Public Law 74–556

JOINT RESOLUTION

Making provision for a national celebration of the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, wealthiest signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Bicentenary of birth of Charles Carroll of Carrollton.

Preamble.

Whereas Charles Carroll of Carrollton during his lifetime of nearly a century rendered services of paramount importance to his country; and

Whereas on February 18, 1776, more than four months before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams stated that “in the cause of American liberty his zeal, fortitude, and perseverance¹¹So in original. have been so conspicuous that he is said to be marked out for a peculiar vengeance by the friends of administration; but he continues to hazard his all, his immense fortune, the largest in America, and his life”; and

Whereas in signing the Declaration of Independence Charles Carroll of Carrollton pledged his life, his sacred honor, and the largest fortune in America to the success of the Revolution; and Whereas the services rendered by Charles Carroll of Carrollton to the United States during the War of Independence, and in the subsequent struggle to preserve the Republic from disintegrating, which resulted in the adoption of the present Constitution, received the warm praise of his contemporaries, including the Father of his Country; and

Whereas Charles Carroll of Carrollton, as United States Senator from Maryland, played a foremost part in the organization of the Federal Government, under the Presidency of George Washington; and Whereas for a period of fifty-six years following the signing of the Declaration of Independence Charles Carroll of Carrollton watched the progress of American Affairs with eager solicitude and labored unceasingly for the advancement of the Republic; and Whereas Daniel Webster in an oration delivered at Faneuil Hall, Boston, on August 2, 1826, on the occasion of a civic tribute to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, then recently deceased, paid eloquent homage to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, then the last of the signers, comparing him to a venerable oak “standing alone on the plain”, hailing him as a “fortunate, distinguished patriot”, and exhorting his hearers to “let him know that while we honor the dead we do not forget the living, and that there is not a heart here which does not fervently pray that Heaven may yet keep him back from the society of his companions”; and

Whereas in 1828, as a mark of national homage to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Congress, by joint resolution, conferred upon him the franking privilege, Speaker Stevenson requesting him, in his official notification, to receive the honor “as a token of the distinguished respect and veneration which Congress entertains toward an early and devoted friend to liberty, and one who stood eminently forward in the purest and noblest band of patriots that the world has ever seen”; and

Whereas on November 15, 1832, the President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, voiced in feeling terms the tribute of the Republic to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who had died on the preceding day, affirming that “no one estimated higher than I did his claims, whilst living, upon the gratitude and love of his country; none will cherish more sacredly his memory now that he is taken from us by the Great Disposer of the affairs of this world”; and

Whereas the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Carroll of Carrollton occurs on September 19, 1937; and

Whereas it is eminently proper and desirable that the United States should officially commemorate this event: Therefore be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

Approved, June 15, 1936.