Remarks on Signing a Bill Establishing the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration

I want to express my appreciation to the Members of the House and the Members of the Senate who have worked so very effectively in getting this legislation passed, and also my appreciation to the members of the Commission, which of course will now be replaced by this Administration and by an Administrator who will head the Administration that I will be soon appointing.

It is hard to realize that this piece of legislation will not come into fulfillment or culmination until the year 1976, but when we think of what a tremendously momentous event that is, our planning, which has already begun, has to be very far-reaching, and it has to be begun early. As a matter of fact, I would say now that at this point we have to put certainly more emphasis than we have in the past on having some progress in developing our plans, because 1976 is going to be here very, very soon.

Nineteen seventy-six normally would be of interest in any event, because it is a Presidential election year, but being the 200th anniversary of the United States of America, in terms of our Declaration of Independence, it seems to me that it will have the greatest significance of any celebration of this type that this country has ever had. And all of you helped, it seems to me, and this you can be remembered for, as well as many other things you have done for your country.

You have helped by giving us the legislation which will then create a monument, we trust, that the whole Nation can see, a monument of what America has meant for its first 200 years and what it can mean for the next 200 years.

So thank you, ladies and gentlemen.