Thanksgiving event Nov. 27 at Lincoln Log Cabin

[November 19, 2009]  LERNA -- The day after Thanksgiving, Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site will host a "Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer" from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, and parking is free.

As a part of the site's bicentennial commemoration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, Lincoln Log Cabin will explore both the traditional New England roots of Thanksgiving as well as the inaugural national observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

When Abraham Lincoln signed the proclamation establishing Thanksgiving in October 1863, the nation was embroiled in the Civil War but still had much to be thankful for, as he noted when signing the document:

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity… order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict.

Despite the ongoing war, Lincoln appealed to his countrymen to never forget the blessings they had received and the source from which they came:

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is an 86-acre pioneer farmstead that was the last home of Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's father and stepmother. It is located eight miles south of Charleston.

For more information on the Thanksgiving event, call 217-345-1845 or visit www.lincolnlogcabin.org.

[Text from file received from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency]