On this 30th of May, which in the latter 19th and early 20th Century was the official observance of Memorial Day, it seems an appropriate time to post this.
Memorial Day – an address written and delivered by Mary’s grandmother Alma Marie Onstad Blixrud. Undated, but with references to WWI as very recent, and to the formation of what is likely the American Battle Monuments Commission, which was established in 1923 to administer US military memorials, monuments and markers overseas.
Memorial Day
Being that we have recently observed Memorial Day, I have chosen Memorial Day as my topic for this evening, that we may renew the origin of that National Day.
Hero worship is common to all people. In some countries, it takes the form of mythical ancestor worship; in others, real men of flesh and blood make their strong appeal. The decorating of graves or tombs with flowers is a ceremony widely practiced.
While this is true in general, it is particularly true of those who engage in war. Herodotus has said that in peace children bury their parents, but in war parents bury their children. Having buried the heroes of war, it is only natural that the memory of their sacrifice should be treasured, and that their lives should call for expressions of appreciation and respect through the decoration of graves.
As a public holiday Memorial Day has a deep meaning in America. At the time of the foundation of the government there was room for difference of opinion as to the significance of the Union under the Constitution. The preamble to the Constitution stated that it was “to form a more perfect Union,” but from the time the Constitution was adopted until the time Abraham Lincoln became president of the United States, there were many questions that arose before the people. The greatest question was the Slave question, which was settled by the Civil War. There are still a few among us today who remember the sacrifices of the war, who saw the empty chairs and the broken family circles. Yet the memory of those days is that the people of the North did not regard the price paid in the Civil War as too great. They were willing to pour out their blood, to give their dearest possessions – even life itself – that the principles of a united America, and an America free from the evil of slavery might continue.
In April 1862, certain patriotic women decorated the graves of soldiers who were buried in Arlington Cemetery. The same action was taken in the spring of 1863, and the practice was continued thereafter. During the Civil War it was a common custom to dedicate cemeteries in which fallen heroes were buried. The dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg, in 1863, gave the occasion for what must be regarded as the greatest memorial address that has ever been delivered. This custom of visiting the cemeteries and decorating the graves of fallen soldiers was extended in the later years of the Civil War and in the years immediately following.
In 1867, it was reported that women of Columbus, Mississippi had dedicated the graves of both Confederate and Union dead without partiality. When Francis M. Finch heard of this he wrote his poem, “The Blue and the Gray,” which has been a factor in bringing the North and the South closer together and in forgetting any hatred which may have survived the Civil War.
John A. Logan, Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1868, acted on a suggestion that instead of decorating the graves of dead soldiers at irregular intervals a uniform time should be fixed. General Logan issued an order setting aside May 30, 1868, as he said, for “strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country, and whose bodies now lie in every city, village, or hamlet church yard in the land.” For about twenty years the day was commonly called “Decoration Day”, a name which signified the act performed; in later years the day has usually been termed “Memorial Day,” a title which signifies the meaning of the act rather than the act itself.
The outcome of the Civil War was a great blessing. If the United States hadn’t been one Union how helpless they would have been in 1917, to throw the weight of her mighty power into the war for humanity and civilization which was being fought across the sea. It is not too much to say that Woodrow Wilson is the successor of Abraham Lincoln, and that the contribution of the United States to the World War was a natural sequel to the achievements of the Civil War era. Abraham Lincoln struggled for a united America, a democracy at home, that a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” should not disappear. Woodrow Wilson, with consecrated genius, has sought to extend the blessings of democracy to the whole world, that there may be recognition of the rights of humanity in the plans of government under which all people live. As our fathers struggled to establish an ideal of liberty at home, so our sons have tried to extend this same ideal to the nations beyond the sea.
The Disarmament Conference dragged on into months but something was done, for now the citizens of all nations believe it will be possible to outlaw war. Much remains yet to be done, but the way ahead for men will be in the footsteps of One who said, “I am the Way.”
No Memorial Day, up to 1918, ever had so deep a meaning, or been so reverently celebrated, as was that day. American blood had then been shed in France, and the graves of the fallen heroes across the sea were on that day decorated by their companions in arms.
It is singularly fitting that those dead who gave their lives to a great cause should be gathered in a cemetery set apart to honor them. The proposal to assemble the remains of American soldiers who have lost their lives in France and Flanders into a great memorial cemetery which shall be a shrine for their countrymen, and for the world, commends itself as offering the best object lesson to keep ever alive the teaching that progress has come through the willingness of men and women to make sacrifices, and even to give life itself, for a great cause. While Memorial Day gives an opportunity to pay respect to the dead, it has an even larger meaning in the lesson it teaches the living; to rededicate themselves to the great task of finishing the work for which the dead laid down their lives.
So Memorial Day gives the nation an opportunity to show appreciation for those who gave their all that America might be preserved as a united country, and that the blessings of liberty might be extended to the lands beyond the sea.
As we drop our flowers and our tears, let us pray to the God of men and nations that future ages shall have no soldiers’ graves to decorate. Let us send out the love and kindness which shall make war impossible.