This is the 1863 Autumn Thanksgiving Proclamation which is the beginning of our official holiday (Note: this is not the first thanksgiving proclamation. Proclamations go back to 1777 and the Continental Congress but this is the speech from the inauguration of the Thanksgiving Holiday). 

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has so…