Proclamation 883—Thanksgiving Day, 1909

The season of the year has returned when, in accordance with the reverent custom established by our forefathers, the people of the United States are wont to meet in their usual places of worship on a day of thanksgiving appointed by the Civil Magistrate to return thanks to God for the great mercies and benefits which they have enjoyed.

During the past year we have been highly blessed. No great calamities of flood or tempest or epidemic of sickness have befallen us. We have lived in quietness, undisturbed by war or threats of war. Peace and plenty of bounteous crops and of great industrial production animate a cheerful and resolute people to all the renewed energies of beneficent industry and material and moral progress. It is altogether fitting that we should humbly and gratefully acknowledge the Divine source of these blessings.

Therefore, I hereby appoint Thursday, the twenty-fifth day of November, as a day of general thanksgiving, and I call upon the people on that day, laying aside their usual vocations, to repair to their churches and unite in appropriate services of praise and thanks to Almighty God.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto put my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and nine, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and thirty-fourth.

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

By the President:

P.C. KNOX, Secretary of State.