Thanksgiving Day

Chester B. Jordan with contributions from Edward N. Pearson

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

CHESTER B. JORDAN, Governor of New Hampshire, issued the following proclamation, November 5, appointing Thursday, November 28, as the annual day of Thanksgiving and praise.

By his Excellency,

CHESTER B. JORDAN, Governor.

Proclamation for a day of public thanksgiving and praise.

Ever since the golden autumn of 1621 dawned upon our forefathers, at Plymouth, for various reasons and at sundry times, Thanksgiving days have been observed. Fast and Thanksgiving days were from time to time appointed as waves of sorrow or streams of joy broke over our ancestors. The annual harvest festival, so beautifully inaugurated and long kept first by the colonies and afterwards by the state, was most appropriately nationalized by the immortal Lincoln in November, 1863.

This day more than any other takes strong hold upon our hearts, our affections, our souls. Around it cluster tenderest memories of father, mother, brother, sister, and friends, as all were together about the home fireside and set up their household penates. In our visions, dreams, and recollections these home ties, home scenes, some of them too sacred to tell to the world, come thronging in upon us, to make both us and the day better. A day dedicated to so much that is dear, so inshrined in heart and home, should be worthily, tenderly, and patriotically kept.

The God of grace and of plenty has dealt most kindly with all our people in state and nation, the past year. The harvests have been abundant. Pestilence and famine have been unknown. Evidences of unusual thrift, enterprise, prosperity, and of loyalty to the flag are manifest in every section of our great country.

Because of these and other innumerable blessings, abounding from ocean to ocean, I do, with the consent of the council, appoint Thursday, the 28th day of November, current, as a day of Thanksgiving, prayer, and holy home convocation. In the church, by our hearthstones, and wherever lot and duty on that day may place us, let praise, prayer, and thanksgiving go up from honest hearts and sincere souls to Him who holdeth the destinies of all peoples and the wealth of all worlds in His hands, for giving our fathers victory in their bloody struggle to found this government; for being with their sons in the terrific conflict to maintain and perpetuate it; for staying the hands of our rulers amid great perplexities; for the enduring riches unceasingly flowing from church and school; for putting it into the minds of the more fortunate to so spend their means as best to succor, aid, and make better the physical, social, mental, and moral conditions of the less favored ones of earth; for life, health, prosperity, and the virtues of honesty, sobriety, and simplicity.

And when we are about to assemble around the well-supplied family table, and a hush comes over us, as we listen for foot-falls of those who long since passed on to the Thanksgiving eternal, may we have the sublime satisfaction that most surely comes from duty and benevolence to the stranger, sick, and the unfortunate.

Given at the council chamber in Concord, this fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and One, and of the Independence of the United States of America the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth.

Chester B. Jordan, Governor.
By His Excellency, the Governor, with advice of the council.
Edward N. Pearson, Secretary of State.

President McKinley to Young Men.

The following is from an address delivered by President McKinley to young men:—

"No man gets on so well in this world as he whose daily walk and conversation are clean and consistent, whose heart is pure and whose life is honorable. A religious spirit helps every man. It is at once a comfort and an inspiration, and makes him stronger, wiser, and better in every relation of life. There is no substitute for it. It may be assailed by its enemies, as it has been, but they offer nothing in its place. It has stood the test of centuries and has never failed to help and bless mankind.

"The world has use for the young man who is well grounded in principle, who has reverence for truth and religion and courageously follows their teachings. Employment awaits his coming and honor crowns his path. More than all this, conscious of rectitude, he meets the cares of life with courage; the duties which confront him he discharges with manly honesty."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit