James A. Garfield gave the keynote address at the first national Decoration Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery in 1868.
Garfield was then a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a former Union major general. His speech honored Union soldiers and argued that the nation’s sacrifices in the Civil War should preserve the meaning of the Union.
The event followed General John A. Logan’s order calling for a nationwide day to decorate the graves of war dead. It took place on May 30, 1868, at Arlington, which had become a national cemetery during the Civil War.
Garfield later became the 20th U.S. president in 1881. The observance is often described as an early national predecessor of modern Memorial Day, although local commemorations had already taken place in several communities.