As to the “Christian Textural Criticism” I interpreted from your “this sounds alsmost too Christian” comment followed by “who thought we would be getting into Textural Criticism on Lincoln” as what you had been imlpying. If this was not the case then except my apologies. I merely found it a quick commnet that was asailed that tends to come from persons who deny the Judeo-christian Principals this country was founded upon. However if you are one who thinks that Thomas Jefferson did not have his own version of the Bible and was not Christain (technically he would be what would today call Unitarian) nor were any are our founding fathers then I have a problem. I run into far to many people that erroniously deny the fact that all but two members of the Continental Congress were members of the Church of England. Last I checked that was a Christian denomination.
I bid you peace

Taking your advice to check out The National Archives, I’ve found they have a special Thanksgiving documents page set up which includes what appears to be the original autograph of his Thanksgiving Proclamation. It does not include this extra paragraph.

http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/thanksgiving-docs-images.html

If you are looking for a website with this here is a link with the complete text.

http://www.evliving.com/2008/11/22/1749/thanksgiving-quotes-thanksgiving-day/

There are even some sites that claim that Lincoln stopped at the line, “to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

I would think that what is in the Ntional Archives would tend to be the correct document. I am not here to debate you on Christian Textural Criticism, I am merely pointing out that you may be in error. If I came by you as being harsh then please accept my apology.

It amazes me that also in Washington on the WWII memorial the “so help us God” as been removed from FDR’s speech. Being that many were not alive at that time that now read that line we accept it as being fact. Thank you for showing that Lincoln did say what he said without deleting much of it as has been done on most web sites. Keep in mind just because FDR’s speech is printed without the last line does not make it wrong, just incomplete that is merely what I would also point out on other websites that also abruptly end the proclaimation and claim it to be the complete work.

I do not doubt that you did the research, and that is admirable, also keep in mind the Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works that you site leaves out some things in other areas also for sake of brevity because it is not unabridged but rather like a condenced volume of Lincoln’s writings. A line may be removed here and there that the compilers felt may not change the maning but what is left was said by Lincoln. If you take the Gettysburg address, which version do you read? All were written by Lincoln. Do you read the first draft or the final? I understand you wish to distant yourself from “sneaky editing” as you call it but lets face it, what has been written on and by Lincoln has changed since 1865. When I do my research from this era I tend to rely heavily on the National Archives and Library of Congress as they have the original documents, not what has been edited.

Can you provide a link to the location where on you found the Thanksgiving Proclamation with this paragraph?

After a quick search on Google, none of the top four results contain this paragraph that you quoted. In fact, to me, it sounds almost too Christian. Who thought we’d be engaging in textual criticism on Abraham Lincoln?

After further searching, it seems that the above quoted paragraph is part of Lincoln’s Proclamation Appointing a Fast-Day in the same year. It seems a bit sneaky to cut and paste different proclamations together to make the one sound more Christian, if indeed this is the kind of emendation that has taken place. There’s no excuse for such sneaky editing and I want to completely distant myself from such dishonest work and would hope that such work has not been done in order to present the Proclamation during a church service. Shame on whomever.

To clear things up, I would point the reader to Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works which is freely available through Google Books. The Thanksgiving Proclamation is contained on pages 417-418 and without the above paragraph.

“It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

By leaving this line out you make Lincoln look less of the God fearing man that he was. I hope this was just a simple oversight.