Celebrating Thanksgiving's New Jersey Roots
Posted November 20, 2007

Many of us are familiar with President George Washington’s famous Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789, the first presidential proclamation of its kind in our nation’s history.  On October 3 of that year, President Washington officially “recommend[ed] and assign[ed] Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be….”

But most of us would probably be surprised to learn of the important role played by New Jersey in this historic proclamation; specifically the influence of two men – former New Jersey Governor Jonathan Belcher and Elias Boudinot of Elizabethtown.

During the period from 1730 to 1741, Jonathan Belcher (1682-1757) served as the colonial governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  In 1730, at the outset of his tenure as governor, he issued a proclamation appointing Thursday, the 12th of November as “a Day of Public THANKSGIVING.”  He encouraged that, on this day, “both ministers and people in their several assemblies, religiously to solemnize the same by offering up their sincere and grateful PRAISES for the manifold blessings and favors which GOD of His undeserved goodness hath conferred upon us….” 

In 1746, this same Jonathan Belcher became governor of the colony of New Jersey, a position which he held until his death in 1757.  In 1749, as governor, he issued another proclamation, setting aside Thursday, the 23rd day of November, “as a Day of Public thanksgiving and praise to the great name of God our most gracious and bountiful benefactor….”  In the 1749 proclamation, Governor Belcher “exhort[ed] both ministers and people to join in a public and serious manner in offering up their devout and thankful acknowledgments to the God of all our mercies and at the same time to offer up their humble and hearty supplications at the Throne of Grace for the advancement of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world….”

What is the connection between Governor Belcher’s Thanksgiving Day proclamations of 1730 and 1749 and President Washington’s proclamation four decades later? 

Across the street from the Governor Belcher Mansion in Elizabethtown lived a man by the name of Elias Boudinot (1740-1821).  More than geographic factors connected these two men, as Elisha Boudinot, Elias’ brother, had married Catherine Smith whose father, William Peartree Smith, was a friend of Governor Belcher.  Indeed, the wedding took place at the Belcher Mansion. 

Boudinot was quite civically active in his own right.  He was a member of the final committee to design the Great Seal of the United States; served in the Continental Congress from 1777-1784, even acting as President of the Congress from 1782-1783; served three terms in Congress from 1789-1795; was Director of the Mint from 1795-1805, and became the first President of the American Bible Society in 1816, a position he held until his death in 1821. 

Still, what is the connection?

It was Elias Boudinot who, on September 25, 1789 introduced a resolution in the United States House of Representatives which stated “[t]hat a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States, to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a Constitution of government for their safety and happiness.” 

Both the Senate and the House agreed to the resolution, and on October 3, 1789, President Washington issued the first Presidential Thanksgiving Day Proclamation.  

So as you gather with family and friends this Thanksgiving Day, in addition to giving thanks for the many blessings you enjoy, pause for a moment to give thanks for the heritage left to us by men like Elias Boudinot, Governor Jonathan Belcher, and the many other Godly pioneers of our state and nation.

The NJFPC wishes you and your family a very blessed Thanksgiving.

 

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