Civil War Sesquicentennial

Proclamation 8654 of April 12, 2011

Civil War Sesquicentennial

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

On April 12, 1861, artillery guns boomed across
Charleston Harbor in an attack on Fort Sumter. These
were the first shots of a civil war that would stretch
across 4 years of tremendous sacrifice, with over 3
million Americans serving in battles whose names reach
across our history. The meaning of freedom and the very
soul of our Nation were contested in the hills of
Gettysburg and the roads of Antietam, the fields of
Manassas and the woods of the Wilderness. When the
terrible and costly struggle was over, a new meaning
was conferred on our country's name--the United States
of America. We might be tested, but whatever our fate
might be, it would be as one Nation.

The Civil War was a conflict characterized by legendary
acts of bravery in the face of unprecedented carnage.
Those who lived in these times--from the resolute
African American soldier volunteering his life for the
liberation of his fellow man to the determined
President secure in the rightness of his cause--brought
a new birth of freedom to a country still mending its
divisions.

On this milestone in American history, we remember the
great cost of the unity and liberty we now enjoy,
causes for which so many have laid down their lives.
Though America would struggle to extend equal rights to
all our citizens and carry out the letter of our laws
after the war, the sacrifices of soldiers, sailors,
Marines, abolitionists, and countless other Americans
would bring a renewed significance to the liberties
established by our Founders. When the guns fell silent
and the fate of our Nation was secured, blue and gray
would unite under one flag and the institution of
slavery would be forever abolished from our land.

As a result of the sacrifice of millions, we would
extend the promise and freedom enshrined in our
Constitution to all Americans. Through the 13th, 14th,
and 15th Amendments, we would prohibit slavery and
indentured servitude, establish equal protection under
the law, and extend the right to vote to former slaves.
We would reach for a more perfect Union together as
Americans, bound by the collective threads of history
and our common hopes for the future.

We are the United States of America--we have been
tested, we have repaired our Union, and we have emerged
stronger. As we respond to the critical challenges of
our time, let us do so as adherents to the enduring
values of our founding and stakeholders in the promise
of a shared tomorrow.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim April 12, 2011, as
the first day of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. I call
upon all Americans to observe this Sesquicentennial
with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities
that honor the legacy of freedom and unity that the
Civil War bestowed upon our Nation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twelfth day of April, in the year of our Lord two
thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.