144 THANKSGIVING DAY. [CHAP. XI. 



many hotels and taverns, newspapers of all shades of opinion are 

 taken in just as in our great club-houses in London, affording 

 opportunities of knowing what can be said on all sides of every 

 question. I have since learnt from correspondents, that, in a 

 period of political excitement, the people in many parts of Massa 

 chusetts have begun to engage different lecturers to explain to 

 them the opposite facts, views, and arguments adduced for and 

 against the chief subjects under discussion. 



Nov. 27. This day, Thanksgiving Day, and the 4th of July, 

 Independence Day, are the only two holidays in the American 

 calendar. The Governor has, they say, as usual, made a bad 

 guess in regard to weather, for there is a pelting rain. It was 

 indeed ascertained by actual measurement at Cambridge, that in 

 nineteen hours between yesterday evening and to-day, at four 

 o clock, there has fallen no less than four and a half inches of 

 rain, or one-eighth part of the average of the whole year, which 

 amounts to thirty-six inches at Boston. By this unlucky accident 

 many a family gathering has been interrupted, and relatives have 

 been unable to come in from the country to join a merry meeting, 

 corresponding to that of an English Christmas Day. Many a 

 sermon, also, carefully prepared for the occasion, has been preached 

 to empty pews ; but the newspapers inform us, that some of 

 these effusions will be repeated on Sunday next. Sixteen states 

 have now adopted this New England custom of appointing a day 

 for thanksgiving, and it is spreading fast, having already reached 

 South Carolina, and even Louisiana. A month before, I had 

 heard with interest the Governor s proclamation, read in all the 

 churches, full of good feeling and good sense. He called on the 

 people of the state, now that the harvest was gathered in, to 

 praise the God of Heaven for his bounties, and in their cheerful 

 family circles to render to Him a tribute of thanksgiving for His 

 goodness : 



&quot; Let us praise Him, that, under His protecting Providence, the institu 

 tions of state, of religion, of learning and education, established by the 

 prudence and wisdom of our fathers, under which their children have been 

 prosperous and happy, have come down to us unimpaired and in full 

 vigor : 



&quot; That the various classes of our citizens, under the mild and equal 



