Creation of Memorial Day

 

Senator John Logan (R-IL)

    

    This Memorial Day, as Americans salute their fallen military heroes, Republicans can be proud that the holiday was established by one of their own, Senator John Logan (R-IL). Logan Circle in Washington, DC and Logan Square in Chicago were named after him.

    John Logan was inspired by the practice in Petersburg VA, Waterloo NY and other places of decorating Civil War graves. As head of the Grand Army of the Republic, an early veterans organization, he proclaimed that on May 30, 1868 Americans should honor the soldiers and sailors who died in the war by decorating their graves with flowers.

Five thousand people came to Arlington National Cemetery for the first Memorial Day ceremony. The principal speaker that day was U.S. Representative James Garfield (R-OH), who twelve years later would be elected President of the United States. Memorial Day soon became an annual event, and President Richard Nixon signed it into law as a national holiday in 1971.

    John Logan was born in southern Illinois on February 9, 1826. A lawyer by training, he served three years in the U.S. House of Representatives before joining the army with the onset of the Civil War, rising to the rank of major general.

    Though a Democrat before the war, Logan opposed slavery and so re-entered politics as a Republican. In 1866, he was elected to the first of three more terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. John Logan was one of the managers in the impeachment trial of Democrat President Andrew Johnson. That year, he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. The Illinois legislature elected Logan to the U.S. Senate in 1871, and again in 1879 and 1885.

    Senator Logan was radically opposed to slavery and then to Democrat oppression of African-Americans in the postwar South. The 1884 Republican National Convention nominated him for vice president, to balance the middle-of-the-road James Blaine at the top of the ticket. Blaine and Logan lost the election by a tiny margin. He and all Republicans took defeat especially hard because the Democrat elected vice president that year, Senator Thomas Hendricks, had actually voted against the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.

    In a moving tribute to his fellow citizens, in 1885 he invited some one thousand African-Americans to his home and shook hands with every one. When John Logan died the following year, the body of this great Republican lay in state for two days beneath the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, as a gesture of respect by a grateful nation.

By Michael Zak

IN THE WORDS OF PRESIDENT REAGAN

This Memorial Day of 1983, we honor those brave Americans who died in the service of their country. I think an ancient scholar put it well when he wrote: ``Let us now praise famous men . . . All these were honored in their generation, and were the glory of their times. Their bodies are buried in peace; but their names liveth for evermore.'' As a tribute to their sacrifice, let us renew our resolve to remain strong enough to deter aggression, wise enough to preserve and protect our freedom, and thoughtful enough to promote lasting peace throughout the world.

File under where are they today?

as seen in Neocon Express

My bread

I tried out my new Hitachi Bread Maker today. I am so happy that it worked out as well. We enjoyed fresh bread with our soup, cheese and fruit for dinner. I am looking forward to trying out the various varieties included in the booklet. Yeah!!!

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 (.25 ounce) package bread machine yeast
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Place the water, sugar and yeast in the pan of the bread machine. Let the yeast dissolve and foam for 10 minutes. Add the oil, flour and salt to the yeast. Select Basic or White Bread setting, and press Start.

I'll bet William Shatner could just slap himself for not taking a cameo part in the new Star Trek movie.

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Polly went with Peggy and Scott to see the new version. they seemed to like it. Not being a huge fan, I'll wait till it comes to TV.

Happy Mother's Day

My mother, Katherine Corinne LaBrue Elgin, and me, 1945.


Word History: It is most appropriate that the word for "mother"in Proto-Indo-European originated in the first recognizable syllable uttered by babies: ma. This syllable was attached to a kinship suffix, -ter, which also turns up in brother, father, and sister. The original form, mater-, later evolved into the current words for "mother" that we now find in all the Indo-European languages: Latin mater, Greek meter (as in metropolis, the mother city), German Mutter, French mère, Serbian majka, Russian mat', materi, Italian and Spanish madre, Portuguese mãe, Danish moder, Dutch and Afrikaans moeder, Norwegian and Swedish mor, Icelandic móðir, Irish máthair, Hindi mataji, Gujarati maataa, Farsi (Persian) madar, and Pashto (Afghanistan) mor. If you are a mother, may this day be as beautiful and exciting as your name in all these languages.

Today is Odd Day! 5/7/9

Today is Odd Day.Three consecutive odd numbers make up the date only six times in a century. This day marks the half-way point in this parade of Odd Days which began with 1/3/5. The previous stretch of six dates like this started with 1/3/1905—13 months after the Wright Brothers’ flight.

Who remembers “Three is The Magic Number” from Schoolhouse Rock?

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin

Acting silly

Bienvenue à Portland

We were surprised last weekend when our  friends, of 25 years, came to Portland. The Jeguesse family from near Rouen, Normandy, France. Mom and Dad are Christophe and Delphine.  The children are Antoine 13, Clotilde 11, and Gabrielle, 6. After we picked them up at the train station Sunday morning, they picked up an SUV, checked into a hotel, and we took them out to Helvatia Tavern for lunch. They had been in Montana with the Wolleys. We  then went shopping and did some sightseeing.

Little Gabrielle had picked up a tick on his head so we took him to the emergency room at St. Vincent's Hospital. They checked them out and gave him some antibiotics. He seems fine. Since they got home, they had their own doctor check him. Better safe than sorry. Peggy met us for dinner at Sweet tomatoes. The next morning we had breakfast at their hotel and  spent the morning sightseeing again.

They are big basketball fans, so I took them  to the Rose Garden Arena to see where the Portland Trail Blazers play.  They went a little wild in the gift shop and came away with caps, shirts and jackets.
Next I took them up to OHSU in the aerial tram. I had never been up there, so it was a kick for me, too. Lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory. They were catching th train to Seattle and then off home to France.