What Washington Was Thankful For

President George Washignton, 1795 [emphasis mine]:

When we review the calamities which afflict so many other nations, the present condition of the United States affords much matter of consolation and satisfaction. Our exemption hitherto from foreign war, an increasing prospect of the continuance of that exception, the great degree of internal tranquillity we have enjoyed, the recent confirmation of that tranquillity by the suppression of an insurrection which so wantonly threatened it, the happy course of our public affairs in general, the unexampled propserity of all classes of our citizens, are circumstances which peculiarly mark our situation with indications of the Divine beneficence toward us.

[reprinted from Opinion Page, "Presidents Proclaim Reasons for Thanksgiving," Lincoln (NE) Journal Star, 2007.11.22, p. 9B.]