Northern day of Thanksgiving

ROFL, ROFL...so Mr. Taylor, you eat your turkey in early November instead of the third Thursday of the month? Thanksgiving days, as anyone who has studied this knows, had different days assigned by different states at different times. Until, low, that faithful meeting on October 1863 between Seward and Lincoln.

October 1863

William Henry Seward. "They say Mr. President that we are stealing away the rights of the States. So I have come today to advise you that there is another State right I think we ought to steal."

Raising his head from his pile of papers, Lincoln asked, "Well Governor, what do you want to steal now?"

Steward replied, "The right to name Thanksgiving Day!"

He explained that at present, Thanksgiving was celebrated on different days at the discretion of each state's governor. "Why not make it a national holiday."

Lincoln immediately responded that he supposed a president "had as good a right to thank God as a Governor."

Seward then presented Lincoln with a proclamation that invited citizens "in every part of the United States," at sea, or abroad to give thanks to "our beneficent Father." The proclamation also commended to God's care "all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or suffers," and called on Him "to heal the wounds of the nation" and restore it to peace. tranquility and Union." These sentiments would reappear in Lincoln's second inaugural, where once again, as with Seward's "mystic chords" in his First Inaugural Address, Lincoln would transform Seward's language into a powerfully resonant poetry.

Recorded by Fred Seward.

Now Mr. Taylor do you still eat your Turkey on the 15th?

Chase.