Memorial Day began in the years following the Civil War. The Civil War was fought between the Northern and Southern states and lasted from 1861 to 1865. When the war was over, family members began to take regular trips to lay flowers on the graves of the husbands, sons, and loved ones they had lost in the horrible fighting between the Union and the Confederacy, that harrowing Civil War that consumed so many lives from 1861 to 1865. Several towns in the United States claim to be the “birthplace” of the Memorial Day tradition and by 1868, a former Union officer named John A. Logan promoted May 30 as a day set aside “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country.”
Lincoln’s self-education, his dare we say, self–classical education, helped to provide Lincoln with the vocabulary and concepts needed to make sense of the harrowing events that characterized his life — namely, the Civil War.
Following World War I, the scope of Memorial Day changed to include soldiers who had died in combat, and, in 1971, the United States Congress designated the last Monday in May to be a federal holiday under the name we know now: Memorial Day. While we may celebrate the day in a variety of ways, from barbecues to pools to time with family and friends, we should take a moment and consider the incredible opportunities and advantages we have in this country that are preserved and supported by members of our armed services.
As an example, consider the words of John Adams, the second president of the United States. In 1780, Adams wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail: “I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Painting and Poetry Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.”
Adams was speaking of generations — one studies and practices war and endures great sacrifices, and the other who enjoys the kind of peace and tranquility that makes the great study of the arts possible. The one generation who enjoys music and the arts cannot do so without the sacrifices of an earlier generation who endured the kind of warfare that Adams lived through during the Revolution.
Adams’ words still apply today, although not so much to generations as of groups of Americans. We are of the group that has the privilege of studying painting, poetry, and music, and we give thanks to those of the group serving in our country’s armed services so that we may have this unique privilege. This reflection is a somber, sobering thought, and it is a reminder to use our freedom well in light of the sacrifices so many have given on behalf of so few.
Given that Memorial Day began to commemorate those who had “given their last full measure of devotion” to the preservation of liberty, we want to take a moment and look at the life and education of Abraham Lincoln to bring out the significance of the Memorial Day tradition and to highlight some of the values and virtues of classical education. It is all together fitting and proper we should do this.
The education of Abraham Lincoln demonstrates that one need not have read widely to be well-read.
Lincoln’s list includes Euclid’s Elements, the works of Shakespeare, the King James version of the Bible, and perhaps most importantly, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War.
Lincoln’s self-education began as a boy, desperately wanting to escape a life of toil and hardship on the frontier. In addition, the spirit of self-improvement was in the air in early America, and everyone wanted to improve their mental faculties by reading great books. Lincoln was not alone in this endeavor.
But Lincoln gained two things from his (classical) self-education. The first was the vocabulary and concepts he needed if he were to be understood (and respected) by his peers, and the second was the vocabulary and concepts that he used to understand (and make sense of) the momentous events of his presidency and his life — and of course, I’m talking about the Civil War.
Remember the Gettysburg Address? Lincoln was not even the primary speaker that day, that famous ceremony in November, 1863 dedicating the now famous National Cemetery. The cemetery stands at the site of the pivotal Civil War battle that resulted in an estimated, combined 50,000 Northern and Southern casualties.
Instead, the honor of being first speaker went to Edward Everett, who served as Governor of Massachusetts, Secretary of State, and was a teacher of Greek at Harvard, in addition to being a noted public speaker. Everett spoke for two hours and filled his speech with, what we will only say here, in this context, far too many allusions to classical antiquity. (Normally, you can never have too many references to antiquity.)
Abraham Lincoln’s address, meanwhile, came in at a bit over two minutes. Lincoln’s speech is not more famous simply because it is shorter (and thus easier for generations of school children to memorize, which all school children should do, by the way), but because Lincoln spoke to what people needed to hear. And that is the essence of good oratory — saying the right things at the right time so that your audience can do the right things.
Two years into the Civil War, following battles that ever-increased in the number of casualties, the American people had grown weary of the struggle to preserve the Union. Both North and South had suffered greatly, with whole towns being wiped out on battlefields of the Civil War, and the American people needed to know that their sacrifices mattered, that the lives of their sons lost at the Bloody Angle or the Bloody Lane or the Hornet’s Nest or any of the other monumental battles in the Civil War had not given their lives in vain. And where did Lincoln identify that the American people needed to hear this message?
Despite lacking classical allusions, there is good evidence that Lincoln found his inspiration in classical texts, principally Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War. In one of the more famous passages from that work, Thucydides recounts the Funeral Oration of Pericles. Each year, Athens held a state-sponsored funeral for the soldiers who had given their lives defending their city from outside threats. Pericles not only praises the valor of his fellow Athenians in the same manner Lincoln does at Gettysburg, but he also connects their sacrifice to the enduring legacy that Pericles hoped Athens would leave to the world; for Athens, the “School of Hellas” as Pericles called his city, enjoyed more freedom than other city-states, and those freedoms were worth preserving, even at great sacrifice. So does Lincoln.
Lastly, Lincoln’s self-education, his dare we say, self–classical education, helped to provide Lincoln with the vocabulary and concepts needed to make sense of the harrowing events that characterized his life — namely, the Civil War. One cannot underestimate the depth of the sorrow that our country experienced during the four years from 1861 to 1865 when the Northern and Southern states were engaged in a great civil war. Over 600,000 soldiers died during those four years, a number almost equal to that of all the other wars the United States has fought.
And the books that Lincoln read, few in number but profound in depth, helped Lincoln make sense of the chaotic times in which he lived and cast a vision for a better future. We need that kind of vision too, and we need a transformative education, grounded in the right books, to help us contribute to a more just and promising future.
Abraham Lincoln spoke these words in praise of the thousands of soldiers who gave their lives at Gettysburg to preserve our country. On Memorial Day, an occasion on which we remember the Americans fallen in combat, it is fitting and proper that we turn our attention to the “cause” of America. Thinkers and statesmen from Plato to John Locke had speculated for millennia on the nature of just government, but, in the founding of America’s entirely new government, the accumulated canon of political thought could be most fully utilized. On these shores, history’s firmest securities of a peoples’ liberties were realized, and the capacity of a nation for self-government tested, even to the point of death and giving their last full measure. Such a country is worth fighting for.
So on this Memorial Day, imitating Lincoln’s words and phrases, we want to thank everyone who has served in our nation’s military and honor those who sacrificed, asking humbly that we all may rededicate ourselves to America’s cause: securing, protecting, cherishing the blessings of liberty.