[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 125, 112th Congress, 1st Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
Proclamation 8654 of April 12, 2011

Civil War Sesquicentennial
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
On April 12, 1861, artillery guns boomed across Charleston Harbor in an
attack on Fort Sumter. These were the first shots of a civil war that
would stretch across 4 years of tremendous sacrifice, with over 3
million Americans serving in battles whose names reach across our
history. The meaning of freedom and the very soul of our Nation were
contested in the hills of Gettysburg and the roads of Antietam, the
fields of Manassas and the woods of the Wilderness. When the terrible
and costly struggle was over, a new meaning was conferred on our

[[Page 1998]]

country's name--the United States of America. We might be tested, but
whatever our fate might be, it would be as one Nation.
The Civil War was a conflict characterized by legendary acts of bravery
in the face of unprecedented carnage. Those who lived in these times--
from the resolute African American soldier volunteering his life for the
liberation of his fellow man to the determined President secure in the
rightness of his cause--brought a new birth of freedom to a country
still mending its divisions.
On this milestone in American history, we remember the great cost of the
unity and liberty we now enjoy, causes for which so many have laid down
their lives. Though America would struggle to extend equal rights to all
our citizens and carry out the letter of our laws after the war, the
sacrifices of soldiers, sailors, Marines, abolitionists, and countless
other Americans would bring a renewed significance to the liberties
established by our Founders. When the guns fell silent and the fate of
our Nation was secured, blue and gray would unite under one flag and the
institution of slavery would be forever abolished from our land.
As a result of the sacrifice of millions, we would extend the promise
and freedom enshrined in our Constitution to all Americans. Through the
13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, we would prohibit slavery and
indentured servitude, establish equal protection under the law, and
extend the right to vote to former slaves. We would reach for a more
perfect Union together as Americans, bound by the collective threads of
history and our common hopes for the future.
We are the United States of America--we have been tested, we have
repaired our Union, and we have emerged stronger. As we respond to the
critical challenges of our time, let us do so as adherents to the
enduring values of our founding and stakeholders in the promise of a
shared tomorrow.
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 April 12, 2011, as the
first day of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. I call upon all Americans
to observe this Sesquicentennial with appropriate programs, ceremonies,
and activities that honor the legacy of freedom and unity that the Civil
War bestowed upon our Nation.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of
April, 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.
BARACK OBAMA