The restoration of an obscure monument in Arlington Cemetery known as the Reconciliation Monument may serve as the catalyst and spiritual portal that brings America back to its origin in greatness as the nation of e pluribus unum — meaning one out of many.
In a recent X post, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reiterated that the reinstatement of the 1914 Reconciliation Monument, which celebrates the bringing together of the South and the North after decades of post-Civil War division, was important because it fosters the unity of America, and its removal by "woke lemmings" in December 2023 was inconsistent with honesty and openness about the past.
Hegseth added: "Unlike the Left, we don't believe in erasing American history – we honor it."
Most Americans may not realize the full cultural and spiritual significance of restoring this monument to its rightful place in Arlington Cemetery.
In this time of intense spiritual warfare against traditional values and Constitutional America, we certainly need to preserve and restore historical monuments.
But we also need to go on the offense and uphold the American values that inspired these great markers of history.
The Reconciliation Monument compels such action better than any other monument in Arlington and beyond.
The Reconciliation Monument, called by some as the Confederate Monument, displays four cinerary urns (one for each year of the Civil War), a frieze of 14 shields representing the eleven Confederate states and the border states of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and 32 life-sized action figures.
Most prominent is a Romanesque woman in a flowing gown with a plow and a pruning hook. Lower on the base is inscribed Isaiah 2:4, "They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks."
More than any other monument in Arlington Cemetery, the Reconciliation Monument captures the essence of what makes America great: the willingness to see our faults, forgive our transgressors, the quest for unity, and the celebration of beauty and freedom.
Also noteworthy is that while some have called it the Christmas Monument because of the Christian values it represents, Reconciliation was conceived, designed, and executed by the distinguished Jewish sculptor Moses Ezekial, who served in the Civil War.
In the foremost rank of American sculptors, Ezekial made the ideals of the spiritual and Godly, the Greek sense of beauty, and the American outlook of freedom uniquely visible through his sculptural works.
The Reconciliation Monument has always been one of the most beautiful tributes in Arlington Cemetery. So impressive is the monument, that to fully digest the symbolism and the nuances of meaning of the many panels in its decorative band-frieze, requires time and many visits.
The inspiration for the Reconciliation Monument started with President William McKinley, the 25th president.
McKinley had served on the Union side in the Civil War.
He was troubled by lingering division between the North and the South for decades after the war ended.
However, as president during Spanish American War in 1898, McKinley witnessed the impressive contribution that enlistees and officers from the South made.
These Southerners, who fought valiantly side by side with soldiers from the North, enabled a surprisingly swift victory in less than four months.
McKinley then envisioned a reconciliation monument as a way of celebrating success of a reunified Nation, which emerged at the end of the Spanish American War — an event that also marked the arrival of the United States as a leading power globally.
This theme of respect and reconciliation between the northern and southern states was also supported by the next three presidents (two Republicans and one Democrat) — Theodore Roosevelt, Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.
Wilson, who unveiled the monument in Arlington Cemetery in 1914, proclaimed that "the monument represented the best of America — a spirit of reconciliation, democracy, freedom, heroism and patriotism."
Not only did they believe in the importance of reconciliation, but every president thereafter — Democrat and Republican — up until Obama agreed and continued the tradition by laying a wreath at the foot of the monument every Memorial Day.
Early in this piece I mentioned that America was in the midst of intense spiritual warfare against traditional values and its constitutional government — a battle for the nation's survival.
The battle over the Reconciliation Monument has been a lightning rod, revealing how good and evil operate. It's instructive in discerning good from evil.
Pursuing reconciliation, forgiveness, unity based on truth, honesty, morality, transparency, goodwill, beauty, merit, and respect for the past can be trusted.
Those who foster vice, secrecy, divisiveness, hatred, dishonesty, destruction, lawlessness, fear and rewriting of history can't be trusted.
The book of Isaiah that Ezekial quoted is a promise of God's faithfulness, love, and compassion. Its removal marked a de-consecration of Arlington’s hallowed ground.
Its restoration is a triumph.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the George Floyd riots catalyzed the removal of some 260 historic monuments and statues across America.
Most will probably never be restored.
It's incredibly significant that Defense Secretary Hegseth has taken a hard stand in the restoration of the Reconciliation Monument.
Being one of America’s most important monuments with powerful symbolic and spiritual significance, such an accomplishment is a vital key to an important door to America’s spiritual revival.
Scott S. Powell is senior fellow at Discovery Institute and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger-China. His timeless book is, "Rediscovering America." Reach him at scottp@discovery.org. Read Scott Powell's Reports — More Here.
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