President Coolidge, on the 5th of November one hundred years ago, released the first of six Thanksgiving proclamations published during his five and a half years in office. Just over three months since succeeding upon the death of President Harding and two months after the traumatic earthquake in Japan, the Chief Executive was already proving his strength of leadership. He had not yet addressed Congress with the first of his annual messages (that would follow in December), but — in a substantial way — this was his first message to the nation. He did not disappoint as an effective communicator and his proclamation was shared at Thanksgiving gatherings, church services, and a broad range of organizational meetings large and small across the vast United States. For many, these were the first words most Americans read from their President since the shocking death of the previous POTUS that summer. His words, carefully composed, still resonate one hundred years later:

“The American people, from their earliest days, have observed the wise custom of acknowledging each year the bounty with which divine Providence has favored them. In the beginnings, this acknowledgment was a voluntary return of thanks by the community for the fruitfulness of the harvest. Though our mode of life has greatly changed, this custom has always survived. It has made thanksgiving day not only one of the oldest but one of the most characteristic observances of our country. On that day, in home and church, in family and public gatherings, the whole nation has for generations paid the tribute due from grateful hearts for blessings bestowed.

“To center our thought in this way upon the favor which we have been shown has been altogether wise and desirable. It has given opportunity justly to balance the good and the evil which we have experienced. In that we have never failed to find reasons for being grateful to God for a generous preponderance of the good. Even in the least propitious times, a broad contemplation of our whole position has never failed to disclose overwhelming reasons for thankfulness. Thus viewing our situation, we have found warrant for a more hopeful and confident attitude toward the future...

“…We have been blessed with much of material prosperity. We shall be better able to appreciate it if we remember the privations others have suffered, and we shall be the more worthy of it if we use it for their relief. We will do well then to render thanks for the good that has come to us, and show by our actions that we have become stronger, wiser, and truer by the chastenings which have been imposed upon us. We will thus prepare ourselves for the part we must take in a world which forever needs the full measure of service. We have been a most favored people. We ought to be a most generous people. We have been a most blessed people. We ought to be a most thankful people.“

Gratitude is the appropriate response to our circumstance as a people and a nation. What we have been given necessitates a generosity for what we should bestow upon others. Coolidge understood this well, articulating potently the principle that to whom much is given, all the more is required.

‘Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God‘ (2 Corinthians 9.10-11, NKJV).

Happy Thanksgiving to all this 2023!