We are thankful for all of you who work in Intensive Family Preservation Services and make a difference in the lives of children and families.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln, in a speech expressing gratitude for the Union Army’s victory at Gettysburg, announced that the nation would celebrate an official Thanksgiving Holiday on the 4th Thursday of November.

In his proclamation on October 3, 1863, President Lincoln said:

“The year that is drawing towards 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 cannot 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 sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict…

Read his complete speech here:

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm

Posted by Peg Marckworth, Priscilla Martens and Charlotte Booth