Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1898-03-31
The CREW OF lHE MAINE.
Speech Of Robert C. Cousins, of iowa,
on the Relief Bill.
ncongressional Record" March 81:

congressional Record" March 81.
Mr.. Speaker, whether this measure shall
prevail, either i'll the form which 1t has
come from the committee or in the form
as proposed in the amendent, it is both
appropriate and just; but hardly is it men
tionable in contemplation Of the great
calamity to which it appertains. 1t Will be
an incidental legislative footnote to 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 any
thing to the silent gratitude, the speech
less reverence already given by great
and grateful nation to its dead defenders
and to their living kin. No act of Con-
q ess providing for their needs can make
a restitution for their sacrifice. Human
nature does, IN human wars, its 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 the sweetest,
tenderest words of sympathy for that gal
liant crew who manned the Maine. But
no human recompense can reach them
Humanity and time remain their ever
lasting debtors. 1t was brave and strong
and splendid crew. They were part OF
the blood and bone and sinew of our land,
Two of them we're 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 the eve
ming salutation to the fag-that flag which
had been interviewer with the dearest
memories of their lives, that had colored
all their friendships with the lasting blue
of tue 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 but little less
than love and little more than friend
ship, 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 sorrows OF the
human race, through deed and thought
and dream, through song and toll and
battlefield.
No foe had ever challenged them. The
world can never know how brave they
we're. They never knew defeat ; they
never shall. While at their posts of duty
sleep lured them into the abyss: then
death unlocked their slumbering eyes but
for an instant to behold its dreadful car
nival, most of them just when life was full
of hope and all its tides were at thell
highest, grandest flow; just when the early
sunbeams were falling on the sleeps Of
fame and flooding all life's landscape fa
out into the dreamy, distant horizon; just
at that age when all the nymphs were
making diadems and garlands, waving
laurel wreaths before the eyes of young
and eager nature-just then, when DEATH
seemed most unnatural.
lowering above the dark waters of thai
myterious harbor of Habana, the black
winged vulture watches for the belated
lead, while over it and over all there Is
the eagles piercing eye sternly watching
for the truth. (Applause.)
Whether the appropriation carried by
this resolution shall be ultimately charged
TO fate or to some foe shall soon appear
Meanwhile patient and patriotic peo
pie, enlightened by the lessons of our his
tory, remembering the woes of war, both
to the vanquished and victorious, are
ready for the truth and ready for then
duty.
The tumult and the shouting dies
The captains and the kings depart
Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget-lest we forget.
cloud and continued applause