**WASHINGTON-LINCOLN RECOGNITION ACT OF 2003**

** **

**Roscoe G. Bartlett**

**February 13, 2003**

 

Mr. Speaker, I am introducing legislation today that will honor
America\'s greatest Presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

 

The Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act of 2003 will restore the Federal
holiday we will observe this coming Monday as Washington\'s birthday. 
That\'s right, Washington\'s Birthday ***NOT*** President\'s Day.

 

Second, the bill calls on the President to issue a proclamation each
year on the anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln on
February 12.  Without this bill, there will be no commemoration of
Abraham Lincoln\'s birthday or his accomplishments in preserving the
Union and issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.

 

The big lie of Presidents\' Day stems from the 1968 law which shifted
the observance of most federal holidays to Mondays. 

 

There would be no United States, no Presidency at all without George
Washington.

 

What\'s everybody\'s business is nobody\'s business.  A generic
President\'s Day diminishes the accomplishments of America\'s greatest
Presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, while rewarding the
mediocrity of others.

 

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues and the American people to support
passage of the Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act of 2003.

 

History of the Commemoration of George Washington\'s Birthday

 

            George Washington was born on February 22, 1732.

 

For many years prior to 1870 it was customary to close federal
government offices in Washington, D.C. on George Washington\'s birthday.
On January 31, 1879, Congress designated George Washington\'s birthday
as one of five holidays to be observed in the District of Columbia.  In
1885, President Chester Arthur signed a bill passed by Congress on
January 6, which established Washington\'s Birthday as a federal holiday
for all federal employees throughout the country.  Enactment of the
Monday Holiday Law in 1968 shifted the commemoration of Washington\'s
Birthday from February 22 to the third Monday in February.   The United
States Code 1994 Edition, Title 5, Subsection 6103, p. 993, Holidays,
notes \"The following are legal public holidays: \"Washington\'s
Birthday, the third Monday in February.\"

 

Contrary to popular misconception, legislation has never been approved
by Congress or signed into law changing the name of the federal holiday
to Presidents\' Day. Of the 50 states, 29 states and the District of
Columbia celebrate only \"Washington\'s Birthday,\" 15 states have a
separate holiday honoring Abraham Lincoln, and Massachusetts celebrates
\"President\'s Day\" honoring its four native-born presidents.

 

**Praise for George Washington**

 

**\"Washington is the mightiest name on earth \-- long since mightiest
in the cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation*.\"
(16th President Abraham Lincoln, February 22, 1842)***

 

**\"First in war \-- first in peace \-- and first in the hearts of his
countrymen, he was second to none.\"** (An excerpt from his funeral
eulogy for George Washington, December 26, 1799, Henry Lee, his personal
friend, former Major in the Revolutionary War, former  Congressman, and
former Governor of Virginia)

 

**\"His name will triumph over time and will in future ages assume its
just station among the most celebrated worthies of the world.\"**
(Thomas Jefferson)

 

**\"\...when the birthday of Washington shall be forgotten, liberty will
have perished from the earth.\"** (An excerpt from a February 23, 1860
address to the New York Seventh Regiment by 15th President James
Buchanan)

 

**\"If his administration had been a failure, there would have been no
United States, but Washington was both a great administrator and a great
leader.\"** (33rd President Harry S. Truman)

 

**\"It is no exaggeration to say that, but for George Washington, the
Office of President might well not exist.\"** (Historian Forrest
McDonald)

 

**\"Among all the Founding Fathers, the name of George Washington is at
the forefront.  He was selected by his peers *unanimously* to serve as
the Commander in Chief during the war for independence, *unanimously* to
serve as the President of the United States, *twice*.  Never in the
history of the United States has one individual so thoroughly dominated
the national scene as to be the obvious leader, the unanimous choice for
nearly twenty years**.\" (G.W. Nordham, [Age of Washington]{.underline})