Date: July 28, 1987
By: Ronald Reagan
Thanksgiving Day is one of our most beloved holidays, an occasion set
aside by Americans from earliest times to thank our Maker prayerfully
and humbly for the blessings and the care He bestows on us and on our
beautiful, bountiful land. Through the decades, through the centuries,
in log cabins, country churches, cathedrals, homes, and halls, the
American people have paused to give thanks to God, in time of peace and
plenty or of danger and distress.
Acknowledgment of dependence on God's favor was, in fact, our fledgling
Nation's very first order of business. When the delegates to the First
Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1774, they overcame discord
by uniting in prayer for our country. Despite the differences among them
as they began their work, they found common voice in the 35th Psalm,
which concludes with a verse of joyous gratitude, "And my tongue
shall speak of thy righteousness and of they praise all the day long."
This year, of course, our Thanksgiving Day celebration coincides with
the Bicentennial of the Constitution. In 1789 the government established
by that great charter of freedom, and "the civil and religious
liberty with which we are blessed," were cited by George Washington
in the first Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation as among "the
great and various favors" conferred upon us by the Lord and Ruler
of Nations. As we thank the God our first President called "that
great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good
that was, that is, or that will be," we have even greater cause for
gratitude than the fresh triumphs that inspired Washington's prose. We
have seen the splendor of our natural resource spread across the tables
of the world, and we have seen the splendor of freedom cursing with new
vigor through the channels of history. The cause for which we give
thanks, for which so many of our citizens through the years have given
their lies, has endured 200 years - a blessing to us and a light to all
mankind.
On Thanksgiving Day, 1987, let us, in this unbroken chain of
observance, dedicate ourselves to honor anew the Author of Liberty and
to publicly acknowledge our debt to all those who have sacrificed so
much in our behalf. May our gratitude always be coupled with petitions
for divine guidance and protection for our Nation and with ready help
for our neighbors in time of need.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of
America,
do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 26, 1987, as a National Day of
Thanksgiving, and I call upon the citizens of this great Nation to
gather together in homes and places of worship on that day of thanks to
affirm by their prayers and their gratitude the many blessings God has
bestowed upon us.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day
of July,
in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and
twelfth.
RONALD REAGAN
