“For Love of Country, They Accepted Death”
A reflection on the history of Memorial Day and the meaning of sacrifice
In 2024, on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery, President Joe Biden reflected on his son Beau, who died of brain cancer—what the loving father believed was the result of his exposure to toxic burn pits in Iraq as a soldier.
As it is for so many of you, the pain of his loss is with me every day…But so is the pride I feel in his service, as if I can still hear him saying, 'It's my duty, Dad. It's my duty.' Duty. That was the code my son lived by and the creed all of you live by.
Duty to country. Duty to service. Duty to the defense of democracy and freedom.
This mindset, this dedication by father and son, is on my mind this Memorial Day. It’s a far cry from the epic corruption and greed that fuels Donald Trump and his sons.
You surely recall Trump dismissing fallen soldiers as “suckers” and “losers” back in 2018. It’s no wonder that he would carelessly send Americans into harm’s way now for a reckless adventure in Iran.
Sacrifice and duty? He didn’t get it then and he doesn’t grasp it now.
But rather than dwell here on the tragic mistake of putting such a man in power, this is a day to remember the meaning of courage and sacrifice. I am sharing with you my essay from Memorial Day last year.
Sacrifices Made for Freedom
Every Memorial Day we are provided an opportunity to pause and reflect on the ultimate sacrifice made by Americans throughout our history. Every loss is a tragedy, and the numbers tally into the millions.
It’s impossible to fully comprehend the loss of about 420,000 Americans in World War II and at least 620,000 Americans in the Civil War. Add to that the loss of over 25,000 American soldiers who died during the Revolutionary War, which represented about one percent of the colonies’ total population (equivalent to 3.4 million in America’s current population).
I focus on these three wars because of the clarity of mission—indeed the moral clarity—that defined their sacrifice and deepened the idea of what it means to be American and uphold our democratic ideals and principles. From the the fight to liberate America from an oppressive British monarchy, to the fight to end slavery, to the fight against Nazism and fascism, we can only hope the Americans who lost their lives understood their profound role in providing us today the promise of democracy and freedom.
Over this weekend, I visited Newport, Rhode Island, once a significant commercial port until the British occupation forced trade and traders elsewhere. The city is home to the oldest Jewish synagogue in the United States, dating to 1763 and providing a place of worship for Jewish families who first came to Newport in 1658 to escape religious persecution in Spain and Portugal.
America’s newly elected first President George Washington came to Newport in 1790, not long after Rhode Island was the last of the original 13 colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution. There’s a famous letter that he wrote to the “Hebrew Congregation” in Newport in which he articulated his dedication to freedom and the goals of a newly born nation—something that he proved again and again on the battlefield.
Washington began broadly after noting “the days of difficulty and danger which are past” and his hope for prosperity and security. “If we have the wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored,” he wrote, “we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people.”
Then he addressed more directly what the notion of freedom means. This America has “given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.”
And more: “It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people…for, happily, the Government of the United States…gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance…[and] every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
“May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths,” he concluded.
I won’t dwell on this day on our current malady and the despotism that Washington would presciently describe in his farewell address in 1796. Rather, this Memorial Day remains an opportunity to give thanks to those who believed in the cause of America and proved it with their lives.
This is a beautiful tradition, dating back at a national level to Decoration Day—the laying of flowers on the graves of soldiers, specifically those who lost their lives during the Civil War. On May 30, 1868, James A. Garfield, then an Ohio Congressman who had served as a Union major general, spoke to a crowd of more than 5,000 gathered at Arlington National Cemetery, where over 16,000 Civil War soldiers were buried.
“I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion. If silence is ever golden, it must be here,” Garfield began, gazing out across row after row of white wooden headboards. “We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country, they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.”
Earlier, on May 1, 1865, as many as 10,000 newly emancipated slaves and some white missionaries held a parade around a racetrack in Charleston, South Carolina. This was in the first weeks after the war’s end and followed the proper burial of 260 disease-ridden Union soldiers who had been hastily put in a mass grave.
On that day, according to news reports discovered by historian David Blight, thousands of Black schoolchildren carried flower bouquets and sang “John Brown’s Body,” the popular anthem of Union soldiers. “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave/But his soul goes marching on,” they sang. “John Brown died that the slaves might be free/His soul goes marching on.”
We cannot fully comprehend or measure the scale of sacrifice so many Americans and their families have made, including in more recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. Each loss is a tragedy. But we can cherish and honor their collective memory by doing what we can now to sustain their courageous commitment to securing a world of democracy, tolerance and freedom.
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Another beautiful essay. It seems that the more tragic our outward circumstances, the more we try to pull all the goodness and heart we still possess, like a giant patriotic taffy pull. I am humbled by your words, humbled by the unimaginable sacrifice that so many have made. They ran toward death so that we might be free. They ran toward duty so that we might remember ours. It is overwhelming to think of it. The tasks before us pale in comparison, although the gravity of this remembrance rhymes with struggles past and present. Let us remember. Let us give thanks. Let us feel the solemnity this day requires. Let us sit with it and let it settle deeply. Let us breathe out tyranny and breathe in the freedom their sacrifice demands. G-D bless our country and those who defend its most sacred freedoms. On this day, we have a lot to think about, a lot to feel, and a lot to aspire to in order to be worthy of their sacrifice.
Thanks for your reflection; it makes me believe that our gratitude for more than two centuries of history cannot be understated.Your mentioning Washington's visit to Newport evokes the annual celebration of that important letter he sent to the Jewish community in Newport, a place I've lived in, worked in, raised my kids in. In 1790, Washington sent that letter which has had a profound effect on me. He wrote :"
Gentlemen,
While I receive, with much satisfaction, your Address replete with expressions of affection and esteem; I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you, that I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced in my visit to Newport, from all classes of Citizens.
The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet, from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security. If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people.
The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.
May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy."
I have always appreciated that statement that has resonated across our history; it is particularly poignant when so many examples of grift, hostility, inflated ego sometimes seem to be what our nation honors today. We each find our own way to honor that history. Maybe volunteering at a hospital or food bank. Maybe helping at a public school serving lunches, a thankless task. Maybe organizing books on a public library shelf. Maybe working at the polls on Election Day, something that seems, this year, to possibly be fraught with danger. Maybe picking up litter when we pass it on the streets of our town, without giving a thought to it. Maybe just saying good morning when we pass a stranger on our neighborhood walks. Today, on Memorial Day, I'll be thinking about the young man I knew who died in Viet Nam, the men and women I knew who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, my father who served in the South Pacific. But also the people who give their time and energy to nonprofits in their communities, to people who serve on local government boards, who volunteer for service to make the lives of others better.
Thanks for the reminders of who our better selves can be.