Proclamation 3196—Citizenship Day and Constitution Week, 1957

Whereas, by a joint resolution approved February 29, 1952 (66 Stat. 9), the Congress of the United States has designated the seventeenth day of September of each year as Citizenship Day in commemoration of the signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787, and in recognition of all our citizens who have come of age and all who have been naturalized during the year; and

Whereas, by a joint resolution approved August 2, 1956 (70 Stat. 932), the Congress has requested the President to designate the week beginning September 17 of each year as Constitution Week, a time for the contemplation and observance of the historic acts which resulted in the formation of our Constitution; and

Whereas it is fitting that every citizen, native-born and naturalized, should reflect upon the vision and courage of those who created this historic and living document of human liberty for themselves and for the millions who later became citizens of this Nation; and

Whereas the aforesaid resolutions authorize the President to issue annually a proclamation calling for the observance of Citizenship Day and Constitution Week:

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, call upon the appropriate officials of the Government to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on Citizenship Day, September 17, 1957; and I urge Federal, State, and local officials, as well as all religious, civic, patriotic, educational, and other organizations, to arrange for appropriate ceremonies on Citizenship Day through which all our people may gain a better understanding of our rights and responsibilities as citizens of the United States.

I also designate the period beginning September 17 and ending September 23, 1957, as Constitution Week; and I urge the people of the United States to observe that week with appropriate ceremonies and activities in their schools and churches and in other suitable places, so that they may give solemn and grateful expressions of appreciation for that eventful week in September 1787 when our Constitution was signed, delivered to the Continental Congress, and made known to the people.

I further call upon all our citizens to renew and rededicate themselves to the Constitutional principles which guarantee our system of government by consent of the governed—the most cherished political possession of this Nation.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this 27th day of August in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-second.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

By the President:

JOHN FOSTER DULLES,

Secretary of State