Proclamation 2260—Thanksgiving Day, 1937

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

I, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, President of the United States of America, hereby designate Thursday, the twenty-fifth day of November 1937 as a day of national thanksgiving.

The custom of observing a day of public thanksgiving began in Colonial times and has been given the sanction of national observance through many years. It is in keeping with all of our traditions that we, even as our fathers in olden days, give humble and hearty thanks for the bounty and the goodness of Divine Providence.

The harvests of our fields have been abundant and many men and women have been given the blessing of stable employment.

A period unhappily marked in many parts of the world by strife and threats of war finds our people enjoying the blessing of peace. We have no selfish designs against other nations.

We have been fortunate in devoting our energies and our resources to constructive purposes and useful works. We have sought to fulfill our obligation to use our national heritage by common effort for the common good.

Let us, therefore, on the day appointed forego our usual occupations and, in our accustomed places of worship, each in his own way, humbly acknowledge the mercy of God from whom comes every good and perfect gift.

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

Done at the City of Washington this ninth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and thirty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-second.

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

By the President:
SUMMER WELLES
Acting Secretary of State.