The Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth General Assemblies virtually approved Mrs. Ketcham's design by appropriating about $150,000 for its erection, by the enactment of a statute locating it on the plat of ground where we now stand, and by the continuation of the official life of the members of the commission who recommended it.

CHARACTER OF MONUMENT.

It is not deemed needful, in this presence, to give a description of the monument further than to say its platform, as you see it, is sixty feet square, its entire height when completed will be 135 feet; the platform, base and shaft will be of granite; it will be surrounded, crowned and ornamented with forty odd statues, medallions, battle scenes and other embellishments to be constructed of bronze.

Three or four of the statues will be allegorical, signifying Iowa, History and Victory. The others will be made from the figures of real Iowa soldiers. None of them will be dummies, modeled from the bodies of goodlooking hoodlums picked up on the streets by the artist, to be dubbed "ideal soldiers," but they will be copies of the actual bodies, limbs, arms, heads and faces of soldiers created by God Almighty Himself to defend Iowa and the nation. They will be placed on and around this monument simply as representatives of their comrades, and will not bear any name or insignia to distinguish any of them from all the others who are held to be equally meritorious. But the name of every Iowa soldier who served during the war of the rebellion, with a copy of the constitution of the United States and of the state of Iowa, will be hermetically sealed in a metallic case and safely deposited in the heart of this corner stone, there to remain forever, signifying that the people of Iowa would if they could make the fame of their defenders eternal!

BOTH BEAUTIFUL AND INADEQUATE.

The members of the commission think that they have thus far done the very best which they could do, with their limited capacity and the small means placed under their control by the legislature; and that as a work of art, when completed, with Victory standing erect on its summit holding out a wreath to crown with fame Iowa's soldiers represented around its base, and a battle scene on its face portraying an Iowa regiment, true to accurate history, leading the whole Union army at Fort Donelson to victory inside the enemy's fortifications; and another scene, even more glorious, representing the same soldiers at the triumphant close of the war, joyfully and quietly returning to their peaceful homes, it will not be discreditable to the people of the state, and that as a memorial of splendid courage displayed in a good and great cause, fruitful of magnificently beneficent results to a grateful country, it will be acceptable to the soldiers whom it is intended to honor.

Nevertheless we are painfully impressed with the conviction that it will very imperfectly express the appreciation of the people of Iowa of "the courage, patriotism and distinguished soldierly bearing" in the field of any one of their regiments.

Not even of Iowa's First Infantry, ninety-day men, at Wilson's Creek, who volunteered to assist in fighting that great battle against fearful odds after the expiration of their legal term of service, thus securing the

applause of the nation and setting an example of effective patriotism and sublime courage at the very beginning of the struggle for all other Union soldiers to follow;

Nor of the Seventh Iowa Infantry at Belmont, one of General Grant's first hard fought battles;

Nor of the Second Iowa Infantry, who charged over the enemy's ramparts, hitherto deemed impregnable, and planted our flag triumphantly within his works, followed by the Iowa Seventh, Twelfth and Fourteenth, thus securing to the country Grant's first great victory at Fort Donelson, and for themselves the cognomen "bravest of the brave;"

Nor of the Second, Third, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa Infantry at the battle of Shiloh;

Nor of the Third Iowa Infantry at the battle of Blue Mills Landing;

Nor of the Fourth, Ninth, Thirtieth, Thirty-first and Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry, and other supporting Iowa troops at the battle of Chickasaw Bayou;

Nor of the Fourth, Ninth and Thirty-first Infantry at the battle of Lookout Mountain;

Nor of the Fifth, Tenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Iowa Infantry at the Battle of Iuka;

Nor of the Third, Fifteenth and other regiments of Iowa Infantry and Fourth Cavalry at the siege of Jackson;

Nor of Iowa's two brigades under the command of Dodge and Vandever at the battle of Pea Ridge;

Nor of the Fifth, Tenth, Seventeenth, Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry at the battle of Champion Hill;

Nor of the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry at the capture of Fort De Russey; Nor of Shane's and Williamson's Iowa brigades, including Eighth Cavalry and First and Second lowa Batteries at the battles of Atlanta;

Nor of the Second, Fifth, Seventh, Tenth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth Iowa Infantry and Second Iowa Cavalry at the battle of Corinth.;

Nor of the Seventeenth Iowa Infantry at Fort Hill;

Nor of the Eighteenth and Twenty-first Iowa Infantry in the defense of Springfield;

Nor of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Iowa Infantry and First Iowa Cavalry at the battle of Prairie Grove;

Nor of the Twentieth Iowa Infantry at Sterling Farm;

Nor the First Iowa Cavalry and detached troops under General Vandever at the capture of Van Buren, Arkansas;

Nor of the Fifth Iowa Cavalry in the Rousseau campaign;

Nor of the Twenty-first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry at the battle of Hartsville and Port Gibson;

Nor of the Third and Fourth Iowa Cavalry in the battles with Price near Springfield, Selma and Columbus.

Nor of the twenty-six Iowa regiments of Infantry, Third and Fourth Cavalry and First and Second Iowa Batteries that participated in the assault on Vicksburg:

Nor the thirty Iowa regiments who aided in the capture of that Gibraltar, splitting the confederacy in twain, enabling the waters of the Mississippi, as President Lincoln expressed it, "to run once more unvexed to the sea;"

Nor of the Twenty-second, Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry at the battle of Winchester;

Nor of the Twenty-first and Twenty-third Iowa Infantry at the battle of Black River Bridge;

Nor of the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry at the battle of Milliken's Bend; Nor of the Twenty second and Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry at the battles of Sabine Cross Roads and Fisher's Hill;

Nor of the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Iowa Infantry at the capture of Columbia, South Carolina, on the return of Sherman's army from its march to the sea;

Nor of the Fourth, Ninth, Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Thirtieth, Thirtyfirst and Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry under the command of General Steele at the capture of Arkansas Post:

Nor of the Twenty-second, Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry at the battle of Cedar Creek;

Nor of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Tenth, Seventeenth, Twentyfifth, Twenty-sixth, Thirtieth and Thirty-first Iowa Infantry at the battle of Chattanooga, followed by the battles of Lookout Mountain, fought largely above the clouds, which resulted in the expulsion of the confederates from Tennessee, and as our Iowa historian says, in making General Grant generalissimo of all the Union armies of the United States.

Nor of the Seventeenth and Thirty-first Iowa Infantry and their other Iowa comrades at the battle of Resaca;

Nor of the Fourteenth and Thirty-second Iowa Infantry at the battle of Pleasant Hill;

Nor of the Fifth, Twenty-ninth, Thirty-third and Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry and Third Iowa Battery at the battle of Helena.

Nor of the Twentieth and Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry, who fought as land supports with Admiral Farragut at the capture of Forts Gaines and Morgan, resulting in the surrender of New Orleans;

Nor of the Second Iowa Battery, the Second, Fifth and Eighth Iowa Cavalry, and the Twelfth, Twenty-seventh and Thirty-fifth Iowa Infantry at the battle of Nashville;

Nor of the Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry at the battle of Mark's Mills; Nor of the Thirty-third Iowa Infantry at the battle of Jenkin's Ferry; Nor of the Sixth Regiment of Iowa Cavalry at White Stone Hill; Nor of the Thirty-ninth Iowa Infantry at the defense of Allatoona, denominated by the historian as the Thermopyle of the war;

Nor of Twelfth Iowa Infantry and other Iowa troops in the battles ending in the surrender of Mobile;

Nor of the Seventh, Twelfth and Fourteenth Iowa Infantry at the capture of Ft. Morgan; the Seventeenth at Ft. Hall; the Thirty-second at Pleasant Hill; the Fifth and Tenth Infantry and Second Cavalry at Island No. 10; the Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa Infantry at Kenesaw Mountain; the First Cavalry at the capture of Little Rock; the Sixth, Ninth, Tenth, Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Iowa Infantry at Missionary Ridge; the Third, Eighth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth

and Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry in Meridian Raid; the thirteen Iowa regiments of Infantry in Sherman's "March to the Sea," the Fourth, Ninth, Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth and Thirtieth Iowa regiments at the battle of Ringgold; the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry at Old Town; the Twentieth Iowa Infantry at Sterling Farm; the Twelfth, Fourteenth, Twenty-seventh and Thirty-fifth Iowa Infantry and Second and Fourth Iowa Cavalry at Tupelo; the Fifth Iowa Infantry at Tunnel Hill; the defeat of four hundred confederates by two companies of the Twelfth Iowa Infantry at White river; the Fifth Iowa Cavalry at Jonesborough; the same regiment in Rousseau's Raid; the Thirty-eighth Iowa Infantry at the capture of Ft. Morgan; the Twenty-second Iowa infantry in the trenches before Petersburg, Virginia; the Second Iowa Cavalry at the battle of Franklin; the Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry at the battle of Terre Noir; the Thirty-third Iowa Infantry at the battle of Jenkins' Ferry.

Nor of the other Iowa Union soldiers whose opportunities were less conspicuous, though equally meritorious, who all fought with unfaltering courage throughout the war of the rebellion.

No, no, my countrymen, the monument which shall arise on this foundation of granite, though as faultless in its proportions as a divine incarnation, as pure in design as the heart of the daughter of Iowa who conceived it, as radiant in beauty as a morning star, and as simple and apt in the story it will tell of glorious deeds performed as the history of creation, it would fail to properly proclaim the admiration of the people of Iowa for her heroic defenders.

Nor would any or all of the grander-though not more beautiful-works of monumental art of the great nations, ancient or modern-naming a few of them-commencing more than 3,000 years before the birth of the Savior with the Pyramids, Cleopatra's Needles and Pompey's Pillar in Egypt; and coming down to the towers and temples in Babylon; noting the collossal statue of Jupiter, constructed of ivory and gold by the world's greatest sculptor, Phidias, at Olympia; the colossal statue of Athens, the Parthenon, and arch of Hadrian at Athens; the Colossus of Rhodes; Trajan's Column, Arch of Titus, Quadrangle Arch of Janus, Arch of Constantine, Column of Marcus Aurelius, Mausoleum of Hadrian and obelisk at the Lateran at ancient and modern Rome; Column of Constantine at Constantinople; Nelson's Column on Trafalgar square in London; Madeline Temple of Victory, Arc de Triomphe, Column of Napoleon and Column of Grand Army at Paris, Temple of Walhalla in Bavaria; Taj Mahal in Agra, India, which history tells employed 30,000 artisans twenty-two years in construction; and the untold thousands of monumental works of art which I can not now delay to mention in detail, none of them nor all of them combined could adequately express Iowa's appreciation of the patriotic deeds, of her immortal heroes, because of the grandeur of the human soul which enables men to sacrifice themselves for their country, for freedom and for their race, can never be adequately expressed by material things.

Nevertheless, those who deserve such sacrifices will always endeavor to perpetuate the memory of their benefactors. Peoples that neglect to do do this have a sure passport to oblivion.

The poet Simonides inscribed on the monument erected by the Greeks to record the story of Leonidas and his three hundred Spartan comrades who fell at Thermopyla these words:

"Go, stranger, and to Lacedæmon tell
That here, obeying her behest, we fell."

Of this epigram Christopher North wrote:

""Tis but two lines,

All Greece had them by heart;
She forgot them, and Greece

Is living Greece no more.,'

So it always has been, and so it always will be. A people that neglect and forget the heroes who fight their battles must inevitably perish.

Iowans, shall not this monument, so beautiful, so appropriate, so creditable to Iowa, and acceptable, it is hoped, to our defenders, become only the pioneer of still greater works of art hereafter to arise in honor of our fellow citizens who offered their lives for their government, for their country, for civil liberty and for the human race, until these Des Moines hills shall be radiant with their glory?

MUSIC.

Governor Jackson announced that the ceremony of laying the chief corner stone of the Iowa Soldiers and Sailors Monument would be delivered by the Iowa Grand Lodge of Masons.

PRELIMINARY.

The Iowa Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission having invited the Grand Lodge of Iowa, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, through their Grand Master, the Hon. Henry Eaton Fellows, of Lansing, to lay with Masonic ceremonies the corner stone of the monument to be erected on the site of the old capitol at Des Moines by the state of Iowa, "for the purpose of perpetuating an expression of the appreciation of the people of Iowa of the patriotism, courage and distinguished soldierly bearing of their fellow citizens, as manifested during the war of the rebellion," and the Grand Master having accepted on behalf of the Grand Lodge and the entire fraternity of Iowa with the liveliest sense of the great honor conferred, and with "the earnest desire to fitly represent and illustrate, not only the principles of brotherly love and friendship, morality and virtue, but the broad, conservative spirit of patriotism and devotion to duty which we as Masons owe to the government of the country in which we live," issued his summons to the several grand officers and notified the several lodges of the jurisdiction, through the public press, that the ceremonies would take place at Des Moines on the day of September 6, 1894, where they were invited to join him in the public ceremonies of the occasion.