On Nov 6, 5:52 pm, Bob LeChevalier <loj...@lojban.org> wrote:

Wide Eyed in Wonder <writing...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Illinois - 21st state
State Motto: "State Sovereignty - National Union"

Thanksgiving Proclamation - 1906

"THE PRESIDENT of the United States having by proclamation designated
Thursday, November twenty-ninth, nineteen hundred and six, as a
national day of Thanksgiving,

"Now, Therefore, I, CHARLES S. DENEEN, Governor of the State of
Illinois, do hereby urge upon our citizens the setting apart of that
day for the returning of thanks for the abundance with which we have
been blessed by Providence during the past year. Not only has our
material prosperity been unbounded, but the closing year has been one
of peace throughout the State and Nation. The blessings which flow
from the maintenance of social order are more and more appreciated by
our citizens, and higher standards of individual and official
integrity are constantly demanded. The truth that, along with the
privileges of free institutions, go corresponding obligations,
responsibilities and duties, is growing better understood, and to
these, through the peaceful discipline of an orderly social life, our
citizens are learning more and more readily to respond.

"For these manifold social and material blessings, we as a people
should be grateful, and the observance of Thanksgiving Day should be
but the natural outpouring of our hearts in gratitude to the Bountiful
Giver of the harvest and of the liberty and enlightenment which He has
made our portion as a state and nation.

"IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be
affixed the Great Seal of State, this twelfth day of November, Anno
Domini nineteen hundred and six."

No mention of God in that statement. The governor of Illinois does
seem to take considerable pain to thank Rhode Island, however, in
talking of being blessed by Providence during the prior year.

Oh? Is Rhode Island the Giver of the harvest? I didn't know that.