|
|
A Patriot Thanksgiving
22 November 2005
Federalist Patriot No. 05-47
Thanksgiving
Manage Your Subscription: To change your e-mail address, select editions and
formats, view recent archives, send comments or to unsubscribe, Link to --
http://FederalistPatriot.US/services.asp
Visit the Patriot Shop: http://PatriotShop.US/
Archival Format
Link to -- http://FederalistPatriot.US/current2004a.asp
THE FOUNDATION
"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance,
bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity,
if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest
posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of
liberty, property, religion, and independence." ---Justice Joseph Story
GIVING THANKS ... FOR HIS SIGNAL AND MANIFOLD MERCIES
"Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to
Him and praise His name. For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His
faithfulness continues through all generations." (Psalm 100:4-5)
Why is America such a blessed land? Some point to its bountiful resources, its
vast and glorious expanses. Others point to that which is inspired by these
geographical gifts---the freedom, the entrepreneurial spirit, the economic and
technological wonderment. Still others, however, would note the rancor and
recrimination that currently poison our political discourse---and argue
forcefully that this country is blessed no more.
Were we to field the question, we would answer it differently, for we believe
our nation to be so heaped over with blessings that only the most jaded would
deny our indebtedness to Almighty God for His continuing favor. Pressed further,
we would say that America is blessed not so that we should thank God, but
blessed because we have, continually, from our earliest days on this continent,
given thanks to God and humbly sought ever-better to follow His precepts.
Consider this history: Though the "First Thanksgiving" by name was in the
Virginia Colony in 1607, our Thanksgiving heritage has its roots with the
Pilgrims' three-day feast in early November of 1621.
The Pilgrims were Puritans, Calvinist Protestants who rejected the institutional
Church of England. After a brief, ill-starred sojourn in Holland, the Pilgrims
left Plymouth, England, on 6 September 1620, sailing for a new world that
offered the promise of both civil and religious liberty. For almost three
months, 102 hardy seafarers braved the bitter elements to arrive off the coast
of what is now Massachusetts, in late November of that year.
On 11 December, prior to disembarking at Plymouth Rock, the voyagers signed the
"Mayflower Compact," often cited as America's original document of civil
government and the first to introduce self-government. While still anchored at
Provincetown harbor, their Pastor John Robinson counseled, "You are become a
body politic...and are to have only them for your...governors which yourselves
shall make choice of."
Governor William Bradford described the Mayflower Compact as "a combination made
by them before they came ashore...occasioned partly by the discontented and
mutinous speeches that some of the strangers amongst them had let fall... That
when they came a shore they would use their owne libertie; for none had power to
command them..."
Upon landing in America, the Pilgrims conducted a prayer service and then
quickly turned to building shelters. Starvation and sickness during the ensuing
New England winter killed almost half their population. But through prayer, hard
work and the assistance of their Indian friends, the Pilgrims reaped a rich
harvest in the summer of 1621. The settlers knew clearly that their new-world
enterprise sought civil and religious liberties, but, disastrously, under
pressure from investors funding their colony, they reluctantly organized their
efforts communally, holding all fruit of their labors in common so as to send
back half their profits as investment returns. Predictably, their work yielded
little success, and Plymouth Colony was in danger of foundering after two years.
Governor William Bradford recorded the following in his history of the colony:
"At length, after much debate of things, the Governor (with the advice of the
chiefest amongst them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own
particular, and in that regard trust to themselves; in all other things to go in
the general way as before. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land,
according to the proportion of their number."
The Plymouth Colony's first Thanksgiving to God was celebrated during the summer
of 1623, when the colonists declared a Thanksgiving holiday after their crops
were saved by much-needed rainfall. The reorganization of their labors toward
ownership and property rights set them on the proper path to reaping continual
rewards. Families working together primarily for their own betterment were
freer---and were better able to pay off the investors.
As the Plymouth Pilgrims' experience clearly demonstrated, a governing body
steeped in liberty and virtue is the sole sure guarantor of private property,
family security and preservation of freedom.
By the mid-17th Century, the custom of autumnal Thanksgivings was established
throughout New England. Observance of Thanksgiving Festivals spread to other
colonies during the American Revolution, and the Continental Congresses,
cognizant of the need for a warring country's continuing grateful entreaties to
God, proclaimed yearly Thanksgiving days during the Revolutionary War, from 1777
to 1783.
Our new nation's first official Thanksgiving Proclamation, issued by the
revolutionary Continental Congress on 1 November 1777, expressed gratitude for
the colonials' October victory over British General Burgoyne at Saratoga.
Authored by Samuel Adams, the man the other Founders turned to for reasoned
statements of liberties as God's blessings, it read in part: "Forasmuch as it is
the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of
Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to Him for benefits
received...together with penitent confession of their sins, whereby they had
forfeited every favor; and their humble and earnest supplications that it may
please God through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot
them out of remembrance...it is therefore recommended...to set apart Thursday
the eighteenth day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that
with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feeling of
their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine
Benefactor...acknowledging with gratitude their obligations to Him for benefits
received... To prosper the means of religion, for the promotion and enlargement
of that kingdom which consisteth 'in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost'."
We were at war then, no less than we are now, but do we still offer such special
thanks to God for our battlefield successes, praying for the continued safe
advance of our troops?
To SECURE the blessings of liberty:
Support the 2005 Patriot
Fund:
http://FederalistPatriot.US/support/
In one of the first acts of the new constitutional government, our Founding
Fathers officially recognized the importance and rectitude of a day for citizens
to come together giving God thanks for our nation's blessings. After adopting
the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, Congress approved a motion for
proclamation of a national day of thanksgiving. Both chambers of Congress asked
President George Washington "to recommend to the people of the United States a
day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with
grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God, especially by
affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for
their safety and happiness."
Washington thereby set his signature to the first day of thanks for the
liberties enshrined in our new Constitution, by writing as follows:
"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty
God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore
His protection and favor...
"Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th 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
enabled 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
favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
"And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and
supplication to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon
our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or
private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and
punctually; to render our national government a blessing to all the people by
constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly
and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and
nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with
good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of
true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and,
generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He
alone knows to be best.
"Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, AD 1789."
As president, John Adams followed the custom of declaring national days of
thanks, and James Madison called for three national observances of fasting and
grateful prayer for deliverance during the War of 1812. (In light of this, we
can't help but wonder what Madison, the Father of our nation's Constitution,
would have made of the notion that school prayer is un-constitutional.) But in a
foretaste of the impermissibility that current-day secularizers attach to the
acknowledgment of God as Provider of our country's blessings, Thomas Jefferson
and John Quincy Adams refused to continue the practice of proclaiming a day of
national thanksgiving.
Ironically, on the south bank of Washington's Tidal Basin, etched in the marble
of the Jefferson Memorial, is our third president's immutable admonition about
the origin of liberty: "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties
of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are
the gift of God?" Surely, they cannot, as history would soon prove out.
After 1815, there were no further annual Thanksgiving proclamations until our
country was imperiled from the Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln declared 26
November 1863 a Day of Thanksgiving, calling for prayer and thanksgiving for the
nation, and saying in part, "[It is] announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven
by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord... It has
seemed to me fit and proper that...[God's blessings] should be solemnly,
reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the
whole American people."
For the following 75 years, every subsequent president repeated that
proclamation, until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving Day to a
week earlier than had been tradition, to lengthen the growing pre-Christmas
consumer frenzy. Two years later, Congress returned the celebration to its
traditional date and permanently set the fourth Thursday of each November as our
official national Thanksgiving. Alas, we've come to commemorate the holiday with
a near-perfunctory acknowledgment.
Indeed, by this Thanksgiving, after 40 years of secularization, our nation has
strayed far from the soul-deep thankfulness toward our Lord expressed by our
first countrymen and generations after them. How, then, can we recover and
properly bend our grateful hearts toward God in 2005?
To begin, we must seek to restore the bedrock of liberty and democracy, the
family. Recent contention has followed the adage, "It takes a village to raise a
child." The unspoken portion of this aphorism implies that the goal of
child-rearing is forming good inhabitants of "the village." But this can't
account for our national heritage, our history of remarkable challenges overcome
by outstanding leaders and Patriot citizens.
More astute analysts would argue that it takes a family to raise a child. And
while that is certainly close to the truth, it still does not offer a complete
account. We would submit that it takes a family imbued in thanksgiving---and not
only for raising good children, but also for everything in a decent and just
society.
We must therefore confront those whose intent it is to turn
our country into a secular utopist commune, where public religious exercise is
forsworn and relegated to individual private spheres. These secularists, of
course, face an insurmountable fact: Public observances of thanksgiving declared
by government leaders have been the hallmark of our nation since its inception.
Indeed, so long as our nation observes a Thanksgiving holiday, two irrepressibly
logical questions will accompany it: Thanksgiving for what? And to Whom?
For citizens, participation is noncompulsory---each may freely choose whether to
give honor and gratitude to God, as respect for liberty of conscience
requires---but not for our country if we wish to remain a land of liberty.
Here, then, we are left to ponder: What is the wellspring of thanksgiving?
Scripture tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Likewise, humility before our Heavenly Father plants the seeds of gratitude. We
often describe our national character as based on self-reliance, but that is
only so insofar as we acknowledge that our ultimate reliance is on Almighty God.
Our successes are not by military might, not by our firepower, but by His
blessing. What the Pilgrims, the Revolutionaries and the Founders sought was
liberty---but most of all religious liberty. More than merely an adjunct or
afterthought to our manifold freedoms, our forbears knew that religious liberty
is the centerpiece of freedom: A nation that freely gives thanks is a nation
that will remain free.
"Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving..."
(Psalms 147:7)
On behalf of our National Advisory Board and your Patriot staff, we wish God's
blessing and peace upon you and your families this Thanksgiving.
Semper Vigilo, Paratus, et Fidelis!
Mark Alexander
The Right Gifts For All the Patriots on Your List This Year! Visit the Patriot
Shop: http://PatriotShop.US/
Visit our Children's Thanksgiving
Quiz (http://FederalistPatriot.US/news/thanks.asp).
Permission granted to reprint or forward this edition of The Patriot.
(Publisher's Note: Regarding our Thanksgiving edition, as with our Easter and
Christmas editions, we take leave from the rigors of research and analysis of
contemporaneous news, policy and opinion in order to focus on an eternal
message, indeed a Christian message. To our Patriot readers of faiths other than
Christianity, we hope that this edition serves to deepen your understanding of
our faith---the faith of our Founders.)
To our Patriot readers: Our annual 2005 Annual
Fund (https://secure.PatriotPost.US/support/) campaign is under way. We raise
almost 50 percent of our budget in the last two months of each year, and still
need to raise $207,690 before yearend.
If you have not already done so, please take a moment to support The Patriot
today by making a contribution to our 2005 Annual Fund (https://secure.PatriotPost.US/support/)---however
large or small.
If you prefer to support us by mail,
please use our Donor Support
Form (https://secure.PatriotPost.US/support/mailprint.asp).
"Our fathers' God, to thee, Author of liberty, To Thee we sing; Long may our
land be bright With freedom's holy light: Protect us by Thy might, Great God,
our King."---Samuel Francis Smith
Lex et Libertas---Semper Vigilo, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher,
for the editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in
harm's way around the world in defense of our liberty, and for the families
awaiting their safe return.)
*Publius*
VISIT THE PATRIOT ON THE WEB: http://FederalistPatriot.US
SUBSCRIBE: The Federalist Patriot is FREE by E-mail! To get your own
subscription, link to -- http://FederalistPatriot.US/subscribe/
or if you don't have Web access, send a blank e-mail to: <mailto:subscribe@FederalistPatriot.US>
(The Patriot is available in print for $345/year. For more information, send a
message to <mailto:hardcopy@FederalistPatriot.US>)
TRIAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: Send The Patriot to your friends and associates! Link to --
http://FederalistPatriot.US/addmultiple.asp (Privacy
Notice: We do NOT release any information on our users or subscribers to any
third party under any circumstances, nor do we accept any
advertising.)
REPRINT AND FORWARD POLICY: Subscribers may reprint or forward The Patriot, in
whole or part. If reprinting, please include the citation "The Federalist
Patriot (FederalistPatriot.US)" in accordance with our Subscriber/User
Disclaimer. For questions, contact our legal department at <Legal@FederalistPatriot.US>.
COMMENTS: Replies to this e-mail are automatically deleted. To read or submit
comments for publication, link to http://FederalistPatriot.US/comments.asp
USEFUL PATRIOT LINKS: http://FederalistPatriot.US/news/useful_links.asp
TO SUPPORT THE 2005 PATRIOT FUND ONLINE:
Link to our Secure Commerce Page at -- http://FederalistPatriot.US/Support.asp
TO SUPPORT THE 2005 PATRIOT FUND BY MAIL:
Recommended Operation Support Levels:
Family Defender: $26 (50c/week)
Frontline Patriot: $39 (75c/week)
Company Command: $52 ($1/week)
Recommended Mission Support Levels:
Battalion Command: $100
Regiment Command: $250
Division Command: $500
Corps Command: $1000
Send your contribution to:
The Patriot Annual Fund
P.O. Box 507
Chattanooga, TN 37401-0507
(Please make your check payable to "The Patriot Annual Fund", and please note
your e-mail address on the memo line so we can credit your contribution to your
subscriber account, and so our publisher can thank you. Include a
self-addressed, stamped #10 [10" business] envelope with your donation, and we
will send you our trademark slogans "Veritas vos Liberabit" [the Truth will set
you free], "Annoy a Liberal," "PatriotHomeland.US" and other great stickers.)
PRIVACY POLICY: http://FederalistPatriot.US/main/privacy.asp
"FRUIT FROM THE TREE OF LIBERTY"
The Federalist Patriot is protected speech pursuant to the "inalienable rights"
of all men, and the First (and Second) Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States of America.
In God we trust.
Copyright (C) 2005 Publius Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
---
[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude on http://www.intent.net hosted
Email]
|
