Proclamation 1895—Thanksgiving Day, 1929

At this season of the year, when the harvest had been gathered in, the thoughts of our forefathers turned toward God with thanksgiving for the blessings of plenty and provision against the needs of winter. They came by custom to look to the Chief Magistrate to set apart a day of prayer and praise whereon their thanks as a united people might be given with one voice in unison. God has greatly blessed us as a nation in the year now drawing to a close. The earth has yielded an abundant harvest in most parts of our country. The fruits of industry have been of unexampled quantity and value. Both capital and labor have enjoyed an exceptional prosperity.

Assurances of peace, at home and abroad, have been strengthened and enlarged. Progress has been made in provision against preventable disasters from flood and pestilence. Enlightenment has grown apace in new revelations of scientific truth and in diffusion of knowledge. Educational opportunities have steadily enlarged. Enduring advances have been gained in the protection of the public health. Childhood is measurably more secure. New experience and new knowledge in many fields have been recorded, from which a deeper wisdom may grow. We should accept these blessings with resolution to devote them to service of Almighty God.

Now, Therefore, I, Herbert Hoover, President of the United States of America, do appoint and set aside Thursday, the twenty-eighth day of November, as a day of National Thanksgiving, and do recommend that all our people on that day rest from their daily work that they should extend to others less fortunately placed, a share in their abundance, and that they gather at their accustomed places of worship, there to render up thanks to Almighty God for His many blessings upon them, for His forbearance and goodness.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the great seal of the United States.

Done at the City of Washington, this 5th day of November, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States, the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth.

HERBERT HOOVER