The Taney County republican., 1900-06-14
AMERICAN REPUBLIC.
Memorial Day Speech Of Lieut..
Governor w. A. Northcott.
Eloquent Indorsemcnt of the Expan.
sion Policy OF the Republican
Party BY m Illinois High
OmciaL

Party By m Illinois High
Official
Lieut.. Gov. w. A. Northcott was pres
ent at the Memorial day services at
Clinton, Ia, and contributed largely to
the impressiveness of the exercises by
delivering the following eloquent ad-
dress:
"'Oh, Hove the old republic. bound by the
seas, walled by the wide air, dOmed by
stars. love the republic: love it because
I love liberty.
"My theme to-day shall be the American
republic. This is Memorial day, when our
people with one heart and one mind bring
wreaths of immortality to twine round the
memory of those who died that the nation
might live; day on which to look back
across the years to the birth, struggles and
glorious achievements of the greatest re-
public the world has ever known.
'"These bright-eyed boys and girls can
here catch the inspiration of the past and
drink from the fountains of patriotism. In
this busy age it is we'll enough for all of us
to look at the flag of our country.
"How inspiring the theme, and how in
spirins the audience! The stars shine upon
no greater people than those who live here
in the valley of the Mississippi river, great
er than the TigriS or Euphrates; greater
than the Nile, that flowed by the homes
of the Ptolemies and PharaOhs. and upon
whose banks sit grand, gloomy and pc
culiar. the everlasting pyramids; greater
than the Tiber of ancient Rome, from
whose banks the imperial Caesars ruled
the world; greater than the Rhine. in whose
valley contended the Teuton and the Gaul
for the supremacy of Europe and the
world: greater than all these because 1t
flows by the homes of freemen.
Nowhere else on Gods footstool is
wealth, happiness and intelligence more
generally distributed among the people
than here in this great northwest. The
strength of nation is not in it's army and
it's navy, but in the number of happy homes
throughout the land. Out here more people
know how to read and write. more people
have three square meals day and send
their children to school than anywhere else
under the sun.
"Out of the dim past of 400 years ago,
from the background of the middle ages.
arises the figure of the Genoese sailor. We
can almost hear the Santa Maria bearing
Columbus on his voyage of discovery as 1t
CRATES upon the sands of the new world;
looking back upon the years to-day we
stand with Balboa as he catches the first
glimpse of the great Pacific: we press on
with Cortez to the very halls Of the Mon
tezumaS, or drag our weary feet through
the southern forests with the brave but
unfortunate DeSoto.
1--WE recall the history of the early settle
mentS of jamestown and Plymouth Rock.
we see the growth OF lS colonies peOpleO Dy
the HbertylOving AnglO-SaXOnS. We
stand with the throngs in the old town
meetings on the commons of Boston and
hear the thunderbolts hurled by Samuel
Adams at the tyranny Of the British. We
again hear the matchleSS eloQuence of Pat
rick Henry in the halls of the Virginia as
sembly and the continental congress. Like
mountain peaks loom up the figures of
Washington and Franklin. We watch in
the morning twilight for the coming of
British regulars along the street in the
quiet villages of Lexington and Concord.
We stand amid the glories of Bunker Hill
and wait with Washington and his bare
footed soldiery in the snow at Valley Forge,
and applaud his victory at Trenton. We
witness Burgoyne'S surrender al Saratoga
and CORVALLIS at Yorktown. We stand in
the city of Philadelphia and hear the old
liberty bell peal out the birth Of liberty
upon a new continent, and hear the plaud-
Ats of the world at the immortal words of
the Declaration of Independence, as penned
by the liberty-loving Jefferson. We see a
new nation born. dedicated to freedom and
constitutional government; created by a
people whose forefathers, upon the plains
at Runnymede, had wrested from King
John the Magma Charta, the bulwark of
Anglo-Saxon liberty; nation that was to
eXemplify to all history the truth that all
governments derive their just powers from
the consent of the governed. Ha.f..
''Then came the war of 1872. which made
US free upon the sea as the war of the revo-
luton had made us free upon the land. Out
of 40 naval engagements with the British,
the Americans won 80 glorious victories.
1t was in this war that our sailors emu
lated the example of John Paul Jones in the
war of the revolution, when he lashed his
ship, the Bon Homme Richard. to the Ser
apis, and when asked, amidst falling tim
bers and groans and blood of the dying and
the ship on fire. If he had struck. replied:
Struck? have just begun to fight" Out
of our memories of this war arises the fig
ure of Andrew Jackson, stern, courageous
and honorable, the type of the pioneer
backwoOdsmen that he led to glorious vic
tory at the battle of New Orleans.
I'VE learn from history how the IL orig
inal colonies, huddled together on the At
lantic coast. expanded by the Virginia ces-
sion of the northwest territory, out of
which was carved the magnificent states
OF Ohio. Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois. |
How Thomas Jefferson bought of Napoleon
that great territory west of the Mississippi
river and stretching to the Pacific, and out |
OF which came commonwealths that rival |
the brightest on the pages Of history. This !
expansion of territory was further fol- |
lowed by the purchase Of Florida in 1919.
annexation of Texas. In this war our
flag was never permitted to trail in the |
DUST, and our soldiers won a series of |
victories, marred not by single defeat.
They fought with old Zachary Taylor at |
monterey and Buena Vista, and with |
Scott at Vera Cruz and Chapultepec, un- |
til the gates of the City of Mexico few
the addition of vast domain, reaching |
from the gulf to the Pacific. where Cali
fornta's brooks wash down their sands of |
gold. ~.
Nations are not made, they grow. In
the beginning Of this republic our fore