Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 86.djvu/1697

 86 STAT. ]

PROCLAMATION 4145-AUG. 3, 1972

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IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-two and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-seventh.

PROCLAMATION 4145

Citizenship Day and Constitution Week, 1972 By The President of The United States of America

August 3.1972

A Proclamation One hundred and eighty-five years ago a group of determined and purposeful men assembled in Philadelphia and signed the Constitution of the United States. They gave form to our ideals of self-government, and laid the foundation for a community of free people in which the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness could flourish.

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The world has changed greatly since then. But their work has endured, as a source of strength to America and of inspiration to the world. As a representative democracy, the United States has prospered beyond man's wildest dreams and has become a shining symbol of freedom for men and women everywhere. Within the framework of this fundamental law, our people enjoy the rights, the freedoms and the exercise of responsibilities to which people everywhere aspire. The Constitution of the United States is no mere impersonal doctrine. It is an instrument of our people. Its vitality and meaning depend upon the purpose and the energy of all of our citizens. President Grover Cleveland said: "I indulge in no mere figure of speech when I say that our nation * * * lives in us—in our hearts and minds and consciences. There it must find its nutriment or die. This thought more than any other presents to our minds the impressiveness and responsibility of American citizenship. The land we live in seems to be strong and active. But how fares the land that lives in us?" Today it is the land that lives in us which will determine the course of this Nation. On February 29, 1952, the Congress approved a joint resolution (66 Stat. 9) setting aside the seventeenth day of September of each year as

36 USC 153.

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