Thanksgiving Day, 1996

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Part V

The President

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Proclamation 6954--Thanksgiving Day, 1996

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 6954 of November 11, 1996

Thanksgiving Day, 1996

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

America's oldest tradition, Thanksgiving is also a
reaffirmation of our most deeply held values; a public
recognition that, in the words of Thomas Jefferson,
``God who gave us life gave us liberty.'' In gratitude
for God's gift of freedom and ``for all the great and
various favors which he hath been pleased to confer
upon us,'' George Washington made Thanksgiving his
first proclamation for the new Nation, and it is one we
are privileged to renew each year.

Much has changed for America in the two centuries
since that first Thanksgiving proclamation. Generations
of hardworking men and women have cultivated our soil
and worked the land, and today America's bounty helps
feed the world. The promise of freedom that sustained
our founders through the hardships of the Revolution
and the first challenging days of nationhood has become
a reality for millions of immigrants who left their
homelands for a new life on these shores. And the light
of that freedom now shines brightly in many nations
that once lived in the shadows of tyranny and
oppression.

But across the years, we still share an unbroken bond
with the men and women who first proclaimed
Thanksgiving in our land. Americans today still cherish
the fresh air of freedom, in which we can raise our
families and worship God as we choose without fear of
persecution. We still rejoice in this great land and in
the civil and religious liberty it offers to all. And
we still--and always--raise our voices in prayer to
God, thanking Him in humility for the countless
blessings He has bestowed on our Nation and our people.

Let us now, this Thanksgiving Day, reawaken ourselves
and our neighbors and our communities to the genius of
our founders in daring to build the world's first
constitutional democracy on the foundation of trust and
thanks to God. Out of our right and proper rejoicing on
Thanksgiving Day, let us give our own thanks to God and
reaffirm our love of family, neighbor, and community.
Each of us can be an instrument of blessing to those we
touch this Thanksgiving Day--and every day of the year.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 28, 1996,
as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all the
people of the United States to assemble in their homes,
places of worship, or community centers to share the
spirit of goodwill and prayer; to express heartfelt
gratitude for the blessings of life; and to reach out
in friendship to our brothers and sisters in the larger
family of mankind.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
eleventh day of November, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-first.