Proclamation 3318—General Pulaski's Memorial Day, 1959

Whereas during the American war for independence brave men of the nations of Europe, inspired by our ideals of liberty and justice, came from their homelands to fight by our side; and

Whereas among them was Count Casimir Pulaski, a native of Poland, who joined the army of General Washington at the age of twenty-nine; received an appointment from the Continental Congress as commander of cavalry; distinguished himself in various engagements with the enemy; raised and commanded a corps known as the Pulaski Legion; and, while leading an attack to relieve the captured city of Savannah, Georgia, sustained a wound from which he died on October 11, 1779; and

Whereas the Continental Congress on November 29, 1779, in recognition of General Pulaski's service and sacrifice, resolved that a monument should be erected to his memory; and

Whereas it is fitting that we should continue to remember General Pulaski's devotion to our Nation by marking, in this year, the one hundred and eightieth anniversary of his death:

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Sunday, October 11, 1959, as General Pulaski's Memorial Day; and I direct the appropriate officials of the Federal Government to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on that day.

I also invite the people of the United States to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies in honor of the memory of General Pulaski and of the cause for which he gave his life.

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-eighth day of September 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-fourth.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

By the President:

CHRISTIAN A. HERTER,

Secretary of State