John Alexander Logan (February 9, 1826-December 26, 1886) was a Major-General during the Civil War. He served with General Grant at Vicksburg, Mississippi and with General Sherman on his march through Georgia to the sea. He was elected a U.S. Representative from Illinois, 1858; and a U.S. Senator, 1871-86. In 1884, he was a candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination.
On Decoration Day, 1886, in an oration at Riverside Park in New York, John Logan said:
<But the beautiful ceremonies of love and remembrance, now so universally performed with flowers, came to the fullest expansion through the growth of the Christian religion. Branches of palms were thrown in the path of our Saviour as He entered Jerusalem. The crucified Christ received a crown of thorns from His executioners, but flowers strewn by unseen hands exhaled their fragrance around the cave where His body was laid.> 1826JL001
--
American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1826JL001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Alexander Logan, Decoration Day, 1886, in an oration at Riverside Park in New York. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 290.