Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-04-01
COL. MooRE's ADDRESS.

The following speech on the Vicks
burg Park commission bill was made
| by Col. S. A. Moore, of Davis county:
Il know something of the spirit OF
patriotism that prompted the young
men of Iowa to enlist in the service OF
| their country. The young men and
boys from the farm and workshops,
from the busy marts of trade and traf-
fic, the students and teachers, the men
of every profession and calling brought
their offerings and laid them down at
the altar. The country had come TO
the parting of ways The birthright
and inheritance of future generations
We're threatened with destruction The
sons of Iowa, true to the lessons OF pa
triotism taught to them in the schools,
in history, in song and story, having a
common interest with others in the
preservation and perpetuity of the
Union of the states, rallied on the col
or line and presented an unparalleled
devotion to home and country. They
were stimulated by the lessons of pa.
triotism taught in all the schools and
around the fireside of every home IN
) Iowa Many of them were familiar
with the heated and prolonged contro-
versy that had so long agitated the
country; the question of public pollcy
that threatened the dissolution of the
| union; and the establishment of anoth-
; er nation based on the fragments OF a
broken, discovered and discordant re.
public. Many of them could repeat the
eloquent and sublime words OF Web
A ster, Americas gifted orator, and one
v of the worlds intellectual giants, who
!, said, when speaking on memorable
. occasion, of the inestimable value of
the union of the states, and the posi-
5. bility of its dissolution, Other misfor-
n tunes might be borne or their effects
;, overcome If disastrous war should
= sweep our commerce from the ocean
another generation might renew it. If
it should exhaust our treasury, further
e industry would replenish it. If it
|. should desolate and lay waste our
. fields, under new cultivation they
. would grow green again and rlpen to a
/ future harvest. 1t were but tritle it
J. the walls Of our capitol were to fall
8 and crumble and be covered by the
dust of the valley-all these might be
e rebuilt. But who can reconstruct the
Is fabric of demolished government?
IS who shall frame together that skillful
O. architecture that unites national soVe-
n reignty with state rights, individual
y security and public prosperity?
III eff these columns fall they will be
IT. raised not again. Bitterer tears will
IN flow over them than were ever shed
" over the monuments of Roman or Gre
= clan art, for they will be the remnants
o. of more glorious edifice than Greece
lg or Rome ever saw-the remnants Of
in constitutional American liberty
Stimulated by the sublime and her
ole words of our orators and states
of men, and the patriotic devotion to the
union manifested by their fG hers, the
NC young men of Iowa rallied to the de
of Tense of the nation, and on the field:
al of grief and carnage and glory, tina
liz marked the struggle for the suprem
~ acy of law and order-stood with thei
lat feet on the iron line, between our Low
en- ed homes and the wars desolation,
Id. that the home and fireside might be Sc
nc. cure, and that this government of tn
~ people, by the people and for the pee
'ea pie might not perish from the earth
ok They endured hunger and thirst defie
to sleeting rains and piercing winds, Dor
mr.. the summers sultry heat, felt the BIZ
- ing touch OF frost, languished in priso
We, pens, in hospitals of pain, with wound
lal that had torn the qulvering flesh int
EN- shreds as with hooks of burning stee
md, until with the life blood leaping madl
:, from shattered veins and arteries, the
10 had fallen on the field amid shot an
shell and sabre stroke.
re. But history, song and story will ia
I'm. to note many of the incidents of loy
ave ana herolshl .ildI illsel anu dpiue WI
ed. hS,',te ,,,;+} to,,ao,,,,acs &c n,a roco
be them. Recall that incident that clinG
to to the memory of a. touching tende
of ness that moves the surviving con
- rade to tears.
when the battle was over and nigl
hat in mercy had fallen on the scene
Bri- carnage, a soldier whose comrade W;
ate missing at roll call was permitted VII
,on the aid of lantern to search the fie
- for his messmate; his bosom frier
pe- who had so often touched elbows wi
and him, shared his haversack and blanke
hat and drank from the same canteen t
Oily found MN hioItally Wouhueu' neip,e
hat ta nu of Re- mot '.a,,,airad in him wi
that emotion which / have so Oft
failed for want of words to descrit
] have felt. | hope without egotis
-, that as an old man of eighty years, t
the sana thonphts emotions and hon
fall have thrilled my own heart, VIII
ack wounded and helpless in the field
18th mind remains faithful as vine in t
conception of thought, but ! can Il
describe the emotion that thrills t
wounded and helpless soldier VIII
rs. sustained by that sublime confden
|, is iu ad shaiI eo1r az ,,ntil ali is do,
bill there will burst upon his enraptm
nal vision more beautiful land. beyO