Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of my amendment which relocates the reconciliation monument, sometimes referred to as the Reconciliation Memorial, back to its original location in Arlington National Cemetery. I am very grateful for the support of Chairman Rogers on this amendment.

Under the direction of President Biden, the Reconciliation Memorial was removed on December 18, 2023. This monument in Arlington was a powerful symbol of the healing and unification of our Nation after the deep divisions of the Civil War.

American leaders like President Abraham Lincoln and Union General Ulysses Grant knew that a divided nation could not stand, and they tirelessly worked on promoting reconciliation.

In 1898, following the end of the Mexican-American War, President McKinley undertook a process to create greater national unity. In 1906, President McKinley authorized the construction of the Reconciliation Memorial. Unveiled in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson, this monument, designed by a Jewish-American sculptor, features a woman crowned with an olive wreath symbolizing peace.

For over a century, Presidents of both parties have understood the purpose of this memorial of reconciliation and have honored it by sending wreaths to the monument. This tradition showing national unity and respect has been carried on regardless of the party or politics of the sitting President. Even President Obama understood the reconciliation monument in the context of what it stands for, unity not division, when he continued the Presidential tradition of sending a wreath to the monument. In doing so, Presidents have continued to emphasize the message of this monument, reconciliation and unity, not division.

Former Democrat Senator Jim Webb, a highly decorated Marine Corps officer and former Secretary of the Navy, has strongly supported the preservation of the Reconciliation Memorial because the monument is one of the most potent symbols of healing in our Nation and across the globe.

Democratic Senator Webb has said that the statue's removal would signify the desire of ``a deteriorating society willing to erase the generosity of its past, in favor of bitterness and misunderstanding conjured up by those who do not understand the history they seem bent on destroying.''

Now, I would like to share a little of this monument's history.

When this monument was originally dedicated back in 1914, Reverend Dr. McKim pronounced these words within his invocation:

And as the blue and the gray mingle their dust on this consecrated hill, may the men of the North and the men of the South join hands and hearts in the labors and sacrifices which must be undertaken in the years to come for the honor, the happiness, and the glory of our country.

Grant also, O Lord, that this monument may stand as a perpetual memorial of the reconciliation between the people of the States once arrayed against each other in deadly conflict.

Men who once met in wrath on the field of battle meet here today as friends and brothers in the great enterprises of peace.

Henceforth, we pray and labor for the good and the glory of our reunited country. We have beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning hooks. Ours it shall be to strive in fraternal emulation with our northern brothers, in all undertakings for the common weal.

Meaning the common prosperity.

President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, had these words to say at the ceremony: ``I assure you that I am profoundly aware of the solemn significance of the thing that has now taken place.'' Meaning the dedication of the Reconciliation monument.

It was suggested by a President of the United States, who had himself been a distinguished officer of the Union Army. It was authorized by an act of Congress of the United States.

The corner-stone of the monument was laid by a President of the United States elevated to his position by the votes of the party which had chiefly prided itself upon sustaining the war for the Union, and who, while Secretary of War, had himself given authority to erect it. And, now, it has fallen to my lot to accept in the name of the great government, which I am privileged for the time to represent, this emblem of a reunited people.

Again, I say: `` . . . this emblem of a reunited people.''

Last year, I led a similar amendment, which passed the House floor by voice with no opposition prior to the removal of the monument. I ask that all Members support the adoption of my amendment to return the Reconciliation Memorial to the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. In doing so, we can maintain a critical piece of our national unity and fill the empty spot that now exists in Arlington.

Let us unite against the destruction of our history. Let us fight for the principles of healing and unity, which is exactly what this memorial was created to accomplish.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source