Thanksgiving, Just a Little History Lesson

Thanksgiving 2014 is nearing and there is so much misunderstanding about this Thanksgiving Holiday I feel compelled to present the true history of Thanksgiving. 

The Mayflower, filled with religious separatists from England,  was supposed  to land at the mouth of the Hudson River, present day New York but after being blown off course by a storm while crossing the Atlantic they made landfall at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts in 1620, To settle there, they would have wait for permission from the King which would take several months. In order to establish a civil society while they waited, they wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact.

The text of the Mayflower Compact is as follows:

"Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together in a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the gen eral good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sov ereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620."

For the next few months many of the settlers stayed on the May flower while ferrying back and forth to shore to build their new settle ment. In March, they began moving ashore permanently. More than half the settlers fell ill and died that first winter, victims of an epi demic of disease that swept the new colony. After the epidemic was over they began a serious effort to build a self sustaining  colony.

In March of 1621, they began farming and planting crops in order to provide the colony with a constant supply of food. They were aided a native American named Tisquantum, better known as Squanto, who would become a member of the colony. He taught them how to plant and grow corn. Corn was not native to England. He also taught them where to hunt for wild game. The Pilgrims learned much from Squanto about surviving in this new land.

Squanto knew and understood English because had been kidnapped by explorer John Smith and taken to England where he stayed until he could escape back to his native land. He acted as interpreter and mediator between the leaders of the colony and the native Americans.

In  the fall of 1621, after a successful season of planting and harvesting, the Pilgrims shared a meal along with their friends from the Pokanokets tribe that lasted for three days. Even with all the hardships and deaths that settling in the cold northern climate had brought them had no problem thanking God for the His blessings. That was considered the first Thanksgiving.

William Bradford became the first governor of the Plymouth colony and governor for 30 years and penned in his journal: 

"Being thus arived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees & blessed ye God of heaven, who had brought them over ye vast & furious ocean, and delivered them from all ye periles & miseries therof, againe to set their feete on yefirme and stable earth, their proper elemente. And no marvell if they were thus joyefull, seeing wise Seneca was so affected with sailing a few miles on ye coast of his owne Italy; as he affirmed, that he had rather remaine twentie years on his way by land, then by sea to any place in a short time; so tedious & dreadful was ye same unto him.

"But hear I cannot help but stay and make a pause, and stand half amased at this poore peoples present conditions; and so I  thinke will the reader too, when he will considers ye same. Being thus passed ye vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as nat be renenber bt yt which wente before0, they had now no friends to welcome then, nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses much less townes to rapaire too, to seek for succor....."

Thanksgiving did not become an official holiday in 1863 when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “prayer, thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens” to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November.

The Gettysburg Address, 2013 Version

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  

(These are the words delivered by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 at the Gettysburg Battle Ground paying tribute to those who had died there. Lincoln was referring to our founding fathers who founded this nation in 1776 (Four score 7 years before 1863). It has now been eleven score one decade and seven years that this great land became a nation.)

The direction this nation has been moving the last few decades makes me wonder if we are about to become engaged in a great civil war, testing whether this nation, so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We could very well meet on a great battle-field to determine if we are able to keep our freedoms that were so bravely fought for in 1776. 

A Nation dedicated to the peace of the world fought in many more wars. The war of 1812 (which few if any remember), the civil war in 1861, the battle of San Juan Hill in 1891, World War I in which started in 1914 and ended in 1918, World War II from 1938 until 1945. Since then we have fought in Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Up until the end of World War II we fought not only for our freedom but for the freedom of others. In World War II we defended the Netherlands, Belgium, England, France, Algiers, and the desert of North Africa from German invasion for their natural resources. We also defended hundreds Pacific islands including Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and far too many to name in this short writing from Japanese aggression.

The freedom of the world has long been placed in the hands of the United States of America and in the past our citizens have fought bravely for God, country and freedom. But we have now reached a point of selfishness and greed that seems to have quieted our desire for the liberty of others.

As other nations lose their God given freedom and liberty, so will we. Eventually we will find ourselves wanting to regain what we have selfishly given away because of our lack of interest in our Constitution and what our country was founded for. We have taken for granted that things will only get better while we do nothing to insure it. All we have to do is vote for politicians who promise to do their best to keep our Nation strong. It is obvious to anyone who is paying attention to the economy, the uncontrolled growth of the government and the social programs which are rampant that this once great nation is in dire distress.

There are many of us who feel that way who are now being called radicals and terrorists. We have reached the point where there are people desirous of removing God from the Pledge of Allegiance are the radicals and terrorists.

Yes, there are terrorists in the United States and you can readily identify them. They are wanting to change our laws to coincide with their radical laws which, in our minds, we find abhorrent. But it is not politically correct to call them by their name nor mention their political affiliation. Let's just call them progressives.

In my humble opinion there will come a day when we will have to dedicate a portion of some great battlefield, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might be saved from the progressive ruination. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. Let me now finish with the last paragraph of the Gettysburg Address which I think is totally fitting.

“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground or any other ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will long remember what we say here, but it will never forget what they do here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”