The Last Full Measure of Devotion

Memorial Day is a federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 30 in 2011). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. Service members who died while in military service. First enacted by formerly enslaved African-Americans to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War – it was extended after World War I to honor Americans who have died in all wars. Over the years, it has come to include all our departed loved ones. We visit graves, decorate them in various ways with flowers and other momentos, and pause for a few minutes to remember them.

All of this is appropriate, but this day is more than a casual observance. Remembering loved ones and those who have fallen in defense of rights and freedoms across the world is the least we can do. I would like to concentrate this discussion on those who gave their lives for our freedom. The LDS Church News, in a May 20, 1989 editorial, entitled, A Time To Remember, said the following:

Many of those whom we should remember and honor on Memorial Day are unknown to us. But they deserve our deepest appreciation.
Anyone who has stood in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C., and viewed the grave of the Unknown Soldier cannot help but be impressed by the honor and pomp and circumstance accorded this gravesite. But it is only one sober reminder that this unknown soldier fallen on a foreign battlefield represents countless thousands who made it possible for America to be the country it is today.
Likewise, those who now walk across the bridge at Concord, Mass., stroll the shady park at Lexington, or climb Bunker Hill in Boston, should not forget those whose lives, fortunes, and sacred honor were pledged for us. Though all these are virtually unknown to us today, their lives, and their deaths, made possible our incomparable gifts of freedom and peace in this great land.

President Abraham Lincoln, in his immortal Gettysburg Address, said:

…that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion… (italics added)

That phrase, “the last full measure of devotion,” was authored by President Lincoln and written (as legend would have it) along with the rest of that timeless speech., on the back of an envelope while on the train to Gettysburg.

That phrase alone has served as the theme for books (many) and music (songs and orchestrals) that inspire and lift us as we contemplate the great sacrifice so many good men and women have made for us and others across the world. It really doesn’t matter whether you are a warrior or a pacifist—that phrase evokes great emotion.

The terrible price we pay to keep our country free is only worth the cost if we remember and are grateful for the ultimate gift so many have given to us.

Our gift to them must be remembrance, respect and gratitude for our continued freedom and for the freedom of others in other lands. Thomas Jefferson said:

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants…

Tyrants create their own evil legacy, but those who refreshed the tree with their blood and sacrifice must never be forgotten. Again from the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln said:

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

It is fashionable in some circles to make of these stalwarts scapegoats or warmongers; they suggest that those who died in the many wars we have fought did so in vain. They suggest that nothing is worth a war and the sacrifice of freedom is a better alternative than fighting to keep it. John Stuart Mill had this to say about that way of thinking:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

It can be rightfully said that the very best of men and women have given their lives for our continued freedom and independence. In the final sentence of the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln clarifies for all time what the attitude of every true American toward these staunch men and women must be:

…we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

In the Improvement Era of July 1945, just as World War II was ending, these words were part of the usual publication of Music and the Spoken Word by Richard L. Evans:

Of Remembrance, May 27, 1945.
It is well that a nation pause, even were it only for a day, soberly to remember something of the cost of the free institutions we enjoy, solemnly to remember the lives that have been sacrificed as part of the purchase price—and to remember what it would cost again to win back this freedom, if, for any reason whatsoever, we should ever lose it.

Let us ever remember the uncountable price that not only those who “gave the last full measure of devotion” paid, but also those who waited in vain for their husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters to return. Let us be ever grateful for their gift.