The Week [excerpt]

President Roosevelt’s proclamation appointing November 28 as a day of national thanksgiving departs somewhat from established phraseology. In place of the usual formulas, a feeling reference to the death of President McKinley is followed by the statement that “the manner of his death should awaken in the breasts of our people a keen anxiety for the country, and at the same time a resolute purpose not to be driven by any calamity from the path of strong, orderly, popular liberty which as a nation we have thus far safely trod.” Another characteristically direct statement concludes the document: “We can best prove our thankfulness to the Almighty by the way in which on this earth and at this time each of us does his duty to his fellow-men.”