And State Papers 57 



solemn holidays in commemoration of our great 

 est men and of the greatest crises in our his 

 tory. There should be but few such holidays. To 

 increase their number is to cheapen them. Wash 

 ington and Lincoln the man who did most to 

 found the Union, and the man who did most to 

 preserve it stand head and shoulders above all our 

 other public men, and have by common consent won 

 the right to this preeminence. Among the holidays 

 which commemorate the turning points in American 

 history, Thanksgiving has a significance peculiarly 

 its own. On July 4 we celebrate the birth of the 

 nation; on this day, the 3Oth of May, we call to 

 mind the deaths of those who died that the nation 

 might live, who wagered all that life holds dear 

 for the great prize of death in battle, who poured 

 out their blood like water in order that the mighty, 

 national structure raised by the far-seeing genius 

 of Washington, Franklin, Marshall, Hamilton, and 

 the other great leaders of the Revolution, great 

 framers of the Constitution, should not crumble 

 into meaningless ruins. 



You whom I address to-day and your comrades 

 who wore the blue beside you in the perilous years 

 during which strong, sad, patient Lincoln bore the 

 crushing load of national leadership, performed the 

 one feat the failure to perform which would have 

 meant destruction to everything which makes the 

 name America a symbol of hope among the nations 

 of mankind. You did the greatest and most neces 

 sary task which has ever fallen to the lot of any 



