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1848/1898: Memorial Day, Places of Memory, and Imperial Amnesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Amy S. Greenberg
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Extract

Mr. Speaker, I believe that as we sow so shall we reap; and if in the minds of the present generation of boys and girls, young men and women, we sow the seeds of lukewarm patriotism, in the next we will reap a race of men and women who will care very little for love of country. … I would have this nation the absolute master of the commerce of the world. … [I]t is impossible to look up without having a feeling of pride steal over you for the patriots of '76, the sailors of '12, the boys in blue of '61, the courage of the boys in gray. …

—Representative Edmund H. Driggs to Congress, 8 March 1898

On 15 February 1898, the USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor, killing 266 crewmen. American journalists clamored for vengeance against the Spanish authorities they wrongly blamed for the accident. Three weeks later the Fifty-Fifth Congress unanimously voted in support of President McKinley's $50 million bill for the “national defense” (Morgan 275). By May, Spain and the United States were at war.

Type
Correspondents at Large
Information
PMLA , Volume 124 , Issue 5: Special Topic War , October 2009 , pp. 1869 - 1873
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2009

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