Representative Robert Gordon Cousins View All Years

HONORABLE ROBERT GORDON COUSINS

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee, appointed to prepare suitable resolutions commemorating the life, character, and public services of the Honorable Robert G. Cousins, a member of the Twenty-first General Assembly, begs leave to submit the following:

Robert Gordon Cousins, the son of James and Mary Dallas Cousins, pioneers of the county, was born on January 31, 1859, on a farm five miles northwest of Tipton, Cedar county, Iowa. He grew to manhood on the farm, receiving whatever education the schools of those days afforded. Even in boyhood he manifested that love of study of history and the classics which was to play so prominent a part in molding his public life. He graduated from Cornell College at Mount Vernon in 1881. Soon after he turned his attention to the study of law and being admitted to the bar he began his legal practice at Audubon, Iowa.

Not finding conditions to his liking in western Iowa or in the Dakota country, he returned to Tipton where in the fall of 1885 he was elected as State Representative from Cedar county in the Twenty-first General Assembly, the youngest member of the legislature at that session. In this session, charges were preferred against John L. Brown, Auditor of State, and he stood trial for impeachment. R. G. Cousins was selected as one of the attorneys to represent the state. His oratory on that occasion won for him distinction as a forceful public speaker, and brought to the attention of people that here was a new personality to be reckoned with.

His reputation henceforth grew and in 1892 he was elected to represent the old Fifth District in Congress, where he came to the forefront as an exponent of the principles of the Republican party, particularly the protective tariff. His greatest speech, however, was made when the battleship Maine was blown up and sunk in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, precipitating the Spanish-American War. His splendid tribute to those who lost their lives in that disaster was, at that time, and is still so regarded by the whole nation, as an oratorical gem. Either as a political campaigner or a popular lecturer, Cousins had few equals.

He served in Congress sixteen years. In 1908 he withdrew from public life and politics. In the succeeding years he seemed content to find his satisfactions in reading the classics of literature or history and contemplating the memories of the past. Failing eyesight, practically becoming blind, made him a pathetic figure.

The war of 1917-18 stirred his patriotic ardor and he came forth to speak many times in the interest of the Liberty Loan. This was his last public service.

Mr. Cousins never married. Friends cared for him until he became too feeble to live alone, and he was taken to the University Hospital at Iowa City where he passed away, June 19, 1933.

“Though he retired at forty-nine, his words and their influence, ever invigorating and refreshing, did not wither. Though he has now gone, his masterful words still live.”

Therefore, Be It Resolved, That in the passing of Robert G. Cousins, the state has lost one of its most famous characters.

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House, and the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

GORDON SMITH,

J. A. GRAHAM,

E. A. JOHNSON,

F. A. LATCHAW,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted, April 12, 1939.