Proclamation 2242—One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Constitution

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas the Constitution of the United States was signed on September 17, 1787, and had by June 21, 1788, been ratified by the necessary number of States; and

Whereas George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States on April 30, 1789:

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, hereby designate the period from September 17, 1937, to April 30, 1939, as one of commemoration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing and the ratification of the Constitution and of the inauguration of the first President under that Constitution.

In commemorating this period we shall affirm our debt to those who ordained and established the Constitution "in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity".

We shall recognize that the Constitution is an enduring instrument fit for the governing of a far-flung population of more than one hundred and thirty million engaged in diverse and varied pursuits, even as it was fit for the governing of a small agrarian nation of less than four million.

It is therefore appropriate that in the period herein set apart we shall think afresh of the founding of our Government under the Constitution, how it has served us in the past and how in the days to come its principles will guide the nation ever forward.

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 fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and thirty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-second.

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

By the President:
CORDELL HULL
Secretary of State.