[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 46 (Monday, November 18, 1996)]
[Pages 2378-2379]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6954--Thanksgiving Day, 1996

November 11, 1996

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    America's oldest tradition, Thanksgiving is also a reaffirmation of 
our most deeply held values; a public recognition that, in the words of 
Thomas Jefferson, ``God who gave us life gave us liberty.'' In gratitude 
for God's gift of freedom and ``for all the great and various favors 
which he hath been pleased to confer upon us,'' George Washington made 
Thanksgiving his first proclamation for the new Nation, and it is one we 
are privileged to renew each year.
    Much has changed for America in the two centuries since that first 
Thanksgiving proclamation. Generations of hardworking men and women have 
cultivated our soil and worked the land, and today America's bounty 
helps feed the world. The promise of freedom that sustained our founders 
through the hardships of the Revolution and the first challenging days 
of nationhood has become a reality for millions of immigrants who left 
their homelands for a new life on these shores. And the light of that 
freedom now shines brightly in many nations that once lived in the 
shadows of tyranny and oppression.
    But across the years, we still share an unbroken bond with the men 
and women who first proclaimed Thanksgiving in our land.

[[Page 2379]]

Americans today still cherish the fresh air of freedom, in which we can 
raise our families and worship God as we choose without fear of 
persecution. We still rejoice in this great land and in the civil and 
religious liberty it offers to all. And we still--and always--raise our 
voices in prayer to God, thanking Him in humility for the countless 
blessings He has bestowed on our Nation and our people.
    Let us now, this Thanksgiving Day, reawaken ourselves and our 
neighbors and our communities to the genius of our founders in daring to 
build the world's first constitutional democracy on the foundation of 
trust and thanks to God. Out of our right and proper rejoicing on 
Thanksgiving Day, let us give our own thanks to God and reaffirm our 
love of family, neighbor, and community. Each of us can be an instrument 
of blessing to those we touch this Thanksgiving Day--and every day of 
the year.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, 
November 28, 1996, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all 
the people of the United States to assemble in their homes, places of 
worship, or community centers to share the spirit of goodwill and 
prayer; to express heartfelt gratitude for the blessings of life; and to 
reach out in friendship to our brothers and sisters in the larger family 
of mankind.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eleventh day of 
November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-first.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:03 a.m., November 13, 
1996]

Note: This proclamation was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on November 12, and it was published in the Federal Register 
on November 14.