University of Virginia Library

An Example To Follow

Dwight David Eisenhower is as closely
identified with the United States of America
and all that it stands for to the people of the
world today as are the men who established it
two centuries ago - he dedicated his life to
the preservation here and abroad of the ideals
on which they founded it. He symbolizes for
millions of Americans and Europeans the
continuing hope and faith in the fundamental
right of people to be free to govern themselves
as they choose as it is embodied in the
Constitution of the nation he led on the
battlefield and in peace.

The death of a man to whom we are so
indebted for the existence of everything we
cherish is an occasion on which no American
can help reflecting on the history of his
country in a context of that one man's place
in it. It is an occasion on which Americans
find themselves pondering the very essence -
the meaning - of a nation so ambitious from
its beginning and so committed to its ambition
ever since - so committed to its
founders' dream that it would risk its very
existence to make that dream a reality for
others.

The funeral of the man who led it in its
endeavor to preserve that dream was an
interesting index to the society he has come
to symbolize. It is a society whose members
turn out in the thousands to mourn the death
of a poor farm boy; it is a society which
buries its dead leader with pomp and ceremony
befitting a European monarch, in a
"regular issue" army casket; it is a society
which memorializes its dead leader from an
elegant and dignified cathedral - complete
with choirboys, elaborate carving, brilliant
stained glass - in a low protestant Episcopolian-Presbyterian
service; it is a society in which
the elaborate funeral proceedings for a dead
leader are carried out by unobtrusive men of
all races, creeds, and walks of life, with a
degree of polish and dignity seldom matched;
it is a society which attracts the attention and
attendance of leaders throughout the world as
it does so.

Dwight Eisenhower devoted himself to the
preservation of a free society in which such
paradoxes can occur; it is up to those who
follow him to devote their daily lives to the
continuing preservation of that society. Just
as he endeavored to preserve freedom for
people of other countries as well as his own,
so must those who follow him. Just as he
loved his country, so must those who follow
him. Never must anyone, however, hesitate to
manifest his love by striving for needed
change; nor should others necessarily interpret
such efforts for change as efforts to destroy.
We must never cease to struggle to insure that
the freedom symbolized for so many by
Dwight Eisenhower is a reality for all people,
especially in the country for which he sought
to preserve it. If indeed, we are, as the Bishop
of Washington supplicated, "true as he was
true, loyal as he was loyal," then we will
certainly "henceforth be good enough and
great enough for our times." We cannot afford
to be less in times such as ours.