George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

I thought instead of sharing only my own heart this Thanksgiving, I would also share the heart of our nation’s beloved first president.

Something struck me right away, as I began to read this document – this document that someone had the presence of mind to preserve – no doubt lovingly. It struck me that both Houses of Congress requested that the President of this nation encourage his people to pray publicly to Almighty God. Not participate in a moment of silence, not hold hands and sing a chorus of Kum Ba Yah, but to acknowledge “with grateful hearts the many and signal favors” that our Beloved Father had afforded them. And what did the Lord provide them with? The “opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

♥For Their Safety And Happiness♥.

Are you thinking what I am thinking?  “Where did we go wrong?”

Our Government has become a warped and twisted version of what our founding fathers originally established. Our founding fathers were men of honor, love, and integrity.  They risked their lives to build the most amazing nation that ever existed. They were men that loved the people who elected them to make sound decisions on their behalf. To speak for them.

They were trusted men.

President Washington continues, thanking the Lord for the national constitution most recently “instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed.”

How is it that our government has turned against these principles? Many leaders cry out “Separation of church and state!” using this phrase to impose restriction upon restriction on America’s citizens – to bind our hands, as it were, yet the results: our hearts are bound, our souls burdened.

We, the citizens of the country that both the first Houses of Congress and President encouraged to pray in a National Proclamation, are now told to go and pray in secret as if it is a thing to be ashamed of.

He then admonishes us to beseech the “great Lord and Ruler of Nations” to “pardon our national and other transgressions”.

If ever you could hear my heart’s cry, that would be it.

I am so glad that one so great as our first president stressed the importance of repentance before any of us were even born.

America is an amazing nation, truly blessed with prosperity and freedom for all, but our leaders have made many serious mistakes in their dealings with other nations around the world. We have abandoned people in need, we have ignored literal genocide in Rwanda and other nations, and as of January, 2009, the day after the anniversary of Roe v Wade, we began to finance abortion in other countries, thanks to President Obama’s lifting of the Mexico City Policy.

It isn’t enough, President Obama, that we murder our own unborn?

With one flick of your pen, you decided – for all of us – to reach across the miles and use American finances to fund the raping of women’s wombs in poorer countries than our own.

President George Washington, were he here today, would make this same proclomation to us all, after he rose from his own position on his knees, maybe even his face, while imploring the Lord to forgive us of this madness.

He further encourages that we would pray that our National Government would be a blessing to all people by its wisdom, and just laws; not only that, but that we would “guide all sovereigns and nations” (by example, I am sure) and even bless them with “peace and concord” in order to promote the practice of “true religion and virtue”.  Did you know that pure religion according to God’s Word is to care for the orphan and the widow?  It is also to keep yourself pure.

President Washington had big dreams for America.

He had dreams that we would reach out and bless those around us and he knew that the only way to do so was to seek the blessing of our beloved Father in Heaven for the ability before attempting the actions that would make those dreams come true.

As you read the words of our first honored President below, I make a humble request of my own. I beseech you, beloved brothers and sisters – sweet American brothers and sisters, Seek the Lord, while He may be found.  Seek him for the same things that President George Washington Himself sought on October 3rd, 1789.

Seek these things on Thanksgiving day and every day after, for truly it is the only hope for our nation’s survival and success.

~*~*~

General Thanksgiving

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

October 3rd, 1789

President George Washington’s Proclamation”Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3rd day of October, A.D. 1789″

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Rich Mitchell

Rich Mitchell is the editor-in-chief of Conservative Daily News and the president of Bald Eagle Media, LLC. His posts may contain opinions that are his own and are not necessarily shared by Bald Eagle Media, CDN, staff or .. much of anyone else. Find him on twitter, facebook and

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