Memorial Day, an American national holiday since 1967, originated from the American Civil War to honor the Union and Confederate dead. During the early 20th century the occasion has been extended to recognize all Americans who have sacrificed their life during military conflict.
In the very first Memorial Day Speech at Arlington National Cemetery, known then as "Decoration Day," a crowd of 5,000 gathered in 1868 to hear then Ohio Congressman and veteran James A. Garfield deliver remarks in honor of the Civil War dead. Garfield noted the solemnity of the occasion by beginning, "I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion," he added, "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."