NOVEMBER 2022

Municipalities
Legal Briefs
THANKSGIVING’S HISTORICAL HOLDOUT
BY KAREN DAY WHITE, LMA EXECUTIVE COUNSEL
Our annual celebration to give thanks for life’s blessings
is a tradition that dates back to the early 17th century,
well before the founding of our nation. In 1777, the Continental
Congress declared the first national American
Thanksgiving following the Patriot victory at Saratoga.
Indeed, long before President Franklin D. Roosevelt
declared the fourth Thursday in November to be the national
“Thanksgiving Day” holiday on November 26, 1941,
the annual recognition had become an immutable part
of American life, and the occasion does not generally
prompt a discussion of constitutional law.
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But then there is one American President who refused
to endorse the Thanksgiving tradition. You may be
surprised that it was none other than America’s first
red-headed President, and the principal author of the
Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.
His first year in office, Jefferson declined to declare
the holiday, departing from the custom established by
George Washington and John Adams. His actions generated
a flurry of nasty rumors that he despised the practice
of thanksgiving or, even more politically damning,
that he was an atheist who sought to make the nation
less godly. We know now that neither was accurate.
Our country’s third Chief Executive, though reluctant to
subscribe to many of the tenets of the prevailing religious
sects of his time, regularly attended church and
read the Bible.
He was dedicated to the
teachings of Jesus, noting
that Christ imparted, “the
most sublime and benevolent
code of morals which
has ever been offered to
man.” Moreover, when he
was governor of Virginia
in 1779, Jefferson issued a
proclamation for a day of
prayer and thanksgiving,
noting, “…it becomes us
humbly to approach the
throne of Almighty God,
with gratitude and praise.”
So, why the refusal to declare
a national Thanksgiving
holiday?
His actions were rooted
in his fervent belief in the
separation of church and
state. It was Jefferson
who convinced James
Madison to pen the Bill of
Rights, including the First
Amendment’s proclamation
that, “Congress shall
make no law respecting an
establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof …” Shortly
after becoming President,
Jefferson wrote in an 1802
letter to an historically
persecuted Baptist organization,
“…that religion
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