Scottish Heritage Day in Pennsylvania

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE RESOLUTION

No. 281 Session of 1992

        INTRODUCED BY M. N. WRIGHT, COLAIZZO, NYCE, HAYES, WOZNIAK,
           FARGO, COY, PESCI, STABACK, ARMSTRONG, DONATUCCI, GEIST,
           VROON, CARLSON, TIGUE, COWELL, McCALL, LANGTRY, NOYE,
           MIHALICH, ANGSTADT, BATTISTO, DEMPSEY, GERLACH, KENNEY,
           TOMLINSON, TRELLO, MARKOSEK, GAMBLE, DERMODY, BELARDI,
           JOHNSON, ANDERSON, CLYMER, KOSINSKI, FARMER, DeLUCA, TELEK,
           LESCOVITZ, LAUGHLIN, STAIRS, DENT, HAGARTY, FAJT AND KING,
           MARCH 23, 1992

        REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON RULES, MARCH 23, 1992

                                  A RESOLUTION

     1  Designating April 6 as "Scottish Heritage Day" and honoring the
     2     many Pennsylvanians of Scottish and Scots-Irish heritage.

     3     WHEREAS, April 6, 1320, was the date of a landmark Scottish
     4  document, the Declaration of Arbroath, a papal letter written to
     5  Pope John XXII on behalf of Scotland's greatest King, Robert the
     6  Bruce, and renowned as Scotland's Declaration of Independence;
     7  and
     8     WHEREAS, This great document, signed by most of Scotland's
     9  nobility and clergy, expressed for the first time in official
    10  form the following noble and radical ideas: a king who failed to
    11  maintain the freedom of the Scots could and would be replaced;
    12  and the Scots fought the English "not for glory, nor riches, nor
    13  honors, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man
    14  gives up but with life itself!"; and
    15     WHEREAS, Thousands of Scots and Scots-Irish, imbued with the

     1  spirit and principles of the Declaration of Arbroath, emigrated
     2  from Scotland and Northern Ireland in the 17th, 18th and 19th
     3  centuries to Pennsylvania in search of freedom and the
     4  opportunities that freedom provides; and
     5     WHEREAS, Scots, Scots-Irish and Scottish Americans exerted a
     6  profound and lasting impact on the writing of two great
     7  documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution,
     8  which shaped this nation, and on the events preceding, during
     9  and following the Revolution of 1776 which led to the birth and
    10  growth of the United States of America; and
    11     WHEREAS, Scottish Americans have, throughout our two
    12  centuries of existence and right up to present times, provided
    13  beneficial examples and leadership of many kinds to such an
    14  extent that President Woodrow Wilson, himself of Scottish
    15  heritage, said, "Every line of strength in American history is
    16  colored with Scottish blood"; therefore be it
    17     RESOLVED, That the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania designate
    18  April 6 as "Scottish Heritage Day" from this time in perpetuity,
    19  thus honoring the many Pennsylvanians of Scottish and Scots-
    20  Irish ancestry.