Proclamation 4255—Thanksgiving Day, 1973

In the first Thanksgiving, man affirmed his determination to live in God’s grace and to act in God’s will on the shores of a new land of promise. In this Thanksgiving season we reaffirm that determination.

Time has not dimmed, not circumstance diminished the need for God’s hand in all that America may justly endeavor. In times of trial and of triumph that single truth reasserts itself, and a people who have never bowed before men go gladly to their knees in submission to divine power, and in thanks for divine sustenance.

On this Thanksgiving Day we mark the 10th anniversary of the tragic death of President John F. Kennedy. As we give thanks for the bounty and goodness of our land, therefore, let us also pause to reflect on President Kennedy’s contributions to the life of this Nation we love so dearly.

Those who celebrated the first thanksgiving had endured hardship and loss, but they kept alive their hope and their faith. Throughout our history, each generation has endured hardship and loss, but our faith and trust in God’s providence has remained undiminished. At this first thanksgiving in twelve years in which the United States will have been at peace, we see that God’s grace also remain undiminished. For this we give thanks.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States of America, in accordance with the wish of the Congress as expressed in Section 6103 of Title 5 of the United States Code, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 22, 1973, as a day of national thanksgiving, and concurrently, a day of prayer for the memory of John F. Kennedy. Let all Americans unite on this day, giving thanks for the manifold blessings vouchsafed our people, and inviting all of those less fortunate than ourselves to share in those blessings in God’s name, for His sake, and for our own.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-eighth.

RICHARD NIXON