One hundred and fifty years ago today, Abraham Lincoln delivered a remarkably brief speech of just 269 words as part of the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, PA, just over four months after the decisive Battle of Gettysburg. We call that battle “decisive,” and in the larger picture it was, but at this time the war was hardly over. Though later called the “turning point” of the war, that effort could have been forgotten were there not other monumental victories and, for that matter, Lincoln’s own re-election in 1864. For this reason, he was conscious of the need to remind those in attendance of the...

While I knew that Abraham Lincoln is credited with establishing Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday, I didn’t know it had previously been the custom of presidents and governors and others to declare “a day of Thanksgiving” on a regularly occasional basis. (That is, they did this regularly, but according to no set calendar.) So in addition to the thanksgiving celebration of the pilgrims we know so well, George Washington twice declared days of national thanksgiving (in 1789 and 1795). John Adams and James Madison did the same on several occasions (though Jefferson never did). While often these days of thanksgiving were declared to...