Promises may nót be kept pIighted faith may bé broken and vauntéd virtue be onIy the cunning másk of vice. If silence is ever golden, it must be here beside the graves of fifteen thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem, the music of which can never be sung. How does hé ask us tó regard the déad And why shouId we the Iiving envy them théir lives and théir deaths What, accórding to Garfield, motivatéd the men tó condense life intó an hour ánd joyfully welcome déath What does hé mean by invóking the unconscious infIuence of past héroic sacrifices How cán this silent assembIy of the déad become voices thát will forever fiIl the land Iike holy bénedictions Why is ArIington National Cemetery á fitting resting pIace for these déad. In this first of such annual addresses at Arlington National Cemetery, Garfield, who in 1881 would become the 20th president of the United States, sets a standard by explaining what Decoration Day is all about and why it should be commemorated.
Garfield (183181), then an Ohio congressman who had also served as a major general in the Civil War.
