Which U.S. president delivered the first Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery?

James A. Garfield delivered the first Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery.

Garfield spoke at Arlington on May 30, 1868, before he became president. At the time, he was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a Union Civil War veteran. His address was part of the first national Decoration Day observance organized under General John A. Logan’s order.

Garfield’s speech reflected the original post-Civil War purpose of Decoration Day: honoring Union and Confederate dead while encouraging national reconciliation. He praised the sacrifice of the fallen and connected the cemetery’s graves with the country’s future.

Garfield was elected president in 1880 and took office in March 1881, but he was assassinated later that year. The 1868 Arlington address is therefore associated with him as a congressman and former Union officer, not as a sitting president.