MEMORIAL DAY with its sad and sacred memories is here again. As each new Memorial Day comes around, we recall anew the great and tragic events that made the occasion for that day.
MEMORIAL DAY is one of the most SIGNIFICANT and BEAUTIFUL occasions of the year. It shows the sentiment of the people towards those who gave their lives for a GOOD cause, and it teaches a lesson in patriotism which is without parallel. MEMORIAL DAY cannot be TOO TENDERLY revered by old and young, by those who participated in any of the nation’s great struggles, or by those who simply know of it as History. Our country each year is paying a GREATER tribute of respect to the soldiers—living and dead—and it is a SINCERE HOPE that this rule will be explained still more in the years to come.
There is a beautiful significance in the fact that, two years after the close of the Civil War, the thoughtful women of Columbus, Mississippi, laid their offerings ALIKE on the Northern and southern Graves. When all is said, this great nation has BUT ONE Heart. This act of these thoughtful women inspired the famous lyric of Francis Miles Finch, “The Blue and the Grey.”
The ceremony of decorating the graves of the loved ones is almost as old as mankind itself. The Greeks and Romans had ceremonies in remembrance of their dead, as well the Druids. In France they have this beautiful custom participated in by whole families. It was not until May 1868, however, that general John A. Logan, National Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic and one of the great leaders of the Civil War, issued an order to the Grand Army naming the 30th of May 1868, for the “purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the Civil War.” It was the purpose of General Logan to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it would be kept up from year to year while a survivor of that great conflict remains to honor the memory of the departed. The States took up the matter immediately and in many states MEMORIAL DAY is a state Holiday, and now in accordance with the Naval Regulations it is a legal Holiday, and each year the president designates Memorial Day by a Presidential Proclamation.
The youth of America should be thought through its schools the history and spirit of American institutions. Let these schools teach them this history and inspire them with this spirit. Teach the youth that it is the highest honour to say I AM AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. Let them hear the shot that was fired at Lexington, the shot that was heard around the world. Let them catch the pearls of the Liberty Bell and the spirit of Independence Day. Let them know of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, of the victories for the preservation of the union; Let them hear again of the shining and glorious victories of Dewey at Manila, of Sampson and Schley at Santiago, of Shafter, Wood and Roosevelt in 1898, and of Pershing’s massive force in France, and of glorious victories so that Democracies might live.
A famous speaker said a few years back. “I have only one sentiment for soldiers, cheers for the living and tears for the dead.”
We recall with pride and gratitude how our citizens responded to the call in 1917, with a swiftness that was unheard of they sprang to arms. The flower of American youth was there. They came from schools, colleges, from offices, factories, and the farm, they became “History’s Graduates” in their defense of human rights and our free institutions. Five million of them now study veterans of the World War and truly typifying American spirit, the spirit of 1776, of 1812, of 1847, of 1861, of 1898.
The same Legionnaires have taken over the duty of “Carrying on” the Memorial Day observance. Over the graves of our soldier dead they will wreathe flowers, symbols of devotion and gratitude, at these graves which are Nation’s Shrine, the Mecca to which the Legionnaires journey to renew their devotion to their comrades.
We must as well honor these heroic and patriotic dead by being true men, and, as true men, by faithfully fighting the battles of our day as they fought the battles of their day.