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“for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness... for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge”
On October 3, 1789, the day after sending engrossed copies of the 12 Constitutional amendments passed by Congress out to the states for ratification, Washington issued America’s first Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation. Both the Thanksgiving Proclamation and the Bill of Rights are printed here on the front page. This exceptional paper also includes a complete printing of “An Act to establish the Treasury Department” [p.1-2], and a September 10 report from North Carolina supporting the ratification of the Constitution now that passage of a bill of rights seemed likely: “The amendments... will undoubtedly satisfy the minds of all its [the Constitution’s] enemies. Not a door is left open for complaint....It is an almost unparalleled instance of a public body possessed of power abridging it, and fully contradicts the grand argument of the opponents of the Constitution, that, ‘if Congress are once possessed of the power vested in the Constitution, they never will relinquish or amend it conformable to our wishes’.” [p. 2 col. 1]. The Chronicle also reports from New York that President Washington was about to embark on his famous tour of New England [p. 2, col. 3].
[GEORGE WASHINGTON].
Newspaper.
The United States Chronicle. Providence, R.I.: Bennett Wheeler, October 22, 1789. 4 pp., 10 ½ x 17 in. With masthead featuring the seal of the United States and the fouled anchor “Hope” device of the state of Rhode Island.
Inventory #23813
SOLD — please inquire about other items
Partial Transcript
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war--for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my Hand, at the City of New=York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. GEORGE WASHINGTON
[The old style printing of the “s” as an “f” is transcribed in the modern style for ease of reading.]
Historical Background
On September 25, 1789, as the momentous first Federal Congress drew to its close in New York, the new national capital, Representative Elias Boudinot introduced a resolution calling on President Washington to “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer … acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.” A leading opponent of the resolution, Thomas Tudor Tucker, asked, “Why should the President direct the people to do what, perhaps, they have no mind to do?” The skeptical Congressman noted that the people “may not be inclined to return thanks for a Constitution until they have experienced that it promotes their safety and happiness.” He also argued that it was a religious matter and thus proscribed to the new government. South Carolina Representative Aedanus Burke balked at the idea of a federally-imposed day of thanks, stating he “did not like this mimicking of European customs, where they made a mere mockery of thanksgivings.” Despite opposition, Boudinot and his colleagues in the House passed the resolution. The Senate concurred on September 28.
Later that day, after months of discussion and debate, the House examined the final text of the proposed amendments, and “found the said bills and articles of amendment…to be truly enrolled.” Frederick Muhlenberg, Speaker of the House, and John Adams, Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate, added their signatures to engrossed copies which were sent to the President to forward to the states for ratification. (The first two articles were not ratified at the time, so articles three through twelve actually became the Bill or Rights upon Virginia’s approval on December 15, 1790.) The First Federal Congress adjourned the next day.
George Washington had anticipated the question of a Thanksgiving Proclamation in a letter to James Madison a month earlier; he readily agreed. When doing so, he employed the exact language of the Congressional resolution to begin his proclamation, then went further, giving thanks for “tranquility, union, and plenty” and asking the Almighty to guide the new nation’s leaders and government. He used the same approach a year later when he wrote what is now one of his most celebrated letters. In his letter to the Newport Hebrew Congregation Washington echoed Moses Seixas’s opposition to bigotry and added to it, just as he did in his Thanksgiving Proclamation when asking the Almighty “To render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and Constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed.”
Washington was celebrating two things in his Proclamation: first, that the United States had emerged victorious from a long war with the world’s greatest military power and second, that the nation was just implementing a new government designed to balance necessary powers with strong protections of individual rights. “Peaceably” establishing a new government was worth singling out; it reflected understanding that the danger of disunion had been avoided during the heated debate over the Constitution’s ratification.
Establishing the National Holiday
The American public enthusiastically accepted Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation. Newspapers printed it, citizens celebrated across the country, and churches used the occasion to solicit donations for the poor. George Washington personally responded, contributing $25. In 1795, noting “the unexampled prosperity of all classes of our citizens,” Washington issued his only other Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation, calling on Americans to “acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God and to implore him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience.”
John Adams and James Madison would also issue Thanksgiving Proclamations, but days of Thanksgiving typically remained state holidays. Abraham Lincoln was the next president to issue national Thanksgiving Proclamations. He began by closing government departments for a day in 1861, and in March 1863, he called for a day of “national humiliation, fasting, and prayer.” He issued another, assigning August 6, 1863, as a day of “National Thanksgiving.” Soon after, Lincoln was moved by a letter from Sarah Josepha Hale, who had lobbied the four prior presidents unsuccessfully to make Thanksgiving a third national holiday in addition to Independence Day and Washington’s Birthday. On October 3, 1863, exactly 74 years after George Washington’s Proclamation, Lincoln established the fourth Thursday in November as an annual national day of Thanksgiving.
The Bill of Rights
A Bill of Rights was a central feature of most state Constitutions, and the lack of one was a principal criticism of the recently-drafted federal Constitution. To ensure ratification, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention promised that the Congress would address guarantees of specific liberties in their first session. Additionally, during the ratification process, five states approved the Constitution and passed along lists of proposed amendments. Two states that had refused to ratify (Rhode Island and North Carolina) nonetheless suggested amendments. In all, nearly one hundred discrete amendments were offered.
On July 21, 1789, the House formed a Committee of Eleven (one member from each state—Rhode Island and North Carolina had not yet joined the Union) to consider proposed amendments. The Committee made its report on July 28, taking the nine broad areas Madison had suggested for amendment and drafting 17 individual amendments for House approval. These passed the House on August 24, and the Senate began their debate the next day. The Senate passed its own version with 12 amendments on September 9. Wrangling over language continued for the next two weeks in committee, mostly over what would ultimately become the 1st and 6th Amendments. The House agreed on September 24, the Senate the next day, and the official copies were signed on September 28.
Then, twelve articles of amendment were sent to the states for ratification on October 2, 1789. Two of the twelve proposed amendments, the first regarding apportionment of representation in the House and the second, congressional salaries, were not ratified by the states, so only articles three through twelve became the first ten amendments. However, article #2, which stated that Congressional pay increases (or decreases) would not take effect until an election had ensued, eventually became the 27th Amendment on May 8, 1992, 203 years after it was first proposed.
Excerpt
“The following is an accurate Copy of the proposed Amendments to the new Constitution, transmitted by the President of the United States to the Legislature of this State.
CONGRESS of the UNITED STATES, Begun and held at the City of New-York, in Wednesday, the Fourth of March, One Thousand Seven Hundred Eighty-Nine.
The Convention of a Number of the States having, at the Time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a Desire, in Order to prevent Misconstruction or Abuse of its Powers, that further declaratory and restrictive Clauses should be added: and as extending the Ground of public Confidence in the Government will best insure the beneficent Ends of its Institution,
RESOLVED, by the Senate, and House of Representatives, of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, Two Thirds of both Houses concurring, That the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States: All, or any of, which Articles, when ratified by Three-Fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all Intents and Purposes as Part of the said Constitution, viz.
ARTICLES in Addition to, and Amendment of, the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the Fifth Article of the original Constitution.
Article the First- [not ratified]
After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons.
Article the Second- [27th Amendment - Ratified 1992]
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.
Article the Third [1st Amendment]
Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Article the Fourth [2nd Amendment]
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Article the Fifth [3rd Amendment]
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Article the Sixth [4th Amendment]
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized....
FRED. A. MUHLENBERG, Speaker of the House of Representatives
JOHN ADAMS, Vice-President of the United States, and President of the Senate…
[Report immediately following the Treasury Act on page 2, column 1]
Wilmington (North-Carolina) Sept. 10
The Amendments in the Constitution of the United States… will undoubtedly satisfy the minds of all its enemies. Not a door is left open for complaint, should the amendments be ratified … Every friend of the Union may now with pleasure anticipate the adoption of the Constitution by the State, and of its again becoming one of its members.
The enemies to the Federal Constitution in this State, says a correspondent, have nothing to boast in the completion of so desirable an object to them, as amendments to the Constitution, this State not being represented in Congress.
It is almost unparalleled instance of a public body possessed of power abridging it, and fully contradicts the grand argument of the opponents to the Constitution, that “of Congress are once possessed of the power vested in the Constitution, they never will relinquish or amend its conformable to our wishes.”
Background on the United States Chronicle
From The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution Digital Edition, ed. John P. Kaminski, Gaspare J. Saladino, Richard Leffler, Charles H. Schoenleber and Margaret A. Hogan. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009:
The Providence United States Chronicle
Bennett Wheeler (c. 1753 –1806), a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, arrived in Providence in September 1776, and after a few months he began working for the Providence Gazette, remaining there until December 1778. In March 1779 Wheeler formed a partnership with Solomon Southwick to publish The American Journal; and General Advertiser in Providence. Southwick left the firm in December 1779, and Wheeler printed the paper until August 1781, after which he continued working as a job printer. On Thursday, 1 January 1784, Wheeler published the first issue of The United States Chronicle: Political, Commercial, and Historical. The Chronicle continued to appear on Thursdays and by 1788 “circulated in every town in the State” (“A Rhode‐Island Landholder,” United States Chronicle, 20 March 1788). The United States Chronicle, as historian Carol Sue Humphrey has demonstrated, devoted more space to the publication of essays about the Constitution than any other Rhode Island newspaper. Moreover, declares Humphrey, Wheeler’s publication of these essays was “remarkably balanced.” The United States Chronicle devoted 71.75 columns in support of the Constitution and 75.25 columns opposing it. The latter figure considerably exceeded the amount of space allotted to pieces opposing the Constitution in either the Providence Gazette or the Newport Herald, which together printed only 45.50 such columns. Beginning on 6 March 1788 Wheeler printed reports of the proceedings of the Rhode Island legislature. Not referring to arch-Federalist Peter Edes’s legislative reports in his Newport Herald, Wheeler gave his reasons for publishing the legislature’s proceedings: It being the Wish of almost every Man in the State, that the Proceedings of the Legislature should be regularly published, as soon after their Meeting as possible, the Editor of the Chronicle attended at the late Session, in order, as far as in his Power, to gratify the Wishes of the Public. — Having but a very imperfect Knowledge of Short-Hand Writing, he has not been able to do Justice to the Debates — but thus far he engages, that the Votes are accurately stated, and that all the Ideas here found fell from some or other of the Gentlemen speaking.— His Aim is to be of Service in the Line of his Profession, and he hopes this first Attempt, in this Way, will meet the Candour of the Public. Wheeler’s efforts to provide a balanced view of the debate over the Constitution were not appreciated by some Federalists. “Marplot, Jun.” in the Newport Herald, 9 April 1789, charged that the printer of the United States Chronicle “assiduously” attended every legislature in order “to pay his court to the paper money majority” and that the printer “was in fact admitted into the sanctum sanctorum of the late grand nocturnal convention at East-Greenwich!— These things, it is true, seem to be directly in the face of the federalism of the Printer of the United States Chronicle.” “Marplot, Jun.” admitted that, while some readers looked upon Wheeler as an Antifederalist, others viewed him as a Federalist.
On 23 April 1789 Wheeler apparently left it to essayists to make it easier for him to demonstrate his impartiality when he published this notice: “The printing of controversial, or Party Pieces, being attended with much extra Trouble—in future we shall expect PAY for all such inserted in the Chronicle — as is the Custom in other Places.” On 5 December 1789 “Veritas,” writing in the Providence Gazette, was angered by “the snarlings of certain demagogues of power” who used the United States Chronicle “to set the mechanic interest of this town at variance with the mercantile … making discord the constant source of their importance.” These “restless beings” had discharged their “venom so often and copiously” in the Chronicle. “Veritas” asserted that economic difficulties were not brought about by any class but that these difficulties “have arisen from the nature and present situation of our government, which has sunk both public and private credit in one common vortex of destruction.”
Cite as: The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution Digital Edition, ed. John P. Kaminski, Gaspare J. Saladino, Richard Leffler, Charles H. Schoenleber and Margaret A. Hogan. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009. Original source: Ratification by the States, Volume XXIV: Rhode Island, No.1.
