of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 189

MEMORIAL DAY—ANTIETAM BATTLEFIELD

May 30, 1940
Antietam

MEMORIAL Day, each passing year, comes to us with fresh significance.
By this I mean that the background of our emotions is inevitably colored
by the current events of our time. The emotions themselves do not change.
We cannot come to the grave-side of patriots without a deep sense of reverence
or without a devout feeling of gratitude. Yet it is equally true that there is
a difference between experiencing these emotions in tranquility and experienc-
ing them in the midst of tumult.

Twenty years ago—ten—five—even two years ago, it was possible to feel
a profound conviction that the United States had seen its last World War—at
least within our lifetimes. No longer, we believed, was it necessary to make
much of an issue of peace. It was already with us, and was here to stay. Any
public man who expressed doubts upon the subject was held to be a sensa-
tionalist. We were complacent in our own security. We were cynical of foreign
governments—even friendly ones—which extolled the blessings of peace while
vigorously preparing for war. We came to the cemeteries and to the monu-
ments on Memorial Days of the none-too-distant past, and we laid down our
wreaths and went away saying to ourselves: "Thank Heaven, it will never
happen again. "

Yes, and we had good reason for that optimism. The men who lay in those
graves had given us all that could ever be asked of them. Independence had
been won for us—at Valley Forge, at Bunker Hill, at Yorktown. Unity was
decided for us at Gettysburg, at Manassas. And finally, we had seen our belief
in democracy upheld and re-affirmed! on the Western Front of two decades ago.
Our Country was, perhaps, disappointed in the results of the victory overseas,
but at least the United States had fought on the victorious side—and fought
well; and the disappointment in European events only confirmed the opinion
that we had nothing else for which to fight. Therefore we came to these
shrines and honored these departed heroes amid a tranquility which we fondly
supposed would be everlasting.

How remote—how chimerical all of that seems on the Memorial Anni-
versary which we are observing today.

The tumult echoes about us: —The crash of cannon is also the crash of
tumbling nations which cherished their own independence, their unity, their
democratic ideals. We should be less than human and more than foolish if,
on Memorial Day 1940, we attempted to deny our anxiety or to belittle our
apprehensions. And we should be poor Americans if we did not enter into the
spiritual presence of those who died to make America what it is, and not say
to them: "Come what may out of this tumult, you shall not have died in vain. "

Because of this day, as on no other national occasion, it is fitting to
remember that our blessings exist only because men have gone to war to pro-
cure and protect them for us. We would be neither independent, nor united, nor
democratically governed unless there had been men who died in battles—and
gold star mothers who raised them in the love of their Country.

These are unwelcome thoughts, no doubt; but they are inescapable. Merely
to mention war is not to advocate it—which, Heaven forbid—or even to defend