Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-05-01
IN MEMORY OF GENERAL GRANT

the Hammer of the North, had struck
the shacllles from the slave only, as
so many conquerors in civil strife be-
fore him had done, to rivet them
round the wrists of freemen, then the
war would have been fought in vain,
and worse than in vain. Ii the Union,
which so many men fought to restore,
were not now a union in fact, then the
precious blood would have been vast
ed. But it was not wasted; for the
work OF peace has made good the work
OF war, and north and south, east and
west, we are one people in fact as well
as in name; one in purpose, in fellow
feeling and in higher resolve, as we
stand to greet the new century, and,
high OF heart. to face the mighty tasks
which the coming years will surely
bring.
Grant and his fellow soldiers who
statesmen who completed the work
partly done by the soldiers, not only
left us the heritage of a reunited coun-
try aud Of 4 land from which slavery
had been banished, but left us what
was quite rs important, the great
memory of their great deeds, to serve
forever as an example and an inspira-
sion, TO spur us on SO that we may not
fall below the level reached by our
fathers. The rough, strong poet of
democracy has sung of Grant as the
man OF mighty days, and equal to the
days. The days are less mighty now;
/ and that's allthe more reason why we
I should show ourselves equal to them.
We meet here to pay glad homage to
the memory of our illustrious dead:
and les us keep ever clear before our
minds the fact that mere lip loyalty is
no loyalty at all, and that the only
homage that counts is the homage of
deeds, not words. Il is but an idle
waste of time to celebrate the memory
of the dead unless we, the living, in
our lives, strive to show ourselves not
unworthy of them. If the careers of
Washington and Grant are not vital
and full of meaning to us, if they are
merely part of the stored past, and
stir us to no eager emulation in the
ceaseless, endless war for right against
wrong, then the root of right thinking
is not in us; and where we do not
think right we cannot act right.
1T is. not my purpose in this adj
dress to sketch i'll even the .,briefesr
manner the life and deeds of General
Grant. 1T is not even my purpose to
touch upon the points where Grants
influence has told so tremendously in
/ the making of our history. 1T is part
of the mans greatness that now we
can use his career purely for illustra-
ton. We can take for granted the
fact that each American who knows
the history of the country must know
the history of this man, at least in
its broad outline; and that
we no more need to explain
| Nicksburg and Appomattox than ave
need to explain Yorktown. / shall ask
attention, not TO Grants life, but te
the lessons taught by that life as we
of today should learn them.
foremost of all the lesson of tenac.
| ity, of stubborn ixity of purpose. II
the Union armies there were generals
as brilliant as Grant, but none with
his iron determination. This qualit,
he showed as president no less than as
! general He was no more to be influ
tenced by hostile majority in congress
! into abandoning his attitude in favor
of a sound and stable currency, thar
! he was to be influenced by check OF
rspulse into releasing his grip on be
| leaguered Richmond. 1t is this ele
ment of unsuitable strength to which
we are apt especially to allude when we
!. praise a man in the most effective way
| by pralslng him as a man. 1t is the
one quality which we can least affort
to lose. 1t is the only quality, the
lack OF which is as objectionable in the
nation as, in the man. 1t is the antith
isis of leyity, fckleness, volatility o.
4 undue eNultation, of undue depression
of hysteria and neuroticism in all thei,
! mild forms. The lesson of unyieldine
unfiinching, nnfaltering perseverance,
uponthe course upon which the natio,
has entered. is one very necessary TO
a generation whose preachers some
4 times dwell overmuch on the policie
/ of the moment. There are not few
i public men, not few men who try tt
mould opinion within congress ant
without, on the stump and in the dali,
4 press. who seem to aim at instability
who pander to and thereby increas,
4 the thirst for reinstatement of eacl
i situation as it arises, whose effort il
accordingly to- make the people NOV
in zig-zags instead of in straigh
4 line. We all saw this in the Spanisl
war, when the very men who at on
time branded as traitors every bod,
who said there was anything wrong ii
the army, and at another time brand
ed as traitors everybody who said Their
was anything right OF course, sucl
an attitude is as unhealthy on one sid
as on the other, and it is equally de
structive of any effort to do away will
abuse"
mysteries of this kind may have al
\ the results of extreme timidi1y. A ma
ton that has not the power of endul
ance, the power of logged insstenc
\ on a determined policy, come veal O
woe. has lost one chief element O
4 greatness. The people who wish t
abandon the Philippines because w
have had heavy slsirmishing out there
OF who think that our rule is failur
whenever they discover some sporadi
upgrowth of evil, would do well to re
; member the two long years of disas
ter this nation suffered before til
July morning when the news wa
flashed to tie waiting millions tina
Nicksburg had fallen in the west an
that in the east the splendid soldier
L