Special Message to the Congress Concerning the Proposed Freedom Monument.

[ Released May 16, 1960. Dated May 14, 1960 ]

To the Congress of the United States:

I am enclosing for the consideration of the Congress a report of the National Monument Commission submitted as directed by the Act of August 31, 1954. I have requested the Secretary of the Interior to submit to the Congress a proposed bill embodying the Commission's recommendations.

The Commission's report recommends an approved design for the Freedom Monument, asks that the Commission be authorized to erect the Monument, suggests that the number of private citizens serving on the Commission be increased from four to eight, asks the Congress to authorize the appropriation of $ 12 million as the Federal share of the cost of construction, and requests that the Commission be authorized to solicit private contributions for the remaining cost of the Monument.

The Act of August 31, 1954, created the National Monument Commission for the purpose of securing designs and plans for a useful monument to the Nation symbolizing to the United States and the world the ideals of our democracy as embodied in the five freedoms--speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition--sanctified by the Bill of Rights adopted by Congress in 1789 and later ratified by the States.

I believe it important that the story of the noble ideas which shaped our country's beginning, its course, its great moments, and the men who made it possible, be ever present in the minds of Americans. This purpose can be furthered in a variety of ways, but the simplest and most effective of all methods in my judgment is to present it impressively in visual form. The erection of the Freedom Monument would accomplish that objective. The National Capital area is adorned by a galaxy of memorials to individuals but nowhere in the Nation's Capital or this Nation can one find a memorial to the principles and ideals upon which our Government is based.

The Commission, since its creation, has placed the ideas I have mentioned on the drawing board. It is intimately acquainted with the problems involved in the erection of the Monument; it has advanced the memorial; and I recommend that the Commission be authorized to complete the task.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER