“Works which endure come from the soul of the people. The mighty in their pride walk alone to destruction. The humble walk hand in hand with Providence to immortality. Their works survive. When the people of the Colonies were defending their liberties against the might of kings, they chose their banner from the design set in the firmament through all eternity. The flags of the great empires of that day are gone, but the Stars and Stripes remain. It pictures the vision of a people whose eyes were turned to the rising dawn. It represents a hope of a father for his posterity. It was never flaunted for the glory of royalty, but to be born under it is to be a child of a king, and to establish a home under it is to be the founder of a royal house. Alone of all flags it expresses the sovereignty of the people which endures when all else passes away. Speaking with their voice it has the sanctity of revelation. He who lives under it and is loyal to it is loyal to truth and justice everywhere. He who lives under it and is disloyal to it is a traitor to the human race everywhere. What could be saved if the flag of the American Nation were to perish?”

— Governor Calvin Coolidge, 26 May 1919, for Flag Day on 14 June 1919

“This Nation approaches no ceremony with such universal sanction as that which is held in commemoration over the graves of those who have performed military duty. In our respect for the living and our reverence for the dead, in the unbounded treasure which we have poured out in bounties, in the continual requiem services which we have held, America at least has demonstrated that republics are not ungrateful. It is one of the glories of our country that so long as we remain faithful to the cause of justice and truth and liberty, this action will continue. We have waged no wars to determine a secession, establish a dynasty, or glorify a reigning house. Our military operations have been for the service of the cause of humanity. The principles on which they have been fought have more and more come to be accepted as the ultimate standards of the world. They have been of an enduring substance, which is not weakened but only strengthened by the passage of time and the contemplation of reason.

“Our experience in that respect ought not to lead us too hastily to assume that we have been therefore better than other people, but certainly we have been more fortunate. We came on the stage at a later time, so that this country had presented to it, already attained, a civilization that other countries had secured only as a result of a long and painful struggle. Of the various races of which we are composed, substantially all have a history for making warfare which is oftentimes hard to justify, as they have come up through various degrees of development. They bore this burden in ages past in order that this country might be freed from it. Under the circumstances it behooves us to look on their record of advance through great difficulties with much compassion and be thankful that we have been spared from a like experience, and out of our compassion and our thankfulness constantly to remember that because of greater advantages and opportunities we are charged with superior duties and obligations. Perhaps no country on earth has greater responsibilities than America.”

— President Calvin Coolidge, Arlington, May 1926

Our salute to all who have heard, with compassion and gratitude, America’s call not to be served but to rise up and serve. Our thoughts are with all who were there that fateful day in 1944.

In what was then-Governor Coolidge’s address to those gathered at Harvard University on May 30, 1920, the future President, channeling Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, observed:

We assemble here today on an occasion dedicated by law to the hallowed memory of those who, wearing the uniform of our nation, have given their lives in the cause of liberty. It is altogether fitting that this assemblage should come here under these auspices to pay our tribute of respect and reverence for those who have given their lives in this great cause.

What, – what, after all, was the object that they sought? It can be summed up in two words: the victory of righteousness, and righteous peace.

If this occasion is to have any meaning for us, if it is to bring any lesson to us, we must resolve that the lesson that their lives and their death have taught us is to be taken up and carried on and exemplified by those who come after. We come here as a result of war, but we come for the purpose of perpetuating, establishing, supporting; and maintaining peace – a peace of righteousness.

There are but two means by which that object can be accomplished. One is justice on the part of our nation toward all the other nations of the earth. And justice means action according to law, action according to the conscience of civilization and the edict of humanity. There is not authority from which we can secure peace unless it be accompanied by justice. There is no power great enough to guarantee it to us, no force strong enough to provide it for us. So that it is of the utmost consequence that we ascertain what our relationship one with another in our domestic affairs and in our foreign affairs may be, and see that it is administered, and that there is obedience to that law on our own part.

The other is the power to force obedience to that law on the part of anyone who may come against us. It was for that that these young men whose memory we come here today to hallow gave up their young lives. It was in a military preparation that our country might have the power to enforce a righteous peace, that they organized themselves from a military point of view and took up the great burden of civilization. Those are the two great leading points of carrying our civilization onward and upward; justice and preparation; obedience to law on our own part., and the enforcement of that obedience on the part of others.

May yours be a thoughtful and reflective Memorial Day this May 30, 2024. As Coolidge also once said, there remains a never fully paid Price of Freedom each generation owes. May ours meet its share in its own time and place. Thank you to all who give without an expectation of some future monetary or otherwise material return. Liberty lives because of you.