This proclamation was issued on October 17, 1888 for a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to be held on November 29, 1888.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
By His Excellency
Oliver Ames,
Governor:
A Proclamation
for a Day of Public
Thanksgiving and Praise.

In the olden time our pious ancestors, surrounded by dangers that imperiled their existence, annually devoted a day to the giving of public thanks to Almighty God that He had spared their lives and granted them so many mercies.

This custom has continued to the present time, binding the past to the present as with a golden thread. In conformity with this revered usage, and in recognition that the people of this Commonwealth have enjoyed another year of peace, prosperity, and happiness, I hereby appoint, with the advice and consent of the Council, THURSDAY, the twenty-ninth day of November next, to be the annual Thanksgiving Day,

“whom from East and from West,

From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest,

When the gray-haired, New Englander sees round his board

The old broken links of affection restored.”

Putting aside on that day our usual cares and occupations, as we assemble in our cautionary places of public worship or in the privacy of our homes, let us be thankful to Almighty God for His many blessings.

And may our thankfulness be so devoid of selfishness that we remember the erring, the unfortunate, and the suffering, and from our abundance contribute to their comfort and happiness.

Given at the Council Chamber, in Boston this seventeenth day of October, in their year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and thirteenth.

Oliver Ames.

By His Excellency the Governor, with the Advice and Consent of the Council.
{Henry B. Pierce}, Secretary.

God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.