We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them.

The line contrasts private grief with public commemoration. Rather than centering the ceremony on sorrow, it frames remembrance as an act of honor: the living gather to affirm the dead soldiers’ courage, sacrifice, and the cause they served. The phrasing also suggests a civic purpose—praise becomes a way to bind a community to shared values and to translate loss into meaning. Implicitly, it argues that memorial rituals should elevate exemplary conduct and inspire the living, not merely rehearse tragedy. In that sense, the quote participates in a long tradition of commemorative rhetoric that turns mourning into moral instruction and national or communal self-definition.