He believed that appropriate expressions of thankfulness for the beauty and great abundance of the newly emerging Nation must be directed to the Almighty. Said Lincoln:

The year that is drawing to a close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthy skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are so extraordinary in nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart, which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

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 a part and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent father who dweleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due Him for such singular deliverance and blessings, they also with humble penitence for our national perverseness’ and disobedience, command to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the inevitable civil strife in which we unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the Nation and restore it as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes to full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

The thought of a day set aside and celebrated by the Nation as a whole and named “Thanksgiving” is still a powerful force even during these times of religious plurality and extreme secularism. Is Thanksgiving a religious holiday? Most certainly! Thanksgiving was set aside by President Lincoln and the Congress of the United States so that all Americans could gather together in their own way, and offer “thanks” to an unknown or unnamed God for the many blessings bestowed upon this great Nation and each of us.