which us president made thanksgiving a national holiday
George Washington Abraham Lincoln
title: Thanksgiving (United States) text: proclamations appointing a day of thanksgiving were issued by the governors of 25 states and two territories. In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the 26th, the final Thursday of November 1863. The document, written by Secretary of State William H. Seward, reads as follows: Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States. The holiday superseded Evacuation Day, a "de facto" national holiday that had been held on November 25 each year prior title: Thanksgiving (United States) text: Thanksgiving (United States) Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the United States, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It originated as a harvest festival. Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, with a proclamation by George Washington after a request by Congress. Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe the holiday, and its celebration was intermittent until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, when Thanksgiving became a federal holiday in 1863, during the American Civil War. Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens," to be celebrated on title: Thanksgiving (United States) text: in York, Pennsylvania, while the British occupied the national capital at Philadelphia. Delegate Samuel Adams created the first draft. Congress then adapted the final version: George Washington, leader of the revolutionary forces in the American Revolutionary War, proclaimed a Thanksgiving in December 1777 as a victory celebration honoring the defeat of the British at Saratoga. The Continental-Confederation Congress, the legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, issued several "national days of prayer, humiliation, and thanksgiving", a practice that was continued by presidents Washington and Adams under the Constitution, and has manifested itself in the established American title: Thanksgiving (United States) text: As President, on October 3, 1789, George Washington made the following proclamation and created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America: On January 1, 1795, Washington proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day to be observed on Thursday, February 19. President John Adams declared Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799. As Thomas Jefferson was a deist and a skeptic of the idea of divine intervention, he did not declare any thanksgiving days during his presidency. James Madison renewed the tradition in 1814, in response to resolutions of Congress, at the close of the War of 1812. title: Presidency of Abraham Lincoln text: of the United States' First Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed in 1869. In June 1864, Lincoln approved the Yosemite Grant enacted by Congress, which provided unprecedented federal protection for the area now known as Yosemite National Park. Lincoln is also largely responsible for the institution of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. In 1863, Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November of that year to be a day of Thanksgiving. Before Lincoln's presidency, Thanksgiving, while a regional holiday in New England since the 17th century, had been proclaimed by the federal government only sporadically and on irregular dates. In