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The celebration of thanks after harvests was a component of the New England colony scene from the 1600s. The custom of a thanksgiving day was continued by proclamation of state governors for awhile and then Sarah Josepha Hale felt that thanksgiving must be a national patriotic holiday. She was the editor of a womens magazine, Godeys Ladys Book. She began the campaign in 1846 with editorials and letters to the President, state governors and anybody else she thought was influential. She promoted the last Thursday in November for the reason that President George Washington in 1789 had proclaimed a National Thanksgiving Day to honor the new United States Constitution. Her persistence paid off with President Abraham Lincoln. He felt the Union has been saved and on Oct. 3, 1863 proclaimed Thursday, Nov. 26 as Thanksgiving and noted that the last Thursday in November really should be the day. For awhile the last Thursday was the day but Franklin D. Roosevelt, being a huge shopper, thought it was too close to Christmas. In 1939 he moved Thanksgiving to the third Thursday in November. Not everyone was thrilled and it took until 1941 for a joint resolution by Congress to set the day on the fourth Thursday in November.
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