Liberty Day

DID YOU KNOW . . .
 
 

• In October of 2000, the Congress of the United States unanimously passed a resolution (House Concurrent Resolution 376) expressing the sense of Congress that "a Liberty Day should be celebrated each year in the United States as a remembrance of both the freedom that Americans were given in the Declaration of Independence and the extraordinary rights and liberties that Americans were given in their Constitution;" and that Liberty Day is now a national, annual celebration?
 
 

• Pocket-sized Liberty Day booklets, containing only the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, have been printed and distributed to more than 200,000 school children, ages 8 to 18, by almost one thousand elected officials nationwide?
 
 

• Liberty Day booklets have been printed for eleven states; and the booklet name that appears on the cover is ‘Liberty Day (name of state)’?
 
 

• Thirty-one states have volunteer Liberty Day coordinators (service group members), and that booklets for many of those other twenty states will be printed early in 2001?
 
 

• A printer donates a large portion of the cost of printing all these booklets?
 
 

• A professional graphics designer provides the camera-ready artwork for each state booklet without charge, as a donation to Liberty Day?
 
 

House Concurrent Resolution 376
106th Congress
2nd Session

___________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 
 

Expressing the sense of Congress regarding support for the recognition of a

Liberty Day.
 
 

WHEREAS, Our rights and liberties are rooted in the cherished documents that

gave birth to our nation, those being the Declaration of Independence and

the United States Constitution with its Bill of Rights; and
 

WHEREAS, The patriot James Madison, fourth President of the United States,

was the major author of the Virginia Plan, the model and the basis for that

United Constitution that emerged from the Constitutional Convention in

1787; and
 

WHEREAS, James Madison kept detailed written records of the debates and

compromises that were an integral part of that Convention of 1787, which

records were published only after the death of all delegates to the

Convention; and
 

WHEREAS, James Madison wrote many of the newspaper articles now known as

the Federalist Papers, outlining why states should endorse the new

Constitution and enduring as some of the best arguments for our form of

government; and
 

WHEREAS, James Madison introduced the Bill of Rights into the 1st Congress

of the United States, whereupon the first ten amendments to the

Constitution were adopted; and
 

WHEREAS, It is altogether fitting that the 16th day of March, the birthday of the

distinguished founding father, James Madison, would serve as a fitting

reminder of Liberty Day, a celebration of the Declaration of Independence

and the United States Constitution, where our unalienable rights and

liberties are enumerated: Now, therefore, be it
 

Resolved, by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),

That it is the sense of Congress that --

(1) A Liberty Day should be celebrated each year in the United

States as a remembrance of both the freedom that Americans were given in

the Declaration of Independence and the extraordinary rights and liberties

that Americans were given in their Constitution; and

(2) All elected and previously-elected representatives of the

people who voluntarily give of their time to speak to Americans about

those founding documents, in furtherance of that remembrance of our

freedom, our rights and our liberties, deserve our thanks.