Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation delivers powerful message to a divided America

Amid a potentially nation-annihilating war that threatened to tear America to shreds, President Abraham Lincoln faced a truly excruciating catastrophe. And while he could have buckled under the seemingly insuperable weight of uncertainty or allowed the fiery coals of rage to consume him, America’s 16th president chose another path: thanksgiving. 

Just months after the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg — a scourge that left 50,000 Americans slaughtered in the heat of the Civil War — Lincoln issued a historic Thanksgiving Proclamation. That reflective call to gratitude has widely been seen...