November 21, 2023 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, "If you planned your itinerary carefully, you could have a good Thanksgiving dinner every day between Election Day and Christmas Day." That all changed when a songwriter worked long and hard to crystallize American culture as distinct from that of Britain - including by a new official holiday.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
And we continue with our American stories. You may not
have heard of her, but Sarah Josepha Hale may be
the most famous woman in America during the first half
of the eighteen hundreds. He was well known as an
editor for the most popular subscription magazine in the country
at the time. But we have heard a thank for
(00:32):
a couple of days off each year. You see, Hale
was nearly single handedly responsible for Thanksgiving becoming a national holiday.
Here is Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of Sarah Josepha Hale's biography
called Lady Editor, to share with us the story of
the Godmother of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Sarah Josefa Hale is not very well known in our century,
but she was the most famous woman of the nineteenth century,
or at least the first part of the nineteenth century.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
She was editor of.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Godie's Lady's Book, which was one of the first national magazines.
It had a huge circulation. But more than that, she
used the magazine to promote ideas that were close to
her heart. She wrote or edited one hundred and twenty
nine books. Can you imagine this? She did write something
(01:35):
that you probably have heard of, and Mary had a
little lamb. It was published in a magazine for children.
So she wrote it, and it became popular, and it
was picked up by a man named Lowell Mason, who
edited and put together the first song book for school children.
(02:00):
In the early eighteen twenties, she was happily married with
four children and uh a fifth on the way. When
her husband died suddenly, she had no means of making
a living and was desperate to figure out a way
to earn enough money to both take care of her
(02:22):
children and educate them in the way to which she
and her husband had aspired. Hale herself was one of
the most highly educated women of the early nineteenth century.
This was a period where there were no colleges, no
institutes of higher education, not a single one that accepted women.
(02:44):
But Hale's family put a high premium on educating both
their sons and their daughters. The kids were educated at
home by their mother, homeschooled, and then when her brother
Horatio went off to college at Dartmouth, Hale couldn't go
with him, which was I imagine a big disappointment for her.
But Horatio would come home on the holidays and teach
(03:06):
Hail everything he had learned at Dartmouth, so In effect,
she had the equivalent of a college education. In eighteen
twenty seven she published a novel called Northwood. It was
an anti slavery novel, more than twenty years before Harriet
(03:26):
Beecher Stowe's uncle Town's Cabin, and it had one chapter
that described a new England Thanksgiving.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
The large table was set forth and covered with a
cloth as white as snow. Love, warm hearted love supplied
the place of cold duty. The supper consisted of every
luxury the season afforded. First came fried chicken floating in gravy,
then broiled ham wheat, bread as white as snow, and
butter so yellow and sweet. Our people do not need
(03:58):
compulsion to support the Gospel, but to return to our
Thanksgiving festival, when it shall be observed on the same
day throughout all the state and territories. It will be
a grand spectacle of moral power and human happiness, such
as the world has never yet witnessed.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
She became an editor in eighteen twenty eight. She had
written and published several poems and had gotten the attention
of editors in Boston, including a man, a clergyman who
was about to start a magazine for women, and he
wrote to her out of the blue, asking her to
(04:35):
be editor of this magazine. Eventually, mister Lewis Goadie from Philadelphia,
decide who had a magazine that was not so successful,
decided that he wanted her as his editor. The magazine
was eventually retitled Goadie's Lady's Book, which became the most popular,
(04:57):
the most widely circulated magazine of the pres Civil War era.
Thanks to Hale's editorship. She would use her magazine to
develop ideas that were important to her. The other big
issue that captured her attention American culture. As a member
of the Revolutionary generation, she was born in seventeen eighty eight,
(05:20):
she believed that the Revolution had unified the country politically
but not culturally, that we still looked toward Britain and
toward Europe for kind of our cultural norms. She is
probably most famous of all for being the so called
(05:44):
godmother of Thanksgiving. You may ask, didn't we have Thanksgivings
before Lincoln? It went back an awful long time and
George Washington, for example, his first act as president was
to issue a Thanksgiving part acclamation. So the answer is yes.
But the Thanksgivings before Hale were celebrated at all different
(06:09):
times of the year, and they were called by governors.
There was no unified date for Thanksgiving. It could be
celebrated anytime between September and December. There was a funny
saying in the first half of the nineteenth century that
if you planned your itinerary carefully enough, you could have
(06:30):
a good Thanksgiving dinner every week between Election Day and
Christmas Day. Some states didn't have Thanksgivings at all. Hale's
idea was that Thanksgiving could be a unifying force in
American life, an idea that she pushed, especially as the
country moved towards Civil War.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
The importance of this third holiday to the union and
the happiness of those who enjoy it can hardly be overestimated.
The influence of a family reunion, its generous beneficence to
the poor, its public acknowledgment to the divine being who
shapes the destiny of nations. All these combined to strengthen
to Ennoble and to purify the character of our Republican government.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
She also saw it as a patriotic holiday, and she
would write about how we had two national holidays. Washington's
birthday on February twenty second, and of course, the fourth
of July in the summer. Christmas Day was not declared
a national holiday until the eighteen seventies.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
We now have but two days set apart for popular rejoicing.
The twenty second of February is the day of National Patriotism,
Washington's birthday, the fourth of July is the Jubilee of
National Independence. Let the last Thursday in November be consecrated
by gratitude to God for his wonderful blessings on our people.
(08:00):
We shall then have three American festivals, which our own citizens,
wherever they might be, would observe with pride, joy and thankfulness.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So she pushed the idea of thanksgiving as both a
unifying force but also a way for Americans to step
back and consider their blessings. She did this in the
pages of Godie's Lady's Book, and starting in eighteen forty seven,
(08:34):
she started her campaign for a national Thanksgiving Day.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
The last Thursday of November should be the day of
National Thanksgiving for the American people. Let this day, from
this time forth, as long as our banner of Stars
floats on the breeze, be the grand Thanksgiving Holiday of
our nation.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And you've been listening to Melanie Kirkpatrick All, author of
Sarah Josepha Hale's biography, Cold Lady Editor, and what a story.
You've been hearing a bit of cultural history too. But
we have heard a think for a couple of days
off each year, here's this remarkable lady who's got remarkable talents.
(09:17):
When we come back, more of the story of Sarah
Josepha Hale here on our American Stories. And we continue
(09:40):
here with our American stories and with Melanie Cookpatrick Daring
the story of Sarah Josepha Hale, Godmother of Thanksgiving. Let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Sarah Josepha Hale had a private letter writing campaign. She
would write to every governor, and she would write to Congressmen,
urging them to support a campaign for a national Thanksgiving Day.
She would even write to the president. Her fame and
her influence was such that the presidents responded to her,
(10:22):
and prior to Lincoln, she had rejections from the presidents.
She wrote to They, to a man said, we like
the idea of a national Thanksgiving, but the Constitution doesn't
permit the president to call a national Thanksgiving. That's the
job of the governor. There was also a concern about
(10:46):
it being a religious holiday and therefore inappropriate for the
President to get involved with. One of the most eloquent
letters that she received was from President Millard Fillmore, who
made these arguments in a clearer way, while at the
same time praising Hale for her idea and saying he
(11:09):
could support it.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Millard Fillmore, Washington, November thirteenth, eighteen fifty two. Yours of
the eleventh came to hand this morning in which you
urged the propriety of my recommending to Congress to fix
some day of national Thanksgiving. But I apprehend that Congress
would hardly deem this an appropriate subject for legislation, and
(11:32):
custom has sanctioned the practice of doing it by states
and not by the national government.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Another person who wrote back to her as Henry Wise,
the governor of Virginia in the eighteen fifties. He was
pro slavery, and he thought that Thanksgiving was a damned
Yankee holiday, and he objected to the Thanksgiving day because
preachers in New England would get into the pulpits and
(12:03):
invey against slavery, and he considered that a inappropriate use
of their role as preachers.
Speaker 6 (12:12):
Governor Henry Wise, Richmond, Virginia, September twenty fourth, eighteen fifty six. Madam,
never was there a time when this nation more needed
the efficacy of prayer against some of the preaching and
practices of some of the churches which profess to be Christian,
than at this critical period of imminent peril. We recognize
(12:35):
Christianity in every form of state, except in any form
of worship that is left to the people freely to
be exercised without any interference by the state.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
In eighteen sixty three, in the middle of the Civil War,
not long after the bloody Battle of Gettysburg, she wrote
to Lincoln encouraging him to call it a national day
of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
From Sarah J. Hale to Abraham Lincoln, September twenty eighth,
eighteen sixty three. Permit me, as Editreice of the Ladies Book,
to request a few minutes of your precious time, while
laying before you a subject of deep interest to myself,
and as I trust even to the President of our Republic,
(13:23):
of some importance. This subject is to have the day
of our annual Thanksgiving made a national and fixed union festival.
You may have observed that for some years past there
has been an increasing interest felt in our land to
have the Thanksgiving held on the same day in all
the states. It now needs national recognition, an authoritative fixation,
(13:48):
only to become permanently an American custom and institution. For
the last fifteen years I have set forth this idea
in the Ladies Book and placed the papers before the
governors of all the states and territories. I have received
uniformly the most kind approval that each state should, by statute,
(14:11):
make it obligatory on the governor to appoint the last
Thursday of November annually as Thanksgiving Day. A proclamation from
the President of the United States would be the best,
surest and most fitting method of national appointment. Thus the
Great Union Festival of America would be established. Now, the
(14:34):
purpose of this letter is to entreat President Lincoln to
put forth his proclamation appointing the last Thursday in November
as the National Thanksgiving for all.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Lincoln's role here was to create a national holiday. Thanksgivings
had been celebrated in this country since before the Pilgrims
and the Indians. I think the proclamation is astonishing in
one way. Remember this is the middle of the Civil War.
(15:09):
The Battle of Gettysburg had just taken place, where tens
of thousands of Americans on both sides had died or
been wounded. He opens by talking about our beautiful country
and the blessings of our country, and then he moves
on to how we need to give thanks to our
(15:31):
creator for our country and its blessings. And he doesn't
dwell on the war, and in any way, he's looking
forward to a time when the war will end and
the country will be reunified. And he made no reference
to victories or losses, or rebels or enemies. Instead, he
(15:57):
spoke of the whole American people, and he called on
every American to celebrate Thanksgiving with one heart and one voice.
I love that phrase, with one heart and one voice.
Lincoln clearly was looking forward to a day when we
would be whole again.
Speaker 7 (16:18):
President Abraham Lincoln, October third, eighteen sixty three. The year
that is drawing toward its close has been filled with
the blessings of fruitful fields and helpful skies. To these bounties,
which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to
(16:39):
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 even soften the heart, which is
habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of the Civil War, peace has been
(17:03):
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. No human counsel
hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these
(17:23):
great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most
High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for
our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to
me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently,
and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice,
(17:44):
by the whole American people. 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
sojourneying in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the
last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving
and praise to our beneficent Father, who dwelleth in the
(18:07):
heavens and fervently implore the interposition of 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, tranquility, and union.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Sarah Josefa Hale set out to bring Americans together, and
I think she deserves more credit than she gets today
for her role in helping to establish American culture. And
one of her biggest achievements is the Thanksgiving Holiday. And
so as we all gathered together this year on Thanksgiving Day,
(18:53):
Hale is going to be the unseen presence at our table,
and I hope we all take a moment to think
about her and thank her for her creativity and her
persistence in making this a great American holiday.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
And a special thanks to producer and contributor John Elfner,
a history teacher in Illinois, and he worked on that
beautiful story. Thanks also to Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of Lady
Editor and go to Amazon or the usual suspects to
pick up the book and what a story. She starts
a private letter writing campaign gets rejected by Miller Fillmore,
(19:32):
even Governor Wise of Virginia said no. Fillmore said, it's
a state's issue. Why as a governor said, it's not
my business either. But she's persistent and writes to the
President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who writes back,
and my goodness, what a proclamation you just heard, and
(19:55):
what an accomplishment. So as we're enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner,
we don't we have Abraham Lincoln to thank. In the end,
we have the woman who started it all, the Godmother
of Thanksgiving. I'm talking about Sarah Josepha Hale. Her story
here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. You may not
have heard of her, but Sarah Josepha Hale may be
the most famous woman in America during the first half
of the eighteen hundreds. He was well known as an
editor for the most popular subscription magazine in the country
at the time. But we have heard a thank for
(00:32):
a couple of days off each year. You see, Hale
was nearly single handedly responsible for Thanksgiving becoming a national holiday.
Here is Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of Sarah Josepha Hale's biography
called Lady Editor, to share with us the story of
the Godmother of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Sarah Josefa Hale is not very well known in our century,
but she was the most famous woman of the nineteenth century,
or at least the first part of the nineteenth century.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
She was editor of.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Godie's Lady's Book, which was one of the first national magazines.
It had a huge circulation. But more than that, she
used the magazine to promote ideas that were close to
her heart. She wrote or edited one hundred and twenty
nine books. Can you imagine this? She did write something
(01:35):
that you probably have heard of, and Mary had a
little lamb. It was published in a magazine for children.
So she wrote it, and it became popular, and it
was picked up by a man named Lowell Mason, who
edited and put together the first song book for school children.
(02:00):
In the early eighteen twenties, she was happily married with
four children and uh a fifth on the way. When
her husband died suddenly, she had no means of making
a living and was desperate to figure out a way
to earn enough money to both take care of her
(02:22):
children and educate them in the way to which she
and her husband had aspired. Hale herself was one of
the most highly educated women of the early nineteenth century.
This was a period where there were no colleges, no
institutes of higher education, not a single one that accepted women.
(02:44):
But Hale's family put a high premium on educating both
their sons and their daughters. The kids were educated at
home by their mother, homeschooled, and then when her brother
Horatio went off to college at Dartmouth, Hale couldn't go
with him, which was I imagine a big disappointment for her.
But Horatio would come home on the holidays and teach
(03:06):
Hail everything he had learned at Dartmouth, so In effect,
she had the equivalent of a college education. In eighteen
twenty seven she published a novel called Northwood. It was
an anti slavery novel, more than twenty years before Harriet
(03:26):
Beecher Stowe's uncle Town's Cabin, and it had one chapter
that described a new England Thanksgiving.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
The large table was set forth and covered with a
cloth as white as snow. Love, warm hearted love supplied
the place of cold duty. The supper consisted of every
luxury the season afforded. First came fried chicken floating in gravy,
then broiled ham wheat, bread as white as snow, and
butter so yellow and sweet. Our people do not need
(03:58):
compulsion to support the Gospel, but to return to our
Thanksgiving festival, when it shall be observed on the same
day throughout all the state and territories. It will be
a grand spectacle of moral power and human happiness, such
as the world has never yet witnessed.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
She became an editor in eighteen twenty eight. She had
written and published several poems and had gotten the attention
of editors in Boston, including a man, a clergyman who
was about to start a magazine for women, and he
wrote to her out of the blue, asking her to
(04:35):
be editor of this magazine. Eventually, mister Lewis Goadie from Philadelphia,
decide who had a magazine that was not so successful,
decided that he wanted her as his editor. The magazine
was eventually retitled Goadie's Lady's Book, which became the most popular,
(04:57):
the most widely circulated magazine of the pres Civil War era.
Thanks to Hale's editorship. She would use her magazine to
develop ideas that were important to her. The other big
issue that captured her attention American culture. As a member
of the Revolutionary generation, she was born in seventeen eighty eight,
(05:20):
she believed that the Revolution had unified the country politically
but not culturally, that we still looked toward Britain and
toward Europe for kind of our cultural norms. She is
probably most famous of all for being the so called
(05:44):
godmother of Thanksgiving. You may ask, didn't we have Thanksgivings
before Lincoln? It went back an awful long time and
George Washington, for example, his first act as president was
to issue a Thanksgiving part acclamation. So the answer is yes.
But the Thanksgivings before Hale were celebrated at all different
(06:09):
times of the year, and they were called by governors.
There was no unified date for Thanksgiving. It could be
celebrated anytime between September and December. There was a funny
saying in the first half of the nineteenth century that
if you planned your itinerary carefully enough, you could have
(06:30):
a good Thanksgiving dinner every week between Election Day and
Christmas Day. Some states didn't have Thanksgivings at all. Hale's
idea was that Thanksgiving could be a unifying force in
American life, an idea that she pushed, especially as the
country moved towards Civil War.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
The importance of this third holiday to the union and
the happiness of those who enjoy it can hardly be overestimated.
The influence of a family reunion, its generous beneficence to
the poor, its public acknowledgment to the divine being who
shapes the destiny of nations. All these combined to strengthen
to Ennoble and to purify the character of our Republican government.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
She also saw it as a patriotic holiday, and she
would write about how we had two national holidays. Washington's
birthday on February twenty second, and of course, the fourth
of July in the summer. Christmas Day was not declared
a national holiday until the eighteen seventies.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
We now have but two days set apart for popular rejoicing.
The twenty second of February is the day of National Patriotism,
Washington's birthday, the fourth of July is the Jubilee of
National Independence. Let the last Thursday in November be consecrated
by gratitude to God for his wonderful blessings on our people.
(08:00):
We shall then have three American festivals, which our own citizens,
wherever they might be, would observe with pride, joy and thankfulness.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So she pushed the idea of thanksgiving as both a
unifying force but also a way for Americans to step
back and consider their blessings. She did this in the
pages of Godie's Lady's Book, and starting in eighteen forty seven,
(08:34):
she started her campaign for a national Thanksgiving Day.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
The last Thursday of November should be the day of
National Thanksgiving for the American people. Let this day, from
this time forth, as long as our banner of Stars
floats on the breeze, be the grand Thanksgiving Holiday of
our nation.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And you've been listening to Melanie Kirkpatrick All, author of
Sarah Josepha Hale's biography, Cold Lady Editor, and what a story.
You've been hearing a bit of cultural history too. But
we have heard a think for a couple of days
off each year, here's this remarkable lady who's got remarkable talents.
(09:17):
When we come back, more of the story of Sarah
Josepha Hale here on our American Stories. And we continue
(09:40):
here with our American stories and with Melanie Cookpatrick Daring
the story of Sarah Josepha Hale, Godmother of Thanksgiving. Let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Sarah Josepha Hale had a private letter writing campaign. She
would write to every governor, and she would write to Congressmen,
urging them to support a campaign for a national Thanksgiving Day.
She would even write to the president. Her fame and
her influence was such that the presidents responded to her,
(10:22):
and prior to Lincoln, she had rejections from the presidents.
She wrote to They, to a man said, we like
the idea of a national Thanksgiving, but the Constitution doesn't
permit the president to call a national Thanksgiving. That's the
job of the governor. There was also a concern about
(10:46):
it being a religious holiday and therefore inappropriate for the
President to get involved with. One of the most eloquent
letters that she received was from President Millard Fillmore, who
made these arguments in a clearer way, while at the
same time praising Hale for her idea and saying he
(11:09):
could support it.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Millard Fillmore, Washington, November thirteenth, eighteen fifty two. Yours of
the eleventh came to hand this morning in which you
urged the propriety of my recommending to Congress to fix
some day of national Thanksgiving. But I apprehend that Congress
would hardly deem this an appropriate subject for legislation, and
(11:32):
custom has sanctioned the practice of doing it by states
and not by the national government.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Another person who wrote back to her as Henry Wise,
the governor of Virginia in the eighteen fifties. He was
pro slavery, and he thought that Thanksgiving was a damned
Yankee holiday, and he objected to the Thanksgiving day because
preachers in New England would get into the pulpits and
(12:03):
invey against slavery, and he considered that a inappropriate use
of their role as preachers.
Speaker 6 (12:12):
Governor Henry Wise, Richmond, Virginia, September twenty fourth, eighteen fifty six. Madam,
never was there a time when this nation more needed
the efficacy of prayer against some of the preaching and
practices of some of the churches which profess to be Christian,
than at this critical period of imminent peril. We recognize
(12:35):
Christianity in every form of state, except in any form
of worship that is left to the people freely to
be exercised without any interference by the state.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
In eighteen sixty three, in the middle of the Civil War,
not long after the bloody Battle of Gettysburg, she wrote
to Lincoln encouraging him to call it a national day
of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
From Sarah J. Hale to Abraham Lincoln, September twenty eighth,
eighteen sixty three. Permit me, as Editreice of the Ladies Book,
to request a few minutes of your precious time, while
laying before you a subject of deep interest to myself,
and as I trust even to the President of our Republic,
(13:23):
of some importance. This subject is to have the day
of our annual Thanksgiving made a national and fixed union festival.
You may have observed that for some years past there
has been an increasing interest felt in our land to
have the Thanksgiving held on the same day in all
the states. It now needs national recognition, an authoritative fixation,
(13:48):
only to become permanently an American custom and institution. For
the last fifteen years I have set forth this idea
in the Ladies Book and placed the papers before the
governors of all the states and territories. I have received
uniformly the most kind approval that each state should, by statute,
(14:11):
make it obligatory on the governor to appoint the last
Thursday of November annually as Thanksgiving Day. A proclamation from
the President of the United States would be the best,
surest and most fitting method of national appointment. Thus the
Great Union Festival of America would be established. Now, the
(14:34):
purpose of this letter is to entreat President Lincoln to
put forth his proclamation appointing the last Thursday in November
as the National Thanksgiving for all.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Lincoln's role here was to create a national holiday. Thanksgivings
had been celebrated in this country since before the Pilgrims
and the Indians. I think the proclamation is astonishing in
one way. Remember this is the middle of the Civil War.
(15:09):
The Battle of Gettysburg had just taken place, where tens
of thousands of Americans on both sides had died or
been wounded. He opens by talking about our beautiful country
and the blessings of our country, and then he moves
on to how we need to give thanks to our
(15:31):
creator for our country and its blessings. And he doesn't
dwell on the war, and in any way, he's looking
forward to a time when the war will end and
the country will be reunified. And he made no reference
to victories or losses, or rebels or enemies. Instead, he
(15:57):
spoke of the whole American people, and he called on
every American to celebrate Thanksgiving with one heart and one voice.
I love that phrase, with one heart and one voice.
Lincoln clearly was looking forward to a day when we
would be whole again.
Speaker 7 (16:18):
President Abraham Lincoln, October third, eighteen sixty three. The year
that is drawing toward its close has been filled with
the blessings of fruitful fields and helpful skies. To these bounties,
which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to
(16:39):
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 even soften the heart, which is
habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of the Civil War, peace has been
(17:03):
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. No human counsel
hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these
(17:23):
great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most
High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for
our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to
me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently,
and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice,
(17:44):
by the whole American people. 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
sojourneying in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the
last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving
and praise to our beneficent Father, who dwelleth in the
(18:07):
heavens and fervently implore the interposition of 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, tranquility, and union.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Sarah Josefa Hale set out to bring Americans together, and
I think she deserves more credit than she gets today
for her role in helping to establish American culture. And
one of her biggest achievements is the Thanksgiving Holiday. And
so as we all gathered together this year on Thanksgiving Day,
(18:53):
Hale is going to be the unseen presence at our table,
and I hope we all take a moment to think
about her and thank her for her creativity and her
persistence in making this a great American holiday.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
And a special thanks to producer and contributor John Elfner,
a history teacher in Illinois, and he worked on that
beautiful story. Thanks also to Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of Lady
Editor and go to Amazon or the usual suspects to
pick up the book and what a story. She starts
a private letter writing campaign gets rejected by Miller Fillmore,
(19:32):
even Governor Wise of Virginia said no. Fillmore said, it's
a state's issue. Why as a governor said, it's not
my business either. But she's persistent and writes to the
President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who writes back,
and my goodness, what a proclamation you just heard, and
(19:55):
what an accomplishment. So as we're enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner,
we don't we have Abraham Lincoln to thank. In the end,
we have the woman who started it all, the Godmother
of Thanksgiving. I'm talking about Sarah Josepha Hale. Her story
here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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