The First Amendment and the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation both occurred in the autumn of 1789. George Washington issued a proclamation for a "day of public thanksgiving and prayer" just ...

Colonial Americans, including George Washington, celebrated countless "thanksgivings" throughout their lives – just not in the same way we do today. During the American Revolution, colonial ...

On Thursday, November 26, 1789, the newly formed United States of America celebrated the nation’s first Thanksgiving. About two months earlier, on September 25, 1789, New Jersey Rep. Elias Boudinot ...

Last year, I had the pleasure of teaching a graduate seminar at Southern Methodist University that I called "Presidential Rhetoric and American Political Theology." We spent the semester reading texts ...

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 ...

Thanksgiving has always been more than a meal. From George Washington’s 1789 proclamation calling for a national day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” to Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 appeal for a war-torn ...

President George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation under the new U.S. Constitution on Oct. 3, 1789, asking for Thursday, Nov. 26 of that year to be "a day of public thanksgiving ...