[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 3 (Monday, January 25, 1993)]
[Page 82]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6525--National Day of Fellowship and Hope

 January 20, 1993

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    As I assume the office of President, I stand humbly before God and 
ask for His guidance and blessings for our great Nation. At the same 
time, I ask the citizens of America to join me in renewing our 
commitment to the American ideals of fellowship and hope.
    The obligation of a President is more than the fulfillment of a set 
of constitutional duties. The President must carry the mantle of hope 
and optimism in the battle against fear and despair. I ask that every 
American help as we attempt, in the words of the Reverend Martin Luther 
King, Jr., ``to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope'' and 
``transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful 
symphony of brotherhood.''
    We must always remember that the essence of our democracy is the 
recognition that we are united in a common purpose, working toward a 
common good.
    In renewing our commitment to fellowship throughout our great 
Nation, we recall the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, who said on the 
occasion of his first inaugural address, ``Let us, then, fellow 
citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social 
intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even 
life itself are but dreary things.''
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, 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 22, 1993, a 
National Day of Fellowship and Hope and call upon the citizens of this 
great Nation to reflect on their obligations to their fellow Americans 
and look forward to the challenges of the new year with a spirit of 
hope.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day 
of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and seventeenth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:33 a.m., January 21, 
1993]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on January 
22.