# Incongruity in Online versions of Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incongruity-in-online-versions-of-lincolns-thanksgiving-proclamation/332438 "2005-11-23T16:49:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incongruity-in-online-versions-of-lincolns-thanksgiving-proclamation/332438/1 "2005-11-23T16:49:38Z")
In preparation for Thanksgiving with the family, I thought I’d go back and look at the text of Lincoln’s original proclamation. I read a few Google hits about the proclamation…and I ran into something that surprised me. [This article](http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1122/p08s02-comv.html?s=yaho) in the Christian Science Monitor says: > [@](#): > > In his Thanksgiving proclamation, the Calvinist Lincoln warned Americans that they had forgotten God: “We have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.” I was a little surprised, and wanted to see the context surrounding that quote, so I went back to the proclamation itself. Look here: [http://www.classicallibrary.org/lincoln/thanksgiving.htm](http://www.classicallibrary.org/lincoln/thanksgiving.htm) It ain’t in there. So, what gives? Which version is correct? Is the CSM repeating an untruth in the process of lecturing us about the deceitfulness of our hearts? This site seems to indicate it’s a hoax: [http://www.hightowertrail.com/Lincoln.htm](http://www.hightowertrail.com/Lincoln.htm) But then “a reader” writes in to tell us it’s actually a confusion from Lincoln’s lesser-known “National Fast Day 1963 Proclamation”. Assuming it’s a typo for 1863…uh, okay…what was _that?_ Never heard of such a proclamation, don’t recall such a day, but it’s certainly possible. I see the assertion that Lincoln’s Thanksgiving speech contained “in the deceitfulness of our hearts…” repeated on many religious (presumably Christian) sites. Others mention the National Fast Day 1863 and carry a text purported to be the proclamation of said day. That text has some additional words in it that are not in the real Thanksgiving text, but appear to have been inserted into the Thanksgiving text on some of the religious sites. The National Archives site has no mention of NFD 1863 under various search parameters such as “National Fast Day Proclamation”, “National Fast Day” “In the deceitfulness of our hearts”, etc. [Snopes.com](http://Snopes.com) didn’t yield anything indicating this is an urban legend. So, I’m interested in the facts, if any are known. What’s going on here? Was there such a proclamation? Did Lincoln use those words? Was there such a day? If so, are these religious websites conflating two proclamations either by accident, or because maybe they feel the full story is too long to go into? Or are they the victims of an Internet hoax? Or are they presenting a story they know (or should know) to be false, because it better serves their purposes? It’s not like the actual text of the Thanksgiving Day Proclamation is hard to find online. Thanks for any light that you can shed, Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incongruity-in-online-versions-of-lincolns-thanksgiving-proclamation/332438/2 "2005-11-23T17:28:18Z")
dont know what his fast day speech was all about either but its here [http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/fast.htm](http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/fast.htm) and the quote is in it too ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incongruity-in-online-versions-of-lincolns-thanksgiving-proclamation/332438/3 "2005-11-23T17:50:19Z")
Well, if you want to find Lincoln’s speeches in a full-text, searchable version put together by University scholars, the best place online has to be [The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln](http://www.hti.umich.edu/l/lincoln/). The Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day can be found [here](http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;type=simple;rgn=div1;q1=deceitfulness;view=text;subview=detail;sort=occur;idno=lincoln6;node=lincoln6:336;start=1;size=25;hi=0), and it is the same one provided by **scm1001**. According to the footnote to this Proclamation: > [@](#): > > The Senate Resolution requesting the president to proclaim a day for "national prayer and humiliation’’ was introduced by Senator James Harlan on March 2, and adopted on March 3, 1863. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incongruity-in-online-versions-of-lincolns-thanksgiving-proclamation/332438/4 "2005-11-23T17:58:13Z")
By the way, as you can see, the National Fast Day proclamation was made on March 30, 1863. Furthermore, it declared the Fast Day to be April 30, which is a long way removed from Thanksgiving, so i don’t know why all those websites are confusing the Fast Day proclamation with the Thanksgiving Proclamation. The latter was made on October 3, 1863, and can be found on [here](http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;type=simple;rgn=div1;q1=thanksgiving;view=text;subview=detail;sort=occur;idno=lincoln6;node=lincoln6:1027;start=1;size=25;hi=0) on the website i mentioned above. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incongruity-in-online-versions-of-lincolns-thanksgiving-proclamation/332438/5 "2005-11-24T04:54:26Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > By the way, as you can see, the National Fast Day proclamation was made on March 30, 1863. Furthermore, it declared the Fast Day to be April 30, which is a long way removed from Thanksgiving, so i don’t know why all those websites are confusing the Fast Day proclamation with the Thanksgiving Proclamation. You want my guess? I haven’t done the workup, but most websites are lazy. They are run by well-meaning idiots. They **couldn’t** do the research if their life depended on it. So, you get eveyone copying from everyone else. And when website XXX posts something as a fact, then a host of others link to that one as if it’s gospel…which it ain’t. Sorry to jump in here without doing the research myself.