In the First National Thanksgiving Proclamation, the Continental Congress of the United States, in 1777, with the country still engaged in the war for independence, not only enjoined Americans to publicly offer acts of thanks to almighty God, but exhorted all to “consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor,” to make “the penitent confession of their manifold sins,” and to offer “their humble and earnest supplication that it may please GOD through the Merits of JESUS CHRIST, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance, that it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively.”
President George Washington issued a proclamation on October 3, 1789, designating Thursday, November 26 as a national day of thanks. In his proclamation, Washington declared that the necessity for such a day sprung from the Almighty’s care of Americans prior to the Revolution, assistance to them in achieving independence, and help in establishing the constitutional government.
