Lincoln, Jefferson and Thanksgiving's anti-slavery roots

Not everyone has been on board with the national holiday of Thanksgiving. I am not referring to the modern progressives who decry it as racist, but rather to our third president, Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson’s positions on slavery and Thanksgiving would lose out in the fullness of time, but his position on the separation of church and state fared better. 

With the nation ravaged by civil war, Lincoln pointed to the great blessings of everyday life still enjoyed by the nation, saying, "No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy."