State of New Jersey

Executive Department

Proclamation

WHEREAS, during 1999, we reflect on the goals set forth in past years to understand and recapture our Christian Heritage and to reestablish our original freedom of religious concepts; and

WHEREAS, we are reminded of the words of James Madison, who in 1778 stated, “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future…upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to sustain ourselves, according to the Ten Commandments of God”; and

WHEREAS, George Washington stated, “It is duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection, aid, and favors”; and

WHEREAS, we also remember the words in the Declaration of Independence, when the Framers noted, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor”; 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 CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN, Governor of the State of New Jersey, do hereby proclaim

NOVEMBER 21 TO NOVEMBER 27, 1999

as

AMERICA’S CHRISTIAN HERITAGE WEEK

in New Jersey, and encourage our citizens to join in remembering that individual faith is in the power that inspires men of good will to lay foundations and to pursue noble goals for themselves and for their country.

GIVEN, under my hand and the Great Seal of the State of New Jersey, this twenty-eighth day of October in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine and of the Independence of the United States, the two hundred and twenty-fourth.

Christine Whitman

Governor

BY THE GOVERNOR:

DeFOREST B. SOARIES, JR.,

SECRETARY OF STATE