[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 182 (Friday, September 19, 2003)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 54977-54978]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-24159]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 68, No. 182 / Friday, September 19, 2003 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 54977]]


                Proclamation 7705 of September 16, 2003

                
Citizenship Day and Constitution Week, 2003

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                In the summer of 1787, representatives from the States 
                met in Philadelphia to establish a new Constitution 
                that would unite America. They intended the 
                Constitution to achieve six purposes: ``to form a more 
                perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic 
                Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote 
                the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of 
                Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.'' Their work 
                was successful and enduring. For more than two 
                centuries, the American people have honored the 
                foresight and wisdom of the Framers by respecting and 
                defending our Constitution.

                Our Constitution and our country have grown stronger 
                over the last 216 years--through wars, searing internal 
                conflicts, and great social, economic, and 
                technological change. In the last 2 years, America has 
                again been tested, this time by terrorist attacks 
                designed to strike at our people, our institutions, and 
                our constitutional government. In the wake of those 
                attacks, we have renewed and strengthened our 
                commitment to a more perfect Union and common defense, 
                to justice and domestic tranquility, to the general 
                welfare and the blessings of liberty.

                On Citizenship Day and during Constitution Week, we 
                remember those who have fought and those who have died 
                to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. We 
                recall and reiterate the vow of President Abraham 
                Lincoln that these ``dead shall not have died in vain--
                that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of 
                freedom--and that government of the people, by the 
                people, for the people, shall not perish from the 
                earth.''

                In remembrance of the signing of the Constitution and 
                in recognition of the Americans who strive to uphold 
                the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, the 
                Congress, by joint resolution of February 29, 1952 (36 
                U.S.C. 106, as amended), designated September 17 as 
                ``Citizenship Day,'' and by joint resolution of August 
                2, 1956 (36 U.S.C. 108, as amended), requested that the 
                President proclaim the week beginning September 17 and 
                ending September 23 of each year as ``Constitution 
                Week.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the 
                United States of America, do hereby proclaim September 
                17, 2003, as Citizenship Day, and September 17 through 
                September 23, 2003, as Constitution Week. I encourage 
                Federal, State, and local officials, as well as leaders 
                of civic, social, and educational organizations, to 
                conduct ceremonies and programs to celebrate our 
                Constitution and reaffirm our commitment as citizens to 
                this great Nation.

[[Page 54978]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                sixteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand three, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and twenty-eighth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)B

[FR Doc. 03-24159
Filed 9-18-03; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P