Governor King's First Thanksgiving Day Proclamation Sprague's Journal of Maine History. Vol. VIII Special Number, June 1920 No. 1. page 80-81 Governor King's First Thanksgiving Day Proclamation Whereas, it is the duty of rational beings to acknowledge the wisdom of the Creator, and the beneficence of his Providence; it is therefore no less the dictate of reason than piety to worship that Supreme Power and perfect Goodness, which ordains in wisdom the diversified conditions of men. Yet more emphatically it is the duty of a people in whose condition, like that of the citi- zens of the State, a benevolent Providence has been pleased to grant so many favors, with so few of the evils, which usually fall to the lot of man, publicly and unitedly to acknowledge, by every expression of grateful veneration, the mercies of that Being, who has distinguished them by such peculiar and signal favors. I therefore, William King, by the advise of the Council, and in conformity with the usage of our ancestors, who have left us so many examples of mortal wisdom and rational piety, do appoint Thursday, the thirtieth day of November next, to be observed by the good citizens of this State, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise; and I do exhort them to assemble in their respective places of public worship, and to unite in devout ascriptions of praise to that' Providence which has signalized them by so many favors;-- That we are Blessed with a system of government, founded on the natural rights of man, and wisely adopted to maintain the peace and order of society, to preserve our liberties, to promote the general happiness and to diffuse the advantages of education and useful knowledge among all ranks of people. That with the inestimable blessings of a pure and holy faith, we enjoy the advantages of religious freedom and universal tolera- tion; and the various religious sects divide from each other it, their speculation abstruse points of theology, uncontrolled by any power but that to which they all owe obedience, all may unite under the great moral precepts of religion, in the harmony of Christian love! That while we see other nations involved in alarming confusion, and divided into acrimonious factions by the domestic dissentions of their rulers, or struggling with generous devotion to repair the mischief of a long period of hereditary mis- rule, or reclaiming with violence the rights, which had been by 'violence usurped, and laying the foundation of civil liberty and national prosperity, in the tears and blood of the brave and the good we behold in this country a people prosperous in their indus- try and happy under rulers of their choice, and laws of their own making, and in the midst of present tranquillity, gladden with a prospect of a lengthened period of happiness and repose. That while other nations, and some of our sister states, have been during the present year, visited with distressing and deso- lating sickness, to the people of this state it has been a season of general health; That the treasures of the great deep have rewarded the diligence of our fishermen; that commerce, left free to the enterprise of our merchants, and wisely regulated as it relates to foreign nations, has been prosecuted with increasing success; and that the labors of the husbandman have by a fruitful and salubrious season, been crowned with plenty. And while, our grateful recollections on the undeserved mercies which we have received, may we not forget that all human virtue, like all human happiness, is imperfect; may we humble ourselves before the perfection's of that Being, whom we have so often offended, and with praise for his manifold kindnesses, join our fer- vent supplications that we may in the future so live as to be more worthy of his favor; and that by uniting to the virtues of good citizens of this State may continue to bring down on themselves the blessings of that Providence which has hitherto distinguished them among the nations of the world by such peculiar mercies. Given at the Council Chamber in Portland, this second day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty; and in the forty-fifth year of the independence of the United States of America. WILLIAM KING. By the Governor, Ashur Ware, Secretary of State. 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