The life and political vocation ofThomas Jeffersonare rich in controversy , from hisobsession with mastodonsto his interracial messages about slavery . One lesser - acknowledge Jefferson take was his disinclination to endorseThanksgiving , though he felt he had good reason .
To be clean , Thanksgiving as a national holiday did n’t existduringJefferson ’s clip in office ( 1801 - 1809);Abraham Lincolnformalized it in 1863 . Prior to that , presidentsmade fiat about celebrating days of gratitude ( “ thanksgivings ” ) as well as time for fasting or prayer . BothGeorge WashingtonandJohn Adams , Jefferson ’s predecessors , made such proclamation .
But Jefferson was having none of it . It was n’t that he had any inherent problem with utter gratitude ; he only matte make believe those observations official symbolize a nonstarter to separate church and state . Jefferson was a proponent of keeping them apart , telling a Baptist group in 1802 that he held strict in his impression of a “ paries ” between the two .
“ I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which hold that their general assembly should ‘ make no law honour an formation of religion , or nix the free exercise thereof ; ’ thus building a wall of eternal legal separation between Church & State , ” hewrote .
This was not a pop opinion . By flunk to emulate Washington and Adams , Jefferson was incriminate of being an atheist by political antagonist . But he did n’t flitter . There wasnoThanksgiving or anything like it during his time in office .
Yet Jefferson did recognize Thanksgiving — just not as president . In 1779 , he assure the people of Virginia that a solar day of Thanksgiving was in order . The conflict , Jefferson enjoin , was that he was governor of the state at the time , not president , and that such plans should fall under the purview of state government .
Despite his stance , Jefferson still made a donation to the Thanksgiving of today . It’sbelievedhe helped popularize macaroni and cheeseflower in the U.S. after sampling it in France .
[ h / tHistory ]
