STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

BY HER EXCELLENCY

JEANNE SHAHEEN, GOVERNOR

A PROCLAMATION

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WEEK

NOVEMBER 21-27, 1999

WHEREAS, New Hampshire wishes to join with states in acknowledging the importance of religious freedom; and

WHEREAS, freedom of religion is the first guaranteed protection in the Bill of Rights; and

WHEREAS, this constitutional protection states, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” and

WHEREAS, George Washington declared, “Just government protects all in their religious rights,” and that “true religion affords to government its surest support,” and

WHEREAS, James Madison declared that “the civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or any pretext, infringed;” and

WHEREAS, the Constitution of New Hampshire states that “Every individual has a natural and unalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience and reason;”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JEANNE SHAHEEN, GOVERNOR, of the State of New Hampshire, do hereby proclaim NOVEMBER 21^st through NOVEMBER 27^th, 1999 as RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WEEK in New Hampshire and urge all citizens to participate fittingly in its observance.

Given at the Executive Chamber in Concord, this fifteenth day of  September, in the year of Our Lord, one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine, and of the independence of the United States of America, two hundred and twenty-three.

JEANNE SHAHEEN

GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE