The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-05-30
Decoration Day.

Decoration Day.
Decoration Day is holiday unlike any
known either to ancient or modern times.
The Greeks could not have adopted it; for
with them their mythology was part Of all
their public observances and their heroes
became gods. The Romans would have dis
dained it, tor the patrician never would have
accorded such remarkable honors to the
memory of plebeians Such an observance
was out of the question under the feudal
system and under the monarchies which sue
ceeded feudality. Nowhere except in a
republic, where all power is based upon the
will Of the people, and where liberty is as
much a sentiment as nationality among the
States of Europe, is it possible there
could be such holiday as ours Of the
30th of May. Even with us it has
very different meaning from anything that
preceded it. The Fourth of July is the ami
versary Of American independence. The
22d of February is the birthday of the
noble chieftain whose sword made the Dec
laration of 1776 q marked event in history
But the 30th of May celebrates no great battle
No important proclamation, like that OF
emancipation, was dated on that day. 1t is
not the birthday of any living chief or dead
hero of the war for the Union. Had il been
set apart because OF any such event it would
have been narrowed in its purposes and
dwarfed in its significance. It is because it
was fixed by arbitrary selection and the sug-
gestiveness of the season as the day for strew-
ing the graves of the dead with flowers that it
became not only an annual memorial service,
but the most marvellous holiday in history
The significance Of Decoration Day is as yet
imperiectly understood even by ourselves. Its
ceremonies and observances are both patriotic
and poetic, but, strangely enough, religion is
not blended with sentiment. If it was neces-
sary to analyze its forms we should find them
more nearly pagan than Christian. But it is
not pagan except as it is an ideal dedication
Of liberty in the sacrifices long ago made by
its votaries. For year or two after Decora-
ton Day was established by the Grand Army
of the Republic it was the mere memorial of
those sacrifices. The hearts Of mothers and
sisters bled anew at the recollection of their
personal losses, and with them strewing the
graves of the dead soldiers with flowers was
the work of affection. Their griefs were still
fresh in their minds and at first it was i'm
possible that any political significance which
Decoration Day might have should be
narrow and sectional AS the bitterness
Of recollection was softened by time
the animosties of the war died out of every
heart. However mistaken were our enemies
in battle we were again to remember that they
were our brothers. Sentiment took new
form and poesy chanted Of the blue and the
gray. While we cherished the memory of our
own dead and decked their graves with the
flowers of May we had tear and bouquet OF
regret for the rebel dead-now our dead also.
Decoration Day was no longer the memorial of
civil lite, and our flowers ceased to be the em-
blems Of personal sacrifices and desolated
hearts. A change had been wrought In the
meaning Of these simple observances, and they
now proclaim to all the world that God lives
in history and that it was His will liberty
should be glorified through fire and blood.
1t was thus the 30th of May became the
anniversary Of freedom-the grand outburst,
year by year. Of the sentiment which has in
spired its yotaries for centuries. II is day Of
remembrances and rejoicings rather than of
tears. Like All Souls Day in France it will
become universal in its observance, and, be-
sides celebrating the idealization of the aspi-
ratons Of republicanism, its flowers will ever
freshen the memories of those who died that
those aspirations in the fulncss of fruition
might become perpetual Inheritance The
graves Of all who persisted in our wars will
thus be sacred through all generations and
every heart will make Decoration Day the All
Souls Day of those who died in battle.