This year I will focus on the proclamation of 1779 (for the complete text, see here). According to historian Robert Middlekauff, the year 1779 "saw few great events in America, or in Britain for that matter" (The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789, pp. 441-442). Perhaps the most significant event of 1779 occurred near the end of that year, when on December 26 a large British force departed by sea from New York City, with Charleston, South Carolina as its destination. By late spring of the following year, that British force would take control of Charleston after a siege of several months, capturing much of the Continental army in the South. This would be a major disaster for the American cause. However, when the Thanksgiving proclamation of 1779 was issued, all of that was all in the future.
The 1779 proclamation recommended that the various states designate Thursday, December 9 as "a day of public and solemn thanksgiving to Almighty God for his mercies, and of prayer for the continuance of his favor and protection of these United States." Note that the day of thanksgiving was to be celebrated in December, not November--this would be customary for most of the Congressional thanksgiving proclamations of this period. It is also interesting--given all the controversary about how "Christian" the founding of the United States was--that among those things for which the proclamation offered thanks was that God "hath diffused the glorious light of the gospel, whereby, by the merits of our gracious Redeemer, we may become the heirs of his eternal glory."
Also striking is the fact that the proclamation calls for prayer that God "would take into his holy protection our illustrious ally, give him victory over his enemies, and render him signally great, as the father of his people and the protector of the rights of mankind." This is a reference to King Louis XVI of France, who had allied his country with the newly independent United States against the British the year before. It is quite extraordinary that the almost solidly Protestant Americans, who had long viewed "papists" as their mortal enemies, should ask for God's favor upon the king of France, a Catholic. Moreover, describing the French king as "the protector of the rights of mankind" seems extremely ironic, given that a decade or so later the French Revolution would demonstrate that the French people as a whole did not view the king as the protector of their rights.
Nevertheless, even though we may not agree with every sentiment expressed in the Continental Congress's 1779 proclamation, those of us who are citizens of the United States can certainly join with them this day in offering "solemn thanksgiving to God for his mercies" and in praying for our nation. May you have a happy Thanksgiving!
Image: "The Rev. David Duche Offers the First Prayers for the Continental Congress" by Tompkins Harrison Matteson, from Wikimedia Commons