Memorial Day

Taken from the book "Thoughts for the Occasion: Patriotic and Secular" published in 1894:

Heroic Devotion Merits Reward

“To say that they died a glorious death would be saying little, for the same is said of those who, following the lead of vain and greedy conquerors, found their graves among the enslaved nations, slaves themselves to the selfish and despotic will that ruled them.
"For our dead we have a higher praise. It was not enforced obedience to the command of a tyrant that dragged them from their homes; not the lust of conquest, nor the scarcely nobler thirst for glory. When the life of the nation was attempted, when the cause of liberty and human rights called for their aid, they rushed forth to rally under the banner they loved, with grand singleness of purpose and heroic devotion--leaving all behind them, to meet toil and danger,hunger,sickness, wounds, and death, for nothing but the sublime satisfaction of doing their duty to their country and to mankind.”
Gen. Carl Shurz, St. Louis, MO.