Then, in more recent times, presidents have made a big media production out of officially pardoning the turkeys (who then reportedly live out their days on George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon).įor a photo-op, Mr. Over the years, several presidents declined to feast on the birds they were given. To a turkey.Įvery president since Harry Truman has been given a live bird for Thanksgiving by the National Turkey Federation. For, on Wednesday, President Obama issued a pardon. He is, (though a little vain and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for that,) a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards, who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.Īmericans never went so far as the Aztecs, who worshiped the bird as a minor deity, but there has nevertheless been a sad decline. For in Truth the Turk’y is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. I am on this account, not displeas’d that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turk’y. And let’s not forget Benjamin Franklin’s droll defense of the inelegant depiction of the eagle on Congress’s first official seal: But even the fattened farm animal has its virtues. The wild turkey known to our founding fathers - or to modern-day hunters - was not quite the same thing as what most of us eat each Thanksgiving. Particularly, in calling politicians “turkeys,” I mean no offense to the turkey. President Obama, last week, provided a grand example - but before I get to the president, pardon me a digression. (Yes, a grouping of turkeys is called a “rafter.” Hey: I didn’t make this up.) They stand to the heraldic eagle as, well, just a rafter of turkeys. And yet, for all their alleged expertise, they somehow fall short. Politicians are supposed to know something about symbolism.