The holiday’s purpose: to remind people of the greatest wartime loss of life in the nation’s history. The great sacrifice to keep the Union whole. Most of all, what the cause of the rebellion was; the Confederacy’s attempt to continue slavery. A yearly dialogue would drive inaccuracies from the stage. No more attempts to teach incorrect histories. No more cover for the “it wasn’t all about slavery” argument. No more “noble cause” myths.
The result; a shared view of the war’s conclusion and lasting effects; the fulfillment of the promise implied in the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”