Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation delivers powerful message to a divided America Portrait of Abraham Lincoln. (Photo by National Archive/Newsmakers) Portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln established the first national holiday for Thanksgiving in 1863. In recognition, we offer a poem of his words arranged for the needs of today.

In his celebrated Thanksgiving proclamation, Abraham Lincoln struck his customary note of hope tinged with a kind of fatalistic melancholy. The year that is drawing toward its close has been ...

In 1863, Thanksgiving for President Abraham Lincoln was about uniting all Americans toward building peace and healing wounds. Today, we should not forget this peace message of Thanksgiving.

Autumn, 1863. President Abraham Lincoln governs a violently split nation and people. The country has been in a civil war for more than two years, and thousands are dead or wounded.

Good morning. Nearly 150 years ago, in one of the darkest years of our nation's history, President Abraham Lincoln set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of Thanksgiving.

In Rev. Hudson's column, President Abraham Lincoln asks the nation for a time of thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November.

Four themes flow together at one of the most remarkable points in American history—the evening when Abraham Lincoln for the last time proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving. It was April 11 ...

Since President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday during the dark days of the Civil War, U.S. presidents have delivered messages or proclamations of thanks for the bounties ...

Thanksgiving Day Message from SecDef Hagel. ... One hundred fifty years ago, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving.