Written Address to the Nation on the Tercentenary of Landing of Pilgrims at Plymouth

My Fellow Countrymen:

December 21 next will mark the tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620. The day will be becomingly celebrated at Plymouth under the auspices of the Plymouth Pilgrim Tecentenary [sic] Commission and at other localities in' Massachusetts. While this is proper and praiseworthy, it seems to me that the influences which the ideals and principles of the Pilgrims with respect to civil liberty and human rights have had upon the formation and growth of our institutions and upon our development and progress as a nation merit more than a local expression of our obligation, and make fitting a nationwide observance of the day.

I, therefore, suggest and request that the 21st of December next 6e observed throughout the Union with special patriotic services, in order that the great events in American history that have resulted from the landing of these hardy and courageous navigators and colonists may be accentuated to the present generation of American citizens. Especially do I recommend that the day be fittingly observed in the universities, colleges and schools of our country, to the end that salutary and patriotic lessons may be drawn from the fortitude and perseverance and the ideals of this little band of church-men and -women who established on this continent the first self-determined government based on the great principle of just law and its equal application to all, and thus planted the seeds from which has sprung the mighty nation.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done in the District of Columbia, this fourth day of August, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the One Hundred and Forty-fifth.

WOODROW WILSON