Many presidents ignored Hale's letters, but President Lincoln did not. His October 3rd, 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation read, "In the midst of a civil war of unequal magnitude and severity ...

It took the trauma of the Civil War to make Thanksgiving a formal, annual holiday. Lincoln issued his proclamation on Oct. 3, 1863, three months after Union Army victories at Gettysburg and ...

Fremont issued an emancipation proclamation in St. Louis, freeing slaves in Missouri, a bold move that predated President Abraham Lincoln’s more famous Emancipation Proclamation by two years.

Lincoln wasn't the first president to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation — George Washington did so in 1789. While later presidents failed to maintain the tradition, it was Washington’s ...

George Washington issued his Thanksgiving proclamation, designating “a day of public thanks-giving” to be held on “Thursday the 26th day of November” that year. Abraham Lincoln would later ...

The governor then quoted Lincoln, who in proclaiming the ... to declare America’s first National Day of Prayer and ...