On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a formal proclamation, passed by an Act of Congress, initiating the first annual National Day of Thanksgiving:

I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens....[it is] announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord (Psalm 33:12)...It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.

Reference: America's God & Country Encyclopedia of Quotations by William J. Federer, Page 385.

Amen

We Need To Be More Thankful

And Thank God