Compilation of Weekly Presidential Documents - July 10, 2000 - Proclamation--President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument

Monday, July 10, 2000

 

Volume 36, Issue 27; ISSN: 0511-4187

 

Proclamation--President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument

William J Clinton

 

 

� Proclamation--President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National

Monument

 

 

� July 7,2000

 

 

� By the President of the United States of America

 

 

� A Proclamation

 

 

� Each year from 1862 through 1864, President Abraham Lincoln and his

family left the White House to take up residence during the warm

weather months at Anderson Cottage, a home in northwest Washington,

D.C., on the grounds of a site then known as the Soldiers' Home. It

is estimated that President Lincoln spent one quarter of his

presidency at this home, riding out to it many evenings from late

June until early November. The house and surrounding land are now

part of the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home, a component of the

Armed Forces Retirement Home, an independent establishment in the

executive branch. This house and its grounds are objects of great

historic significance and interest.

 

 

� It was here, in September of 1862, that President Lincoln completed

the drafting of the Emancipation Proclamation. His second floor

bedroom and much of the rest of the house are configured as they

were when he was in residence, and original mantels, woodwork, and

windows are retained. A magnificent copper beech tree under which he

read and relaxed is still growing at the site. It was also from this

house that, in July of 1864, he traveled 2 miles north to view the

battle of Fort Stevens, during which he actually came under fire as

he stood beside the Union troops defending the capital. The house

has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the National

Park Service.

 

 

� The land was purchased by the Federal Government through the

Soldiers' Home Trust Fund in 1851 to establish a home for invalid

and disabled soldiers of the U.S. Army, the first such attempt to

provide for members of the regular army. The house was first used as

a summer retreat by President Buchanan from 1857 to 1860, and

continued to be used as such by several presidents, including

President Hayes from 1877 to 1880 and President Arthur from 1882 to

1884. It became known as Anderson Cottage in honor of Major Robert

Anderson, the Union commanding officer at Fort Sumter at the

outbreak of the Civil War.

 

 

� Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431),

authorizes the President, in his discretion, to declare by public

proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric

structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest

that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the

Government of the United States to be national monuments, and to

reserve as a part thereof parcels of lands, the limits of which in

all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the

proper care and management of the objects to be protected.

 

 

� Whereas it appears that it would be in the public interest to

reserve such lands as a national monument to be known as the

President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument:

 

 

� Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United

States of America, by the authority vested in me by section 2 of the

Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that

there are hereby set apart and reserved as the President Lincoln and

Soldiers' Home National Monument for the purpose of protecting the

objects identified above, all lands and interests in lands owned or

controlled by the United States within the boundaries of the area

described on the map entitled "President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home

National Monument" attached to and forming a part of this

proclamation. The Federal land and interests in land reserved

consist of approximately 2.3 acres, which is the smallest area

compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be

protected.

 

 

� All Federal lands and interests in lands within the boundaries of

this monument are hereby appropriated and withdrawn from all forms

of entry, location, selection, sale, or leasing or other disposition

under the public land or other Federal laws, including but not

limited to withdrawal from location, entry, and patent under the

mining laws, and from disposition under all laws relating to mineral

and geothermal leasing.

 

 

� The monument historically has been a part of the U.S. Soldiers' and

Airmen's Home, a facility administered by the Armed Forces

Retirement Home, an independent establishment of the Executive

Branch. The Armed Forces Retirement Home, through the U.S. Soldiers'

and Airmen's Home, shall manage the monument as an integral part of

that surrounding facility and consistent with the purposes and

provisions of this proclamation. In managing the monument, the Armed

Forces Retirement Home shall consult with the Secretary of the

Interior through the National Park Service.

 

 

� For the purpose of preserving, restoring, and enhancing the

public's appreciation of the monument, the Armed Forces Retirement

Home shall prepare, in consultation with the Secretary of the

Interior through the National Park Service, a management plan for

this monument within 3 years of this date. Further, to the extent

authorized, the Armed Forces Retirement Home shall promulgate, in

consultation with the Secretary of the Interior through the National

Park Service, regulations for the proper care and management of the

objects identified above.

 

 

� Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke any existing

withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; however, the national

monument shall be the dominant reservation. Warning is hereby given

to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate, injure, destroy, or

remove any feature of this monument and not to locate or settle upon

any of the lands thereof.

 

 

� In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of

July, in the year of our Lord two thousand, and of the Independence

of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-fifth.

 

 

� William J. Clinton

 

 

� NOTE: At the time of publication, this proclamation had not been

received by the Office of the Federal Register for assignment of a

proclamation number.

 

 

 

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