Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 73 / Friday, April 15, 2011 / Presidential Documents 21223 

Proclamation 8654 of April 12, 2011 

Civil War Sesquicentennial 

By the President of the United States of America 

A Proclamation 

On April 12, 1861, artillery guns boomed across Charleston Harbor in an 

attack on Fort Sumter. These were the first shots of a civil war that would 

stretch across 4 years of tremendous sacrifice, with over 3 million Americans 

serving in battles whose names reach across our history. The meaning of 

freedom and the very soul of our Nation were contested in the hills of 

Gettysburg and the roads of Antietam, the fields of Manassas and the woods 

of the Wilderness. When the terrible and costly struggle was over, a new 

meaning was conferred on our country’s name—the United States of America. 

We might be tested, but whatever our fate might be, it would be as one 

Nation. 

The Civil War was a conflict characterized by legendary acts of bravery 

in the face of unprecedented carnage. Those who lived in these times— 

from the resolute African American soldier volunteering his life for the 

liberation of his fellow man to the determined President secure in the 

rightness of his cause—brought a new birth of freedom to a country still 

mending its divisions. 

On this milestone in American history, we remember the great cost of 

the unity and liberty we now enjoy, causes for which so many have laid 

down their lives. Though America would struggle to extend equal rights 

to all our citizens and carry out the letter of our laws after the war, the 

sacrifices of soldiers, sailors, Marines, abolitionists, and countless other 

Americans would bring a renewed significance to the liberties established 

by our Founders. When the guns fell silent and the fate of our Nation 

was secured, blue and gray would unite under one flag and the institution 

of slavery would be forever abolished from our land. 

As a result of the sacrifice of millions, we would extend the promise and 

freedom enshrined in our Constitution to all Americans. Through the 13th, 

14th, and 15th Amendments, we would prohibit slavery and indentured 

servitude, establish equal protection under the law, and extend the right 

to vote to former slaves. We would reach for a more perfect Union together 

as Americans, bound by the collective threads of history and our common 

hopes for the future. 

We are the United States of America—we have been tested, we have repaired 

our Union, and we have emerged stronger. As we respond to the critical 

challenges of our time, let us do so as adherents to the enduring values 

of our founding and stakeholders in the promise of a shared tomorrow. 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States 

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution 

and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 12, 2011, 

as the first day of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. I call upon all Americans 

to observe this Sesquicentennial with appropriate programs, ceremonies, 

and activities that honor the legacy of freedom and unity that the Civil 

War bestowed upon our Nation. 

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21224 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 73 / Friday, April 15, 2011 / Presidential Documents 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day 

of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth. 

[FR Doc. 2011–9368 

Filed 4–14–11; 8:45 am] 

Billing code 3195–W1–P 


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