Ranking Democratic Member, Rep. Lane Evans

"The 30th day 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." So proclaimed General John A. Logan, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the Union’s veterans’ organization. On the day appointed by General Logan, the first national observance of Memorial Day – then referred to as Decoration Day – was held at Arlington National Cemetery. Following speeches made by veterans and officials, children from the nearby Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home walked through the cemetery, leaving flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, saying prayers and singing hymns.

Local communities, however, were actually the first to organize tributes to those who had died defending their homes and their beliefs. One of the first occurred in Carbondale, Illinois, where a stone in a local cemetery proclaims that the first Decoration Day ceremony took place there on April 29, 1866. And in Columbus, Mississippi, on April 25, 1866, the women and children of the town gathered to decorate the graves of the Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Tradition has it that after placing flowers on the graves of their Confederate dead, these women were touched when they saw that the graves of the Union soldiers, far from their families and friends, were bare and unkempt -- and they decorated these graves as well. Word of this compassionate act spread and helped begin the healing of our broken Nation.

Although many cities claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day -- and, in fact, in 1966 Congress designated Waterloo, New York, as the birthplace of this day of remembrance -- the important thing is that Memorial Day is now a national holiday and its observance is deeply imbedded in our American tradition. Today, virtually every small town and every big city throughout the United States will honor and remember the nearly 1.3 million men and women who have died fighting for American values -- fighting for freedom and liberty.

"If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us." General Logan’s charge to the members of the GAR to remember their fallen comrades is a timely reminder to all of us this Memorial Day. One hundred thirty years after the first Memorial Day observance, our Nation has been blessed with many years of peace, and our memory of the terrible costs of war is beginning to fade. For many Americans whose lives have, thankfully, not been directly affected and forever altered by of the experience of war, Memorial Day now simply marks the beginning of the beach season or an opportunity to take advantage of great bargains at the local department store. More than half a century ago, President Franklin Roosevelt reminded the American people that, "Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them."