While I typically devote my weekly column to the work of state government and the efforts of the New York State Senate to propose, craft and pass laws that would improve our lives, this week I wanted to take a momentary departure to observe one of the governmental roots of Thanksgiving.

Historians trace the origins of the modern Thanksgiving observance to 1621 and a celebration held at Plymouth Plantation. From that time, various events were held to mark military victories, bountiful harvests and other significant milestones. Then, in 1789, President George Washington issued a historic proclamation designating Thursday November 26th as “A Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer.” Later, in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued his own proclamation.

Proclamation of Thanksgiving

Washington D.C.

October 3, 1863

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.