by Tom Stilp JD, MBA/MM, LLM, MSC, DBA, November 26, 2025
The first myth about Thanksgiving is that it has been a holiday since the founding of our Country. For decades (1776 to 1863), Thanksgiving was not a holiday. On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln issued a proclamation designating “the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving.” The Proclamation consists of five (5) paragraphs. The civil war constantly weighed heavily on Lincoln’s Administration, as this excerpt of the Proclamation shows:
“In the midst of a civil war of unequalled 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; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. . . . It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving[.]” (Whitehouse archives, 2025)
According to the National Park Service archives, Lincoln issued the proclamation, but he did not author it (Archives.gov, 2025). Secretary of State William Seward wrote the October 1863 proclamation (Op Cit).
We would be remiss in failing to note the First Thanksgiving story emphasizes a peaceful exchange between the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Tribe in 1620, but that peace was short-lived (National Archives, 2025). Within a generation, war would erupt and the Wampanoag would ultimately lose their political independence and territory (Op Cit).
The second myth is that the turkey could have been the national symbol. This story originates from a personal letter Franklin wrote to his daughter, Sarah Bache, on January 26, 1784 (Google, 2025). In the letter, Franklin criticized the design of a medal for the Society of the Cincinnati which featured an eagle (Op Cit). He argued that the bald eagle was a bird of “bad moral Character” because it is a scavenger and a “rank Coward”; in contrast, Franklin praised the turkey as “a much more respectable Bird” (The Franklin Institute, 2025). But two years before, Congress had already approved the Great Seal featuring the bald eagle in June 1782 (Google, 2025) and, therefore, the turkey was never a serious contender.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
References
https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/benjamin-franklin/national-bird#
https://visit.archives.gov/whats-on/explore-exhibits/thanksgiving-historical-perspectives
Part of this article was written with the assistance of AI: https://www.google.com/searchq=ben+franklin+turkey+national+bird&oq=ben+franklin+turkey
https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/lincoln-and-thanksgiving.htm
