Declaration of the First National Thanksgiving
Maker
Continental Congress
Maker
Samuel Adams
(American, 1722 - 1803)
Date1777
ClassificationsHistory
DimensionsFrame: 30 x 27 x 2 3/4 in. (76.2 x 68.6 x 7 cm)
Document: 16 9/16 x 13 1/8 in. (42.1 x 33.3 cm)
DescriptionBroadside for the first national Thanksgiving to be observed throughout the United States. Document: 16 9/16 x 13 1/8 in. (42.1 x 33.3 cm)
Declared to commemorate the American victory at Saratoga, Congress recommended "to the legislative or executive powers" that December 18, 1777, be set aside for "solemn thanksgiving and praise" in congress, November 1, 1977. The text, believed largely the work of Samuel Adams, opened: "Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God...and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also to smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success." Below the printed signature of Henry Laurens, who had been elected as President of the Continental Congress the morning of November 1, 1777, appears a resolution of the State of Massachusetts, November 21, 1777, adopting the recommendation of the Continental congress, and calling "upon Ministers and People of every denomination, religiously to observe the said day accordingly." Signed in print by Jeremiah Powell and fourteen others, and closes with: "GOD SAVE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!"
