Story highlights Obama laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery as is customary

Exit polls found veterans voted in high numbers for Donald Trump

Washington (CNN) Recognizing and honoring America's military can provide a salve for the bitterly fought presidential election, President Barack Obama said Friday during his final Veterans Day as commander in chief.

"Whenever the world makes you cynical, whenever you doubt that courage and goodness and selflessness is possible, stop and look to a veteran," Obama said during a late-morning speech from Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington.

He said the November day the US sets aside to remember those who served in the military often falls after an election -- "an exercise in the free speech and self-government" that veterans fight for every day.

"It often lays bare disagreements across our nation," Obama noted. "But the American instinct has never been to find isolation in opposite corners. It is to find strength in our common creed, to forge unity from our great diversity, to sustain that strength and unity even when it is hard."

"When the election is over, as we search for ways to come together, to reconnect with one another and with the principles that are more enduring than transitory politics, some of our best examples are the men and women we salute on Veterans Day," he added.

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