Thanksgiving Historical Anecdote

I spent the past three weeks and a giant chunk of Thanksgiving weekend reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I've been enjoying Ms. Goodwin's historical insights on Sunday morning talk shows and on PBS for years now. When Barak Obama and other journalists started bandying her book about as an insightful instruction on Presidential management and cabinet creation, I thought it was about time I gave her a read. I did, and the book is excellent. It even had a very apt Thanksgiving anecdote which, if Ms. Goodwin doesn't mind too much, I will post here:

“....Both [President Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward] loved humor....”

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 to-day 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.”

So, dear readers, happy belated Thanksgiving! A day which we celebrate as one nation courtesy of both the humorous whim and the hard work of Messrs Lincoln and Seward. Something to be thankful for year-round and forever more.

(Unrelated musing: How long do you think it will take before spell checks stop trying to auto-correct the names Barak and Obama?)