Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-05-31
ADDRESS MADE By THE LATE.
REV. j. T. SIMMONS IN
1870.
HE SPOKE AT MARENGO
Like Voice From the Past His Stir
ring Address Comes to the People
Of the Present Day - The obsery-
alton of One Of the Earliest Decora-
tIon Days BY Iowans.

On Decoration day, May 80, 1870, the
late Rev. J. T. Simmons. father of F.
w. and George Simmons Of this
city, delivered the address at
the Marengo cemetery. The re-
cent death of Rev. Simmons and the
fact that the address was delivered
thirtyfour years ago shortly after
the close Of the great civil war at
time when there was great
bitterness Of feeling between the north
and the south and the life of the ma
ton itself was in more or less criti-
cal state, will make this address Of
peculiar interest at the present time
The address as 1t was delivered was
published from the manuscript copy
and 1t Is from this old file thatgit Is
reproduced for the readers of the Cour-
Ter today. The address was as fol
lows:
Friends and Fellow Citizens:-We
meet to decorate the graves of our fall
en- soldiers. We come to cherish their
memory. When look upon this mixed
crowd Of all ages, am pressed that
this is not forced decoration, but
the spontaneous product Of a grateful
devotion. No poor words of mine can
tell the stifled emotions that stir ev
cry patriot bosom in Its effort to per-
petuate the memory of the nations
dead.
When look around here on this
resting place of your dead, feel that
there Is no spot here but that draws
to 1t the tenderest sympathy of some
poor heart, as though their silent an
gel laid it's hand on the spirit, waking
hallowed memories IT'S right it
should 1t stirs our i better nature.
Hallowed and dear as may be these
sympathies, they are only family ones.
Not so with the soldiers grave, for
| tenderness of friends and kindred,
they are nations treasure, the honored
relics of the nations conflict. falter
to try to talk on such an occasion
There are times when words seem to
CRATE, and the heart. moved by hal
lowed memories, retires into the cham
bers Of the soul and prefers to- be it's
own orator. How can I speak OF the
devotion of mothers who gave their
sons to the country. Of wives who said
to husbands God bless you. go!" OF
hearts watching by midnight lamps,
for the coming Of loved ones already
fallen! How can I speak of the per-
ambulating of the heart as the soldier
treads his midnight beat and tries to
fancy greetings he will never realize,
or of the dauntless spirit that stood
amid the fury of the battle, and went
down amid the crash. How can tell
Of the political and sectional strife
that eliminated its wrath, until, like
some great storm, 1t spent its fury on
these bosoms.
Beneath the shadow of the Acropo-
lis Of Athens, Tactitus tells us Phidi-
as chiseled in the marble the image Of
Flora, the goddess Of flowers and gar
dens, so life like that. you could al
most pluck the smile from her lip, or
breathe the odor Of her flowers while
from the canvas of Apelles Iris Is seen
Transforming Juno into a rainbow of
promise for the nations hope. But
these were only dim drawings in the
far off past Liberties hoped for but
not enjoyed.
It remains for some artist to yet sci
in marble or some brush yet to paint
on canvas the image Of liberty as she
now walks the earth, cheering So.
600, 900 of freemen with her smiles, and
pausing to scatter flowers on the
graves Of 100000 soldiers who have
fallen defending her assaulted but win
dicated honor. Nor can human under
| standing easily measure up to any in
telligent conception of the merits Of
these dead heroes. a.s
4 II can appreciate the monument o.
Col. Benton, the author of the Unior
Pacific railroad as mounded by the
hand of Miss Hosmer, and have some
conception of it's meaning as read OF
the caption: Here is the east ant
there is the west"
4 can appreciate the statuary of thu
statesmen who have toiled to cree
the pillars Of this great government
but how can l weigh the merit o
those who have cemented them will
/ their own blood. / can understand
something of the devotion of tru,
hearts that stood firm amid the storms
that periled the nations life; but how
can l comprehend the devotion O
those who barred their own bosoms tx
receive the missiles that would hav,
| shattered the tree of liberty. No! No
Carve them not in marble! No monu
ment. but that of the devotion Of ,
grateful people can be significant o
such merit.
| Strew the flowers and preserve
their memory. Let the hand palsiet
L u. i I, -,