![]() ![]() Access hundreds of hours of commercial-free series and specials with HISTORY Vault.This is a second in a series about wallet-giving traditions. The skeletons and organs of turkeys bred for consumption are incapable of supporting extreme weights, and most of the reprieved turkeys die prematurely within the following year. When then asked about the fate of the 55-pound turkey he was just given, Reagan joked, “I’ll pardon him.”Īlthough the National Thanksgiving Turkey and its alternate (sent in case the primary turkey can’t fulfill its duties-mainly, staying alive to make it to the presentation ceremony) now receive stays of execution, their remaining days do not last too long. ![]() During the throes of the Iran-Contra scandal in 1987, Reagan sidestepped reporters’ questions about whether he planned to pardon any of his aides accused of wrongdoing. President Ronald Reagan and the 1988 annual Pardon of the Thanksgiving Turkey.Īlthough newspapers in 1963 reported that “Merciful President Pardons Turkey,” the first president to actually use the word “pardon” at the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation may have been Ronald Reagan, albeit as a quip. Ten days before Thanksgiving in 1953, National Turkey Federation president Roscoe Hill presented a live 39-pound turkey to President Dwight Eisenhower, who hoped Hill would kill, freeze and return the gobbler to the White House “in plenty of time because I hope to spend Thanksgiving with my youngsters and I want to take him along.” In 1948 Truman told reporters that the turkeys given to him “would come in handy” for the 25 people expected for dinner at his Independence, Missouri, home that Christmas. In fact, not only did the turkeys given to Truman and some of his successors fail to receive clemency, they suffered a much different fate by ending up on the presidential dinner table. The misinformation is so prevalent that the Truman Library issued a statement stating that its staff “has found no documents, speeches, newspaper clippings, photographs, or other contemporary records in our holdings which refer to Truman pardoning a turkey that he received as a gift in 1947, or at any other time during his Presidency.” While Truman began the ritual of appearing with the gift turkeys in staged photo ops, he is erroneously credited with starting the presidential pardon tradition. That year, the groups delivered a 42-pound Texas tom to President Harry Truman for Christmas. Beginning in 1946, a pair of poultry industry groups-the National Turkey Federation and the Poultry and Egg National Board-assumed the duties of presenting presidents with turkeys for the holidays. He sent birds to presidents of both parties until his death in 1913. Although a staunch Republican, Vose was non-partisan when it came to turkeys. Grant, Rhode Island poultry dealer Horace Vose began to send plump turkeys to the White House for Thanksgiving dinners. ![]() Listening to Tad’s pleas to spare the turkey from his culinary fate, the Great Emancipator granted a reprieve and freed the bird.Ī decade later during the administration of President Ulysses S. WATCH VIDEO: How the Thanksgiving Turkey Ends Up at Your Table Abraham Lincoln Spares Turkey at ChristmasĪ story is told that while Abraham Lincoln occupied the White House, his young son Tad grew so close to a turkey destined for Christmas dinner that he named him Jack and led him around on a leash like a pet. ![]()
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