Proclamation 2864—Thanksgiving Day, 1949

In accordance with our cherished custom, let us pause from our labors for one day in this autumnal season and offer prayers of thanks to the Divine Giver of our bounty.

We are grateful for the plentiful harvests of our fields, for the abundance of goods produced by our industries, and for the multitude of spiritual blessings which enrich our lives.

We are thankful that our resources enable us to aid the peoples of other countries in the furtherance of economic well-being and security.

We deeply appreciate the strength of our democratic institutions and the preservation of those ideals of liberty and justice which form the basis of national stability and international peace. The times demand more than the wisdom of man can provide. There should be in the hearts of all good men and true a realization that as the Psalmist said: "There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength." Humbly grateful for these benefactions, may we add to our prayers of thanksgiving a plea for divine guidance of the leaders of our Nation and the leaders of all other nations in their efforts to promote peace and freedom for all men.

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, having in mind the joint congressional resolution of December 26, 1941, which made the fourth Thursday in November a legal holiday, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 24, 1949, as Thanksgiving Day, and I urge all citizens to observe the day with reverence. Let us, on the appointed day, in our homes and in our accustomed places of worship, give thanks to Almighty God for the blessings which have signalized our lot as a Nation, and let us ask for the gift of wisdom in our striving for a better world.

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 10th day of November in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-fourth.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

JAMES E. WEBB,

Acting Secretary of State.