Table of Contents
When President Abraham Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation on Oct. 3, 1863, Marblehead — like communities across the Union — was living through the strain of the Civil War. While New England towns had long observed their own annual days of thanksgiving, Lincoln’s order created the first recurring national observance.
By 1863, Marblehead had already experienced the war’s impact. A significant number of local men had enlisted, reflecting the town’s long maritime tradition and its readiness to serve. Many Marbleheaders were in the Union Army and Navy, and news from the front was followed closely in local households. The community, like others throughout the region, took part in organized efforts to support soldiers through donations of supplies and relief for families affected by wartime service.
Lincoln’s proclamation, issued after pivotal Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, called on Americans to acknowledge the year’s blessings while recognizing the suffering endured by soldiers and their families. For a town with a deep sense of civic duty and a long tradition of public observances, the message aligned naturally with existing New England customs.
Below is the full text of Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation as it originally appeared:
President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation (Oct. 3, 1863)
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggressions of foreign states, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.
I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Abraham Lincoln
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State
