[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 46 (Wednesday, March 9, 2011)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 12821-12822]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-5550]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 46 / Wednesday, March 9, 2011 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 12821]]


                Proclamation 8636 of March 4, 2011

                
150th Anniversary of the Inauguration of Abraham 
                Lincoln

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                President Abraham Lincoln is revered in American 
                history as the leader who held together a fractured 
                country and liberated millions from slavery. His words 
                are memorized by America's schoolchildren, and his name 
                is synonymous with freedom and unity. One hundred fifty 
                years ago, on March 4, 1861, this self-taught man, 
                rugged rail-splitter, and humble lawyer from 
                Springfield, Illinois, was sworn in as our Nation's 
                16th President under an unfinished dome of the United 
                States Capitol, with the storm clouds of civil war 
                gathering.

                President Lincoln reminded us in his Inaugural Address 
                that America's Union was much older than the 
                Constitution itself, and that our national fabric had 
                been stitched together by shared memories and common 
                hopes. As we observe the 150th anniversary of his 
                Inauguration, we reflect on his unceasing belief and 
                our enduring faith that we remain one Nation and one 
                people, sharing a bond as Americans that will never 
                break.

                Through simple eloquence and humble leadership marked 
                by profound wisdom--both on his Inauguration day and 
                throughout the coming conflict--President Lincoln 
                charted a course to transcend our discord and bind the 
                wounds of a severed country. From the principles he set 
                forth in the Emancipation Proclamation to his 
                transformative address on the fields of Gettysburg, 
                President Lincoln showed us how to preserve and perfect 
                ``the last, best hope of Earth.'' His actions and his 
                memory enabled America to move beyond a young 
                collection of States to become a free and unified 
                Nation, striving for the promises and principles for 
                which so many fought and died.

                Our revered 16th President taught us that we are more 
                than North and South, black and white--we are one, and 
                we are all Americans. The forces that divide us are not 
                stronger than the forces that unite us, and the ``new 
                birth of freedom'' President Lincoln called for still 
                echoes in each of our hearts. Today, we live in the 
                Union he saved, inheritors of the freedoms and progress 
                for which he served. Through the ages, Abraham Lincoln 
                calls us to take a renewed devotion to the unfinished 
                work remaining before our Nation--joining together 
                across all divides to ensure that ``government of the 
                people, by the people, for the people'' endures in our 
                time.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the 
                United States, do hereby proclaim March 4, 2011, as a 
                day to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the 
                Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. I call upon all 
                Americans to observe this day with appropriate 
                programs, ceremonies, and activities that honor his 
                memory and uphold the principles he so nobly advanced.

[[Page 12822]]

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

[FR Doc. 2011-5550
Filed 3-8-11; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-W1-P