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5 Kernels, Proclamations, and Gray Thursday

My father’s dramatic lesson and reading of an article to us one Thanksgiving made an impression which has lasted over forty years.  We sat down to eat the turkey, which had clearly and aromatically been present all day, but was now missing from the table.  Instead, 5 kernels of popping corn had been calculatedly and carefully placed on our plates by my father.

The story he read detailed a different Thanksgiving than the ones traditionally portrayed.  The impact and somber reality of how close the Pilgrims had come to starvation was detailed in his narrative.  The result of human nature (opportunity) meeting up with careful planning (harvest) was disastrous. Simply put the change of government by the Pilgrims to one of mandatory share-the-wealth (no the 1965 President Johnson initiative was not original)  invited some residents to yield to carnal initiatives (or lack) and not work or  contribute. Soon a couple years of poor crops combined with other factors resulted in too little food for any and all. 

Current traditional portrayal of Thanksgiving has all too often left out this fact.  The Pilgrims made sure they would not forget.  The “first” thanksgiving we think we know about had 5 kernels of corn on their plates, because that is exactly how much food the Pilgrims were allocated many days into their failed crop-sharing program. A poem by Hezekiah Butterworth from 1897 details this incident and was most likely the source of my father’s narrative.http://itsnotturkeyday.com/five_kernels_of_corn_its_not_turkey_day.htm

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So how does this relate to Thanksgiving in 2013, now called Turkey Day or Grey Thursday, preceding Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday.  It does not.  Which is exactly the point!  How have we gotten so far from these Proclamations from past Presidents?

1789 by President Washington: “NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.”

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1863 by President Lincoln:  “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, tranquility and Union.”

1901 by President T. Roosevelt: “The past year in particular has been one of peace and plenty.  We have

 prospered in things material and have been able to work for our own  uplifiting in things intellectual and spirtual.  Let us remember that, as much as has been give us, much will be expected from us; and  that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips and  shows itself in deeds. We can best prove our thankfulness to the Almighty by the way in which on this earth and at this time each of us  does his duty to his fellow men. Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, do hereby designate as a day of general thanksgiving Thursday  the 28th of this present November, and do recommend that throughout the land the people cease from their wonted occupations, and at their several homes and places of worship reverently thank the Giver of all good for the countless blessings of our national life.

 

1939 by President F. Roosevelt: “More than. three centuries ago at the season of the gathering in of the harvest, the Pilgrims humbly paused in their work and gave thanks to God for the preservation of their community and for the abundant yield of the soil. A century and a half later, after the new Nation had been formed, and the charter of government, the Constitution of the Republic, had received the assent of the States, President Washington and his successors invited the people of the Nation to lay down their tasks one day in the year and give thanks for the blessings that had been granted them by Divine Providence. It is fitting that we should continue this hallowed custom and select a day in 1939 to be dedicated to reverent thoughts of thanksgiving.”

1977 by President Carter: “Upon learning of the American victory at Saratoga in 1777, Samuel Adams composed the first National Thanksgiving proclamation, and the Continental Congress called upon the governors of every state to designate a day when all Americans could join together and express their gratitude for God's providence "with united hearts." By their actions they extended a revered regional custom into a national tradition. Precisely two centuries have now passed since that time. We have tamed a continent, established institutions dedicated to protecting our liberties, and secured a place of leadership among nations. But we have never lost sight of the principles upon which our Nation was founded. For that reason we can look to the future with hope and confidence.” 
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