From George Washington’s first in 1789 to President Trump’s in 2018, Thanksgiving proclamations have been declared by U.S. presidents 164 times. They’ve been proclaimed during times of want as well as times of plenty, during financial crisis as well as economic prosperity, and in times of both war, peace, malaise, and hope. Yet by 2017, this tradition was at risk of disregarding its original purpose — until reclaimed by President Trump.
Presidential Thanksgiving proclamations have always kept God at the center. A change occurred, however, with the first Thanksgiving proclamation from Barack Obama in 2009 — “God” was only mentioned once while quoting Washington. From 2010 to 2015, God received only a few passing references. Obama stressed the cultural contributions of Native Americans, typically concluding by asking Americans to be thankful, not to God, but to each other.
In Obama’s Thanksgiving proclamation in 2016, God was absent entirely. Obama’s changes went against the sentiment of almost all Thanksgiving proclamations that had come before him.
In 1798 and again in 1799, John Adams issued proclamations calling for days of “Fasting and Humiliation.” After a 15 year gap, James Madison issued a Thanksgiving proclamation in 1814, followed by another in 1815 which marked an end to the War of 1812 and offered “acknowledgments to Almighty God for His great goodness manifested in restoring to them the blessing of peace.”
After Madison, no president until Abraham Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving proclamation. When, on Oct. 3, 1863, Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday to be held on the last Thursday in November, the proclamation became a presidential tradition. Despite the Civil War, two World Wars, wars in Korea, Vietnam, and throughout the Middle East, an unbroken line of presidential proclamations have reminded Americans to give thanks.
What’s remarkable about the proclamations is their consistency. Americans are called to meet in their accustomed houses of worship, to rest from work, and — most importantly — to offer prayers of gratitude to God. Andrew Johnson intoned, “Resting and refraining from secular labors on that day, let us reverently and devoutly give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the mercies and blessings with which He has crowned the now closing year.”
Ulysses S. Grant reminded the nation, “It becomes a people thus favored to make acknowledgment to the Supreme Author from whom such blessings flow of their gratitude and their dependence, to render praise and thanksgiving for the same, and devoutly to implore a continuance of God’s mercies.”
Grover Cleveland was the first president to use his Thanksgiving proclamation to encourage Americans to reunite with forgotten friends and seldom-seen relatives, writing, “let there also be on the day thus set apart a reunion of families, sanctified and chastened by tender memories and associations; and let the social intercourse of friends, with pleasant reminiscence, renew the ties of affection and strengthen the bonds of kindly feeling.”
Being the son of a Presbyterian minister, and known for his virtuous character, Cleveland’s Thanksgiving proclamations are especially good. His 1886 proclamation is the first to explicitly call on Americans to remember their private duty to the poor with “cheerful gifts and alms.”
Beginning with his heartfelt proclamation given less than three months after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt’s proclamations were dependably powerful, reverent, and imbued with a sense of duty and purpose. Roosevelt’s 1908 proclamation should be read by every American.
Woodrow Wilson began a trend of progressive Democrats infusing Thanksgiving proclamations with politics. After spending 1916 promising to keep the United States neutral in World War I, Wilson utilized his Thanksgiving proclamation in 1917 to endear Americans to the war cause. Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his 1933 proclamation to advocate for workers’ rights, and his 1934 proclamation to promote “social justice.” Following FDR’s lead, Lyndon Johnson pushed the “war on poverty” in his 1964 proclamation.
Yet in 1944, FDR gave one of the most explicitly Christian Thanksgiving proclamations ever. After thanking our Heavenly Father for the success of D-Day and the start of Europe’s liberation from tyranny, FDR suggested Americans engage in daily readings of Holy Scripture from Thanksgiving to Christmas to renew the nation’s understanding of eternal truths.
Gratitude for Heaven’s Grace on the United States goes back to Washington’s proclamations, where he wrote of “signal favors,” “Providence,” and God’s “Divine beneficence” in protecting and preserving the nation. Indeed, regular affirmations of Providence continued in the modern proclamations of presidents Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush.
With his first opportunity, President Trump returned the Thanksgiving proclamation to its religious origins, imploring Americans to “seek God’s protection, guidance, and wisdom” and recognizing The Almighty as the root of our blessings once more. The president’s 2018 proclamation continued this trend, declaring the nation’s “strong faith in God” remains a “beacon of hope to all Americans.”
And that is certainly something we all give thanks for.
Joshua Lawson is a graduate student at the Van Andel School of Statesmanship at Hillsdale College, pursuing a master’s degree in American politics and political philosophy. His work has appeared in the Washington Examiner and The Federalist.
