[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 14 (Friday, January 23, 2009)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 4341-4342]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-1677]



[[Page 4339]]

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Part IV





The President





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Proclamation 8343--National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation, 2009
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  Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 14 / Friday, January 23, 2009 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 4341]]

                Proclamation 8343 of January 20, 2009

                
National Day of Renewal And Reconciliation, 2009

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                As I take the sacred oath of the highest office in the 
                land, I am humbled by the responsibility placed upon my 
                shoulders, renewed by the courage and decency of the 
                American people, and fortified by my faith in an 
                awesome God.

                We are in the midst of a season of trial. Our Nation is 
                being tested, and our people know great uncertainty. 
                Yet the story of America is one of renewal in the face 
                of adversity, reconciliation in a time of discord, and 
                we know that there is a purpose for everything under 
                heaven.

                On this Inauguration Day, we are reminded that we are 
                heirs to over two centuries of American democracy, and 
                that this legacy is not simply a birthright--it is a 
                glorious burden. Now it falls to us to come together as 
                a people to carry it forward once more.

                So in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, let us 
                remember that: ``The mystic chords of memory, 
                stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to 
                every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad 
                land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when 
                again touched, as surely they will be, by the better 
                angels of our nature.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the 
                United States of America, by the authority vested in me 
                by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do 
                hereby proclaim January 20, 2009, a National Day of 
                Renewal and Reconciliation, and call upon all of our 
                citizens to serve one another and the common purpose of 
                remaking this Nation for our new century.

[[Page 4342]]

                 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. E9-1677
Filed 1-22-09; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3195-W9-P