Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-12-18
TRIBUTE TO AMERICA
Patriotic Address in Mexican
Chamber of Deputies.
A MONUMENT TO DYING CENTURY.


Remarks of Senior Mateos-Report
of the Speech From a Paper Sent
by w. H. Fetzer.
w. H. Fetzer of Ottumwa who ID
spending the winter in the City OF
Mexico has sent the Courier copy
of the Mexican Herald, an English
daily paper printed in the Mexican
metropolis. 1t contains among other
marked articles, a report of a session
of the chamber of deputies, in which
one of the members addressed the
gathering on the appropriateness OF
the erection of monument to the dy-
ing century. The speaker paid
tribute in the course of his address to
the American patriots who, in an
early day, gave SO much for the es-
| tablishment of free government in
America, the benefit of which evens
tually worked it's way to Mexico.
A Wonderful People.
In concluding, Juan A. Mateos, the
deputy who was speaking, said:
in the vast regions of America
watered by the Hudson, the Potomac
and the rapids of st. Lawrence
where the rainbow spans the roar OF
| Niagara's cataracts, there lived and
agitated ITSELF under the thin veneer
of British domination, wonderful
people unique in history. This peo-
/ pie rose like titan proclaiming the
rights of man and the claims Of op.
pressed communities. The nucleus of
Rome was an aggregation of bandits
who sealed the principle of author.
ity by a fratricide. The necleus OF
the United States was a handful Of
4 men who were exiles for liberty sake
and who had smarted under the lash
of feudalism and intolerance. AL
ready in the times of James l. these
people with their gods and their al
tars had crossed the ocean to this
unsullied soil on which all the wrongs
that had enthralled their political and
religious conscience were to be right
ed The motto of these men was
God, Country and Freedom; these
men were destined to form the United
J, States as the Phoenician masons left
J their homes 10 build the pyramids.
e. A Star on the HORIZON.
eat the root of every revolution lies
: an economical question. The lnequal-
, lily between the taxes OF England ana
+ her colonies; the burdens on tea and
the stamp act caused the rising IN
arms of the colonists, without at first
, rejecting the royal authority. Then
there appeared like star on the nor.
$ lion of history the immortal figure OF
George Washington England attempt
, ed to assert her sovereignty as she Is
t now doing in the Transvaal and set at
8 naught the privileges of the colonies
while in the meantime the congress
at Philadelphia was proclaiming the
:, equality of the human race and the
l right of self-government, the govern
ment of the people for the people,
which is the foundation of our instl-
I tutions.
|, Benjamin Franklin.
"As if one genius were not sufficient
s to direct the pillows of that revolutions
k airy ocean fretted by the winds of lib-
!. erty, the august personality of Benja-
min Franklin rose serenely amidst
> the storm. He went to England and
: in the house of commons he spoke SO
y eloquently and convincingly on behalf
{ of the colonies that the answer offered
him was silence. He was summoned
e to the council chamber to be interro-
IS gated and to the shame of England he
was stigmatized as a robber and a
murderer. Franklin arose to the
grandeur of the opportunity and de-
clared that the colonies would make
themselves independent and when he
was about to be arrested for revo-
lutionist he took passage for the Unit
ed States and in the city of Fhiias
n delphia, in concert with George Wash
/ ington, American independence waA
u declared.
n Apostle of Liberty.
"
r. s.Glory to George Washington, TIN
# first apostle of liberty on this cOnta,
e. nent and whose place is now Amons
If the great ones of humanity. Eight
b. millions of people bare their heads at
n his grave and proclaim him the first
Is in peace the first in war and the first
n in the hearts of his countrymen. But
al he Is more; he is the Petrus, the rock
n on which the enslaved and oppressed
Id of every cline have built the church
lie of liberty"
O. Two Poisonous Fungi.
y Going on to speak of Spain, Mr.
= Mateos referred to Charles Nv an6
, Ferdinand VII as two poisonous fun
-, -, gi" that had sprung UP from the tomb
N of Charles III.
-, OF Charles w, Mr.. Mateos said thai
81 not monument existed anywhere
= save at the entrance of our Paseo, the
only thing that Spain has left here tx
hear the everlasting jeers of history
I'm Cuba Mckinley lifted in hi
strong arm the banner of humanit,
90 and civilization and planted it on TIL,
shattered mastheads of the Maine
IS burnt in the fire of his victories al
of the traditions of conquest; trium
n phantly unheld the Monroe doctrin
no and turned a new leaf in the voIum
ID of American civilization"
Sc -
to ,.,