Memorial Day
“With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Hundreds of thousands of men of the old stock died fighting over two competing visions of the country. As the war wound down and Union moved towards victory, Abraham Lincoln had a vision of reconciliation . . . of true union for all, white and black, union and confederate. That vision was marred by the reality–true visions always are–but at least soon after the war Americans north and south began to honor the men who had died. That was the beginning of Memorial Day.
Over time, it has come to include all the Americans who died in the wars. For whatever reason today I am remembering the colonial boys who made a desperate fight to uphold their ancient right and privileges against the hungry British establishment, and who died in the attempt.
Is life so dear or peace so sweet to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? They answered in their flesh. Forbid it, Almighty God.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood . . .
E.C.
May 30, 2022
I am lucky enough to have come from that old guard on my mother’s side – men (and women) who fought as Revolutionaries, as Union and poor Confederates (too poor to dodge the draft). One of my great-great-great grandfathers nearly died in Andersonville Prison, but his future wife smuggled him out.
From my father’s line, my grandpa fought in WW2, and much of my family is military or ex-military.
May we remember their sacrifices and fight in our own way to preserve those freedoms and values for which they gave the last full measure.