States and the other federal, state and local offices on the ballot this year.
You might be happy with the results or unhappy with the results, but with all the anxiety, turmoil and fear that we experienced in the run-up to the Nov. 5 election — and the constant claims that it was going to be rigged — it turned out to be a big year for American democracy.
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln both saw a day of thanksgiving as a good time to talk about the blessings of being an American and the nation’s state of civic health. It is a good time again this year to talk about those things.
In 1789, President Washington called for “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
In those years after the Revolutionary War, Washington gave thanks “for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted — for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed.”
And he prayed that our national government would be “a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed … .” Washington’s words still work today.
President Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation established Thanksgiving as a national holiday “in the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity.” It was a terrible time for the nation — three months after the Battle of Gettysburg and its 50,000 casualties with no end in sight.
“With humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience,” Lincoln prayed for “all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged.” But he also gave thanks for America and its resilience.
Lincoln talked about “the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.” While regretting the “needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence,” he celebrated the continued output of the nation’s farmers and miners and those who delivered those goods. And he noted that the nation’s population continued to grow, in spite of our national troubles.
“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving … .”
And he asked for “the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.” Lincoln’s words still work today.
Washington and Lincoln knew there is one thing that is more important than who won or lost an election. It is the fact that we continue to have free and fair elections. For that, they gave thanks and so should we.
Happy Thanksgiving, America!
