Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign
Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of
November next, to be devoted by the people
of these United States... that we then may all
unite unto Him  our sincere and humble
thanks for His kind care and protection of
the people of this country previous to their
becoming a nation; for the signal and
manifold mercies and the favorable
interpositions of His providence in the
course and conclusion of the late war; for
the great degree of tranquility, union,  and
plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the
peaceable and rational manner in which we
have been enabled to establish
constitutions of government for our safety
and happiness, and particularly
the national one now lately instituted; for the
civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed...

And also that we may then unite in most
humbly offering our prayers and
supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations,
and beseech Him to pardon our
national and other transgressions
...to promote the knowledge and
practice of the true religion and virtue...

Given under my hand,
at the City of New York,
the 3rd of October, A.D. 1789

(President George Washington -
Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving
October 3, 1789
New York City, New York)