“We the people” created Memorial Day

[Cover Images.  At Left: CSP President Tommy Waller and his family bearing the names of fallen heroes during a Memorial Day run in Mobile, AL on May 31, 2021.

At Right:  Lt. Col. Tommy Waller, USMC Ret., touching the America Flag to the grave site of Private First Class John Dury New, a United States Marine who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his gallantry in action at the cost of his life on Peleliu.]

At 3pm on the last Monday in May, Americans are asked to join in a national moment of remembrance to recall those American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines who have died during our nation’s wars and conflicts. This moment of solemnity is a relatively new Memorial Day tradition, instituted in 2000 via the National Day of Remembrance Act, after Congress, alarmed by polls indicating only 28% of Americans knew the purpose or meaning of Memorial Day, created a commission to study the problem.

Memorial Day was not begun by a government commission nor created by an act of Congress. Instead, it was the creation of Confederate widow Mary Ann Williams, who together with other Southern ladies undertook to decorate the graves of those killed in the Civil War, both Confederate and Union soldiers. The custom caught on, spreading throughout the South and soon the North as well, receiving official recognition with a proclamation by General John A. Logan on May 30, 1868, who speaking at Arlington National Cemetery noted that:

The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.

“Decoration Day” as it became known, was widely celebrated. As one example, in 1873, according to the New York Tribune, the city requested citizens provide plants and flowers. They had enough to place “at least one plant and several flowers on each soldier’s grave.” Businesses provided their “large wagons and best horses” to transport the flowers, disabled veterans, and children of the fallen to decorate the graves. In part participation was so high because so many Americans had family and friends who had died during the Civil War, and there were none who did not remember the cost of peace. Today fewer and fewer Americans have such a personal connection, despite more than two decades of conflict.

As time passed, the remembrance became not just for the Civil War, but for all Americans who gave the last full measure of devotion for their country. “Memorial Day” became official in 1967. In 1971, Memorial Day was moved from the specific date of May 30^th to the last Monday of every May, primarily so that federal employees could have more three-day weekends.

By 2021, only 9% of Americans surveyed said they would visit a gravesite, and only 15% said they intended to attend a Memorial Day parade or remembrance celebration. In contrast 2/3rds surveyed said they consider the day the official start of Summer.

No act of Congress can mandate patriotism, and all the three-day weekends in the world cannot instill love of the nation –not in a free country.

The selfless kind of patriotism exhibited by those whom we remember today grows from the ground up, like the flowers placed on the graves of the slain by well-meaning ladies’ associations. Americans neither required nor sought government sanction to demonstrate love and respect for those who gave their lives to knit a sundered Republic back together. Such work could be done only by We, the People.

At this time of great disunity, as threats to the Republic, both from within and from without, feel increasingly overwhelming to many, we should recall that America’s greatest strength comes from within, from the courage, devotion, and resilience demonstrated by its free citizens.

We at the Center for Security Policy are grateful, on this day, for those who gave their all to protect this great nation. We are likewise grateful for the love of country that still prevails throughout the land. And we remain dedicated to the proposition that through education and by working together, Americans of good will, at the city, state or federal level, can unite to make their communities, and America as a whole, a safer and freer place.