Legion of Honor

“ The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred upon me. However, few escape that distinction. ”

“ Observe how the people bow before the decorations of foreigners. Voltaire calls the common soldiers 'Alexanders at five sous a day.' He was right. It is just so. Do you imagine you can make men fight by reasoning? Never! You must bribe them with glory, with distinctions and rewards.... In fine, it is agreed that we have need of some kind of institutions. If this Legion of Honor is not approved, let some other be suggested. I do not pretend that it alone will save the State, but it will do its part."
The Legion of Honor was instituted on the 15th of May 1802. ”

“ When the Emperor, who remained in Paris for a few days after his return to prepare for the campaign of 1809, was told of Bridau's death he said: "There are men who can never be replaced." Struck by the spectacle of a devotion which could receive none of the brilliant recognitions that reward a soldier, the Emperor resolved to create an order to requite civil services, just as he had already created the Legion of honor to reward the military. ”

“ Read the constitution of the American Legion to-night just before you go to bed. Think of this second day's session when the Bolsheviki-tainted organization was thrown out, when the second largest city in America was told to "clean house" and redecorate in red, white, and blue. Then go to bed and know that all's right with the United States.
A large number of the delegates attended, on the second evening, a dance and supper at Sunset Inn given in honor of the Legion by the ladies of St. Louis. For most though, there was work in plenty to do. ”

“ Mr. Walsh of Pennsylvania, suggested that the A.E.F. knew what it was doing when they called it the American Legion. "Let us honor them and respect them by calling it the American Legion," he urged. Colonel E. Lester Jones, of Washington, stated the name had been considered by the committee most carefully and—
But why go into all the arguments. The motion to call it the American Legion was carried amid cheering and as such the name will go down into the history of things well done for America. ”

“ The history of the regiment can only tell of glorious attacks, of furious charges made with a bravery that absolutely disregards danger and death. These poor adventurers have their own individual ideas of honour for which they are proud to give their lives and which the only French general who ever understood the Legion expressed in a few enthusiastic words. It was General de Négrier who said:
Some soldiers can fight—the légionnaire can die.
That is the légionnaire's idea of honour: his own individual idea. He will never hear the signal for retreat. ”

“ This language of restraint in the mouths of organized civilian youth may prove to be a natural companion to the famous battle slogan of the A.E.F.: "Let's go!"
New York Evening Post, May 3, 1919.—... The true usefulness of a veterans' organization is not far to seek. Like the G.A.R., the Legion should maintain and develop the comradeship bred by the war. It can assist the unfortunate in its ranks; it can take care of the widows and orphans of soldiers, in so far as any inadequacy of public provision seems to make care necessary. ”

“ The coveted cross of the Legion of Honour comes to him before the end, and he wins the affection and confidence of his men—a soldier's highest prize. A deep religious conviction unclouded by superstition sustains his courage. He is a product of the French Catholic tradition at its best. He writes intelligently of his work, and with a greater freedom as to detail than our more exigeant censorship allows; so that you get an excellent picture of the daily life of a campaigner in the greatest of all wars. ”

“ With a hundred rounds of ammunition in our pouches, joy in our hearts, and a terrific load upon our backs, we swung out of the gates to the music of our magnificent band, playing the March of the Legion, never heard save when the Legion goes on active service. ”

“ The character of the men of the American army who are promoting it and the high ideals which it professes and proposes to maintain are a guaranty that it will be a power for helpful service in the common family of the nation.
Duluth (Minn.) Herald, May 24, 1919.—There is a great field for the American Legion, the organization of American veterans of the World War, and judging by the spirit of the recent convention and by the expressions of the returning delegates as reported in the press of the country, it is going to fill that field. ”

“ Brutal treatment of conscientious objectors is neither civilized nor necessary, but a differentiation is created by such residents themselves, and there should be corresponding differentiation in rights and protection. This is one of the subjects that the returned soldiers have at heart.
Post Intelligencer, Seattle, Washington, May 21, 1919.—... The American Legion will be a political force in the nation as it has a perfect right to be. No organization of its character is to be held together by the cohesive power of reminiscence. ”

“ We stuck it out; and, after eight weeks, went to the front with the Second Regiment of the Foreign Legion.
No other nation in the world has a fighting force like the Foreign Legion. Here, in this finest unit in France, the real red blood of all peoples unites. Men from fifty-three countries, every land and clime, all ranks and walks of life, colors, ages, professions, or different religious and political beliefs, speaking all languages, they have come from the four corners of the globe and are fused in the crucible of discipline. ”

“ No comrade of the great struggle is to feel that he is forgotten and forsaken by the comrades who served the same great cause. Its large and more permanent duty is to spread the sentiment of patriotism, to set an example of love of country, and unselfish service, to keep blooming always in the soldiers' bosom the flower of sacrifice that springs from every soldier's grave in France. ”

“ It was a happy and a graceful act on the part of the French Government to bestow the Legion of Honour on the town of Liège, which, as was well said in the decree setting forth the honour, “was called upon to bear the first brunt of the German troops, and kept the invading army in check in a struggle which was as unequal as it was heroic.”
Every soldier worthy of the name not only respects, but heartily admires, a gallant, magnanimous foe. ”

“ The flashing waves of color rolling up the avenue hour after hour, like the endless wash of some mighty human stream.
The blue sky, across which drifted white streamers like "the trailing robes of God." A glorious sun throwing each flash of color into bold brilliance.
The endless passing of the hours with the crowd growing larger each minute. The inexorable forward movement which defeated every effort to hold it in check.
The encroachment on the street, the imperceptible movement which finally filled the pavements until the Legion marched a path no wider than the car tracks. ”

“ All agreed that it had been worse than they had expected, and that the enemy had fought with great bravery.
"They are sturdy fellows and not to be despised," a captain said. "I certainly did not think they would fight so well. If they had fought like that against the French there would have been no occasion for us to send an army to help them. However, we have a right to be proud of the Legion; they have done gallantly. It is a pity that we have lost something like three thousand men by sickness. ”

“ The Legion is a shifting panorama, international debating ground, continuous entertainment, inspiriting school of practical human nature. The Legionnaire lives in realms of romance, experiences, fantastic as are dreams, horrible as the nightmare. ”

“ It is always the exceptions that one notices. An editor of the Temps, who visited Sidi-bel-Abbès and struck up a chance conversation with me, said in astonishment:
"I was speaking just now to a professor of Greek, and now you're a journalist. Is the Legion then a collection of ruined talents?"
In between the paintings in the Salle d'honneur there stand the Legion's memorial tablets, with the names of the battles in which the Legion took part written on them: forty-eight great battles, fought in all corners of the earth, from Indo-China in the East to Mexico in the Far West. ”

“ It is always so with the Legion, and that is what makes the Legion so terrible in battle—They are not so much fighting with the enemy, monsieur, they are bayoneting the Past, and what the Past has done to them. ”

“ I saw men forego the discussion of subjects in which they believed with all their hearts and with all their minds solely for the purpose of doing nothing that would tend to disrupt the Caucus or give the impression throughout the United States that the men who had stuck together so closely in times of daring and danger could not still stick and face, as a band of brothers in the American Legion, any perils or pitfalls which peace might hold for this country. ”

“ With the war gone, with thousands of young men thrown upon their own initiative and resources for both work and play, there is going to be a great need of proper guidance, companionship, and comradeship, unless a great many are to be overtaken by some madness like Bolshevism or in a lesser degree—constant and brooding dissatisfaction. The American Legion post, with its leaders, is going to fill a great need here. ”

“ Standard, May 28, 1919.—The statement that the American Legion is to let politics alone is good news to the people of this country who are looking toward this fine organization of American fighters to bring to our national life some of the spirit which chased the Fritzies back to the Rhine. The civilian public has a right to ask what are the aims of this new, and sure to be powerful, organization. Four million men are of its potential membership. These four million are to be found scattered in every city, village and hamlet in the country. ”

“ Their pay was always ridiculously small, their punishments barbarous, and the discipline that they were subject to more than hard. And yet there were always thousands of recruits willing to shed their life's blood, who did not serve under the Legion's flag merely to earn their living, but formed one of the best bodies of troops in the world. What misery and misfortune must there be in Europe to bring thousands and thousands of poor and desperate men flocking to the Legion's standard, whose total in the eighty years of the regiment's existence must add up to an overwhelming figure. ”

“ Americanism; to preserve the memories and incidents of our association in the Great War; to inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state, and nation; to combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses; to make right the master of might; to promote peace and good will on earth; to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom, and democracy; to consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.
ARTICLE I Name
The name of this organization shall be The American Legion. ”

“ Philadelphia Press, April 10, 1919.—The organization of the soldiers of the late war into a permanent body is inevitable and entirely proper.
Capper's Weekly, May 24, 1919.—The American Legion organized at St. Louis is the new G.A.R. and through its platforms the views of the soldiers who fought in France will be heard. It is already apparent what the trend of that sentiment is. Whatever military system this nation sets up, if it meets the approval of the two million men who served the nation in the Great War, it will be democratic in spirit and as far as possible in form. ”

“ As by studying a hive one feels the mysterious governing spirit, so he felt the spirit of the Legion in its music, its restlessness, its longings, its passions, and its ambitions, uttered and cried to heaven in prayers and curses. As individuals the men were dumb, guarding their secrets, striving to forget ”

“ On the field in France or in the training camps at home, the millions of America's best manhood have learned intimately and well a new lesson of individual and national responsibility. Such lessons, at the cost they were obtained, are not to be forgotten or lost. The ideals of the fighting men of the states, producing the valor and the power which made the American Army irresistible, and the revelations by fire of new realizations and brotherhood and of world and national citizenship are surely to be felt in the calm, happier times of peace. ”

“ It will be an army in which the self-respect of the common soldier will be recognized. The returning soldier has no use for anyone living here who is not wholly American, and is for expelling the unnaturalized alien wherever found. Loyalty to the Nation is fundamental in the soldiers' view. ”

“ Marching into the dusk the great parade rolled on. Every downtown light went on, and the whole scene was transformed.
Colors Become Radiant
Groups of American and Legion colors became moving clusters of jewels. Radiant colors of the marchers' uniforms were whipped into a riotous rainbow, through which unreal lines of moving men kept pressing.
Out of the yellow mist far down the street came the last of the Legionnaires. And out of the black night skies overhead there echoed the last roll of the fading drums. With one movement the tremendous crowd surged free. ”

“ So, today, 142 years later, American soldiers in khaki cross leagues of ocean, fight, suffer and die to save France from invasion even as France saved us.
27 CHAPTER II
HISTORY OF THE LEGION The Foreign Legion has a notable record, which extends back to the Crusades. Then, French and Anglo-Saxon marched together, and fought to save the world for Christianity. History, repeating itself, after centuries, today, we see the same forces, side by side, fighting, dying, not only for Christianity, but for civilization. ”