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"There can be no peace with the forces of evil. Peace comes only through the establishment of the supremacy of the forces of good.
That way lies through sacrifice...'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,'"
- stated President Calvin Coolidge is 1923 Memorial Address
Beginning
in 1921, the sacrifice of America's military has been recognized by the
President laying a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which
is inscribed:
HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD"
The Tomb is guarded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The
number 21 being the highest salute, the sentry takes 21 steps, faces
the tomb for 21 seconds, turns and pauses 21 seconds, then retraces his
steps.
Memorial
Day began at the end of the Civil War when Southern women scattered
spring flowers on the graves of both the Northern and Southern soldiers.
In 1868, Memorial Day was set on MAY 30.
In 1968, it was moved to the LAST MONDAY IN MAY.
From
the Spanish-American War, to World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam,
Desert Storm, War against Islamic Terror, up through the present, all
who gave their lives to preserve America's freedom are honored on
Memorial Day.
On MAY 30, 1917, in an address before the Grand Army of the Republic at Arlington Cemetery, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
"There
are times when words seem empty and only actions seem great. Such a
time has come, and in the providence of God, America will once more have
an opportunity to show the world that she was born to serve mankind."
On
MAY 30, 1919, in a Memorial Day Address delivered among the graves of
American soldiers in Suresnes Cemetery, near Paris, France, President
Woodrow Wilson stated:
"It
is delightful to learn from those who saw these men fight, and saw them
waiting in the trenches for the summons for the fight, that they had a
touch of the high spirit of religion....We all believe, I hope, that the
spirits of these men are not buried with their bones. Their spirits
live!"
On MAY 30, 1922, dedicating the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., President Warren G. Harding stated:
"In every moment of peril...there is the image of Lincoln to rivet our hopes and to renew our faith....
He
treasured the inheritance handed down by the founding fathers, the Ark
of the Covenant wrought through their heroic sacrifices....
Lincoln
came almost as humbly as The Child of Bethlehem. His parents were
unlettered, his home was devoid of every element of culture and
refinement.
He
was no infant prodigy, no luxury facilitated or privilege hastened his
development, but he had a God-given intellect, a love for work, a
willingness to labor and a purpose to succeed."
On MAY 30, 1923, in his Memorial Day Address at Arlington National Cemetery, President Warren G. Harding stated:
"I
believe it a God-given duty to give of our influence to establish the
ways of peace throughout the world....In all the wars of all time the
conscienceless profiteer has put the black blot of greed upon the
righteous sacrifice and highly purposed conflict....
God
grant that no conflict will come again, but if it does it shall be
without profit to the noncombatant participants except as they share in
the triumphs of the nation."
On
MAY 30, 1925, at the Memorial Day Ceremony, Arlington National
Cemetery, Washington, D.C., President Calvin Coolidge stated:
"The
leaders of the Nation have been supported by a deep devotion to the
essentials of freedom. At the bottom of the national character has been a
strain of religious earnestness and moral determination which has never
failed to give color and quality to our institutions."
Get the book, Prayers and Presidents-Inspiring Faith from Leaders of the Past
On MAY 30, 1931, in an address at Valley Forge, President Herbert Hoover stated:
"If
those few thousand men endured that long winter of privation and
suffering, humiliated by the despair of their countrymen, and deprived
of support save their own indomitable will, yet held their countrymen to
the faith, and by that holding held fast the freedom of America, what
right have we to be of little faith?"
On MAY 30, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated at Gettysburg:
"On these hills of Gettysburg two brave armies of Americans once met in contest.
Not
far from here, in a valley likewise consecrated to American valor, a
ragged Continental Army survived a bitter winter to keep alive the
expiring hope of a new Nation...
Surely, all this is holy ground." 
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