Proclamation 3288—Citizenship Day and Constitution Week, 1959

Whereas our freedom as individuals and our growth as a Nation have their beginnings in the Constitution of the United States, signed at Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, the principles of which have been sustained and defended, in peace and in war, by generations of dedicated citizens; and

Whereas it is fitting that all citizens, both native-born and naturalized, observe the birthday of the Constitution and reaffirm their determination to keep faith with the Founding Fathers by giving life and meaning to the ideals of the Constitution; and

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

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

Whereas the aforesaid resolutions of the Congress 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, 1959; and I urge Federal, State, and local officials, as well as all religious, civic, educational, and other organizations, to plan appropriate ceremonies on Citizenship Day to develop a better understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

I also designate the period beginning September 17 and ending September 23, 1959, 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.

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 twenty-fifth day of April in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-third.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

By the President:

CHRISTIAN A. HERTER,

Secretary of State