The Revolutionary War was behind them. The young nation established a new government. Leaders wrote a new United States Constitution. The nation elected its first president. Peace reigned again.

New Jersey Representative Elias Boudinot asked Congress to pass a resolution requesting that President George Washington declare a thanksgiving observance.

Congress passed the resolution. President Washington agreed.

On October 3, 1789, Washington issued a proclamation. Thursday, November 26, 1789 was to be a national day of thanks to God. He reminded Americans that the Almighty’s care and provision had led them through the Revolution and helped them establish a new government and Constitution.

Washington sent the proclamation to state governors, requesting they announce the observance to their citizens. Newspapers printed the announcement.

Public celebrations and church services marked that Thanksgiving day.  Washington attended a church in New York city, St. Paul’s Chapel. He remembered those who were imprisoned for debts in the city by giving them food and beer.

The proclamation did not establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Though Washington and other presidents declared days of Thanksgiving from time to time, Lincoln was the one to set aside an annual observance of the day.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Source

Byron, T.K. Ph.D. “Thanksgiving,” Mount Vernon, 2017/10/30 http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/thanksgiving/.