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Already a huge number of strawmen and red-herrings on this thread. Decoration Day was, at its inception, a day of "Rememberance and Reconcilation" for union war dead. It was naturally expanded to include all Civil War servicemen. There is no need for a separate observance.

The lame attempt to conflate our Founding Fathers who held slaves to the confeds who sought to force the Peculiar Institution onto a nation that was turning away from the abhorrent practice is pathetic. Public opinion against slavery was sweeping the nation but these men weren't beneath any tactic - however low - in order to perpetuate their economic hegemony.

The fire-eaters who drummed up support for tearing our nation apart knew full well the firestorm they were igniting, but they didn't care. Their intent was to directly challenge the northern states for control of the western territories - ensuring decades of conflict and misery. Don't ever let anyone tell you that they "just want to be left alone" - that's total BS.

We are the greatest nation on God's green earth because we overcame those cowards who would have destroyed us for their own selfish profit.

sought to force the Peculiar Institution onto a nation

Hey, if you want to talk about slavery, let's talk about the slave trade. You want to talk about forcing? Well, originally, the slave trade was going to be banned in the constitution of the US. Well, it was given at lest an extra 20 years instead. Why? Because the northern slave traders complained so bad about it ruined the business and economy up north. The Northern economy was founded and made rich by the slave trade. Massachusetts was the first state to allow slavery. The confederate constitution prohibited the slave trade. The US flag flew over hundreds of slave ships. The confederate flag never flew over any.

Also, of all the slaves that the yankee slave traders sold, only 4-6% ended up in the south. Most ended up in the Caribbean or south America. And most died there.

Public opinion against slavery was sweeping the nation

Indeed. And in the 1830s and before the Nat Turner rebellion there were more abolition societies in the South than in the North.

Also, the free soilers wanted no slavery in the territories because they wanted no blacks. They wanted the territory for white labor and white labor only. Numerous exclusion laws were also passed to forbid free black from coming into northern states. New Jersey passed one of the first of these laws. Massachusetts passed a law that allowed the flogging of blacks who came into the state and stayed more than two months. Illinois passed by overwhelming popular vote an amendment to the state constitution declaring that "No negro or mulatto shall immigrate or settle in this state." And Oregon's 1857 constitution provided that "No free negro or mulatto, no residing in this state [at the time of adoption of the state constitution] ...shall come, reside, or be within this state."

John Sherman, William Tecumseh Sherman's brother, said that "We do not like negroes. We do not hide our dislike. As my friend from Indiana said yesterday: 'The whole people of the Northwestern States are opposed to having many negroes among them and that principles or prejudice has been engraved in the legislation for nearly all the Northwestern states.'"

In contrast, in the South Alexis de Toqueville noted that "The prejudice of the race appears to be stronger in the States that have abolished slaves than in the States where slavery still exists. White carpenters, white bricklayers and white painters will not work side by side with blacks in the North but do it in almost every Southern State."

Also note that only 6% of the Southern white population even owned slaves. And half of these owned 5 or less (and often worked side by side with them on their farms) Notable generals such as Lee, J. Johnston, A. P Hill, and J. E. B. Stuart didn't even own slaves. And yet the was was "all about slavery". Yeah right.