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| "The Goddess of Thanksgiving as she flies over prosperous country on her noble steed the turkey" |
The Oshkosh Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin), November 25, 1899, page 12.
The Presidential pardon of the White
House Thanksgiving Turkey has been an annual fixture of American pop-culture
since President George H. W. Bush formalized the event in 1989. But he wasn’t the first President to spare the
life of a turkey.
President Lincoln once spared the
life of a turkey his son Tad had become attached to, but it was a Christmas
Turkey, not Thanksgiving,[i] so
arguably it doesn’t count.
At a public event days before his
death in 1963, President Kennedy spared the life of a turkey presented by the
National Turkey Federation, saying, “Let’s Keep Him Going.” Although the President did not characterize
it as such, reporters covering the event referred to it as a “reprieve”[ii]
or “pardon.”[iii]
According to the White House
Historical Association, First Daughter Patrician Nixon sent a turkey to a
children’s farm and First Lady Rosalyn Carter sent one to a small zoo, but
without direct Presidential involvement. The Reagan administration routinely sent their official White House turkeys to a farm to live out their days, but it was done without
public ceremony or official proclamation. George
H. W. Bush began the practice of issuing official turkey pardons during the
annual official White House turkey presentation ceremonies in 1989.[iv] It has since become a beloved annual
tradition.
But not everyone is a fan. In 2014, Amy Ralston Povah penned an Op-Ed
piece for the San Francisco Chronicle. “Instead of sleepwalking through the
obligatory turkey ‘pardon’ on the White House Lawn this year,” she wished that
“President Obama would grant some real pardons – to humans.” Ms. Povah had, herself, been the recipient of
clemency from President Clinton nine years into a twenty-four year sentence
related to her husband’s MDMA (ecstacy) trafficking activities.
It was an interesting proposal, but
it would not have been anything new. It
would have been a return to the past. What’s
left out of most discussions of the history of the traditional Thanksgiving
pardon for turkeys is the fact that it may have been modeled on a much older
tradition of granting Thanksgiving pardons to humans.
Humanitarian Pardons
The tradition appears to have begun,
appropriately enough, in the Massachusetts, the state that invented
Thanksgiving. Governor Nathaniel P.
Banks granted the first Thanksgiving pardon in 1860.
As an inducement to good behavior, the Governor and Council
gave to the Warden the privilege of recommending two convicts for pardon, in
cases where very marked mental or moral improvement had been exhibited. One was pardoned on Thanksgiving day, the
other on New Year’s. This practice, if
continued, will enlist all the inmates in the work of promoting good order in
the prison.
Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), January 10, 1861, page 1.
The practice was continued, and he
was remembered years later as the originator of the Thanksgiving pardon.
During the administration of Governor Banks the practice was
introduced by the warden of the State Prison at Charlestown of pardoning on
Thanksgiving Day a limited number of convicts.
Rutland Weekly Herald (Rutland, Vermont), December 14, 1865, page 4.
There is a curious custom in Massachusetts which dates back
to the time when Nathaniel P. Banks was governor of that State, whereby each
succeeding Governor has been called upon . . . to pardon on Thanksgiving Day
two prisoners undergoing imprisonment for life. . . .
The custom seems to have arisen from the idea that
Thanksgiving Day ought to be signalized by a supreme act of mercy, and that men
imprisoned for life for crimes falling short and in some cases barely escaping,
through the skill of their lawyers, the death penalty were the most fitting
recipients of this act of the executive favor.
The Baltimore Sun, December 24, 1891, page 2.
American Presidents eventually adopted
the practice. It’s not clear when it
started, but it was considered customary before 1880.
A Presidential Pardon.
Boston, Dec. 5. [Note: Thanksgiving fell on December 5th
that year]
The President of the United states has pardoned Frederick W.
Broders, formerly clerk in the Boston post office, who was sentenced oct. 23d, 1876,
to four years in East Cambridge jail for embezzling valuable letters. The pardon is granted on good reasons set
forth in recommendations of the United States district attorney.
Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut), December 6, 1878, page 3.
A THANKSGIVING PARDON
President Hayes, in accordance with the custom at
Thanksgiving season, signed to-day the pardon of the United States convict who
will be liberated to-morrow from the Albany Penitentiary, where he is serving a
sentence for larceny. His name is Edward
F. Peck, and it is claimed on his behalf that he committed the crime when he
was intoxicated.
Chicago Tribune,
November 27, 1879, page 2.
Governors in other states followed
suit.
Thanksgiving pardons: Thomas Reed, of Wayne county, and James
Hallanan, of Van Wert county.
Unsatisfactory evidence in the case of the former and consumption with
the latter are the causes.
Summit County Beacon (Akron, Ohio), December 8, 1880, page 3.
Gov. Dockery will to0morrow grant three pardons to convicts
in the state penitentiary, as provided by law, and which are known as the
Thanksgiving pardons. Nine convicts
receive executive clemency in this manner annually, three each on the occasions
of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Fourth of July.
Only long-termers are chosen for these pardons.
St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 28, 1901, page 3.
In accordance with the custom which has obtained in the State
almost from time out of mind, Gov. Frazier has granted a number of Thanksgiving
pardons and commutations.
The Tennessean
(Nashville, Tennessee), November 24, 1908, page 8.
In Tennessee, the purpose behind some
of the pardons was to get support for the creation of juvenile reform schools.
In the recent campaign the Governor declared with great
emphasis upon every stump in Tennessee where he spoke that it was his intention
to pardon every boy sent to the penitentiary or the work-house unless the State
provided a reformatory for juvenile offenders.
Probably no declaration of Gov. Frazier’s elicited such general and
hearty applause as this statement did at every place where it was made.
The Tennessean
(Nashville, Tennessee), November 24, 1908, page 8.
But not everyone was a fan.
Even in Massachusetts, the cradle of
the Thanksgiving pardon, there was resistance as early as 1891.
The strangest fact about this matter is that there has been
in all this time no law of the State authorizing the annual release of
prisoners of the highest grade held in custody under sentence of the courts. .
. .
One of the prisoners pardoned and released this year on
Thanksgiving Day was known as “the Pelham murderer,” and the grace extended to
him seems to have aroused public interest in a custom which has nothing but
sentimental considerations to rest upon, and which it is now beginning to be
urged would be “more honored in the breach than the observance.”
. . . “The people,” says the Springfield Republican, “may
very propery challenge an unwritten law of this character. It has become a machine for nullifying the
action of the courts and interfering with the execution of justice. . . . The
Republican calls upon Governor Russell and his council to wipe out the rule
which compels the granting of two pardons of this character on Thanksgiving
Day, and let the law henceforth take its course.”
The Baltimore Sun, December 24, 1891, page 2.
Resistance was not futile. Massachusetts discontinued the practice in
1893.
These Thanksgiving pardons . . . were continued until 1893,
the last year of Gov. Russell’s administration, when the discontinuance of the
Thanksgiving pardons was announced one week before the holiday.
Boston Globe,
May 21, 1905, page 41.
Based on the frequency of “hits” on
searches for “thanksgiving pardon” on a digital newspaper archive, the practice
of Thanksgiving pardons appears to have peaked sometime around 1910.
In some years, some Governors simply
chose to forego the pardon.
Chattanooga Star (Chattanooga, Tennessee), November 29, 1907, page 2.
In Texas, the Governor granted no
pardons for two years in a row.
. . . No Thanksgiving pardons were granted by the governor
last year.
Austin American-Statesman (Austin, Texas), November 9, 1924, page 16.
But political winds shift
quickly. In 1925, Miriam A. “Ma”
Ferguson, the first female Governor of Texas, granted 105 pardons on Thanksgiving Day.
Galveston Daily News, November 16, 1925, page 1.
But some things never change. Shortly after issuing her list of pardons, the Governor left town for College Station to see the
Texas-Texas A&M football game.[v]
Even as the tradition of
Thanksgiving pardons dwindled, it did not disappear entirely. In 1942, for example, the New Jersey State
Court of Pardons issued a list of eighty-two prisoners to receive Thanksgiving
pardons. Even Governor Lester Maddox of
Georgia (more famous for less-humanitarian acts) brought Thanksgiving pardons back to
Georgia in 1968.
Several hundred inmates of Georgia prisons will be released
the day before Thanksgiving, State Pardons and Paroles Board chairman J. O.
Partain Jr. said Wednesday, but the number will be smaller than last year’s
Christmas release.
Gov. Lester Maddox initiated the mass release program last
year to demonstrate the state’s concern to aid in rehabilitation by giving young
prisoners a chance to enroll in school in the fall and allow adult prisoners to
be home for Christmas.
The Atlanta Constitution, October 17, 1968, page 8.
President John F. Kennedy may have
been generally aware of the fading tradition of Thanksgiving pardons. In 1962, he issued five Thanksgiving Day
pardons, most notably to Matthew J. Connelly, Appointment Secretary to
President Harry S. Truman, who had been convicted of “conspiring to defraud the
government, to commit bribery and perjury, and to violate the Internal Revenue
Laws.”
 |
|
Times Democrat
(Orangeburg, South Carolina), November 23, 1962, page 11.
|
One year later, a few days before his
own death, Kennedy would grant a “reprieve” to his White House turkey, the
first President since Lincoln known to have “pardoned” a turkey, although
Lincoln’s bird was just a Christmas turkey.
A Turkey Pardon?
In 1857, the Governor of New York
released a man known as “Tom Hand” (real name, Jacob Shuster) from Sing Sing
prison. His wife had lobbied for his
release, despite the fact that she was the principle accuser in the case that lead
to his arrest and conviction on counterfeiting charges. He returned to his home in Philadelphia on
Thanksgiving Day,[vi]
suggesting, perhaps, that although the annual practice of granting Thanksgiving
pardons started in Massachusetts in 1861, the impulse to pardon on Thanksgiving may have been even older.
Ironically, “Tom Hand” had previously
served time in a Federal penitentiary for stealing “the Government jewels from
the Patent Office in Washington,” including a “flask of ottar of roses,
presented to the United States Government by the Sultan of Turkey” (his sweet
smell was apparently a factor in solving the case). During that first term in prison, his wife “travelled
repeatedly to Washington, and brought every influence to bear upon the
President to obtain a pardon, but without success,” [vii]
thereby depriving history of what would arguably have been the first
Thanksgiving “Turkey” pardon.
Turkey Pardons
Lincoln
In the days before Christmas of 1863,
with the nation mired in a Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln took time out
from a Cabinet meeting to spare the life of his Christmas turkey.
 |
Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, Oregon), February 6, 1916, page 44.
|
A friend of the Lincoln family once sent a fine live turkey
to the White House, with the request that it should be served on the
President’s Christmas table. But
Christmas was then several weeks off, and in the interim Tad won the confidence
and esteem of the turkey, as he did the affection of every living thing with
which he came in contact. “Jack,” as the
fowl had been named, was an object of great interest to Tad, who fed him,
petted him, and began to teach him to follow his young master. One day, just before Christmas, 1863, while
the President was engaged with one of his Cabinet ministers on an affair of
great moment, Tad burst into the room like a bomb-shell, sobbing and crying
with rage and indignation. The turkey
was about to be killed. Tad had procured
from the executioner a stay or proceedings while he flew to lay the case before
the President. Jack must not be killed;
it was wicked.
“But,” said the President, “Jack was sent here to be killed
and eaten for this very Christmas.”
‘I can’t help it,” roared Tad, between his sobs. “He’s a good turkey, and I don’t want him
killed.”
The President of the United states, pausing in the midst of
his business, took a card and wrote on it an order of reprieve. The turkey’s life was spared, and Tad,
seizing the precious bit of paper, fled to set him at liberty.
“A Boy in the White House,” Noah
Brooks, St. Nicholas Magazine, Volume
10, Number 1, November 1882, page 59.
With his life spared, “Jack” the
Christmas turkey settled into life as a White House pet, and might have voted
in the 1864 Presidential election if not for his young age.
In the course of time Jack became very tame, and roamed at
will about the premises. He was a prime
favorite with the soldiers – a company of Pennsylvania “Bucktails” – who were
on guard at the house. In the summer of
1864, the election for President being then pending, a commission was sent on
from Pennsylvania to take the votes of the Pennsylvania soldiers in
Washington. While the “Bucktails” were
voting, Tad rushed into his fathers’ room, the windows of which looked out on
the lawn, crying, “Oh, the soldiers are voting for Lincoln for President!” He dragged his father to the window and
insisted that he should see this remarkable thing. The turkey, now grown tall and free-mannered,
stalked about among the soldiers, regarding the proceedings with much interest.
“Does Jack vote?” asked Lincoln, with a roguish twinkle of his
eye.
Tad paused for a moment, nonplussed at the unexpected
question; then rallying, he replied, “Why, no, of course not. He isn’t of age yet.”
“A Boy in the White House,” Noah
Brooks, St. Nicholas Magazine, Volume
10, Number 1, November 1882, pages 59-60.
Kennedy
The next President known to have
spared the life of a turkey is President John F. Kennedy, just one more coincidence to add to the long list of “Weird
Coincidences Between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.”
Unlike Lincoln, however, Kennedy did
it in public as a photo-opportunity with the official White House turkey
donated by the National Turkey Federation.
He did not call it a “pardon,” but reporters covering the
event characterized it as a “reprieve” or a “pardon.”
 |
Courier-Journal
(Louisville, Kentucky), November 20, 1963, page 12.
|
 |
The Times
(Shreveport, Louisiana), November 20, 1963, page 5.
|
Reagan
According to the White House Historical
Association, First Daughter Patricia Nixon and First Lady Rosalyn Carter each
sent at least one White House turkey to a children’s farm or a zoo, and
President Reagan routinely sent his Thanksgiving birds to a farm, but without pomp
or circumstance or “official” pardons.
But in 1987, Reagan joked about his
willingness to pardon his turkey to deflect from answering a question about
pardoning the White House aides caught up in the Iran-Contra Affair. In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, rumors had been swirling that President Reagan
would announce pardons for Oliver North and others on Thanksgiving Day. When asked about those rumors during the
annual Rose Garden turkey presentation, President Reagan sidestepped the issue
with a joke.
A reporter first asked about what
would happen to the turkey, a 55-pounder named “Hawaiian Charlie.” Without reference to a pardon, a participant
in the ceremony (not the President) answered that it was slated to go to a pet
farm. ABC News reporter, Sam Donaldson,
then asked the President whether he would pardon the White House aides, to
which Reagan replied, “That’s a question no one can answer at this point.” When pressed for a further response, Regan
added, “If they’d have given me a different answer about Charlie and his
future, I would have pardoned him.”[viii]
Bush
His Vice President may have been
taking notes. Two years later, Vice
President Bush, now President Bush, granted the White House turkey a
“Presidential Pardon,”[ix]
sparking the annual tradition that survives to this day.
President Bush’s 1989 official pardon
may have been inspired by President Reagan’s off-the-cuff remark, but he could
also have been inspired by a less-well known turkey pardon that took place in
the intervening year. In 1988, Tommy
Thompson, the Governor of Wisconsin, officially pardoned a turkey involved in a turkey-flap at Lambeau Field.
The Green Bay Packers
On November 13, 1988, the 5-5
Indianapolis Colts visited Lambeau Field to take on the 2-8 Green Bay Packers. A beer vendor smuggled a turkey into the
stadium by hiding it in a beer truck, hid the turkey in his coat and dumped it
onto the field between the first and second quarters. It was widely seen at the time as commentary
on the Packers’ season. At halftime, Bob
Costas commented that “a fan, looking to show displeasure with the Packers
brought a turkey to Lambeau Field” (at the time, “turkey” was a ubiquitous
slang insult).
In the aftermath of the game, NFL
Films arranged for the Governor of Wisconsin to issue an official pardon to be
shown on one of its highlight shows, which the Packers coach, Lindy Infante,
found insulting.[x] The perpetrator was never caught, but the
case was finally solved when one of the co-conspirators confessed her role in
the affair after seeing a TV-news bit on the thirtieth-anniversary of the game.[xi]
Governor Tommy Thompson would later
serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services under George H. W. Bush’s
son, President George W. Bush. There’s
no indication that the appointment was payback for helping his father develop
the annual turkey-pardoning ceremony.
 |
| The First Thanksgiving pardon? Indianapolis News, November 29, 1900, page 15. |
 |
| No pardon at all. Indianapolis News, November 29, 1900, page 15. |
[i] “A
Boy in the White House,” Noah Brooks, St.
Nicholas Magazine, Volume 10, Number 1, November 1882, page 59-60. The author “was a journalist and frequent
visitor to the White House” who had befriended Lincoln in 1856. See, for example, http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/residents-visitors/notable-visitors/notable-visitors-noah-brooks-1830-1903/.
[ii]
United Press International, The Journal
Herald (Dayton, Ohio), November 20, 1963, page 6.
[iii]
Headline, The Courier-Journal (Louisville,
Kentucky), November 20, 1963, page 12.
[iv] “Pardoning
the Thanksgiving Turkey,” Betty C. Monkman, The White House Historical
Association. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/pardoning-the-thanksgiving-turkey
[v] Weekly Town Talk (Alexandria,
Louisiana), November 28, 1925, page 1.
[vi] Evening Star (Washington DC), May 9,
1857, page 1.
[vii] Evening Star (Washington DC), May 9,
1857, page 1.
[viii]
Reagan Library YouTube Channel, Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation to President
Reagan on November 23, 1987. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbUlM5ZAT_g
[ix]
The Bush Library YouTube Channel, MT154 Proclamation Signing and Presentation
of Thanksgiving Turkey – 17 November 1989, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1oUZkIjBaI
[x] Billings Gazette (Billings, Montana),
November 25, 1988, page 2.
[xi] “’Fowl’
play: Woman reveals truth about Lambeau Field turkey prank, WBAY, ABC 2 Green
Bay. https://www.wbay.com/content/news/Fowl-play-Woman-reveals-truth-about-Lambeau-Field-turkey-prank-503248001.html
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