Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-06-07
THIS GREAT NATION.
The Mass Of Tradition Which Lies
Back of it.
IT HAS GROWN BY EXPANSION
Address Delivered Today at Clinton by
Lieutenant Governor Northcott,
of Illinois Our Duty Lies
Along the Lines of Action.

Clinton, May 3O.-Extensive memo
rial day exercises We're held here to-
day. Great crowds were present and
orators of more than local fame made
addresses. Lieutenant Governor North
colt, of Illinois, was the speaker of
the day, and delivered an eloquent ora
ton.
Lieutenant Governor Northcott said
in part
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 a nation is not in its army
| and it's navy, but in the number of hap
| ply homes turnout 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 it CRATES upon the
sands of the new world; looking back
across the years today 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 thru
the southern forests with the brave
but unfortunate DeSoto.
We learn from history how the thir-
! teen original colonies, huddled togeth-
er on the Atlantic coast, expanded by
] the Virginia cession 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 commonwealth
that rival the brightest on the pages of
history. This expansion of territory
was further followed by the purchase
of Florida in 1919.
Then came the Mexican war and the
4 annexation of Texas. In this war our
flag was never permitted to trail in the
dust, and our soldiers won a series OF
victories, married by not single de
feat. They fought with old Zachary
Taylor at Monterey and Buena Vista,
and with Scott at Vera Cruz and Cha.
pultepsc, until the gates of the City
of Mexico flew open, and our country
again expanded by the addition of {
vast domain, reaching from the Gull
to the Pacific, where California;
brooks wash down their sands of gold
Nations are not made, they grow
In the beginning of this republic ou1
forefathers left two great questions fol
future generations to solve. Ideas are
things, and it was a contest upon these
two great ideas that moulded the bull
lets that were fired in the civil war
As the teachings of Voltaire and Rous.
seau eliminated in the great French
4 Revolution, so the discussion of these
two great questions ended only at APP
pomattox.
Standing with new generation to-
day, looking back, we see the clouds O.
war lifting. We see our republic enter
ing upon career Of progress unequal
ed in the history of nations, and We
ing all these things, remembering tn,
precious price that has been paid fol
this heritage, let us not forget tn.
stood upon the famous field of Gettys
burg: Here let us highly resolve that
the dead shall not have died in vain
that the nation shall, under God, hav,
new birth of freedom, and that the
people shall not perish from thu
. EARTH"
Since that great war this republi,
has grown from less than $4,000 O
people to more than 75,O00,000. A gal
| Of CT on hnS hao OIL loI< f