Sarah Hale Wrote Lincoln One More Letter

Before 1863, there was no national Thanksgiving Day. Each state picked its own date, mostly in New England and the North. Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, had been pushing for one national day of thanks for 15 years as editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, and several presidents had simply ignored her. On September 28, 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, she wrote President Lincoln asking that Thanksgiving be made a national and fixed Union festival. Lincoln acted right away. On October 3, 1863, he issued a proclamation setting apart the last Thursday of November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” The proclamation even admits the blessings were “so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come.” One woman’s persistence gave a whole nation a day to remember where the good gifts come from.