“We have been blessed with much of material prosperity. We shall be better able to appreciate it if we remember the privations others have suffered, and we shall be the more worthy of it if we use it for their relief. We will do well then to render thanks for the good that has come to us, and show by our actions that we have become stronger, wiser, and truer by the chastenings which have been imposed upon us. We will thus prepare ourselves for the part we must take in a world which forever needs the full measure of service. We have been a most favored people. We ought to be a most generous people. We have been a most blessed people. We ought to be a most thankful people.”

Calvin Coolidge, excerpt from the 1923 Thanksgiving Proclamation, November 5, 1923

“We approach that season of the year when it has been the custom for the American people to give thanks for the good fortune which the bounty of Providence, through the generosity of nature, has visited upon them. It is altogether a good custom. It has the sanction of antiquity and the approbation of our religious convictions. In acknowledging the receipt of divine favor, in contemplating the blessings which have been bestowed upon us, we shall reveal the spiritual strength of the nation…Ways have been revealed to us by which we could perform very great service through the giving of friendly counsel, through the extension of financial assistance, and through the exercise of a spirit of neighborly kindliness to less favored peoples. We should give thanks for the power which has been given into our keeping, with which we have been able to render these services to the rest of mankind…As the nation has prospered let all the people show that they are worthy to prosper by rededicating America to the service of God and man.”

Calvin Coolidge, excerpts from the 1924 Thanksgiving Proclamation, November 5, 1924

Our thanks go out to all our readers, fellow Coolidgeans, and especially to everyone who helped bring Salient Cal’s America: Reappraising the Harding & Coolidge Era to final completion on the centennial year Americans chose decisively to return Coolidge to Presidential leadership in his own right. A gratitude-filled Thanksgiving to everyone in Coolidge Country!