We approach that season of the year when it has been the custom for the American people to give thanks for the good fortune which the bounty of Providence, through the generosity of Nature, has visited upon them. It is altogether a good custom. It has the sanction of antiquity and the approbation of our religious convictions. In acknowledging the receipt of Divine favour, in contemplating the blessings which have been bestowed upon us, we shall reveal the spiritual strength of the Nation.
The year has been marked by a continuation of peace, whereby our country has entered into a relationship of better understanding with all the other nations of the earth. Ways have been revealed to us by which we could perform very great service through the giving friendly counsel through the extension of financial assistance, and through the exercise of a spirit of neighbourly kindness to less-favoured peoples.
- This Proclamation should be read in connection with the letter to President Coolidge, by the Rev. G. M. Robb, which follows.—Editor.
We should give thanks for the power which has been given into our keeping, with which we have been able to render these services to the rest of mankind.
At home we have continually had an improving state of the public health. The production of our industries has been large, and our harvests have been bountiful. We have been remarkably free from disorder, and remarkably successful in all those pursuits which flourish during a state of domestic peace.
An abundant prosperity has overspread the land. We shall do well to accept all these favours and bounties with a becoming humility, and dedicate them to the service of the Righteous Cause of the Giver of all good and perfect gifts. As the nation has prospered, let all the people show that they are worthy to prosper, by re-dedicating America to the service of God and man.
Therefore I, Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States of America, hereby proclaim and fix Thursday, the twenty-seventh day of November, as a day for national thanksgiving. I recommend that the people gather in their places of worship and at the family altars, and offer up their thanks for the goodness which has been shown to them in such a multitude of ways. Especially, I urge them to supplicate the Throne of Grace that they may gather strength from their tribulations, that they may gain humility from their victories, that they may bear without complaining the burdens that shall be placed upon them, and that they may be increasingly worthy in all ways of the blessings that shall come to them.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the great seal of the United States.
Done at the City of Washington, this fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States, the one hundred and forty-ninth.