Sources and Strategies
Social Education 80(6), pp 326–329
©2016 National Council for the Social Studies
Inviting Students to
Consider the Purpose of
Presidential Proclamations
Lee Ann Potter
Since 1789, the 44 presidents of the United States have issued more than 7,700 presidential proclamations. They have proclaimed commemorative days, weeks, months,
and years. They have sought to heighten awareness of numerous causes. They have
convened extra sessions of Congress, announced declarations of war, suspended the
Writ of Habeas Corpus, and asked for a day of national mourning.
President Barack Obama issued his
first, proclaiming a National Day of
Renewal and Reconciliation, within
hours of being sworn in. In it, he stated
“On this Inauguration Day, we are
reminded that we are heirs to over two
centuries of American democracy, and
that this legacy is not simply a birthright—
it is a glorious burden. Now it falls to us
to come together as a people to carry it
forward once more.” He then called upon
“all of our citizens to serve one another
and the common purpose of remaking
this Nation for our new century.”
President Ronald Reagan issued his
first proclamation on February 6, 1981,
proclaiming 1981 the International Year
of Disabled Persons in the United States.
President Jimmy Carter’s first proclamation granted pardons for violations
of the Selective Service Act, between
August 4, 1964, and March 28, 1973.
And although not his first, but certainly
his most famous, President Gerald Ford
pardoned President Richard Nixon on
September 8, 1974. His proclamation
concluded,
I, Gerald R. Ford, President of
the United States, pursuant to the
pardon power conferred upon
me by Article II, Section 2, of the
Constitution, have granted and
by these presents do grant a full,
free, and absolute pardon unto
Richard Nixon for all offenses
against the United States which
he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or
taken part in during the period
from January 20, 1969 through
August 9, 1974.
Both Herbert Hoover’s and Franklin
D. Roosevelt’s first proclamations—and
William Henry Harrison’s only proclamation—called Congress into an extra
session. Grover Cleveland’s first proclamation prohibited non-Indian settlement of Oklahoma lands in Indian
Territory. And Thomas Jefferson’s first
proclamation addressed building regulations in the District of Columbia.
But the very first presidential proclamation was issued by President George
Washington in the fall of 1789, during his
first year in office. It followed a request
from a joint committee of Congress
asking that Washington recommend to
S o c i a l E d u c at i o n
326
Presidential Proclamation Activity
After taking the oath of office on
January 20, 2017, the 45th president of
the United States will be in a position
to begin issuing official presidential
proclamations. Encourage your students to be on the lookout for the first.
As is true for all presidential proclamations, its official text will be published
in the Federal Register, available online
at www.federalregister.gov. And it will
likely be posted on the White House
website at www.whitehouse.gov.
Encourage your students to read the
new proclamation and lead a class discussion with the following questions:
1. Why has the president prioritized
this topic or issue?
2. What message is the president
trying to convey to the American
people? And, perhaps to people
around the world?
3. Does the proclamation attempt
to establish a theme for the presidency?
the people of the United States a day
of public thanksgiving and prayer. On
October 3, Washington did just that—he
proclaimed Thursday, November 26th
of that year a national day of thanksgiving. Four days later, the Gazette of the
N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 016
327
United States published the full text of
his proclamation.
The Gazette of the United States was
published twice weekly in New York
City (the capital of the United States at
that time) beginning in April 1789. When
the capital moved to Philadelphia in
1791, the Gazette followed, becoming a
daily newspaper that was in print under
various names until 1818. It was the
leading Federalist newspaper of the late
eighteenth century, featuring four pages
of three columns each, initially including no advertisements, but carrying the
news—both domestic and foreign, along
with political essays and letters.
Washington’s Proclamation occupied nearly the entire first column of
the Gazette’s front page on Wednesday,
October 7, 1789. It began,
By the President
of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey
his will, to be grateful for his
benefits, and humbly to implore
his protection and favor—and
whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United
States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed
by acknowledging with grateful
hearts the many signal favors
of Almighty God especially by
affording them an opportunity
peaceably to establish a form of
government for their safety and
happiness.
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the
26th day of November next to be
devoted by the People of these
States to the service of that great
and glorious Being, who is the
beneficent Author of all the good
that was, that is, or that will be....
Presidents John Adams and James
Madison also issued proclamations for
days of thanksgiving and prayer, but
no other president did until Abraham
Lincoln.
On October 3, 1863—exactly 74
years after Washington’s proclamation—President Lincoln issued a proclamation, inviting citizens in every part
of the United States to observe the last
Thursday in November as a day of
thanksgiving. All subsequent presidents
have issued annual proclamations for a
Thanksgiving Day, and in 1941, a congressional joint resolution officially set
the fourth Thursday of November as a
national holiday for Thanksgiving.
Sharing Washington’s proclamation,
as printed in the Gazette of the United
States (featured in this article), with students (being sure to point out the use
of the long ‘s’ that looks like an ‘f’) may
allow them to discover the origins of
Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday,
and also consider the purpose of presidential proclamations.
Brainstorm “Thanksgiving” with students. They are likely to share descriptions of the first Thanksgiving with the
Pilgrims and Native Americans, their
favorite dishes, and family or community traditions. Explain that as an official
national holiday, Thanksgiving can be
traced to Washington’s 1789 proclamation. Invite pairs of students to read the
document together and discuss its contents. [The Primary Source Analysis Tool
available from the Library of Congress
at: www.loc.gov/teachers/primary-sourceanalysis-tool/ may be useful.] Next, lead a
class discussion about the proclamation,
asking students to describe its contents
and share their impressions of it.
Ask students to conduct research,
using both online and printed resources,
to either:
(1) locate the text of other holidayrelated presidential proclamations
issued in different time periods. Ask
them to compare their documents’ text
to Washington’s, to consider the similarities and differences between the texts,
and to suggest reasons for them; or
(2) find the text of other presidential proclamations—ones unrelated to
S o c i a l E d u c at i o n
328
Thanksgiving or other holidays—and
consider the purpose of, and the expectations associated with, such executive
actions. (In advance of their research you
might share descriptions of some of the
proclamations mentioned at the beginning of this article.) The discussion may
lead to student interest in and curiosity
about executive orders, as well.
Library of Congress Blog
If you try these suggestions, or a variation
of them, with your students, tell us about
your experience! During the second
week of December, the Teaching with
the Library of Congress Blog at blogs.loc.
gov/teachers/ will feature a post tied to
this article and we invite you to comment
and share your teaching strategies.
About the Featured Source
The first national Thanksgiving Day
proclamation under the Constitution,
issued by President George Washington
was published on the front page of
the Gazette of the United States
on October 7, 1789. It is available
online through Chronicling America
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
at
lccn/sn83030483/1789-10-07/ed-1/seq1/. Washington’s original handwritten
proclamation is in the Papers of George
Washington, in the Manuscript Division
at the Library of Congress. A copy of it
was sent to the executives of the States
by the President in a brief form letter.
A black and white scan of it is available
at https://memory.loc.gov/mss/mgw/
mgw8a/124/0100/0132.jpg, and a transcription is available at https://memory.
loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@
field(DOCID+@lit(gw300388)).
For additional primary sources related
to Thanksgiving, see the Thanksgiving
Primary Source Set available from
the Library of Congress at: www.
loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/
primarysourcesets/thanksgiving/. It fea-
tures documents, images, and a Teacher’s
Guide containing contextual information
and teaching suggestions. An accompanying Student Discovery Set is also available.
The National Digital Newspaper
Program is a partnership among the
National Endowment for the Humanities,
the Library of Congress and participating states. NEH awards grants to state
libraries, historical institutions and other
cultural organizations that allow them
to select historic local newspapers to be
preserved in digital form. The states contribute information on each newspaper
title and its historical and cultural context. To date, more than 11 million pages
of historic newspapers are available on
Chronicling America.
Attention National History Day
Teachers!
The National Endowment for the
Humanities (NEH), sponsors the special “Chronicling America: Historic
American Newspapers Prize” at the
national contest. This student prize is
awarded in both the Junior and Senior
divisions to an outstanding entry in
any category that utilizes the newspaper resources that are available on
the Chronicling America: Historic
American Newspapers website (www.
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov). For more
Three Newspapers from the Earliest Days of America’s
Founding Now Available Online
Gazette of the United States, National Gazette and National Intelligencer are among early
American newspapers now included in Chronicling America, the open access database
of historic U.S. newspapers that is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program
(NDNP) from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress
at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/.
The newly available digital content is from eighteenth-century newspapers published in the three early capitals of the United States: New York City, Philadelphia, and
Washington, D.C., and includes nearly 15,000 pages!
Two of the early newspapers were established as national political publications. The
Gazette of the United States (1789–1800) advocated a strong monarchical presidency and
loyalty to the federal government. In opposition, the National Gazette (1791–1793), as the
voice for the Republicans or Anti-Federalists, promoted a populist form of government.
The National Intelligencer (1800–1809) was the first newspaper published in the City
of Washington and the first to document the activities of Congress. It recorded in great
detail the actions of the young national legislature.
In addition to George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, other events of
special note that received coverage in these papers included:
Passage of An Act to Establish the Temporary and permanent Seat of the Government
of the United States Gazette of the United-States. (New-York [N.Y.]), 17 July 1790. Pg.3, col.
2: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030483/1790-07-17/ed-1/seq-3/
The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr and plans for Hamilton’s
funeral:
The National intelligencer and Washington advertiser. (Washington City [D.C.]), 16 July
1804. Pg.3, col. 5. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045242/1804-07-16/ed-1/
seq-3/
The National intelligencer and Washington advertiser. (Washington City [D.C.]), 16
July 1804. Pg. 3., col. 2. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045242/1804-0718/ed-1/seq-3/ The arrival of the first elephant in the United States, aboard the ship
America: Gazette of the United States. (Philadelphia [Pa.]), 18 April 1796. Pg. 3, col. 3. http://
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026273/1796-04-18/ed-1/seq-3/
N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 016
329
information about the prize, visit: www.
nhd.org/special-prizes.
Lee Ann Potter is the Director of Educational
Outreach at the Library of Congress, and serves as the
editor of the Sources and Strategies feature. For more
information on the education programs of the Library
of Congress, please visit www.loc.gov/teachers/.
VALIDATE YOUR
SCHOLARS
RHO KAPPA National Social Studies
Honor Society is the only national
organization for high school juniors
and seniors that recognizes excellence
in social studies. Membership in
RHO KAPPA is an honor bestowed
upon students by a local chapter for
accomplishments in social studies
and overall academic achievement.
Any accredited high school can apply
to start a chapter, through which
students will be inducted into the
RHO KAPPA Social Studies Honor
Society. Rho Kappa provides national
recognition and opportunities for
exploration in the social studies.
Students eligible for
membership must:
• have been in attendance at the
school for the equivalent of
one semester;
• have completed two core
courses in the field of social
studies and be prepared to
complete at least three courses;
and
• have an overall GPA of at least
3.00 or the numerical equivalent.
rhokappa.socialstudies.org