George Washington's Thanksgiving 'tweet'

Thanksgiving 2020 is taking place in homes across America – a country emerging from a bitter election that confirmed its deep divisions. On Thanksgiving 1789, his first as president, George Washington led a nation similarly in need of unification.

Washington knew his young country faced forces that could pull it apart. As historian Maurizio Valsania writes, Washington “recognized that the United States was born out of slavery, conquest and violence as much as of sacred principle. Civic unification required acknowledgment of these flaws.” So Washington issued a Thanksgiving proclamation that asked God “to pardon our national and other transgressions.” And he advised his fellow citizens to make Thanksgiving a holiday in which “we may then all unite.”

And in a phrase that resonates across the centuries, Washington asked God to “render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed.”

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Also today:

• How to keep the peace during your holiday feast
• Protect your guests: Wear a mask
• One way Plymouth was progressive, 400 years before #MeToo