A Thanksgiving Resolution

“The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.” -H.U. Westermayer

On November 1, 1777, as recorded in the Journals of Congress, Richard Henry Lee along with the committee of Samuel Adams and General Daniel Roberdeau, recommend a resolution setting apart: 

Thursday , the 18th of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with sincere acknowledgements and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, where by they had forfeited ever favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance.