By Charles Hyde
May 27, 2024
I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day [Memorial Day]. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did. We mourn for them as comrades who have departed, but we feel the glory of their dying and the glory of their achievement covers all our great country, and has set them in an imperishable roll of honor.”
–President Benjamin Harrison
Throughout American history, presidents have sought inspiration from those before them and, in turn, inspired succeeding administrations. On this Memorial Day—when we honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice protecting our freedoms—it is especially fitting to think about the lessons we can learn from our American presidents who were veterans of the armed forces, and who had firsthand experience on the field of battle themselves.
So what was Indiana’s contribution to national leadership through military service, represented in the person of the 23rd president? Let us set the scene.
After serving three and a half years as a volunteer soldier for the Union cause—having personally raised a regiment of 1,000 men, leading them in combat, and being elevated to the rank of brigadier general by Abraham Lincoln’s own hand—a war-weary and battle-hardened Benjamin Harrison returned to his adopted hometown of Indianapolis ready to rebuild his family and professional life. And in the span of two short decades, he was propelled into the national spotlight in a way that no Hoosier before or since has been able to achieve.
Benjamin Harrison was inaugurated on March 4, 1889, and was immediately beset by his presidential duties. By his own account, he personally shook the hands of over 40,000 fellow citizens in his first three weeks of office. And in his first year alone, he would accomplish much: touring the country widely, including California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire; organizing the first Pan-American conference; issuing the first presidential proclamation protecting an individual animal species; enjoining national celebrations for the Centennial of Washington’s inauguration; initiating the tradition of flying American flags in front of schools and public buildings; appointing a future president, Theodore Roosevelt, to the Civil Service Commission; setting a personal example of philanthropic support in relief of the victims of the Johnstown Flood; admitting four states to the Union; and calling for groundbreaking anti-trust legislation.
And yet, in the midst of all of this, just five months into his term, he made a special return trip to his hometown for an occasion he had been intimately involved in seeing come to fruition.
Here, in his own words, are President Benjamin Harrison’s “Remarks at the Cornerstone Laying Ceremony for the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Indianapolis” on Aug. 22, 1889:
“…The suggestion that a monument should be builded to commemorate the valor and heroism of those soldiers of Indiana who gave their lives for the flag attracted my interest from the beginning. Five years ago last January, when the people assembled in the opera house yonder to unveil the statue which had been worthily set up to our great war governor, I ventured to express the hope that near by it, as a twin expression of one great sentiment, there might be builded a noble shaft, not to any man, not to bear on any of its majestic faces the name of a man, but a monument about which the sons of veterans, the mothers of our dead, the widows that are yet with us, might gather, and, pointing to the stately shaft, say: ‘There is his monument.’ The hope expressed that day is realized now…
…This is a monument by Indiana to Indiana soldiers. But I beg you to remember that they were only soldiers of Indiana until the enlistment oath was taken; that from that hour until they came back to the generous State that had sent them forth they were soldiers of the Union. So that it seemed to me not inappropriate that I should bring to you to-day the sympathy and cheer of the loyal people of all the States. No American citizen need avoid it or pass it with unsympathetic eyes, for, my countrymen, it does not commemorate a war of subjugation. There is not in the United States to-day a man who, if he realizes what has occurred since the war and has opened his soul to the sight of that which is to come, who will not feel that it is good for all our people that victory crowned the cause which this monument commemorates…
…I have felt lifted up by this occasion. It seems to me that our spirits have been borne up to meet those of the dead and glorified, and that from this place we shall go to our homes more resolutely set in our purpose as citizens to conserve the peace and welfare of our neighborhoods, to hold up the dignity and honor of our free institutions, and to see that no harm shall come to our country, whether from internal dissensions or from the aggressions of a foreign foe.”
This Memorial Day, we invite you to embrace this Hoosier warrior and president’s call to honor “those whose dying we commemorate”. We can pay them no greater tribute for their sacrifices than by, “go(ing) to our homes more resolutely set in our purpose as citizens to conserve the peace and welfare of our neighborhoods, to hold up the dignity and honor of our free institutions, and to see that no harm shall come to our country…”
Charles Hyde is the president and CEO of the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site located in Indianapolis. The views expressed are those of the author only.
