Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1898-03-30

The following speech, delivered In
the United States House of Repre-
sentatives, by Mr.. Cousins, OF Iowa,
upon the bill appropriating sum Of
money for the relief OF the families of
the sailors killed on the battleship
Maine was q bit of impromptu
eloquence rarely equalled, and
worthy of the best orators in the
country:
"Mr. Speaker, whether this meas
ure shall prevail, either in the form
in which it has come from the COM
mittee or in the form as proposed in
the amendment, it is both appro-
pirate and just; but hardly is it
mentiOnable in contemplation of the
great calamity to which it apper-
tains. 1t will be an Incidental
legislative footnote to q page of
history that shall be open to the
eyes OF this Republic and of the world
for all time to come. No human
speech can add anything to the silent
gratitude, the speechless reverence,
already given by great and grateful
nation to it's dead defenders and to
their living kin. No act of Congress
providing for their needs can make a
restitution for their sacrifice. Human
nature does, in human ways, it's
best, and still feels deep in debt.
Expressions of coincidence have
come from every country and from
every cline, and every nerve OF steel
and ocean cable has carried on
electric breath thesweetest, tenderest
words of sympathy for that gallant
crew who manned the Name. But
no human recompense can reach
them. Humanity and time remain
their everlasting debtors. 1t was
brave and strong and splendid crew.
They were a part of the blood and
bone and sinew of our land. Two OF
them were from my native State OF
Iowa.
"Some were only recently at the
United States Naval Academy, where
they had SO often heard the morning
and evening salutation to the flag
that flag which had been interviewer
with the dearest memories of their
lives, that had colored all their friend
ships with the lasting blue of true
fidelity. But whether they came
from naval school or civil life, from
one State or another, they called
each other cOmrade-that gem of
human language which sometimes
means a little less than love and
little more than friendship, that
gentle salutation of the human
heart which lives in all the languages
of man, that winds and turns and
runs through all the joys and sor-
rows OF the human race, through
deed and thought and dream.
through song and toll aud battle
field.
mo foe had ever challenged them.
The world can never know how
brave they were. They never knew
defeat; they never shall. While at
their posts sleep lured them into the
abyss; then death unlocked their
slumbering eyes but for an instant to
behold it's dreadful carnival, most of
them just when life was full of hope
and all it's tides were at their highest,
grandest flow; Just when the early
sunbeams were falling on the sleeps
of fame and flooding all life's land
scape far out into the dreamy,
distant horizon; just at that age
when all the nymphs were making
OlOuOiAO cNl0 e5tbl lCLi1O6, w 0tlHS3 luul Cl
wreaths before the eyes OF young and
eager nature-just then, when death
seemed most unnatural.
"Hovering above the dark waters
of that mysterious harbor of Havana,
the black-winged vultureiwatches for
the belated dead, while over it and
over all there is the eagles piercing
eye sternly watching for the truth.
(Applause.)
whether the appropriation car
ried by this resolution shall be
ultimately charged to fate or to
some foe shall soon appear. Mean
while a patient and a patriotic
people, enlightened by the lessons of
our history, remembering the woes
of war, both to the vanquished and
victorious, are ready for the truth
and ready for their duty.
'The tumult and the shouting dies
The captains and the kings depart
Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a c0ntrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet.
Lest we forget-lest we forget"