President Adams on Thanksgiving, Humiliation, Prayer, and Fasting

I want to offer the full text of the first of two Thanksgiving proclamations issued by our second President, John Adams. This one is from 1798. It reflects a very different attitude than the America in which I have lived.

As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness can not exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed; and as this duty, at all times incumbent, is so especially in seasons of difficulty or of danger, when existing or threatening calamities, the just judgments of God against prevalent iniquity, are a loud call to repentance and reformation; and as the United States of America are at present placed in a hazardous and afflictive situation by the unfriendly disposition, conduct, and demands of a foreign power, evinced by repeated refusals to receive our messengers of reconciliation and peace, by depredations on our commerce, and the infliction of injuries on very many of our fellow-citizens while engaged in their lawful business on the seas – under these considerations it has appeared to me that the duty of imploring the mercy and benediction of Heaven on our country demands at this time a special attention from its inhabitants. I have therefore thought fit to recommend, and I do hereby recommend, that Wednesday, the 9th day of May next, be observed throughout the United States as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that the citizens of these States, abstaining on that day from their customary worldly occupations, offer their devout addresses to the Father of Mercies agreeably to those forms or methods which they have severally adopted as the most suitable and becoming; that all religious congregations do, with the deepest humility, acknowledge before God the manifold sins and transgressions with which we are justly chargeable as individuals and as a nation, beseeching Him at the same time, of His infinite grace, through the Redeemer of the World, freely to remit all our offenses, and to incline us by His Holy Spirit to that sincere repentance and reformation which may afford us reason to hope for his inestimable favor and heavenly benediction; that it be made the subject of particular and earnest supplication that our country may be protected from all the dangers which threaten it; that our civil and religious privileges may be preserved inviolate and perpetuated to the latest generations; that our public councils and magistrates may be especially enlightened and directed at this critical period; that the American people may be united in those bonds of amity and mutual confidence and inspired with that vigor and fortitude by which they have in times past been so highly distinguished and by which they have obtained such invaluable advantages; that the health of the inhabitants of our land may be preserved, and their agriculture, commerce, fisheries, arts, and manufactures be blessed and prospered; that the principles of genuine piety and sound morality may influence the minds and govern the lives of every description of our citizens and that the blessings of peace, freedom, and pure religion may be speedily extended to all the nations of the earth. And finally, I recommend that on the said day the duties of humiliation and prayer be accompanied by fervent thanksgiving to the Bestower of Every Good Gift, not only for His having hitherto protected and preserved the people of these United States in the independent enjoyment of their religious and civil freedom, but also for having prospered them in a wonderful progress of population, and for conferring on them many and great favors conducive to the happiness and prosperity of a nation. Given under my hand the seal of the United States of America, at Philadelphia, this 23d day of March, A.D. 1798, and of the Independence of the said States the twenty second. By the President : JOHN ADAMS.

If I recall my quasi-war history properly, I believe that the "foreign power" that was giving us the trouble referenced in the first paragraph was France, which had been so indispensable to our victory in the Revolutionary War.

More importantly, though, I am impressed by the call for something other than, to be frank, the gluttonous feast that I associate with Thanksgiving in my America. A call to fasting, prayer, humiliation, and repentance, for "the manifold sins and transgressions with which we are justly chargeable as individuals and as a nation," seems like a message from another world.

If you are interested, you can read all of the Thanksgiving proclamations from 1789 (Washington) to 1815 (Madison) at this webpage maintained by Pilgrim Hall Museum. There are links to the subsequent years here.

I appreciate Pilgrim Hall Museum for providing this information, though I do have a criticism about their document. The title that they inserted above the proclamation quoted above was (bold caps in their original):

A DAY OF FASTING & HUMILIATION (NOT THANKSGIVING!) 1798 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES - A PROCLAMATION

I consider this description to be inaccurate. The end of President Adams's proclamation clearly states (my added bolding):

And finally, I recommend that on the said day the duties of humiliation and prayer be accompanied by fervent thanksgiving to the Bestower of Every Good Gift . . .

Perhaps there was a time in America when people did not believe that prayer, fasting, humiliation, and repentance were inconsistent with Thanksgiving. At least, we once had a President who so believed.

I am not planning to require my family to submit to a day of fasting. I've bought everything that we need for the feast, and will be the principal cook myself. I don't think that this is wrong.

But perhaps we should consider a day of fasting and prayer, too. Lord knows we need His mercy and protection, undeserving as we are, "as individuals and as a nation."

God bless us, every one.