PD Editorial: Thanksgiving, a story of division and unity

The political and racial issues that polarize the country cause some to question whether this country has ever faced a time of such division. The answer is yes, and it’s not even close. In fact, it was during a time of far greater division that the official holiday we celebrate today was born.

The book “Team of Rivals” by Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin describes how Abraham Lincoln confronted what would be this nation’s darkest period by bringing together political opponents to create one of the most effective presidential cabinets in history.

One story in particular is relevant today. It concerns William H. Seward, Lincoln’s secretary of state, who had more reason than anybody to be disappointed by Lincoln’s election in 1860. As senator and former governor of New York, he had been considered the front-runner for the Republican nomination. Goodwin notes that Seward accepted the cabinet position with “a condescending and skeptical attitude” toward Lincoln. But that would change as the nation quickly became engulfed in financial uncertainty and civil war.

“By the fall of 1863,” the author writes in “Rivals,” Seward “had both accepted and respected Lincoln’s consummate control of his cabinet and the relationship between the two men and ‘had grown very close and unreserved,’ according to Fred Seward, the secretary of state’s son.” Kearns Goodwin goes on to share this story:

Fred Seward recounted the events of one morning in October 1863 when his father called on Lincoln. “They say, Mr. President, that we are stealing away the rights of the States. So I have come today to advise you that there is another State right I think we ought to steal.”

Raising his head from his pile of papers, Lincoln asked, “Well, Governor, what do you want to steal now?”

Seward replied, “The right to name Thanksgiving Day!”

He explained that at present, Thanksgiving was celebrated on different days at the discretion of each state’s governor. Why not make it a national holiday?

Lincoln immediately responded that he supposed a president “had as good a right to thank God as a governor.”

Seward then presented Lincoln with a proclamation that invited citizens “in every part of the United States,” at sea, or abroad “to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November” to give thanks to “our beneficent Father.”

The proclamation also commended to God’s care “all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers,” and called on Him “to heal the wounds of the nation” and restore it to “peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”

Seward’s contributions certainly did not end there. A month later, he was seated next to Lincoln during the dedication of a plot of land in Pennyslvania - a place called Gettysburg.

Seward, his rival, helped put the final touches on Lincoln’s address that day as well, showing, once again, what can be achieved when political rivals put the needs of a nation ahead of those of mere men - and embrace compromise as more victory than defeat.