Every year in this blog we pause to offer thanks to our clients. To whistleblowers. And to prosecutors, judges and special agents who each contribute in their own way to bring justice to this nation.
This year is no different. Once again, we take pause to say thank you to all of those who make our work worthwhile.
Injustice and fraud is everywhere. At times, it seems that we cannot keep up. Like the child’s tale of the little Dutch boy with his finger in the leaking dike, we often feel there are too many leaks and not enough fingers.
Working alone, we can never stop fraud, corporate greed and corruption. But with you as our partners, we can and do make a difference. So once again, thank you for all that you have done and do on a daily basis. May your home be filled with laughter and love and may you have a happy Holiday Season and a healthy and prosperous New Year.
Now for something a bit different, I learned today that although George Washington proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving, it was President Abraham Lincoln who fixed the day as the last Thursday in November and who made the day a national holiday.
That was in 1863, a period of great turmoil. We were divided in a Civil War then, much like many in our country seem alienated or divided today. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I will reprint Lincoln’s words to the nation.
Peace be with all of you.
Brian Mahany and all of us at MahanyLaw
“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. 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. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
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