Thanksgiving Proclamation Memorandum

November 4, 1971 MEMORANDUM FOR: JOHN EHRLICHMAN FROM: RAY PRICE SUBJECT: Thanksgiving Proclamation Attached is a re-draft which picks up most of your changes but not the endorsement of Virginia's claim. We can't do that! Every schoolboy in America knows that Thanksgiving began with Pilgrims and pumpkins and wild New England turkeys more seriously, in most historical accounts the Virginia claim appears as a mere foot- note, if at all, even though it's recognized by Virginia and seems to have been popularized about a dozen years ago by Virginius Dabney. Incidentally, it wasn't set aside back then as an "annual" day of Thanksgiving; the 1621 hoedown was followed by one in 1623, and then became an annual event in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (for awhile at least) in 1630, with the other New England colonies observing it sporadically. It spread from New England to the West, appeared as a custom in the South only about 1855, and didn't become a national holiday until first proclaimed by Lincoln in 1863. In putting back in the section that includes the Massachusetts tomb- stone quote (which is a very good quote, and which we ought to keep), I've thrown in a reference to the people of the other early settlements which more clearly broadens the lead in to their gathering in thanksgiving, so that the proclamation more clearly embraces both claims. Sometime I'll have to find out what your special attraction for Thanksgiving Day proclamations is, that leads you to re-write them personally each year. You can send me the answer by special pumpkin. Attachment.