[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6643-6644]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   PROCLAIMING CASIMIR PULASKI TO BE AN HONORARY CITIZEN POSTHUMOUSLY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 78, S.J. Res. 5.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the joint resolution by 
title.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A joint resolution (S.J. Res. 5) proclaiming Casimir 
     Pulaski to be an honorary citizen of the United States 
     posthumously.

  There being objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the joint 
resolution.

[[Page 6644]]


  Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent that the joint resolution be read a 
third time and passed; that the preamble be agreed to; the motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table; and that any statements relating to 
the joint resolution be printed in the Record, without intervening 
action or debate.
  The joint resolution (S.J. Res. 5) was ordered to be engrossed for a 
third reading, was read the third time, and passed.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The joint resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S.J. Res. 5

       Whereas Casimir Pulaski was a Polish military officer who 
     fought on the side of the American colonists against the 
     British in the American Revolutionary War;
       Whereas Benjamin Franklin recommended that General George 
     Washington accept Casimir Pulaski as a volunteer in the 
     American Cavalry and said that Pulaski was ``renowned 
     throughout Europe for the courage and bravery he displayed in 
     defense of his country's freedom'';
       Whereas after arriving in America, Casimir Pulaski wrote to 
     General Washington, ``I came here, where freedom is being 
     defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it.'';
       Whereas the first military engagement of Casimir Pulaski 
     with the British was on September 11, 1777, at the Battle of 
     Brandywine, and his courageous charge in this engagement 
     averted a disastrous defeat of the American Cavalry and saved 
     the life of George Washington;
       Whereas on September 15, 1777, George Washington elevated 
     Casimir Pulaski to the rank of Brigadier General of the 
     American Cavalry;
       Whereas Casimir Pulaski formed the Pulaski Cavalry Legion, 
     and in February 1779, this legion ejected the British 
     occupiers from Charleston, South Carolina;
       Whereas in October 1779, Casimir Pulaski mounted an assault 
     against British forces in Savannah, Georgia;
       Whereas on the morning of October 9, 1779, Casimir Pulaski 
     was mortally wounded and was taken aboard the American ship 
     USS Wasp, where he died at sea on October 11, 1779;
       Whereas before the end of 1779, the Continental Congress 
     resolved that a monument should be erected in honor of 
     Casimir Pulaski;
       Whereas in 1825, General Lafayette laid the cornerstone for 
     the Casimir Pulaski monument in Savannah, Georgia; and
       Whereas in 1929, Congress passed a resolution recognizing 
     October 11 of each year as Pulaski Day in the United States: 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, That Casimir 
     Pulaski is proclaimed to be an honorary citizen of the United 
     States posthumously.

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