STATE OF TENNESSEE
PROCLAMATION
BY THE GOVERNOR
WHEREAS, the Pilgrims, in the Mayflower Compact (1620), stated their purpose as, “…having undertaken, for the glorie of God, and advancement of the Christian faith….in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of the ends aforesaid;…”; and
WHEREAS, on June 21, 1776, John Adams wrote, “Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand.”; and
WHEREAS, our Declaration of Independence declares, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”; and
WHEREAS, on June 28, 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin, quoting from Psalm 127:1, warned, “We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build he House they labour in vain that build it.’”; and
WHEREAS, the Constitution of the United States of America, in Article 1 Section 7, recognizes Sunday as a day of rest and worship; and is dated “the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven”, thus measuring time from the birth of Jesus Christ (Anno Domini).; and
WHEREAS, Thomas Jefferson, while President of the United States, was also made president of the school board for Washington, D.C. public schools and authored its original plan of education in which he placed the Bible and Watt’s Hymnal as two primary reading text.; and
WHEREAS, Thanksgiving week is an appropriate time to center attention on thanks to Almighty God for the “Blessings of Liberty”, to ask His help in reinsuring “domestic Tranquility”, and to recognize our national need to reaffirm our “reliance on the protection of divine Providence” in keeping America a free and independent Nation,
NOW THEREFORE, I, Don Sundquist, Governor of the State of Tennessee, do hereby proclaim November 19 through November 25, 1995, as AMERICA’S CHRISTIAN HERITAGE WEEK in Tennessee, and do urge all Tennesseans to acknowledge, appreciate, and celebrate, each in their own way, America’s Christian heritage.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the official seal of the State of Tennessee to be affixed at Nashville on this 15th day of November, 1995.
Don Sundquist
Governor
Riley C. Darnell
Secretary of State
