Speech #980241553

It holds in trust the records of the Federal Government. beginning with the earliest jottings of the first secretary of the Continental Congress in 1774. Born out of the needs of the Government to provide evidence of its own actions. the National Archives has grown to serve the needs of a vast public whose lives. or the lives of their predecessors. have been touched in one way or another by that same Government. We are a nation of immigrants. from the Pilgrims to the latest refugees from todays strifetorn countries. The records of the National Archives are outspoken testimony to the diversity that makes up this land. Through immigration and naturalization records and those of the decennial census. our heritage is recorded by agencies of the National Government. and ultimately these records are deposited in tile National Archives. In the Archives are recorded the momentous eventsthe Declaration of Independence. the Constitution. the Emancipation Proclamation. the Supreme Court case of Brown against Board of Educationas well as the less obvious happenings that make up the structure and meaning of American life. In the archives are the logs and diaries of Polar explorers. the contracts and designs of the first airplanes sold to the Government by the Wright brothers. the land records that vividly document the rush to settle the West. the treaties that were negotiated to protect trade. copyrights. or the rights of American citizens abroad.