SPEECHES
of
BENJAMIN HARRISON
Twenty-third President of the United States

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Michigan Club—I feel that I am at some disadvantage here to-night by reason of the fact that I did not approach Detroit from the direction of Washington city. I am a dead statesman ["No! No!"]; but I am a living and rejuvenated Republican. I have the pleasure to-night, for the first time in my life, of addressing an audience of Michigan Republicans. Your invitations in the past have been frequent and urgent, but I have always felt that you knew how to do your own work, that we could trust the stalwart Republicans of this magnificent State to hold this key of the lakes against all comers. I am not here to-night in the expectation that I shall be able to help you by any suggestion, or even to kindle into greater earnestness that zeal and interest in Republican principles which your presence here to-night so well attests. I am here rather to be helped myself, to bathe my soul in this high atmosphere of patriotism and pure Republicanism [applause] by spending a little season in the presence of those who loved and honored and followed the Cromwell of the Republican party, Zachariah Chandler. [Tremendous applause.]

The sentiment which has been assigned me to-night—"Washington, the republican; a free and equal ballot the only guarantee of the Nation's security and perpetuity"—is one that was supported with a boldness of utterance, with a defiance that was unexcelled by any leader, by Zachariah Chandler always and everywhere. [Applause.] As Republicans we are fortunate, as has been suggested, in the fact that there is nothing in the history of our party, nothing in the principles that we advocate, to make it im[11]possible for us to gather and to celebrate the birthday of any American who honored or defended his country. [Cheers.] We could even unite with our Democratic friends in celebrating the birthday of St. Jackson, because we enter into fellowship with him when we read his story of how by proclamation he put down nullification in South Carolina. [Applause.] We could meet with them to celebrate the birthday of Thomas Jefferson; because there is no note in the immortal Declaration or in the Constitution of our country that is out of harmony with Republicanism. [Cheers.] But our Democratic friends are under limitation. They have a short calendar of sense, and they must omit from the history of those whose names are on their calendar the best achievements of their lives. I do not know what the party is preserved for. Its history reminds me of the boulder in the stream of progress, impeding and resisting its onward flow and moving only by the force that it resists.

I want to read a very brief extract from a most notable paper—one that was to-day in the Senate at Washington read from the desk by its presiding officer—the "Farewell Address of Washington;" and while it is true that I cannot quote or find in the writings of Washington anything specifically referring to ballot-box fraud, to tissue ballots, to intimidation, to forged tally-sheets [cheers], for the reason that these things had not come in his day to disturb the administration of the Government, yet in the comprehensiveness of the words he uttered, like the comprehensive declarations of the Holy Book, we may find admonition and guidance, and even with reference to a condition of things that his pure mind could have never contemplated. Washington said: "Liberty is indeed little less than a name where the Government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of factions, to confine each member of society within the limits prescribed by the law, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of persons and property." If I had read that to a Democratic meeting they would have suspected that it was an extract from some Republican speech. [Laughter.] My countrymen, this Government is that which I love to think of as my country; for not acres, or railroads, or farm products, or bulk meats, or Wall Street, or all combined, are the country that I love. It is the institution, the form of government, the frame of civil society, for which that flag stands, and which we love to-day. [Applause.] It is what Mr. Lincoln so tersely, yet so felicitously, described as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people; a government of the people, because they instituted it—the Constitution reads,[12] "We, the people, have ordained;" by the people, because it is in all its departments administered by them; for the people, because it states as its object of supreme attainment the happiness, security and peace of the people that dwell under it. [Applause.]

The bottom principle—sometimes it is called a corner-stone, sometimes the foundation of our structure of government—is the principle of control by the majority. It is more than the corner-stone or foundation. This structure is a monolith, one from foundation to apex, and that monolith stands for and is this principle of government by majorities, legally ascertained by constitutional methods. Everything else about our government is appendage, it is ornamentation. This is the monolithic column that was reared by Washington and his associates. For this the War of the Revolution was fought, for this and its more perfect security the Constitution was formed; for this the War of the Rebellion was fought; and when this principle perishes the structure which Washington and his compatriots reared is dishonored in the dust. The equality of the ballot demands that our apportionments in the States for legislative and congressional purposes shall be so adjusted that there shall be equality in the influence and the power of every elector, so that it shall not be true anywhere that one man counts two or one and a half and some other man counts only one half.

But some one says that is fundamental. All men accept this truth. Not quite. My countrymen, we are confronted by this condition of things in America to-day; a government by the majority, expressed by an equal and a free ballot, is not only threatened, but it has been overturned. Why is it to-day that we have legislation threatening the industries of this country? Why is it that the paralyzing shadow of free trade falls upon the manufactures and upon the homes of our laboring classes? It is because the laboring vote in the Southern States is suppressed. There would be no question about the security of these principles so long established by law, so eloquently set forth by my friend from Connecticut, but for the fact that the workingmen of the South have been deprived of their influence in choosing representatives at Washington.

But some timid soul is alarmed at the suggestion. He says we are endeavoring to rake over the coals of an extinct strife, to see if we may not find some ember in which there is yet sufficient vitality to rekindle the strife. Some man says you are actuated by unfriendly feelings toward the South, you want to fight the war over again, you are flaunting the bloody shirt. My countrymen, those epithets and that talk never have any terrors for me.[13] [Applause.] I do not want to fight the war over again, and I am sure no Northern soldier—and there must be many here of those gallant Michigan regiments, some of which I had the pleasure during the war of seeing in action—not one of these that wishes to renew that strife or fight the war over again. Not one of this great assemblage of Republicans who listen to me to-night wishes ill to the South. If it were left to us here to-night the streams of her prosperity would be full. We would gladly hear of her reviving and stimulated industry. We gladly hear of increasing wealth in those States of the South. We wish them to share in the onward and upward movement of a great people. It is not a question of the war, it is not a question of the States between '61 and '65, at all, that I am talking about to-night. It is what they have been since '65. It is what they did in '84, when a President was to be chosen for this country.

Our controversy is not one of the past; it is of the present. It has relation to that which will be done next November, when our people are again called to choose a President. What is it we ask? Simply that the South live up to the terms of the surrender at Appomattox. When that great chieftain received the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia, when those who had for four years confronted us in battle stacked arms in total surrender, the terms were simply these: "You shall go to your homes and shall be there unmolested so long as you obey the laws in force where you reside." That is the sum of our demand. We ask nothing more of the South to-night than that they shall cease to use this recovered citizenship which they had forfeited by rebellion to oppress and disfranchise those who equally with themselves under the Constitution are entitled to vote—that and nothing more.

I do not need to enter into details. The truth to-day is that the colored Republican vote of the South, and with it and by consequence the white Republican vote of the South, is deprived of all effective influence in the administration of this Government. The additional power given by the colored population of the South in the Electoral College and in Congress was more than enough to turn the last election for President, and more than enough to reverse—yes, largely more than reverse—the present Democratic majority of the House of Representatives. Have we not the spirit to insist that everywhere north and south in this country of ours no man shall be deprived of his ballot by reason of his politics? There is not in all this land a place where any rebel soldier is subject to any restraint or is denied the fullest exercise of the elective franchise. Shall we not insist that what is true of those who[14] fought to destroy the country shall be true of every man who fought for it, or loved it, like the black man of the South did [applause]—that to belong to Abraham Lincoln's party shall be respectable and reputable everywhere in America? [Cheers.]

But this is not simply a Southern question. It has come to be a national question, for not only is the Republican vote suppressed in the South, but I ask you to turn your eyes to as fair and prosperous a territory as ever sat at the door of the Federal Union asking admission to the sisterhood of the States. See yonder in the northwest Dakota, the child of all these States, with 500,000 loyal, intelligent, law-abiding, prosperous American citizens robbed to-day of all participation in the affairs of this Nation. The hospitable door which has always opened to territories seeking admission is insolently closed in her face—and why? Simply because the predominating sentiment in the Territory of Dakota is Republican—that and nothing more. And that is not all. This question of a free, honest ballot has crossed the Ohio River. The overspill of these Southern frauds has reached Ohio and Indiana and Illinois, indicating to my mind a national conspiracy, having its centre and most potent influence in the Southern States, but reaching out into Ohio, Indiana and Illinois in its attempt by frauds upon the ballot-box to possess the Senate of the United States. Go down to Cincinnati in a recent election and look at the election returns, shamelessly, scandalously manipulated to return members to the Senate and House of Ohio, in order that that grand champion of Republican principles, John Sherman, might be defeated. Go yonder with me to Chicago and look into those frauds upon the ballot—devised, executed in furtherance of the same iniquitous scheme, intended to defeat the re-election of that gallant soldier, that fearless defender of Republican principles, John A. Logan of Illinois. [Great cheering.]

And these people have even invaded Indiana. At the last election in my own State, first by gerrymander, they disturbed and utterly destroyed the equality of suffrage in that State; it was so framed as to give the Democratic party a majority of 50 on joint ballot; and Indiana gave a Republican majority on members of the Legislature of 10,000, and yet they claim to hold the Legislature. And that is not all. Then, when gerrymander had failed, they introduced the eraser to help it out [laughter]; scratched our tally-sheets, shamelessly transferred ballots from Republican to Democratic candidates. How are we going to deal with these fellows? What is the remedy? As to the Southern aspect of this question, I have first to suggest that it is in the power of the free people of[15] the North, those who love the Constitution and a free and equal ballot, those who, while claiming this high privilege for themselves, will deny it to no other man, to welcome a President who shall not come into office, into the enjoyment of the usufruct of these crimes, against the ballot [applause]; that will be great gain. And then we should aim to place in the Southern States, in every office exercising federal authority, men whose local influence will be against these frauds, instead of such men as the district attorney appointed by Mr. Cleveland, who in this recent outrage upon the ballot in Jackson, Miss., was found among the most active conspirators, when, by public resolution of a Democratic committee, Republicans of that city were warned away from the polls. Then again we shall keep ourselves free from all partisanship if we lift our voice steadily and constantly in protest against these offences.

There is vast power in a protest. Public opinion is the most potent monarch this world knows to-day. Czars tremble in its presence, and we may bring to bear upon this question a public sentiment, by bold and fearless denunciation of it, that will do a great deal towards correcting it. Why, my countrymen, we meet now and then with these Irish-Americans and lift our voices in denunciations of the wrongs which England is perpetrating upon Ireland. [Applause.] We do not elect any Members of Parliament, but the voice of free America protesting against these centuries of wrongs has had a most potent influence in creating, stimulating and sustaining the liberal policy of William E. Gladstone and his associates. [Great applause.] Cannot we do as much for oppressed Americans? Can we not make our appeal to these Irish-American citizens who appeal to us in behalf of their oppressed fellow-countrymen to rally with us in this crusade against election frauds and intimidation in the country that they have made their own? [Applause.]

There may be legislative remedies in sight when we can once again possess both branches of the national Congress and have an executive at Washington who has not been created by these crimes against the ballot. [Applause.] Whatever they are, we will seek them out and put them into force—not in a spirit of enmity against the men who fought against us—forgetting the war, but only insisting that now, nearly a quarter of a century after it is over, a free ballot shall not be denied to Republicans in these States where rebels have been rehabilitated with a full citizenship. [Applause.] Every question waits the settlement of this. The tariff question would be settled already if the 1,000,000 of black[16] laborers in the South had their due representation in the House of Representatives.

And my soldier friends, interested that liberal provisions should be made for the care of the disabled soldier—are they willing that this question should be settled without the presence in the House of Representatives of the power and influence of those faithful black men in the South who were always their friends? [Applause.] The dependent pension bill would pass over the President's veto if these black friends of the Union soldier had their fair representation in Congress. [Applause.] It is the dominant question at the foundation of our Government, in its dominating influence embracing all others, because it involves the question of a free and fair tribunal to which every question shall be submitted for arbitrament and final determination. Therefore, I would here, as we shall in Indiana, lift up our protest against these wrongs which are committed in the name of democracy, lift high our demand, and utter it with resolution, that it shall no longer be true that anywhere in this country men are disfranchised for opinion's sake.

I believe there are indications that this power is taking hold of the North. Self-respect calls upon us. Does some devotee at the shrine of Mammon say it will disturb the public pulse? Do we hear from New York and her markets of trade that it is a disturbing question and we must not broach it? I beg our friends, and those who thus speak, to recollect that there is no peace, that there can be no security for commerce, no security for the perpetuation of our Government, except by the establishment of justice the country over. [Great applause.]

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Marquette Club—I am under an obligation that I shall not soon forget in having been permitted by your courtesy to sit at your table to-night and to listen to the eloquent words which have fallen from the lips of those speakers who have preceded me. I count it a privilege to spend an evening with so many young Republicans. There seems to be a fitness in the association of young men with the Republican party. The Republican party is a young party. I have not yet begun to call myself an old man, and yet there is no older Republican in the United States than I am. My first presidential vote was given for the first presidential candidate of the Republican party, and I have supported with enthusiasm every successor of Frémont, including that matchless statesman who claimed our suffrages in 1884. We cannot match ages with the Democratic party any more than that party can match achievements with us. It has lived longer, but to less purpose. "Moss-backed" cannot be predicated of a Republican. Our Democratic friends have a monopoly of that distinction, and it is one of the few distinguished monopolies that they enjoy; and yet when I hear a Democrat boasting himself of the age of his[18] party I feel like reminding him that there are other organized evils in the world, older than the Democratic party. "The Republican party," the toast which you have assigned to me to-night, seems to have a past, a present and a future tense to it. It suggests history, and yet history so recent that it is to many here to-night a story of current events in which they have been participants. The Republican party—the influences which called it together were eclectic in their character. The men who formed it and organized it were picked men. The first assembly that sounded in its camp was a call to sacrifice, and not to spoils. It assembled about an altar to sacrifice, and in a temple beset with enemies. It is the only political party organized in America that has its "Book of Martyrs." On the bloody fields of Kansas, Republicans died for their creed, and since then we have put in that book the sacred memory of our immortal leader who has been mentioned here to-night—Abraham Lincoln—who died for his faith and devotion to the principles of human liberty and constitutional union. And there have followed it a great army of men who have died by reason of the fact that they adhered to the political creed that we loved. It is the only party in this land which in the past has been proscribed and persecuted to death for its allegiance to the principles of human liberty. After Lincoln had triumphed in that great forum of debate in his contest with Douglas, the Republican party carried that debate from the hustings to the battle-field and forever established the doctrine that human liberty is of natural right and universal. It clinched the matchless logic of Webster in his celebrated debate against the right of secession by a demonstration of its inability.

No party ever entered upon its administration of the affairs of this Nation under circumstances so beset with danger and difficulty as those which surrounded the Republican party when it took up the reins of executive control. In all other political contests those who had resisted the victorious party yielded acquiescence at the polls, but the Republican party in its success was confronted by armed resistance to national authority. The first acts of Republican administration were to assemble armies to maintain the authority of the Nation throughout the rebellious States. It organized armies, it fed them, and it fought them through those years of war with an undying and persistent faith that refused to be appalled by any dangers or discouraged by any difficulties. In the darkest days of the rebellion the Republican party by faith saw Appomattox through the smoke of Bull Run, and Raleigh through the mists of Chickamauga; and not only did it conduct this great[19] civil war to a victorious end, not only did it restore the national authority and set up the flag on all those places where it had been overthrown and that flag torn down, but it in the act and as an incident in the restoration of national authority accomplished that act which, if no other had been recorded in its history, would have given it immortality. The emancipation of a race, brought about as an incident of war under the proclamation of the first Republican President, has forever immortalized the party that accomplished it.

But not only were these dangers and difficulties and besetments and discouragements of this long strife at home, but there was also a call for the highest statesmanship in dealing with the foreign affairs of the Government during that period of war. England and France not only gave to the Confederacy belligerent rights, but threatened to extend recognition, and even armed intervention. There was scarcely a higher achievement in the long history of brilliant statesmanship which stands to the credit of our party than the matchless management of our diplomatic relations during the period of our war; dignified, yet reserved, masterful, yet patient. Those enemies of republican liberty were held at bay until we had accomplished perpetual peace at Appomattox. That grasping avarice which has attempted to coin commercial advantages out of the distress of other nations which has so often characterized English diplomacy naturally made the Government of England the ally of the Confederacy, that had prohibited protective duties in its constitution, and yet Geneva followed Appomattox. A trinity of effort was necessary to that consummation—war, finance and diplomacy; Grant, Chase, Seward, and Lincoln over all, and each a victor in his own sphere. When 500,000 veterans found themselves without any pressing engagement, and Phil Sheridan sauntered down towards the borders of Mexico, French evacuation was expedited, and when Gen. Grant advised the English Government that our claims for the depredations committed by those rebel cruisers that were sent out from British ports to prey upon our commerce must be paid, but that we were not in a hurry about it—we could wait, but in the mean time interest would accumulate—the Geneva arbitration was accepted and compensation made for these unfriendly invasions of our rights. It became fashionable again at the tables of the English nobility to speak of our common ancestry and our common tongue. Then again France began to remind us of La Fayette and De Grasse. Five hundred thousand veteran troops and an unemployed navy did more for us than a common tongue and ancient friendships would do in the time of our distress. And[20] we must not forget that it is often easier to assemble armies than it is to assemble army revenues. Though no financial secretary ever had laid upon him a heavier burden than was placed upon Salmon P. Chase to provide the enormous expenditures which the maintenance of our army required, this ceaseless, daily, gigantic drain upon the National Treasury called for the highest statesmanship.

And it was found, and our credit was not only maintained through the war, but the debt that was accumulated, which our Democratic friends said could never be paid, we at once began to discharge when the army was disbanded.

And so it is that in this timely effort—consisting first in this appeal to the courage and patriotism of the people of this country that responded to the call of Lincoln and filled our armies with brave men that, under the leadership of Grant and Sherman and Thomas, suppressed the rebellion, and under the wise, magnificent system of our revenue enabled us to defray our expenses, and under the sagacious administration of our State Department held Europe at bay while we were attending to the business at home. In these departments of administration the Republican party has shown itself conspicuously able to deal with the greatest questions that have ever been presented to American statesmanship for solution. We must not forget that in dealing with these questions we were met continually by the protest and opposition of the Democratic party. The war against the States was unconstitutional. There was no right to coerce sovereign States. The war was a failure, and a dishonorable peace was demanded. The legal tenders were illegal. The constitutional amendments were void. And so through this whole brilliant history of achievement in this administration we were followed by the Democratic statesman protesting against every step and throwing every impediment in the way of National success until it seemed to be true of many of their leaders that in their estimation nothing was lawful, nothing was lovely, that did not conduce to the success of the rebellion.

Now, what conclusion shall we draw? Is there anything in this story, so briefly and imperfectly told, to suggest any conclusion as to the inadequacy or incompetency of the Republican party to deal with any question that is now presented for solution or that we may meet in the progress of this people's history? Why, countrymen, these problems in government were new. We took the ship of state when there was treachery at the helm, when there was mutiny on the deck, when the ship was among the rocks, and we put loyalty at the helm; we brought the deck into order and sub[21]jection. We have brought the ship into the wide and open sea of prosperity, and is it to be suggested that the party that has accomplished these magnificent achievements cannot sail and manage the good ship in the frequented roadways of ordinary commerce? What is there now before us that presents itself for solution?

What questions are we to grapple with? What unfinished work remains to be done? It seems to me that the work that is unfinished is to make that constitutional grant of citizenship, the franchise to the colored men of the South, a practical and living reality. The condition of things is such in this country—a government by constitutional majority—that whenever the people become convinced that an administration or a law does not represent the will of the majority of our qualified electors, then that administration ceases to challenge the respect of our people and that law ceases to command their willing obedience. This is a republican government, a government by majority, the majorities to be ascertained by a fair count and each elector expressing his will at the ballot-box. I know of no reason why any law should bind my conscience that does not have this sanction behind it. I know of no reason why I should yield respect to any executive officer whose title is not based upon a majority vote of the qualified electors of this country. What is the condition of things in the Southern States to-day?

The Republican vote is absolutely suppressed. Elections in many of those States have become a farce. In the last congressional election in the State of Alabama there were several congressional districts where the entire vote for members of Congress did not reach 2,000; whereas in most of the districts of the North the vote cast at our congressional elections goes from 30,000 to 50,000. I had occasion to say a day or two ago that in a single congressional district in the State of Nebraska there were more votes cast to elect one Congressman than were cast in the State of Alabama at the same election to elect their whole delegation. Out of what does this come? The suppression of the Republican vote; the understanding among our Democratic friends that it is not necessary that they should vote because their opponents are not allowed to vote. But some one will suggest: "Is there a remedy for this?" I do not know, my fellow citizens, how far there is a legal remedy under our Constitution, but it does not seem to me to be an adequate answer. It does not seem to me to be conclusive against the agitation of the question even if we should be compelled to respond to the arrogant question that is asked us: "What are you going to do about it?" Even if we should be compelled to answer: "We[22] can do nothing but protest," is it not worth while here, and in relation to this American question, that we should at least lift up our protest; that we should at least denounce the wrong; that we should at least deprive the perpetrators of it of what we used to call the usufructs of the crime? If you cannot prevent a burglar from breaking into your house you will do a great deal towards discouraging burglary if you prevent him from carrying off anything, and so it seems to me that if we can, upon this question, arouse the indignant protest of the North, and unite our efforts in a determination that those who perpetrate these wrongs against popular suffrage shall not by means of those wrongs seat a President in Washington to secure the Federal patronage in a State, we shall have done much to bring this wrong to an end. But at least while we are protesting by representatives from our State Department at Washington against wrongs perpetrated in Russia against the Jew, and in our popular assemblies here against the wrongs which England has inflicted upon Ireland, shall we not at least in reference to this gigantic and intolerable wrong in our own country, as a party, lift up a stalwart and determined protest against it?

But some of these independent journalists, about which our friend MacMillan talked, call this the "bloody shirt." They say we are trying to revive the strife of the war, to rake over the extinct embers, to kindle the fire again. I want it understood that for one I have no quarrel with the South for what took place between 1861 and 1865. I am willing to forget that they were rebels, at least as soon as they are willing to forget it themselves, and that time does not seem to have come yet to them. But our complaint is against what was done in 1884, not against what was done during the war. Our complaint is against what will be done this year, not what was done between 1861 and 1865. No bloody shirt—though that cry never had any terrors for me. I believe we greatly underestimate the importance of bringing the issue to the front, and with that oft-time Republican courage and outspoken fidelity to truth denouncing it the land over. If we cannot do anything else we can either make these people ashamed of this outrage against the ballot or make the world ashamed of them.

There is another question to which the Republican party has committed itself, and on the line of which it has accomplished, as I believe, much for the prosperity of this country. I believe the Republican party is pledged and ought to be pledged to the doctrine of the protection of American industries and American labor. I believe that in so far as our native inventive genius—which seems to have no limit—our productive forces can supply the American[23] market, we ought to keep it for ourselves. And yet this new captain on the bridge seems to congratulate himself on the fact that the voyage is still prosperous notwithstanding the change of commanders; who seems to forget that the reason that the voyage is still prosperous is because the course of the ship was marked out before he went on the bridge and the rudder tied down. He has attempted to take a new direction since he has been in command, with a view of changing the sailing course of the old craft, but it has seemed to me that he has made the mistake of mistaking the flashlight of some British lighthouse for the light of day. I do not intend here to-night in this presence to discuss this tariff question in any detail. I only want to say that in the passage of what is now so flippantly called the war tariff, to raise revenue to carry on the war out of the protective duties which were then levied, there has come to this country a prosperity and development which would have been impossible without it, and that reversal of this policy now, at the suggestion of Mr. Cleveland, according to the line of the blind statesman from Texas, would be to stay and interrupt this march of prosperity on which we have entered. I am one of those uninstructed political economists that have an impression that some things may be too cheap; that I cannot find myself in full sympathy with this demand for cheaper coats, which seems to me necessarily to involve a cheaper man and woman under the coat. I believe it is true to-day that we have many things in this country that are too cheap, because whenever it is proved that the man or woman who produces any article cannot get a decent living out of it, then it is too cheap.

But I have not intended to discuss in detail any of these questions with which we have grappled, upon which we have proclaimed a policy, or which we must meet in the near future. I am only here to-night briefly to sketch to you the magnificent career of this party to which we give our allegiance—a union of the States, restored, cemented, regenerated; a Constitution cleansed of its compromises with slavery and brought into harmony with the immortal Declaration; a race emancipated, given citizenship and the ballot; a national credit preserved and elevated until it stands unequalled among the nations of the world; a currency more prized than the coin for which it may be exchanged; a story of prosperity more marvellous than was ever written by the historian before. This is in brief outline the magnificent way in which the Republican party has wrought. It stands to-day for a pure, equal, honest ballot the country over. It stands to-day without prejudice or malice, the well-wisher of every State in this Union; disposed to[24] fill all the streams of the South with prosperity, and demanding only that the terms of the surrender at Appomattox shall be complied with. When that magnificent act of clemency was witnessed, when those sublime and gracious words were uttered by General Grant at Appomattox, the country applauded. We said to those misguided men: "Go home"—in the language of the parole—"and you shall be unmolested while you obey the laws in force at the place where you reside." We ask nothing more, but we cannot quietly submit to the fact, while it is true everywhere in the United States that the man who fought for years against his country is allowed the full, free, unrestricted exercise of his new citizenship, when it shall not also be true everywhere that every man who followed Lincoln in his political views, and every soldier who fought to uphold the flag, shall in the same full, ample manner be secured in his political rights.

This disfranchisement question is hardly a Southern question in all strictness. It has gone into Dakota, and the intelligent and loyal population of that Territory is deprived, was at the last election, and will be again, of any participation in the decision of national questions solely because the prevailing sentiment of Dakota is Republican. Not only that, but this disregard of purity and honesty in our elections invaded Ohio in an attempt to seize the United States Senate by cheating John Sherman, that gallant statesman, out of his seat in the Senate. And it came here to Illinois, in an attempt also to defeat that man whom I loved so much, John A. Logan, out of his seat in the United States Senate. And it has come into our own State (Indiana) by tally-sheet frauds, committed by individuals, it is true, but justified and defended by the Democratic party of the State in an attempt to cheat us all out of our fair election majorities. It was and is a question that lies over every other question, for every other question must be submitted to this tribunal for decision, and if the tribunal is corrupted, why shall we debate questions at all? Who can doubt whether, in defeat or victorious, in the future as in the past, taking high ground upon all these questions, the same stirring cause that assembled our party in the beginning will yet be found drawing like a great magnet the young and intelligent moral elements of our country into the Republican organization? Defeated once, we are ready for this campaign which is impending, and I believe that the great party of 1860 is gathering together for the coming election with a force and a zeal and a resolution that will inevitably carry it, under that standard-bearer who may be chosen here in June, to victory in November.

Gentlemen—I am very much obliged to my Hendricks County friends for this visit. The trouble you have taken to make this call so soon after information of the result at Chicago reached you induces me to say a word or two, though you will not, of course, expect any reference to politics or any extended reference to the result at Chicago. I very highly appreciate the wise, discreet and affectionate interest which our delegation and the people of Indiana have displayed in the convention which has just closed at Chicago. [Cries of "Good!" "Good!" and cheers.] I accept your visit to-day as an expression of your confidence and respect, and I thank you for it. [Great cheering.]

Gentlemen—I can only thank you for this evidence of your friendliness. That so many of my Hendricks County friends should have reached Indianapolis so soon after hearing the result at Chicago is very gratifying. The people of your county have always given me the most hearty support whenever I have appealed to them for support. I have a most affectionate interest in your county and in its people, especially because of the fact that it furnished two companies to the regiment which I took into the field. Some of the best and most loyal of these soldiers gave their lives for their country in the battles in which the regiment was engaged. These incidents have attached me to the county, and I trust I have yet, even here among this group, some of my friends of the Seventieth Indiana surviving, who will always be glad to extend to me, as I to them, a comrade's hand. I thank you for this call.

I thank you, my friends of Hamilton County, for this call. I know the political steadfastness of that true and tried county. Your people have always been kind to me. I thank you for this evidence of your confidence and respect.

Howard County. Of that county I may say what I have said of Hamilton County. It is a neighbor in location and it is a neighbor in good works. [Great cheering.]

Neighbors and Friends—I am profoundly sensible of the kindness which you evidence to-night in gathering in such large numbers to extend to me your congratulations over the result at Chicago. It would be altogether inappropriate that I should say anything of a partisan character. Many of my neighbors who differ with me politically have kindly extended to me, as citizens of Indianapolis, their congratulations over this event. [Cries of "Good!" "Good!"] Such congratulations, as well as those of my neighbors who sympathize with me in my political beliefs, are exceedingly grateful. I have been a long time a resident of Indianapolis—over thirty years. Many who are here before me have been with me, during all those years, citizens of this great and growing capital of a magnificent State. We have seen the development and growth of this city. We are proud of its position to-day, and we look forward in the future to a development which shall far outstrip that which the years behind us have told. I thank you sincerely for this evidence that those who have known me well and long give me still their confidence and respect. [Cheers and applause.]

Kings sometimes bestow decorations upon those whom they desire to honor, but that man is most highly decorated who has the affectionate regard of his neighbors and friends. [Great applause, and cries of "Hurrah for Harrison!"] I will only again thank you most cordially for this demonstration of your regard. I shall be glad, from time to time, as opportunity offers, to meet you all personally, and regret that to-night this crowd is so great that it will be impossible for me to take each one of you by the hand [cries of "We'll forgive you!"], but we will be here together and my house will always open its doors gladly to any of you when you may desire to see me. [Great cheering.]

Comrades—Called, as I have been, by the national convention of one of the great political parties of this country to be its candidate for the presidency, it will probably be my fortune before the election to receive many delegations representing various interests and classes of our fellow-citizens, but I am sure that out of them all there will come none whose coming will touch my heart so deeply as this visit from my comrades of the Seventieth Indiana and these scattered members of the other regiments that constituted the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Twentieth Army Corps. I recall the scene to which Major Grubbs has alluded. I remember that summer day, when, equipped and armed, we were called to leave our homes and cross the Ohio River and enter the territory that was in arms against the Government which we were sworn to support. I recall, with you, the tender parting, the wringing of hearts with which we left those we loved. I recall the high and buoyant determination, the resolute carriage with which you went to do your part in the work of suppressing the great rebellion. I remember the scenes through which we went in that hard discipline of service and sickness, and all of those hard incidents which are necessary to convert citizens into veterans.

I remember the scenes of battle in which we stood together. I remember especially that broad and deep grave at the foot of the Resaca hill where we left those gallant comrades who fell in that desperate charge. I remember, through it all, the gallantry, devotion and steadfastness, the high set patriotism you always exhibited. I remember how, after sweeping down with Sherman from Chattanooga to the sea and up again through the Carolinas and Virginia, you, with those gallant armies that had entered the gate of the South by Louisville and Vicksburg, marched in the great review up the grand avenue of our Nation's capital.

I remember that proud scene of which we were part that day; the glad rejoicing as our faces were turned homeward, the applause which greeted us as the banner of our regiment was now and then recognized by some home friends who had gathered to see us—the whole course of these incidents of battle, of sickness, of death, of victory, crowned thus by the triumphant reassertion of national authority, and by the muster out and our return to those homes[29] that we loved, made again secure against all the perils which had threatened them.

I feel that in this campaign upon which I am entering, and which will undoubtedly cause careful scrutiny, perhaps unkind and even malicious assault, all that related to my not conspicuous but loyal services with you in the army I may confidently leave, with my honor, in the hands of the surviving members of the Seventieth Indiana, whatever their political faith may be. [Cries of "That is true, General!" and "Yes!" "Yes!"]

May I ask you now, for I am too deeply moved by this visit to speak as I would desire, that each one will enter this door, that will always open with a hearty welcome to you, and let me take you by the hand? [Cheering.]

Fellow-Citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen—I am very deeply impressed and gratified with this magnificent demonstration of your respect. No man can be so highly honored by any convention, or by any decoration which any of the authorities of the Government can bestow, as by the respect and confidence of those who live near him. My heart is touched by this demonstration which my fellow-citizens have given me of their personal respect for me. I do not, however, accept this manifestation of interest as wholly due to myself. The great bulk of those who are assembled here to-night manifest rather their interest in those political principles which I have been called by the representatives, in national convention of the Republican party, to represent in this campaign. But I will not discuss any of those high issues to-night, because I am glad to know that among those who are gathered here, and among those who have paid me the compliment of their presence in my home, there are many citizens of Indianapolis who differ with me politi[30]cally. I would not, therefore, if it were otherwise proper, mar this occasion by the discussion of any political topic. I am glad to have an opportunity to return my sincere and heartfelt thanks to the Indiana delegation, and to that band of devoted friends who gathered about them and assisted them in their work at Chicago. When I saw in the newspaper press of the East and of the West the encomiums that were passed by the correspondents upon the deportment and character of the representatives of Indiana at Chicago, I was greatly pleased. When I heard of their affectionate devotion, of their discreet and wise presentation of the claims of Indiana, I was still further gratified. And if the result of that convention had been, as it well might have been if individuals had only been considered in the contest that was there waged, the selection for this high place of some one other than myself, I should have felt that the devoted interest, the wise and faithful presentation by the Indiana delegation of the Indiana situation was such that the failure to yield to their argument would still have left me crowned with the highest crown that can be placed upon mortal brow—the affection and confidence and discreet support of my friends from Indiana. [Cries of "Good!" "Good!"] I am glad that the despatches said of them, and truly said, that they conducted their canvass with that gentle and respectful regard to the interests and character of the others who were named for this high place, and that they came home without those regrets which must have followed if this victory had been won at the expense of any of those noble names that were presented for the suffrage of the convention.

I do not feel at all that in selecting the candidate who was chosen regard was had simply to the individual equipment and qualifications for the duties of this high office. I feel sure that if the convention had felt free to regard these things only, some other of those distinguished men, old-time leaders of the Republican party, Blaine, or Sherman, or Allison, or some of the others named—would have been chosen in preference to me. I feel that it was the situation in Indiana and its relation to the campaign that was impending rather than the personal equipment or qualifications of the candidate that was chosen that turned the choice of the convention in our direction. We are here to-night to thank those members of the convention who have done us the honor to pay our capital a visit to-night not only for this visit, but for the support and interest which they took in the Indiana candidacy in the convention at Chicago. I thank you again for gathering here to-night. I am sure that in this demonstration you give evidence that the interest in this cam[31]paign will not flag until the election has determined the result of the contest. And I feel sure, too, my fellow-citizens, that we have joined now a contest of great principles, and that the armies which are to fight out this great contest before the American people will encamp upon the high plains of principle, and not in the low swamps of personal defamation or detraction. [Cries of "Hear!" "Hear!" and "Good!"] Again I thank you for the compliment of your presence here to-night, and bid you good-night. [Great cheering.]

Gentlemen of the Marquette Club—I sincerely thank you for the congratulations of the Marquette Club of Chicago. I well recollect the evening I spent with you last February, and I remember how favorably your club impressed me at that time as a body of active, energetic young Republicans: not so much an organization for social purposes as for active advancement of Republican principles in your vicinity, and in the country as well. I thought I recognized in you then an efficient body for work in the State of Illinois, one that could in the coming campaign render signal service to the party whose principles its members maintain. I rejoice in your coming to call on me here, and I hope you will carry my sincere thanks to your members, and make yourselves welcome at my home now and whenever you are in Indianapolis.

Comrade Mitchell and Fellow-Soldiers—I sincerely thank you for this evidence of your respect and comradeship. I am very certain that there is no class whose confidence and respect I more highly prize or more earnestly covet than that of the soldiers who, in the great war from 1861 to 1865, upheld the loved banner of our country and brought it home in honor. The comradeship of the war will never end until our lives end. The fires in which our friendship was riveted and welded were too hot for the bond ever to be broken. We sympathize with each other in the glory of the common cause for which we fought. We went, not as partisans, but as patriots, into the strife which involved the national life. I am sure that no army was ever assembled in the world's history that was gathered from higher impulses than the army of the Union. [Cries of "Right!" "Right!"]

It was no sordid impulse, no hope of spoils that induced these men to sunder the tender associations of home and forsake their business pursuits to look into the grim face of death with unblanched cheeks and firm and resolute eyes. They are the kind of men who draw their impulses from the high springs of truth and duty. The army was great in its assembling. It came with an impulse that was majestic and terrible. It was as great in its muster-out as in the brilliant work which had been done in the field. When the war was over the soldier was not left at the tavern. Every man had in some humble place a chair by some fireside where he was loved and towards which his heart went forward with a quick step. [Applause.]

And so this great army that had rallied for the defence and preservation of the country was disbanded without tumult or riot or any public disturbance. It had covered the country with the mantle of its protection when it needed it, as the snows of spring cover the early vegetation, and when the warm sun of peace shone upon it, it disappeared as the snow sinks into the earth to refresh and vivify the summer growth. They found their homes; they carried their brawn and intellect into all the pursuits of peace to[33] stimulate them and lift them up; they added their great impulse to that great wave of prosperity which has swept over our country ever since. [Applause.] But in nothing was this war greater than in that it led a race into freedom and brought those whom we had conquered in the struggle into the full enjoyment of a restored citizenship, and shared again with them the responsibilities and duties of a restored government. [Applause.]

I thank you to-night most sincerely for this evidence of your comradeship. I thank, specially, those friends who differ with me in their political views, that they have put these things aside to-night, and have come here to give me a comrade's greeting. [Applause.] May I have the privilege now, without detaining you longer, of taking by the hand every soldier here? [Applause.]

Mr. Bagby and Gentlemen of the Harrison Club—I assure you that I have a sincere respect for, and a very deep interest in, the colored people of the United States. My memory, as a boy, goes back to the time when slavery existed in the Southern States. I was born upon the Ohio River, which was the boundary between the free State of Ohio and the slave State of Kentucky. Some of my earliest recollections relate to the stirring and dramatic interest which was now and then excited by the pursuit of an escaping slave for the hope of offered rewards.

I remember, as a boy, wandering once through my grandfather's orchard at North Bend, and in pressing through an alder thicket that grew on its margin I saw sitting in its midst a colored man with the frightened look of a fugitive in his eye, and attempting to satisfy his hunger with some walnuts he had gathered. He noticed my approach with a fierce, startled look, to see whether I was likely to betray him; I was frightened myself and left him in some trepidation, but I kept his secret. [Cries of "Good!" "Good!"] I have seen the progress which has been made in the legislation relating to your race, and the progress that the race itself has made since that day. When I came to Indiana to reside the unfriendly black code was in force. My memory goes back to the time when colored witnesses were first allowed to appear in court in this State to testify in cases where white men were par[34]ties. Prior to that time, as you know, you had been excluded from the right to tell in court, under oath, your side of the story in any legal controversy with white men. [Cries of "I know that!"] The laws prevented your coming here. In every way you were at a disadvantage, even in the free States. I have lived to see this unfriendly legislation removed from our statute-books and the unfriendly section of our State Constitution repealed. I have lived not only to see that, but to see the race emancipated and slavery extinct. [Cries of "Amen to that!"]

Nothing gives me more pleasure among the results of the war than this. History will give a prominent place in the story of this great war to the fact that it resulted in making all men free, and gave to you equal civil rights. The imagination and art of the poet, the tongue of the orator, the skill of the artist will be brought under contribution to tell this story of the emancipation of the souls of men. [Applause and cries of "Amen!"]

Nothing gives me so much gratification as a Republican as to feel that in all the steps that led to this great result the Republican party sympathized with you, pioneered for you in legislation, and was the architect of those great measures of relief which have so much ameliorated your condition. [Applause.]

I know nowhere in this country of a monument that I behold with so much interest, that touches my heart so deeply, as that monument at Washington representing the Proclamation of Emancipation by President Lincoln, the kneeling black man at the feet of the martyred President, with the shackles falling from his limbs.

I remember your faithfulness during the time of the war. I remember your faithful service to the army as we were advancing through an unknown country. We could always depend upon the faithfulness of the black man. [Cries of "Right you are!"] He might be mistaken, but he was never false. Many a time in the darkness of night have those faithful men crept to our lines and given us information of the approach of the enemy. I shall never forget a scene that I saw when Sherman's army marched through a portion of North Carolina, between Raleigh and Richmond, where our troops had never before been. The colored people had not seen our flag since the banner of treason had been set up in its stead. As we were passing through a village the colored people flocked out to see once more the starry banner of freedom, the emblem, promise, and security of their emancipation. I remember an aged woman, over whom nearly a century of slavery must have passed, pressed forward to see the welcome banner that told[35] her that her soul would go over into the presence of her God. I remember her exultation of spirit as she danced in the dusty road before our moving column, and, like Miriam of old, called upon her soul to rejoice in the deliverance which God had wrought by the coming of those who stood for and made secure the Proclamation of Emancipation. [Applause.]

I rejoice in all that you have accomplished since you have been free. I recall no scene more pathetic than that which I have often seen about our camp-fires. An aged man, a fugitive from slavery, had found freedom in our camp. After a day of hard work, when taps had sounded and the lights in the tents were out, I have seen him with the spelling-book that the chaplain had given him, lying prone upon the ground taxing his old eyes, and pointing with his hardened finger to the letters of the alphabet, as he endeavored to open to his clouded brain the avenues of information and light.

I am glad to know that that same desire to increase and enlarge your information possesses the race to-day. It is the open way for the race to that perfect emancipation which will remove remaining prejudices and secure to you in all parts of the land an equal and just participation in the government of this country. It cannot much longer be withholden from you.

Again I thank you for your presence here to-night and will be glad to take by the hand any of you who desire to see me. [Great applause.]

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee—The official notice which you have brought of the nomination conferred upon me by the Republican National Convention recently in session at Chicago excites emotions of a profound, though of a somewhat conflicting, character. That after full deliberation and free consultation the representatives of the Republican party of the United States should have concluded that the great principles enunciated[37] in the platform adopted by the convention could be in some measure safely confided to my care is an honor of which I am deeply sensible and for which I am very grateful. I do not assume or believe that this choice implies that the convention found in me any pre-eminent fitness or exceptional fidelity to the principles of government to which we are mutually pledged. My satisfaction with the result would be altogether spoiled if that result had been reached by any unworthy methods or by a disparagement of the more eminent men who divided with me the suffrages of the convention. I accept the nomination with so deep a sense of the dignity of the office and of the gravity of its duties and the responsibilities as altogether to exclude any feeling of exultation or pride. The principles of government and the practices in administration upon which issues are now fortunately so clearly made are so important in their relations to the national and to individual prosperity that we may expect an unusual popular interest in the campaign. Relying wholly upon the considerate judgment of our fellow-citizens and the gracious favor of God, we will confidently submit our cause to the arbitrament of a free ballot.

The day you have chosen for this visit suggests no thoughts that are not in harmony with the occasion. The Republican party has walked in the light of the Declaration of Independence. It has lifted the shaft of patriotism upon the foundation laid at Bunker Hill. It has made the more perfect union secure by making all men free. Washington and Lincoln, Yorktown and Appomattox, the Declaration of Independence and the Proclamation of Emancipation are naturally and worthily associated in our thoughts to-day.

As soon as may be possible I shall by letter communicate to your chairman a more formal acceptance of the nomination, but it may be proper for me now to say that I have already examined the platform with some care, and that its declarations, to some of which your chairman has alluded, are in harmony with my views. It gives me pleasure, gentlemen, to receive you in my home and to thank you for the cordial manner in which you have conveyed your official message.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Tippecanoe Club of Marion County—I am very deeply touched by your visit to-day. The respect and confidence of such a body of men is a crown. Many of you I have known since I first came to Indianapolis. I count you my friends. [Cries of "Yes, sir, we are!"] You have not only shown your friendliness and respect in the political contests in which my name has been used, but very many of you in the social and business relations of life extended to me, when I came a young man among you, encouragement and help. I know that at the beginning your respect and confidence was builded upon the respect, and even affection—may I not say, which you bore to my grandfather. [A voice, "Yes, that is true!"] May I not, without self-laudation, now say that upon that foundation you have since created a modest structure of respect for me? [Cries of "Yes, sir!" "We have!" "That's the talk!"] I came among you with the heritage I trust, of a good name [cries of "That's so!" "Good stock!"], such as all of you enjoy. It was the only inheritance that has been transmitted in our family. [Cries of "It has been!"] I think you recollect, and, perhaps, it was that as much as aught else that drew your choice in 1840 to the Whig candidate[39] for the presidency, that he came out of Virginia to the West with no fortune but the sword he bore, and unsheathed it here in the defence of our frontier homes. He transmitted little to his descendants but the respect he had won from his fellow-citizens. It seems to be the settled habit in our family to leave nothing else to our children. [Laughter and cries of "That's enough!"] My friends, I am a thorough believer in the American test of character [cries of "That's right!"]: the rule must be applied to a man's own life when his stature is taken He will not build high who does not build for himself. [Applause and cries of "That's true!"] I believe also in the American opportunity which puts the starry sky above every boy's head, and sets his foot upon a ladder which he may climb until his strength gives out.

I thank you cordially for your greeting, and for this tender of your help in this campaign. It will add dignity and strength to the campaign when it is found that the zealous, earnest, and intelligent co-operation of men of mature years like you is given to it. The Whig party to which you belonged had but one serious fault—there were not enough of them after 1840. [Laughter and applause.] We have since received to our ranks in the new and greater party to which you now belong accessions from those who were then our opponents, and we now unite with them in the defence of principles which were dear to you as Whigs, which were indeed the cherished and distinguishing principles of the Whig party; and in the olden and better time, of the Democratic party also. Chief among these were a reverent devotion to the Constitution and the flag, and a firm faith in the benefits of a protective tariff. If, in some of the States, under a sudden and mad impulse some of the old Whigs who stood with you in the campaign of 1840, to which you have referred, wandered from us, may we not send to them to-day the greetings of these their old associates, and invite them to come again into the fold?

And now, gentlemen, I thank you again for your visit, and would be glad if you would remain with us for a little personal intercourse.

Gentlemen of the Commercial Travellers' Association of Indiana and Visiting Friends—I most heartily thank you for this cordial manifestation of your respect. It is to be expected when one has been named for office by one of the great parties that those who are in accord with him in his political convictions will show their interest in the campaign which he represents, but it is particularly gratifying to me that many of you who differ with me in political opinion, reserving your own opinions and choice, have come here to-night to express your gratification, personally, that I have been named by the Republican party as its candidate for the presidency.

It is a very pleasant thing in politics when this sort of testimony is possible, and it is very gratifying to me to-night to receive it at your hands. I do not know why we cannot hold our political differences with respect for each other's opinions, and with entire respect for each other personally. Our opinions upon the great questions which divide parties ought not to be held in such a spirit of bigotry as will prevent us from extending to a political opponent the concession of honesty in his opinion and that personal respect to which he may be entitled. [Applause.]

I very much value this visit from you, for I think I know how to estimate the commercial travellers of America. I am not going to open before you to-night any store of flattery. I do not think there is any market for it here. [Laughter and cries of "That's good!" and cheers.] You know the value of that commodity perfectly. [Laughter and continued applause.] I do not mean to suggest at all that you are dealers in it yourselves [laughter] in your intercourse with your customers, but I do mean to say that your wide acquaintance with men, that judgment of character and[41] even of the moods of men which is essential to the successful prosecution of your business makes you a very unpromising audience upon which to pass any stale compliments.

My memory goes back to the time when there were no commercial travellers. When I first came to Indianapolis to reside your profession was not known. The retail merchant went to the wholesale house and made his selections there. I appreciate the fact that those who successfully pursue your calling must, in the nature of things, be masters of the business in which you are engaged and possess great adaptability and a high order of intelligence.

I thank you again for this visit; and give you in return my most sincere respect and regard. [Applause.] I regret that there is not room enough here for your comfort [a voice: "There will be more room in the White House!" Another: "We will take your order now and deliver the goods in November!"], but I shall be glad if any or all of you will remain for a better acquaintance and less formal intercourse. [Great applause and rousing cheers for the next President.]

My Friends—This visit is exceptional in some of its features. Already, in the brief time since my nomination, I have received various delegations, but this is the first delegation that has visited me from outside the borders of my own State. Your visit is also exceptional and very gratifying in that you have brought with you the ladies of your families to grace the occasion and to honor me by their presence. I am glad to know that while the result of[42] the convention at Chicago brought disappointment to you, it has not left any sores that need the ointment of time for their healing. Your own favored citizen, distinguished civilian, and brave soldier, General Alger, was among the first and among the most cordial to extend to me his congratulations and the assurance of his earnest support in the campaign. I am sure it cannot be otherwise than that the Republicans of Michigan will take a deep interest in this campaign; an interest that altogether oversteps all personal attachments. Your State has been proudly associated with the past successes of the Republican party, and your interests are now closely identified with its success in the pending campaign. I am sure, therefore, that I may accept your presence here to-night not only as a personal compliment, but as a pledge that Michigan will be true again to those great principles of government which are represented by the Republican party. We cherish the history of our party and are proud of its high achievements; they stir the enthusiasm of the young and crown those who were early in its ranks with well-deserved laurels. The success of the Republican party has always been identified with the glory of the flag and the unity of the Government. There has been nothing in the history or principles of our party out of line with revolutionary memories or with the enlightened statesmanship of the framers of our Constitution. Those principles are greater than men, lasting as truth, and sure of final vindication and triumph. Let me thank you again for your visit, and ask introduction to each of you.

Comrades and Gentlemen—Your request is one that appeals to me very strongly, and if it were single I should very promptly accede to it, but, without being told, you will readily understand that invitations of a kindred nature are coming to me every day, presented by individual comrades and committees, but more frequently by written communications.

I have felt that if I opened a door in this direction it would be a very wide one, and I would either subject myself to the criticism of having favored particular localities or particular organizations, to the neglect of others having equal claims upon me, or that I should be compelled to give to this pleasant duty—as it would be if other duties did not crowd me—too much of my time. I am, therefore, compelled to say to you that it will be impossible for me to accept your invitation. But in doing this, I want to thank you for the interest you have shown in my presence with you, and I want especially to thank you for the spirit of comradeship which brings you here. I am glad to know—and I have many manifestations of it—that the peculiar position in which I am placed as a candidate of a political party does not separate me from the cordial friendship and comradeship of those who differ with me politically. I should greatly regret it if it should be so. We held our opinions and fought for them when the war was on, and we will hold them now in affectionate comradeship and mutual respect. I thank you for your visit.

Mr. Cowgill and my Wabash County Friends—In 1860 I was first a candidate before a convention for nomination to a public office. Possibly some of those who are here to-day were in that convention. Wabash County presented in the person of my friend, and afterwards my comrade, Col. Charles Parrish, a candidate for the office which I also sought, that of Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the State of Indiana. We had a friendly yet earnest contest before the convention, in which I succeeded. A little later in the campaign, as I was attempting to render to my party the services which my nomination seemed to imply, I visited your good county and received at your hands a welcome so demon[44]strative and cordial that I have always had a warm place in my heart for your people. I was then almost a boy in years, and altogether a boy in public life. Since then, in campaigns in which I have had a personal interest, and in very many more wherein I had only the general interest that you all had, it has been my pleasure to visit your county, and I can testify to the earnest, intelligent and devoted republicanism of Wabash County. You have never faltered in any of the great struggles in which the party has engaged; and I believe you have followed your party from a high conviction that the purposes it set before us involved the best interests of the country that you love, and to which you owe the duty of citizens. I know how generously you contributed to the army when your sons were called to defend it; and I know how, since the war, you have endeavored to preserve and to conserve those results which you fought for, and which made us again one people, acknowledging, and I hope loving, one flag and one Constitution. [Applause.] I want to thank you personally for this visit, and I wish now, if it is your pleasure, to meet you individually.

Colonel Streight, Fellow-citizens, and Comrades—I am very grateful to you for this visit, and for the cordial terms in which your spokesman has extended to me the congratulations of my friends of Benton County. We have men who boast that they are cosmopolitans, citizens of the world. I prefer to say that I am an American citizen [applause], and I freely confess that American interests have the first place in my regard. [Applause.] This is not at all inconsistent with the recognition of that comity between nations which is necessary to the peace of the world. It is not inconsistent with that philanthropy which sympathizes with human distress and oppression the world around. We have been especially favored as an apart nation, separated from the conflicts, jealousies, and intrigues of European courts, with a territory embracing every feature of climate and soil, and resources capable of supplying the wants of our people, of developing a wholesome and gigantic national growth, and of spreading abroad, by their full establishment here, the principles of human liberty and free government. I do not think it inconsistent with the philanthropy[45] of the broadest teacher of human love that we should first have regard for that family of which we are a part. Here in Indiana the drill has just disclosed to us the presence of inexhaustible quantities, in a large area of our State, of that new fuel which has the facility of doing its own transportation, even to the furnace door, and which leaves no residuum to be carried away when it has done its work. This discovery has added an impulse to our growth. It has attracted manufacturing industries from other States. Many of our towns have received, and this city, we may hope, is yet to receive, a great impulse in the development of their manufacturing industries by reason of this discovery. It seems to me that when this fuller development of our manufacturing interests, this building up of a home market for the products of our farms, which is sure to produce here that which has been so obvious elsewhere—a great increase in the value of farms and farm products—is opening to us the pleasant prospect of a rapid growth in wealth, we should be slow to abandon that system of protective duties which looks to the promotion and development of American industry and to the preservation of the highest possible scale of wages for the American workman. [Applause.] The development of our country must be on those lines that benefit all our people. Any development that does not reach and beneficially affect all our people is not to be desired, and cannot be progressive or permanent.

Comrades, you still love the flag for which we fought. We are preserved in God's providence to see the wondrous results of that struggle in which you were engaged—a reunited country, a Constitution whose authority is no longer disputed, a flag to which all men bow. It has won respect at home; it should be respected by all nations of the earth as an emblem and representative of a people desiring peace with all men, but resolute in the determination that the rights of all our citizens the world around shall be faithfully respected. [Applause and cries of "That's right!"] I thank you again for this visit, and, if it be your pleasure, and your committee will so arrange, I will be glad to take you by the hand.

My Friends—The magnitude of this demonstration puts us at a disadvantage in our purpose to entertain you hospitably, as we had designed when notified of your coming. [Cheers.] I regret that you must stand exposed to the heat of the sun, and that I must be at the disadvantage of speaking from this high balcony a few words of hearty thanks. I hope it may be arranged by the committee so that I may yet have the opportunity of speaking to you informally and individually. I am glad to notice your quick interest in the campaign. I am sure that that interest is stimulated by your devotion to the principles of government which you conceive—rightly, as I believe—to be involved in this campaign. [Applause.] I am glad to think that some of you, veterans of a former political campaign to which your chairman has alluded, and others of you, comrades in the great war for the Union, come here to express some personal friendship for me. [Cheers.] But I am sure that this campaign will be waged upon a plan altogether above personal consideration. You are here as citizens of the State of Indiana, proud of the great advancement the State has made since those pioneer days when brave men from the East and South entered our territory, blazing a pathway into the unbroken forest, upon which civilization, intelligence, patriotism, and the love of God has walked until we are conspicuous among the States as a community desirous of social order, full of patriotic zeal, and pledged to the promotion of that education which is to qualify the coming generations to discharge honorably and well their duties to the Government which we will leave in their hands. [Applause.] You are here also as citizens of the United States, proud of that arch of strength that binds together the States of this Union in one great Nation. But citizenship has its duties as well as its privileges. The first is that we give our energies and influence to the enactment of just, equal, and beneficent laws. The second is like unto it—that we loyally reverence and obey the will of the majority enacted into law, whether we are of a majority or not [applause]; the law throws the ægis of its protection over us all. It stands sentinel about your country homes to protect you from violence; it comes into our more thickly populated community and speaks its mandate for individual security and public order. There is an open avenue through the ballot-box for the modification or repeal of laws which are unjust or oppressive. To the law[47] we bow with reverence. It is the one king that commands our allegiance. We will change our king, when his rule is oppressive, by these methods appointed, and crown his more liberal successor. [Applause.] I thank you again, most cordially, for this visit, and put myself in the hands of your committee that I may have the privilege of meeting you individually.

Gentlemen—Your visit is very gratifying to me, and is full of significance and interest. If I read aright the language of your lanterns you have signalled the Republican train to go ahead. [Applause and cries of "And she is going, too!"] You have concluded that it is freighted with the interests and hopes of the workingmen of America, and must have the right of way. [Cheers and cries, "That's true!" and "We don't have to take water on this trip, either!"] The train has been inspected; you have given it your skilled and intelligent approval; the track has been cleared and the switches spiked down. Have I read your signals aright? [Cheers and cries of "You have!" and "There's no flat wheels under this train!"] You represent, I understand, every department of railroad labor—the office, the train, the shop, the yard, and the road. You are the responsible and intelligent agents of a vast system that, from a rude and clumsy beginning, has grown to be as fine and well adapted as the parts of the latest locomotive engine. The necessities and responsibilities of the business of transportation have demanded a body of picked men—inventive and skilful, faithful and courageous, sober and educated—and the call has been answered, as your presence here to night demonstrates. [Cheers.] Heroism has been found at the throttle and the brake, as well as on the battle-field, and as well worthy of song and marble. The trainman crushed between the platforms, who used his last breath, not for prayer or message of love, but to say to the panic-stricken who gathered around him, "Put out the red[48] light for the other train," inscribed his name very high upon the shaft where the names of the faithful and brave are written. [A voice: "Give him three cheers for that!" Great and enthusiastic cheering.]

This early and very large gathering of Republican railroad men suggests to me that you have opinions upon public questions which are the product of your own observations and study. Some one will say that the railroad business is a "non-protected industry," because it has to do with transportation and not with production. But I only suggest what has already occurred to your own minds when I say that is a very deceptive statement. You know there is a relation between the wages of skilled and unskilled labor as truly as between the prices of two grades of cotton cloth; that if the first is cut down, the other, too, must come down. [Cries of "That's just so!"] You know, also, that if labor is thrown out of one line or avenue, by so much the more will the others be crowded; that any policy that transfers production from the American to the English or German shop works an injury to all American workmen. [Great cheering.]

But, if it could be shown that your wages were unaffected by our system of protective duties, I am sure that your fellowship with your fellow toilers in other industries would lead you to desire, as I do and always have, that our legislation may be of that sort that will secure to them the highest possible prosperity [applause]—wages that not only supply the necessities of life, but leave a substantial margin for comfort and for the savings bank. No man's wages should be so low that he cannot make provision in his days of vigor for the incapacity of accident or the feebleness of old age. [Great cheering.]

I am glad to be assured to-night that the principles of our party and all things affecting its candidates can be safely left to the thoughtful consideration of the American workingmen—they will know the truth and accept it; they will reject the false and slanderous. [Applause.]

And now let me say in conclusion that my door will always be open to any of you who may desire to talk with me about anything that interests you or that you think will interest me. I regret that Mrs. Harrison is prevented by a temporary sickness from joining with me in receiving you this evening. [Great cheering.]

Mr. Wulsin and Gentlemen of the Lincoln Club of Cincinnati—I thank you very much for this visit, and I wish I found myself in condition to talk to you with comfort to-night. I cannot, however, let the occasion pass, in view of the kind terms in which you have addressed me through your spokesman, without a word. I feel as if these Hamilton County Republicans were my neighbors. The associations of my early life were with that county, and of my student life largely with the city of Cincinnati. You did not need to state to me that Ohio supported John Sherman in the convention at Chicago [laughter] simply to couple with it the suggestion that it was a matter of State pride for you to do so. I have known him long and intimately. It was my good fortune for four years to sit beside him in the Senate of the United States. I learned there to value him as a friend and to honor him as a statesman. There were reasons altogether wider than the State of Ohio why you should support John Sherman in the convention. [Applause and cries of "Good!" "Good!"] His long and faithful service to his country and to the Republican party, his distinguished ability, his fidelity as a citizen, all entitled him to your faithful support; and I beg to assure you, as I have assured him both before and since the convention, that I did not and would not, upon any consideration, have made any attempt against him upon the Ohio delegation. [Applause.] I have known of your[50] club as an organization that early set the example of perpetuating itself—an example that I rejoice to see is being largely followed now throughout our country. If these principles which are being urged by our party in these contests are worthy of our campaign enthusiasm and ardor, they are worthy to be thought of and advocated in the period of inter-campaign. They affect the business interests of our country, and their full adoption and perpetuation, we believe, will bring prosperity to all our individual and social and community interests. Therefore, I think it wise that in those times, when men's minds are more open to conviction and are readier of access, you should press upon the attention of your neighbors through your club organizations these principles to which you and I have given the allegiance of our minds and the devotion of our hearts. I thank you again for this visit. We are glad that you have come; therefore, I welcome you, not only as Republicans, but as friends. [Applause.]

Father Rayburn and my Howard County Friends—I think I may accept this demonstration as evidence that the action of the Republican convention at Chicago has been accepted with resignation by the Republicans of Howard County. [Loud cheers.] You are the favored citizens of a favored county. Your county has been conspicuous among the counties of this State for its enterprise and intelligence. You have been favored with a kindly and generous soil, cultivated by an intelligent and educated class of farmers. Hitherto you have chiefly drawn your wealth from the soil. You have had in the city of Kokomo an enterprising and[51] thrifty county town. You have been conspicuous for your interest and devotion to the cause of education—for your interest in bringing forward the coming generations well equipped for the duties of citizenship. I congratulate you to-day that a new era of prosperity has opened for your county in the discovery of this new and free fuel to which Mr. Rayburn has alluded. A source of great wealth has been opened to your people. You have already begun to realize what it is to your county, though your expectations have hardly grasped what it will be when the city of Kokomo and your other towns have reached the full development which will follow this discovery. You will then all realize—the citizens of that prosperous place as well as the farmers throughout the county—the advantage of having a home market for the products of your farms. [Cheers.] You may not notice this so much in the appreciation of the prices of the staple products of your farms, but you will notice it in the expansion of the market for those more perishable products which cannot reach a distant market and must be consumed near home. Is it not, then, time for you, as thoughtful citizens, whatever your previous political affiliations may have been, to consider the question, "What legislation will most promote the development of the manufacturing interests of your county and enlarge the home market for the products of your farm?" I shall not enter upon a discussion of this question; it is enough to state it, and leave it to your own intelligent consideration. [Cheers.]

Let me thank you again for this kindly visit, and beg you to excuse any more extended remarks, and to give me now an opportunity of thanking each of you personally for the kind things your chairman has said in your behalf.

General Hunt and my Illinois Friends—I thank you for this cordial expression of your interest in Republican success. I thank you for the kindly terms in which your spokesman has conveyed to me the assurance, not only of your political support, but of your personal confidence and respect.

The States of Indiana and Illinois are neighbors, geographically. The river that for a portion of its length constitutes the boundary between our States is not a river of division. Its tendency seems to be, in these times when so many things are "going dry" [cheers], rather to obliterate than to enlarge the obstruction between us. [Cheers.] But I rejoice to know that we are not only geographically neighbors, but that Indiana and Illinois have been neighborly in the high sentiments and purposes which have characterized their people. I rejoice to know that the same high spirit of loyalty and devotion to the country that characterized the State of Illinois in the time when the Nation made its appeal to the brave men of all the States to rescue its flag and its Constitution from the insurrection which had been raised against them was equally characteristic of Indiana—that the same great impulse swept over your State that swept over ours—that Richard Yates[53] of Illinois [cheers] and Oliver P. Morton of Indiana [prolonged cheers] stood together in the fullest sympathy and co-operation in the great plans they devised to augment and re-enforce the Union armies in the field and to suppress and put down treasonable conspiracies at home.

As Americans and as Republicans we are glad that Illinois has contributed so many and such conspicuous names to that galaxy of great Americans and great Republicans whose deeds have been written on the scroll of eternal fame. I recall that it was on the soil of Illinois that Lovejoy died—a martyr to free speech. [Cries of "Hear!" "Hear!"] He was the forerunner of Abraham Lincoln. He died, but his protest against human slavery lived. Another great epoch in the march of liberty found on the soil of Illinois the theatre of its most influential event. I refer to that high debate in the presence of your people, but before the world, in which Douglas won the senatorship and Lincoln the presidency and immortal fame. [Loud cheers.]

But Lincoln's argument and Lincoln's proclamation must be made good upon the battle-field—and again your State was conspicuous. You gave us Grant and Logan [prolonged cheers] and a multitude of less notable, but not less faithful, soldiers who underwrote the proclamation with their swords. [Cheers.] I congratulate you to-day that there has come out of this early agitation—out of the work of Lovejoy, the disturber; out of the great debate of 1858, and out of the war for the Union, a Nation without a slave [cheers]—that not the shackles of slavery only have been broken, but that the scarcely less cruel shackles of prejudice which bound every black man in the North have also been unbound.

We are glad to know that the enlightened sentiment of the South to-day unites with us in our congratulations that slavery has been abolished. They have come to realize, and many of their best and greatest men to publicly express, the thought that the abolition of slavery has opened a gateway of progress and material development to the South that was forever closed against her people while domestic slavery existed.

We send them the assurance that we desire the streams of their prosperity shall flow bank full. We would lay upon their people no burdens that we do not willingly bear ourselves. They will not think it amiss if I say that the burden which rests willingly upon our shoulders is a faithful obedience to the Constitution and the laws. A manly assertion by each of his individual rights, and a manly concession of equal right to every other man, is the boast and the law of good citizenship.

Let me thank you again and ask you to excuse me from further public speech. I now ask an opportunity to meet my Illinois friends personally [Loud and prolonged cheers.]

Judge Adams and my Shelby County Friends—This is only a new evidence of your old friendliness. My association with the Republicans of Shelby County began in 1855, when I was a very young man and a still younger politician. In that year, if I recollect right, I canvassed every township of your county in the interest of Mr. Campbell, who was then a candidate for County Clerk. Since then I have frequently visited your county, and have always been received with the most demonstrative evidence of your friendship. But in addition to these political associations, which have given me an opportunity to observe and to admire the steadfastness, the courage, the unflinching faithfulness of the Republicans of Shelby County [cheers], I have another association with your county, which I cherish with great tenderness and affection. Two companies of the Seventieth Indiana were made up of your brave boys: Company B, commanded by Captain Sleeth, and Company F, commanded by Captain Endsley, who still lives among you. [Cheers.] Many of the surviving members of these companies still dwell among you. Many others are in the far West, and they, too, from their distant homes have sent me a comrade's greeting. I recollect a little story of Peach Tree Creek that may interest you. When the Seventieth Indiana, then under command of Col. Sam Merrill, swung up from the reserve into the front line to meet the enemy's charge, the adjutant-general of the brigade, who had been directed to order the advance, reported that the left of the Seventieth Indiana was exposed. He said he had ordered the bluff old captain of Company F, who was commanding the left wing, to reserve his left in order to cover his flank, but that the old hickory had answered him with an expletive—which I have no doubt he has repented of—that he "could not see it," that he proposed[55] that his end of the regiment should get to the top of that hill as quick as the other end. [Prolonged cheers.]

We will venerate the memory of the dead of these companies and their associate companies in other commands who gave up their lives in defence of the flag.

But I turn aside from these matters of personal recollection to say a word of more general concern. We are now at the opening of a presidential campaign, and I beg to suggest to you, as citizens of the State of Indiana, that there is always in such campaigns a danger to be avoided, viz. That the citizen may overlook the important local and State interests which are also involved in the campaign. I beg, therefore, to suggest that you turn your minds not only to the consideration of the questions connected with the national legislation and national administration, but that you think deeply and well of those things that concern our local affairs. There are some such now presented to you that have to do with the honor and prosperity of the State.

There are some questions that ought not to divide parties, but upon which all good men ought to agree. I speak of only one. The great benevolent institutions—the fruit of our Christian civilization—endowed by the bounty of the State, maintained by public taxes, and intended for the care and education of the disabled classes of our community, ought to be lifted above all party influences, benefit or control. [Cheers.] I believe you can do nothing that will more greatly enhance the estimation in which the State of Indiana is held by her sister States than to see to it that a suitable, well-regulated, and strict civil service is provided for the administration of the benevolent and penal institutions of the State of Indiana. I will not talk longer; I thank you for this magnificent evidence that I am still held in kindly regard by the Republicans of Shelby County, and bid you good-night. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I feel very conscious of the compliment which is conveyed by your presence here to-day. You come as citizens of an adjoining State to manifest, as your spokesman has said, some personal respect for me, but much more, I think—your interest in the pending contention of principles before the people of the United States. It is fortunate that you are allowed, not only to express your interest by such popular gatherings as these, but that you will be called upon individually, after the debate is over, to settle this contention by your ballots. An American political canvass, when we look through the noise and tinsel that accompanies it, presents a scene of profound interest to the student of government. The theory upon which our Government is builded is that every qualified elector shall have an equal influence at the ballot-box with every other. Our Constitutions do not recognize fractional votes; they do not recognize the right of one man to count one and a half in the determination of public questions. It is wisely provided that whatever differences may exist in intelligence, in wealth, or in any other respect, at the ballot-box there shall be absolute equality. No interest can be truly subserved, whether local or general, by any invasion of this great principle. The wise work of our fathers in constructing this Government will stand all tests of internal dissension and revolution, and all tests of external assault, if we can only preserve a pure, free ballot. [Applause.] Every citizen who is a patriot ought to lend his influence to that end, by promoting necessary reforms in our election laws and by a watchful supervision of the processes of our popular elections. We ought to elevate in thought and practice the free suffrage that we enjoy. As long as it shall be held by our people to be the jewel above price, as long as each for himself shall claim its free exercise and shall generously and manfully insist upon an equally free exercise of it by every other man, our Government will be preserved and our development will not find its climax until the purpose of God in establishing this Government shall have spread throughout the world—governments "of the people, by the people, and for the people." [Cheers.]

You will not expect, nor would it be proper, that I should follow the line of your spokesman's remarks, or even allude to some things that he has alluded to; but I will not close without one word of compliment and comradeship for the soldiers of Illinois. [Applause.] I do not forget that many of them, like Logan—that fearless and first of volunteer soldiers—at the beginning of the war were not in sympathy with the Republican national administration. You had a multitude of soldiers besides Logan, one of whom has been immortalized in poetry—Sergeant Tillman Joy—who put their politics by "to keep till the war was through;" and many, I may add, like Logan, when they got home found new party associations. But we do not limit our praise of the loyalty and faithfulness of your soldiers to any party lines, for we realize that there were good soldiers who did resume their ante-war politics when they came back from the army. To such we extend a comrade's hand always, and the free and untrammelled exercise of his political choice shall not bar our comradeship. It happened during the war that three Illinois regiments were for some time under my command. I had opportunity to observe their perfection in drill, their orderly administration of camp duties, and, above all, the brilliant courage with which they met the enemy. And, in complimenting them, I take them as the type of that great army that Illinois sent out for the preservation of the Union and the Constitution. Let me thank you again for your friendly visit to-day; and if any of you desire a nearer acquaintance, I shall be glad to make that acquaintance now.

Senator Bacon and my Illinois Friends—Some of my home friends have been concerned lest I should be worn out by the frequent coming of these delegations. I am satisfied from what I see before me to-day that the rest of Illinois is here [laughter], and the concern of my friends will no longer be excited by the coming of Illinois delegations. [A voice, "We are all here!"] That you should leave the pursuits of your daily life—the farm, the office, and the shop—to make this journey gives me the most satisfactory evidence that your hearts are enlisted in this campaign. I am glad to welcome here to-day the John A. Logan Club of Paris. You have chosen a name that you will not need to drop, whatever mutations may come in politics, so long as there shall be a party devoted to the flag and to the Constitution, and pledged to preserve the memories of the great deeds of those who died that the Constitution might be preserved and the flag honored. [Applause.] General Logan was indeed, as your spokesman has said, "the typical volunteer soldier." With him loyalty was not a sentiment; it was a passion that possessed his whole nature.

When the civil war broke out no one did more than he to solidify the North in defence of the Government. He it was who said that all parties and all platforms must be subordinated to the defence of the Government against unprovoked assault. [A voice, "That's just what he said!"] In the war with Mexico, as a member of the First Illinois Regiment, and afterwards as the commander of the Thirty-first Illinois in the civil war, he gave a conspicuous example of what an untrained citizen could do in the time of public peril. In the early fight at Donelson he, with the First Illinois Brigade, successfully resisted the desperate assaults that were made upon his line; twice wounded, he yet refused to leave the field. The courage of that gallant brigade called forth from a Massachusetts poet the familiar lines:

[Applause.] He commanded successively brigades, divisions, corps and armies, and fought them with unvarying success. I greet these[59] veterans of the campaign of 1840. You recall the pioneer days, the log cabin days of the West, the days when muddy highways were the only avenues of travel and commerce. You have seen a marvellous development. The State of your adoption has become a mighty commonwealth; you have seen it crossed and recrossed by railroads, bringing all your farms into easy communication with distant markets; you have seen the schoolhouse and church brought into every neighborhood; you have seen this country rocked in the cradle of war; you have seen it emerge from that dreadful trial and enter upon an era of prosperity that seems to surpass all that had gone before.

To these young men who will, for the first time this year, take part as citizens in determining a presidential election, I suggest that you have become members of a party of precious memories. There has been nothing in the history of the Republican party, nothing in the platform of principles that it has proclaimed, that is not calculated to stir the high impulses of your young hearts. The Republican party has walked upon high paths. It has set before it ever the maintenance of the Union, the honor of its flag, and the prosperity of our people. It has been an American party [great cheering] in that it has set American interests always to the front.

My friends of the colored organization, I greet you as Republicans to-day. I recall the time when you were disfranchised; when your race were slaves; when the doors of our institutions of learning were closed against you, and even admittance to many of our Northern States was denied you. You have read the story of your disfranchisement, of the restoration to you of the common rights of men. Read it again; read the story of the bitter and bigoted opposition that every statute and constitutional amendment framed for your benefit encountered. What party befriended you when you needed friends? What party has stood always as an obstruction to the development and enlargement of your rights as citizens? When you have studied these questions well you will be able to determine not only where your gratitude is due, but where the hopes of your race lie. [Cheers.]

Gentlemen and Friends from Clay County—I thank you for this enthusiastic demonstration of your interest. I am glad to be assured by those who have spoken for you to-day that you have brought here, and desire to evidence, some personal respect for me; but this demonstration has relation, I am sure, rather to principles than to men. You come as representatives of the diversified interests of your county. You are fortunate in already possessing diversified industries. You have not only agriculture, but the mine and factory which provide a home market for the products of your farms. You come here, as I understand, from all these pursuits, to declare that in your opinion your interests, as farmers, as miners, as mechanics, as tradesmen, are identified with the maintenance of the doctrine of protection to American industries, and the preservation of the American market for American products. [Cheers.] Some resort to statistics to show that the condition of the American workman is better than that of the workman of any other country. I do not care now to deal with statistics. One fact is enough for me. The tide of emigration from all European countries has been and is towards our shores. The gates of Castle Garden swing inward. They do not swing outward to any American laborer seeking a better country than this. [Cries of "Never!"]

My countrymen, these men, who have toiled at wages in other lands that barely sustained life, and opened no avenue of promise to them or to their children, know the good land of hope as well as[61] the swallow knows the land of summer. [Applause.] They testify that here there are better conditions, wider and more hopeful prospects for workmen than in any other land. The next suggestion I have to make is this: that the more work there is to do in this country the higher the wages that will be paid for the doing of it. [Applause.] I speak to men who know that when the product of their toil is in demand in the market, when buyers are seeking it, wages advance; but when the market for your products is depressed, and the manufacturer is begging for buyers, then wages go down. Is it not clear, then, that that policy which secures the largest amount of work to be done at home is the policy which will secure to laboring men steady employment and the best wages? [Cheers and cries of "That is right!"] A policy which will transfer work from our mines and our factories to foreign mines and foreign factories inevitably tends to the depression of wages here. [Applause and cries of "That is true!"] These are truths that do not require profound study.

Having here a land that throws about the workingman social and political conditions more favorable than are found elsewhere, if we can preserve also more favorable industrial conditions we shall secure the highest interests of our working classes. [Great cheering.] What, after all, is the best evidence of a nation's prosperity, and the best guarantee of social order, if it is not an intelligent, thrifty, contented working class? Can we look for contentment if the workman is only able to supply his daily necessities by his daily toil, but is not able in the vigor of youth to lay up a store against old age? A condition of things that compels the laborer to contemplate want, as an incident of sickness or disability, is one that tends to social disorder. [Applause and cries of "That is so!"] You are called upon now to consider these problems. I will not debate them in detail, others will. I can only commend them to your thoughtful consideration. Think upon them; conclude for yourselves what policy as to our tariff legislation will best subserve your interests, the interests of your families, and the greatness and glory of the Nation of which you are citizens. [Cheers.]

My colored friends who are here to-day, the emancipation of the slave removed from our country that which tended to degrade labor. All men are now free; you are thrown upon your own resources; the avenues of intelligence and of business success are open to all. I notice that the party to which we belong has been recently reproached by the suggestion that we have not thoroughly protected the colored man in the South. This has been urged as a reason[62] why the colored people should join the Democratic party. I beg the gentlemen who urge that plea to answer this question: Against whom is it that the Republican party has been unable, as you say, to protect your race? [Applause and cries of "Good! Good!"] Thanking you again for this demonstration and for your friendly expressions, I will, if it be your pleasure, drop this formal method of communication and take my Clay County friends by the hand. [Great cheering.]

My Bloomington Friends—When I received here, yesterday, a very large delegation from Illinois, I expressed the opinion that they must be the "rest of the people of Illinois that had not been here before." I suppose you are a remnant that could not get into line yesterday. I thank you as I have thanked those who preceded you, for the interest which the people of your State have manifested, and for your cordial fellowship with Indiana. I will not discuss the issues of the campaign. You have already thought upon the platforms of the two parties. Some of you have perhaps taken your politics by inheritance. It is now a good time to review the situation. We have the same interests as citizens. Let us all consider the history and declarations of the great parties and thoughtfully conclude which is more likely to promote the general interests of our people. That is the test. The British Parliament does not legislate with a view to advance the interests of the people of the United States. [Cries of "No, never!"] They—rightly—have in view the interest of that empire over which Victoria reigns. Should we not, also, as Americans, in our legislation, consider first the interests of our people? We invite the thoughtful attention of those who have hitherto differed with us as to these questions. Our interests are bound together. That which promotes the prosperity of the community in which you dwell in kindly association with your Democratic friends promotes your interests and theirs alike. Thanking you for this visit, I will ask you to excuse me from further speech. [Applause.]

Mr. Biggs and my Kosciusko County Friends—I did not need to be assured of the friendliness of the Republicans of your county. It has been evidenced too many times in the past. Before the convention at Chicago the Republicans of your county gave me the assurance that my nomination would meet the cordial approbation of your people. I am glad to welcome you here to-day, and regret that your journey hither has been so tedious. You are proud of the State in which you dwell; proud of her institutions of learning; proud of her great benevolent institutions, which I notice by one of these banners you have pledged yourselves to protect from party spoliation and degradation. [Applause and cries of "Good! Good!"] But while we have much that is cause for congratulation, we are not enjoying that full equality of civil rights in the State of Indiana to which we are entitled.

Our Government is a representative government. Delegates in Congress and members of our State Senate and House of Representatives are apportioned to districts, and the National and State Constitutions contemplate that these districts shall be equal, so that, as far as possible, each citizen shall have, in his district, the same potency in choosing a Member of Congress or of our State Legislature as is exercised by a voter in any other district. We do not to-day have that condition of things. The apportionment of our State for legislative and congressional purposes is unfair, and is known to be unfair to all men. No candid Democrat can defend it as a fair apportionment. It was framed to be unequal, it was designed to give to the citizens of favored districts an undue influence. It was intended to discriminate against Republicans. It is not right that it should be so. I hope the time is coming, and has even now arrived, when the great sense of justice which possesses our people[64] will teach men of all parties that party success is not to be promoted at the expense of an injustice to any of our citizens. [Applause.] These things take hold of government. If we would maintain that respect for the law which is necessary to social order, our people must understand that each voter has his full and equal influence in determining what the law shall be. I hope this question will not be forgotten by our people until we have secured in Indiana a fair apportionment for legislative and congressional purposes. [Cheers.] When the Republicans shall secure the power of making an apportionment, I hope and believe that the experiment of seeking a party advantage by a public injustice will not be repeated. [Great applause and cries of "Good! Good!"]

There are some other questions affecting suffrage, too, to which my attention has, from circumstances, been particularly attracted. There are in the Northwest several Territories organized under public law with defined boundaries. They have been filled up with the elect of our citizens—the brave, the enterprising and intelligent young men from all the States. Many of the veterans of the late war have sought under our beneficent homestead law new homes in the West. Several of these Territories have been for years possessed of population, wealth, and all the requisites for admission as States. When the Territory of Indiana took the census which was the basis for its petition for admission to the Union we had less than 64,000 people; we had only thirteen organized counties. In the Territory of South Dakota there are nearly half a million people. For years they have been knocking for admission to the sisterhood of States.

They are possessed of all the elements of an organized and stable community. It has more people, more miles of railroad, more post-offices, more churches, more banks, more wealth, than any Territory ever possessed when it was admitted to the Union. It surpasses some of the States in these particulars. Four years ago, when a President was to be chosen, the Committee on Territories in the Senate, to meet the objection of our Democratic friends that the admission of Dakota would add a disturbing element to the Electoral College, provided in the Dakota bill that its organization should be postponed until after the election; now four years more have rolled around, and our people are called again to take part in a presidential election, and the intelligent and patriotic Dakota people are again to be deprived of any participation. I ask you why this is so? Is not the answer obvious? [Cries of "Yes!"] They are disfranchised and deprived of their appropriate influence in the Electoral College only because the prevailing sentiment in[65] the Territory is Republican. [Cries of "That's right!" "That's the reason!"] The cause of Washington Territory is more recent but no less flagrant. If we appropriately express sympathy with the cause of Irish home rule, shall we not also demand home rule for Dakota and Washington, and insist that their disfranchisement shall not be prolonged? [Applause.] There is a sense of justice, of fairness, that will assert itself against these attempts to coin party advantage out of public wrong. The day when men can be disfranchised or shorn of their political power for opinion's sake must have an end in our country. [Cheers.] I thank you again for your call, and if you will observe the arrangement which has been suggested I will be glad to take each of you by the hand. I know that some of you are fasting, and therefore we will shorten these exercises in order that you may obtain needed refreshments. [Cheers.]

My Friends—It is a source of regret to me that I can do so little to compensate those who take the trouble to visit me. I need hardly say to you that I very highly appreciate this evidence of your friendliness and also the kind words which you have addressed to me through your representative. Jennings County has a history of which it may well be proud. It has contributed to the city of Indianapolis some of our most distinguished and useful men. Your spokesman has not exaggerated the fidelity and steadfastness of the people of your county. Your republicanism has been as straight as the walls of your cliffs [applause] and as solid as the limestone with which your hills are buttressed. [Applause.]

You have said to me that you are in favor of a free and equal ballot the country over. We are so related in our Government[66] that any disturbance of the suffrage anywhere directly affects us all. Our Members of Congress pass upon questions that are as wide as the domain over which our flag floats. Therefore, our interest in the choice of these representatives is not limited to our own districts. If the debate upon public questions is to be of value the voter must be free to register his conclusion. The tribunal which is to pronounce upon the argument must not be coerced.

You have said to me that you favor the doctrine of protection. The Republican party stands for the principles of protection. We believe in the preservation of the American market for our American producers and workmen. [Applause and cries of "That's it!"] We believe that the development of home manufactures tends directly to promote the interest of agriculture by furnishing a home market for the products of the farm, and thus emancipating our farmers from the transportation charges which they must pay when their products seek distant markets. [Applause.]

We are confronted now with a Treasury surplus. Our position is exceptional. We are not seeking, as many other nations are, new subjects of taxation, new sources of revenue. Our quest is now how, wisely, to reduce our national revenue. The attempt has been made to use this surplus as a lever to overturn the protective system. The promoters of this scheme, while professing a desire to diminish the surplus, have acted as if their purpose was to increase it in part by opposing necessary and legitimate appropriations. I agree that there is danger that a surplus may promote extravagance, but I do not find myself in sympathy with that policy that denies the appropriation necessary for the proper defence of our people, and for the convenient administration of our public affairs throughout the country, in order that the threat of a surplus may be used for a sinister purpose. I believe that in reducing our revenues to the level of our needful and proper expenditures we can and should continue to favor and protect our industries. I do not like to entrust this work to those who declare protective duties to be vicious "legalized robbery." The Republican party has by its legislation shown its capacity wisely to reduce our revenues and at the same time to preserve the American system. [Applause.] It can be trusted to do the work that remains, and to do it wisely. [Applause.]

Comrade Grose and my Henry County Friends—If we have here any discouraged statesman who takes a despondent view of the future of the country, I think he would recover his hopefulness if he could look, once in a while, into the face of an audience like this. [Applause.]

You came from a county that has been a bulwark of republicanism since the party was organized. You had an early element in your population that has done much to promote your material interests, and, much more, to lift up those principles that relate to the purity of the home and to the freedom of men. The Friends, who have been and are so large and so influential an element in your population and in the counties surrounding it, are a people notable for the purity of their home life and for their broad and loving sympathy with all men. They were the early enemies of slavery, and they have always naturally been the strength of the Republican party in the community where they reside. Your spokesman has expressed your continued interest in the party to which some of you gave the confidence of your matured powers and some of you the early devotion of your youth. The Republican party has accomplished for the country a great work in the brief period of its life. It preserved the Nation by a wise, courageous and patriotic administration. What that means for you and your posterity, what it means for the world, no man can tell.[68] It would have been a climax of disaster for the world if this Government of the people had perished. The one unsolved experiment of free government was solved. We have demonstrated the capacity of the people and a citizen soldiery to maintain inviolate the unity of the Republic. [Applause.]

There remain now, fortunately, chiefly economic questions to be thought of and to be settled. We refer to the great war, not in any spirit of hostility to any section or any class of men, but only because we believe it to be good for the whole country that loyalty and fidelity to the flag should be honored. [Great applause.] It was one of the great triumphs of the war, a particular in which our war was distinguished from all other wars of history, that we brought the vanquished into the same full, equal citizenship under the law that we maintained for ourselves.

In all the addresses which have been made to me there has been some reference to the great question of the protection of our American industries. I see it upon the banners which you carry. Our party stands unequivocally, without evasion or qualification, for the doctrine that the American market shall be preserved for our American producers. [Great applause.] We are not attracted by the suggestion that we should surrender to foreign producers the best market in the world. Our sixty millions of people are the best buyers in the world, and they are such because our working classes receive the best wages. But we do not mean to be content with our own market. We should seek to promote closer and more friendly commercial relations with the Central and South American States. [Applause.] And what is essential to that end? Regular mails are the first condition of commerce.

The merchant must know when his order will be received, and when his consignment will be returned, or there can be no trade between distant communities. What we need, therefore, is the establishment of American steamship lines between our ports and the ports of Central and South America. [Applause.] Then it will no longer be necessary that an American minister, commissioned to an American State, shall take an English ship to Liverpool to find another English ship to carry him to his destination. We are not to be frightened by the use of that ugly word "subsidy." [Laughter.] We should pay to American steamship lines a liberal compensation for carrying our mails, instead of turning them over to British tramp steamships. [Applause.] We do not desire to dominate these neighboring governments; we do not desire to deal with them in any spirit of aggression. We desire those friendly political, mental, and commercial relations which shall promote[69] their interests equally with ours. We should not longer forego those commercial relations and advantages which our geographical relations suggest and make so desirable. If you will excuse me from further public speech I will be glad to take by the hand my Henry County friends. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—I have had the pleasure to-day to receive in my own home a distinguished citizen of a neighboring State; distinguished not only for his relation to the civil administration of affairs in his State, but also as one of those conspicuous soldiers contributed by Michigan to the armies of the Union when our national life was in peril. I am sure you will be glad to make broader the welcome I have given him, and to show him that he has a warm place in the affections of our Indiana people. Let me present to you General Alger of Michigan. [Prolonged applause.]

Gentlemen—I thank you very much for this cordial greeting. I thank you very kindly, General Harrison, for the pleasant words you have said of me personally. I wish to say—as you would know if you lived in Michigan—that I am not a speechmaker. I composed a few speeches some weeks ago, and General Harrison has been delivering them ever since. [Laughter.] After reading his speeches carefully, each one of them a gem of concentrated thought, I have made up my mind that the Chicago Convention made no mistake. [Applause.] We have not held any post-mortem in our State. We are glad that we have such a gallant candidate, a man in whose composition no flaw can be found, in whose life no act or word can be adversely criticised. We are as proud in Michigan of your candidate—who is our candidate also—as we could possibly be were any other man in the universe named. We are all Harrison men in Michigan now; and the place he has in our hearts is just as warm as though he lived within our own borders. [Applause.] You Hoosiers have no patent upon this. [Applause.][70] The people of the United States have a great crisis before them. The question as to the life and prosperity of our industrial institutions is at stake. We have, as we have always had, since this country was worth caring for, the opposition of the English Government.

Mr. Adams and my Morgan and Brown County Friends—In previous campaigns I have not put you to the trouble to come and see me. My habit has been to go to you, and it has been my pleasure often to discuss before you the issues that were involved in our campaigns. The limitations which are upon me now prevent me from following this old habit, and put you, who desire to see me, to the trouble of coming here. My associations with the county of Morgan have been very close. Among its citizens are some of my most devoted personal and political friends. There are also in your county a large number of my comrades, to whom I am bound by the very close ties that must always unite those who marched under the same regimental banner. Your county furnished two companies for the Seventieth Indiana—brave, true men, commanded by intelligent and capable officers, and having in the ranks of both companies men as capable of command as any who wore shoulder-straps in the regiment. These men, together with their comrades of the Thirty-third and other regiments that were recruited in[71] your county, went into the service from very high motives. They heard the call of their country, saying: "He that loveth father or mother or wife or child or houses or lands more than me is not worthy of me," and they were found worthy by this supreme test. Many of you were so careless of a money recompense for the service you offered and gave that when you lifted your hands and swore to protect and defend the Constitution and the flag you didn't even know what your pay was to be. [Cries of "That's so!"] If there was any carefulness or thought in that direction it was only that the necessary provision might be made for those you left at home. No sordid impulse, no low emotion, called you to the field. [Applause.] In remembering all the painful ways in which you walked, ways of toil, and suffering, and sickness, and dying, to emerge into the glorious sunlight of that great day at Washington, we must not forget that in the homes you left there were also sacrifices and sufferings. Anxiety dwelt perpetually with those you left behind. We remember gratefully the sacrifices and sufferings of the fathers and mothers who sent you to the field, and, much more, of the wives who bravely gave up to the country the most cherished objects of their love. And now peace has come; no hand is lifted against the flag; the Constitution is again supreme and the Nation one. My countrymen, it is no time now to use an apothecary's scale to weigh the rewards of the men who saved the country. [Applause.]

If you will pardon me I will not further follow the line of remarks suggested by the kind words you have addressed to me through your representative. I notice the limitation which your spokesman has put upon you, but I beg to assure him and you that I am not so worn that I have not the strength to greet any of you who may desire to greet me. [Great applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—These daily and increasing delegations coming to witness their interest in the great issues which are presented for their consideration and determination, and bearing as they do to me their kind personal greetings, quite overmatch my ability to fittingly greet and respond to them.

You are here from every walk in life. Some of you have achieved success in the mechanical arts, some in professional pursuits, and more of you come from that first great pursuit of man—the tilling of the soil—and you come to express the thought that you have common interests; that these diverse pursuits are bound together harmoniously in a common governmental policy and administration. Your interests have had a harmonious and an amazing growth under that protective system to which your representatives have referred, and you wisely demand a continuation of that policy for their further advancement and development. [Applause.] You are in large part members of the Republican party. You have in the past contributed your personal influence, as well as your ballots, to the great victories which it has won. Among the great achievements of our party I think we may worthily mention the passage of that beneficent act of legislation known as the "homestead law." It was impossible to the old parties. It was possible only to a party composed of the sturdy yeomanry of the free States. [Applause.] It has populated our Territories and newer States with the elect of our citizenship. It opened a way to an ownership of the soil to a vast number of our citizens, and there is no surer bond in the direction of good citizenship than that our people should have property in the soil upon which they live. It is one of the best elements of our strength as a State that our farm-lands[73] are so largely possessed in small tracts, and are tilled by the men who own them. It is one of the best evidences of the prosperity of our cities that so large a proportion of the men who work are covered by their own roof trees. If we would perpetuate this condition, we must maintain the American scale of wages. [Applause.] The policy of the subdivision of the soil is one that tends to strengthen our national life. God grant that it may be long before we have in this country a tenantry that is hopelessly such from one generation to another. [Applause.] That condition of things which makes Ireland a land of tenants, and which holds in vast estates the lands of England, must never find footing here. [Applause.] Small farms invite the church and the school-house into the neighborhood. Therefore, it was in the beginning the Republican party declared for free homes of a quarter-section each. That policy should be perpetuated as long as our public domain lasts, and all our legislation should tend in the direction which I have indicated. I cannot discuss all the important questions to which you have called my attention. I have before alluded to some of them. My Montgomery and Clinton county friends, I thank you for the cordial and hopeful words you have addressed to me. My highest ambition is to be found worthy of your respect and confidence. [Applause.]

To these veterans of 1840 who kindly transfer to this the interest they felt in that campaign, to these first voters who come to join us with the high impulses of youth, I desire to extend my sincere thanks. [Applause.]

Mr. Downs, Gentlemen of the Terre Haute Railroad Club, and Fellow-citizens—I am amazed and gratified at the character of this demonstration to-night. I do not find words to express the emotions which swell in my heart as I look into your faces and listen to the kindly greetings which you have given me through your representative. He has not spoken in too high praise of the railroad men of the United States. The character of the duties they are called to discharge require great intelligence, in many departments the best skill in the highest mechanic arts, and in all, even in the lowest grade of labor in connection with railroad management, there is required, for the safety of the public who entrust themselves to your care, fidelity and watchfulness, not only in the day, but in the darkness. The man who attends the switch, the trackman who observes the condition of the track—all these have put into their charge and keeping the lives of men and women and the safety of our commerce. Therefore it is that the exigencies of the service in which you are engaged have operated to select and call into the service of our great railroad corporations a picked body of men. I gratefully acknowledge to-night the service you render to the country of which I am a citizen. The great importance of the enterprises with which you are connected have already suggested to our legislators that they owe duties to you as well as to the travelling and mercantile public. The Congress of the United States has, under that provision of the Constitution which commits to its care all foreign and interstate commerce, undertaken to regulate the great interstate railroads in the interest of equal and fair competition and in the equal interest of all members of our communities. I do not doubt that certain and necessary provisions for the safety of the men who operate these roads will yet be made compulsory by public and general law. [Applause.] The dangers connected with your calling are very great, and the public interest, as well as your own, requires that they should be reduced to the minimum. I do not doubt that we shall yet require that uniformity[75] in the construction of railroad cars that will diminish the danger of those who must pass between them in order to make up trains. [Applause.] I do not doubt, either, that as these corporations are not private corporations, but are recognized by the law to which I have referred and by the uniform decisions of our courts as having public relations, we shall yet see legislation in the direction of providing some suitable tribunal of arbitration for the settlement of differences between railroad men and the companies that engage their services. [Great applause.] I believe that in these directions, and others that I have not time to suggest, reforms will work themselves out, with exact justice to the companies and with justice to the men they employ. Because, my friends, I do not doubt—and I hope you will never allow yourselves to doubt—that the great mass of our people, of all vocations and callings, love justice and right and hate oppression. [Applause.] The laboring men of this land may safely trust every just reform in which they are interested to public discussion and to the logic of reason; they may surely hope, upon these lines, which are open to you by the ballot-box, to accomplish under our American institutions all those right things you have conceived as necessary to your highest success and well-being. Do not allow yourselves to doubt, for one moment, the friendly sentiment of the great masses of our people. Make your appeal wisely, and calmly, and boldly, for every reform you desire, to that sentiment of justice which pervades our American public. [Applause.]

You come to-night from one of our most beautiful Indiana cities. It was built on the Wabash in the expectation that that stream would furnish the channel of its communication with the outside world. But the Wabash is a small tributary to-day to the commerce of Terre Haute. The railroads that span it are the great vehicles of your commerce. They have largely superseded the water communication that was deemed so important in the first settlement, and, perhaps, was so decisive in the location of your city. Terre Haute is conspicuous for its industries. The smoke of your factories goes up night and day. The farms about your city have become gardens, and the cordial and harmonious relations between the railroad shop and the factory and the farms that lie about have a conspicuous illustration with you. You have found that that policy which built up these shops, which maintains them, which secures the largest output yearly from the factories, which gives employment to the largest number of men, is the best thing not only for the railroads that do the transportation, but for the workingmen, who find steady employment at good wages, and for[76] the farmers, who supply their needs. [Applause.] You will not willingly be led to believe that any policy that would check the progress and the prosperity of these enterprises is good for you or for the community in which you live. [Applause and cries of "No, never!"] It will be hard to convince such an intelligent body of workingmen that a policy which would transfer from this country to any other the work that might be done here is good for them. [Applause.] It can easily be demonstrated that if our revenue laws were so adjusted that the imports from Great Britain should be doubled it would be good for the workingmen of England, but I think it would be hard to demonstrate that it would be good for the workingmen of America. [Applause.] There is a wise selfishness; it begins at home, and he who has the care of his own family first, of the community in which he lives, of the nation of which he is a citizen, is wise in his generation.

Now, my friends, I have been daily talking. I used to be thought by my friends to be a reticent man. [Laughter.] I fear I am making an impression that I am garrulous. [Cries of "No! No!"] And yet, when friends such as you take the trouble you have to-night to visit me, I feel that I owe it to you to say something.

Now, thanking you for this roster, which will furnish authentic evidence, if it is challenged, that this visit to-night has been from genuine railroad men [applause], I venture to invite my Terre Haute friends to enter my house. I will ask the citizens of Indianapolis, the escort club of my own home, railroad friends who have done so much to make your coming here to-night pleasant, to kindly refrain themselves, and allow me to greet the visitors. In order that that may be accomplished, I will ask some of my Terre Haute friends to place themselves by the door, that I may meet those who are of their company. The others I have seen, or will see some other day.

Mr. Smith and my Tippecanoe County Friends—I am very grateful for the evidence which you give me this morning by your presence, and by the kind words which your representative has addressed to me, of your respect and good-will. You are members, in great part, of a party that was not machine-made. It had its birth in an impulse that stirred simultaneously the hearts of those who loved liberty. The first convention of our party did not organize it. Those men were great, but they were delegates—representatives of principles which had already asserted their power over the consciences and the hearts of the people. [Applause.] The Republican party did not organize for spoils; it assembled about an altar of sacrifice and in a sanctuary beset with enemies. You have not forgotten our early battle-cry—"Free speech, a free press, free schools and free Territories." We have widened the last word; it is now "a free Nation." The appeals which we have made and shall yet make are addressed to the hearts, the consciences, and to the mind of our people. Therefore, we believe in schools and colleges, and seminaries of learning. Education is the great con[79]servative and assimilating force. A doubter is not necessarily an evil person. The capacity to doubt implies reason—the power of solving doubts; and if the doubt is accompanied with a purpose to find the truth and a supreme affection for the truth when it is found, he will not go widely astray. Therefore, in our political campaigns let men think for themselves, and the truth will assert its sway over the minds of our people. Then everything that affects the record and character of the candidate and the principles of the parties will be brought to a safe tribunal whose judgment will be right. [Great applause and cries of "Good!"]

I am not unaware of the fact that some of you had another convention preference, but I have always believed that convention preferences should be free in the Republican party [applause], and that no prejudice should follow any Republican on account of that preference. As party men, we will judge a man by his post-convention conduct.

My Good Friends from the Pocket—I feel very much complimented by your visit to-day. Your coming here from so great a distance involved much inconvenience which those who live nearer have not experienced. You are geographically remote, but it does not follow from that that you are remote from the sources of political influence and political power.

The General then spoke of the extension of the Republican party from the lakes to the Ohio in Indiana and all over the North, saying that geographical lines marked its limits only in the South. He said that the people of Vanderburg County, living as they did on the Ohio River, a river that some men sought to make the divis[80]ion line between two governments, knew what it was to guard their homes and what it was to send out veterans from the sturdy yeomanry to the defence of their country. He referred in the highest terms to General Shackelford and his service in the hour of his country's need. "I greet you to-day," he continued, "as Republicans—men whose judgment and conscience compel their political opinions. It does not fall to my lot now to argue or discuss at length any of the great political questions of the day. I have done that in the past. It is reserved for others in this campaign. I recall with pleasure my frequent visits to you and your cordial reception when I came to speak to you. In this contest others will maintain before you that great policy which, we believe, dignifies every American, both at home and abroad."

Speaking in reference to wages, General Harrison said that he thought we often forget the women who were compelled to work for their daily bread. He sometimes thought those persons who demand cheaper coats would be ashamed of themselves if they could realize that their demand cut the wages of the women who made these coats. In concluding, he greeted and thanked the Tippecanoe Club for coming, and the Young Men's Republican Club also, saying that he had heard of their efficient work in the highest terms of praise.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention—When I received your invitation to appear for a moment before you I felt that what you asked could not involve any indelicacy, and as it offered me the only opportunity which I shall have to look into the faces of my Indiana Republican friends here assembled, I could not find it in my heart to deny myself the pleasure of spending a moment in your presence. [Applause.] This enthusiastic and kindly recep[82]tion crowns a long series of friendly acts on the part of my Republican friends of Indiana. To have your confidence is very grateful to me, to be worthy of your confidence is the highest ambition I can set before me. [Applause.] Whatever may befall me, I feel that my fellow-citizens of Indiana have crowned me and made me forever their debtor. [Applause.] But I must not detain you from the business which has brought you here. [Cries of "Go on!"] Such an assemblage as this is characteristic of America. What you shall do to-day will influence the prosperity and welfare of the State. Such a meeting is a notable historical event. We have to-day transpiring in this country two other events that are attracting wide interest. At the chief seaport of our country that great Republican, and that great American, James G. Blaine, returns to his home. [Applause.] We shall not be disappointed, I hope, in hearing his powerful voice in Indiana before the campaign is old. [Applause.] Another scene attracts our solemn and even tearful interest, for while you are transacting your business here to-day a draped train is bearing from the place of his sojourn by the sea to the place of his interment at Washington the mortal part of Philip H. Sheridan. From the convention at Chicago we sent him our greetings and our earnest prayers for his restoration. To-day we mourn our hero dead. You called him then a favorite child of victory, and such he was. He was one of those great commanders who, upon the field of battle, towered a very god of war. [Applause.] He was one of those earnest fighters for his country who did not at the end of his first day's fight contemplate rest and recuperation for his own command. He rested and refreshed his command with the wine of victory, and found recuperation in the dispersion of the enemy that confronted him. [Great applause.] This gallant son of Ireland and America [great applause] has written a chapter in the art of war that will not fail to instruct and to develop, when the exigencies may come again, others who shall repeat in defence of our flag his glorious achievements. [Great applause.]

And now, Mr. President, and gentlemen, I am sure the heat of this hall and the labors that are before you suggest to you, as they do to me, that I shall close these remarks and bid you good-by. [Great applause.]

Colonel Gray and my Hamilton County Friends—The demonstration which you have made this morning is worthy of Hamilton County; it is worthy of the great party to which you have given the consent of your minds and the love of your hearts; it is altogether more than worthy of him whom you have come to greet. You come from a county that, as your spokesman has said, is greatly favored, a county rich in its agricultural capacity; but, as I look into your faces this morning I turn from the contemplation of material wealth to the thought of those things that are higher and better. [Applause and cries of "Good! Good!"] Not long ago a distinguished Englishman and jurist visited our country. On the eve of his return, in a public address, he alluded to the fact that wherever he went he was asked whether he was not amazed at the great size of our country. This student of law and government very kindly, but very decidedly, rebuked this too prevalent pride of bulk, and called our attention to the finer and higher things that he had observed in our American civilization.

So to-day, as I look into these intelligent faces, my thoughts are turned away from those things that are scheduled, that have their places in our census returns, to those things which belong to the higher man—his spiritual and moral nature. [Applause.] I con[84]gratulate you, not so much upon the rich farm lands of your county as upon your virtuous and happy homes. [Applause.] The home is the best, as it is the first, school of good citizenship. It is the great conservative and assimilating force. I should despair for my country if American citizens were to be trained only in our schools, valuable as their instruction is. It is in the home that we first learn obedience and respect for law. Parental authority is the type of beneficent government. It is in the home that we learn to love, in the mother that bore us, that which is virtuous, consecrated, and pure. [Applause.] I take more pride in the fact that the Republican party has always been the friend and protector of the American home than in aught else. [Applause.] By the beneficent homestead law it created more than half a million of homes; by the Emancipation Proclamation it converted a million cattle-pens into homes. [Applause] And it is still true to those principles that will preserve contentment and prosperity in our homes. I greet you as men who have been nurtured in such homes, and call your thought to the fact that the Republican party has always been, and can be trusted to be, friendly to all that will promote virtue, intelligence and morality in the homes of our people.

Now, in view of the fact that I must greet other delegations to-day [cries of "Don't stop!"], I am sure you will be content with these brief remarks, though they are altogether an inadequate return for your cordial demonstration.

My Republican Friends—I feel myself unable to respond suitably to this magnificent demonstration and to those kindly words which you have addressed to me. Public duties involve grave responsi[85]bilities. The conscientious man will not contemplate them without seriousness. But the man who sincerely desires to know and to do his duty may rely upon the favoring help of God and the friendly judgment of his fellow-citizens. [Great applause.]

Your coming from another State and from distant homes testifies to the observing interest which you feel in those questions which are to be settled by the ballot in November. [Cries of "We will settle them!"]

The confessed free-traders are very few in this country. But English statesmen and English newspapers confidently declare that in fact we have a great many. [Applause.]

We are told that it is only an average reduction of seven per cent. that is contemplated. [Laughter.] Well, if that were true, and not a very deceptive statement, as it really is, you might fairly ask whether this average reduction does not sacrifice some American industry or the wages of our workingmen and working-women. You may also fairly ask to see the free list, which does not figure in this "average." [Applause, and cries of "That's it!"] We would have more confidence in the protest of these reformers that they are not "free-traders" if we could occasionally hear one of them say that he was a protectionist [applause], or admit that our customs duties should adequately favor our domestic industries. But they seem to be content with a negative statement.

Those who would, if they could, eliminate the protective principle from our tariff laws have, in former moments of candor, described themselves as "progressive free-traders," and it is an apt designation. The protective system is a barrier against the flood of foreign importations and the competition of underpaid labor in Europe. [Applause.] Those who want to lower the dike owe it to those who live behind it to make a plain statement of their purposes. Do they want to invite the flood, or do they believe in the dike, but think it will afford adequate protection at a lower level? [Great and enthusiastic applause.]

What I say is only suggestive. I cannot in this brief talk go into details, or even properly limit the illustrations I have used. But this is an appropriate and timely inquiry: With what motive, what ultimate design, what disposition toward the principle of protection is it that our present tariff schedule is attacked? It may be that reductions should be made; it may be that some duties should be increased; but we want to know whether those who propose the revision believe in taking thought of our American workingmen in fixing the rates, or will leave them to the chance effects of a purely revenue tariff. [Applause.]

Now, having spoken once already to-day, you will accept this inadequate acknowledgment of this magnificent demonstration.

I thank you, my Illinois friends, not only on my own behalf, but on behalf of the Republicans of Indiana, for the great interest you have manifested. [Applause.]

Judge Cullen and my Rush County Friends—I am glad to see you here—glad to be assured by him who has spoken in your behalf that your coming here in some measure is intended as an evidence of your personal respect for me. The respect of one's fellow-citizens, who have opportunities to know him, is of priceless value.

I cannot in these daily addresses enter much into public questions.

You are Indianians, some of you by birth; some of you, like me, by choice. You are Republicans; you have opposed always the doctrine of State's rights; you have believed and gloried in the great citizenship that embraces all the people of all the States. You believe that this Government is not a confederation to be dissolved at the will of any member of it, but a Nation having the inherent right, by arms, if need be, to perpetuate its beneficent existence. [Great applause.] Many of you who are here to-day have aided in vindicating that principle upon the battle-field [cries of "Plenty of us!"], and yet these views are not inconsistent with a just State pride. We are proud to be Indianians, proud of the story of her progress in material development, proud of her educational and benevolent institutions, proud of her Christian homes,[87] proud of her part in the Civil War. If there has been any just cause of reproach against our State we will all desire that it may be removed. We may fairly appeal to all Indianians, without distinction of party, to co-operate in promoting such public measures as are calculated to lift up the dignity and honor and estimation of Indiana among the States of the Union. [Great applause.]

I will call your attention to one such subject that seems to me to be worthy of your thought. It is the reform of our election laws. [Applause and cries of "That's it!"] A constitutional amendment, to which a great majority of our people gave their sanction, has removed the impediments which stood in the way of progressive legislation in the protection of an honest ballot in Indiana. Formerly we could not require a definite period of residence in the voting precinct. Now we may and have. The same amendment authorized our Legislature to enact a just and strict registry law, which will enable the inspectors properly to verify the claims of those who offer a ballot. Every safeguard of law should be thrown around the ballot-box until fraud in voting and frauds in counting shall receive the sure penalties of law as well as the reprobation of all good men. [Great applause.] The Republican party has always stood for election reforms. No measure tending to secure the ballot-box against fraud has ever been opposed by its representatives. I am not here to make imputations; I submit this general suggestion: Find me the party that sets the gate of election frauds open, or holds it open, and I will show you the party that expects to drive cattle that way. [Applause.] Let us as citizens, irrespective of party, unite to exalt the name of Indiana by making her election laws models of justice and severity, and her elections free from the taint of suspicion. [Great applause.] And now, as I must presently speak to other delegations, I am sure my Rush County friends will allow me to close these remarks. [Applause and cheers.]

My Friends—The man who does not believe that the issues of this campaign have taken a very deep hold upon the minds and upon the hearts of the American people would do well to come and stand with me and look into the faces of the masses who gather here. I know nothing of the human face if I do not read again in your faces and eyes the lesson I have read here from day to day, and it is this: That the thinking, intelligent, God-fearing and self-respecting citizens of this country believe there are issues at stake that demand their earnest effort. [Applause.] A campaign that is one simply of party management, a campaign by committees and public speakers, may fail; but a campaign to which the men and women of the country give their unselfish and earnest efforts can never fail. [Great applause.]

It is no personal interest in the candidate that stirs these emotions in your hearts; it is the belief that questions are involved affecting your prosperity and the prosperity of your neighbors; affecting the dignity of the nation; affecting the generation to which you will presently leave the government which our fathers built and you have saved. [Applause.]

One subject is never omitted by those who speak for these visiting delegations, viz.: the protective tariff. The purpose not to permit American wages to be brought below the level of comfortable living, and competence, and hope, by competition with the pauper labor of Europe, has taken a very strong hold upon our people. [Applause.] And of kin to this suggestion and purpose is this other: that we will not permit this country to be made the dumping-ground of foreign pauperism and crime. [Great applause.] There are some who profess to be eager to exclude paupers and Chinese laborers, and at the same time advocate a policy that brings the American workman into competition with the product[89] of cheap foreign labor. [Applause and cries of "That's it!"] The disastrous effects upon our workingmen and working-women of competition with cheap, underpaid labor are not obviated by keeping the cheap worker over the sea if the product of his cheap labor is allowed free competition in our market. We should protect our people against competition with the products of underpaid labor abroad as well as against the coming to our shores of paupers, laborers under contract, and the Chinese labor. [Enthusiastic applause.] These two thoughts are twin thoughts; the same logic supports both; and the Republican party holds them as the dual conclusion of one great argument.

Now, gentlemen, to the first voters, who come with the high impulse of recruits into this strife; to these old men, seasoned veterans of many a contest, and to these colored friends, whose fidelity has been conspicuous, I give my thanks and hearty greetings. [Applause.] There has been a desire expressed that the reception of these delegations should be individualized; that Delaware should be received by itself, and Decatur separately; but that is not possible. You are one in thought and purpose; and if I am not able to individualize your reception by counties, I will, so far as I can, now make it absolutely individual by greeting each one of you.

My Friends—The magnitude of this gathering, I fear, quite out-reaches the capacity of my voice. It is so great and so cordial, it has been accompanied by so many kind expressions, that my heart is deeply touched—too deeply to permit of extended or connected speech. I return most cordially the greetings of these friends from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois [cheers], a trio of great States lying in this great valley, endowed by nature with a productive capacity that rivals the famous valley of the Nile, populated by a people unsurpassed in intelligence, manly independence and courage. [Applause and cheers.] The association of these States to-day brings to my mind the fact that in the brigade with which I served Indiana, Ohio and Illinois were represented [applause]—three regiments from Illinois, the One Hundred and Second, the One Hundred and Fifth and the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth; one from Ohio, the Seventy-ninth, and one from Indiana, the Seventieth Infantry. I have seen the men of these States stand together in the evening parade. I have seen them also charge together in battle, and die together for the flag they loved [great applause], and when the battle was over I have seen the dead gathered from the field they had enriched with their blood and laid side by side in a common grave. Again you evidence by your coming that these great States have in peace common interests and common sympathies. The Republican party has always been hospitable to the truth. [Applause and laughter.] It has never shunned debate. It has boldly, and in the courage of the principles it has advocated, opened the lists and challenged all comers. It has never found it necessary or consistent with its great principles to suppress free discussion of any question. There is not a Republican community where any man may not advocate without fear his political beliefs. [Cries of "That's so!"] There is not a Republican voting precinct where any man, whatever may have been his relations to the flag during the war, may not freely exercise his right to vote. [Cheers.] There is not one such precinct where the right of a Confederate soldier freely to cast the ballot of his choice would not be defended by the Union veterans of the war. [Applause and cries of "That's true!"] Our party is tolerant of political differences. It has always yielded to others all that it demanded for itself. It has been intolerant of but one thing: disloyalty to the flag and to the Union[92] of States. [Great applause.] It has had the good fortune to set in the Constitution and in the permanent laws of our country many of the great principles for which it has contended. It has not only persuaded a majority of our thinking people, but it has had the unusual fortune to compel those who opposed it to give a belated assent to every great principle it has supported.

Now, gentlemen, I am sure you will excuse further speech. What I say here must necessarily be very general. It would not be in good taste for me to make too close or too personal an application of Republican principles. [Laughter and applause and cries of "You're a dandy!"]

I do not know what to say further. I have up to this time greeted personally all those who came. My courage is a little shaken as I look upon this vast multitude, but for a time, at least—so long as I can, and to those who especially desire it, I will give a personal greeting. [Great and prolonged applause.]

Gentlemen of the Commercial Travellers' Association of Peoria, Bloomington, Lafayette, and Terre Haute—I thank you for this most[93] cordial and beautiful demonstration. The respect of such a body of men is a valuable acquisition. But I am particularly glad that a class so large and so influential, and one that touches so many communities, is loyally and earnestly devoted to the principles of the Republican party. I have travelled somewhat in the wake of the commercial men, and have observed that they have the habit of getting the best of everything wherever they go. [Applause and laughter. A voice: "That's the reason we are here!"] I am therefore quite ready to credit the statement of the gentleman who has just spoken in your behalf when he tells me that the commercial travellers are all Republicans. [Applause and cries of "He was right!"] I should expect they would get the best politics that were to be found. [Laughter and applause.]

Your calling is an active one—you are always on the move. You are quick to discover the wants of local trade. You are persuasive in speech and address; you are honest for the love of integrity, and do not forget that you must again face your customer after the goods are delivered. [Laughter and applause.] The men who employed you have chosen you, picked you out, and they subject you to the weekly test of success. You have been proved and not found wanting. The wide intercourse you have with your fellow-men and the wide view you get of our country must tend to make you liberal and patriotic.

The provincialism that once existed in this country has largely disappeared, and the commercial travellers have been an important agency in bringing this about. This going to and fro has given you a fuller comprehension, not only of the extent of this country, but of the greatness and unity of its people. [Cheers.] I have thought that the prophet Daniel must have had a vision of the commercial travellers when he said that in the last days many should run to and fro and knowledge should be increased. [Laughter and applause.]

You will not expect me to enter upon the discussion of any of the topics which have been suggested by those who have spoken for you. Most of them I have already alluded to in public speech since my nomination, and upon some of them I have spoken more fully before. Let me suggest but this one thought: Do not allow any one to persuade you that this great contest as to our tariff policy is one between schedules. It is not a question of a seven per cent. reduction. [Applause.] It is a question between wide-apart principles. [Cries of "That's right!"]

The principle of protection, the intelligent recognition in the framing of our tariff laws of the duty to protect our American[94] industries and maintain the American scale of wages by adequate discriminating duties [cries of "That's right!" "That's it!"] on the one hand, and on the other a denial of the constitutional right to make our customs duties protective, or the assertion of the doctrine that free competition with foreign products is the ideal condition to which all our legislation should tend. [Applause.]

Let me now, in behalf not only of myself, but of my family, thank you for your visit and ask you to enter our home. [Applause.]

Gentlemen—I am very much obliged to you for this reception. You will excuse me, I am sure, for not attempting to make any speech. This evidence of your friendly feeling is gratifying to me. We were intending to travel to-day in quietness, and I am confident you will conform to our wishes in that respect by allowing me to say simply, "How do you do" and "Good-by."

My Friends—You have already been told that this reception was not planned by me, and yet I do not regret that I have yielded to the urgent solicitation of your representatives and have consented to stand for a few moments in the presence of this magnificent and instructive audience. [Applause.] I say instructive, for that public man is dull indeed who does not gather both instruction and inspiration from such meetings as this. [Applause.] I thank you for any measure of personal respect and interest which your coming here to-night may witness, but I do not see in this immense gathering any testimony that is personal to me. I prefer to regard it as another witness added to the long number I have seen before of the deep-seated and earnest interest of our people in the public questions that are to be settled in November. [Applause.] I choose rather to regard it as a pledge that this interest you manifest in me to-night will not stop here, but is the pledge of continued and earnest personal work by each one of you for those principles which have won the consent of your minds and the love of your hearts. [Applause.] I cannot enter in any detail into the discussion of public questions; I would not at all put myself between you and these great, important issues. I would, in all I may say, put them to the front. We are here citizens of a great, prosperous, magnificent Nation. We have common interests. We are here charged with the common duties to perpetuate, if we can, the prosperity and to maintain the honor of this great Republic. [Applause.] We are here to-night in the enjoyment of free government. We are here in the individual possession of better opportunities of development, of a larger prosperity, and of more individual comfort than are possessed by any other people in the world. [Applause.] The great economic question as to what shall be our future legislative policy is stated with a distinctness in this cam[96]paign that it has never had before, and I believe the verdict and decision will have an emphasis and finality that it has never had before. [Applause.] If there is any one here present to-night that knows of any land that spreads a more promising sky of hope above the heads of the poor and the laboring man than this, I would be glad if he would name it. The one fact that I do not need to stop to demonstrate by statistics, the one fact that I could call out of this vast audience hundreds of witnesses to support by their personal testimony, is that the scale of American wages is higher than that of any other country in the world. [Applause.] If this were not true, why is it that the workingmen and the working-women of the older lands turn their faces hitherward? If there is a better country, one that offers better wages, fuller hopes than this, why is it that those who are in quest of such better things have not found it out and turned their faces thitherward? Now, if that is true, then why is it true, and how is it to be continued—this condition of our country? It is because, and only because, we have for years, by our protective tariff, discriminated in favor of American manufacturers and American workingmen. [Applause.] Strike down this protective system, bring our workingmen and working-women in equal competition in the products of their toil with those who labor abroad, and nothing is clearer than that these mills and factories must reduce wages here to the level with wages abroad, or they must shut down. You have the choice to make; you, the free citizens of this country, whose ballots sway its destiny, will settle these questions in November. [Applause.] I ask you how? Don't be deceived by the suggestion that this is any contest over a seven per cent. reduction in the tariff schedule. We are allowed now to say, I think, that all those who are entitled to speak for the Democratic party have declared that it is opposed to protection. That being so, the issue is clearly, distinctly, strongly drawn. I beg you all—not in my interest, but in your own; in the interest of your families and the country you love—to ponder this question; to think upon it with that seriousness its importance demands, and when you have thought it out, settle it, settle it in November, so that we shall be free for years to come from this agitation in behalf of free trade. [Great applause.]

I thank you again for this kindly demonstration. I beg you to accept these brief suggestions as the only but inadequate return that I can make you for this kindness. [Applause.]

Fellow-citizens—General Harrison came to Middle Bass for the purpose of rest and quiet. At the solicitation of a number of people of this section of country—a great number, I might say—he has kindly consented to give a reception here to-day, upon one condition—that he was not to make a speech. Now, fellow-citizens, I have the very great pleasure of presenting to you General Benjamin Harrison, the Republican candidate for the presidency. [Applause.]

My Friends—I have found Governor Foster to be a very agreeable and thoughtful host, and I find him to-day to be the most agreeable master of ceremonies who has ever attended me at a public reception. I like his announcement of the condition under which I appear before you to-day.

I never enjoy a banquet when my name is on the programme for a toast. I do not, therefore, intend to speak to you about any of those questions that are engaging your minds as citizens of this prosperous and mighty and happy Nation. We are here to-day as Americans, proud of the flag that symbolizes this great Union of States; proud of the story that has been written by our fathers in council and in war, in the formation and defence and perpetuation of our magnificent institutions, We are here in the immediate neighborhood of one of those great historic events that was among[98] the most potential agencies in settling our title to the great Northwest. If we had stood where we stand to-day we could have heard the guns of Perry's fleet. If we had stood where we stand to-day we could have welcomed him as he came a victor into Put-in-Bay.

These institutions of ours are in our own keeping now, and not only our fundamental institutions, but the fame that has been won by those who have gone before. I may therefore properly say to-day that a campaign like this demands the thoughtful consideration of every American voter. We are prosperous. [Cheers.] The story of our prosperity, of our development in wealth, of our achievements in finance as a Nation, since and during the war, is almost as notable and almost as admirable as that of our achievements in arms.

The assembling of our revenue was even more difficult than the assembling of armies, and yet we were able to maintain those armies in the field, and have been able since not only to bear up the great load of debt, but to pay it off, until that which was once thought to be a burden that would crush our industries has come to be in our hands but as the ball the boy tosses in play [cheers]; and we are to-day confronted with the question, not how we shall get money, but how we shall wisely stop some of those avenues by which wealth is pouring into our public treasury.

It is an easier problem than that which confronted the great war Secretary, in whose name you so delight—how to raise revenue to prosecute the war successfully. It will be wisely solved. And may I note also the fact that, notwithstanding this complaint of excessive revenue, there are some who suggest that they are not able adequately to arouse the popular indignation against excessive taxation because they cannot disclose to the people when or how they are paying the taxes? [Applause.] It is taken, they say, so indirectly and so subtly that these—our plain people—don't know that they are paying them at all. [Applause.] But I must not cross this line of party discussion. I have had a pleasant stay in this most delightful neighborhood, and I cannot let this public opportunity pass without expressing, for myself and for Mrs. Harrison, our grateful appreciation of the kind and thoughtful hospitality which has been shown to us by the people of these islands. [Prolonged applause.]

My Friends—I desire to thank you for this cordial demonstration. I thank you not so much for myself as for the party to which most of us have given the consent of our minds. I am glad to know that the people are moved to a thoughtful consideration of those questions which are this year presented for their determination. Under a popular government like ours it is of the first importance that every man who votes should have some reason for his vote; that every man who attaches himself to this or that political party should intelligently understand both the creed and the purposes of the party to which he belongs. I think it is universally conceded by Democrats as well as by Republicans that the questions involved in this campaign do have a very direct bearing upon the national prosperity, and upon the prosperity and welfare of the individual citizen. I think it is conceded that the result of this election will affect beneficently or injuriously our great manufacturing interests, and will affect for weal or for woe the workingmen and working-women who fill these busy hives of industry. [Applause.] This much is conceded. I do not intend to-day to argue the question in any detail. I want to call your attention to a few general facts and principles, and the first one—the one I never tire of mentioning; the one I deem so important that I do not shun the charge that I am repeating myself—is this: that the condition of the wage-workers of America is better than that of the wage-workers of any other country in the world. [Applause.] Now, if that be true, it is important that you should each find out why it is so; that each one of you should determine for himself what effect a protective tariff has had and is likely to have upon his wages and his pros[100]perity. Does it need to be demonstrated that if we reduce our tariff to a revenue level, if we abolish from it every consideration of protection, more goods will come in from abroad than come in now? And what is the necessary effect? It is the transfer to foreign shops of work that you need here; it is to diminish American production and increase English production.

That is to be the effect of it. It is, not worth while to stand upon nice definitions as to free trade. Some think it enough to say that they are not free-traders because they are not in favor of abolishing all customs duties. Let me remind such that the free-trade countries of Europe, recognized to be such, have not abolished all customs duties. A better distinction is this: The free-trader believes in levying customs duties without any regard to the effect of those duties upon the wages of our working people, or upon the production of our own shops. This, then, is the issue. Take it to your homes. There are many confusing and contradictory statements made in the public press and by public speakers. Ask any of those who assail our protective system whether they do not believe that if their policy is adopted a larger amount of foreign-made goods will come into this country. It is their purpose to increase importation in order to cheapen prices. I think I may safely ask you to consider the question whether this cheapening of prices, which they seem to regard as the highest attainment of statesmanship, is consistent with the rate of wages that our working people enjoy now, whether it will not involve—if we are to have foreign competition without favoring duties—a reduction of American wages to the standard of the wages paid abroad. [Applause.] Do you believe for one moment that two factories making the same product can be maintained in competition when one pays thirty-three per cent. more to its workingmen than the other? Is it not certain that wages must be equalized in those competing establishments or the one paying the higher wages must shut down? [Applause and cries, "That's the thing!"] Here in this city of Fort Wayne, so important and so prosperous, we have a fine illustration of the accruing advantages of a large factory and shop population. It has made your city prosperous as well as populous, and it has made these outlying Allen County farms vastly more valuable than they otherwise would have been. These interests harmonize. But I only want to ask you to think upon these questions; settle them in your own minds, for it is agreed by all that, as they shall be settled one way or the other, your interests and those of your families and of this community, and of every other like community in this country, are to be affected, favorably or[101] unfavorably. May I not appeal to you to review these questions, to throw off the shackles of preconceived notions and of party prejudices, and consider them anew in the light of all the information that is accessible to you? If you shall do that I do not doubt that the working people of this country will this November forever settle the question that American customs duties shall by intention, by forethought, have regard to the wages of our working people. [Applause.]

And now, if you will pardon further speech, I shall be glad to avail myself of the arrangements which the committee have provided to greet personally any of you who may desire to greet me. [Prolonged applause and cheers.]

My Friends—Our stop here is altogether too brief for me to attempt to speak; yet I cannot refrain from expressing to you, my friends of Huntington County, my sincere and grateful appreciation for the evidence of your kindness in welcoming me so cordially to my home after a brief absence. I have not travelled very far this time, but I have seen nothing either on this visit, or any more extended visit that I have heretofore made, to win away my interests and affection from the great State of Indiana. [Great applause.] It is great in the capabilities, both of its soil and its citizenship [applause]; great in its achievements during the war. When our country was imperilled no State more nobly or magnificently responded to the demands which were made by the general Government for men to fight and to die for the flag. [Applause.] I am glad to greet in this audience to-day my comrades of the war, and all who have gathered here. I beg to thank you again for your kindness.

My Friends—I am very much obliged to you for that kindness of feeling which your gathering here to-day evinces. I have had a brief visit for rest, and I am come back to my home with very kind feelings toward my friends in Indiana, who have, not only during this important campaign, but always, when I have appealed to them, treated me with the utmost consideration. I have not time to-day to discuss the issues of this campaign. They are extremely important, and they will have a direct bearing upon the prosperity of our country. I can only ask you to think of them, and not to mistake the issue. It is very plain. It is the question of whether our tariff laws shall be a protection to American workingmen and a protection to American manufacturing establishments. Those who advocate tariff for revenue only do not take any thought of our wage-workers, but let their interests take care of themselves. On the other hand the Republican party believes that high regard should be paid to the question what the effect will be upon wages and upon the protection of our American shops. Those who believe the doctrine agree with us; and those who assail it, and say it is unconstitutional, as has recently been said by a distinguished citizen, would destroy our protective system if they could. We must believe so, because we must impute to them sincerity in what they say. I believe this campaign will settle for many years to come the question of whether legislation shall be intelligently directed in favor of the doctrine that we will, so far as may be, see that our farmers may find home consumers for their home product, and that these populous manufacturing centres may give a larger value to the farms that lie about them. You have these questions to settle. They affect your interests as citizens. I am sure that everything that regards them, as well as everything that regards the candidate, may be safely left in the kind hands of these intelligent citizens of Indiana and of the United States. [Great cheering.]

My Friends—I very much appreciate this spontaneous evidence of your friendliness. That so many of you should have gathered here this evening to greet us on our return home after a brief absence from the State is very gratifying to me. Kokomo has been for many years a very prosperous place. It has been the happy home of a very intelligent and very thrifty people. You are now, however, realizing a development more rapid and much greater than the most sanguine among you could have anticipated three years ago. The large increase in the number and business of your manufacturing establishments, the coming here from other parts of the country of enterprising men with their capital to set up manufacturing plants, has excited your interest and has promoted your development. There is not a resident of Kokomo, there is not a resident of Howard County, who does not rejoice in this great prosperity. I am sure there is not a man or woman in this city who does not realize that this new condition of things gives to your boys, who are growing up, new avenues of useful thrift. It opens to those who might otherwise have pursued common labor access to skilled trades and higher compensation. There is not a merchant in Kokomo who does not appreciate the added trade which comes to his store. There is not a farmer in Howard County who has not realized the benefits of a home market for his crops [applause and cries of "Good!"], and especially for those perishable products of the farm which do not bear distant transportation. Now I submit to your consideration, in the light of these new facts, whether you have not a very deep interest in the protection of our domestic industries and the maintenance of the American standard of wages. There can be no mistaking the issue this year. In previous campaigns it has been observed by evasive platform declarations. It is now so clear that all men can understand it. I would leave this thought with you: Will the prosperity that is now realized by you, and that greater prosperity which you anticipate, be better advanced by the continuance of the protective policy or by its destruction?

My Friends—There is no time this evening for me to say more than that I thank you very sincerely for this cordial evidence of your kindly feeling. I will not have time to discuss any public questions. You will consider them for yourselves, and can have ready access to all necessary information.

My Friends—You are very kind, and I am grateful for this manifestation of your kindness. I cannot speak to you at any length to-night. You are in the "gas belt" of Indiana. The result of the discovery of this new fuel has been the rapid development of your towns. You have shown your enterprise by hospitably opening the way for the coming of new industrial enterprises. You have felt it worth while not only to invite them, but to offer pecuniary inducements for them to come. If it has been worth while to do so much in the hope of developing your town and to add value to your farms by making a home market for your farm product, is it not also worth your while so to vote this fall as to save and enlarge these new industrial enterprises? [Applause.] Let me acknowledge a new debt of gratitude to my friends of Hamilton County, who have often before made me their debtor, and bid you good-night.

My Friends—Two weeks ago to-day I left Indianapolis quietly for a brief season of rest. We met in Ohio very considerate and hospitable friends, who allowed nothing to be lacking to the enjoyment and comfort of our brief vacation. But, notwithstanding all the attractions of that island home in Lake Erie, we are to-night very happy to be again at home. The enthusiastic welcome you have extended to us has added grace and joy. I think I may conclude that nothing has happened since I have been gone that has disturbed your confidence or diminished your respect. [Great applause and cries of "No! no!"] At the outset of this campaign I said I would confidently commit all that was personal to myself to the keeping of the intelligent and fair-minded citizens of Indiana. [Applause.] We will go on our way in this campaign upon that high and dignified plane upon which it has been pitched, so far as it lay in our power, commending the principles of our party to the intelligent interest of our fellow-citizens, and trusting to truth and right for the victory. [Applause.] Most gratefully I acknowledge the affectionate interest which has been shown to-night by my old comrades of the war. [Applause.] I am glad to know that in this veteran organization there are many who have heretofore differed with me in political opinion, but who are drawn in this campaign, by a sense of our common interests, to cast in their influence with us. I desire also to thank the Railroad Club for their kind greetings. There has been a special significance in their friendly organization, and I am grateful, also, to the members of the Columbia Club for their part in this demonstration. Now, with an overwhelming sense of inability to respond fittingly to your cordiality and kindness, I can only thank you once more and bid you good-night. [Applause.]

When some one asked this afternoon, over the telephone, if I would receive some children who wanted to pay me a visit, I gave a very cheerful consent, because I thought I saw a chance to have a good time. That you little ones would demand a speech from me never entered my mind, nor did I expect to see a company so prettily uniformed and so well drilled, both in marching and in song.

Children have always been attractive to me. I have found not only entertainment but instruction in their companionship. Little ones often say wise things. In the presence of such a company as this, one who has any aspirations for the things that are good and pure cannot fail to have them strengthened. The kind words you have addressed to me in song come, I am sure, from sincere and loving hearts, and I am very grateful for them and for your visit. Some of the best friends I have are under ten years of age, and after to-night I am sure I shall have many more, for all your names will be added.

And now I hope you will all come in where we can see you and show you whatever there is in our home to interest you. I would like you all to feel that we will be glad if you will come to see us often.

My Comrades—I have a choice to make and you have one. I can occupy the few moments I have to spare either in public address or in private, personal greeting. I think you would prefer, as I shall prefer, to omit the public speech that I may be presented to each of you. [Cries of "Good! Good!"] I beg you, therefore, to permit me only to say that I very heartily appreciate this greeting from my comrades of Kansas.

The bond that binds us together as soldiers of the late war is one that is enduring and close. No party considerations can break it; it is stronger than political ties, and we are able thus in our Grand Army associations to come together upon that broad and high plane of fraternity, loyalty, and charity. [Applause and cries of "Good! Good!"] Let me now, if it be your pleasure, extend a comrade's hand to each of you. [Applause.]

Indianapolis, Ind., September 11, 1888.

Hon. M. M. Estee and others, Committee, etc.:

Gentlemen—When your committee visited me, on the Fourth of July last, and presented the official announcement of my nomination for the presidency of the United States by the Republican convention, I promised as soon as practicable to communicate to you a more formal acceptance of the nomination. Since that time the work of receiving and addressing, almost daily, large delegations of my fellow-citizens has not only occupied all of my time, but has in some measure rendered it unnecessary for me to use this letter as a medium of communicating to the public my views upon the questions involved in the campaign. I appreciate very highly the confidence and respect manifested by the convention, and accept the nomination with a feeling of gratitude and a full sense of the responsibilities which accompany it.

It is a matter of congratulation that the declarations of the Chicago convention upon the questions that now attract the interest of our people are so clear and emphatic. There is further cause of congratulation in the fact that the convention utterances of the Democratic party, if in any degree uncertain or contradictory, can[109] now be judged and interpreted by executive acts and messages, and by definite propositions in legislation. This is especially true of what is popularly known as the Tariff question. The issue cannot now be obscured. It is not a contest between schedules, but between wide-apart principles. The foreign competitors for our market have, with quick instinct, seen how one issue of this contest may bring them advantage, and our own people are not so dull as to miss or neglect the grave interests that are involved for them. The assault upon our protective system is open and defiant. Protection is assailed as unconstitutional in law, or as vicious in principle, and those who hold such views sincerely cannot stop short of an absolute elimination from our tariff laws of the principle of protection. The Mills bill is only a step, but it is toward an object that the leaders of Democratic thought and legislation have clearly in mind. The important question is not so much the length of the step as the direction of it. Judged by the executive message of December last, by the Mills bill, by the debates in Congress, and by the St. Louis platform, the Democratic party will, if supported by the country, place the tariff laws upon a purely revenue basis. This is practical free trade—free trade in the English sense. The legend upon the banner may not be "Free Trade"—it may be the more obscure motto, "Tariff Reform;" but neither the banner nor the inscription is conclusive, or, indeed, very important. The assault itself is the important fact.

Those who teach that the import duty upon foreign goods sold in our market is paid by the consumer, and that the price of the domestic competing article is enhanced to the amount of the duty on the imported article—that every million of dollars collected for customs duties represents many millions more which do not reach the treasury, but are paid by our citizens as the increased cost of domestic productions resulting from the tariff laws—may not intend to discredit in the minds of others our system of levying duties on competing foreign products, but it is clearly already discredited in their own. We cannot doubt, without impugning their integrity, that if free to act upon their convictions they would so revise our laws as to lay the burden of the customs revenue upon articles that are not produced in this country, and to place upon the free list all competing foreign products. I do not stop to refute this theory as to the effect of our tariff duties. Those who advance it are students of maxims and not of the markets. They may be safely allowed to call their project "Tariff Reform," if the people understand that in the end the argument compels free trade in all competing products. This end may not be reached abruptly, and its[110] approach may be accompanied with some expressions of sympathy for our protected industries and our working people, but it will certainly come if these early steps do not arouse the people to effective resistance.

The Republican party holds that a protective tariff is constitutional, wholesome, and necessary. We do not offer a fixed schedule, but a principle. We will revise the schedule, modify rates, but always with an intelligent provision as to the effect upon domestic productions and the wages of our working people. We believe it to be one of the worthy objects of tariff legislation to preserve the American market for American producers, and to maintain the American scale of wages by adequate discriminative duties upon foreign competing products. The effect of lower rates and larger importations upon the public revenue is contingent and doubtful, but not so the effect upon American production and American wages. Less work and lower wages must be accepted as the inevitable result of the increased offering of foreign goods in our market. By way of recompense for this reduction in his wages, and the loss of the American market, it is suggested that the diminished wages of the workingman will have an undiminished purchasing power, and that he will be able to make up for the loss of the home market by an enlarged foreign market. Our workingmen have the settlement of the question in their own hands. They now obtain higher wages and live more comfortably than those of any other country. They will make choice of the substantial advantages they have in hand and the deceptive promises and forecasts of these theorizing reformers. They will decide for themselves and for their country whether the protective system shall be continued or destroyed.

The fact of a treasury surplus, the amount of which is variously stated, has directed public attention to a consideration of the methods by which the national income may best be reduced to the level of a wise and necessary expenditure. This condition has been seized upon by those who are hostile to protective customs duties as an advantageous base of attack upon our tariff laws. They have magnified and nursed the surplus, which they affect to deprecate, seemingly for the purpose of exaggerating the evil, in order to reconcile the people to the extreme remedy they propose. A proper reduction of the revenues does not necessitate, and should not suggest, the abandonment or impairment of the protective system. The methods suggested by our convention will not need to be exhausted in order to effect the necessary reduction. We are not likely to be called upon, I think, to make a present choice[111] between the surrender of the protective system and the entire repeal of the internal taxes. Such a contingency, in view of the present relation of expenditures to revenues, is remote. The inspection and regulation of the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine is important, and the revenue derived from it is not so great that the repeal of the law need enter into any plan of revenue reduction. The surplus now in the treasury should be used in the purchase of bonds. The law authorizes this use of it, and if it is not needed for current or deficiency appropriations, the people, and not the banks in which it has been deposited, should have the advantage of its use by stopping interest upon the public debt. At least those who needlessly hoard it should not be allowed to use the fear of a monetary stringency, thus produced, to coerce public sentiment upon other questions.

Closely connected with the subject of the tariff is that of the importation of foreign laborers under contracts of service to be performed here. The law now in force prohibiting such contracts received my cordial support in the Senate, and such amendments as may be found necessary effectively to deliver our working men and women from this most inequitable form of competition will have my sincere advocacy. Legislation prohibiting the importation of laborers under contract to serve here will, however, afford very inadequate relief to our working people if the system of protective duties is broken down. If the products of American shops must compete in the American market, without favoring duties, with the products of cheap foreign labor the effect will be different, if at all, only in degree, whether the cheap laborer is across the street or over the sea. Such competition will soon reduce wages here to the level of those abroad, and when that condition is reached we will not need any laws forbidding the importation of laborers under contract—they will have no inducement to come, and the employer no inducement to send for them.

In the earlier years of our history public agencies to promote immigration were common. The pioneer wanted a neighbor with more friendly instincts than the Indian. Labor was scarce and fully employed. But the day of the immigration bureau has gone by. While our doors will continue open to proper immigration, we do not need to issue special invitations to the inhabitants of other countries to come to our shores or to share our citizenship. Indeed, the necessity of some inspection and limitation is obvious. We should resolutely refuse to permit foreign governments to send their paupers and criminals to our ports. We are also clearly under a duty to defend our civilization by excluding alien[112] races whose ultimate assimilation with our people is neither possible nor desirable. The family has been the nucleus of our best immigration, and the home the most potent assimilating force in our civilization.

The objections to Chinese immigration are distinctive and conclusive, and are now so generally accepted as such that the question has passed entirely beyond the stage of argument. The laws relating to this subject would, if I should be charged with their enforcement, be faithfully executed. Such amendments or further legislation as may be necessary and proper to prevent evasions of the laws and to stop further Chinese immigration would also meet my approval. The expression of the convention upon this subject is in entire harmony with my views.

Our civil compact is a government by majorities, and the law loses its sanction and the magistrate our respect when this compact is broken. The evil results of election frauds do not expend themselves upon the voters who are robbed of their rightful influence in public affairs. The individual or community or party that practises or connives at election frauds has suffered irreparable injury, and will sooner or later realize that to exchange the American system of majority rule for minority control is not only unlawful and unpatriotic, but very unsafe for those who promote it. The disfranchisement of a single legal elector by fraud or intimidation is a crime too grave to be regarded lightly. The right of every qualified elector to cast one free ballot and to have it honestly counted must not be questioned. Every constitutional power should be used to make this right secure and to punish frauds upon the ballot.

Our colored people do not ask special legislation in their interest, but only to be made secure in the common rights of American citizenship. They will, however, naturally mistrust the sincerity of those party leaders who appeal to their race for support only in those localities where the suffrage is free and election results doubtful, and compass their disfranchisement where their votes would be controlling and their choice cannot be coerced.

The Nation, not less than the States, is dependent for prosperity and security upon the intelligence and morality of the people. This common interest very early suggested national aid in the establishment and endowment of schools and colleges in the new States. There is, I believe, a present exigency that calls for still more liberal and direct appropriations in aid of common-school education in the States.

The territorial form of government is a temporary expedient,[113] not a permanent civil condition. It is adapted to the exigency that suggested it, but becomes inadequate, and even oppressive, when applied to fixed and populous communities. Several Territories are well able to bear the burdens and discharge the duties of free commonwealths in the American Union. To exclude them is to deny the just rights of their people, and may well excite their indignant protest. No question of the political preference of the people of a Territory should close against them the hospitable door which has opened to two-thirds of the existing States. But admissions should be resolutely refused to any Territory a majority of whose people cherish institutions that are repugnant to our civilization or inconsistent with a republican form of government.

The declaration of the convention against "all combinations of capital, organized in trusts or otherwise, to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our citizens," is in harmony with the views entertained and publicly expressed by me long before the assembling of the convention. Ordinarily, capital shares the losses of idleness with labor; but under the operation of the trust, in some of its forms, the wageworker alone suffers loss, while idle capital receives its dividends from a trust fund. Producers who refuse to join the combination are destroyed, and competition as an element of prices is eliminated. It cannot be doubted that the legislative authority should and will find a method of dealing fairly and effectively with those and other abuses connected with this subject.

It can hardly be necessary for me to say that I am heartily in sympathy with the declaration of the convention upon the subject of pensions to our soldiers and sailors. What they gave and what they suffered I had some opportunity to observe, and, in a small measure, to experience. They gave ungrudgingly; it was not a trade, but an offering. The measure was heaped up, running over. What they achieved only a distant generation can adequately tell. Without attempting to discuss particular propositions, I may add that measures in behalf of the surviving veterans of the war and of the families of their dead comrades should be conceived and executed in a spirit of justice and of the most grateful liberality, and that, in the competition for civil appointments, honorable military service should have appropriate recognition.

The law regulating appointments to the classified civil service received my support in the Senate in the belief that it opened the way to a much-needed reform. I still think so, and, therefore, cordially approve the clear and forcible expression of the convention upon this subject. The law should have the aid of a friendly[114] interpretation and be faithfully and vigorously enforced. All appointments under it should be absolutely free from partisan considerations and influence. Some extensions of the classified list are practicable and desirable, and further legislation extending the reform to other branches of the service to which it is applicable would receive my approval. In appointment to every grade and department, fitness, and not party service, should be the essential and discriminating test, and fidelity and efficiency the only sure tenure of office. Only the interests of the public service should suggest removals from office. I know the practical difficulties attending the attempt to apply the spirit of the civil service rules to all appointments and removals. It will, however, be my sincere purpose, if elected, to advance the reform.

I notice with pleasure that the convention did not omit to express its solicitude for the promotion of virtue and temperance among our people. The Republican party has always been friendly to everything that tended to make the home life of our people free, pure, and prosperous, and will in the future be true to its history in this respect.

Our relations with foreign powers should be characterized by friendliness and respect. The right of our people and of our ships to hospitable treatment should be insisted upon with dignity and firmness. Our Nation is too great, both in material strength and in moral power, to indulge in bluster or to be suspected of timorousness. Vacillation and inconsistency are as incompatible with successful diplomacy as they are with the national dignity. We should especially cultivate and extend our diplomatic and commercial relations with the Central and South American States. Our fisheries should be fostered and protected. The hardships and risks that are the necessary incidents of the business should not be increased by an inhospitable exclusion from the near-lying ports. The resources of a firm, dignified, and consistent diplomacy are undoubtedly equal to the prompt and peaceful solution of the difficulties that now exist. Our neighbors will surely not expect in our ports a commercial hospitality they deny to us in theirs.

I cannot extend this letter by a special reference to other subjects upon which the convention gave an expression.

In respect to them, as well as to those I have noticed, I am in entire agreement with the declarations of the convention. The resolutions relating to the coinage, to the rebuilding of the navy, to coast defences, and to public lands, express conclusions to all of which I gave my support in the Senate.

Inviting a calm and thoughtful consideration of these public[115] questions, we submit them to the people. Their intelligent patriotism and the good Providence that made and has kept us a Nation will lead them to wise and safe conclusions.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Benjamin Harrison.

Miss Mitchell—I feel quite incompetent to discharge the duty that now devolves upon me—that of making suitable response to the touching, cordial and sympathetic words which you have addressed to us. We thank you and the good citizens of Clayton, for whom you have spoken, that you have opened your hearts so fully to us to-day. I am sure we have never assembled under circumstances more attractive than those that now surround us. The mellow sunshine of this autumn-time that falls upon us, the balmy air which moves the leaves of those shadowing trees, the sweet calm and spell of nature that is over everything, makes the day one of those that may be described in the language of the old poet as

"A bridal of the earth and sky."

Your hospitable welcome makes us feel at home, and in behalf of this large representation of our regiment, possibly the largest that has assembled since the close of the war, gathered not only from these adjacent counties, but from distant homes beyond the Mississippi and the Missouri, I give you to-day in return our most hearty thanks for your great kindness.

The autumn-time is a fit time for our gathering, for our spring-time is gone. It was in the spring-time of our lives that we heard[117] our country's call. Full of vigor and youth and patriotism, we responded to it. The exhaustion of march and camp and battle, and the civil strife of the years that have passed since the close of the war, have left their marks upon us, and, as we gather from year to year, we notice the signs of advancing age, and the roster of our dead is lengthened. We are reminded by the minutes of our last meeting, that have been read, of the presence at our last reunion of that faithful and beloved officer who went out from this county, Major Reagan. With a prophetic instinct of what was before him, he told us then that it was probably the last time that he should gather with us. God has verified the thought that was in his mind, and that simple, true-hearted, brave comrade has been enrolled with the larger company. We are glad to-day to be together, yet our gladness is sobered. As I look into those familiar faces I notice a deep sense of satisfaction, but I have not failed to observe that there are tears in many eyes. We are not moved to tears by any sense of regret that we gave some service to our country and to its flag, but only by the sense that we are not all here to-day, and that all who are here will never gather again in a meeting like this. We rejoice that we were permitted to make some contribution to the glory and credit and perpetuity of the Nation we love. [Applause.]

Comrades who served under other regimental flags and who have gathered here with us to-day, we do not boast of higher motives or greater service than yours. We welcome you to a participation in our reunion. We fully acknowledge that you had a full—possibly a fuller—share than we in the great achievements of the war. We claim only this for the Seventieth Indiana—that we went into the service with the full purpose to respond to every order [cries of "That's so!"], and that we never evaded a fight or turned our backs to the enemy. [Applause.] We are not here to exalt ourselves, but I cannot omit to say that a purer, truer self-consecration to the flag and country was never offered than by you and your dead comrades who, in 1862, mustered for the defence of the Union. [Applause.]

It was not in the heyday of success, it was not under the impression that sixty days would end the war, that you were mustered. It was when the clouds hung low and disasters were thick. Buell was returning from the Tennessee, Kirby Smith coming through Cumberland Gap, and McClellan had been defeated on the Peninsula. It seemed as if the frown of God was on our cause. It was then, in that hour of stress, that you pledged your hearts and lives to the country [applause], in the sober realization that the war was[118] a desperate one, in which thousands were to die. We are glad that God has spared us to see the magnificent development and increase in strength and honor which has come to us as a Nation, and in the glory that has been woven into the flag we love. [Great applause.] We are glad that with most of us the struggle in life has not left us defeat, if it has not crowned us with the highest successes. We are veterans and yet citizens, pledged, each according to his own conscience and thought, to do that which will best promote the glory of our country and best conserve and set in our public measures those patriotic thoughts and purposes that took us into the war. [Applause.] It is my wish to-day that every relation I occupy to the public or to a political party might be absolutely forgotten [cries of "Good! good!"], and that I might for this day, among these comrades, be thought of only as a comrade—your old Colonel. [Great applause.]

Nothing has given me more pleasure on this occasion than to notice, as I passed through your streets, so beautifully and so tastefully decorated, that the poles that have been reared by the great parties were intertwined [applause]—and now I remind myself that I am not the orator of this occasion [cries of "Go on!"], but its presiding officer. The right discharge of that duty forbids much talking.

Comrades of the Seventieth Indiana, comrades of all these associated regiments, I am glad to meet you. Nothing shall sever that bond, I hope. Nothing that I shall ever say, nothing that I shall ever do, will weaken it. And now, if you will permit me again to acknowledge the generous hospitality of this community, and in your behalf to return them our most sincere thanks, I will close these remarks and proceed with the programme which has been provided.

Comrades—I esteem it a pleasure to be able to associate with you by the use of that form of address. I know of no human organization that can give a better reason for its existence than the Grand Army of the Republic. [Cries of "Good!"] It needs no argument to justify it; it stands unassailable, and admits of no criticism from any quarter. Its members have rendered that service to their country in war, and they maintain now, in peace, that honorable, courageous citizenship that entitles them to every patriot's respect. I thank you for this visit, and will be glad if you will now allow me to welcome you to my home.

Governor Rusk, Comrades of the Grand Army, and Ladies—I did not suppose that the Constitution of our country would be subjected to so serious a fracture by the executive of one of our great States. [Laughter.] Four years is the constitutional term of the President. [Laughter.] I am glad to see you; I return your friendly greetings most heartily. Your association is a most worthy one. As I said to some comrades who visited me this morning, it has the best reason for its existence of any human organization that I know of. [Applause.] I am glad to know that your recent encampment at Columbus was so largely attended, and was in all its circumstances so magnificent a success. The National Encampment of the G. A. R. is an honor to any city. The proudest may well array itself in its best attire to welcome the Union veterans of the late war. In these magnificent gatherings, so impressive in numbers and so much more impressive in the associations they revive, there is a great teaching force. If it is worth while to build monuments to heroism and patriotic sacrifice that may stand as dumb yet eloquent instructors of the generation that is to come, so it is worth while that these survivors of the war assemble in their national encampments and march once more, unarmed, through the streets of our cities, whose peace and prosperity they have secured. [Applause.]

Every man and every woman should do them honor. We have a body of citizen soldiers instructed in tactics and strategy and ac[121]customed to the points of war that make this Nation very strong and formidable. I well remember that even in the second year of the war instructors in tactics were rare in our own camps. They are very numerous now. [Laughter.] Yet, while this Nation was never so strong in a great instructed, trained body of veteran soldiers, I think it was never more strongly smitten with the love of peace. The man that would rather fight than eat has not survived the last war. [Laughter.] He was laid away in an early grave or enrolled on the list of deserters. But he would be mistaken who supposes that all the hardships of the war—its cruel, hard memories—would begin to frighten those veterans from the front if the flag was again assailed or the national security or dignity imperilled. [Applause and cries of "You are right!"] The war was also an educator in political economy.

These veterans, who saw how the poverty of the South in the development of her manufacturing interests paralyzed the skill of her soldiers and the generalship of her captains, have learned to esteem and value our diversified manufacturing interests. [Applause.] You know that woollen mills and flocks would have been more valuable to the Confederacy than battalions; that foundries and arsenals and skilled mechanical labor was the great lack of the Confederacy. You have learned that lesson so well that you will not wish our rescued country, by any fatal free-trade policy, to be brought to a like condition. [Applause and cries of "Good! good!"] And now, gentlemen, I had a stipulation that I was not to speak at all. [Laughter.] You will surely allow me now to stop this formal address, and to welcome my comrades to our home. [Applause.]

Captain and Comrades—I did not need to be assured that comrades of the Grand Army, whether bearing arms or not, brought me no[122] peril. No loyal and orderly citizen will mistrust their friendliness. The people of Indiana will not ask that you procure any permit or give bond to keep the peace before passing through this loyal State with arms in your hands.

I am especially complimented by the visit of this organized company of the Missouri militia, composed wholly of Union veterans. It gives evidence that those who served in the Civil War are still watchful of the honor and safety of our country and its flag; that our Government may rest with security upon the defence which our citizen-soldiers offer.

And now, without alluding at all to any topic of partisan interest, I bid you welcome, and will be pleased to have a personal introduction to each of you, if that is your pleasure.

My Fellow-citizens—There is something very distinctive, very interesting, and very instructive in this large delegation of workingmen from the city of New Albany. Your fellow-workman and spokesman has so eloquently presented that particular issue upon which you have the greatest interest that I can add nothing to the force or conclusiveness of his argument. He has said that the interests of the workingmen were especially involved in the pending political contest. I think that is conceded even by our political opponents. I do not think there is a man so dull or so[123] unfair as to deny that the reduction of our tariff rates so as to destroy the principle of protection now embodied in our laws will have an influence on your wages and on the production of your mills and factories. If this be true, then your interest in the question is apparent. You will want to know whether the influence of the proposed reduction of rates is to be beneficial or hurtful; whether the effect will be to stimulate or diminish production; whether it will be to maintain or increase the rate of wages you are now receiving, or to reduce them. As you shall settle these questions, so will you vote in November. [Applause.]

No man can doubt that a reduction of duties will stimulate the importation of foreign merchandise. None of these plate-glass workers can doubt that a reduction of the duty upon plate-glass will increase the importation of French plate-glass.

None of these workers in your woollen mills can doubt that the reduction of the duty upon the product of their mills will increase the importation of foreign woollen goods.

And, if that is true, is it not also clear that this increased importation of foreign-made goods means some idle workingmen in your mills? The party that favors such discriminating duties as will develop American production and secure the largest amount of work for our American shops is the party whose policy will promote your interests. [Applause and cries of "Hit him again!"] I have heard it said by some leaders of Democratic thought that the reduction proposed by the Mills bill, and the further reduction which some of them are candid enough to admit they contemplate, will stimulate American production by opening foreign markets and that the interests of our Indiana manufacturing establishments would thus be promoted. But those who advance this argument also say that it will not do to progress too rapidly in the direction of free trade—that we must go slowly, because our protected industries cannot stand too rapid an advance; it would not be safe. [Laughter.] Now, my countrymen, if this plan of revenue reform is to be promotive of our manufacturing interests, why go slowly? Why not open the gates wide and let us have the promised good all at once? [Laughter and applause.]

Is it that these philosophers think the cup of prosperity will be so sweet and full that our laboring people cannot be allowed to drink it at one draught? [Applause and cries of "Good! good!"] No, my countrymen, this statement implies what these gentlemen know to be true—that the effect of the proposed legislation is diminished production and diminished wages, and they desire that you shall have an opportunity to get used to it. [Applause.] But[124] I cannot press this discussion further. I want to thank you for the cordial things you have said to me by him who has spoken for you. I trust, and have always trusted, the intelligence and conscience of our working people. [Applause.]

They will inevitably find out the truth, and when they find it they will justify it. Therefore, there are many things that have been said to which I have not and shall not allude while this contest is on. They are with you: the truth is accessible to you, and you will find it. Now, thanking you most heartily for the personal respect you have evidenced, and congratulating you upon your intelligent devotion to that great American system which has spread a sky of hope above you and your children, I bid you good-by. [Cheers.]

The Irish-American Republican Club of Cook County, Illinois, congratulate you and the country upon your nomination. We greet the gallant soldier and true American, and rejoice with our fellow-citizens of every nationality in the glad assurance your nomination gives that the industries of our country will be protected and the honor of the Nation maintained with the same courage and devotion that distinguished you on the bloody field of Resaca. We salute the next President of the Republic.

Nathan P. Brady, President.

Mr. Beggs and my Friends of the Irish-American Republican Club of Cook County, Ill.—You were Irishmen, you are Americans [cheers]—Irish-Americans [continued cheering], and though you have given the consecrated loyalty of your honest hearts to the starry flag and your adopted country, you have not and you ought not to forget to love and venerate the land of your nativity. [Great applause.] If you could forget Ireland, if you could be unmoved by her minstrelsy, untouched by the appeals of her splendid oratory, unsympathetic with her heroes and martyrs, I should fear that the bonds of your new citizenship would have no power over hearts so cold and consciences so dead. [Cheers.]

What if a sprig of green were found upon the bloody jacket of a Union soldier who lay dead on Missionary Ridge? The flag he died for was his flag and the green was only a memory and an inspiration.

We, native or Irish born, join with the Republican convention in the hope that the cause of Irish home rule, progressing under the leadership of Gladstone and Parnell [cheers] upon peaceful and lawful lines, may yet secure for Ireland that which as Americans we so much value—local home rule. [Cheering.] I am sure that you who have, in your own persons or in your worthy representatives, given such convincing evidence of your devotion to the American Constitution and flag and to American institutions will not falter in this great civil contest which your spokesman has so fittingly described. Who, if not Irish-Americans versed in the sad story of the commercial ruin of the island they love, should be instructed in the beneficent influence of a protective tariff? [Continuous cheering.] Who, if not Irish-Americans should be able to appreciate the friendly influences of the protective system upon their individual and upon their home life? Which of you has not realized that not the lot of man only, but the lot of woman, has been made softer and easier under its influence? [Applause and "Hear! hear!"] Contrast the American mother and wife, burdened only with the cares of motherhood and of the household, with the condition of women in many of the countries of the Old World, where she is loaded also with the drudgery of toil in the field. [Applause.]

I know that none more than Irishmen, who are so characterized by their deference for women, and whose women have so fitly illustrated that which is pure in female character, will value this[126] illustration of the good effects of our American system upon the home life. [Continued applause.]

There are nations across the sea who are hungry for the American market. They are waiting with eager expectation for the adoption of a free-trade policy by the United States. [Cries of "That will never happen!"] The English manufacturer is persuaded that an increased market for English goods in America is good for him, but I think it will be impossible to persuade the American producer and the American workman that it is good for them. [Applause and cries of "That's right!"] I believe that social order, that national prosperity, are bound up in the preservation of our existing policy. [Loud cheering and cries of "You are right!"] I do not believe that a republic can live and prosper whose wage-earners do not receive enough to make life comfortable, who do not have some upward avenues of hope open before them. When the wage-earners of the land lose hope, when the star goes out, social order is impossible, and after that anarchy or the Czar. [Cheering.]

I gratefully acknowledge the compliment of your call, and exceedingly regret that the storm without made it impossible for me to receive you at my house. [Applause and cries of "Thanks! thanks!"] I will now be glad to take each member of your club by the hand. [Continued cheering.]

My Illinois Friends—The people of your State were very early in giving evidence to our people and to me that they are deeply and generally interested in this campaign. I welcome you and accept your coming as evidence that the early interest you manifested has suffered no abatement. It was not an impulse that stirred you[127], but a deep conviction that matters of great and lasting consequence to your country are involved in this campaign. Your representative in Congress, Hon. Joseph Cannon, is well known in Indiana. [Applause.] I have known him for many years; have observed his conduct in the National Congress, and always with admiration. He is a fearless, aggressive, honest Republican leader. [Applause and cries of "Good! good!"] He is worthy of the favor and confidence you have shown him.

If some one were to ask to-day, "What is the matter with the United States?" [laughter and cries of "She's all right!"] I am sure we would hear some Democratic friend respond, "Its people are oppressed and impoverished by tariff taxation." [Laughter.] Ordinarily our people can be trusted to know when they are taxed; but this Democratic friend will tell us that the tariff tax is so insidious that our people pay it without knowing it. That is a very unhappy condition, indeed. But his difficulties are not all surmounted when he has convinced his hearers that a customs duty is a tax, for history does not run well with his statement that our people have been impoverished by our tariff system. Another answer to your question will be perhaps that there is now a great surplus in the Treasury—he will probably not state the figures, for there seems to be a painful uncertainty about that. I have sometimes thought that this surplus was held chiefly to be talked about. The laws provide a use for it that would speedily place it in circulation. If a business man finds an accumulated surplus that he does not need in his business, that stands as a bank balance and draws no interest, and if he has notes outside to mature in the future he will make a ready choice between leaving his balance in the bank and using it to take up his obligations. [Applause.] But in our national finances the other choice has been made, and this surplus remains in the national bank without interest, while our bonds, which, under the law, might be retired by the use of it, continue to draw interest.

You have a great agricultural State. Its prairies offer the most tempting invitation to the settler. I have heard it suggested that one reason why you have outstripped Indiana in population was because the men who were afraid of the "deadening" passed over us to seek your treeless plains. [Applause.] But you have not been contented to be only an agricultural community. You have developed your manufactures and mechanical industries until now, if my recollection is not at fault, for every two persons engaged in agricultural labor you have one engaged in manufacturing, in the mechanical arts and mining. It is this subdivision of labor, these[128] diversified industries, that make Illinois take rank so near the head among the States. By this home interchange of the products of the farm and shop, made possible by our protective system, Illinois has been able to attain her proud position in the union of the States. Shall we continue a policy that has wrought so marvellously since the war in the development of all those States that have given hospitable access to manufacturing capital and to the brawn and skill of the workingman? [Cries of "Good! good!" and cheers.]

My Kentucky Friends—There have been larger delegations assembled about this platform, but there has been none that has in a higher degree attracted my interest or touched my heart. [Applause.] It has been quite one thing to be a Republican in Illinois and quite another to be a Republican in Kentucky. [Applause.] Not the victors only in a good fight deserve a crown; those who fight well and are beaten and fight again, as you have done, deserve a crown, though victory never yet has perched on your banner. [A voice, "It will perch there, though, don't you forget it!"] Yes, it will come, for the bud of victory is always in the truth. I will not treat you to-day to any statistics from the census reports [laughter], nor enter the attractive field of the history of your great State. I have believed that these visiting delegations were always well advised as to the history and statistics of their respective States. [Laughter.] If this trust has been misplaced in other cases, certainly Kentuckians can be trusted to remember and perhaps to tell all that is noble in the thrilling history of their great State. [Great applause.] Your history is very full of romantic and thrilling adventure and of instances of individual heroism. Your people have always been proud, chivalric, and brave. In the late war for the Union, spite of all distraction and defection, Kentucky stood by the old flag. [Applause.] And now that the war is over and its bitter memory is forgotten, there is not one, I hope, in all your borders, who does not bless the outcome of that great struggle. [Applause.] Surely there are none in Kentucky who do not rejoice that the beautiful river is not a river of di[129]vision. [Great applause.] And now what hinders that Kentucky shall step forward in the great industrial rivalry between the States? Is there not, as your spokesman has suggested, in the early and thorough instruction which the people of Kentucky received from the mouth of your matchless orator, Henry Clay [applause], a power that shall yet and speedily bring back Kentucky to the support of our protective system? [Applause.] Can the old Whigs, who so reverently received from the lips of Clay the gospel of protection, much longer support a revenue policy that they know to be inimical to our national interests? If when Kentucky was a slave State she found a protective tariff promoted the prosperity of her people, what greater things will the same policy not do for her as a free State? She has now opened her hospitable doors to skilled labor; her coal and metals and hemp invite its transforming touch. Why should she not speedily find great manufacturing cities spring up in her beautiful valleys? Shall any old prejudice spoil this hopeful vision? [Great applause.] I remember that Kentucky agitated for seven years and held nine conventions before she secured a separate statehood. May I not appeal to the children of those brave settlers who, when but few in number, composed of distant and feeble settlements, were received into the Union of States, to show their chivalry and love of justice by uniting with us in the demand that Dakota and Washington shall be admitted? [Applause.] Does not your own story shame those who represent you in the halls of Congress and who bar the door against communities whose numbers and resources so vastly outreach what you possessed when you were admitted to statehood? We look hopefully to Kentucky. The State of Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln [enthusiastic cheering] cannot be much longer forgetful [cries of "No! no!"] of the teachings of those great leaders of thought.

I believe that Kentucky will place herself soon upon the side of the truth upon these great questions. [A voice, "We believe it!" Another voice, "We will keep them out of Indiana, anyhow!" Great cheering.] Thank you. There is no better way that I know of to keep one detachment of an army from re-enforcing another than by giving that detachment all it can do in its own field. [Applause and laughter.]

General Powell and Comrades—I am always touched when I meet either with those who stood near about me in the service, or those who shared the general comradeship of the war. It seems to me that the wild exhilaration which in the earlier reunions we often saw is very much sobered as we come together now. I have realized in meeting with my own regiment this fall that it was a time when one felt the touches of the pathetic. And yet there was a glow of satisfaction in being together again and in thinking of what was and what is. The annals of the war fail to furnish a sadder story than that of the host of Union veterans who suffered war's greatest hardship—captivity. The story of the rebel prison pens was one of grim horror. In the field our armies, always brave, were generally always chivalric and humane. But the treatment of the captured Union soldiers surpassed in fiendish cruelty the best achievements of the savage. It is the black spot without any lining of silver or any touch of human nature. But you have cause for congratulation that you have been spared to the glory and prosperity that your services and sufferings have brought to the Nation. The most vivid imagination has drawn no picture of the full meaning to our people and to the world of these simple words—we saved the Union, perpetuated free government, and abolished slavery. [Prolonged applause.]

Comrades—I recall the services of your gallant regiment. I welcome you as men who had as honorable a part in the great achievements of the Union army as any in the Civil War. I congratulate you that you have been spared to see the fruits of your labors and sacrifices. In these meetings the thought of those who did not live to see the end of the bloody struggle is always present. Their honor also is in our keeping. I am glad to know that at last in our State a shaft is being lifted to the honor of the Indiana soldier. It will not only keep alive a worthy memory, but it will instil patriotism into our children. I thank you for this friendly visit. [Cheers.]

My Illinois and my Indiana Friends—If I needed any stimulus to duty, or to have my impression of the dignity and responsibility of representative office increased, I should find it in such assemblies as these and in the kind and thoughtful words which have been addressed to me in your behalf. The American people under our system of government have their public interests in their own keeping. All laws and proclamations may be revoked or repealed by them. They will be called on in November to mark out the revenue policy for our Government by choosing public officers pledged to the principles which a majority of our people approve. Fortunately you have now an issue very clearly drawn and very easy to be understood. In previous campaigns we have not quite known where our adversaries stood. Now we do know. Our Democratic friends say a protective tariff is robbery. You see this written at the head of campaign tracts circulated by their committees. You hear it said in the public speeches of their leaders. You have not once, I think, in the campaign heard any Democratic speaker admit that even a low protective tariff was desirable. Those who, like Mr. Randall, have in former campaigns been used to allay the apprehension of our working people by talking protection have been silenced. On the other hand, the Republican party declares by its platform and by its speakers that a protective tariff is wise and necessary. There is the issue. Make your own choice. If you approve by your votes the doctrine that a protective tariff is public robbery, you will expect your representatives to stop this public robbery, and if they are faithful they will do it; not seven per cent. of it, but all of it. [Applause and cries of "That's it!"] So that I beg you all to recollect that you will vote this fall for or against the principle of protection. You are invited to a feast of cheapness. You are promised foreign-made goods at very low prices, and domestic competing goods, if any are made, at the same low rates. But do not forget that the[133] spectre of low wages will also attend the feast. [Applause and cries of "That's so!"] Inevitably, as certain as the night follows the day, the adoption of this policy means lower wages. Choose, then, and do not forget that this cheapening process may be pushed so far as to involve the cheapening of human life and the loss of human happiness. [Applause.]

And now a word about the surplus in the Treasury. Our Democratic friends did not know what else to do with it, and so they have deposited it in certain national banks. The Government gets no interest upon it, but it is loaned out by the banks to our citizens at interest. Our income is more than our current expenses. There is no authority for the Secretary of the Treasury to lend the money, and so only three methods of dealing with it presented themselves, under the law—first, to lock it up in the Treasury vaults; second, to deposit it in the banks without interest; or, third, to use it in the purchase of bonds not yet due. The objection to the first method was that the withdrawal of so large a sum might result in a monetary stringency; the second obviated this objection by allowing the banks to put the money in circulation; but neither method resulted in any advantage to the Government.

As to it the money was dead; only the banks received interest for its use. By the third method the money would be returned to the channels of trade and the Government would make the difference between the premium paid for the bond and the interest that the bonds would draw if left outstanding until they matured. If a Government bond at the market premium is a good investment for a capitalist who is free to use his money as he pleases, can it be bad finance for the Government, having money that it cannot use in any other way, to use it in buying up its bonds? [Great applause.] It is not whether we will purposely raise money to buy our bonds at a premium—no one would advise that—but will we so use a surplus that we have on hand and cannot lawfully pay out in any other way? Do our Democratic friends propose to give the banks the free use of it until our bonds mature, or do they propose to reduce our annual income below our expenditure by a revision of the tariff until this surplus is used, and then revise the tariff again to restore the equilibriums? [Great applause.] I welcome the presence to-day of these ladies of your households. We should not forget that we have working-women in America. [Applause and cries of "Good! good!"] None more than they are interested in this policy of protection which we advocate. If want and hard conditions come into the home, the women bear a full share. [Applause.] And now I have been tempted to speak more at length[134] than I had intended. I thank you for this cordial manifestation of your confidence and respect. [Cheers.]

General Hayes and my Illinois Friends—I regret that your arrival was postponed so long as to make it impossible for you to meet with the other friends from your State who, a little while ago, assembled about the platform. I thank you for the kind feelings that prompted you to come, and for the generous things General Hayes has said in your behalf. There is little that I can say and little that I can appropriately do to promote the success of the Republican principles. A campaign that enlists the earnest and active co-operation of the individual voters will have a safe issue. I am glad to see in your presence an evidence that in your locality this individual interest is felt. [Applause.] But popular assemblies, public debate, and conventions are all an empty mockery unless, when the debate is closed, the election is so conducted that every elector shall have an equal and full influence in determining the result. That is our compact of government. [Cheers.] I thank you again for your great kindness, and it will now give me pleasure to accede to the suggestion of General Hayes and take each of you by the hand.

Colonel Bridgland and Comrades—I am fast losing my faith in men. [Laughter.] This morning a representative or two of this[135] regiment called upon me and made an arrangement that I should receive you at this hour. It was expressly stipulated—though I took no security [laughter]—that there should be no speech-making at all. Now I find myself formally introduced to you and under the necessity of talking to you. [Laughter.] I am under so much stress in this way, from day to day, that I am really getting to be a little timid when I see a corporal's guard together anywhere, for fear they will want a speech. [Laughter.] And even at home, when I sit down at the table with my family, I have some apprehensions lest some one may propose a toast and insist that I shall respond. [Laughter.]

I remember that the Second Indiana Cavalry was the first full cavalry regiment I ever saw. I saw it marching through Washington Street from the windows of my law office; and as I watched the long line drawing itself through the street, it seemed to me the call for troops might stop; that there were certainly enough men and horses there to put down the rebellion. [Laughter.] It is clear I did not rightly measure the capacities of a cavalry regiment, or the dimensions of the rebellion. [Laughter.] I am glad to see you here to-day. You come as soldiers, and I greet you as comrades. I will not allude to political topics, on which any of us might differ. [A voice, "There ain't any differences!"] Of course, the members of the Ninth Cavalry and the Twenty-sixth Infantry must understand I am speaking to all my comrades. [A voice, "The Twenty-sixth were waiting for the cavalry to get out of the way!" Laughter.] Well, during the war you were willing to wait, weren't you? [Hearty laughter.] I was going to say that I had an express promise from Mr. Adams, of the Twenty-sixth Indiana, there should be no speaking on the occasion of your visit. [Laughter.] Perhaps his comrades of the Twenty-sixth will say I had not sufficient reason for so thinking, as we all know that he is given to joking. [Laughter.] I will be pleased now to meet each of you personally.

My Friends—When I was asked yesterday whether it would be agreeable to me to see about one hundred gentlemen who were here in attendance upon the Indiana State Fair and connected with the exhibit of machinery, I was assured their call would be of the most informal character—that they would simply visit me at my home and spend a few moments socially. [Laughter.] Until I heard the music of your band and saw the torchlights, that was my understanding of what was in store for me this evening. I am again the victim of a misunderstanding. [Laughter and applause.] Still, though my one hundred guests have been multiplied several times, and though I find myself compelled to speak to you en masse rather than individually, I am glad to see you. I thank you for your visit, and for the cordial terms in which you have addressed me. What your speaker has said as to the favorable condition of our working people is true; and we are fortunate in the fact that we do not need to depend for our evidence on statistics or the reports of those who casually visit the countries of the Old World. There is probably not a shop represented here that has not among its workingmen those who have tried the conditions of life in the old country, and are able to speak from personal experience. It cannot be doubted that our American system of levying discriminating duties upon competing foreign products has much to do with the better condition of our working people. I welcome you[137] as representatives of one of the great industries of our country. The demands of the farm have been met by the ingenuity of your shops. The improvement in farm machinery within my own recollection has been marvellous. The scythe and the cradle still held control in the harvest field when I first went out to carry the noon meal to the workmen. Afterward it sometimes fell to my lot in the hay-field to drive one of the old-fashioned combination reapers and mowers. It was a great advance over the scythe and cradle, and yet it was heavy and clumsy—a very horse-killer. [Laughter and applause.] When the drivers struck a stump the horse had no power over the machine in either direction. Now these machines have been so lightened and improved that they are the perfection of mechanism. Your inventive genius has responded to the necessities of the farm until that which was drudgery has become light and easy. I thank you again for your call, and will be glad to meet personally those strangers who are here. [Applause.]

My Ohio and Indiana Friends—The magnitude and the cordiality of this demonstration are very gratifying. That these representatives of the State of my nativity, and these, my neighbors in this State of my early adoption, should unite this morning in giving this evidence of their respect and confidence is especially pleasing. I do remember Ohio, the State of my birth and of my boyhood, with affection and veneration. I take pride in her great history, the illustrious men she furnished to lead our armies, and the army of her brave boys who bore the knapsack and the gun for the Union. I take pride in her pure and illustrious statesmen. Ohio was the first of the Northwestern States to receive the western emigration after the Revolutionary War. When that tide of patriotism which had borne our country to freedom and had established our Constitution threw upon the West many of the patriots whose fortunes had been maimed or broken by their sacrifices in the Revolutionary War, this pure stream, pouring over the Alleghanies, found its first basin in the State of Ohio. [Cries of "Good! Good!"]

The waters of patriotism that had been distilled in the fires of the Revolution fertilized her virgin fields. [Applause.] I do not forget, however, that my manhood has all been spent in Indiana—that all the struggle which is behind me in life has this for its field. [Cheers.]

I brought to this hospitable State only that to which Col. Lowe has alluded—an education and a good wife. [Great cheering.] Whatever else I have, whatever else I have accomplished, for myself and for my family or the public, has been under the favoring and friendly auspices of these, my fellow-citizens of Indiana. [Applause.] To them I owe more than I can repay. My Indiana friends, you come from a county largely devoted to agriculture. The invitation of Nature was so generous that your people have generally accepted it. Guarded as your early settlers were, and as those of Ohio were, by that sword of liberty which was placed at your gates by the ordinance of 1787, stimulated, as you have been, by the suggestions of that great ordinance in favor of morality and education, you have, in your rural homes, one of the best communities in the world. [Applause.] You do not forget, farmers though you are, that 95 per cent. of the product of your farms is consumed[139] at home, and you are too wise to put that in peril in a greedy search after foreign trade. [Great applause.] You will not sacrifice these great industries that have created in our country a consuming class for your products. [Cheers.] I do not think that there is any doubt what tariff policy England would wish us to adopt, and yet some say that England is trembling lest we should adopt free trade here [laughter], and so rob her of other markets that she now enjoys. [Laughter.] The story of our colonial days, when England, with selfish and insatiate avarice, laid her repressive hand upon our infant manufactories and attempted to suppress them all, furnishes the first object-lesson she gave us. Another was given when the life of this Nation—the child of England, as she has been wont to call us, speaking the mother tongue, having many institutions inherited from her—was imperilled. The offer of free trade by the Confederacy so touched the commercial greed of England that she forgot the ties of blood and went to the verge of war with us to advance the cause of the rebel Government. [Cheers.] But what England wants, or what any other country wants, is not very important—certainly not conclusive. [Cheers.]

What is best for us and our people should be the decisive question. [Cheers.] My Randolph County friends, there are State questions that must take a strong hold upon the minds of people like yours. The proposition to lift entirely out of the range and control of partisan politics the great benevolent institutions of the State is one that must commend itself to all your people. [Cheers.] If all those friends who sympathize with us upon this question had acted with us in 1886 we should then have accomplished this great reform. [Applause.] And now, to these old gentlemen whose judgment and large experience in life gives added value to their kind words; to these young friends who, for the first time, take a freeman's place in the line of battle to do duty for the right, I give my kindly greetings and best wishes in return for theirs. [Cheers.]

Sir, and Gentlemen of the Republican Commercial Travellers' Association of Chicago—I bid you welcome to my home. I give you my most ardent thanks for this cordial evidence of your interest in those great principles of government which are advocated by the Republican party, whose candidate I am. I am not unfamiliar with the value, efficiency, and intelligence of the commercial travellers of our country. [Cheers.] The contribution you make to the success of the business communities with which you are identified is large and indispensable. I do not doubt that one of the strongest props of Chicago's commercial greatness would be destroyed if you were withdrawn from the commercial forces of that great city. [Cheers.] The growth and development of Chicago has been one of the most marvellous incidents in the story of American progress. It is gratifying to know that your interest is enlisted in this political campaign. It is very creditable to you that in the rush of the busy industries and pushing trade of your city you have not forgotten that you are American citizens and that you owe service, not to commerce only, but to your country. [Great cheering.] It is gratifying to be assured that you propose to bring your influence into the great civil contest which is now engaging the interest of our people. The intelligence and energy which you give to your commercial pursuits will be a most valuable contribution to our cause. [Cheers.] The power of such a body of men is very great.

I want now to introduce to you for a moment another speaker—an Englishman. Within the last year I have been reading, wholly[141] without any view to politics, the story of our diplomatic relations with England during the Civil War. The motive that most strongly influenced the English mind in its sympathy with the South was the expectancy of free trade with the Confederacy [cries of "That's right!"], and among the most influential publications intended to urge English recognition and aid to the Confederates was a book entitled "The American Union," by James Spence. It was published in 1862, and ran through several editions. Speaking of the South he said:

The author proceeds to show that at the time England's exports to our country were only thirteen shillings per capita of our population, while the exports to Australia were ten pounds sterling per capita. Let me now read you what is said of the Northern States:

I have read these extracts because they seemed to me very suggestive and very instructive. The South offered free trade to Europe in exchange for an expected recognition of their independence by England and France. [Cries of "You are right!"] The offer was very attractive and persuasive to the ruling classes of England. They took Confederate bonds and sent out armed cruisers to prey[142] upon our commerce. They dallied with Southern agents, fed them with delusive hopes, and thus encouraged the South to protract a hopeless struggle. They walked to the very edge of open war with the United States, forgetful of all the friendly ties that had bound us as nations, and all this to satisfy a commercial greed. We may learn from this how high a price England then set upon free trade with a part only of the States. [A voice, "We remember it!"]

But now the Union has been saved and restored. Men of both armies and of all the States rejoice that England's hope of a commercial dependency on our Southern coast was disappointed. The South is under no stress to purchase foreign help by trade concessions. She will now open her hospitable doors to manufacturing, capital, and skilled labor.

It is not now true that either climate or the habits of her people indispose them to manufactures. Of the Virginias, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Missouri, it may be now said, as Mr. Spence said of the more northern States, "They possess the same elements as ourselves [England]—coal, metals, ships, an aptitude for machinery, energy, and industry—while the early obstacles of deficient capital and scanty labor are rapidly disappearing." And I am sure there is a "New South"—shackled as it is by traditions and prejudices—that is girding itself to take part in great industrial rivalry with England, which Mr. Spence so much deprecates. These great States will no longer allow either Old England or New England to spin and weave their cotton, but will build mills in the very fields where the great staple is gathered. [Applause.] They will no longer leave Pennsylvania without an active rival in the production of iron. They surely will not, if they are at all mindful of their great need and their great opportunity, unite in this crusade against our protected industries.

Our interests no longer run upon sectional lines, and it cannot be good for any part of our country that Mr. Spence's vision of English trade with us should be realized. [Cries of "Never! Never!"] Commerce between the States is working mightily, if silently, to efface all lingering estrangements between our people, and the appeal for the perpetuation of the American system of protection will, I am sure, soon find an answering response among the people of all the States. [Loud cheering.]

I thank you again for this beautiful and cordial demonstration, and will now be glad to meet you personally.

My Wabash County Friends and my Little Friends from Parke—I am very glad to meet you here to-day. My friend who has spoken for Wabash County has very truly said that the relations between me and the Republicans of that county have always been exceedingly cordial. I remember well when I first visited your county in 1860, almost a boy in years, altogether a boy in political experience. I was then a candidate for Reporter of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of this State. You had in one of your own citizens, afterward a distinguished soldier, a candidate for that office in the convention that nominated me, but that did not interfere at all with the cordial welcome from your people when, as the nominee of the party, I came into your county. I think from that day to this my name has never been mentioned in any convention for any office that I have not had almost the unanimous support of the Republicans of Wabash County. [Applause.] This is no new interest which you now manifest to-day. The expressions of your confidence have been very numerous and have been continued through nearly thirty years.

There is one word on one subject that I want to say. Our Democratic friends tell us that there are about a hundred millions—their arithmeticians do not agree on the exact figures—in the public Treasury for which the Government has no need. They have found[144] only this method of using it, viz.: depositing it in the national banks of the country, to be loaned out by them to our citizens at interest, the Government getting no interest whatever from the banks. I suggested, and it was not an original suggestion with me—Senator Sherman has advocated the same policy with great ability in the Senate—that this money had better be used in buying Government bonds, because the Government would make some money in applying it that way, and there was no other way in which they could get any interest on it at all. But it is said if we use it in this manner we pay a premium to the bondholders. But it is only the same premium that the bonds are bringing in the market. In other words, as I said the other day, capitalists who can use their money as they please—put it out on mortgages, at interest, or in any other way—think the Government bond at the current rate of premium is a good investment for them. Now, the Government can buy those bonds at that premium and save a great deal of interest. I will not undertake to give you figures. One issue of these bonds matures in 1907, and bears four per cent. annual interest. Now, suppose this surplus money were to remain all that time in the banks without bringing any interest to the Government; is there a man here so dull that he cannot see the great loss that would result to the people? I have another objection to this policy: the favoritism that is involved in it. We have heard—and from such high authority that I think that we must accept it as true—that the great patronage appertaining to the office of President of the United States involves a public peril. Now, suppose we add to that danger a hundred millions of dollars that the Secretary of the Treasury can put in this community or that, in this bank or that, at his pleasure; is not the power of the executive perilously increased? Is it right that the use of this vast sum should be a matter of mere favoritism, that the Secretary should be allowed to put $10,000,000 of this surplus in Indianapolis and none of it in Kansas City, or $75,000,000 in New York and none in Indianapolis? If the money is used in buying bonds it finds its natural place—goes where it belongs. This is a most serious objection to the present method of dealing with the surplus. But if you still object to paying the market premium when we buy these bonds, see how it works the other way. The banks deposit their bonds in the Treasury to secure these deposits, get the Government money without interest, and still draw interest on their bonds. If any of you had a note for a thousand dollars due in five years, bearing interest, and your credit was so good that the note was worth a premium, and you had twelve hundred dollars that you could not put out at[145] interest so as to offset the interest on your note, would you not make money by using this surplus to take up the note at a fair premium? Would you think it wise finance to give the thousand dollars that you had on hand to your creditor without interest and allow him to deposit your note with you as security, you paying interest on the note until it was due and getting no interest on your deposit? [Laughter and applause.].

I welcome my young friends from Parke County. There is nothing fuller of interest than childhood. There is so much promise and hope in it. Expectancy makes life very rosy to them and them very interesting to us who have passed beyond the turn of life. [Applause.] You are fortunate in these kind instructors, who from week to week instil into your minds the principles of religion and of morality; but do not forget that there is another vine of beauty that may be appropriately twined with those—the love of your country and her institutions. [Applause.] I thank you again for this cordial evidence of your regard. The skies are threatening, and as there is danger that our meeting may be interrupted by rain I will stop here in order that I may meet each of you personally. [Cheers.]

Gentlemen, my Ohio and Indiana Friends—Again about this platform there are gathered representatives from these two great States. Your coming is an expression of a common interest, a recognition of the fact that there is a citizenship that is wider than the lines of any State. [Cheers.] That over and above that just pride in your own communities, which you cherish so jealously, there is a fuller pride in the one flag, to which we all give our allegiance, and in the one Constitution, which binds the people of these States together indissolubly in a Government strong enough to protect its humblest citizen wherever he may sojourn. [Prolonged cheers.] Your State institutions are based, like those of the Nation, upon[147] the great principles of human liberty and equality, and are consecrated to the promotion of social order and popular education. But, above all this, resting on like foundations, is the strong arch of the Union that binds us together as a Nation. You are citizens of the United States, and as such have common interests that suggest this meeting. [Cheers.]

I cannot speak separately to the various organizations represented here. There is a broad sense in which you are one. But I cannot omit to pay a hearty tribute of thanks to these venerable men who are gathered about me to-day. I value this tribute from them more than words can tell. I cannot, without indelicacy, speak much of that campaign to which they brought the enthusiasm of their earlier life and to which their memories now turn with so much interest. If, out of it, they have brought on with them in life to this moment and have transferred to me some part of the respect which another won from them, then I will find in their kindness a new stimulus to duty. [Applause and cries, "We have; we have!"] In looking over, the other day, a publication of the campaign of 1840, I fell upon a card signed by fifteen Democrats of Orange, N. J., giving their reasons for leaving the Democratic party. It has occurred to me that it might be interesting to some of these old gentlemen. [Cries of "We want to hear it!" and "Read it!"]

It was as follows: "We might give many reasons for this change in our political opinions. The following, however, we deem sufficient: We do not believe the price of labor in this free country should be reduced to the standard prescribed by despots in foreign countries. [Applause.] We do not believe in fighting for the country and being unrepresented in the councils of the country. We do not believe in an exclusive, hard, metallic currency any more than we believe in hard bread or no bread! We do not believe it was the design of the framers of the Constitution that the President should occupy his time during the first term in electioneering for his re-election to a second term!" [Loud laughter and applause.] I have read this simply as an historical curiosity and to refresh your recollections as to some of the issues of that campaign. If it has any application to our modern politics I will leave you to make it. [Laughter and applause.] I have recently been talking, and have one thing further to say, about the surplus.

There is a very proper use I think that can be made of more than twenty millions of it. During the Civil War our customs receipts and our receipts from internal taxes, which last had brought under tribute almost every pursuit in life, were inadequate to the great[148] drain upon our Treasury caused by the Civil War. Our Congress, exercising one of the powers of the Constitution, levied a direct tax upon the States. Ohio paid her part of it, Indiana paid hers, and so did the other loyal States. The Southern States were in rebellion and did not pay theirs. Now we have come to a time when the Government has surplus money, and the proposition was made in Congress to return this tax to the States that had paid it. [Applause.] The State of Indiana would have received one million dollars, which my fellow-citizens of this State know would have been a great relief to our taxpayers in the present depleted condition of our treasury. [Cheers.] I do not recall the exact amount Ohio would have received, but it was much larger. If any one asks, Why repay this tax? this illustration will be a sufficient answer: Suppose five men are associated in a business corporation. The corporation suffers losses and its capital is impaired. An assessment becomes necessary, and three members pay their assessments while two do not. The corporation is again prosperous and there is a surplus of money in the treasury. What shall be done with it? Manifestly, justice requires that the two delinquents should pay up or that there should be returned to the other three the assessment levied upon them. [Great cheering.] A bill providing for the repayment of the tax was killed in the House of Representatives, not by voting it down, but by filibustering, a majority of the House being in favor of its passage. And those who defeated the bill by those revolutionary tactics were largely from the States that had not paid the tax. [Cheers.] I mention these facts to show that twenty millions of the surplus now lying in the banks, where it draws no interest, might very righteously be used so as to greatly lighten the real burdens of taxation now resting on the people—burdens that the people know to be taxes without any argument from our statesmen. [Applause and laughter.] I am a lover of silence [laughter], and yet when such assemblies as these greet me with their kind, earnest faces and their kinder words, I do not know how I can do less than to say a few words upon some of these great public questions. I have spoken frankly and fearlessly my convictions upon these questions. [Cheers and cries of "Good! Good!"] And now, unappalled by the immensity of this audience, I will complete the accustomed programme and take by the hand such of you as desire to meet me personally. [Cheers.]

Gentlemen and my Ohio Friends—The State of my nativity has again placed me under obligations by this new evidence of the respect of her people. I am glad to meet you and to notice in the kind and interested faces into which I look a confirmation of the cordial remarks which have been addressed to me on your behalf. You each feel a personal interest and, I trust, a personal responsibility in this campaign. The interest which expresses itself only in public demonstrations is not of the highest value. The citizen who really believes that this election will either give a fresh impulse to the career of prosperity and honor in which our Nation has walked since the war, or will clog and retard that progress, comes far short of his duty if he does not in his own place as a citizen make his influence felt for the truth upon those who are near him. [Applause.] You come from a community that has recently awakened to the fact that beneath the soil which has long yielded bounteous harvests to your farmers there was stored by nature a great and new source of wealth. You, in common with neighboring communities in Ohio and with other communities in our State, have only partially realized as yet the increase in wealth that oil and natural gas will bring to them, if it is not checked by destructive changes in our tariff policy. This fact should quicken and intensify the interest of these communities in this contest for the preservation of the American system of protection. [Applause.]

It is said by some of our opponents that a protective tariff has no[150] influence upon wages; that labor in the United States has nothing to fear from the competition from pauper labor; that in the contest between pauper labor and high priced labor pauper labor was always driven out. Do such statements as these fall in line with experiences of these workingmen who are before me? [Cries of "No, no!"] If that is true, then why the legislative precautions we have wisely taken against the coming of pauper labor to our shores? It is because you know, every one of you, that in a contest between two rival establishments here, or between two rival countries, that that shop or that country that pays the lowest wages—and so produces most cheaply—can command the market. If the products of foreign mills that pay low wages are admitted here without discriminating duties, you know there is only one way to meet such competition, and that is by reducing wages in our mills. [Applause.] They seek to entice you by the suggestion that you can wear cheaper clothing when free access is given to the products of foreign woollen mills; and yet they mention also that now, in some of our own cities, the men, and especially the women, who are manufacturing the garments we wear are not getting adequate wages, and that among some of them there is suffering. Do they hope that when the coat is made cheaper the wages of the man or woman who makes it will be increased? The power of your labor organizations to secure increased wages is greatest when there is a large demand for the product you are making at fair prices. You do not strike for better wages on a falling market. When the mills are running full time, when there is a full demand at good prices for the product of your toil, and when warehouses are empty, then your organization may effectively insist upon increased wages. Did any of you ever see one of the organized efforts for better wages succeed when the mill was running on half time, and there was a small demand at falling prices in the market for the product? [Applause.] The protective system works with your labor organization to secure and maintain a just compensation for labor. Whenever it becomes true—as it is in some other countries—that the workingman spends to-day what he will earn to-morrow, then your labor organizations will lose their power. Then the workman becomes in very fact a part of the machine he operates. He cannot leave it, for he has eaten to-day bread that he is to earn to-morrow. But when he eats to-day bread that he earned last week or last year, then he may successfully resist any unfair exactions. [Applause.] I do not say that we have here an ideal condition. I do not deny that in connection with some of our employments the conditions of life are hard. But the practical question is this: Is[151] not the condition of our working people on the average comparatively a great deal better than that of any other country? [Applause and cries of "Good! Good!"]

If it is, then you will carefully scan all these suggestions before you consent that the work of foreign workmen shall supply our market, now supplied by the products of the hands of American workmen. I thank you again. The day is threatening and cool, and I beg you to excuse further public speech. [Applause.]

Gentlemen—It is very pleasant for me to meet you to-night in my own home. The more informal my intercourse can be made with my fellow-citizens the more agreeable it is to me. To you, and all others who will come informally to my home, I will give a hearty greeting. I am glad to see these representatives from the State of Pennsylvania whose business pursuits have called them to make their home with us in Indiana. The State of Pennsylvania has a special interest for me in the fact that it was the native State of a mother who, though nearly forty years dead, still lives affectionately in my memory. I welcome you here to this State as those who come to settle among us under new conditions of industrial and domestic life, to bring into our factories and our homes this new fuel from which we hope so much, not only in the promotion of domestic comfort and economy, but in the advancement of our manufacturing institutions. Your calling is one requiring high skill and intelligence and great fidelity. The agent with which you deal is an admirable servant but a dangerous master, and through carelessness may bring a peril instead of a blessing into our households and into our communities. I am glad that Indiana, so long drained upon by the States west of the Mississippi, has at last felt in your coming from that stanch, magnificent Republican commonwealth some restoration of this drain, which has made the struggle for Republican success in Indiana doubtful in our previous elections. It is time some of the States east of us, having such majorities as Pennsylvania, were contributing not only to our business enterprise and prosperity, but to the strengthening of the[152] Republican ranks, which have been depleted by the invitations which the agricultural States of the West have extended to our enterprising young men. I welcome your here to-night, and will be glad to have a personal introduction to each of you. [Applause.]

Gentlemen and Friends—The organizations represented here this morning have for me each an individual interest. Each is suggestive of a line of thought which I should be glad to follow, but I cannot, in the few moments that I can speak to you in this chilly atmosphere, say all that the names and character of your respective clubs suggest as appropriate. I welcome those comrades in the Union army in the Civil War. [Cheers.]

Death wrought its work in ghastly form in those years when, patiently, fearlessly, and hopefully, you carried the flag to the front and brought it at last in triumph to the Nation's capital. [Cheers.] Death, since, in its gentler forms, has been coming into the households where the veterans that were spared from shot and shell abide. The muster-roll of the living is growing shorter. The larger company is being rapidly recruited. You live not alone in the memories of the war. Your presence here attests that, as citizens, you feel the importance of these civil strifes. You recall the incidents of the great war, not in malice, not to stir or revive sectional divisions, or to re-mark sectional lines, but because[153] you believe that it is good for the Nation that loyalty to the flag and heroism in its defence should be remembered and honored. [Cheers.] There is not a veteran here, in this Republican Club of veterans, who does not desire that the streams of prosperity in the Southern States should run bank-full. [Cheers.]

There is not one who does not sympathize with her plague-stricken communities, and rejoice in every new evidence of her industrial development. The Union veterans have never sought to impose hard conditions upon the brave men they vanquished. The generous terms of surrender given by General Grant were not alone expressions of his own brave, magnanimous nature. The hearts of soldiers who carried the gun and the knapsack in his victorious army were as generous as his. You were glad to accept the renewal of the Confederate soldier's allegiance to the flag as the happy end of all strife; willing that he should possess the equal protection and power of a citizenship that you had preserved for yourselves and secured to him. [Cheers.] You have only asked—and you may confidently submit to the judgment of every brave Confederate soldier whether the terms are not fair—that the veteran of the Union army shall have, as a voter, an equal influence in the affairs of the country that was saved by him for both with the man who fought against the flag, and that soldiers of neither army shall abridge the rights of others under the law. [Great cheering.] Less than that you cannot accept with honor; less than that a generous foe would not consent to offer.

To the gentlemen of the John A. Logan Club let me say: You have chosen a worthy name for your organization. Patriot, soldier, and statesman, Logan's memory will live in the affectionate admiration of his comrades and in the respect of all his opponents. His home State was Illinois, but his achievements were national.

To these German-American Republicans I give a most cordial welcome. You have been known in our politics as a people well informed upon all the great economic questions that have arisen for settlement. You have always been faithful to an honest currency. [Cheers.] The enticements of depreciated money did not win you from sound principle. You bravely stood for a paper currency that should be the true equivalent of coin. [Cries of "Good! Good!"] Those who, like your people, have learned the lessons of thrift and economy in your old-country homes, and have brought them here with you, realized that above all things the laborer needed honest money that would not shrink in his hands when it had paid him for an honest day's toil. And now, when another great economic question is pressing for determination, I do not[154] doubt that you will as wisely and as resolutely help to settle that also.

As the great German chancellor, that student of human government and affairs, turning his thoughtful study toward the history of our country since the war, has declared that in his judgment our protective tariff system was the source of our strength, that by reason of it we were able to deal with a war debt that seemed to be appalling and insurmountable, I do not doubt that you, too, men who believe in work and in thrift, and so many of whom are everywhere sheltered under a roof of their own, will unite with us in this struggle to preserve our American market for our own workingmen, and to maintain here a living standard of wages. [Cheers.]

To these students who come fresh from the class-room to give me a greeting this morning I also return my sincere thanks. I suggest to them that they be not only students of books and maxims, but also of men and markets; that in the study of the tariff question they do not forget, as so many do, that they are Americans.

I thank you all again for your visit. I regret that I am not able to give you, in my own home, a personal and more cordial greeting. My house is not large enough to receive you. [A voice, "Your heart is!"] Yes, I have room enough in my heart for all. [Great cheering.] I am very sincerely grateful for these evidences of your personal regard. Out of them all; out of the coming of these frequent and enthusiastic crowds of my fellow-citizens; out of all these kind words; out of these kind faces of men and women; out of the hearty "God-speeds" you give me, I hope to bring an inspiration and an endowment for whatever may be before me in life, whether I shall walk in private or public paths. [Great cheering.]

My Illinois Friends—It is a source of great regret to me that we are not able to make your reception more comfortable. The chill of this September evening and of this open grove is not suggestive of the hospitable and cordial welcome that our people would have been glad to extend to you. Our excuse for this time may be found in the vastness of this assemblage. I am pleased to have this fresh and imposing evidence of the enthusiasm and interest of the Illinois Republicans. [Cheers.] There is nothing in the great history of the Republican party that need make any man blush to own himself a Republican. [Cheers.] There is much to kindle the enthusiasm of all lovers of their country. We do not rest in the past, but we rejoice in it. [Cheers.] The Republican party has so consistently followed the teachings of those great Americans whose names the world reveres that we may appropriately hold a Republican convention on the birthday of any one of them. [Cheers.] The calendar of our political saints does not omit one name that was conspicuous in peace or war. [Cheers.] We can celebrate Jackson's birthday or the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans because he stood for the unity of the Nation, and his victory confirmed it in the respect of the world. [Great cheering.] There is no song of patriotism that we do not sing in our meetings. There is no marble that has been builded to perpetuate the glory of our soldiers about which we may not appropriately assemble and proclaim the principles that we advocate. [Cheers.] We believe in our country, and give it our love and first care. We have always advocated that policy in legislation which was promotive of the interests and honor of our country. [Cheers.] I will not discuss any particular public topic to-day, as the conditions are so unfavorable for out-door speaking. Let me thank you again for this cordial evidence of your interest and for the personal respect which you have shown to me. I hope you will believe that my heart is deeply touched in these manifestations of the friendliness of my fellow-citizens. If in anything I shall come short of the high expectations and hopes they have formed, it will not be because I do not feel myself put under the highest obligations by these evidences of their friendly regard to do my utmost to continue in their respect and confidence. [Great cheering.]

My Indiana Friends—This is a home company to-day. Usually our Indiana visitors have met here delegations from other States. I am sure you will understand that I place a special value upon these evidences of the interest Indiana Republicans are taking in the campaign. Whatever the fate of the battle may be elsewhere, it is always a source of pride to the soldier and to his leader that the part of the line confided to their care held fast. [Applause.] I feel that I ought also to acknowledge the friendliness and co-operation which has been already extended to us in this campaign by[157] many who have differed with us heretofore. [Applause.] It is encouraging to hear that the prosperous and intelligent farmers of Marshall and Fulton counties have not been misled by the attempt to separate the agricultural vote from the vote of the shop. It has seemed to me that the Mills bill was framed for the purpose of driving from the protection column the agricultural voters, not by showing them favor, but the reverse—by placing agricultural products on the free list, thus withdrawing from the farmer the direct benefits he is receiving from our tariff laws as affecting the products of his labor, hoping that the farmers might then be relied upon to pull down the rest of the structure. I am glad to believe that we have in Indiana a class of farmers too intelligent to be caught by these unfriendly and fallacious propositions. [Applause.] I had to-day a visit from twenty or more gentlemen who came from the town of Tower, in the most northern part of Minnesota, where, within the last four years, there has been discovered and developed a great deposit of iron ore especially adapted to the manufacture of steel. Within the four years since these mines were opened they tell me that about a million tons of ore have been mined and sent to the furnaces. They also mentioned the fact that arrangements are already being made to bring block coal of Indiana to the mouth of these iron mines, that the work of smelting may be done there. This is a good illustration of the interlocking of interests between widely separated States of the Union [applause]—a new market and a larger demand for Indiana coal.

The attempt is often made to create the impression that only particular classes of workingmen are benefited by a protective tariff. There can be nothing more untrue. The wages of all labor—labor upon the farm, labor upon our streets—has a direct and essential relation to the scale of wages that is paid to skilled labor. [Applause.] One might as well say that you could bring down the price of a higher grade of cotton cloth without affecting the price of lower grades as to say that you can degrade the price of skilled labor without dragging down the wages of unskilled labor. [Applause.] This attempt to classify and schedule the men who are benefited by a protective tariff is utterly deceptive. [Applause.] The benefits are felt by all classes of our people—by the farmer as well as by the workmen in our mills; by the man who works on the street as well as the skilled laborer who works in the mill; by the women in the household, and by the children who are now in the schools and might otherwise be in the mills. [Applause.] It is a policy broad enough to embrace within the scope of its benefi[158]cent influence all our population. [Applause.] I thank you for your visit, and will be glad to meet any of you personally who desire to speak to me. [Applause.]

Mr. Woods and my Friends—My voice is not in condition to speak at much length in this cool night air. I am very deeply grateful for this evidence of the respect of this large body of Indianapolis workingmen. I am glad to be assured by what has been said to me that you realize that this campaign has a special interest for the wage-earners of America. [Cries of "Good! Good!"]

That is the first question in life with you, because it involves the subsistence and comfort of your families. I do not wonder then that, out of so many different associations in life, you have come together into this organization to express your determination to vote for the maintenance of the American system of protection. [Great cheering.]

I think you can all understand that it is not good for American workingmen that the amount of work to be done in this country should be diminished by transferring some of it to foreign shops. [Applause.] Nor ought the wages paid for the work that is done here to be diminished by bringing you into competition with the underpaid labor of the old country. [Applause.]

I am not speaking any new sentiment to-night. Many times before the Chicago convention I have, in public addresses, expressed the opinion that every workingman ought to have such wages as would not only yield him a decent and comfortable support for his family, and enable him to keep his children in school and out of the mill in their tender age, but would allow him to lay up against incapacity by sickness or accident, or for old age, some fund on which he could rely. These views I entertain to-night. I beg you to excuse further public speech and to allow me to receive personally such of you as care to speak to me. [Applause.]

My Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana Friends—These cordial manifestations of your personal regard move me very deeply [applause], but I do not at all appropriate to myself the great expressions of popular interest of which this meeting is only one. I understand that my relation to these public questions and to the people is a representative one—that the interest which thus expresses itself is in principles of government rather than in men. [Cheers.] I am one of the oldest Republicans; my first presidential vote was given[160] to the first Republican candidate for that office [applause], and it has always been a source of profound gratification to me that, in peace and war, a high spirit of patriotism and devotion to our country has always pervaded and dominated the party. [Cheers.] When, during the Civil War, the clouds hung low, disasters thickened, and the future was crowded with uncanny fears, never did any Republican convention assemble without declaring its faith in the ultimate triumph of our cause [great cheering]; and now, with a broad patriotism that embraces and regards the interests of all the States, it advocates policies that will develop and unite all our communities in the friendly and profitable interchange of commerce as well as in a lasting political union. [Applause.] These great Western States will not respond to the attempt to excite prejudice against New England. We advocate measures that are as broad as our national domain; that are calculated to distil their equal blessing upon all the land. [Cheers.] The people of the great West recognize and value the great contribution which those commonwealths about Plymouth Rock have made to the civilization, material growth, and manhood of our Western States. [Cheers.] We are not envious of the prosperity of New England; we rejoice in it. We believe that the protective policy developed her great manufacturing institutions and made her rich, and we do not doubt that a continuance of that policy will produce the same results in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. [Cheers.] We are not content to remain wholly agricultural States in our relations to either New England or old England. [Applause.] We believe that in all these great Western States there are minerals in the soil and energy and skill in the brains and arms of our people that will yet so multiply and develop our manufacturing industries as to give us a nearer home market for much of the products of our soil. [Cheers.] And for that great surplus which now and always, perhaps, we shall not consume at home we think a New England market better than a foreign market. [Enthusiastic and prolonged cheering.] The issue upon this great industrial question is drawn as sharply as the lines were ever drawn between contending armies. Men are readjusting their party relations upon this great question. The appeal that is now made for the defence of our American system is finding its response, and many of those who are opposed to us upon other questions are committing such questions to the future for settlement, while they help us to settle now and for an indefinite future the great question of the preservation of our commercial independence. [Applause.] The Democratic party has challenged our protected industries to a fight of extermination.[161] The wage-earners of our country have accepted the challenge. The issue of the contest will settle for many years our tariff policy. [Prolonged cheering.] The eloquent descriptions to which we have listened of the material wealth of the great State of Michigan have been full of interest to us as citizens of Indiana. We cannot doubt that the people of a State having such generous invitations to the developments of great home wealth in manufacturing and mining pursuits will understand the issue that is presented, and will cast their influence in favor of that policy which will make that development rapid and sure; and more than all, and better than all, will maintain in her communities a well-paid class of wage-workers. [Cheers.] Our wage-workers vote; they are American citizens, and it is essential that they be kept free from the slavery of want and the discontents bred of injustice. [Applause.]

I thank my Michigan friends for these handsome specimens of the products of their mines and of their mills. I shall cherish them with grateful recollection of this pleasant visit. [Applause.]

To my Indiana friends, always generous, I return my thanks for this new evidence of their esteem. [Cheers.]

To my Ohio friends, who so often before have visited me with kind expressions of their regard, I return the thanks of a native-born Ohioan. [Prolonged cheers from the Ohio delegation.]

Three great States are grouped here to-day. I remember at Resaca, when the field and staff of the regiments that were to make the assault were ordered to dismount, there was a Michigan officer too sick to go on foot and too proud to subject himself to the imputation of cowardice by staying behind.

He rode alone, the one horseman in that desperate charge, and died on that bloody hillside rather than subject his State to the imputation that one of her sons had lingered when the enemy was to be engaged. He was a noble type of the brave men these great States gave to the country. [Cheers.]

My Wisconsin and my Indiana Friends—These great daily manifestations of the interest of great masses of our people in the principles represented by the Republican party are to me increasingly impressive. I am glad to-day that Indiana has opportunity to welcome a delegation from the magnificent State of Wisconsin. [Cheers.] It offers a fitting opportunity to acknowledge my personal obligation and the obligation of the Indiana Republicans for the early and constant support which Wisconsin gave to the efforts of the Indiana delegation in the Chicago convention. [Prolonged cheers.] To-day two States, not contiguous in territory, but touching in many interests, are met to express the fact that these great electoral contests affect all our people. It is not alone in the choice of Presidential electors that we have common interests. Our national Congress, though chosen in separate districts, legislates for all our people. Wisconsin has a direct interest that the ballot shall be free and pure in Indiana, and Wisconsin and Indiana have a direct interest that the ballot shall be free and pure in all the States. [Great cheering.] Therefore let no man say that it is none of our business how elections are conducted in other States. [Cheers.] I believe that this great question of a free ballot, so much disturbed by race questions in the South, would be settled this year if the men of the South who believe with us upon the great question of the protection of American industries would throw off old prejudices and vote their convictions upon that question. [Cheers and cries of "Good! Good!"] I believe there are indications that the independent manhood of the South will this year strongly manifest itself in this direction. Those intelligent and progressive citizens of the South who are seeking to build up within their own States diversified industries will not much longer be kept in bondage to the traditions of the days when the South was wholly a community of planters.

When they assert their belief in a protective tariff, by supporting the only party that advocates that policy, the question of a[163] free ballot, so far as it is a Southern question, will be settled forever, for they will have the power to insist that those who believe with them shall vote, and that their votes shall be counted. [Applause.] The protective policy, by developing a home supply and limiting importations, helps us to maintain the balance of trade upon our side in our dealings with the world. [Cheers.] Under the tariff of 1846 from the year 1850 to 1860 the balance of trade was continuously against us, aggregating in that period over three hundred millions of dollars. Under the influence of a protective tariff the balance of trade has been generally and largely with us, unless disturbed by special conditions. Instead of sending our gold abroad to pay a foreign balance we have usually been bringing foreign gold here to augment our store. [Cheers.] I will not detain you further. These daily demands upon me make it necessary that I shall speak briefly. Let me thank most profoundly those gentlemen and ladies from Wisconsin who have come so far to bring me this tribute of their respect. I very highly value it. These, my Indiana friends, unite with me in thanking you for your presence to-day. [Cheers from the Indianians.] To my nearer friends, my Fountain County friends, let me say I am profoundly grateful to you for this large and imposing demonstration and for the interest you are individually taking in this campaign. [Cheers.] I do not think of it as a personal campaign. It has always seemed to me to be altogether greater than that, and when I thank you for your interest and commend your zeal it is an interest in principles and a zeal for the truth that I approve. [Cheers.]

My Wells and Blackford County Friends—I am glad to meet you. It is extremely gratifying to be assured by your presence here this inclement day, and by the kind words which you have addressed to me through your representatives, that I have some part in your friendly regard as an individual. But individuals are not of the first importance. That man who thinks that the prosperity of this country or the right administration of its affairs is wholly dependent upon him grossly exaggerates his value. The essential things to us are the principles of government upon which our institutions were builded, and by and through which we make that symmetrical and safe growth which has characterized our Nation in the past, and which is yet to raise it to a higher place among the nations of the earth. [Applause.] We are Indianians—Hoosiers, if you please [cheers]—and are proud of the State of which we are citizens. Your spokesmen have referred with an honest pride to the counties from which you have come, and that is well. But I would like to suggest to you that every political community and neighborhood has a character of its own, a moral character, as well as every man and every woman, and it is exceedingly important, looked at even from the side of material advantage, that our communities should maintain a good reputation for social order, intelligence, virtue, and a faithful and willing obedience to law. [Applause.] It cannot be doubted that such a character possessed by any State or county attracts immigration and capital, advances its material development, and enhances the value of its farms. There has been much in the history of Indiana that is exceedingly creditable. There have been some things—there are some things to-day—that are exceedingly discreditable to us as a political community; things that I believe retard the advancement of our State and affect its material prosperity by degrading it in the estimation of right-thinking men. One of those things is this patent and open fact: that the great benevolent institutions of this State, instead of being operated upon the high plane that public charities should occupy, are[165] being operated and managed upon the lowest plane of party purposes and advantage. [Cries of "That's so!"] Another such thing is of recent occurrence. In the campaign of 1886, after advising with the chief law officer of the State, a Democratic Governor declared to the people of this State that there was a vacancy in the office of Lieutenant-Governor which the people were entitled to fill at the ensuing general election. The Democratic party acted upon that advice, assembled in convention in this hall, and nominated John C. Nelson for Lieutenant-Governor. The Republican party followed with their convention, and placed in nomination that gallant soldier, Robert S. Robertson. [Cheers.] These two gentlemen went before the people of Indiana and made a public canvass for the office. The election was held, and Colonel Robertson was chosen by a majority of about 3,000. [Applause.] Is there a man in the State, Democratic or Republican, who doubts that if the choice had been otherwise, and Mr. Nelson had received a majority at the polls, the House of Representatives, which was Republican, would have met with the Democratic Senate in an orderly joint meeting, for canvassing the votes, and that Mr. Nelson would have been inaugurated as Lieutenant-Governor? [Cries of "No, no!"] But the result was otherwise; and the public fame, the good reputation of this State, was dishonored when, by force and brutal methods, the voice of the people was stifled, and the man they had chosen was excluded from the right to exercise the duties of the office of Lieutenant-Governor. [Cries of "Yes, yes!"] Do the people think that the attractiveness of Indiana as a home for Americans who believe in social order and popular government has been increased by this violent and disgraceful incident? Do our Democratic friends who have an honest State pride, who would like to maintain the honor and good reputation of the State, who would have the people of our sister States believe that we have a people who believe in a warm canvass but in a free ballot, and a manly and ready acquiescence in election results, intend to support their leaders in this violent exclusion from office of a duly chosen public officer? Do those who are Democrats from principle, and not for personal spoils, intend to support the men who have first prostituted our benevolent institutions to party and now to personal advantage? These things, if not reproved and corrected by our people, will not only disgrace us in the estimation of all good people, but will substantially retard the material development of the State. [Cheers.] I am not talking to-day of questions in which I have any other interest than that you have, my fellow-citizens. [Applause.] I believe the material prosperity of Indiana, much more[166] the honor, will be advanced if her people in this State election shall rebuke the shameless election frauds that have recently scandalized our State, the prostitution of our benevolent institutions, and the wanton violence that overturned the result of the popular election in 1886. [Great cheering.]

Comrades and Friends—It is a rare sight, and it is one very full of interest to us as citizens of Indiana, to see this great hall filled with the people of another State, come to evidence their interest in great principles of government. [Cheers.] I welcome to-night for myself and for our people this magnificent delegation from Chicago and Hyde Park. [Cheers.] We have not before in the procession of these great delegations seen its equal in numbers, enthusiasm, and cordiality. I thank you profoundly for whatever of personal respect there is in this demonstration [cheers]; but above all, as an American citizen, I rejoice in this convincing proof that our people realize the gravity and urgency of the issues involved in this campaign. [Cheers.] I am glad to know that this interest pervades all classes of our people. [Cheers.] This delegation, composed of the business men of Chicago and of the men who wield the hammer in the shops, shows a common interest in the right decision of these great questions. [Great cheers.]

Our Government is not a government by classes or for classes of our fellow-citizens. [Cheers.] It is a government of the people and by the people. [Renewed cheering.] Its wise legislation distills its equal blessings upon the homes of the rich and the poor. [Cheers.] I am especially glad that these skilled, intelligent workmen coming out of your great workshops have manifested, by their coming, to their fellow-workmen throughout the country their appreciation of what is involved for them in this campaign. [Prolonged cheers.]

May that God who has so long blessed us as a Nation long defer that evil day when penury shall be a constant guest in the homes of our working people, and long preserve to us that intelligent, thrifty and cheerful body of workmen that was our strength in war and is our guaranty of social order in time of peace! [Great cheering.] Comrades of the Civil War, it was true of the great[168] Union army, as it is said to be of the kingdom of heaven—not many rich. [Cheers.] It was out of the homes of our working people the great army came. It was the strong arm inured to labor on the farm or in the shop that bore up the flag in the smoke of battle, carried it through storms of shell and shot, and lifted it again in honor over our national Capital. [Prolonged cheers.]

After so many historical illustrations of the evil effects of abandoning the policy of protection for that of a revenue tariff, we are again confronted by the suggestion that the principle of protection shall be eliminated from our tariff legislation. Have we not had enough of such experiments? Does not the history of our tariff legislation tell us that every revenue tariff has been followed by business and industrial crashes, and that a return to the policy of protection has stimulated our industries and set our throbbing workshops again in motion? [Cheers.] And yet, again and again, the Democratic party comes forward with this pernicious proposition—for it has been from that party always that the proposition to abandon our protective policy and to substitute a revenue tariff has come. [Cries of "That's so!"]

I had placed in my hands yesterday a copy of the London News for September 13. The editor says in substance that, judging the purposes of the Democratic party by the executive message of last December, the English people were justified in believing that party meant free trade; but if they were to accept the more recent utterances of its leader, protesting that that was not their purpose, then the editor thus states the issue presented by the Democratic party. I read but a single sentence: "It is, at any rate, a contest between protection and something that is not protection." [Prolonged and wild cheering.] It is not of the smallest interest to you what that other thing is. [Continued cheering.] It is enough to know that it is not protection. [Renewed cheering.] Those who defend the present Democratic policy declare that our people not only pay the tariff duty upon all imported goods, but that a corresponding amount is added to the price of every domestic competing article. That for every dollar that is paid into the Treasury in the form of a customs duty the people pay several dollars more in the enhanced cost of the domestic competing article. Those who honestly hold such doctrines cannot stop short of the absolute destruction of our protective system. [Cries of "No, no!"] The man who preaches such doctrines and denies that he is on the road to free trade is like the man who takes passage on a train scheduled from here to Cincinnati without a stop, and when the train is speeding on its way at the rate of forty miles an hour, denies that he is going to[169] Cincinnati. [Great laughter and cheering.] The impulse of such logic draws toward free trade as surely and swiftly as that engine pulls the train to its appointed destination. It inevitably brings us to the English rule of levying duties only upon such articles as we do not produce at home, such as tea and coffee. That is purely revenue tariff, and is practically free trade.

Against this the Republican party proposes that our tariff duty shall be of an intelligent purpose, be levied chiefly upon competing articles. [Cheers.] That our American workmen shall have the benefit of discriminating duties upon the products of their labor. [Cheers.] The Democratic policy increases importation, and, by so much, diminishes the work to be done in America. It transfers work from the shops of South Chicago to Birmingham. [Cries of "Right you are!"] For, if a certain amount of any manufactured article is necessary for a year's supply to our people, and we increase the amount that is brought from abroad, by just so much we diminish the amount that is made at home, and in just that proportion we throw out of employment the men that are working here. And not only so, but when this equal competition is established between our shops and the foreign shops, there is not a man here who does not know that the only condition under which the American shop can run at all is that it shall reduce the wages of its employees to the level of the wages paid in the competing shops abroad. [Cheers.] This is, briefly, the whole story. I believe we should look after and protect our American workingmen; therefore I am a Republican. [Renewed enthusiastic cheering.]

But I will not detain you longer. [Cries of "Go on!"] You must excuse me; I have been going on for three months. [A voice, "And you'll go on for four years!"] I am somewhat under restraint in what I can say, and others here are somewhat under restraint as to what they can appropriately say in my presence. I beg you therefore to allow me, after thanking you again for your kindness, to retire that others who are here may address you. [Great cheering.]

My Friends of the German-American Republican Club of Chicago, and of the Club of Milwaukee, and my Home German Friends—I am very grateful for the kind words you have addressed to me. The long journey most of you have taken upon this inclement day to tender your respects to me as the candidate of the Republican party is very convincing evidence that you believe this civil contest to be no mock tournament, but a very real and a very decisive battle for great principles. [Cheers]. My German-American friends, you are a home-loving people; father, mother, wife, child[173] are words that to you have a very full and a very tender meaning. [Cheers.] The old father and mother never outlive the veneration and love of the children in a German household. [Cheers.] You have come from the fatherland in families, and have set up again here the old hearth-stones. Out of this love of home there is naturally born a love of country—it is only the widening of the family circle—and so our fellow-citizens of German birth and descent did not fail to respond with alacrity and enthusiasm to the call of their adopted country when armies were mustered for the defence of the Union. [Cheers.] The people of Indiana will long remember the veteran Willich and the Thirty-second Regiment of Indiana Volunteers (or First German), which he took into the field in 1861. The repulse by this regiment alone of an attacking force under General Hindman of 1,100 infantry, a battalion of Texas Rangers, and four pieces of artillery at Rowlett's Station, in December, 1861, filled our people with enthusiasm and pride. Again and again the impetuous Texas horsemen threw themselves with baffled fury upon that square of brave hearts. No bayonet point was lowered, no skulker broke the wall of safety that enclosed the flag. [Cheers.]

Your people are industrious, thrifty, and provident. To lay by something is one of life's earliest lessons in a German home. These national traits naturally drew your people to the support of the Republican party when it declared for freedom and free homes in the Territories. [Cheers.] They secured your adherence to the cause of the Union in the Civil War. They gave us your help in the long struggle for resumption and an honest currency, and I do not doubt that they will now secure our sympathy and help in this great contest in behalf of our American homes. Your people are largely wage-earners. They have prospered under a protective tariff, and will not, I am sure, vote for such a change in our tariff policy as will cut them off from their wages that margin which they are now able to lay aside for old age and for their children.

And now a word to my young friends from Wisconsin. You have come into the possession of the suffrage at an important, if not critical, time in our public affairs. The Democratic party out of power was a party of negations. It did not secure its present lease of power upon the platform or the policies it now supports and advocates. [Cheers.] The campaign of 1884 was not made upon the platform of a tariff for revenue only. Our workingmen were soothed with phrases that implied some regard to their interests, and Democrats who believed in a protective tariff were admitted to the party councils and gladly heard in public debate. [Cheers.] But four years of power have changed all this. Democrats who[174] thought they could be protectionists and still maintain their party standing have been silenced or their opinions coerced. The issue is now distinctly made between "protection and something that is not protection." [Cheers.] The Republican party fearlessly accepts the issue and places itself upon the side of the American home and the American workingman. [Cheers.] We invite these young men who were too young to share the glory of the struggle for our political unity to a part in this contest for the preservation of our commercial independence. [Cheers.]

And now to these friends who are the bearers of gifts, one word of thanks. I especially value this cane as a token of the confidence and respect of the workingmen of Bay View. [Cheers.] I accept their gift with gratitude, and would wish you, sir, to bear in return my most friendly regards and good wishes to every one of them. I do not need to lean on this beautiful cane, but I do feel like resting upon the intelligent confidence of the men who sent it. [Great cheering.] I am glad to know that they have not stumbled over the simple problem that is presented for their consideration in this campaign. They know that an increase of importation means diminished work in American shops. [Cheers.] To my friend who brings this beautiful specimen of American workmanship, this commonly accepted token of good luck, I give my thanks. But we will not trust wholly in this symbol of good luck. The earnest individual effort of the American people only can make the result of this contest so decisive, so emphatic, that we shall not for a generation hear any party contest the principle that our tariff laws shall adequately protect our own workingmen. [Great cheering.]

Gentlemen—It was very appropriate that these representative Ohio Republicans should accompany to the State of Indiana your distinguished Governor, whose presence among us to-day is so welcome to our people. We know his story as the young Ohio volunteer, the fearless champion of Republican principles in public debate, and the resolute, courageous, and sagacious executive of the great State of Ohio. [Applause.] We welcome him and we welcome you. The fame of this magnificent glee club has preceded them. We are glad to have an opportunity to hear you.

To these members of the Garfield Club I return my thanks for this friendly call. You bear an honored name. I look back with pleasure to the small contribution I was able to make in Indiana toward securing the electoral vote of this State to that great son of Ohio, whose tragic death spread gloom and disappointment over our land. I welcome you as citizens of my native State—a State I shall always love, because all of my early associations are with it. In this State, to which I came in my earliest manhood, the Republicans are as staunch and true, as valorous and resolute, as can be found in any of the States. You have no advantage of us except in numbers. We welcome you all as Republicans. [A voice, "That's what we are!"] We believe that our party now advocates another great principle that needs to be established—made fast—put where it shall be beyond assault. It is a principle which has wrought marvellously in the development of our country since the war. It has enabled us to handle a great national debt, which our desponding Democratic friends said would inevitably sink our country into bankruptcy, so that we are not troubled about getting the money to pay our maturing bonds, but are getting it faster than our bonds mature. We need to establish this principle of protection, the defence of our American workers against the degrading and unfriendly competition of pauper labor in all other countries [cheers], so unmistakably that it shall not again be assailed. [A voice, "Amen!"] Our Democratic friends in previous campaigns have deceived the people upon this great question by uncertain and evasive utterances. We are glad to know that now they have drawn the issue clearly; we accept it. [Applause.] If we shall be able in this campaign, as I believe we will, to arouse our people to the importance of maintaining our defences against unfair foreign competition, we shall administer those who believe in revenue tar[176]iffs and in progressive free trade a wholesome lesson—one that will last them a lifetime. [Cheers.]

I had resolutely determined when I came upon these steps not to make a speech. [Laughter and cries of "Go on!"] I am absolutely determined to stop now. [Laughter.] I shall be glad to meet the members of these escort clubs personally in my house. [Three cheers.]

General Knefler and Comrades—I am always deeply touched when my comrades visit me and offer their kindly greetings. I have no higher ambition than to stand well in the estimation of my comrades of the old Union army. I will not speak of any political topic. These men who stand before me gave the supreme evidence of their love and devotion to their country. No man could give more than they offered. The perpetuity of our institutions, the honor of what General Sherman so felicitously called the "old glory," demand the country shall always and in every appropriate way honor and reward the men who kept it a Nation. Whatever may be said of our great prosperity since the war, and it can scarcely be exaggerated, if we look for the cause under God, is it not found in the stout hearts of these men? They have opened this wide avenue of prosperity and honor in which we are moving. It will be a shame if our people do not in every way properly recognize that debt and properly honor the men who gave this supreme evidence of their devotion to the country and its institutions. Thanking you again for this visit, I will be glad if you will enter my house and let me meet you personally.

My Friends—Four times already, I believe, the commercial travellers have honored me by calling upon me in large delegations. You have assembled to-day, not from a single State or locality, but from many States, upon the invitation of your associates of this city, to show your intelligent interest in the principles that are involved in this campaign. [Cheers.] I do not need to repeat what I have said on former occasions, that I very highly value the respect and confidence of the commercial travellers of the United States. [Cheers.] I value it because I believe they give their adherence to the party whose candidate I am upon an intelligent investigation and upon an earnest conviction as to what is good for the country of which they are citizens. [Cheers.] Who should be able, better than you, to know the commercial and business needs of our country? You, whose hand is every day upon the business pulse of the people; you, who travel the country up and down upon all the swift highways of commerce, and who are brought in contact with the business men of the country, not only in our great centres of commerce, but in all the hamlets of the land. I believe I may say for you that, as a result of this personal knowledge of our business needs, you have concluded that the policy for America is the policy of a protective tariff. [Great cheering.]

There are doubtless here many representatives of great American manufacturing establishments; and who should know better than they the prostrating effects upon the industries they represent of this policy of a revenue tariff, or the not much differing policy of free trade? [Cheers.] Who should know better than you that if the discriminating duties now levied, which enable our American manufacturers to maintain a fair competition with the manufacturers of other countries, and at the same time to pay a scale of living wages to the men and women who work for them, is once broken down, American competition with foreign production becomes impossible, except by the reduction of the scale of American wages to the level of the wages paid abroad? [Cheers.] Certainly you do not need to be told that that shop or mill that has the smallest pay-roll in proportion to its production will take the market. [Cheers.] Certainly you do not need to be told that the wages now enjoyed by our American workmen are greatly larger and the comforts they enjoy greatly more than those enjoyed by[179] the working people of any other land. [Cheers.] Certainly you do not need to be told that if the American Government, instead of patronizing home industries, buys its blankets for the public service in England there is just that much less work for American workmen to do. [Cheers.] This is to me the beginning and the end of the tariff question. Since I was old enough to have opinions or to utter them, I have held to the doctrine that the true American policy was that which should maintain not only a living rate of wages, but one with a margin for savings and comfort for our workmen. I believe that policy is essential to the prosperity and possibly to the perpetuity of our Government. [Cheers.] The two propositions that now stare our working people—and our whole country—in the face are these: competition with foreign countries, without adequate discriminating and favoring duties, means lower wages to our working people; a revenue-only tariff, or progressive free trade, means larger importations of foreign goods, and that means less work in America. [Cheers.]

Let our Democratic friends fairly meet these two indisputable conclusions. How do they do it? [Cries, "They don't; they can't!"] By endeavoring to prevent and poison the minds of our working people by utterly false and scandalous campaign stories. [Enthusiastic cheering.] Let me say in conclusion that I believe the managers of the Democratic campaign greatly underestimate the intelligence, the sense of decency, and the love of fair play that prevail among out people. [Great cheering.] You will pardon further remark. The evening is drawing on, and many of you, I am sure, have been made uncomfortable by your muddy walk through the streets of our city. I cannot omit, however, to thank my friends from Lafayette for this beautiful floral tribute which they have placed at my side—an emblem of their profession. [Floral gripsack.] I accept it gratefully, and very highly appreciate it as a mark of the confidence and respect of the intelligent body of my own fellow-citizens of Indiana. [Great cheering.]

General Bushnell and my Ohio Friends—The people of Clarke County owed me a visit. I recall, with great pleasure, two occasions when I visited your prosperous county and the rich and busy city of Springfield to speak in behalf of the Republican party and its candidates. I recall with pleasure the cordiality with which I was received by your people. [Applause.] I noted then the intelligent interest manifested by the masses of your people in public questions, and the enthusiasm with which you rallied to the defense of Republican principles. [Cheers.] We are glad to welcome you to Indiana, but regret that this inclement day and our muddy streets have thrown about your visit so many incidents of discomfort. I hope that you will not allow these incidents to give you an unfavorable impression of the beautiful capital city of Indiana. [Cheers and cries of "We won't!"] Our people are glad to have this added evidence of the interest which the people of your State take in the question which the issue of this campaign will settle. I say settle, because I believe that the question of the life of protective tariff system is now very distinctly presented. The enemies of the system have left their ambuscades and taken to the open field, and we are to have a decisive battle over this question. [Great cheers.] I believe that never before, in any campaign, has this question been so fully and ably discussed in the hearing of our people. [Cheers.] There can be found nowhere in this country a better illustration of what a great manufacturing centre will do for the farmer in enhancing the value of his farm and in furnishing a home market for his products than the city of Springfield. [Cheers.][181] Your city and county—your merchants and farmers—are prosperous, because you have a great body of well-paid wage-earners in your great shops and factories. [Cheers.] It is the policy of the Republican party to multiply, all through our agricultural regions, such centres of manufacturing industries as Springfield. [Cheers.] It is conceded that to all our working people, all those who earn their subsistence by toil, this campaign involves most important interests. I will not pursue in its details this question. You have heard it discussed, and most of you, perhaps all, have made up your conclusions. It is of such importance as, wholly without respect to the candidate who may by chance represent it, to be worthy of the intelligent and earnest thought and vigorous effort of every American citizen. [Cheers.] Let me now only thank you for this most remarkable evidence of the interest of your people. We have rarely, if it all, seen here, in this long procession of delegations, one that equalled that which I see before me now. [Great cheering.]

I accept with pleasure this product of the skill and industry of one who, out of his own experience, can speak of the benefits of a protective tariff. One who sought our land because it offered better wages and better hopes [cheers], and who in his life here has been able to contrast the condition of working people in England and in America. [Cheers.]

We are here to repudiate the authority claimed by a few professional men to speak for the wage-workers of Indiana, to deny the truthfulness of their statements, and to contradict the assertion that there is other than the kindliest feeling among the workingmen of Indiana toward General Harrison. While General Harrison has never acted the blatant demagogue by making loud professions, yet we have had evidence of his earnest sympathy and sincere friendship on more than one occasion, notably his advocacy while in the Senate of the bill making arbitration the means of settlement of labor troubles and excluding contract labor from our shores. Also the bill prohibiting the use of convict labor on Government works, or the purchasing by the Government of any of the products of convict labor.

Mr. McDaniels and my Friends—I have seen, during this busy summer, many earnest and demonstrative assemblages of my fellow-citizens. I have listened to many addresses full of the kindest expressions toward me personally; but, among them all, none have been more grateful to me, none have more deeply touched me than this great assemblage of the workingmen of Indiana and these kind words which have been addressed to me in your behalf. [Great cheering.] There are reasons why this should be so that will readily occur to your minds, and to some of which Mr. McDaniels has alluded. Early in this campaign certain people, claiming to speak for the laboring men, but really in the employ of the Democratic campaign managers, promulgated through the newspaper press and by campaign publications that were not given the open endorsement of the Democratic campaign managers, but were paid for by their funds and circulated under their auspices, a number of false and scandalous stories relating to my attitude toward organized labor. [Great and prolonged cheering.] The purpose of all these stories was to poison the minds of the workingmen against the candidate of the party that stands in this campaign for the principle of protection to American labor. [Great cheering.] I have only once, in all the addresses I have made to my fellow-citizens, alluded to these malicious and scandalous stories, but, now and in the presence of this great gathering of workingmen, I do pronounce them to be utterly false. [Tumultuous cheering, waving of flags and banners, continued for several minutes.] The story that I ever said that one dollar a day was enough for a workingman, with all its accompaniments and appendages, is not a perversion of anything I ever said—it is a false creation. [Enthusiastic cheering.] I will not follow in detail this long catalogue of campaign slanders, but will only add that it is equally false that anywhere or at any time I ever spoke disparagingly of my fellow-citizens of Irish nativity or descent. Many of them are now enrolling themselves on the side of protection for American labor—this created the necessity for the story. [Cheers.] I want to say again that those who pitch a campaign upon so low a level greatly underestimate the intelligence, the sense of decency, and the love of fair play of the American people. [Prolonged cheering.] I said to one of the first delegations that visited me that this was a contest[184] of great principles; that it would be fought out upon the high plains of truth, and not in the swamps of slander and defamation. [Great cheering.] Those who will encamp their army in the swamp will abandon the victory to the army that is on the heights. [Cheers.] The Republican party stands to-day as the bulwark and defense of the wage-earners of this country against a competition which may reduce American wages even below the standard they falsely impute to my suggestion. [Cheers.]

There are two very plain facts that I have often stated—and others more forcibly than I—that it seems to me should be conclusive with the wage-earners of America. The policy of the Democratic party—the revision of our tariff laws as indicated by the Democratic party, a revenue-only tariff, or progressive free trade—means a vast and sudden increase of importations. Is there a man here so dull as not to know that this means diminished work in our American shops? [Cheers and cries of "No, no!"] If some one says that labor is not fully employed now, do you hope it will be more fully employed when you have transferred one-third of the work done in our shops to foreign workshops? [Cries of "No, no!"] If some one tells me that labor is not sufficiently rewarded here, does he hope to have its rewards increased by striking down our protective duties and compelling our workmen to compete with the underpaid labor of Europe? [Cheers.]

I conclude by saying that less work and lower wages are the inevitable result of the triumph of the principles advocated by the Democratic party. [Cheers.]

And now you will excuse further speech from me. [Cries of "Go on!"] There are here several distinguished advocates of Republican principles. You will be permitted to hear now, I understand, from the Hon. Henry W. Blair, a Senator from the State of New Hampshire, who has been so long at the head of the Committee on Education and Labor in the United States Senate; and to-night in this hall you will be permitted to listen to the Hon. William McKinley, Jr., of Ohio. Now will you allow me again to thank you out of a full heart for this cordial tender of your confidence and respect. I felt that in return I could not omit to say what I have said, not because you needed to be assured of my friendliness, but in recognition of a confidence that falsehood and slander could not shake. I have not thought it in good taste to make many personal references in my public addresses. If any one thinks it necessary that a comparison should be instituted between the candidates of the two great parties as to their friendliness to the reforms demanded by organized labor, I must leave others to make it. [Great cheering.]

My Friends of the Railroad Republican Clubs—Before your committee waited upon me to request my presence here to-night I had resolutely determined that I would not make another address in this campaign. But when they presented their suggestion that I should meet my railroad friends, I said to them—the kindness which has been shown to me from an early period in this campaign by the railroad men of Indiana has been so conspicuous and so cordial that I could not deny any request that is presented in their name. [Cheers.] And so I am here to-night, not to speak upon any political topic, but only to express, if I can find words to express, the deep and earnest thankfulness I feel toward you who have shown so much kindness and confidence in me. [Cheers.] Very early in this campaign there were those who sought to make a breach between you and me. You did not wait for my answer, but you made answer yourselves. [Cheers.] And time and again you have witnessed your faith that my disposition toward you and toward the men who toil for their living was one of friendliness, and the principles which I represented and have always advocated were those that promoted the true interests of the workingmen of America. [Cheers.] I have always believed and held that the prosperity of our country, that the supremacy of its institutions[186] and its social order all depended upon our pursuing such a policy in our legislation that we should have in America a class of workingmen earning adequate wages that would bring comfort into their homes and maintain hope in their hearts. [Cheers.] A despairing man, a man out of whose horizon the star of hope has gone, is not a safe citizen in a republic. [Cheers.] Therefore I would preserve against unfriendly competition the highest possible scale of wages to our working people. [Great cheering.]

I know the stout hearts, I know the intelligence, I know the enterprise of those men who man our railway trains and push them at lightning speed through darkness and storm. I know the skill and faithfulness of those who sit at the telegraph instrument, holding in their watchfulness the safety of those who journey. I know the fidelity of the men who conduct this business, which has grown to be a system as fine and perfect as the finest product of mechanical art. [Cheers.] And so I value to-night this evidence of your cordial respect; and let me say that whatever may happen to me in the future, whether I shall remain a citizen of Indianapolis to bear with you the duties and responsibilities of private citizenship, or shall be honored with office, I shall never forget this great demonstration of your friendliness. [Prolonged cheers.]

Captain Ebel and Gentlemen—I am very much obliged to you for this friendly visit. It comes in the nature of a surprise, for it was only a little while ago that I was advised of your intention. I thank you for this gift. It is intended, I suppose, as a type, and a type of a very useful article, one that does not come amiss in any station of life. Only those who for months found their only convenient seat upon a log or a cracker-box know what infinite luxury there was in even a common Windsor chair. We are glad to welcome you to our home, and will be glad to greet personally the members of this club and those ladies who accompany you.

The time for speech-making is over. The debate is closed, and I believe the polls are closed. ["Right you are!"] I will only thank[189] you for your call to-night and for that friendly spirit which you have shown to me during the campaign.

Indianapolis, Ind., Nov. 9, 1888.

To Hon. Warner Miller, Herkimer, N. Y.:

I am greatly grieved at your defeat. If the intrepid leader fell outside the breastworks, the column, inspired by his courage, went on to victory.

Benjamin Harrison.

Commander and Comrades—It affords me pleasure to meet with you again on this occasion. When I left the army so many years ago I little expected to enter it again, as I soon will. Among the many honors which may be placed on me in the future there will be none, I can assure you, that I will esteem more highly than my membership in this order, instituted by those who sustained the[190] flag of Washington, the flag of Perry, the flag that was baptized in the blood of the Revolution and again in the second conflict with the mother country; that floated over the halls of the Montezumas, and was sustained in other wars, and which you made possible to wave over every foot of our beloved country. I esteem it my greatest honor that I bore even an humble part with you and all the comrades of the Grand Army in bringing about this most desirable result. I wish to say before parting with you, if I may never look upon your faces collectively again, that the parting request I would make of you would be that each of you, without regard to party (and I believe I can say this without offence to any comrade of the Grand Army), stand shoulder to shoulder, as we did during the war, to preserve a free and honest ballot. There is nothing, I can assure you, that will do more to preserve and maintain our institutions than this. Our country, separated as it is by the great watery waste, need have no fear of interference by foreign countries with its institutions; nor do we desire in any way to interfere with them. Nor, indeed, is there any fear of another civil war. The only fear we should now have is a corruption or suppression of the free ballot, and your utmost exertions should be to prevent it.

My Good Friends and Neighbors—I cannot trust myself to put in words what I feel at this time. Every kind thought that is in your minds and every good wish that is in your hearts for me finds its responsive wish and thought in my mind and heart for each of you. I love this city. It has been my own cherished home. Twice before I have left it to discharge public duties and returned to it with gladness, as I hope to do again. It is a city on whose streets the pompous displays of wealth are not seen. It is full of pleasant homes, and in these homes there is an unusual store of contentment. The memory of your favor and kindness will abide with me, and my strong desire to hold your respect and confidence will strengthen me in the discharge of my new and responsible duties. Let me say farewell to all my Indiana friends. For the public honors that have come to me I am their grateful debtor. They have made the debt so large that I can never discharge it. There is a great sense of loneliness in the discharge of high public duties. The moment of decision is one of isolation. But there is One whose help comes even into the quiet chamber of judgment, and to His wise and unfailing guidance will I look for direction and safety. My family unite with me in grateful thanks for this cordial good-by, and with me wish that these years of separation may be full of peace and happiness for each of you. [Great cheering.]

My Friends—I thank you for this cordial gathering and demonstration. I can detain the train but a moment, and I only stopped at the request of the Superintendent of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, so that the children might have an opportunity to see me and that I might wish them the bright and prosperous future which the sacrifices of their fathers won for them. I bid you farewell.

My Friends—I have so long had my home among you that I cannot but feel a sense of regret in leaving the soil of Indiana. I go with a deep sense of inadequacy, but I am sure you will be patient with my mistakes, and that you will all give me your help as citizens [cheers and cries of "We will!"] in my efforts to promote the best interests of our people and the honor of the Nation we love. I thank you for this cordial greeting. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—I thank you for the wonderful demonstration of this evening. In these evidences of the good will of my friends I receive a new stimulus as I enter upon the duties of the great office to which I have been chosen. I beg to thank you again for your interest. [Great cheering.]

There is no constitutional or legal requirement that the President shall take the oath of office in the presence of the people. But there is so manifest an appropriateness in the public induction to office of the chief executive officer of the Nation that from the beginning of the Government the people, to whose service the official oath consecrates the officer, have been called to witness the solemn ceremonial. The oath taken in the presence of the people becomes a mutual covenant; the officer covenants to serve the whole body of the people by a faithful execution of the laws, so that they may be the unfailing defence and security of those who respect and observe them, and that neither wealth and station nor the power of combinations shall be able to evade their just penalties or to wrest them from a beneficent public purpose to serve the ends of cruelty or selfishness. My promise is spoken; yours unspoken, but not the less real and solemn. The people of every State have here their representatives. Surely I do not misinterpret the spirit of the occasion when I assume that the whole body of the people covenant with me and with each other to-day to support and defend the Constitution and the Union of the States, to yield willing obedience to all the laws and each to every other citizen his equal civil and political rights. Entering thus solemnly in covenant with each other, we may reverently invoke and confidently expect the favor and help of Almighty God, that He will give to me wisdom, strength, and fidelity, and to our people a spirit of fraternity and a love of righteousness and peace.

This occasion derives peculiar interest from the fact that the presidential term which begins this day is the twenty-sixth under our Constitution. The first inauguration of President Washington took place in New York, where Congress was then sitting, on April 30, 1789, having been deferred by reason of delays attending the[195] organization of the Congress and the canvass of the electoral vote. Our people have already worthily observed the centennials of the Declaration of Independence, of the battle of Yorktown, and of the adoption of the Constitution, and will shortly celebrate in New York the institution of the second great department of our constitutional scheme of government. When the centennial of the institution of the judicial department by the organization of the Supreme Court shall have been suitably observed, as I trust it will be, our Nation will have fully entered its second century.

I will not attempt to note the marvellous and, in great part, happy contrasts between our country as it steps over the threshold into its second century of organized existence under the Constitution, and that weak but wisely ordered young Nation that looked undauntedly down the first century, when all its years stretched out before it.

Our people will not fail at this time to recall the incidents which accompanied the institution of government under the Constitution, or to find inspiration and guidance in the teachings and example of Washington and his great associates, and hope and courage in the contrast which thirty-eight populous and prosperous States offer to the thirteen States, weak in everything except courage and the love of liberty, that then fringed our Atlantic seaboard.

The Territory of Dakota has now a population greater than any of the original States—except Virginia—and greater than the aggregate of five of the smaller States in 1790. The centre of population when our national capital was located was east of Baltimore, and it was argued by many well-informed persons that it would move eastward rather than westward. Yet in 1880 it was found to be near Cincinnati, and the new census, about to be taken, will show another stride to the westward. That which was the body has come to be only the rich fringe of the nation's robe. But our growth has not been limited to territory, population, and aggregate wealth, marvellous as it has been in each of those directions. The masses of our people are better fed, clothed, and housed than their fathers were. The facilities for popular education have been vastly enlarged and more generally diffused. The virtues of courage and patriotism have given recent proof of their continued presence and increasing power in the hearts and over the lives of our people. The influences of religion have been multiplied and strengthened. The sweet offices of charity have greatly increased. The virtue of temperance is held in higher estimation. We have not attained an ideal condition. Not all of our people are happy and prosperous; not all of them are virtuous and law-abiding.[196] But, on the whole, the opportunities offered to the individual to secure the comforts of life are better than are found elsewhere, and largely better than they were here 100 years ago.

The surrender of a large measure of sovereignty to the general Government, effected by the adoption of the Constitution, was not accomplished until the suggestions of reason were strongly re-enforced by the more imperative voice of experience. The divergent interests of peace speedily demanded a "more perfect union." The merchant, the ship-master, and the manufacturer discovered and disclosed to our statesmen and to the people that commercial emancipation must be added to the political freedom which had been so bravely won. The commercial policy of the mother country had not relaxed any of its hard and oppressive features. To hold in check the development of our commercial marine, to prevent or retard the establishment and growth of manufactures in the States, and so to secure the American market for their shops and the carrying trade for their ships, was the policy of European statesmen, and was pursued with the most selfish vigor. Petitions poured in upon Congress urging the imposition of discriminating duties that should encourage the production of needed things at home. The patriotism of the people, which no longer found a field of exercise in war, was energetically directed to the duty of equipping the young republic for the defence of its independence by making its people self-dependent. Societies for the promotion of home manufactures and for encouraging the use of domestics in the dress of the people were organized in many of the States. The revival at the end of the century of the same patriotic interest in the preservation and development of domestic industries and the defence of our working people against injurious foreign competition is an incident worthy of attention.

It is not a departure, but a return, that we have witnessed. The protective policy had then its opponents. The argument was made, as now, that its benefits inured to particular classes or sections. If the question became in any sense, or at any time, sectional, it was only because slavery existed in some of the States. But for this there was no reason why the cotton-producing States should not have led or walked abreast with the New England States in the production of cotton fabrics. There was this reason only why the States that divide with Pennsylvania the mineral treasures of the great southeastern and central mountain ranges should have been so tardy in bringing to the smelting furnace and the mill the coal and iron from their near opposing hillsides. Mill-fires were lighted at the funeral pile of slavery. The emancipation proclamation was[197] heard in the depths of the earth as well as in the sky—men were made free and material things became our better servants.

The sectional element has happily been eliminated from the tariff discussion. We have no longer States that are necessarily only planting States. None are excluded from achieving that diversification of pursuit among the people which brings wealth and contentment. The cotton plantation will not be less valuable when the product is spun in the country town by operatives whose necessities call for diversified crops and create a home demand for garden and agricultural products. Every new mine, furnace, and factory is an extension of the productive capacity of the State more real and valuable than added territory.

Shall the prejudices and paralysis of slavery continue to hang upon the skirts of progress? How long will those who rejoice that slavery no longer exists cherish or tolerate the incapacities it puts upon their communities? I look hopefully to the continuance of our protective system and to the consequent development of manufacturing and mining enterprises in the States hitherto wholly given to agriculture as a potent influence in the perfect unification of our people. The men who have invested their capital in these enterprises, the farmers who have felt the benefit of their neighborhood, and the men who work in shop or field will not fail to find and to defend a community of interest. Is it not quite possible that the farmers and the promoters of the great mining and manufacturing enterprises which have recently been established in the South may yet find that the free ballot of the workingman, without distinction of race, is needed for their defence as well as for his own? I do not doubt that if these men in the South who now accept the tariff views of Clay and the constitutional expositions of Webster would courageously avow and defend their real convictions they would not find it difficult, by friendly instruction and co-operation, to make the black man their efficient and safe ally, not only in establishing correct principles in our national Administration, but in preserving for their local communities the benefits of social order and economical and honest government. At least until the good offices of kindness and education have been fairly tried the contrary conclusion cannot be plausibly urged.

I have altogether rejected the suggestion of a special executive policy for any section of our country. It is the duty of the Executive to administer and enforce in the methods and by the instrumentalities pointed out and provided by the Constitution all the laws enacted by Congress. These laws are general, and their administration should be uniform and equal. As a citizen may not[198] elect what laws he will obey, neither may the Executive elect which he will enforce. The duty to obey and execute embraces the Constitution in its entirety and the whole code of laws enacted under it. The evil example of permitting individuals, corporations, or communities to nullify the laws because they cross some selfish or local interests or prejudices is full of danger, not only to the Nation at large, but much more to those who use this pernicious expedient to escape their just obligations or to obtain an unjust advantage over others. They will presently themselves be compelled to appeal to the law for protection, and those who would use the law as a defence must not deny that use of it to others.

If our great corporations would more scrupulously observe their legal obligations and duties they would have less cause to complain of the unlawful limitations of their rights or of violent interference with their operations. The community that by concert, open or secret, among its citizens denies to a portion of its members their plain rights under the law has severed the only safe bond of social order and prosperity. The evil works, from a bad centre, both ways. It demoralizes those who practise it, and destroys the faith of those who suffer by it in the efficiency of the law as a safe protector. The man in whose breast that faith has been darkened is naturally the subject of dangerous and uncanny suggestions. Those who use unlawful methods, if moved by no higher motive than the selfishness that prompts them, may well stop and inquire what is to be the end of this. An unlawful expedient cannot become a permanent condition of government. If the educated and influential classes in a community either practise or connive at the systematic violation of laws that seem to them to cross their convenience, what can they expect when the lesson that convenience or a supposed class interest is a sufficient cause for lawlessness has been well learned by the ignorant classes? A community where law is the rule of conduct, and where courts, not mobs, execute its penalties, is the only attractive field for business investments and honest labor.

Our naturalization laws should be so amended as to make the inquiry into the character and good disposition of persons applying for citizenship more careful and searching. Our existing laws have been in their administration an unimpressive and often an unintelligible form. We accept the man as a citizen without any knowledge of his fitness, and he assumes the duties of citizenship without any knowledge as to what they are. The privileges of American citizenship are so great and its duties so grave that we may well insist upon a good knowledge of every person applying for[199] citizenship and a good knowledge by him of our institutions. We should not cease to be hospitable to immigration, but we should cease to be careless as to the character of it. There are men of all races, even the best, whose coming is necessarily a burden upon our public revenues or a threat to social order. These should be identified and excluded.

We have happily maintained a policy of avoiding all interference with European affairs. We have been only interested spectators of their contentions in diplomacy and in war, ready to use our friendly offices to promote peace, but never obtruding our advice and never attempting unfairly to coin the distresses of other powers into commercial advantage to ourselves. We have a just right to expect that our European policy will be the American policy of European courts.

It is so manifestly incompatible with those precautions for our peace and safety, which all the great powers habitually observe and enforce in matters affecting them, that a shorter water-way between our eastern and western seaboards should be dominated by any European Government, that we may confidently expect that such a purpose will not be entertained by any friendly power. We shall in the future, as in the past, use every endeavor to maintain and enlarge our friendly relations with all the great powers, but they will not expect us to look kindly upon any project that would leave us subject to the dangers of a hostile observation or environment.

We have not sought to dominate or to absorb any of our weaker neighbors, but rather to aid and encourage them to establish free and stable governments, resting upon the consent of their own people. We have a clear right to expect, therefore, that no European Government will seek to establish colonial dependencies upon the territory of these independent American States. That which a sense of justice restrains us from seeking they may be reasonably expected willingly to forego.

It must not be assumed, however, that our interests are so exclusively American that our entire inattention to any events that may transpire elsewhere can be taken for granted. Our citizens domiciled for purposes of trade in all countries and in many of the islands of the sea demand and will have our adequate care in their personal and commercial rights. The necessities of our navy require convenient coaling stations and dock and harbor privileges. These and other trading privileges we will feel free to obtain only by means that do not in any degree partake of coercion, however feeble the Government from which we ask such concessions. But[200] having fairly obtained them by methods and for purposes entirely consistent with the most friendly disposition toward all other powers, our consent will be necessary to any modification or impairment of the concession.

We shall neither fail to respect the flag of any friendly nation or the just rights of its citizens, nor to exact the like treatment for our own. Calmness, justice, and consideration should characterize our diplomacy. The offices of an intelligent diplomacy or of friendly arbitration, in proper cases, should be adequate to the peaceful adjustment of all international difficulties. By such methods we will make our contribution to the world's peace, which no nation values more highly, and avoid the opprobrium which must fall upon the nation that ruthlessly breaks it.

The duty devolved by law upon the President to nominate and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint all public officers whose appointment is not otherwise provided for in the Constitution or by act of Congress has become very burdensome, and its wise and efficient discharge full of difficulty. The civil list is so large that a personal knowledge of any large number of the applicants is impossible. The President must rely upon the representations of others, and these are often made inconsiderately and without any just sense of responsibility.

I have a right, I think, to insist that those who volunteer or are invited to give advice as to appointments shall exercise consideration and fidelity. A high sense of duty and an ambition to improve the service should characterize all public officers. There are many ways in which the convenience and comfort of those who have business with our public officers may be promoted by a thoughtful and obliging officer, and I shall expect those whom I may appoint to justify their selection by a conspicuous efficiency in the discharge of their duties. Honorable party service will certainly not be esteemed by me a disqualification for public office; but it will in no case be allowed to serve as a shield for official negligence, incompetency, or delinquency. It is entirely creditable to seek public office by proper methods and with proper motives, and all applications will be treated with consideration; but I shall need, and the heads of departments will need, time for inquiry and deliberation. Persistent importunity will not, therefore, be the best support of an application for office.

Heads of departments, bureaus, and all other public officers having any duty connected therewith, will be expected to enforce the Civil Service law fully and without evasion. Beyond this obvious duty I hope to do something more to advance the reform of the[201] civil service. The ideal, or even my own ideal, I shall probably not attain. Retrospect will be a safer basis of judgment than promises. We shall not, however, I am sure, be able to put our civil service upon a non-partisan basis until we have secured an incumbency that fair minded men of the opposition will approve for impartiality and integrity. As the number of such in the civil list is increased removals from office will diminish.

While a treasury surplus is not the greatest evil, it is a serious evil. Our revenue should be ample to meet the ordinary annual demands upon our treasury, with a sufficient margin for those extraordinary but scarcely less imperative demands which arise now and then. Expenditure should always be made with economy, and only upon public necessity. Wastefulness, profligacy, or favoritism in public expenditures is criminal; but there is nothing in the condition of our country or of our people to suggest that anything presently necessary to the public prosperity, security, or honor should be unduly postponed. It will be the duty of Congress wisely to forecast and estimate these extraordinary demands, and, having added them to our ordinary expenditures, to so adjust our revenue laws that no considerable annual surplus will remain. We will fortunately be able to apply to the redemption of the public debt any small and unforeseen excess of revenue. This is better than to reduce our income below our necessary expenditures with the resulting choice between another change of our revenue laws and an increase of the public debt. It is quite possible, I am sure, to effect the necessary reduction in our revenues without breaking down our protective tariff or seriously injuring any domestic industry.

The construction of a sufficient number of modern war ships and of their necessary armament should progress as rapidly as is consistent with care and perfection in plans and workmanship. The spirit, courage, and skill of our naval officers and seamen have many times in our history given to weak ships and inefficient guns a rating greatly beyond that of the naval list. That they will again do so upon occasion I do not doubt; but they ought not, by premeditation or neglect, to be left to the risks and exigencies of an unequal combat.

We should encourage the establishment of American steamship lines. The exchanges of commerce demand stated, reliable, and rapid means of communication, and until these are provided the development of our trade with the States lying south of us is impossible.

Our pension law should give more adequate and discriminating[202] relief to the Union soldiers and sailors and to their widows and orphans. Such occasions as this should remind us that we owe everything to their valor and sacrifice.

It is a subject of congratulation that there is a near prospect of the admission into the Union of the Dakotas and Montana and Washington Territories. This act of justice has been unreasonably delayed in the case of some of them. The people who have settled those Territories are intelligent, enterprising, and patriotic, and the accession of these new States will add strength to the Nation. It is due to the settlers in the Territories who have availed themselves of the invitations of our land laws to make homes upon the public domain that their titles should be speedily adjusted and their honest entries confirmed by patent.

It is very gratifying to observe the general interest now being manifested in the reform of our election laws. Those who have been for years calling attention to the pressing necessity of throwing about the ballot-box and about the elector further safeguards, in order that our elections might not only be free and pure, but might clearly appear to be so, will welcome the accession of any who did not so soon discover the need of reform. The national Congress has not as yet taken control of elections in that case over which the Constitution gives it jurisdiction, but has accepted and adopted the election laws of the several States, provided penalties for their violation and a method of supervision. Only the inefficiency of the State laws or an unfair partisan administration of them could suggest a departure from this policy. It was clearly, however, in the contemplation of the framers of the Constitution that such an exigency might arise, and provision was wisely made for it. No power vested in Congress or in the Executive to secure or perpetuate it should remain unused upon occasion.

The people of all the Congressional districts have an equal interest that the election in each shall truly express the views and wishes of a majority of the qualified electors residing within it. The results of such elections are not local, and the insistence of electors residing in other districts that they shall be pure and free does not savor at all of impertinence. If in any of the States the public security is thought to be threatened by ignorance among the electors, the obvious remedy is education. The sympathy and help of our people will not be withheld from any community struggling with special embarrassments or difficulties connected with the suffrage, if the remedies proposed proceed upon lawful lines and are promoted by just and honorable methods. How shall those who practise election frauds recover that respect for the sanctity of the[203] ballot which is the first condition and obligation of good citizenship? The man who has come to regard the ballot-box as a juggler's hat has renounced his allegiance.

Let us exalt patriotism and moderate our party contentions. Let those who would die for the flag on the field of battle give a better proof of their patriotism and a higher glory to their country by promoting fraternity and justice. A party success that is achieved by unfair methods or by practices that partake of revolution is hurtful and evanescent, even from a party standpoint. We should hold our differing opinions in mutual respect, and, having submitted them to the arbitrament of the ballot, should accept an adverse judgment with the same respect that we would have demanded of our opponents if the decision had been in our favor.

No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love, or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed upon our head a diadem, and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond definition or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power, and that the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all the people.

I do not mistrust the future. Dangers have been in frequent ambush along our path, but we have uncovered and vanquished them all. Passion has swept some of our communities, but only to give us a new demonstration that the great body of our people are stable, patriotic, and law-abiding. No political party can long pursue advantage at the expense of public honor or by rude and indecent methods, without protest and fatal disaffection in its own body. The peaceful agencies of commerce are more fully revealing the necessary unity of all our communities, and the increasing intercourse of our people is promoting mutual respect. We shall find unalloyed pleasure in the revelation which our next census will make of the swift development of the great resources of some of the States. Each State will bring its generous contribution to the great aggregate of the Nation's increase. And when the harvest from the fields, the cattle from the hills, and the ores of the earth shall have been weighed, counted, and valued, we will turn from them all to crown with the highest honor the State that has most promoted education, virtue, justice, and patriotism among the people.

Mr. Chairman, my Countrymen—Official duty of a very exacting character has made it quite impossible that I should deliver an address on this occasion. Foreseeing this, I early notified your committee that the programme must not contain any address by me. The selection of Mr. Depew as the orator of this occasion makes further speech not only difficult, but superfluous. He has met the demand of this great occasion on its own high level. He has brought before us the incidents and the lessons of the first inauguration of Washington. We seem to have been a part of that admiring and almost adoring throng that filled these streets one hundred years ago.

We have come into the serious, but always inspiring, presence of Washington. He was the incarnation of duty, and he teaches us to-day this great lesson: That those who would associate their names with events that shall outlive a century can only do so by high consecration to duty. Self-seeking has no public observance or anniversary. The captain who gives to the sea his cargo of goods, that he may give safety and deliverance to his imperilled fellow-men, has fame; he who lands the cargo has only wages. Washington seemed to come to the discharge of the duties of his high office impressed with a great sense of his unfamiliarity with these new calls thrust upon him, modestly doubtful of his own ability, but trusting implicitly in the sustaining helpfulness and grace of that God who rules the world, presides in the councils of nations, and is able to supply every human defect. We have made marvellous progress in material things since then, but the stately and enduring shaft that we have erected at the national capital at Washington symbolizes the fact that he is still the First American Citizen. [Cheers.]

Mr. President and Fellow-citizens—I should be unjust to myself, and, what is more serious, I should be unjust to you, if I did not at this first and last opportunity express to you the deep sense of obligation and thankfulness which I feel for these many personal and official courtesies which have been extended to me since I came to take part in this celebration. The official representatives of the State of New York and of this great city have attended me with the most courteous kindness, omitting no attention that could make my stay among you pleasant and gratifying. From you and at the hands of those who have thronged the streets of the city to-day I have received the most cordial expressions of good will. I would not, however, have you understand that these loud acclaims have been in any sense appropriated as a personal tribute to myself. I have realized that there was that in this occasion and all these interesting incidents which have made it so profoundly impressive to my mind which was above and greater than any living man. I have realized that the tribute of cordial interest which you have manifested was rendered to that great office which, by the favor of a greater people, I now exercise, rather than to me.

The occasion and all of its incidents will be memorable not only in the history of your own city, but in the history of our country. New York did not succeed in retaining the seat of national government here, although she made liberal provision for the assembling of the first Congress in the expectation that the Congress might find its permanent home here. But though you lost that which you coveted, I think the representatives here of all the States will agree that it was fortunate that the first inauguration of Washington took place in the State and the city of New York.

For where in our country could the centennial of the event be so worthily celebrated as here? What seaboard offered so magnificent a bay on which to display our merchant and naval marine? What[210] city offered thoroughfares so magnificent, or a people so great, so generous, as New York has poured out to-day to celebrate that event?

I have received at the hands of the committee who have been charged with the details—onerous, exacting, and too often unthankful—of this demonstration evidence of their confidence in my physical endurance. [Laughter.]

I must also acknowledge still one other obligation. The committee having in charge the exercises of this event have also given me another evidence of their confidence, which has been accompanied with some embarrassment. As I have noticed the progress of this banquet, it seemed to me that each of the speakers had been made acquainted with his theme before he took his seat at the banquet, and that I alone was left to make acquaintance with my theme when I sat down to the table. I prefer to substitute for the official title which is upon the programme the familiar and fireside expression, "Our Country."

I congratulate you to-day, as one of the instructive and interesting features of this occasion, that these great thoroughfares dedicated to trade have closed their doors and covered up the insignias of commerce; that your great exchanges have closed and your citizens given themselves up to the observance of the celebration in which we are participating.

I believe that patriotism has been intensified in many hearts by what we have witnessed to-day. I believe that patriotism has been placed in a higher and holier fane in many hearts. The bunting with which you have covered your walls, these patriotic inscriptions, must go down and the wage and trade be resumed again. Here may I not ask you to carry those inscriptions that now hang on the walls into your homes, into the schools of your city, into all of your great institutions where children are gathered, and teach them that the eye of the young and the old should look upon that flag as one of the familiar glories of every American? Have we not learned that no stocks and bonds, nor land, is our country? It is a spiritual thought that is in our minds—it is the flag and what it stands for; it is the fireside and the home; it is the thoughts that are in our hearts, born of the inspiration which comes with the story of the flag, of martyrs to liberty. It is the graveyard into which a common country has gathered the unconscious deeds of those who died that the thing might live which we love and call our country, rather than anything that can be touched or seen.

Let me add a thought due to our country's future. Perhaps[211] never have we been so well equipped for war upon land as now, and we have never seen the time when our people were more smitten with the love of peace. To elevate the morals of our people; to hold up the law as that sacred thing which, like the ark of God of old, may not be touched by irreverent hands, but frowns upon any attempt to dethrone its supremacy; to unite our people in all that makes home comfortable, as well as to give our energies in the direction of material advancement, this service may we render. And out of this great demonstration let us draw lessons to inspire us to consecrate ourselves anew to this love and service of our country.

I thank the Governor for this larger welcome extended as Governor on the part of the people of the whole State. You have well said that the people of Indiana have been kind to me, and if, when my public career is ended, I can return to you the happy possessor of your respect and good-will, I shall not leave public office with regret.

Gentlemen of the Committees and Friends—I scarcely know how to convey to you my deep impressions at this cordial welcome back to Indianapolis. I cannot hope to do it. I have been deeply touched by this generous and courteous reception. It was not my expectation when I left Indianapolis a few months ago, under so serious a sense of my responsibilities, that I would return again so soon to my home. But this occasion was one which I could not well be absent from. It is one that should enlist to a degree that nothing else can do our patriotic interests and State pride. It is true, as General Carnahan has said, that I took an early interest in this movement. I felt that until this monument was built, until its top-stone was laid, and its voice had been heard by the people of this State in expressive speech, we had not done that for our soldier dead which we should, and that we had neglected those who died for us. I am glad, therefore, to be present and see this monument started. I reverently rejoice with you on this occasion, and hail the work which these commissioners have so wisely and magnificently begun.

Mr. President and Fellow-citizens—I did not expect to make any address on this occasion. It would have been pleasant, if I could have found leisure to make suitable preparation, to have accepted the invitation of the committee having these exercises in charge to deliver an oration. I would have felt it an honor to associate my name with an occasion so great as this. Public duties, however, prevented the acceptance of the invitation, and I could only promise to be present with you to-day. It seemed to me most appropriate that I should take part with my fellow-citizens of Indiana in this great ceremony. There have been few occasions in the history of our State so full of interest, so magnificent, so inspiring, as that which we now witness. The suggestion that a monument should be builded to commemorate the valor and heroism of those soldiers of Indiana who gave their lives for the flag attracted my interest from the beginning. Five years ago last January, when the people assembled in the opera-house yonder to unveil the statue which had been worthily set up to our great war Governor, I ventured to express the hope that near by it, as a twin expression of one great sentiment, there might be builded a noble shaft, not to any man, not to bear on any of its majestic faces the name of a man, but a monument about which the sons of veterans, the mothers of our dead, the widows that are yet with us, might gather, and, pointing to the stately shaft, say: "There is his monument." The hope expressed that day is realized now. [Cheers.]

I congratulate the people of Indiana that our Legislature has generously met the expectations of our patriotic people. I congratulate the commission having this great work in charge that they[215] have secured a design which will not suffer under the criticism of the best artists of the world. I congratulate you that a monument so costly as to show that we value that which it commemorates, so artistic as to express the sentiment which evoked it, is to stand in the capital of Indiana. Does any one say there is wastefulness here? [Cries of "No, no!"] My countrymen, $200,000 has never passed, and never will pass, from the treasury of Indiana that will give a better return than the expenditure for the erection of this monument. As I have witnessed these ceremonies and listened to these patriotic hymns I have read in the faces of the men who stand about me that lifting up of the soul, that kindling of patriotic fire, that has made me realize that on such occasions the Nation is laying deep and strong its future security.

This is a monument by Indiana to Indiana soldiers. But I beg you to remember that they were only soldiers of Indiana until the enlistment oath was taken; that from that hour until they came back to the generous State that had sent them forth they were soldiers of the Union. So that it seemed to me not inappropriate that I should bring to you to-day the sympathy and cheer of the loyal people of all the States. No American citizen need avoid it or pass it with unsympathetic eyes, for, my countrymen, it does not commemorate a war of subjugation. There is not in the United States to-day a man who, if he realizes what has occurred since the war and has opened his soul to the sight of that which is to come, who will not feel that it is good for all our people that victory crowned the cause which this monument commemorates. I do seriously believe that if we can measure among the States the benefits resulting from the preservation of the Union, the rebellious States have the larger share. It destroyed an institution that was their destruction. It opened the way for a commercial life that, if they will only embrace it and face the light, means to them a development that shall rival the best attainments of the greatest of our States.

And now let me thank you for your pleasant greeting. I have felt lifted up by this occasion. It seems to me that our spirits have been borne up to meet those of the dead and glorified, and that from this place we shall go to our homes more resolutely set in our purpose as citizens to conserve the peace and welfare of our neighborhoods, to hold up the dignity and honor of our free institutions, and to see that no harm shall come to our country, whether from internal dissensions or from the aggressions of a foreign foe. [Great cheering.]

Mr. Chairman, Comrades—I think I will treat you to another surprise. My Indiana friends have been so much accustomed to have me talk on all occasions that I am sure nothing would gratify them more—nothing would be a greater surprise than for me to decline to talk to-night. I am very grateful for this expression of your interest and respect. That comradeship and good feeling which your cordial salutation has expressed to me I beg every comrade of the Grand Army here to-night to believe I feel for him.

Now, I am sure, in view of the labors of yesterday and to-day, that you will allow me to wish you prosperous, happy, useful lives, honorable and peaceful deaths, and that those who survive you may point to this shaft, which is being reared yonder, as a worthy tribute of your services in defence of your country. [Cheers.]

Mr. Taylor—The survivors of the Seventieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, now assembled in annual reunion, have heard, with great gratification, the cordial words of welcome which you have addressed to us. We have never doubted the hospitality of the citizens of this great city, and have several times held our reunions here; and if we have more frequently sought some of the quieter towns in this Congressional district—where the regiment was organized—it has only been because we could be a little more to ourselves than was possible in this city. You will not think this a selfish instinct when I tell you that, as the years go on, these reunions of our regiment become more and more a family affair; and as in the gathering of the scattered members of a family in the family reunion, so we have loved, when we get together as comrades, to be somewhat apart, that we might enjoy each other. It has been pleasant, I am sure, however, to link this annual reunion with the great event of yesterday. It did us good to meet with our comrades of the whole State—those who had other numbers on their uniforms, but carried the same flag under which we[218] marched—in these exercises connected with the dedication of a monument that knows no regimental distinction. [Applause.]

If those having charge now will announce some proper arrangement by which I can take by the hand the members, not only of the Seventieth Indiana, but any comrades of the First Brigade, who have done us honor by meeting with us to-day, I would be glad to conform to their wishes. It is perhaps possible that, without leaving the hall, simply by an exchange of seats, this may be accomplished, and when that is done there may yet be time before dinner to proceed with some other of the exercises upon the programme.

Ladies and Gentlemen—Some of my newspaper friends have been puzzling themselves in order to discover the reason why I left Washington to be present here to-night. I do not think I need, in view of the magnificent spectacle presented to us here to-night, to state the motives which have impelled my presence. Surely no loyal citizen of Chicago who sits here to-night under this witching and magnificent scene will ask for any other reason than that which is here presented. [Applause.]

I do most heartily congratulate you upon the completion and inauguration of this magnificent building—without an equal in this country, and, so far as I know, without an equal in the world. [Applause.] We have here about us to-night in this grand architecture, in this tasteful decoration, that which is an education and an inspiration. [Applause.] It might well tempt one whose surroundings were much farther removed from this scene than is the capital city to make a longer journey than I have done to stand for an hour in the view of such a spectacle of magnificence and grandeur and architectural triumph as this. [Applause.] And if that be true, surely there is reason enough why the President may turn aside for a little while from public duty to mingle with his fellow-citizens in celebrating an event so high and so worthy of commemoration as this triumph to-night. [Prolonged applause.]

Not speech, certainly, not the careless words of an extemporaneous speech, can adequately express all the sentiments I feel in contemplating the fitting culmination of this deed. [Applause.] Only the voice of the immortal singer can bring from these arches those echoes which will tell us the true purpose of their construction. [Applause.]

You will permit me, then, to thank you, to thank the Mayor of Chicago, to thank the President of this Association, and to thank[222] all those good citizens with whom I have to-day been brought in personal contact, for the kindness and respect with which you and they have received me; and you will permit me to thank you, my fellow-citizens, for the cordiality which you have kindly displayed here to-night.

It is my wish, and may it be the wish of all, that this great building may continue to be to all your population that which it should be—an edifice opening its doors from night to night, calling your people here away from the care of business to those enjoyments, and pursuits, and entertainments which develop the souls of men [applause], which will have power to inspire those whose lives are heavy with daily toil, and in its magnificent and enchanting presence lift them for a time out of these dull things into those higher things where men should live. [Great applause.]

Mr. Chairman and Fellow-citizens—I thank you most sincerely for this cordial greeting, but I shall not be betrayed by it into a lengthy speech. The selection of this day for these exercises—a day consecrated to the memory of those who died that there might be one flag of honor and authority in this republic—is most fitting. That one flag encircles us with its folds to-day, the unrivalled object of our loyal love.

This monument, so imposing and tasteful, fittingly typifies the grand and symmetrical character of him in whose honor it has been builded. His was "the arduous greatness of things done." No friendly hands constructed and placed for his ambition a ladder upon which he might climb. His own brave hands framed and nailed the cleats upon which he climbed to the heights of public usefulness and fame. He never ceased to be student and instructor. Turning from peaceful pursuits to army service, he quickly mastered tactics and strategy, and in a brief army career taught some valuable lessons in military science. Turning again from the field to the councils of state, he stood among the great debaters that have made our National Congress illustrious. What he might have been or done as President of the United States is chiefly left to friendly augury, based upon a career that had no incident of failure or inadequacy. The cruel circumstances attending his death had but one amelioration—that space of life was given him to teach from his dying bed a great lesson of patience and forbearance. His mortal part will find honorable rest here, but the lessons of his life and death will continue to be instructive and inspiring incidents in American history. [Great applause.]

Comrades—I do not count it the least of those fortunate circumstances which have occasionally appeared in my life that I am able to be here to-night to address you as comrades of the Grand Army of the United States. [Great applause.] It is an association great in its achievement and altogether worthy of perpetuation until the last of its members have fallen into an honorable grave. It is not my purpose to-night to address you in an extended speech, but only to say that, whether walking with you in the private pursuits of life, or holding a place of official responsibility, I can never, in either, forget those who upheld the flag of this Nation in those days when it was in peril. Everything that was worthy of preservation in our history past, everything that is glowing and glorious in the future, which we confront, turned upon the issue of that strife in which you were engaged. Will you permit me to wish for each of you a life full of all sweetness, and that each of you may preserve,[228] undimmed, the love for the flag which called you from your homes to stand under its folds amid the shock of battle and amid dying men. I believe there are indications to-day in this country of a revived love for the flag. [Applause.] I could wish that no American citizen would look upon it without saluting it. [Loud applause.]

Mr. Chairman—I wish only to thank you for this cordial welcome. Being upon my feet, I cannot refrain from expressing here my deep sense of gratitude for all the evidences of friendliness which have been shown me during my brief stay in Boston. The President of the United States, whosoever he may have been, from the first to the last, has always found in the citizenship of Massachusetts stanch supporters of the Union's Constitution. [Applause.] It has never occurred that he has called upon this great common[229]wealth for support that it has not been cordially and bravely rendered. In this magnificent parade which we have seen to-day of the survivors of the Massachusetts regiments in the war for the Union, and in this magnificent parade of the Sons of Veterans, coming on now to take the fathers' place in civil life and to stand as they were in their day as bulwarks of the Nation's defence, we have seen a magnificent evidence of what Massachusetts has done in defence of the Union and of the flag, and in these young men sure promise of what she would do again if the exigencies should call upon her to give her blood in a similar cause. [Applause.]

Let me again cordially thank you for your interest and friendliness and to bid you good-night, and, as I must leave you to-night for Washington, to hope that the closing exercises of this grand and instructive week may be pleasant, and as the outcome of it all that there may be kindled in the hearts of you all, and of these comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, a newer love for the flag and for the Constitution, and that this may all inure to us in social, family, and public life. [Applause and cheers.]

Mr. Chairman and Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic—I had impressions both pleasurable and painful as I looked upon the great procession of veterans which swept through the streets of this historic capital to-day; pleasurable in the contemplation of so many faces of those who shared together the perils and glories of the great struggle for the Union; sensations of a mournful sort as I thought how seldom we should meet again. Not many times more here. As I have stood in the great national cemetery at Arlington and have seen those silent battalions of the dead, I have thought how swiftly the reaper is doing his work and how soon in the scattered cemeteries of the land the ashes of all the soldiers of the great war shall be gathered to honored graves. And yet I could not help but feel that in the sturdy tread of those battalions there was yet strength of heart and limb that would not be withheld if a present peril should confront the Nation that you love. [Applause.] And if Arlington is the death, we see to-day in the springing step of those magnificent battalions of the Sons of Veterans the resurrection. [Applause.] They are coming on to take our places, the Nation will not be defenceless when we are gone, but those who have read about the firesides of the veterans' homes, in which they have been born and reared, the lessons of patriotism and the stories of heroism will come fresh armed to any conflict that may confront us in the future. [Applause.]

And so to-night we may gather from this magnificent spectacle a fresh and strong sense of security for the permanency of our country and our free institutions. I thought it altogether proper that I should take a brief furlough from official duties at Washington to mingle with you here to-day as a comrade [applause], because every President of the United States must realize that the strength of the Government, its defence in war, the army that is to muster under its banner when our Nation is assailed, is to be found here in the masses of our people. [Applause and cries of "Good!"] And so, as my furlough is almost done, and the train is already waiting that must bear me back to Washington, I can only express again the cordial, sincere, and fraternal interest which I feel this day in meeting you all. I can only hope that God will so order the years that are left to you that for you and those who are dear to you they may be ordered in all gentleness and sweetness, in all prosperity and success, and that, when at last the comrades who survive you shall wrap the flag of the Union about your[231] body and bear it to the grave, you may die in peace and in the hope of a glorious resurrection! [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—I beg to assure you that I very highly appreciate your cordial welcome. I did not need the assurance of him who has spoken in your name that we are welcome in this home of profit and industry. As I have passed along the streets, and as I now look into your eyes, I have read welcome in every face. I do not regard this greeting as personal. How can it be, since you look into my face as I into yours for the first time? I assume that in this demonstration you are evidencing your loyalty and fidelity to the Government of which we are all citizens.

You welcome me as one who, for the time being by your choice, is charged with the execution of the law. It is a great thing to be a citizen of this country, and the privilege has its corresponding obligations. This Government can never be wrecked by the treason or fault of those who for the time are placed in public position so long as the people are true to the principles of the Government and to the flag. [Applause.] Set your love upon the flag and that which it represents. Be ready, if occasion should call, to defend it, as my brave comrades did in the time of its greatest peril. Honor it in peace, cherish your loyal institutions, civil and educational; maintain social order in your community, let every one have respect for the rights and privileges of others while asserting his own.

These are the springs of our national and social life. If these springs are kept pure and strong the great river they form will ever flow on in purity and majesty. If local interests are carefully preserved the general good is secured, and all our people, each in his own place—the place where he labors, the place where he lives, the roof under which his family is sheltered—will continue to enjoy the benison of liberty in the fear of God.

To every one of you, those who come from the village shops, those who come from the mines and every vocation of life to join in this welcome, let me declare that I have no other purpose as President of the United States than to so administer my office as to promote the general good of all our people. [Great applause.]

Citizens of Philipsburg—I thank you for this very cordial expression of your esteem. You must excuse my not addressing you at any length because of the very limited time at our disposal. I again thank you.

My Friends—I hope you will excuse me from making a speech. I have travelled for the first time over the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and I have noticed with great interest and pleasure the development which is being made along the road of the mineral resources of the State of Virginia. What I have seen moves me to offer my sincere congratulations on what you have already accomplished, and what is surely in store for you if you but make use of your resources and opportunities. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I want to thank you very cordially for this greeting. All the scenes about here are very familiar to me. This town of Lawrenceburg is the first village of my childish recollections, and as I approached it this morning, past the earliest home of my recollections, the home in which my childhood and early manhood were spent, memories crowded in upon me that were very full of interest, very full of pleasure, and yet full of sadness. They bring back to me those who once made the old home very dear, the most precious spot on earth. I have passed with bowed head the place where they rest. We are here in our generation, with the work of those who have gone before upon us. Let us see, each of us, that in the family, in the neighborhood, and in the State, we do at least with equal courage, and grace, and kindness, the work which was so bravely, kindly, and graciously done by those who filled our places fifty years ago. Now, for I must hurry on, to these old friends, and to these new friends who have come in since Lawrenceburg was familiar to me, I extend again my hearty thanks for this welcome, and beg, in parting, to introduce the only member of my Cabinet who accompanies me, General Tracy, Secretary of the Navy.

My Friends—I am very glad to see you, and very much obliged to you for your pleasurable greeting. It is always a pleasure to see my old Indiana friends. We have had this morning a delightful ride across the southern part of the State, one that has given me a great deal of refreshment and pleasure. [Cheers.] Let me again assure you that I am very much obliged to you for this evidence of your friendship. I hope you will excuse me from further speech on this occasion. It gives me pleasure now, my fellow-citizens, to introduce to you General Tracy, of New York, the Secretary of the Navy, who accompanies me on this trip. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I feel that I ought to thank you for your friendly greeting this beautiful morning. It is a pleasure indeed to me to greet so many of you. Again I thank you for this welcome. A request has just been handed me that I speak a few minutes to the school children here assembled. I scarcely know what to say to them, except that I have a great interest in them, and the country has a great interest in them. Those who, like myself, have passed the meridian of life realize more than younger men that the places we now hold and the responsibilities we now carry in society and in all social and business relations must devolve upon those who are now in the school. Our State has magnificently provided for their education, so that none of them need be ignorant, and I am sure that in these happy homes the fathers and mothers are not neglecting their duties, but are instilling into these young minds morality and respect for the law which must crown intelligence in order to make them.

My Fellow-citizens—I am very glad to see you. My trip this morning is more like a holiday than I have had for a long time. I am glad to see the cordiality of your welcome. It makes me feel that I am still held somewhat in the esteem of the people whose friendship I so very much covet and desire to retain. [Cheers.]

My Friends—Some of you have requested that I would give you a little talk. The range of things that I can say on an occasion like this is very limited, but one thing, though it seems to involve repetition, I can say to you very heartily and very sincerely: I am very glad to again look into the faces of my Indiana friends. I trust I have friends that are not in Indiana, but my earliest and my best are here. Again I thank you. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor, Fellow-citizens of Indiana, Ladies and Gentlemen—I very heartily appreciate this large gathering assembled to greet me. I very heartily appreciate the welcome which your kind and animated faces, as well as the spoken words of the chief officer of your city, have extended to me. I have known this pretty city for more than thirty years, and have watched its progress and growth. It has always been the home of some of my most cherished personal friends, and I am glad to know that your city is in an increasing degree prosperous, and your people contented and happy. I am glad to know that the local industries which have been established in your midst are to-day busy in producing their varied products, and that these find a ready market at remunerative prices. I was told as we approached your city that there was not an idle wheel in Terre Haute. It is very pleasant to know that this prosperity is so generally shared by all our people. Hopefulness, and cheer, and courage tend to bring and maintain good times.

We differ widely in our views of public politics, but I trust every one of us is devoted to the flag which represents the unity[240] and power of our country and to the best interests of the people, as we are given to see and understand those interests. [Applause.] We are in the enjoyment of the most perfect system of government that has ever been devised for the use of men. We are under fewer restraints; the individual faculties and liberties have wider range here than in any other land. Here a sky of hope is arched over the head of every ambitious, industrious, and aspiring young man. There are no social conditions; there are no unneeded legal restrictions. Let us continue to cherish these institutions and to maintain them in their best development. Let us see that as far as our influence can bring it to pass they are conducted for the general good. [Applause.]

It gives me pleasure to bring into your city to-day one who is the successor as the head of the Navy Department of that distinguished citizen of Indiana who is especially revered and loved by all the people of Terre Haute, but is also embraced in the wider love of all the citizens of Indiana—Col. Richard W. Thompson. Let me present to you Gen. Benjamin F. Tracy, of New York, the Secretary of the Navy. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—I regret that the time of our arrival and the brief time we can give you should make it so inconvenient for you who have assembled here to greet us. Yet, though the darkness shuts out your faces, I cannot omit to acknowledge with the most heartfelt gratitude the enthusiastic greeting of this large as[241]sembly of my fellow-citizens. It is quite worth while, I think, for those who are charged with great public affairs now and then to turn aside from the routine of official duties to look into the faces of the people. [Applause.] It is well enough that all public officers should be reminded that under our republican institutions the repository of all power, the originator of all policy, is the people of the United States. [Great applause.] I have had the pleasure of visiting this rich and prosperous section of your great State before, and am glad to notice that, if the last year has not yielded an average return to your farms, already the promise of the coming year is seen in your well-tilled fields. Let me thank you again and bid you good-night. [Great applause.]

My Good Friends—It is very evident that there is a large representation here of the Greek societies. [Cheers.] I thank you for this greeting. We are on our way to Galesburg to unite with my old comrades in arms of the First Brigade, Third Division, Twentieth Army Corps, in a reunion. I had not expected here, or at any other intermediate point on the journey, to make addresses, but I cannot fail to thank these young gentlemen from the University of Illinois for the interest their presence gives to this meeting. Your professors, no doubt, give you all needed admonition and advice, and you will, I am sure, thank me for not adding to your burdens. Good-night. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—It is not possible that I should introduce this morning any serious theme. I have greatly enjoyed this trip through my own State and yours, sisters in loyalty and sacrifice for the Union, sisters also in prosperity and honor. I find myself simply saying thank you, but with an increasing sense of the kindness of the people. If anything could add to the solemn sense of responsibility which my official oath places upon me, it would be these evidences of friendliness and confidence. The great mass of the people of this country are loyal, loving, dutiful citizens, ready to support every faithful officer in the discharge of his duties and to applaud every honest effort for their good. It is a source of great strength to know this, and this morning, not less from this bright sunshine and this crisp Illinois air than from these kindly faces, I draw an inspiration to do what I can, the very best I can, to promote the good of the people of the United States. I go to-day to meet with some comrades of your State who stood with me in the army of the great Union for the defence of the flag. I beg now to thank these comrades of Peoria and this company of National Guards and all these friends, and you, Mr. Mayor and gentlemen of the Reception Committee, for this kindly greeting, and to say that I have great satisfaction in knowing the people of this community are very prosperous. May that prosperity increase until every citizen, even the humblest, shares it. May peace, social order, and the blessing of God abide in every house is my parting wish for you. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—The magnitude of this vast assemblage to-day fills me with surprise and with consternation as I am called to make this speech to you. I came here to meet with the survivors of my old brigade. I came here with the expectation that the day would chiefly be spent in their companionship and in the exchange of those cordial greetings which express the fondness and love which we bear to each other; but to my surprise I[244] have found that here to-day the First Brigade, for the first time in its history, has been captured. One or two of them I have been able to take by the hand, a few more of them I have seen as they marched by the reviewing stand, but they seemed to have been swallowed up in this vast concourse of their associate comrades and their fellow-citizens of Illinois. I hope there may yet be a time during the day when I shall be able to take each by the hand, and to assure them that in the years of separation since muster-out day I have borne them all sacredly in my affectionate remembrance. They were a body of representative soldiers, coming from these great central States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and as the borders of those States touch in friendly exchange, so the elbows of these great heroes and patriots touched in the great struggle for the Union. Who shall say who was chiefest? Who shall assign honors where all were brave? The distinction that Illinois may claim in connection with this organization is that, given equal courage, fidelity, and loyalty to every man, Illinois furnished three-fifths of the brigade. But possibly I should withhold here those suggestions which come to me, and which will be more appropriate when I meet them in a separate organization.

I have been greatly impressed with this assemblage to-day in this beautiful city, in this rich and prosperous State. The thought had occurred to me, and the more I thought of it the more sure I was of the conclusion, that nowhere on the face of the earth except in the United States of America, under no flag that kisses any breeze, could such an assemblage as this have been gathered. Who are these? Look into these faces; see the evidences of contentment, thrift, prosperity, and intelligence that we read in all these faces. They have come by general summons from all these homes, of village, city, and farm, and here they are to-day the strength and rock of our security as a Nation; the people who furnished an invincible army when its flag was in danger; the people upon whose enlightened consciences and God-fearing hearts this country may rest with unguarded hope. Where is the ultimate distribution of governmental powers? How can all the efforts of President, cabinet and judges, and armies, even, serve to maintain this country, to continue it in its great career of prosperity, if there were lacking this great law-abiding, liberty-loving people by whom they are chosen to these important offices? It is the great thought of our country that men shall be governed as little as possible, but full liberty shall be given to individual effort, and that the restraints of law shall be reserved for the turbulent and disorderly. What is it that makes our communities peaceful? What is it that[245] makes these farm-houses safe? It is not the policemen. It is not the soldiers. It is this great and all-pervading American sentiment that exalts the law, that stands with threatening warning to the law-breaker, and, above all, that pervading thought that gives to every man what is his and claims only what is our own. The war was only fought that the law might not lose its sanction and its sanctity. If we had suffered that loss, dismemberment would have been a lesser one. But we taught those who resisted law and taught the world that the great sentiment of loyalty to our written laws was so strong in this country that no associations, combinations, or conspiracies could overturn it. Our Government will not fail to go on in this increased career of development, in population, in wealth, in intelligence, in morality, so long as we hold up everywhere in the local communities and in the Nation this great thought that every man shall keep the law which secures him in his own rights, and shall not trample upon the rights of another. Let us divide upon tariff and finance, but let there never be a division among the American people upon this question, that nowhere shall the law be overturned in the interests of anybody. If it fails of beneficent purpose, which should be the object of all law, then let us modify it, but while it is a law let us insist that it shall be obeyed. When we turn from that and allow any other standard of living to be set up, where is your security, where is mine, when some one else makes convenience more sacred, more powerful than the law of the land?

I believe to-day that the great rock of our security is this deeply imbedded thought in the American heart that does not, as in many of our Spanish-American countries, give its devotion to the man, but to the law, the Constitution, and to the flag. So that in that hour of gloom, when that richest contribution of all gems that Illinois has ever set in our Nation's diadem, Abraham Lincoln, and in that hour of the consummation of his work, dies by the hand of the assassin, Garfield, who was to meet a like fate, might say to the trembling and dismayed people: "Lincoln is dead, but the Government at Washington still lives."

My fellow-citizens, to all those who, through your Mayor, have extended me their greeting, to all who are here assembled, I return my most sincere thanks. I do not look upon such assemblages without profound emotion. They touch me, and I believe they teach me, and I am sure that the lessons are wholesome lessons. We have had here to-day this procession of veterans, aged and feeble many of them. That is retrospective. That is part of the great story of the past, written in glorious letters on the firmament[246] that is spread above the world. And in these sweet children who have followed we read the future. How sweet it was to see them bearing in their infant hands these same banners that those veterans carried amid the shot and battle and dying of men! I had occasion at the centennial celebration of the inauguration of Washington in New York, being impressed by the great display of national colors, to make a suggestion that the flag should be taken into the schoolhouses, and I am glad to know that in that State there is daily a little drill of the children that pays honor to the flag. But, my friends, the Constitution provides that I shall annually give information to Congress of the state of the Union and make such recommendations as I may think wise, and it has generally been understood, I think, that this affirmative provision contains a negative and implies that the President is to give no one except Congress any information as to the state of the Union, and that he shall especially make no suggestions that can be in any shape misconstrued.

I confess that it would give me great pleasure, if the occasion were proper, to give you some information as to the state of the Union as I see it, and to make some suggestions as to what I think would be wise as affecting the state of the Union. But I would not on an occasion like this, when I am greeted here by friends, fellow-citizens of all shades of thought in politics and in the Church, say a word that could mar the harmony of this great occasion. I trust we are all met here together to-day as loyal-loving American citizens, and that over all our divisions and differences there is this great arch of love and loyalty binding us together.

And now you will excuse me from further speech when I have said again that I am profoundly grateful to the people of Galesburg and this vicinity, and to these, my comrades in arms, who have so warmly opened their arms to welcome me to-day. [Cheers.]

Comrades—The object of my visit to Galesburg was this meeting which we are to have now. I should not, I think, have been persuaded to make this trip except for the pleasure which I expected to find in meeting the men of the old brigade, from most of whom I have been separated since the muster-out day. We have had a great demonstration, one very full of interest, on the streets and in the park, but I think we are drawn a little closer in this meeting and understand each other a little better than in the larger assemblages of which we have made a part. It is very pleasant for me to see so many here. I cannot recall the names of all of you. Time has wrought its changes upon the faces of us all. You recognize me because there were not so many colonels as there were soldiers—fortunately, perhaps, for the country. [Laughter.] I saw you as individuals in the brigade line when it was drawn up either for parade or battle. It is quite natural, therefore, and I trust it will not be held against me, that you should have a better recollection of my features than I can possibly have of yours. And yet some of you I recall and all of you I love. [Applause.] When you were associated in a brigade in 1862 we were all somewhat new to military duties and life. The officers as well as the[248] men had come together animated by a common purpose from every pursuit in life. We were not so early in the field as some of our comrades. We yield them the honor of longer service, but I think we may claim for ourselves that when our hands were lifted to take the enlistment oath there was no inducement for any man to go into the army under any expectation that he was entering on a holiday. In the early days of the war men thought or hoped it would be brief. They did not measure its extent or duration. They did not at all rightly estimate the awful sacrifices that were to be made before peace with honor was assured.

I well remember an incident of the early days of volunteering at Indianapolis, when the first companies in response to the first call of President Lincoln came hurrying to the capital. Among the first to arrive was one from Lafayette, under the command of Capt. Chris. Miller. They came in tumultuously and enthusiastic for the fight. These companies were organized into regiments, which one by one were sent into West Virginia or other fields of service. It happened that the regiment to which my friend Miller was assigned was the last to leave the State. I met him one day on the street, and a more mad and despondent soldier I never saw. He was not absolutely choice in the use of his language—all soldiers were not. I think the First Brigade was an exception. [Laughter.] He was swearing like a pirate over the disgrace that had befallen him and his associates, growing out of the fact that he was absolutely certain that the war would be over before they got into the field, and left in camp a stranded regiment, having no part in putting down the rebellion.

Well, his day came presently, and he was ordered to West Virginia, and among the first of those who, under the fire of the enemy at Rich Mountain, received a bullet through his body was Capt. Chris. Miller. When these regiments of ours were enlisted we were not apprehensive that the war would be over before we had an adequate share of it. We were pretty certain we would all have enough before we were through. The clouds were dark in those days of '62. McClellan was shut up in the Peninsula; Buell was coming back from Alabama; Kirby Smith was entering through Cumberland Gap, and everything seemed to be discouraging. I think I may claim for these men of Illinois, and these men of Indiana and of Ohio—if some of them are here to meet with us to-day—that when they enlisted there was no other motive than pure, downright patriotism, and there was no misunderstanding of the serious import of the work on which they entered. [Applause.]

Those early days in which we were being transformed from ci[249]vilians into soldiers were full of trial and hardship. The officers were sometimes bumptious and unduly severe—I am entering a plea in my own behalf now. [Laughter.] The soldiers had not yet got to understand why a camp guard should be established, why they should not be at perfect liberty to go to town as they were when on the farm and the day's work was over. It was supposed that an army was composed of so many men, but we had not learned at that time that it was absolutely necessary that all those men should be at the same place at the same time, and that they could not be scattered over the neighborhood. There were a good many trials of that sort while the men were being made soldiers and the officers were learning their duties, and to know the proper margin between the due liberty of the individual and the necessary restraint of discipline. But those days were passed soon, and they passed the sooner when the men went into active duties. Camp duties were always irksome and troublesome, but when they were changed for the active duties of the march and field there was less need of restraint.

I always noticed there was no great need of a camp guard after the boys had marched twenty-five miles. They did not need so much watching at night. Then the serious time came when sickness devastated us and disease swept its dread swath, and that dreadful progress of making soldiers was passed through when diseases which should have characterized childhood prostrated and destroyed men. Then there came out of all this, after the sifting out of those who were weak and incapable, of those who could not stand this acclimating process, that body of tough, strong men, ready for the march and fight, that made up the great armies which under Grant and Sherman and Sheridan carried the flag to triumph.

The survivors of some of them are here to-day, and whatever else has come to us in life, whether honor or disappointment, I do not think there are any of us—not me, I am sure—who would to-day exchange the satisfaction, the heart comfort we have in having been a part of the great army that subdued the rebellion, that saved the country, the Constitution, and the flag. [Applause.] If I were asked to exchange it for any honor that has come to me, I would lay down any civil office rather than surrender the satisfaction I have in having been an humble partaker with you in that great war. [Applause.] Who shall measure it? Well, generations hence, when this country, which had 30,000,000, now 64,000,000, has become 100,000,000, when these institutions of ours grow and develop and spread, and homes in which happiness and comfort[250] have their abiding place, then we may begin to realize, North and South, what this work was. We but imperfectly see it now, yet we have seen enough of the glory of the Lord to fill our souls full of a quiet enthusiasm. [Applause.]

Here we are pursuing our different works in life to-day just as when we stood on picket or on guard, just as in the front rank of battle facing the foe—trying to do our part for the country. I hope there is not a soldier here in whom the love of the flag has died out. I believe there is not one in whose heart it is not a growing passion. I think a great deal of the interest of the flag we see among the children is because you have taught them what the flag means. No one knows how beautiful it is when we see it displayed here on this quiet October day, amid these quiet autumnal scenes, who has not seen it when there was no other beautiful thing to look upon. [Applause.] And in those long, tiresome marches, in those hours of smoke and battle and darkness, what was there that was beautiful except the starry banner that floated over us? [Applause.]

Our country has grown and developed and increased in riches until it is to-day marvellous among the nations of the earth, sweeping from sea to sea, embracing almost every climate, touching the tropics and the arctic, covering every form of product of the soil, developing in skill in the mechanical arts, developing, I trust and believe, not only in these material things which are great, but not the greatest, but developing also in those qualities of mind and heart, in morality, in the love of order, in sobriety, in respect for the law, in a God-fearing disposition among the people, in love for our country, in all these high and spiritual things. I believe the soldiers in their places have made a large contribution to all these things.

The assembling of our great army was hardly so marvellous as its disbanding. In the olden time it was expected that a soldier would be a brawler when the campaign was over. He was too often a disturber. Those habits of violence which he had learned in the field followed him to his home. But how different it was in this war of ours. The army sprang into life as if by magic, on the call of the martyred President—Illinois' greatest gift, as I have said, to the Nation. They fought through the war, and they came out of it without demoralization. They returned to the very pursuits from which they had come. It seemed to one that it was like the wrapping of snow which nature sometimes puts over the earth in the winter season to protect and keep warm the vegetation which is hidden under it, and which under the warm days of[251] spring melts and disappears, and settles into the earth to clothe it with verdure and beauty and harvest. [Great cheering.]

My Fellow-citizens—Speaking this morning in the open air, which since my official isolation from campaigning has made my voice unaccustomed to it, will make it impossible for me to speak further at this time. I do not deem this ceremony at all out of accord with the patriotic impulses which have stirred our hearts to-day. Education was early in the thought of the framers of our Constitution as one of the best, if not the only guarantee of their perpetuation. Washington, as well as the founders of the venerable and useful institution, appreciated and expressed his interest in the establishment of institutions of learning. How shall one be a safe citizen when citizens are rulers who are not intelligent? How shall he understand those great questions which his suffrage must adjudge without thorough intellectual culture in his youth? We are here, then, to-day engaged in a patriotic work as we lay this corner-stone of an institution that has had a great career of usefulness in the past and is now entering upon a field of enlarged usefulness. We lay this corner-stone and rededicate this institution to truth, purity, loyalty, and a love of God.

My college associations were broken early in life, partly by necessity and partly by choice; by necessity so far as the compulsion to work for a living was upon me, and by choice in that I added to my responsibility at an early date, so that it has not been my pleasure often to meet with or sit about the banquet board with members of this society. It gives me pleasure to meet with you to-night. I feel the greatest sympathy with these young men who are now disciplining their minds for the work of life. I would not have them make these days too serious, and yet they are very full of portent and promise. It is not inconsistent, I think, with the joyfulness and gladness which pertains to youth that they shall have some sense of the value of these golden days. They are days that are to affect the whole future. If I were to select a watchword that I would have every young man write above his door and on his heart, it would be that good word "Fidelity." I know of no better. The man who meets every obligation to the family, to society, to the State, to his country, and his God, to the very best measure of his strength and ability, cannot fail of that assurance and quietness that comes of a good conscience, and will seldom fail of the approval of his fellow-men, and will never fail of the reward which is promised to faithfulness. Unfaithfulness and lack of fidelity to duty, to work, and to obligation is the open door to all that is disgraceful and degrading.

I want to thank you again, gentlemen, for this pleasant greeting, and to ask you, after the rather exhaustive duties of this day, to excuse me from further address and accept the best wishes of a brother in the Phi Delta Theta organization. [Cheers.]

One serious word in leaving. This day in Galesburg I shall long remember. The enthusiasm and the cordiality of the citizens, the delicacy and kindness of their attention, have impressed me deeply. I shall ever gratefully recollect Galesburg as a spot of especial interest, as the place of the meeting of the old brigade. Comrades, I hope to meet you again when my time is more my own, and on several occasions like this to speak to you more familiarly, and to recall this time. I have tried not to be stinted in my intercourse with you, for I have wanted you to feel me warm and sincere. I have expressed myself, but not as freely as I would if by ourselves, or if I were but a private citizen or member of the brigade. But I would say to you and all your families, to the wives that sit here, to the wives and children that are at home, to those who have gone out from your roof-tree to prepare homes, to your grand-children—and I hope all of you have them—to one and all, I extend the hearty sympathy and best wishes of the "old-timer" you served so faithfully.

Governor Boies and Fellow-citizens—I accept in the same cordial and friendly spirit in which they have been offered these words of welcome spoken on behalf of the good people of the great State of Iowa. It gives me pleasure in this hasty journey to pause for a little time in the city of Ottumwa. I have had especial pleasure in looking upon this structure and the exhibits which it contains. It is itself a proof of the enterprise, skill, and artistic taste of the people of this city of which they may justly be very proud. I look about it and see that its adornment has been wrought with materials that are familiar and common, and that these have assumed, under the deft fingers and artistic thoughts of your people, shapes of beauty that are marvellously attractive. If I should attempt to interpret the lesson of this structure, I should say it was an illustration of how much that is artistic and graceful is to be found in the common things of life; and if I should make an application of the lesson, it would be to suggest that we might profitably carry into all our homes and into all neighborly intercourse the same transforming spirit. The common things of this[256] life, touched by a loving spirit, may be made to glow and glisten. The common intercourse of life, touched by friendliness and love, may be made to fill every home and neighborhood with a brightness that jewels cannot shed. And it is pleasant to think that in our American home-life we have reached this ideal in a degree unexcelled elsewhere.

I believe that in the American home, whether in the city or on the farm, the American father and the American mother, in their relations to the children, are kinder, more helpful, and benignant than any others. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and cheers.] In these homes is the strength of our institutions. Let these be corrupted and the Government itself has lost the stone of strength upon which it securely rests.

I have contended with a brass band while attempting to address a popular audience, but I have never before been asked to speak in the rush and roar of Niagara. [Laughter and cheers.] I think if I were to leave it to this audience whether they would rather see that beautiful display and hear the rippling of these waters [pointing] than to hear me, they would vote for the waterfall. [Cries of "No, no!" and "Shut off the water!"]

I had supposed that there were limitations upon the freedom of this meeting this afternoon, both as to the Governor and myself, and that no political suggestion of any sort was to be introduced into this friendly concourse of American citizens; and I think both of us have good cause for grievances against the prohibitionists for interrupting us with this argument for cold water. [Great laughter and applause.]

It is quite difficult, called upon as I am every day, and sometimes three or four times a day, to make short addresses with the limitations that are upon me as to the subjects upon which I may speak, to know what to say when I meet my fellow-citizens. I was glad to hear the Governor say that Iowa is prosperous. We have here a witness that it is so. It offers also, I think, a solution of the origin of that prosperity, and suggests how it may be increased and[257] developed. We have in this structure a display of all the products of the farm, and side by side with it a display of the mechanic arts. I think in this combination, in this diversity of interest and pursuit, in this mutual and helpful relation between the toilers of the soil and the workers in our shops, each contributing to the commonwealth and each giving to the other that which he needs, we have that which has brought about the prosperity you now enjoy, and which is to increase under the labors of your children to a degree that we have not realized. The progress in the mechanical arts that men not older than I have witnessed, the application of new agencies to the use of men within the years of my own notice and recollection, read like a fairy tale. Let us not think that we have reached the limits of this development. There are yet uses of the agencies already known to be developed and applied. There are yet agencies perhaps in the great storehouse of nature that have not been harnessed for the use of man. The telegraph, the telephone, and the phonograph have all come within the memory of many who stand about me to-day. The application of steam to ocean travel is within the memory of many here. The development of our railroad system has all come within your memory and mine. The railroad was but a feeble agency in commerce when my early recollection begins; and now this great State is covered with railroads like a network. Every farm is within easy reach of a shipping station, and every man can speak to his neighbor any day of the week, though that neighbor live on the opposite side of the globe. Out of all this what is yet to come? Who can tell? You are favored here in having not only a surface soil that yields richly to the labor of the farmer, but in also having hidden beneath that surface rich mines of coal which are to be converted into power to propel the mills that will supply the wants of your people.

Now, my friends, thanking you for the kindness with which you have listened to me, expressing again my appreciation of the taste and beauty of this great structure in which we stand, and wishing for Iowa and all its citizens the largest increase of prosperity in material wealth, the most secure social order in all their communities, and the crowning blessing of home happiness, I bid you good-by. [Prolonged cheering.]

My Fellow-citizens—If you are glad to see me at this hour in the morning, if you are so kind and demonstrative before breakfast, how great would have been your welcome if I had come a little later in the day? [Applause.]

I beg to thank you, who at an inconvenient and early hour, have turned out to speak these words of welcome to us as we pass through your beautiful city. Many years ago I read of St. Joseph. I know something of its history, when, instead of being a large city, it was a place for outfitting those slow and toilsome trains that bore the early pioneers toward California and the far West. Those days are not to be forgotten. Those means of communication were slow, but they bore men and women, full of courage and patriotism, to do for us on the Pacific and in the great West the work of peaceful conquest that has added greatly to the glory and prosperity of our country. And yet we congratulate ourselves that the swifter means of communication have taken the place of the old; we congratulate ourselves that these conveniences, both of business and social life, have come to crown our day. And yet in the midst of them, enjoying the luxuries which modern civilization brings to our doors, let us not lose from our households those plain and sturdy virtues which are essential to true American citizenship; let us remember always that above all[259] surroundings, above all that is external, there is to be prized those solid and essential virtues that make home happy and that make our country great, and that enable us in every time of trial and necessity to call out from among the people some who are fit to lead our armies or to meet every emergency in the history of the State. We are here as American citizens, not as partisans; we are here as comrades of the late war, or, if there are here those who under the other banner fought for what seemed to them to be right, we are here to say one and all that God knew what was best for this country when he cast the issue in favor of the Union and the Constitution. [Applause and cheers.]

Now, again united under its ample guarantee of personal liberty and public security, united again under one flag, we have started forward, if we are true to our obligations, upon a career of prosperity that would not otherwise have been possible. Let us therefore, in all kindliness and faithfulness, in devotion to the right, as God shall give us light to see it, go forward in the discharge of our duties, setting above everything else the flag and the Constitution on which all our rights and securities are based. Now, my comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic and fellow-citizens of Missouri, again I thank you and bid you good-by. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—I stand to-day for the first time upon the soil of Kansas. I am glad to have been permitted to enter it by the vestibule of this attractive city, the home of one of your most brilliant statesmen. I cannot refrain from saying, God be thanked that freedom won its early battle in Kansas. [Applause.] All this would have been otherwise impossible. You have a soil christened with the blood of men who died for liberty, and you have well maintained the lessons they taught, living and dying. It was appropriate that the survivors of the late war, men who came home crowned with the consummating victory of liberty, should make the State of Kansas pre-eminently the soldier State of the Union. Now, after telling you that I am very grateful for your friendly greeting this morning, you will, I am sure, excuse me, in this tumult, from attempting further speech. May every good attend you in your homes; may the career of this great State be one of unceasing prosperity in things material, and may your citizenship never forget that the spiritual things that take hold of liberty and human rights are higher and better than all material things. [Prolonged cheering.] Allow me now to present to you the only member of my Cabinet who accompanied me, General Tracy, of New York, the Secretary of the Navy.

My Fellow-citizens—I am strongly tempted to omit even an attempt to speak to you to-day; I think it would be better that I should go home and write you an open letter. [Great laughter and cheering.] I have been most profoundly impressed with the incidents which have attended this tremendous and, I am told, unprecedented gathering of the soldiers and citizens of the great State of Kansas. No one can interpret in speech the lessons of this occasion. No power of description is adequate to convey to those who have not looked upon it or into the spirit and power of this meeting. This assembly is altogether too large to be greeted individually—one cannot get his arms around it. [Laughter and cheers.] And yet so kindly have you received me that I would be glad if to each of you I could convey the sense of gratitude and appreciation which is in my heart. There is nothing for any of us to do but to open wide our hearts and let these elevating sug[262]gestions take possession of them. I am sure there has been nothing here to-day that does not point in the direction of a higher individual, social, State and national life. Who can look upon this vast array of soldiers who fought to a victorious consummation the war for the Union without bowing his head and his heart in grateful reverence? [Great applause.] Who can look upon these sons of veterans, springing from a patriotic ancestry, full of the spirit of '61, and coming into the vigor and strength of manhood to take up the burdens that we must soon lay down, and who, turning from these to the sweet-faced children whose hands are filled with flowers and flags, can fail to feel those institutions of liberty are secure for two generations at least? [Great cheering.] I never knew until to-day the extent of the injury which the State of Kansas had inflicted upon the State of Indiana [laughter and cheers]—never until I had looked upon that long line of Indiana soldiers that you plucked from us when the war was over by the superior inducement which your fields and cities offered to their ambitious toil. Indiana grieves for their loss, but rejoices in the homes and prosperity they have found here. [Cheers.] They are our proud contribution to the great development which this State has made. They are our proud contribution to that great national reputation which your State has established as the friend as well as one of the bulwarks of liberty and law. [Cheers.] It was not unnatural that they, coming back from scenes where comrades had shed their blood for liberty, should choose to find homes in a State that had the baptism of martyrs' blood upon its infant brow. [Prolonged cheering.] The future is safe if we are but true to ourselves, true to these children whose instruction is committed to us. There is no other foe that can at all obstruct or hinder our onward progress except treason in our own midst—treachery to the great fundamental principle of our Government, which is obedience to the law. The law, the will of the majority expressed in orderly, constitutional methods, is the only king to which we bow. But to him all must bow. Let it be understood in all your communities that no selfish interest of the individual, no class interests, however entrenched, shall be permitted to assert their convenience against the law. This is good American doctrine, and if it can be made to prevail in all the States of the Union until every man, secure under the law in his own right, is compelled by the law to yield to every other man his rights, nothing can shake our repose. [Cheers.]

Now, fellow-citizens, you will excuse me from the attempt at further speech. I beg you again to believe that I am grateful, so[263] far as your presence here has any personal reference to myself—grateful as a public officer for this evidence of your love and affection for the Constitution and the country which we all love. [Great applause.]

There is some grumbling in Kansas, and I think it is because your advantages are too great. [Laughter.] A single year of disappointment in agricultural returns should not make you despair of the future or tempt you to unsafe expedients. Life is made up of averages, and I think yours will show a good average. Let us look forward with hope, with courage, fidelity, thrift, patience, good neighborly hearts, and a patriotic love for the flag. Kansas and her people have an assured and happy future. [Prolonged cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—This brief stop forbids that I should say anything more than thank you and to extend to you all my most friendly greeting. The sky is overcast, but in this assemblage of your school children, with flags and flowers, and in this gathering of the sturdy men who have made Kansas great among States, there are suggestions that spread a sky of beauty and hope above our country and its destiny. It gives me great pleasure to make this first visit to Kansas. It gives me great pleasure to see both at Atchison and here the interest which the presence of these children shows you take in public education. There are many here who[264] in their early days experienced the hardships and privations of pioneer life. The avenues of learning were shut against them, but it is much to their credit that what they lacked in early life, the impediments which have burdened their careers, they have bravely resolved shall not burden their children. I thank you again for this pleasant reception, and I bid you good-by, as we proceed on our journey.

My Friends—I thank you sincerely for this cordial reception. I will not attempt any speech further than to say that this greeting puts me, if possible, under still stronger obligations in every official duty that devolves upon me to consult the interests of the people and do that which seems to be most promotive of public good. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I am sure you are kind, and the greatest kindness you can do me is not to ask me to attempt to speak again so recently after attempting at Topeka to talk to all the rest of the people in Kansas [laughter] who are not here. I supposed until the train pulled into this city that the entire citizenship of the State was in the immense crowd congregated at Topeka to-day. My voice was so strained in attempting to speak there that I will only say to you that it gives me great pleasure to see you and to speak to you, even for a moment, at this hospitable town. All the inspiration connected with the story of the early history of Kansas clusters around the city of Lawrence. I am sure you will find in that story inspiration and suggestion that will keep the cause of liberty ever near to your hearts. [Great applause.]

Gentlemen—I am sorry to cause even this temporary interruption by leaving the banquet, but I am sure you will all appreciate the desire I have to spend a few minutes under my brother's roof in your city, and will therefore excuse me. Let me say that I very much appreciate the friendly and hospitable spirit of the business men of Kansas City, to whom I am indebted for this banquet and reception. It has never been my pleasure before to visit your city, but it has been well advertised, and I have heard of it frequently. [Laughter and applause.] So far as I could tell by the dim light of the evening in riding through the city, it realizes fully my expectations in growth and prosperity. [Applause.] Let me say, in conclusion, that I hope all your dreams for Kansas City may be realized. [Great applause.]

My Fellow citizens—I will not attempt to say more than that I am very grateful to you for your kindness, for this cordial, genuine Kansas City welcome. [Cheers.] The arrangements which have been made, and which are intended to give me an opportunity to meet some of you personally, and the early hour at which we are to take the train for St. Louis, make it inappropriate that I should attempt to speak at any length. I thank you again for your kind[267]ness, and will now submit myself to such arrangements as the committee have made to spend the little time I have to spend with you. [Cheers.]

Governor Francis, Mr. Mayor, and Fellow-citizens—It is very grateful and very healthful to be so cordially received by you this morning. The office which I have been called upon to administer is very great in dignity, but it is very full of care and heavy responsibility. The man who with conscientious regard and a proper appreciation of the great trust seeks to administer it for the public good will find himself daily beset with perplexities and doubts, and daily besieged by those who differ with him as to the public administration. But it is a great comfort to know that we have an intelligent, thoughtful, and, at the same time, a very kind people, who judge benevolently and kindly the acts of those public servants of whose good disposition to do right they are not left in doubt. And it is very pleasant to know—and I do not need these eloquent words of assurance to have already impressed upon me—the great lesson that there are more things in which we agree and have common interests than in which we differ. But our differences of opinion as to public administration are all brought to[269]gether in a genuine patriotism and love of country. [Applause]. It gives me pleasure to witness since my last visit to St. Louis evidence of that steady and uninterrupted growth which this great commercial centre has made since its birth as an Indian trading-post on the Mississippi. No year has been without its added evidences of progress, development, accumulation of wealth, and increase in population. You have now passed any period of doubt or uncertainty, and the career of St. Louis is assured. You have grown like the oak, annually adding a ring to the prosperity and wealth and commercial importance of your great city. You have struck the roots of your influence broad and deep into the nourishing earth of this great fertile land in which you have lived; and the branches—the high branches of your enterprise—are reaching toward the sunlight that shines upon them. You are situated upon the Mississippi River, giving you water communication with the sea, a communication which this Government has undertaken to improve and secure, and which I believe will be made secure by appropriate legislation. [Applause.] Nor do I know any reason why these great lines of railway stretching from St. Louis to the Southwest may not yet touch great ports of commerce, deep harbors, until they shall become trunk lines. We have come to regard only these lines of railway communication to eastern seaboards as trunk lines. I do not know why. Indeed, I believe that in the future, when we shall have seized again, as we will seize if we are true to ourselves, our own fair part of commerce upon the sea, and when we shall have again our appropriate share of South American trade [cheers], that these railroads from St. Louis, touching deep harbors on the gulf, and communicating there with lines of steamships, shall touch the ports of South America and bring their tribute to you. You shall in all these things find a special interest, but an interest that will be shared, as all great interests are, by the Nation and people, of which you are a loyal and enterprising part. And now, my friends, again let me thank you, and all those who have spoken in your behalf, for these friendly words. These great industries of commerce and manufactures here are entwined in friendly helpfulness. As they are diversified your prosperity is increased; but under them all, as the only secure rock upon which they can rest, is social order and obedience to the law. Let it never be forgotten anywhere that commerce builds only upon social order. Be watchful and careful of every instrumentality or suggestion which puts itself against the law. Where the law is wrong make it right. [Cries of "Good!" and cheering.] Let that be the one rule of conduct in[270] the public relations of every American citizen. And now, my friends, again let me say thank you and good-by.

Ladies and Gentlemen—I have sometimes thought that the life of the President of the United States is like that of the policeman in the opera—not a happy one. So many cares strew his path, so many people's welfare is to be considered, that wiser heads than mine may well be puzzled. The attention of this mighty audience to-night has been distracted from the concert by my entrance, not withstanding the fact that it has a leader more a master of his art than any other on the continent. I did not, nor do I desire to make a speech to-night. But as I have always declared myself in favor of the rule of the majority, I feel compelled to do so.

From early morn till late this evening the day has been one of unalloyed pleasure to me. Every possible courtesy has been shown our party, and we have gathered, I assure you, a most high opinion of your people and your city. This building is in every way a credit to St. Louis, the metropolis of the Southwest, and its exhibits do credit to the merchants and manufacturers represented. I am glad to see that the higher arts go hand-in-hand with mechanics. Art, music, poetry, and song should not be separated from the homes of the poor, and such an institution as this cannot fail to instil all that is good into the hearts of every one. Before I close let me tell you all how grateful and how complimented I feel at my hearty reception in your midst. I shall always recall this day with happy remembrance. Now, won't you crown the great courtesies of the day by allowing me to end my speech? [Applause.]

I am here to-day, returning to my duties at Washington from a trip taken to meet some of my old comrades during the war. There are some here this morning. I bid them God-speed; I give them a comrade's greeting; and to you, my old-time friends, not in politics, but in that pride and association which makes us all Indianians—we are all proud of our State and proud of our communities—I desire to say that while I have friends elsewhere, these were my earliest friends—friends of my boyhood almost, for I was scarcely more than a boy when I became a citizen of this State, and I always turn to it with affectionate interest. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—I have known this beautiful city of yours and many of the people of this prosperous county for more than thirty years. I have known in a general way the development of your interests by almost yearly visits to the city of Muncie, but it seems to me that in these two years I have been out of the State you have made more progress than in any ten years when I was in the State. [Cheers.] I think it was in the year 1886, when I spent a night in Muncie, that my attention was drawn by some of your citizens, as darkness settled down, to a remarkable and what was then thought to be chiefly a curious red glow in your horizon. It was, if I recollect aright, about the earliest development of natural gas in Indiana, and the extent of this great field was wholly unknown. How rapidly events have crowded each other since! You have delved into the earth and have found the supply of this most adaptable and extraordinary fuel inexhaustible; and what has it done for you? No longer are you transporting coal from the distant mines to feed your furnaces. No longer are you sending the choppers into the woods to cut your trees and haul them in, that they may bring you winter heat and fuel. The factories have been coming to you. This convenient heat and serviceable fuel is found in the humblest home in Muncie. How it has added to your comfort only those who have used it know. How much it has added to your prosperity and development of manufactures here you have only begun to know. [Cheers.]

The sunlight will not more surely shed its beams on us this morning than this great tide of prosperity which has set in through this gas belt in Indiana shall go on increasing until all these cities and towns within its radius are full of busy men and humming[273] machinery. What does all this mean? It means employment for men. It means happy and comfortable homes for an increasing population. It means an increased home market for the products of your farm. It means that the farmer will have a choice of crops, and will have consumers for perishable products of his farm at his very door. It means, if you preserve the order of your community, if this good county of Delaware continues to maintain its reputation as a law-abiding, liberty-loving, free-school-loving population [cheers], that you shall have a prosperity—an increase of riches and of human comfort that we have scarcely conceived.

And now, my friends, all over this, and above all this, and better than it all, let us keep in mind those higher things that make our country great. I do not forget that your good county sent to the war of the Union, in the gallant regiments that went from this State, a multitude of brave men to stand by the flag. [Cheers.] Some of them are with you to-day. [Applause.] Now let that love of the flag be still uppermost in your hearts. Nothing has pleased me more as I passed through some of our Western States than to see that the school children everywhere had the starry flag in their hands. [Cheers.] Let it be so here and everywhere. Let them learn to love it, to know its beauty, in order that when the time of peril comes they may be ready to defend it. [Applause.] Now to these friends, I am most grateful for your appreciative kindness, and if I shall be able, in the discharge of high and difficult duties, to maintain the respect and confidence of my fellow-citizens of Indiana, other things will take care of themselves.

My Friends—It gives me great pleasure to hear from the lips of your honored fellow-citizen, my old-time army comrade, these words of welcome, spoken in your behalf. I thank you and him for his assurance that your assembling here together is without regard to difference in belief, and as American citizens having common interests and a common love for the flag and the Constitution. Now, to these good people of Randolph County I render this morning my sincere thanks for their hearty and cordial welcome. No public servant, in whatever station, can ever be indifferent to the good esteem of men and women and children like these. You do not know how much these kindly faces, these friendly Indiana greetings, help me in the discharge of duties that are not always easy.

I bid you good-by and God-speed. I do wish for Indiana and all her people the greatest happiness that God can give. [Prolonged cheers.]

Senator Shockney and Fellow-citizens—The conditions are not such here that I can hope to make many of you hear the few words that it is possible for me to speak to you. I have found myself in this tour through these Western States, undertaken for the purpose of meeting some of my comrades of the late war, who had invited[275] me to be with them at their annual gatherings, repeating the words "Thank you" everywhere. I have felt how inadequate this word or any other word was to express the sense of gratitude I should feel to these friendly fellow-citizens who everywhere greeted me with kind words and kinder faces. I feel very grateful to see you, and to realize that if there are any fault-finders, sometimes with reason, and sometimes without, that the great body of our people are interested only in good government, in good administration, and that the offices shall be filled by men who understand that they are the servants of the people, and who serve them faithfully and well. If it were not so a President would despair. Great as the Government is, vast as is our civil list, it is wholly inadequate to satisfy the reasonable demands of men, and so, from disappointment, reasonable or unreasonable, we turn with confidence and receive with encouragement these kindly greetings from the toilers of the country—the men and women who only ask from the Government that it shall protect them in their lives, their property, and their homes; that it shall encourage education, provide for these sweet young children, so that they shall have an easier road in life than their fathers had, and that there shall be an absence of corrupt intent or act in the administration of public business.

And now, standing on the line which divides these two States, the one for which I have the regard every man should feel for his birthplace, and the other to which I owe everything I have received in civil life or public honor, I beg to call your attention to the fact how little State lines have to do with American life. Some of you pay your taxes on that side of the line, some on this, but in your intercourse, business, and social ties you cross this line unknowingly. Above both and greater than both—above the just pride which Ohioans have in that noble State, and above the just pride which we have in Indiana—there floats this banner that is the common banner of us all. We are one in citizenship; we are one in devotion to the Government, which makes the existence of States possible and their destruction impossible. [Cheers.] And now, to these children, to my Grand Army friends, and to these old citizens, many of whom I have met under other conditions, I beg to say God bless you every one, and good-by.

My Friends—I am very glad to see you all, and especially these dear young children. I have been passing through a country glorious in the autumnal tints which make a landscape that can be seen nowhere else in the world, and yet I turn always from these decaying glories of nature with great delight to look into the bright faces of these happy children, where I see a greater, because immortal, glory. I thank them for their presence here this morning. I wish their lives may be as sunny and bright through manhood and through womanhood, finding happiness in usefulness. I wish I had time to shake hands with you all. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—I wish all of you could have seen what I have seen in this extended but hasty visit through some of the great States of the central West, the broader view which we get as we journey through this country of the capabilities of its soil, of the beauties of its landscape, of the happiness of its homes, but, above all, of the sturdy manhood of its people, can but be useful to every public man and every patriot. [Applause.] No one can make such a journey as we have and look into the faces of hundreds of thousands of his fellow-citizens and see how here in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri they are everywhere characterized by a sturdy independence and intelligent thoughtfulness and manhood, and doubt the future of this country of which they are citizens. Nothing can shake its repose as long as this great mass of people in these homes, on these farms, in these shops and city dwelling-places are true to themselves and to their children. Not every one can hope to reach the maximum of human wealth or enjoyment, but nowhere else is there so general a diffusion of human comfort and the conveniences of life as in this land of ours. You must not, then, show unthankfulness to the framers of our great Constitution or to God by indulging in gloomy forebodings or in unreasonable complaint. He has not promised that everywhere and every season the fields should give full returns. He has promised that the food of man should not fail, and where else is famine unknown? Other countries have now and then appealed for philanthropic help from abroad to feed their population, greater or less. The United States has always a surplus after its people are fed, and for this we should be thankful. I have been told everywhere that though crops in some respects and in some places have been short, the general prosperity is very great. Everywhere I have been told that no wheel is idle, and that no hand is idle that seeks employment that honest bread may come to his household. I believe that we are on an upward grade of prosperity, if we will be brave and hopeful and true, that shall lead us perhaps to a development and an increase of wealth we have never before attained. And now, my fellow-citizens, thanking you for this friendly morning greeting, I bid you good-by. [Applause.] Let me have the pleasure, however, of introducing to you my valued associate at Washington—Secretary Tracy. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—Already some seven or eight times this morning, beginning before breakfast, I have been called upon to talk briefly to my fellow-citizens who have gathered at the various points where we made brief stops at their request. The story I must tell you is the same old story I have been telling them—that I am very grateful for your friendly expressions and presence; very grateful for the kindliness which speaks through those who address me, and for the kindness which appears in all your faces. It is pleasant to know that as against all enemies of our country we are one, that we have great pride, just pride in our birthright as American citizens, just pride in the country of our adoption as to those who have found a home here with us. It is the people's land more than any other country in the world. Mr. Lincoln felicitously expressed it to be a "government of the people, by the people, for the people." [Applause.] They originate it; they perpetuate it. If it does not miss its purpose it is administered for their good. [Applause.] And so to you upon whom the burden of citizenship now rests, you who have the care of these homes and the responsibilities of womanhood; to these lads who will soon be citizens, and to these girls who are coming on to womanhood, to all I express my thanks for your friendly greeting. [Applause.] To every one of you I wish the most abundant success; that every home represented here may be a typical American home, in which morality and purity and love sit as the crowning virtues and are household gods. Our country is prosperous, though not all have attained this year the measure of success which they had hoped for. If there was any shortness of crops anywhere, already the fields are green with the promise of another year. Let our hearts[279] be hopeful, let us be faithful and true, and the future of our country and our own comfort are assured. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—We stop so frequently upon this journey and our time at each station is so brief, that I cannot hope to say anything that would be interesting or instructive. I thank you most sincerely for these friendly manifestations. I am glad to be permitted to stop at the home of your distinguished Senator and my friend. [Cheers.] I am sure, however you may differ from him in political opinion, the people of Mansfield and of Ohio are proud of the eminence which he has attained in the counsels of the Nation and of the distinguished service he has been able to render to his country not only in Congress but in the Treasury Department. [Cheers.] He is twin in greatness with that military brother who led some of you, as he did me, in some of the great campaigns of the war, and they have together rendered conspicuous services to this country, which we, as they, love with devoted affection. We have so many common interests and so much genuine friendliness among the American people that except in the very heat and ardor of a political campaign the people are kind to each other, and we soon forget the rancor of these political debates. We ought never to forget that we are American citizens; we ought never to forget that we are put in charge of American interests, and that it is our duty to defend them. [Applause.] Thanking you again for your presence and kindliness, I bid you good-by. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—If anything could relieve the sense of weariness which is ordinarily incident to extended railroad travel, it would be the exceeding kindness with which we have been everywhere received by our fellow-citizens, and to look upon an audience like that assembled here, composed in part of venerable men who experienced the hardships of early life in Ohio, of some of those venerable women who shared those labors and self-denials of early life in the West, and in part of their sons, that gallant second generation, who, in the time of the Nation's peril in 1861, sprang to its defence and brought the flag home in honor [applause], and in part of these young men here undergoing that discipline of mind which is to fit them for useful American citizenship, full of the ambitions of early manhood, and, I trust, rooted in the principles of morality and loyalty [applause], and in part of these sweet-faced children, coming from your schools and homes to brighten with their presence this graver assembly. Where else in the world could such a gathering be assembled? Where else so much[281] social order as here? The individual free to aspire and work, the community its own police officer and guardian.

We are here as American citizens, having, first, duties to our families, then to our neighborhood—to the institutions and business with which we are connected—but above all, and through and by all these duties, to our country and to God, by whose beneficial guidance our Government was founded, by whose favor and protection it has been preserved. [Applause.] Friendly to all peoples of the world, we will not thwart their course or provoke quarrels by unfriendly acts, neither will we be forgetful of the fact that we are charged here first with the conservation and promotion of American interests, and that our Government was founded for its own citizenship. [Applause and cheers.] But I cannot speak at further length. I must hurry on to other places, where kind people are impatiently awaiting our coming, and to duties which will be assumed and undertaken with more courage since I have so often looked into the kind faces of the people whom I endeavor to serve. [Applause.] Let me present to you now, and I do so with great pleasure, one of the gentlemen called by me under the Constitution to assist in the administration of the Government—one whom I know you have learned to love and honor as you are now privileged to know—Gen. Benjamin F. Tracy, the Secretary of the Navy. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—The burden of obligation connected with this visit is put upon me by the enthusiasm and magnitude of this welcome which you have extended to me. It gives me pleasure to stop for a brief moment in a city widely celebrated for its industries, and among a people widely celebrated for their virtues and intelligence. [Cheers.] It was especially gratifying as we passed in your suburbs, one of these busy hives of industry, to see upon the bank, waving with hearty cheers, the operatives in their work-day clothes. It is of great interest to know that you have these diversified industries among you. Your lot would be unhappy and not prosperous if you were all pursuing the same calling, even if it were the calling to which I belong, the profession of the law. [Laughter.]

It is well that your interchanging industries and pursuits lean upon and help each other, increasing and making possible indeed the great prosperity which you enjoy. I hope it is true here that everybody is getting a fair return for his labor. We cannot afford in America to have any discontented classes, and if fair wages are paid for fair work we will have none. [Cheers.] I am not one of those who believe that cheapness is the highest good. I am not one of those who believe that it can be to my interest, or to yours, to purchase in the market anything below the price that pays to the men who make it fair living wages. [Great cheering.] We should all "live and let live" in this country. [Cheers.] Our strength, our promise for the future, our security for social happiness are in the contentment of the great masses who toil. It is in kindly intercourse and relationship between capital and labor, each having its appropriate increase, that we shall find the highest good, the capitalist and employer everywhere extending to those who[283] work for human rights a kindly consideration with compensatory wages. [Cheers.]

Now, to these children and Grand Army friends who greet me here, I say, thank you and God speed you and good-by. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—The inconvenience which you suffer to-day, and under which I labor in attempting to speak to you, comes from the fact that there are more of you here than can come within the range of my voice, but not more, I assure you, my fellow-citizens, than I can take and do take most hospitably in my regard. [Cheers.] It gives me great pleasure to stand here in the prosperous and growing city of Canton. I am glad to be at the home of one with whom I have been associated in Congressional duties for a number of years, and who in all personal relations with me, as I believe in all personal relations with you, his neighbors, has won my regard, as I am sure he has won yours [cheers]; and without any regard to what may be thought of the McKinley bill, I am sure here to-day you are all the good neighbors and friends of William McKinley. [Cheers.] Kind-hearted and generous as he seems to me, I am sure he has not failed in these social relations, whatever judgment you may have of his political opinions, in making the masses of the people proud of him as their distinguished friend. [Cheers.]

You have here to-day the representatives of men from the shops, from the railroads, from the stores, from the offices of your city. You are living together in those helpful and interchanging relations which make American life pleasant and which make American cities prosperous. The foundation of our society is in the[284] motto that every man shall have such wages as will enable him to live decently and comfortably, and rear his children as helpful and safe and useful American citizens. [Cheers.] We all desire, I am sure—every kindly heart—that all the relations between employers and workmen shall be friendly and kind. I wish everywhere the associations were closer and employers more thoughtful of those who work for them. I am sure there is one thing in which we all agree, whatever our views may be on the tariff or finance, and that is, there is no prosperity that in the wide, liberal sense does not embrace within it every deserving and industrious man and woman in the community. [Cheers.] We are here all responsible citizens, and we should all be free from anything that detracts from our liberties and independence, or that retards the development of our intelligence, morality, and patriotism.

I am glad here to speak to some, too, who were comrades in the great struggle of the Civil War [cheers]; glad that there are here soldiers who had part in that great success by which our institutions were preserved and the control and sovereignty of the Constitution and law were forever established. [Cheers.] To them, and to all such friends, I extend to-day a hearty greeting, and would if I could extend a comrade's hand. [Cheers.] And now, my friends, the heat of this day, the exhaustion of a dozen speeches, made at intervals as we have come along, renders it impossible that I should speak to you longer. I beg to thank you all for your presence. I beg to hope that, as American citizens, however we differ about particular matters of legislation or administration, we are all pledged, heart and soul, life and property, to the preservation of the Union and to the honor of our glorious flag. [Great cheering.]

My Fellow-citizens—There is nothing in which the American people are harder upon their public servants than in the insatiable demand they make for public speech. I began talking before breakfast this morning, and have been kept almost continuously at it through the day, with scarcely time for lunch; and yet, as long as the smallest residuum of strength or voice is left I cannot fail to recognize these hearty greetings and to say some appreciative word in return. I do very much thank you, and I do very deeply feel the cordial enthusiasm with which you have received me. It is very pleasant to know that as American citizens we love our Government and its institutions, and are all ready to pay appropriate respect to any public officer who endeavors in such light as he has to do his public duty. This homage is not withheld by one's political opponents, and it is pleasant to know that in all things that affect the integrity and honor and perpetuity of our Government we rise above party ties and considerations. The interests of this Government are lodged with you. There is not much that a President can do to shape its policy. He is charged under the Constitution with the duty of making suggestions to Congress, but, after all, legislation originates with the Congress of the United States, and the policy of our laws is directed by it. The President may veto, but he cannot frame a bill. Therefore it is of great interest to you, and to all our people, that you should choose such men to represent you in the Congress of the United States as will faithfully promote those policies to which you have given your intelligent adhesion. This country of ours is secure, and social order is maintained, because the great masses of our people live in contentment and some good measure of comfort. God forbid that we should ever reach the condition which has been reached by some other countries, where all that is before many of their population is the question of bare subsistence, where it is simply "how shall I find bread for to-day?" No hopes of accumulation; no hope of comfort; no hope of education, or higher things for the children that are to come after them. God be blessed that that is not our condition in America! Here is a chance to every man; here fair wages for fair work, with education for the masses, with no classes or distinctions to keep down the ambitious young. We have a happy lot. Let us not grumble if now and then things are not prosperous as they might be. Let us think of the average, and if this year's crop is not as full as we could wish, we have[286] already in these green fields the promise of a better one to come. Let us not doubt that we are now—as I have seen the evidence of it in a very extended trip through the West—entering upon an up grade in all departments of business. [Cheers.] Everywhere I went, in the great city of St. Louis and the smaller manufacturing towns through which we passed, there was one story to tell—and I have no doubt it is true in your midst—every wheel is running and every hand is busy. [Cheers.] I believe the future is bright before us for increasingly better times for all, and as it comes I hope it may be so generally diffused that its kindly touch may be felt by every one who hears me, and that its beneficent help may come into every home. [Prolonged cheers.]

Washington, April 7.

Hon. H. B. Kelly, Chairman, Kansas City, Mo.:

Dear Sir—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of March 24, inviting me to attend the meeting of the commercial congress of the Western agricultural and mining States, to assemble in Kansas City, April 14 to 19, for the purpose of consid[287]ering measures affecting the general agricultural and business prosperity of the Mississippi Valley States. I regret that it will not be possible for me to accept this invitation. If I am not detained here by public business I shall probably start about that time for the Pacific coast by the Southern route; and if that purpose should be thwarted it will be by considerations that will also prevent the acceptance of your invitation.

A public discussion of the conditions affecting agricultural and business prosperity cannot but be helpful, if it is conducted on broad lines and is hospitable to differences of opinion. The extraordinary development of the productions of agriculture which has taken place in a recent period in this country by reason of the rapid enlargement of the area of tillage under the favoring land laws of the United States, very naturally has called attention to the value, and, indeed, the necessity of larger markets. I am one of those who believe that a home market is necessarily the best market for the producer, as it measurably emancipates him in proportion to its nearness from the exactions of the transportation companies. If the farmer could deliver his surplus produce to the consumer out of his farm-wagon his independence and his profits would be larger and surer. It seems to me quite possible to attain a largely increased market for our staple farm products without impairing our home market by opening the manufacturing trades to a competition in which foreign producers, paying a lower scale of wages, would have the advantage. A policy that would reduce the number of our people engaged in mechanical pursuits or diminish their ability to purchase food products by reducing wages cannot be helpful to those now engaged in agriculture. The farmers insist that the prices of farm products have been too low—below the point of fair living and fair profits. I think so too, but I venture to remind them that the plea they make involves the concession that things may be too cheap. A coat may be too cheap as well as corn. The farmer who claims a good living and profits for his work should concede the same to every other man and woman who toils.

I look with great confidence to the completion of further reciprocal trade arrangements, especially with the Central and South American states, as furnishing new and large markets for meats, breadstuffs, and an important line of manufactured products. Persistent and earnest efforts are also being made, and a considerable measure of success has already been attained, to secure the removal of restrictions which we have regarded as unjust upon the admission and use of our meats and live cattle in some of the[288] European countries. I look with confidence to a successful termination of the pending negotiations, because I cannot but assume that when the absolutely satisfactory character of the sanitary inspections now provided by our law is made known to those foreign states they will promptly relax their discriminating regulations. No effort and none of the powers vested in the Executive will be left unused to secure an end which is so desirable.

Your deliberations will probably also embrace consideration of the question of the volume and character of our currency. It will not be possible and would not be appropriate for me in this letter to enter upon any elaborate discussion of these questions. One or two things I will say, and first, I believe that every person who thoughtfully considers the question will agree with me upon a proposition which is at the base of all my consideration of the currency question, namely, that any dollar, paper or coin, that is issued by the United States must be made and kept in its commercial uses as good as any other dollar. So long as any paper money issued or authorized by the United States Government is accepted in commercial use as the equivalent of the best coined dollar that we issue, and so long as every coined dollar, whether of silver or gold, is assured of an equivalent value in commercial use, there need be no fear as to an excess of money. The more such money the better. But, on the other hand, when any issue of paper or coined dollars is, in buying and selling, rated at a less value than other paper or coined dollars, we have passed the limit of safe experiment in finance. If we have dollars of differing values, only the poorest will circulate. The farmer and the laborer, who are not in hourly touch with the ticker of the telegraph, will require, above all other classes of our community, a dollar of full value. Fluctuations and depreciations are always at the first cost of these classes of our community. The banker and the speculator anticipate, discount, and often profit by such fluctuations. It is very easy, under the impulse of excitement of the stress of money stringency, to fall into the slough of a depreciated or irredeemable currency. It is a very painful and slow business to get out when once in.

I have always believed, and do now more than ever believe, in bimetallism, and favor the fullest use of silver in connection with our currency that is compatible with the maintenance of the parity of the gold and silver dollars in their commercial uses. Nothing, in my judgment, would so much retard the restoration of the free use of silver by the commercial nations of the world as legislation adopted by us that would result in placing this country upon a basis[289] of silver monometallism. The legislation adopted by the first session of the Fifty-first Congress I was assured by leading advocates of free coinage—representatives of the silver States—would promptly and permanently bring silver to $1.29 per ounce and keep it there. That anticipation has not been realized. Our larger use of silver has apparently, and for reasons not yet agreed upon, diminished the demand for silver in China and India.

In view of the fact that it is impossible in this letter to elaborate, and that propositions only can be stated, I am aware that what I have said may be assailed in points where it is easily defensible, but where I have not attempted to present the argument.

I have not before, excepting in an official way, expressed myself on these subjects; but feeling the interest, dignity, and importance of the assemblage in whose behalf you speak, I have ventured, without bigotry of opinion, without any assumption of infallibility, but as an American citizen, having a most earnest desire that every individual and every public act of my life shall conduce to the glory of our country and the prosperity of all our people, to submit these views for your consideration.

Very respectfully,

Benjamin Harrison.

My Fellow-citizens—I desire to thank you very sincerely for this friendly greeting. The State of Virginia is entitled, I think, to high estimation among the States for its great history—for the contribution it has made to the great story of our common country. This fact you discovered, I think, long ago. For personal reasons[291] I have great affection for Virginia. It is the State of my fathers. I am glad this morning to congratulate you upon the marvellous development which has come, and the greater which is coming, to your commonwealth.

You not only have an illustrious story behind you, but before you prospects of development in wealth and prosperity, in all that makes a great State, such as never entered into the imagination of those who laid the foundation of the commonwealth. [Cheers.] You are arousing now to a realization of the benefits of diversity of industries.

In the olden time Virginia was a plantation State. I hope she may never cease to have large agricultural interests. It is the foundation of stable society, but I rejoice with you that she has added to agriculture the mining of coal and iron, and, bringing these from their beds, is producing all the products that enter into the uses of life.

In this is the secret of that great growth illustrating what I see about me here, and the promise of a future which none of us can fully realize. In all of these things we have a common interest, and I beg to assure you that in everything that tends to the social order of your people and the development and increased prosperity of the State of Virginia I am in most hearty sympathy with you all. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—I have found not only pleasure but instruction in riding to-day through a portion of the State of Virginia that is feeling in a very striking way the impulse of a new development. It is extremely gratifying to notice that those hidden sources of wealth which were so long unobserved and so long unused are now being found, and that these regions, once so retired, occupied by a pastoral people, having difficult access to the centres of population, are now being rapidly transformed into busy manufacturing and commercial centres.

In the early settlement of this city the emigrants poured over the Alleghanies and the Blue Ridge like waters over an obstructing ledge, seeking the fertile and attractive farm regions of the great West. They passed unobserved these marvellous hidden stores of wealth which are now being brought into use. Having filled those great basins of the West, they are now turning back to Virginia and West Virginia and Tennessee to bring about a development and production for which the time is ripe, and which will surprise the world. [Cheers.]

It has not been long since every implement of iron, domestic, agricultural, and mechanical, was made in other States. The iron point of the wooden mould-board plough with which the early farmers here turned the soil came from distant States. But now Virginia and Tennessee are stirring their energies to participate in a large degree in mechanical productions and in the great awakening of American influence which will lift the Nation to a place among the nations of the world never before attained. [Cheers.]

What hinders us, secure in the market of our own great population, from successful competition in the markets of the world? What hinders our people, possessing every element of material wealth and endowed with inventive genius and energy unsurpassed, from having again upon the seas a merchant marine flying the flag of our country and carrying its commerce into every sea and every port?

I am glad to stand for this moment among you, glad to express my sympathy with you in every enterprise that tends to develop your State and local communities; glad to stand with you upon the one common platform of respect to the Constitution and the law, differing in our policies as to what the law should be, but pledged with a common devotion and obedience to law as the majority shall by their expressions make it.

I shall carry away from here a new impulse to public duty, a new inspiration as a citizen with you of a country whose greatness is only dawning. And may I now express the pleasure I shall[293] have in every good that comes to you as a community and to each of you as individuals? May peace, prosperity, and social order dwell in your communities, and the fear and love of God in every home! [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—The office of President of the United States is one of very high honor and is also one of very high responsibility. No man having conscientiously at heart the good of the whole people, whose interests are, under the law, in some degree committed to his care, can fail to feel a most oppressive sense of inadequacy when he comes to the discharge of these high functions.

Elected under a system of government which gives to the majority of our people who have expressed their wishes through constitutional methods the right to choose their public servants, when he has taken the oath that inducts him into office he becomes the servant of all the people, and while he may pursue the advocacy of those measures to which the people have given their approval by his choice, he should always act and speak with a reserve and a respect for the opinion of others that shall not alienate from him the good-will of his fellow-citizens, without regard to political belief.

I shall not speak of what has been done, but I have a supreme regard for the honor of the Nation, a profound respect for the Constitution, and a most sincere desire to meet the just expectations[294] of my fellow-citizens. I am not one of those who believe that the good of any class can be permanently and largely attained except upon lines which promote the good of all our people.

I rejoice in the Union of the States. I rejoice to stand here in East Tennessee among a people who so conspicuously and at such sacrifice during the hour of the Nation's peril stood by the flag and adhered to their convictions of public duty [cheers]; and I am especially glad to be able to say that those who, following other views of duty, took sides against us in that struggle, without division in voice or heart to-day praise Almighty God that He preserved us one Nation. [Cheers.]

There is no man, whatever his views upon the questions that then divided us, but, in view of the marvellous benefits which are disseminating themselves over these States, must also bless God to-day that slavery no longer exists and that the Union of free States is indissoluble. [Cheers.]

What is it that has stirred the public of this great region, that has kindled these furnace fires, that has converted these retired and isolated farms upon which you and your ancestors dwelt into centres of trade and mechanical pursuits, bringing a market close to the door of the farmer and bringing prosperity into every home? It is that we have no line of division between the States; it is that these impulses of freedom and enterprise, once limited in their operations, are now common in all the States. We have a common heritage. The Confederate soldier has a full, honorable, and ungrudged participation in all the benefits of a great and just Government. [Cheers.]

I do not doubt to-day that these would be among the readiest of our population to follow the old flag if it should be assailed from any quarter. [Cheers.]

Now, my fellow-countrymen, I can pause but a moment with you. It does me good to look into your faces, to receive these evidences of your good-will. I hope I may have guidance and courage in such time as remains to me in public life conscientiously to serve the public good and the common glory of our beloved country. [Great cheering.]

My Fellow-citizens—We tarry but a moment at this ancient and interesting city, whose story goes back, I think, to the establishment of the State of Franklin, of which perhaps not all of you, certainly not these little ones, ever heard, which John Sevier attempted to set up as an independent commonwealth.

But yet it is not of antiquity that I desire to speak, for ancient history is not of the greatest interest to you now. The Scripture speaks, I think—my Postmaster-General is near, and if I fall into error will correct me [laughter]—of a time when the old things shall pass away and all things shall become new. Tennessee is realizing that beatitude; the old things, the old way of doing things, the stiff clay and steep mountain roads have passed away and the steam-car has come.

The old times of isolation in these valleys, when these pioneers, some of whom I see, made their frontier homes, have passed away, and influences from the outside have come; life has been made easier to men and easier to the toiling women who used to carry the water from the spring at the bottom of the hill in a piggin, but who now by modern appliances have it brought into the kitchen.

You have come to know now that not only the surface of the soil has wealth in it, but that under the surface there are vast sources of wealth to gladden the homes of your people and to bring with new industries a thrifty population. But of all these old things[296] that have passed away and the new ones that have come, I am sure you are exultantly glad in this region, where there was so much martyrdom for the flag, so much exile, so much suffering, that the one Union, the one Constitution, and the one flag might be preserved, to know that those old strifes have passed away, and that a period of fraternity has come when all men are for the flag and all for the Constitution, when it has been forever put out of the minds of all people that this Union can be dissolved or this Constitution overthrown. [Great cheering.]

On all these new things I congratulate the citizens of Tennessee. Turn your faces to the morning, for the sun is lightening the hilltops; there is coming to our country a great growth, an extraordinary development, and you are to be full participants in it all. While other nations of the world have reached a climax in their home development, and are struggling to parcel out remote regions of the earth that their commerce may be extended, we have here prodigious resources that are yet to be touched by the finger of development, and we have the power, if we will, to put our flag again on the sea and to share in the world's commerce. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—The arrangements for our journey will not permit me to tarry with you long. I thank you most sincerely for this cordial demonstration. I rejoice to see in the hands of the children here that banner of glory which is the symbol of our greatness and the promise of our security.

I am glad that by the common consent of all our people, without any regard to past differences, we have once and forever struck hands upon the proposition that from the lakes to the gulf, from the St. Lawrence to the Bay of California, there shall be one flag and one Constitution. [Great cheering.] The story that it brings[297] to us from the time of its adoption as our national emblem is one in which we may all find instruction and inspiration. It is the flag of the free.

It symbolizes a government most aptly expressed by the greatest statesman of the people, Abraham Lincoln, to be "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people"—a government that spreads a sky of hope above the head of every child, that has abolished all class distinctions, and has opened all places of eminence and usefulness in the state and in commerce to the ambitious and energetic young man.

This city has given to the country a conspicuous illustration in your distinguished former fellow-citizen, Andrew Johnson, of what free institutions may do, and what an aspiring young man may do against all adverse conditions in life. To every one perfect freedom is guaranteed within the limits of due respect to the rights of others. Thanking you again for this presence and friendly greeting, I bid you good-by.

My Fellow citizens—It will not be possible for me to speak to you for more than a moment, and yet I cannot refuse, in justice to my[298] own feelings, to express my deep appreciation of your cordial reception. I visit to-day for the first time East Tennessee, but it is a region in which I have always felt a profound interest and for whose people I have always entertained a most sincere respect.

It seems to be true in the history of man that those who are called to dwell among mountain peaks, in regions where the convulsions of nature have lifted the rocks toward the sky, have always been characterized by a personal independence of character, by a devotion to liberty, and by courage in defence of their rights and their homes. The legends that cluster about the mountain peaks of Scotland and the patriotic devotion that makes memorable the passes of Switzerland have been repeated in the mountains of East Tennessee.

In those periods of great struggles, when communications were difficult and often interrupted, the hearts of the people of Indiana went out to the beleaguered friends of the Union beyond the Cumberland Gap. I am glad to know that it is no longer difficult to reach you for succor or for friendly social intercourse, for travel has been quickened and made easy. Some one mentioned just now that it was only four hours and a half from Chattanooga to Atlanta. That is not my recollection [laughter]; I think we spent as many months making that trip. [Laughter.]

I am glad to know that now, by the consent of all your people, without regard to the differences that separated you then, your highways are open to all of us, without prejudice; that your hearts are true to the Union and the Constitution, and that the high sense of public duty which then characterized you still abides among your people. May your valleys be always full of prosperity, your homes the abode of affection and love, and of all that makes the American home the best of all homes and the sure nursery of good citizens. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—It gives me pleasure to visit this historical city—a city that has given to the country many men who have been eminent in its councils and brought to the Nation they served and to the people who called them into the public service great honor. I am glad to visit East Tennessee, the scene of that early immigration and of those early struggles of men who, for vigor of intellect, strength of heart, and devotion to republican principles, were among the most conspicuous of the early pioneers of the West and Southwest.

I am glad to know that that deep devotion to the cause of the Union which manifested itself in the early contributions of Tennessee to the armies that went to the defence of the homes of the Northwest abides still in these valleys and crowns with its glory and lustre every hill-top of the Alleghanies. You are feeling now a material development that is interesting and pleasing to all your fellow-citizens of the States.

I beg to say to you that whoever supposes that there is anywhere in the Northern States any jealousy of this great material progress which the South is making wholly misconceives the friendly heart of the people of the North. It is my wish, as I am sure it is the wish of all with whom I associate in political life, that the streams of prosperity in the South may run bank-full; that in everything that promotes the prosperity of the State, the security and comfort of the community, and the happiness of the individual home, your blessings may be full and unstinted.

We live in a Government of law. The compact of our organization is that a majority of our people, taking those methods which are prescribed by the Constitution and law, shall determine our public policies and choose our rulers. It is our solemn compact; it cannot safely be broken. We may safely differ about policies; we may safely divide upon the question as to what shall be the law; but when the law is once enacted no community can safely divide on the question of implicit obedience to the law.

It is the one rule of conduct for us all. I may not choose as[300] President what laws I will enforce, and the citizen may not choose what laws he will obey. Upon this broad principle our institutions rest. If we save it, all the agitations and tumults of our campaigns, exciting though they may be, will be harmless to move our Government from its safe and abiding foundation.

If we abandon it, all is gone. Therefore, my appeal everywhere is to hold the law in veneration and reverence. We have no other king; public officers are your servants; but in the august and majestic presence of the law we all uncover and bow the knee.

May every prosperity attend you. May this ground, made memorable by one of the most gallant assaults and by one of the most successful defences in the story of the war, never again be stained by blood; but may our people, in one common love of one flag and one Constitution, in a common and pervading fealty to the great principles of our Government, go on to achieve material wealth, and in social development, in intelligence, in piety, in everything that makes a nation great and a people happy, secure all the Lord has in His mind for a Nation that He has so conspicuously blessed. [Great and prolonged cheering.]

My Fellow-citizens—I have greatly enjoyed the opportunity of seeing Chattanooga again. I saw it last as the camp of a great army. Its only industries were military, its stores were munitions of war, its pleasant hill-tops were torn with rifle-pits, its civic population the attendants of an army campaign. I see it to-day a great city, a prosperous commercial centre. I see these hill-tops, then bristling with guns, crowned with happy homes; I see these streets, through which the worn veterans of many campaigns then marched, made glad with the presence of happy children. Everything is changed.

The wand of an enchanter has touched these hills, and old Lookout, that frowned over the valleys from which the plough had been withdrawn, now looks upon the peaceful industries of country life. All things are changed, except that the flag that then floated over Chattanooga floats here still. [Cheers.] It has passed from the hand of the veterans, who bore it to victory in battle, into the hands of the children, who lift it as an emblem of peace. [Cheers.] Then Chattanooga was war's gateway to the South; now it is the gateway of peace, commerce, and prosperity. [Cheers.]

There have been two conquests—one with arms, the other with the gentle influences of peace—and the last is greater than the first. [Cheers.] The first is only great as it made way for that which followed; and now, one again in our devotion to the Constitution and the laws, one again in the determination that the question of the severance of the federal relations of these States shall never again be raised, we have started together upon a career of prosperity and development that has as yet given only the signs of what is to come.

I congratulate Tennessee, I congratulate this prosperous city, I[302] congratulate all those who through this gateway give and receive the interchanges of friendly commerce, that there is being wrought throughout our country a unification by commerce, a unification by similarity of institutions and habits, that shall in time erase every vestige of difference, and shall make us, not only in contemplation of the law, but in heart and sympathy, one people. [Cheers.]

I thank you for your cordial greeting to-day, and hope for the development of the industries of our country and for the settling of our institutions upon the firm base of a respect for the law. In this glad springtime, while the gardens are full of blossoms and the fields give promise of another harvest, and your homes are full of happy children, let us thank God for what He has wrought for us as a people, and, each in our place, resolutely maintain the great idea upon which everything is builded—the rule of the majority, constitutionally expressed, and the absolute equality of all men before the law. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I am very much obliged to you for coming here in this shower to show your good-will. I can only assure you that I entirely reciprocate your good feelings. I have had great pleasure to-day in passing over some parts of the old route that I took once before under very different and distressing circumstances, to find how easy it is, when we are all agreed, to travel between Chattanooga and Atlanta. I am glad to see the evidences of prosperity that abound through your country, and I wish you in all your relations every human good. [Cheers.]

I am glad to be with you to-night. Having but a few minutes to spare I would offer a few words of encouragement to you. Most, if not all, of you are here at night because your circumstances are such that the day must be given to toil. The day is your earning period. The night must, therefore, be set apart for study. I am glad to see that so many find it in your hearts to be here in this school; it is a very hopeful sign. I think it has in it the promise that you will each become a useful citizen in this country. Pluck and energy are two essential elements. A boy wants to be something. With pluck and energy success is assured. There is a day of hope above every one of you.

I bid you good cheer and would offer encouragement to every one of you, and I know every one of you may be useful and honorable citizens in this community, whose officers have taken the interest to organize this school for your benefit. I very sincerely and earnestly wish you God-speed. Stick to your studies and don't neglect to acquire a needful education, and you may one day occupy the positions of honor which are held by those to-day in charge of the affairs of your city.

My Fellow-citizens—I desire, in parting from you, to give public expression of my satisfaction and enjoyment in my brief visit to Atlanta. I saw this city once under circumstances of a very unfavorable character. I did not think I would like it, although we were making great efforts to get it. [Laughter.] I am glad after all these years to see the great prosperity and development that has come to you. I think I am able to understand some of the influences that are at the bottom of it, and I am sure that I look into the faces of a community that, whatever their differences may have been, however they viewed the question of the war when it was upon us, can have but one thought as to what was best. We can all say with the Confederate soldier who carried a gun for what seemed to him to be right, that God knew better than any of us what was best for the country and for the world.

You are thankful for what He has wrought and chiefly for emancipation. It has opened up to diversified industries these States that were otherwise exclusively agricultural, and made it possible for you not only to raise cotton, but to spin and weave it, and has made Georgia such a State as it could not have been under the old conditions. I am sure we have many common purposes, and as God shall give us power to see truth and right, let us do our duty, and, while exacting all our own rights, let us bravely and generously give every other man his equal rights before the law. [Cheers.]

Thanking you for your reception, which has been warm and[306] hospitable, I go from you very grateful for your kindness and very full of hope for your future.

I cannot wish more than that those enterprising land-owners whose work in grading and laying new additions I saw yesterday will realize all their hopes. I am very sure if that is done Atlanta will not long be rated the second city of the South. [Cheers.]

That man is unfortunate who is called on to speak after a President. But at such a moment as this, parting from people who in a single night have shown so much kindness and good-fellowship, it is not difficult to return at least our grateful thanks for your most generous welcome. Of all objects in your city I have looked with most interest upon the house where a great light had gone out, and felt again the common sorrow in the absence of Henry Grady, a man whose life and influences were larger than Atlanta. The words he spoke and the principles he stood for cannot be forgotten. If we can but learn to know each other and understand each other there will be fewer differences than might be supposed. By more frequent intercourse and a fairer consideration of each other we should rise to a higher level of happiness. I wish we had come sooner and could stay longer. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—This large assemblage of people from this new and energetic city is very pleasant, and I thank you for the welcome that it implies. All of these evidences of extending industry are extremely pleasing to me as I observe them. They furnish employment to men; they imply comfortable homes, contented families, a safe social organization, and are the strength of the Nation.

I am glad to see that these enterprises that are taking the ores from the earth and adapting them to the uses of civilization have not been started here unaccompanied by that more important work—the work of gathering the children into the schools and instructing them, that they in their turn may be useful men and women. [Applause.] I am glad to greet these little ones this morning; it is a cheerful sight. We are soon to lay down the work of life and the responsibilities of citizenship, these mothers are soon to quit the ever-recurring and never-ending work of the home and give it into new hands.

It is of the utmost consequence that these little ones be trained in mind and taught the fear of God and a benevolent regard for their fellow-men, in order that their lives and social relations may be peaceful and happy. We are citizens of one country, having one flag and one destiny. We are starting upon a new era of development, and I hope this development is to keep pace and to be the promoting cause of a very perfect unification of our people. [Cheers.]

We have a Government whose principles are very simple and very popular. The whole theory of our institutions is that, pursuing those election methods which we have prescribed under the Constitution, every man shall exercise freely the right that the suffrage law confides to him, and that the majority, if it has expressed its will, shall conclude the issue for us all. There is no other foundation. This was the enduring base upon which the fathers of our country placed our institutions. Let us always keep them there. Let us press the debate in our campaigns as to what the law should be; but let us keep faith and submit with the reverence and respect which are due to the law when once lawfully enacted. [Applause.]

The development which is coming to you in these regions of the[308] South is marvellous. In ten years you increased your production of iron about 300 per cent.—nearly a million and a quarter of tons—and you have only begun to open these mines and to put these ores to the process of reduction. Now, I want to leave this thought with you: In the old plantations of the South you got everything from somewhere else; why not make it all yourselves? [Cheers.]

Fellow-citizens—I very much regret that I am able to make so little return to you for this cordial manifestation of your respect and friendship; and yet, even in these few moments which I am able to spend with you, I hope I shall gather and possibly be able to impart some impulse that may be mutually beneficial. I am glad to see with the eye that of which I have kept informed—the great development which is taking place in the mineral regions of the Southern States.

I remember, as a boy, resident upon one of the great tributaries of the Mississippi, how the agricultural products of those States, the corn and provisions raised upon the fertile acres of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, were marketed in the South. The old[309] broad-horn took its way down the Mississippi, stopping at the plantations to sell the provisions upon which the people of the South were largely sustained. The South was then essentially a plantation region, producing one or two great staples that found a ready market in the world, but dependent for its implements of industry and domestic utensils upon the States of the North Mississippi Valley.

I am glad all this is changed, that you are realizing the benefits of diversified agriculture, and that the production upon your farms of the staples which you once bought elsewhere is largely increasing; and I am glad that to diversified agriculture you have also added these great mechanical pursuits which have brought into your communities artisans and laborers who take from the adjacent farms the surplus of your fertile lands. [Cheers.] There has been received in the South since the war not less than $8,000,000,000 for cotton, and while I rejoice in that, I am glad to know that in this generous region there are near 100,000 acres devoted to raising watermelons. [Laughter.]

No farmer, certainly no planter in the old time, would have consented to sell watermelons. You are learning that things which were small and despised have come to be great elements in your commerce. Now your railroads make special provision for the transportation of a crop which brings large wealth to your people.

I mention this as a good illustration of the changing conditions into which you are entering. You are realizing the benefits of home markets for what you produce, and I am sure you will unite with me in those efforts which we ought to make, not only to fill our own markets with all that this great Nation of 65,000,000 needs, but to reach out to other markets and enter into competition with the world for them. [Cheers.] This we shall do, and with all this mechanical and commercial development we shall realize largely that condition of unification of heart and interest to which those who have spoken for you have so eloquently alluded. [Cheers.]

And now, wishing that the expectations of all who are interested in this stirring young city may be realized, that all your industries may be active and profitable, I add the wish that those gentler and kindlier agencies of the school and church, of a friendly social life, may always pervade and abide with you as a community. [Cheers.]

Governor Jones, Mr. Mayor, and Fellow-citizens—The noise of your industries will not stay itself, I fear, sufficiently to enable me to make myself heard by many in this immense throng that has gathered to welcome us. I judge from what we have seen as we neared your station that we have here at Birmingham the largest and most enthusiastic concourse of people that has met us since we left the national capital. [Great and prolonged cheering.] For all this I am deeply grateful. The rapidity with which we must pursue this journey will not allow us to look with any detail into the great enterprises which cluster about your city; but if we shall only have opportunity to see for a moment these friendly faces and listen to these friendly words, we shall carry away that which will be invaluable, and, I trust, by the friendly exchange of greetings, may leave something to you that is worth cherishing. [Great cheering.] I have read of the marvellous development which, in the last few years, has been stirring the solitude of these southern mountains, and I remember that not many years after the war, when I had resumed my law practice at Indianapolis, I was visited by a gentleman, known, I expect, to all of you, upon some professional business. He came to pursue a collection claim against a citizen of Indiana; but he seemed to be more interested in talking about Birmingham than anything else. [Laughter and cheers.] That man was Colonel Powell, one of the early promoters of your city. [Cheers.] I listened to his story of the marvellous wealth of iron and coal that was stored in this region; of their nearness to each other, and to the limestone necessary for smelting; to his calculations as to the cheapness with which iron could be produced here, and his glowing story of the great city that was to be reared, with a good deal of incredulity. I thought he was a visionary; but I have regretted ever since that I did not ask him to pay me my fee in town lots in Birmingham. [Laughter and cheers.]

My countrymen, we thought the war a great calamity, and so it was. The destruction of life and of property was sad beyond expression; and yet we can see now that God led us through that Red Sea to a development in material prosperity and to a fraternity that was not otherwise possible. [Cheers.] The industries that have called to your midst so many toiling men are always and everywhere the concomitants of freedom. Out of all this freedom from the incubus of slavery the South has found a new industrial birth. Once almost wholly agricultural, you are now not the less fruitful in crops, but you have added all this. [Cheers.] You have increased your production of cotton, and have added an increase in ten years of nearly 300 per cent. in the production of iron. You have produced three-fourths of the cotton crop of the world, and it has brought you since the war about $8,000,000,000 of money to enrich your people. But as yet you are spinning in the South only 8 per cent, of it. Why not, with the help we will give you in New England and the North, spin it all? [Cheers.] Why not establish here cotton mills that shall send, not the crude agricultural product to other markets, but the manufactured product? [Cheers.] Why not, while supplying 65,000,000 of people, reach out and take a part we have not had in the commerce of the world? [Cheers.] I believe we are to see now a renaissance in American prosperity and in the up-building again of our American merchant marine. [Cheers.] I believe that these Southern ports that so favorably look out with invitations to the States of Central and South America shall yet see our fleets carrying the American flag and the products of Alabama to the markets of South America. [Great cheering.]

In all this we are united; we may differ as to method, but if you will permit me I will give an illustration to show how we have been dealing with this shipping question. I can remember when no wholesale merchant ever sent a drummer into the field. He said to his customers, "Come to my store and buy;" but competition increased and the enterprising merchant started out men to seek customers; and so his fellow-merchant was put to the choice to put travelling men into the field or to go out of business. It seems to me, whatever we may think of the policy of aiding our steamship lines, that since every other great nation does it, we must do it or stay out of business, for we have pretty much gone out. [Cheers.] I am glad to reciprocate with the very fulness of my heart every fraternal expression that has fallen from the lips of these gentlemen who have addressed me in your behalf. [Cheers.] I have not been saved from mistakes; probably I shall not be. I[313] am sure of but one thing—I can declare that I have simply at heart the glory of the American Nation and the good of all its people. [Great and prolonged cheering.] I thank these companies of the State militia, one of whom I recognize as having done me the honor to attend the inaugural ceremony, for their presence. They are deserving, sir [to the Governor], of your encouragement and that of the State of Alabama. They are the reserve army of the United States. It is our policy not to have a large regular army, but to have a trained militia that, in any exigency, will step to the defence of the country; and if that exigency shall ever arise—which God forbid—I know that you would respond as quickly and readily as any other State. [Cheers.] [The Governor: "You will find all Alabama at your back, sir!"] [Continued cheering.]

I am glad to know that in addition to all this business you are doing you are also attending to education and to those things that conduce to social order. The American home is the one thing we cannot afford to lose out of the American life. [Cheers.] As long as we have pure homes and God-fearing, order-loving fathers and mothers to rear the children that are given to them, and to make these homes the abodes of order, cleanliness, piety, and intelligence, the American society and the American Union are safe [Great cheering.]

We have seen something of the marvellous material growth of Birmingham, and seen evidence of the great richness of your "black diamonds" and your iron, and now we see something of your home life. The many beautiful women whom we have had the happiness to meet, and some of whom are now with us, are the angels of your homes, and right glad we are to be favored by their presence. After all, it is their homes which make a people great. We are glad to be here; for, really, you overwhelm us with kindness. [Long-continued applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—The name of the city of Memphis was familiar to me in my early boyhood. Born and reared upon one of the tributaries of the great river upon which your city is located, these river marts of commerce were the familiar trading-posts of the farmers of the Ohio Valley. I well remember when, on the shores of father's farm, the old "broad-horn" was loaded from the hay-press and the corn-crib to market with the plantations along the Lower Mississippi. I remember to have heard from him and the neighbors who constituted the crew of those pioneer craft of river navigation of the perils of these great waters; of the snags and caving banks of the Lower Mississippi. In those times these States were largely supplied with grain and forage from the Northwestern States. Here you were giving your attention to one or two great staple products, for which you found a large foreign market. I congratulate you that the progress of events has made you not less agricultural, but has diversified your agriculture so that you are not now wholly dependent upon these great staples for the income of your farms.

The benefits of this diversification are very great and the change symbolizes more than we at first realize. This change means that we are now coming to understand that meanness cannot be predicated of any honest industry. I rejoice that you are adding to diversified agriculture diversified manufacturing pursuits; that you are turning your thought to compressing and spinning cotton as well as raising it. I know no reason why these cotton States, that produce 75 per cent. of the cotton of the world, should not spin the greater portion of it. I know no reason why they should export it as raw material, rather than as a manufactured product, holding in their midst the profits of this transformation of the raw material to the finished product. [Applause.]

I hope it may be so. I see evidence that the people are turning their attention to new industries, and are bringing into the midst[316] of these farming communities a large population of artisans and laborers to consume at your own doors the product of your farms. I am glad that a liberal Government is making this great waterway to the sea safe and capable of an uninterrupted use. I am glad that it is here making the shores of your own city convenient and safe, and that it is opening, north and south, an uninterrupted and cheap transportation for the products of these lands that lie along this great system of rivers. I am glad that it is bringing you in contact with ports of the Gulf that look out with near and inviting aspect toward a great trade in South America that we shall soon possess. I am glad to believe that these great river towns will speedily exchange their burdens with American ships at the mouth of the Mississippi to be transported to foreign ports under the flag of our country. [Great cheering.]

This Government of ours is a compact of the people to be governed by a majority, expressing itself by lawful methods. [Cheers.] Everything in this country is to be brought to the measure of the law. I propose no other rule, either as an individual or as a public officer. I cannot in any degree let down this rule [cries of "No!" and cheers] without violating my official duty. There must be no other supremacy than that of lawful majorities. We must all come at last to this conclusion—that the supremacy of the law is the one supremacy in this country of ours. [Cheers.]

Now, my fellow citizens, I thank you for this warm and magnificent demonstration of your respect, accepting cordially the expression of the chief of your city Government that you are a sincere, earnest, patriotic, devoted people. I beg to leave with you the suggestion that each in his place shall do what he can to maintain social order and public peace; that the lines here and everywhere shall be between the well-disposed and the ill-disposed.

The effort of speech to this immense throng is too great for me. I beg to assure you that I carry from the great war no sentiment of ill-will to any. [Cheers.] I am glad that the Confederate soldier, confessing that defeat which has brought him blessings that would have been impossible otherwise, has been taken again into full participation in the administration of the Government; that no penalties, limitations, or other inflictions rest upon him. I have taken and can always take the hand of a brave Confederate soldier with confidence and respect. [Great cheering.]

I would put him under one yoke only, and that is the yoke that the victors in that struggle bore when they went home and laid off their uniforms—the yoke of the law and the obligation always to obey it. [Cheers.] Upon that platform, without distinction be[317]tween the victors and the vanquished, we enter together upon possibilities as a people that we cannot overestimate. I believe the Nation is lifting itself to a new life; that this flag shall float on unfamiliar seas, and that this coming prosperity will be equally shared by all our people. [Prolonged cheering.]

Governor Eagle and Fellow-citizens—No voice is large enough to compass this immense throng. But my heart is large enough to receive all the gladness and joy of your great welcome here to-day. [Applause.] I thank you one and all for your presence, for the kind words of greeting which have been spoken by your Governor, and for these kind faces turned to me. In all this I see a great fraternity; in all this I feel new impulses to a better discharge of every public and every private duty. I cannot but feel that in[318] consequence of this brief contact with you to-day I shall carry away a better knowledge of your State, its resources, its capabilities, and of the generous warm-heartedness of its people. We have a country whose greatness this meeting evidences, for there are here assembled masses of independent men. The commonwealth rests upon the free suffrage of its citizens and their devotion to the Constitution, and the flag is the bulwark of its life. [Cheers.] We have agreed, I am sure, that we will do no more fighting among ourselves. [Cries of "Good! good!" and cheers.] I may say to you confidentially that Senator Jones and I agreed several years ago, after observing together the rifle practice at Fort Snelling, that shooting had been reduced to such accuracy that war was too dangerous for either of us to engage in it. [Laughter and cheers.] But, my friends, I cannot prolong this talk. Once already to-day in the dampness of this atmosphere I have attempted to speak, and therefore you will allow me to conclude by wishing for your State, for its Governor and all its public officers, for all its citizens without exception, high or humble, the blessing of social order, peace, and prosperity—the fruits of intelligence and piety. [Great cheering.]

Having had notice of your request that we stop here for a few moments, I have remained up in order to thank you for your[319] expressed interest and for this very large and cordial demonstration. I have spoken several times during the day, and am sure you will excuse me from attempting now, at midnight, to make a speech. I hope that prosperity is here and that it may abide with you. Thanking you again, I bid you good-night.

Governor Hogg and Fellow-citizens—It gives me pleasure to come this fresh morning into this great State—a kingdom without a king, an empire without an emperor, a State gigantic in proportions and matchless in resources, with diversified industries and infinite capacities to sustain a tremendous population and to bring to every home where industry abides prosperity and comfort. Such homes, I am sure, are represented here this morning—the American home, where the father abides in the respect and the mother in the deep love of the children that sit about the fireside; where all that makes us good is taught and the first rudiments of obedience to law, of orderly relations one to another, are put into the young minds. Out of this comes social order; on this rests the[320] security of our country. The home is the training-school for American citizenship. There we learn to defer to others; selfishness is suppressed by the needs of those about us. There self-sacrifice, love, and willingness to give ourselves for others are born.

I thank you that so many of you have come here this morning from such homes, and all of us are thankful together that peace rests upon our whole country. All of us have pledged ourselves that no sectional strife shall ever divide us, and that while abiding in peace with all the world we are, against all aggression, one mighty, united people. [Cheers.]

I desire to assure you, my countrymen, that in my heart I make no distinction between our people anywhere. [Cheers.] I have a deep desire that everywhere in all our States there shall be that profound respect for the will of the majority, expressed by our voters, that shall bring constant peace into all our communities. It is very kind of you to come here this morning before breakfast. Perhaps you are initiating me into the Texas habit—is it so?—of taking something before breakfast. [Laughter and cheers.] This exhilarating draught of good-will you have given me this morning will not, I am sure, disturb either my digestion or comfort during this day. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—Your faces all respond to the words of welcome which have been spoken in your behalf. We have been not only pleased but touched by the delicate and kindly expressions of regard which we have received since entering the State of Texas. I remained up last night until after midnight that I might not unconsciously pass into this great State, and I was called very early from my bed this morning to receive a draught of welcome, before I had breakfasted, from another Texas audience. You have a State whose greatness I think you have discovered.

A stranger can hardly hope to point out to you that which you have not already known. Perhaps Virginia and Kentucky have been heard to say more about their respective States than Texas; but I think their voices are likely soon to be drowned by the enthusiastic and affectionate claims which you will present to the country for your great commonwealth. [Cheers.] You have the resources in some measure—in a great measure—of all the States gathered within your borders; a soil adapted to the production of all the cereals and grasses; and to this you add cotton, sugar, and tobacco. You are very rightly diversifying your crops, because the history of intelligent farming shows that as the crops are diversified the people prosper.

All is not staked upon the success of a single crop. You do well, therefore, to raise cotton, sugar, and tobacco, and I am glad you are not neglecting cattle, sheep, hogs, corn, and all the cereals. We have been trying to do what we could from Washington to make for you a larger and better market for your enormous meat products. [Cheers.] We have felt that the restrictions imposed by some of the European governments could not be fairly justified upon the ground stated by them. Already the Secretary of Agriculture—himself a farmer, who has with his own hands wrought in all the work of the farm—has succeeded in procuring the removal of some of these injurious restrictions, and has announced to the country that exportation of cattle has increased 100 per cent. in the last year. [Cheers.] I beg to assure you that these interests will have the most careful attention from the Government at Washington and from our representatives at foreign courts. It is believed that we have now by legislation a system of sanitary inspection of our meat products that, when once put in operation[322] and examined by the European governments, will remove the last excuse for the exclusion of our meats from those foreign states.

Our time is so limited that I can scarcely say more than "thank you." We cannot at all repay you for this demonstration of welcome, but let me say that in all your prosperity I shall rejoice. I do desire that all our legislation and all our institutions and the combined energies of all our people shall work together for the common good of all our States and all our population. [Great cheering.] You have great resources of a material sort, and yet above all this I rejoice that the timely forethought of your public men has provided an unexampled school fund for the education of the children.

These things that partake of the life that is spiritual are better after all than the material. Indeed, there can be no true prosperity in any State or community where they are not thoughtfully fostered. Good social order, respect for the law, regard for other men's rights, orderly, peaceful administration are the essential things in any community. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—We close to-night a whole week of travel, a whole week of hand-shaking, a whole week of talking. I have before me 10,000 miles of hand-shaking and speaking, and I am not, by reason of what this week has brought me, in voice to contend with the fine but rather strong Gulf breeze which pours in upon us to-night; and yet it comes to me laden with the fragrance of your welcome. [Cheers.] It comes with the softness, refreshment, and grace which have accompanied all my intercourse with the people of Texas. [Great cheering.]

The magnificent and cordial demonstration which you have made in our honor to-day will always remain a bright and pleasant picture in my memory. [Great cheers.] I am glad to have been able to rest my eyes upon the city of Galveston. I am glad to have been able to traverse this harbor and to look upon that work which a liberal and united Government has inaugurated for your benefit and for the benefit of the Northwest. [Great and prolonged cheers.] I have always believed that it was one of the undisputed functions of the general Government to make these great waterways which penetrate our country and these harbors into which our shipping must come to receive the tribute of rail and river safe and easy of access.

This ministering care should extend to our whole country, and I am glad that, adopting a policy with reference to the harbor work, here at least, which I insisted upon in a public message [great and prolonged cheering], the appropriation has been made adequate to a diligent and prompt completion of the work. [Great cheering.] In the past the Government has undertaken too many things at once, and its annual appropriations have been so inadequate that the work of the engineers was much retarded and often seriously damaged in the interval of waiting for fresh appropriations.

It is a better policy, when a work has once been determined to be of national significance, that the appropriation should be sufficient to bring it speedily and without loss to a conclusion. [Great cheering.] I am glad that the scheme of the engineer for giving deep water to Galveston is thus to be prosecuted.

I have said some of our South Atlantic and Gulf ports occupy a most favorable position for the new commerce toward which we are reaching out our hands, and which is reaching out its hands to us. [Great cheering.] I am an economist in the sense that I[325] would not waste one dollar of public money, but I am not an economist in the sense that I would leave incomplete or suffer to lag any great work highly promotive of the true interests of our people. [Great cheering.]

We are great enough and rich enough to reach forward to grander conceptions than have entered the minds of some of our statesmen in the past. If you are content, I am not, that the nations of Europe shall absorb nearly the entire commerce of these near sister republics that lie south of us. It is naturally in large measure ours—ours by neighborhood, ours by nearness of access, ours by that sympathy that binds a hemisphere without a king. [Cheers.]

The inauguration of the Three Americas Congress, or more properly the American Conference, the happy conduct of that meeting, the wise and comprehensive measures which were suggested by it, with the fraternal and kindly spirit that was manifested by our southern neighbors, has stimulated a desire in them and in our people for a larger intercourse of commerce and of friendship. The provisions of the bill passed at the last session looking to a reciprocity of trade not only met with my official approval when I signed the bill, but with my zealous promotion before the bill was reported. [Great and prolonged cheering.]

Its provision concerning reciprocity is that we have placed upon our free list sugar, tea, coffee and hides, and have said to those nations from whom we receive these great staples: Give us free access to your ports for an equivalent amount of our produce in exchange, or we will reimpose duties upon the articles named. The law leaves it wholly to the Executive to negotiate these arrangements. It does not need that they shall take the form of a treaty.

They need not be submitted for the concurrence of the Senate. It only needs that we, having made our offer, shall receive their offer in return; and when they shall have made up an acceptable schedule of articles produced by us that shall have free access to their ports, a proclamation by the President closes the whole business. [Cheers.] Already one treaty with that youngest of the South American republics, the great republic of Brazil, has been negotiated and proclaimed. I think, without disclosing an Executive secret, I may tell you that the arrangement with Brazil is not likely to abide in lonesomeness much longer [great and prolonged cheering]; that others are to follow, and that as a result of these trade arrangements the products of the United States—our meats, our breadstuffs, and certain lines of manufactured goods—are to find free or favored access to the ports of many of these South and Central American States. All the States will share in[326] these benefits. We have had some analysis of the manifests of some of our steamers now sailing to South American ports, and in a single steamer it was found that twenty-five States contributed to the cargo.

But we shall need something more. We shall need American steamships to carry American goods to these ports. [Great cheering.] The last Congress passed a bill appropriating about $1,500,000, and authorized the Postmaster-General to contract with steamship companies for a period not exceeding ten years for the carrying of the United States mail. The foreign mail service is the only mail service out of which the Government has been making a net profit. We do not make a profit out of our land service.

There is an annual deficiency which my good friend the Postmaster-General has been trying very hard to reduce or wipe out. The theory of our mail service is that it is for the people, that we are not to make a profit out of it, that we are to give them as cheap postage as is possible. We are, many of us, looking forward to a time when we shall have one-cent postage in this country. [Cheers.] We have been so close and penurious in dealing with our ships in the carrying of foreign mails that we have actually made revenues out of that business, not having spent for it what we have received from it. Now we propose to change that policy and to make more liberal contracts with American lines carrying American mail. [Cheers.]

Some one may say we ought not to go into this business, that it is subsidy. But, my friend, every other great nation of the world has been doing it and is doing it to-day. Great Britain and France have built up their great steamship lines by Government aid, and it seems to me our attitude with reference to that is aptly portrayed by an illustration I mentioned the other day. In olden times no wholesale merchant sent out travelling men to solicit custom, but he stood in his own store and waited for his customers. But presently some enterprising merchant began to send out men with their samples to seek the trade, to save the country buyer the cost of the trip to New York or Philadelphia, until finally that practice has become universal, and these active, intelligent travelling men are scurrying this country over, pushing and soliciting in their several lines of business. Now imagine some conservative merchant in New York saying to himself: "All this is wrong; the trade ought to come to me." If he should refuse to adopt these modern methods what would be the result? He must adopt the new methods or go out of business. We have been refusing to adopt the universal method of our competitors in commerce to[327] stimulate their shipping interest and have gone out of the business. [Laughter and cheers.] Encouraged by what your spokesman has said to-night, I venture to declare that I am in favor of going into business again, and when it is re-established I hope Galveston will be in the partnership. [Great cheers.]

It has been the careful study of the Postmaster-General in preparing to execute the law to which I have referred to see how much increase in routes and ships we could secure by it. We have said to the few existing American lines: You must not treat this appropriation as a plate of soup, to be divided and consumed. You must give us new lines, new ships, increased trips, and new ports of call. Already the steamship lines are looking over the routes to see what they can do, with a view of increasing their tonnage and establishing new lines.

The Postmaster-General has invited the attention and suggestion of all the boards of trade of all our seaboard cities. Undoubtedly you have received such a letter. This appropriation is for one year; what the future is to be must depend upon the deliberate judgment of the people. If during my term of office they shall strike down a law that I believe to be beneficial or destroy its energy by withholding appropriations, I shall bow to their will, but I shall feel great disappointment if we do not make an era for the revival of American commerce. I do much want that the time shall come when our citizens living in temporary exile in foreign ports shall now and then see steaming into these distant ports a fine modern man-of-war, flying the United States flag [cheers], with the best modern guns on her deck, and a brave American crew in her forecastle. [Cheers.] I want, also, that in these ports, so long unfamiliar with the American flag, there shall again be found our steamships and our sailing vessels flying the flag that we all love, and carrying from our shores the products that these men of toil have brought to them to exchange for the products of other climes.

I think we should add to all this, and happily it is likely to be accomplished by individual efforts, the early completion of the Nicaragua Canal. [Cheers.] The Pacific coast should no longer be found by sea only by the passage of the Horn. The short route should be opened, and it will be, and then with this wondrous stirring among the people of all our States, this awakening to new business plans and more careful and economical work, there will come great prosperity to all our people. Texas will spin more of the cotton that she raises.

The great States of the South will be in discontent with the old[328] condition that made them simply agricultural States, and will rouse themselves to compete with the older manufacturing States of the North and East. [Cheers.] The vision I have, all the thoughts I have of this matter embrace all the States and all my countrymen. I do not think of it as a question of party; I think of it as a great American question. [Cheers.] By the invitation of the address which was made to me I have freely spoken my mind to you on these topics. I hope I have done so with no offence or impropriety. [Cries of "No, no!" and cheers.]

I would not on an occasion so full of general good feeling as this obtrude anything that should induce division or dissent. For all who do dissent I have the most respectful tolerance. The views I hold are the result of some thought and investigation, and as they are questions of public concern I confidently submit them to the arbitrament of brave and enlightened American suffrage. [Applause and cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—I very much regret that frequent speaking in the open air during the past week and the very heavy atmosphere which we have this morning have somewhat impaired my voice. I am sure you will crown your hospitality and kindness by allowing me to speak to you very briefly. I sympathize with you in the distress which you feel that the day is so unpropitious for any street demonstration, but I have been told by one wise in such matters that this rain is worth $5,000,000 to Western Texas. That being the case, it greatly moderates our regret. It has come to be a popular habit of attributing to the President whatever weather may happen on any demonstration in which he takes a part. I suppose I may claim credit this morning for this beneficial rain. [Applause.] I generously assure you that if it is worth as much money as my friend has estimated I shall not take more than half that sum. [Laughter.] In visiting for a little while this historic city, I had anticipated great pleasure in looking upon the remains of an earlier occupancy of this territory in which you now dwell. Our glance this morning must be brief and imperfect, but the history has been written and the traditions of these martyrdoms which occurred here for liberty are fresh in your minds and are still an inspiring story to be repeated to your children.

I remember in my early boyhood to have heard in our family thrilling descriptions of the experiences of an uncle, whose name I bear, in some of those campaigns for freedom in Texas in which he took a part, so that the story to me goes back to those dim early recollections of childhood. I am glad to stand where those recollections are revived and freshened, for they were events of momentous importance to this country, to this State, and to the whole[330] Union. I rejoice that you have here so great a commonwealth. The stipulations under which Texas came into the Union of the States, and which provided that that great Territory might be subdivided into five States, seem not to attract much attention in Texas now.

Indeed, as far as I can judge, no man would be able successfully to appeal to the suffrages of any hamlet in Texas upon the issue that the State should be divided at all. [Cheers.] The great industrial capacities which you have, the beneficent climate that spreads over much of your vast territory, the great variety of productions which your soil and climate render possible, give a promise for the future of a prominence among the great States of the Union that seems to me can scarcely fail to bring Texas to the front rank. [Cheers.] You are only now beginning to plough this vast stretch of land. You are only now beginning to diversify those interests, to emancipate yourselves by producing at home in your fields all of those products which are necessary to comfortable existence.

I hope you will soon add, indeed, you are now largely adding, to this diversity of agricultural pursuits a diversity of mechanical pursuits. The advantages which you have to transmute the great production of the field into the manufactured product are very great. There can be certainly no reason why a very large part of the million bales of cotton which you produce should not be spun in Texas. [Cheers.] I hope your people will more and more turn their thoughts to this matter, for just in proportion as a community or State suitably divides its energies among various industries, so does it retain the wealth it produces and increase its population. [Applause.]

A great Englishman, visiting this country some time ago, in speaking of the impressions which were made upon his mind, said he was constantly asked as he travelled through the country whether he was not amazed at its territorial extent. He said while this, of course, was a notable incident of travel, he wondered that we did not forget all our bigness of territory in a contemplation of the great spectacle we presented as a free people in organized and peaceful community. He regarded this side of our country and her institutions as much more important than its material development or its territorial extent, and he was right in that judgment.

My fellow-citizens, the pride of America, that which should attract the admiration and has attracted the imagination of many people upon the face of the earth, is our system of government. [Applause.] I am glad to know, and to have expressed my satis[331]faction before, that here in this State of Texas you are giving attention to education; that you have been able to erect a school fund, the interest upon which promises a most magnificent endowment for your common schools. These schools are the pride and safety of your State. They gather into them upon a common level with us, and I hope with you, the children of the rich and poor. In the State in which I dwell everybody's children attend the common schools.

This lesson of equality, the perfect system which has been developed by this method of instruction, is training a valued class of citizens to take up the responsibilities of government when we shall lay them down. [Applause.] I hope every one of your communities, even your scattered rural communities, will pursue this good work. I am sure this hope is shared by my honored host, Governor Hogg, who sits beside me [applause], and who, in the discharge of his public duties, can influence the progress of this great measure. No material greatness, no wealth, no accumulation of splendor, is to be compared with those humble and homely virtues which have generally characterized our American homes.

The safety of the State, the good order of the community—all that is good—the capacity, indeed, to produce material wealth, is dependent upon intelligence and social order. [Applause.] Wealth and commerce are timid creatures; they must be assured that the nest will be safe before they build. So it is always in those communities where the most perfect order is maintained, where intelligence is protected, where the Church of God and the institutions of religion are revered and respected, that we find the largest development in material wealth. [Applause.]

Thanking you for your cordial greeting, thanking all your people, and especially the Governor of your State, for courtesies which have been unfailing, for a cordiality and friendliness that has not found any stint or repression in the fact that we are of different political opinions [great cheering], I beg to thank you for this special manifestation of respect, and to ask you to excuse me from further speech. I shall follow such arrangements as your committee have made, and shall be glad if in those arrangements there is some provision by which I may meet as many of you as possible individually. [Prolonged cheering.]

My Friends—I had supposed when we left San Antonio that we were not to be stopped very often between that point and El Paso with such assemblages of our fellow-citizens. We had settled down to an easy way of living on the train, and I had supposed that speech-making would not be taken up until to-morrow. I thank you most cordially for this friendly evidence of your interest, and I assure you that all of these matters to which your spokesman has alluded are having the most careful consideration of the authorities at Washington. The Secretary of Agriculture, who is with me on the train, has been diligent in an effort to open European markets for American meats, and he has succeeded so far that our exportation has very largely increased in the last year. It is our hope that these restrictions may still further be removed, and that American meat products may have a still larger market in Europe than they have had for very many years past. The inspections now provided by law certainly must remove every reasonable objection to the use of American meats; for we shall demonstrate to them that they are perfectly wholesome and pure. I want to say, from the time of my induction into office until this hour I have had before me constantly the need of the American farmer of a larger market for his products. [Cries of "Good! good!" and cheers.] Whatever we can do to accomplish that will be done. I want to thank the public-school children for this address which they have placed in my hands. What a blessed thing it is that the public school system is found with the pioneer! It follows the[333] buffalo very closely. I am glad to find that your children are being trained in intelligence and in those moral restraints which shall make them good citizens. I thank you for your kindly presence.

My Fellow-citizens—I have been journeying for several days throughout the great State of Texas. We are now about to leave her territory and receive from you this parting salutation. Our entrance into the State was with every demonstration of respect and enthusiasm. This is a fitting close to the magnificent expression which the people of this State have given to us. I am glad to stand at this gateway of trade with the great republic of Mexico. [Cries of "Hear! hear!" and cheers.] I am glad to know that it is not only a gateway of commerce, but a gateway of friendship [cheers]; that not only do these hurrying vehicles of commerce bear the products of the fields and mines in mutual exchange, but that they have facilitated those personal relations which have promoted and must yet more promote the friendliness of two independent liberty-loving peoples. [Cheers.]

I receive with great satisfaction these tributes of respect which have been brought to me by the Governor of Chihuahua and the representatives of the army of Mexico. [Cheers.] I desire to return to them and through them to the people of Mexico and to that illustrious and progressive statesman who presides over her destinies [cheers] not only my sincere personal regard, but an assurance of the friendliness and respect of the American Government and the American people. I look forward with interest to a larger development of our trade; to the opening of new lines of commerce and new avenues of friendship. We have passed that era in our history, I hope, when we were aggressive and unpleasant neighbors. We do not covet the territory of any other people [cheers], but do covet their friendship and those trade exchanges which are mutually profitable. [Cheers.]

And now to you, my fellow-citizens, I bring congratulations for the rapid development which you are making here, and extend the most cordial good wishes for the realization of every hope you have for El Paso and its neighborhood. [Cheers.] All republics are builded on the respect and confidence of the people. They are enduring and stable as their institutions and their rulers continue to preserve their respect. I rejoice that those influences that tend to soften the asperities of human life—the home, the school, and the church—have kept pace with the enterprises of commerce and are established here among you. All commerce and trade rest upon the foundation of social order. You cannot attract an in[335]creased citizenship except as you give to the world a reputation for social order [cheers], in which crime is suppressed, in which the rights of the humble are respected [cheers], and where the courts stand as the safe bulwark of the personal and public rights of every citizen, however poor. [Cheers.] I trust that as your city grows you will see that these foundations are carefully and broadly laid, and then you may hope that the superstructure, magnificent in its dimensions, perfect in its security and grace, shall rise in your midst. [Cheers.]

I am glad to meet my comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic [cheers], the survivors of the grand struggle for the Union. It was one of the few wars in history that brought blessings to the "victors and vanquished," and was followed by no proscriptions, no block, no executions, but by the reception of those who had striven for the destruction of the country into friendly citizenship, laying upon them no yoke that was not borne by the veterans—that of obedience to the law and a due respect for the rights of others. [Cheers.]

Again, sir [to the Mexican representative], I thank you for the friendly greeting you have brought from across this narrow river that separates us, and to you my fellow-countrymen, I extend my thanks and bid you good-by. [Prolonged cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—It gives me great pleasure to tarry for a moment here and to receive out on these broad and sandy plains the same evidence of friendliness that has greeted me in the States. I feel great interest in your people, and thinking that you have labored under a disadvantage by reason of the unsettled state of your land titles—because no country can settle up and become populous while the titles to its land remain insecure—it was my pleasure to urge upon Congress, both in a general and special message, the establishment of a special land court to settle this question once for all. [Cheers.]

I am glad that the statute is now a law, and immediately upon my return from this trip I expect to announce the judges of that court, and to set them immediately to work upon these cases, so that you shall certainly, within two years, have all these questions settled. I hope you will then see an increase of population that has not as yet been possible, and which will tend to develop your great mineral resources and open up your lands to settlement. Thanking you, on behalf of our party, for this pleasant greeting, I bid you good-by. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—It is surprising as well as gratifying to see so many friends assembled to greet us on our arrival at Tucson to-night. I beg to assure you that the interests of the Territories are very close to my heart. By reason of my service as Chairman of the Territory Committee in the United States Senate I was brought to study very closely the needs of the Territories. I have had great pleasure issuing the proclamations admitting five Territories to the sisterhood of States since I became President. I realize the condition of the people of the Territory without having representation in Congress as one of disadvantage, and I am friendly to the suggestion that these Territories, as they have sufficient population to sustain a State Government and to secure suitable administration of the own affairs, shall be received into the Union.[338] [Cheers.] It will be gratifying to me if you shall come into that condition during the time that I occupy the presidential chair. [Cheers.] I thank you again for your cordial demonstration, and beg to present to you that gentleman of the Cabinet who has charge of the postal affairs, Mr. Wanamaker. [Prolonged cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—We have travelled now something more than 3,500 miles. They have been 3,500 miles of cordial greeting from my fellow-citizens; they have been 3,500 miles of perpetual talk. It would require a brain more fertile in resources, more diversified in its operations than the State of California in its richness[340] and productions, to say something original or interesting at each one of these stopping places; but I can say always with a warm heart to my fellow-citizens who greet me so cordially, who look to me out of such kindly faces, I thank you; I am your servant in all things that will conduce to the general prosperity and happiness of the American people.

Remote from us of the far East in distance, we are united to you not only by the ties of a common citizenship, by the reverence and honor we joyfully give to the one flag, but by those interchanges of emigration which have brought so many of the people of the older States to you. At every station where I have stopped since entering California some Hoosier has reached up his hand to greet me [laughter and cheers], and the omnipresent Ohio man, of course, I have found everywhere. I was assured by these gentlemen that they were making their full contributions to the development of your country, and that they have possessed themselves of their fair share of it.

I have been greatly pleased this morning to come out of the land of the desert and the drifting sand into this land of homes and smiling women and bright children. I have been glad to see these beautiful gardens and these fertile fields, and to know that you are now, by the economical collection and distribution of the waters of the hills, making all these valleys to blossom like the garden of Eden. We do not come to spy the land with any view of dispossessing you, as the original spies went into Palestine. We come simply to exchange friendly greetings, and we shall hope to carry away nothing that does not belong to us. [Cheers.]

If we shall leave your happy and prosperous State freighted with your good-will and love, as we shall leave ours with you, it will be a happy exchange. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I thank you for this cordial greeting. I am sure you will excuse me from extended remarks. I have been subjected to such a strain in that direction that my brain needs irrigation to make it blossom with new thoughts. It to me is a pleasure to look into the intelligent faces of American citizens. No such people gather in any other country as meet me at every station. They come from good homes, which are the safety of our commonwealth. I am pleased to see these children here. Good schools have everywhere followed the pioneer. You have brought to this new country the old New England ideas of thrift, of living on a little and having a good deal left over. [Cheers.]

This cordial demonstration of respect, these friendly greetings, make me your debtor. I beg to thank you for it all, and out of such gatherings as these, out of the friendly manifestations you have given me on my entrance to California, I hope to get new impulses to a more faithful and diligent discharge of the public duties which my fellow-citizens have devolved upon me. No man can feel himself adequate to these responsible functions, but I am sure if you shall judge your public servants to be conscientiously devoted to your interests, to the bringing to the discharge of their public duties a conscientious fidelity and the best intelligence with which they are endowed, you will pardon any shortcoming. Again I thank you for your friendliness and beg you to excuse me from further speech.

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—My stay among you will not be long enough to form an individual judgment of the quality of your people, but it has been long enough already to get a large idea of the number of them. [Cheers.] I beg of you to accept my sincere thanks for this magnificent demonstration of your respect. I do not at all assume that these huzzas and streamers and banners with[346] which you have greeted me to-day are a tribute to me individually. I receive them as a most assuring demonstration of the love of the people of California for American institutions. [Great and prolonged cheering.] And well are these institutions worthy of all honor. The flag that you have displayed here to-day, the one flag, the banner of the free and the symbol of the indissoluble union of the States, is worthy of the affections of our people. Men have died for it on the field of battle; women have consecrated it with their tears and prayers as they placed the standard in the hands of brave men on the morning of battle. It is historically full of tender interest and pride. It has a glorious story on the sea in those times when the American navy maintained our prestige and successfully beat the navies of our great antagonist. [Cheers.]

It has a proud record from the time of our great struggle for independence down to the last sad conflict between our own citizens. We bless God to-day that these brave men who, working out His purpose on the field of battle, made it again the symbol of a united people. [Cheers.] Our institutions, of which this flag is an emblem, are free institutions. These men and women into whose faces I look are free men and women. I do not honor you by my presence here to-day. I hold my trust from you and you honor me in this reception. [Great cheers.] This magnificent domain on the Pacific coast, seized for the Union by the energy and courage and wise forethought of Frémont and his associates, is essential to our perfection. Nothing more important in territorial extension, unless it be the purchase of the territory of Louisiana and the control of the Mississippi River, has ever occurred in our national history. [Great cheering.] We touch two oceans, and on both we have built commonwealths and great cities, thus securing in that territory individuality and association which give us an assurance of perpetual peace. [Cheers.] No great conflict of arms can ever take place on American soil if we are true to ourselves and have forever determined that no civil conflict shall again rend our country. [Cheers.]

We are a peace-loving Nation, and yet we cannot be sure that everybody else will be peaceful, and therefore I am glad that by the general consent of our people and by the liberal appropriations from Congress we are putting on the sea some of the best vessels of their class afloat [cheers], and that we are now prepared to put upon their decks as good guns as are made in the world; and when we have completed our programme, ship by ship, we will put in their forecastles as brave Jack Tars as serve under any flag. [Great cheering.] The provident care of our Government should be given[347] to your sea-coast defences until all these great ports of the Atlantic and Pacific are made safe. [Cheers.]

But, my countrymen, this audience overmatches a voice that has been in exercise from Roanoke, Va., to Los Angeles. I beg you, therefore, again to receive my most hearty thanks and excuse me from further speech. [Great and prolonged cheering.]

Ladies and Gentlemen—I thank you for the warm greeting that you have given me and the royal welcome you have extended to my party and myself to your lovely city. I am thoroughly aware of the non-partisan character of this gathering, and appreciate the good-will with which you have gathered here in this vast building to receive me. I had a touching evidence of the non-partisan character of this gathering—and the good-will as well—just now when a man said to me: "I want to shake hands with you, even if I did lose a thousand dollars on your election." There will be no trouble to keep the flame of patriotism and love of country glowing so long as the American people thus manifest their loyalty to the officers whom the will of the people has placed in power. I thank you again for your good-will and hearty welcome. [Great cheering.]

My Friends—I regret that I can only say thank you. Our time is now due to the citizens of San Diego, and I have promised not to detain that committee. It is particularly pleasurable to me to see, as I have done at almost every station where our train stopped, some Indianian, who stretched up the hand of old neighborship to[348] greet me as I passed along. It is this intermingling of our people which sustains the merit of the home. The Yankee intermingles with the Illinoisian, the Hoosier with the Sucker, and the people of the South with them all; and it is this commingling which gives that unity which marks the American Nation. I am glad to know that there are so many of you here, and as I said to some Hoosiers as I came along, I hope you have secured your share of these blessings.

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—I am in slavery to a railroad schedule, and have but a few moments longer to tarry in your beautiful city. If there were no other reward for our journey across the continent, we have seen to-day about your magnificent harbor that which would have repaid us for all the toil of travel. [Applause.]

I do not come to tell you anything about California, for I have perceived in my intercourse with Californians in the East and during this brief stay among you that already you know all about California. [Laughter.]

You are, indeed, most happily situated. Every element that makes life comfortable is here; every possibility that makes life successful and prosperous is here; and I am sure, as I look into those kindly, upturned faces, that your homes have as healthful a moral atmosphere as the natural one that God has spread over your smiling land.

It is with regret that we now part from you. The welcome you have extended to us is magnificent, kindly, and tasteful. We shall carry away the most pleasant impression, and shall wish for you all that you anticipate in your largest dreams for your beautiful city [cheers]—that your harbor may be full of foreign and coast-wise traffic, that it may not be long until the passage of our naval and merchant marine shall not be by the Horn, but by Nicaragua. [Cheers.] I believe that great enterprise, which is to bring your commerce into nearer and cheaper contact with the Atlantic seaboard cities, both of this continent and of South America, will not be long delayed.

And now, again with most grateful thanks for your friendly attention, in my own behalf and in behalf of all who journey with me I bid you a most kindly farewell. [Prolonged cheers.]

It has come to my knowledge that the President of the United States, Hon. Benjamin Harrison, shall visit San Diego on the 23d instant, and I let you know it so that you may call to congratulate him in my name and present him with my compliments.

[Signed] Porfirio Diaz.

Governor Torres—This message from that progressive and intelligent gentleman who presides over the destinies of our sister republic is most grateful to me. I assure you that all our people, that the Government, through all its instituted authorities, entertain for President Diaz and for the chivalrous people over which he presides the most friendly sentiments of respect. [Cheers and applause.] We covet, sir, your good-will and those mutual exchanges which are mutually profitable, and we hope that the two republics may forever dwell in fraternal peace.

My Fellow-citizens—I have already proved your hospitality. It is very, very generous, and it is very graceful. I have but one doubt in regard to it, and that is whether I can stand so much of it. [Laughter and applause.] It has given me great gladness of heart to look into your faces. I have been discharging some public business far remote from you, and I hope with some concern for your interest, for I have tried to take a wide view of public questions and to have in my mind a thought of the people of this great land.

Our politics should be as broad as the territory over which our people have spread. It is a part of the history of the country which has always kept in memory the safety and interests of those who pushed civilization to the Rocky Mountains and over its rugged peaks into these fruitful valleys. I am glad to see here this afternoon these little children. The order in which they have assembled gives me assurance that they have come from the school-houses, those nurseries of knowledge and common interests in our American States.

I am glad that you grow not only the olive-tree in your garden, but that to the olive-trees that are planted in the household and bloom about your table you give your greatest attention. Now, thanking you very kindly and confessing very humbly that I am not able to repay you for your generous welcome, and leaving to all these little ones my best hopes for useful, prosperous, and honorable lives, I bid you all good-by.

My Friends—I am glad to look into your smiling faces, and I thank you for this welcome. California is a State that is favorably[352] situated, and, so far as I can judge, this section is among the most favored in the State. There is no time for a speech, but we can shake hands with a few of those who are nearest.

My Friends—We can tarry only for a moment, as we are already behind the regular time for leaving. I cannot, however, drive by this large assemblage of friends, gathered to greet us on the way, without expressing the delight with which I have looked upon these beautiful surroundings. My trip from Washington has been full of pleasures and surprises, but nothing has given me greater surprise and more pleasure than the drive of this afternoon through[353] this magnificent valley of Riverside. I am glad you are interested in cultivating the children as well as the orange, and I trust that their young minds may be kept as free from all that is injurious as these fine orange orchards are of weeds and everything that is noxious. May their lives be as fruitful as your trees, and their homes as happy and full of joy as this land seems to be of the bright sunshine of God.

My Friends—I am sorry that we can tarry with you only for a moment. We are now twenty minutes behind our schedule time for leaving. If we should stay with you longer we should disappoint others who are waiting for us at an appointed time.

We are grateful to you for your presence. I have enjoyed very much the ride through the valley. You are a favored people, and ought to be, as I have no doubt you are, a law-abiding, liberty-loving, and patriotic people.

Mr. Mayor and Fellow citizens—I can only repeat to you what I have already had occasion to say to many similar audiences assembled in California, that I am delighted with my visit to the Pacific coast; that much as I had heard of the richness and high cultiva[354]tion, what I have seen to-day in this great valley has far surpassed my expectations. You have subdued an unpromising soil and made it blossom as the rose; but better than all the fruits and harvests, and better than all the products of the field, is this intelligent population which out of their kindly faces extend to us a greeting wherever we go.

I am glad, coming from the far East, to observe how greatly our people are alike. But that is not surprising, because I find all through this valley many Hoosiers and Buckeyes I knew at home. It is not singular that you should be alike when you are really and truly the same people, not only in lineage and general characteristics, but the same men and women we have known in the older States. And now I thank you again, and beg you will excuse me from further speech, with the assurance that if it were in my power I would double the rich blessings which you already enjoy. [Cheers.]

Gentlemen—I beg you to accept my thanks for this banquet spread in honor of this community of strangers who have dropped in upon[357] you to-night. We come to you after dark. I am not, therefore, prepared to speak of Pasadena. When the sun shall have lightened your landscape again and our expectant eyes shall have rested upon its glories, I shall be able to give you my impressions of your city, which I am already prepared to believe is one of the gems in the crown of California. [Applause.]

Perhaps no other place in California has by name been more familiar to me than Pasadena, if you except your great commercial city of San Francisco. That comes from the fact that many of your early settlers were Indiana friends. I am glad to meet some of these friends here to-night. It is pleasant to renew these old acquaintances, to find that they have been received with esteem in this new community. I have found a line of Hoosiers all along these railroads we have been traversing.

Everywhere our train has stopped some Hoosier has lifted his hand to me, and often by dozens. As I said the other day, Ohio men identify themselves to me by reason of that State being my birthplace, but it is not a surprise to me to find an Ohio man anywhere. [Laughter.] Ohio people are especially apt to be found in the vicinity of a public office. [Laughter.] I suppose whatever good fortune has come to me in the way of political preferment must be traced to the fact that I am a Buckeye by birth. [Laughter.] And now I thank you most cordially again for your attention and kindness. California has been full of the most affectionate interest to us. I have never looked into the faces of a more happy and intelligent people than those I have seen on the Pacific coast. [Applause.]

You occupy the most important position in the sisterhood of States, stretching for these several hundred miles along the Pacific shore. You have fortunate birth, and your history has been a succession of fortunate surprises. You have wrought out here great achievements in converting these plains that seemed to be so unpromising to the eye into such gardens as cannot be seen anywhere else upon the continent. [Applause.]

And now, when I remind you that bedtime was 1 o'clock last night and the reveille sounded at 6 o'clock this morning on our car, I am sure you will permit me to say good-night. [Applause.]

Ladies and Gentlemen—I am pleased to be introduced to you by my old and honored friend, and I do sincerely hope that he has won your respect to the same extent which I learned to respect him when he was my neighbor. I hope you will excuse me from speaking further. I thank you all for your friendly greeting.

My Friends—I cannot feel myself a stranger in this State, so distant from home, when I am greeted by some familiar faces from my Indiana home at almost every station. Your fellow-citizen who[359] has spoken in your behalf was an old-time Indianapolis friend. I hope he is held in the same esteem in which he was held by the people among whom he spent his early years as a boy and man. [Cries of "He is!"] That you should have gone to the pains to make such magnificent decorations and to come out in such large numbers for this momentary greeting very deeply touches my heart.

I have never seen in any State of the Union what seems to me to be a more happy and contented people than I have seen this morning. Your soil and sun are genial, healthful, and productive, and I have no doubt that these genial and kindly influences are manifested in the homes that are represented here, and that there is sunshine in the household as well as in the fields; that there is contentment and love and sweetness in these homes as well as in these gardens that are so adorned with flowers. Our pathway has been strewn with flowers; we have literally driven for miles over flowers that in the East would have been priceless, and these favors have all been accompanied with manifestations of friendliness for which I am very grateful, and everywhere there has been set up as having greater glory than sunshine, greater glory than flowers, this flag of our country. [Applause.] Everywhere I have been greeted by some of these comrades, veterans of the late war, whose presence among you should be the inspiration to increased patriotism and loyalty. I bid them affectionate greeting, and am sorry that I cannot tarry with them longer. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I am very glad to meet my old friend and your former representative, General Vandever. I have had some surprise at almost every station at which we have stopped. I did not know until he came upon the platform that this was his home. I have[360] not time to make a speech, and I have not the voice to make one. I can only say of these hearty and friendly Californians that my heart is deeply touched with this evidence of friendly regard. You have strewn my way with flowers; you have graced every occasion, even the briefest stop, with a most friendly greeting, and I assure you that we are most grateful for it all. You are fortunate in your location among the States; and I am sure that in all this great republic nowhere is there a more loyal and patriotic people than we have here on the Pacific coast. I thank you again for this greeting. [Cheers.]

General Vandever, Gentlemen of the Committee and Friends—If I have been in any doubt as to the fact of the perfect identity of your people with the American Nation, that doubt has been displaced by one incident which has been prominent in all this trip, and that is that the great and predominant and all-pervading American habit of demanding a speech on every occasion has been characteristically prominent in California. [Laughter.] I am more than delighted by this visit to your city. It has been made brilliant with the display of banners and flowers—one the emblem of our national greatness and prowess, the other the adornment which God has given to beautify nature. With all this I am sure I have read in the faces of the men, women and children who have greeted me that these things—these flowers of the field and this flag, representing organized government—typify what is to be found in the homes of California. The expression of your welcome to-day has been unique and tasteful beyond description. I have not the words to express the high sense of appreciation and the amazement that filled the minds of all our party as we looked upon this display which you have improvised for our reception. No element of[362] beauty, no element of taste, no element of gracious kindness has been lacking in it, and for that we tender you all our most hearty thanks. We shall keep this visit a bright spot in our memories. [Applause.]

My Friends—I am very much obliged to you for your friendly greeting and for these bouquets. You must excuse me if I seem a little shy of the bouquets. I received one in my eye the other day which gave me a good deal of trouble. You are very kind to[363] meet us here so early in the morning with this cordial demonstration. It has been a very long journey, and has been accompanied with some fatigue of travel, but we feel this morning, in this exhilarating air and this sweet sunshine, and refreshed with your kind greeting, as bright and more happy than when we left the national capital.

I am glad to feel that here, on the western edge of the continent, in this Pacific State, there is that same enthusiastic love for the flag, that same veneration and respect for American institutions, for the one Union and the one Constitution, that is found in the heart of the country. We are one people absolutely. We follow not men, but institutions. We are happy in the fact that though men may live or die, come or go, we still have that toward which the American citizen turns with confidence and veneration—this great Union of the States devised so happily by our fathers. General Garfield, when Mr. Lincoln was stricken down by the foul hand of an assassin, and when that great wave of dismay and grief swept over the land, standing in a busy thoroughfare of New York, could say: "The Government at Washington still lives." It is dependent upon no man. It is lodged safely in the affections of the people, and having its impregnable defence and its assured perpetuity in their love and veneration for law. [Cheers.]

My Friends—This seems to be a very happy and smiling audience, and I am sure that the gladness which is in your hearts and in your faces does not depend at all upon the presence of this little company of strangers who tarry with you for a moment. It is born of influences and conditions that are permanent. It comes of the happy sunshine and sweet air that are over your fields, and still more from the contentment, prosperity, and love and peace that are in your households. California has been spoken of as a wonderland, and everywhere we have gone something new, interesting, and surprising has been presented to our observation. There has been but one monotone in our journey, and that is the monotone of universal welcome from all your people. [Cheers.] Everything else has been new and exceptional at every stop.

My own heart kindles with gladness, my own confidence in American interests is firmer and more settled as I mingle with the great masses of our people. You are here in a great agricultural region, reclaimed from desert waste by the skill and energy of man—a region populated by a substantial, industrious, thrifty,[365] God-fearing people, a people devoted to the institutions under which they live, proud to be Americans, feeling that the American birthright is the best heritage they can hand down to their children; proud of the great story of our country from the time of independence to this day; devoted to institutions that give the largest liberty to the individual and at the same time secure social order. Here is the firm foundation upon which our hopes for future security rest. What but our own neglect, what but our own unfaithfulness, can put in peril either our national institutions or our local organizations of government? True to ourselves, true to those principles which we have embodied in our Government, there is to the human eye no danger that can threaten the firm base of our institutions.

I am glad to see and meet these happy children. I feel like kneeling to them as the future sovereigns of this country, and feel as if it were a profanation to tread upon these sweet flowers that they have spread in my pathway. God bless them, every one; keep them in the lives they are to live from all that is evil, fill their little hearts with sunshine and their mature lives with grace and usefulness. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—It is altogether impossible for me to reach with my voice this vast concourse of friends. I can only say I am profoundly grateful for this enthusiastic greeting. I receive with great satisfaction the memento you have given me of the varied products of this most fertile and happy valley. I shall carry it with me to Washington as a reminder of a scene that will never fade from my memory. It is very pleasant to know that all these pursuits that so much engage your thoughts and so industriously employ your time have not turned your minds away from the love of the flag and of those institutions which spread their secure power over all your homes. What is it that makes the scattered homes of our people secure? There is no policeman at the door; there is no guard to accompany us as we move across this great continent. You and I are in the safe keeping of the law and of the affection and regard of all our people. Each respects the rights of the other. I am glad to receive this manifestation of your respect. I am glad to drink in this morning with this sunshine and this sweet balmy air a new impulse to public duty, a new love for the Union and flag. It is a matter of great regret that I can return in such a small measure your affectionate greeting. I wish it were possible I could greet each one of you personally, that it were possible in some way other than in words to testify to you my grateful sense of your good-will. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—I have scarcely been able to finish a meal since I have been in California. [Laughter.] I find myself hardly seated at the table till some one reminds me that in about five minutes I am to meet another throng of cordial and friendly people. But I think I could have subsisted on this trip through California without anything to eat, and have dined the while upon the stimulus and inspiration which your good-will and kindly greetings have given me. I do not think, however, from what I have seen of these valleys, that it will be necessary for anyone to live without eating. [Laughter.] I have been greatly delighted with the agricultural richness, with the surprises in natural scenery, and in the production which have met us on this journey. Everywhere something has been lying in ambush for us, and when I was thinking of prunes and English walnuts and oranges we suddenly pulled up to a station where they had a pyramid of pig tin to excite our wonder and interest at the variety of the production in this marvellous State. But let me say, above all those fruits and flowers, above all these productions of mine and field, I have been most pleased with the men and women of California. [Applause.] It gives me great pleasure, too, to meet everywhere these little ones. I am fond of children. They attract my interest always, and the little ones of my own household furnish about the only relaxation and pleasure I have at Washington. [Applause.] I wish for your children and for you, out of whose homes they come, and where they are treasured with priceless affection and tender supervision, all the blessings that a benign Providence and a good Government can bestow. I shall be glad if in any way I have the opportunity to conserve and promote your interests. [Cheers.]

Fellow-citizens—It is very pleasant for me to meet here, as at all the stations I have passed, a kindly assembly of my fellow-countrymen. We do not need any one to watch us, nor do we need to keep watch against anybody else. Peace and good-will characterize our communities. I was quite amused at a station not far from here to hear a wondering Chinaman remark as he came up to the train, "Why, they have no guns on board!" [Laughter.] How different it is with us!—no retinue, no guards. We travel across this broad country safe in the confidence and fellowship and kindness of its citizenship. What other land is there like it? Where else are there homes like ours? Where else institutions so free and yet so adequate to all the needs of government, to make the home and community safe, to restrain the ill-disposed, and everywhere to promote peace and individual happiness?

We congratulate each other that we are American citizens. Without distinction of party, without taking note of the many existing differences of opinion, we are all glad to do all in our power to promote the dignity and prosperity of the country we love. We cannot love it too much; we cannot be too careful that all our influence is on the side of good government and of American interests. We do not wish ill to any other nation or people in the world, but they must excuse us if we regard our own fellow-citizens as having the highest claim on our regard. We will promote such measures as look to our own interests. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—I should be less than human if I were not touched by the rapid succession of hearty greetings received by us in our journey through California. I should be more than human if I were able to say something new or interesting at each of these assemblies.

My heart has but one language: it is, "I thank you."

Most tenderly do I feel as an individual so much of this kindness as is personal to me, and as a public official I am most profoundly grateful that the American people so unitedly show their love and devotion to the Constitution and the flag.

We have a Government of the majority; it is the original compact that when the majority has been fairly counted at the polls, the expressed will of that majority, taking the form of public law enacted by State Legislatures or the national Congress, shall be the sole rule of conduct of every loyal man. [Cheers.]

We have no other king than law, and he is entitled to the allegiance of every heart and bowed knee of every citizen. [Cries of "Good! good!" and cheers.]

I cannot look forward with any human apprehension to any danger to our country, unless it approaches us through a corrupt ballot-box. [Applause.] Let us keep that spring pure, and these happy valleys shall teem with an increasing population of happy citizens, and our country shall find in an increasing population only increased unity and strength. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor—I have received with great gratification these words of welcome which you have extended to me on behalf of the city of San Francisco. They are but new expressions of the welcome which has been extended to me since I entered the State of California. Its greatness and glory I knew something of by story and tradition, but what I have seen of its resources has quite surpassed my imagination. But what has deeply impressed me is the loyal and intelligent and warm-hearted people I have everywhere met. I thank you for this reception.

Mr. President—I rise to present you a photo-lithographic letter written by Sebastian Viscano, the great Spanish navigator. This is probably the first letter in existence written by any human being from California. It is dated at the port of Monterey, December 28, 1602, named in honor of the Conde de Monterey, then Viceroy of Mexico. It is addressed to the Court of Spain, and states that he (Viscano) had taken possession of this country for his majesty.

The original of this letter I found in hunting through the Archives de las Indias at Seville, Spain. At the date of this letter Queen Elizabeth was still on the throne of England, Louis XIV. of France was not born yet, and the Pilgrim Fathers had not yet landed on Plymouth Rock.

Mr. President, we all thank you for having come to see our beautiful land, and permit me especially to thank you for the honor of your visit to Sutro Heights.

I beg to thank you both for this letter and your generous welcome to a spot the natural beauty of which has been so much enhanced by your efforts. My visit to Sutro Heights, the cliff, and park will be a red-letter day in my journey.

My Friends and Brothers in this Old Society—I enjoy this moment very much in being able to associate with you. I was a member of the first chapter of this fraternity, which you all know was founded at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. I have not lost the impression of solemnity and reverence which I experienced hunting in the dark in those early times to find my chapter room, and I am very glad to know that those meetings were not meetings in the dark. I belonged to the order when it was young, and now I find its members scattered in all States, where they all hold positions of trust and influence. I find that in its history it has produced nothing discreditable to itself, but always something of which we may all well be proud. I thank you for these few moments of association with you. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I am sorry that I can say nothing more to you in the limited time we have than that I am sincerely thankful for your friendly demonstration.

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—I am again surprised by this large outpouring of my friends and by the respectful interest which they evince. I cannot find words to express the delight which I have felt and which those who journey with me have felt as we have observed the beauty and, more than all, the comfort and prosperity which characterize the great State of California. I am glad to observe here, as I have elsewhere, that my old comrades of the great war for the Union have turned out to witness afresh by this demonstration their love for the flag and their veneration for American institutions.

My comrades, I greet you, every one, affectionately. I doubt not that every loyal State has representatives here of that great army that subdued the rebellion and brought home the flag in tri[377]umph. I hope that you have found in this flowery and prosperous land, in the happy homes which you have builded up here, in the wives and children that grace your firesides, a sweet contrast to those times of peril and hardship which you experienced in the army, and I trust above all that under these genial and kindly influences you still maintain your devotion to our institutions and are teaching it to the children that shall take your places.

We often speak of the children following in the footsteps of their fathers. A year ago nearly, in Boston, at the great review of the Grand Army of the Republic, after those thousands of veterans, stricken with years and labor, had passed along, a great army, nearly as large, came on with the swinging step that characterized you when you carried the flag from your home to the field. They were the sons of veterans, literally marching in their fathers' steps; and so I love to think that in the hands of this generation that is coming on to take our places our institutions are safe and the honor and glory of the flag will be maintained. We may quietly go to our rest when God shall call us, in the full assurance that His favoring providence will follow us, and that in your children valor and sacrifice for the flag will always manifest themselves on every occasion.

Again thanking you for your presence and friendly interest, I must beg you to excuse further speech, as we must journey on to other scenes like this. Good-by and God bless you, comrades.

My Friends—It gives me great pleasure to see you for a moment, and thank you for your kindness in coming out on this occasion.[378] In all my travels I have never seen a more intelligent and happy people than I have met in California. Let me introduce you to Mr. Wanamaker.

My Friends—I am very glad to see you this evening. I am sorry that the fatigues of the past few days have left us all in a state not quite so fresh and blooming as your fields and gardens. We are a little dusty and a little worn, but you quite rekindle our spirits by this demonstration. We have ridden with great delight through this beautiful valley to-day. It seems to me, as we pass each ridge or backbone and come into a new valley, that we see something that still more resembles the Garden of Eden. It is a constant succession of surprises, but most of all I delight to see such convincing evidence of the contentment and happiness of your people. I am sure that those I see here to-day must come from happy and prosperous homes. I wish you all good-by. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—Our whole pathway through the State of California has been paved with good-will. We have been made to walk upon flowers. Our hearts have been touched and refreshed at every point by the voluntary offerings of your hospitable people. Our trip has been one continued ovation of friendliness. I have had occasion to say before that no man is entitled to appropriate to himself these tributes. They witness a peculiar characteristic of the American people. Unlike many other people less happy, we give our devotion to a Government, to its Constitution, to its flag, and not to men. We reverence and obey those who have been placed by our own suffrages and choice in public stations, but our allegiance, our affection, is given to our beneficent institutions, and upon this rock our security is based. We are not subject to those turbulent uprisings that prevail where the people[380] follow leaders rather than institutions; where they are caught by the glamour and dash of brilliant men rather than by the steady law of free institutions.

I rejoice to be for a moment among you this morning. The history of this city starts a train of reflections in my mind that I cannot follow out in speech, but the impression of them will remain with me as long as I live. [Applause.] California and its coast were essential to the integrity and completeness of the American Union. But who can tell what may be the result of the establishment here of free institutions, the setting up by the wisdom and foresight and courage of the early pioneers in California of a commonwealth that was very early received into the American Union? We see to-day what has been wrought. But who can tell what another century will disclose, when these valleys have become thick with a prosperous and thriving and happy people? I thank you again for your cordial greeting and bid you good-morning. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—It seems to me like improvidence that all this tasteful and magnificent display should be but for a moment. In all my journeying in California, where every city has presented some surprise and where each has been characterized by lavish and generous display, I have not seen anything so suddenly created and yet so beautiful. I am sure we have not ridden through any street more attractive than this. I thank you most sincerely for this cordial welcome. I am sure you are a loyal, and I know you are a loving and kindly people. [Cheers.] We have been received, strangers as we were, with affection, and everywhere as I look into the faces of this people I feel my heart swell with pride that I am an American and that California is one of the American States. [Cheers.]

My Fellow citizens—If California had lodged a complaint against the last census I should have been inclined to entertain it and to order your people to be counted again. [Laughter.] From what I have seen in these days of pleasant travel through your State I am sure the census enumerators have not taken you all. We have had another surprise in coming over these mountains to find that not the valleys alone of California, but its hill-tops are capable of productive cultivation. We have been greatly surprised to see vineyards and orchards at these altitudes, and to know that your fields rival in productiveness the famous valleys of your State.

I thank you for your cordial greeting. It overpowers me I feel that these brief stops are but poor recompense for the trouble and[382] care you have taken. I wish we could tarry longer with you. I wish I could know more of you individually, but I can only thank you and say that we will carry away most happy impressions of California, and that in public and in private life it will give me pleasure always to show my appreciation of your great State. [Cheers.]

Mr. President and Gentlemen of these Assembled Societies—I have been subjected during my stay in California in some respects to the same treatment the policeman accords to the tramp—I have been kept moving on. You have substituted flowers and kindness for the policeman's baton. And yet, notwithstanding all this, we come to you this morning not exhausted or used up, but a little fatigued. Your cordial greetings are more exhilarating than your wine, and perhaps safer for the constitution. [Laughter and applause.]

I am glad to stand in the presence of this assemblage of business men. I have tried to make this a business Administration. [Applause.] Of course we cannot wholly separate politics from a national Administration, but I have felt that every public officer owed his best service to the people, without distinction of party [cries of "Good! good!" and applause]; that in administering official trusts we were in a very strict sense, not merely in a figurative sense, your servants. It has been my desire that in every branch of the public service there should be improvement. I have stimulated all the Secretaries and have received stimulus from them in the endeavor, in all the departments of the Government that touch your business life, to give you as perfect a service as possible. This we owe to you; but if I were pursuing party ends I should feel that I was by such methods establishing my party in the confidence of the people. [Applause.]

I feel that we have come to a point where American industries, American commerce, and American influence are to be revived and extended. The American sentiment and feeling was never more controlling than now; and I do not use that term in the narrow sense of native American, but to embrace all loyal citizens, whether native-born or adopted, who have the love of our flag in their hearts. [Great cheering.] I shall speak to-night, probably, at the banquet of business men, and will not enter into any lengthy discussion here. Indeed, I am so careful not to trespass upon any forbidden topic, that I may not in the smallest degree offend those who have forgotten party politics in extending this greeting to us, that I do not know how far I should talk upon these public questions. But since your Chairman has alluded to them, I can say I am in hearty sympathy with the suggestions he has made. I believe there are methods by which we shall put the American flag upon the sea again. [Applause.] In speaking the[384] other day I used an illustration which will perhaps be apt in this company of merchants. You recall, all of you, certainly those of my age, the time when no merchant sent out travelling men. He expected the buyer to come to his store. Perhaps that was well enough; but certain enterprising men sought custom by putting travelling men with samples on the road. However the conservative merchant regarded that innovation, he had but one choice—to put travelling men on the road or go out of business. In this question of shipping we are in a similar condition. The great commercial governments of the world have stimulated their shipping interests by direct or indirect subsidies, while we have been saying: "No, we prefer the old way." We must advance or—I will not say go out of business, for we have already gone out. [Applause.] I thank you most cordially for your greeting, and bid you good-by. [Applause.]

Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic—It will not be possible in so large a hall for me to make myself heard, and yet I cannot refuse when appealed to to say a word of kindly greeting to those comrades who have found their homes on the Pacific coast. I have no doubt that all the loyal States of the Union are represented in this assembly, and it is pleasant to know that, after the strife and hardships of those years of battle, you have found among the flowers and fruits of the earth homes that are full of pleasantness and peace.

It was that these things might continue to be that you went to[385] battle; it was that these homes might be preserved; it was that the flag and all that it symbolizes might be perpetuated, that you fought and many of our comrades died. All this land calls you blessed. The fruits of division and strife that would have been ours if secession had succeeded would have been full of bitterness. The end that was attained by your valor under the providence of God has brought peace and prosperity to all the States. [Applause.]

It gave me great pleasure in passing through the Southern States to see how your work had contributed to their prosperity. No man can look upon any of these States through which we campaigned and fought without realizing that what seemed to their people a disaster was, under God, the opening of a great gate of prosperity and happiness.

All those fires of industry which I saw through the South were lighted at the funeral pyre of slavery. [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.] They were impossible under the conditions that existed previously in those States. We are now a homogeneous people. You in California, full of pride and satisfaction with the greatness of your State, will always set above it the greater glory and the greater citizenship which our flag symbolizes. [Cheers.] You went into the war for the defence of the Union; you have come out to make your contribution to the industries and progress of this age of peace. As in our States of the Northwest the winter covering of snow hides and warms the vegetation, and with the coming of the spring sun melts and sinks into the earth to refresh the root, so this great army was a covering and defence, and when the war was ended, turned into rivulets of refreshment to all the pursuits of peace. There was nothing greater in all the world's story than the assembling of this army except its disbandment. It was an army of citizens; and when the war was over the soldier was not left at the tavern—he had a fireside toward which his steps hastened. He ceased to be a soldier and became a citizen. [Cheers.]

I observe, as I look into your faces, that the youth of the army must have settled on the Pacific coast. [Laughter and applause.] You are younger men here than we are in the habit of meeting at our Grand Army posts in the East. May all prosperity attend you; may you be able to show yourselves in civil life, as in the war, the steadfast, unfaltering, devoted friends of this flag you are willing to die for. [Great cheering.]

Mr. President and Gentlemen—When the Queen of Sheba visited the court of Solomon and saw its splendors she was compelled to testify that the half had not been told her. Undoubtedly the emissaries of Solomon's court, who had penetrated to her distant territory, found themselves in a like situation to that which attends Californians when they travel East—they are afraid to put too much to test the credulity of their hearers [laughter and applause], and as a gentleman of your State said to me, it has resulted in a prevailing indisposition among Californians to tell the truth out of California. [Laughter and applause.] Not at all because Californians are unfriendly to the truth, but solely out of compassion for their hearers they address themselves to the capacity of those who hear them. [Laughter.] And taking warning by the fate of the man who told a sovereign of the Indies that he had seen water so solid that it could be walked upon, they do not carry their best stories away from home. [Laughter.]

It has been, much as I have heard of California, a brilliant disillusion to me and to those who have journeyed with me. The half had not been told of the productiveness of your valleys, of the[387] blossoming orchards, of the gardens laden with flowers. We have seen and been entranced. Our pathway has been strewn with flowers. We have been surprised, when we were in a region of orchards and roses, to be suddenly pulled up at a station and asked to address some remarks to a pyramid of pig tin. [Laughter and applause.]

Products of the mine, rare and exceptional, have been added to the products of the field, until now the impression has been made upon my mind that if any want should be developed in the arts, possibly if any wants should be developed in statesmanship, or any vacancies in office [great laughter], we have here a safe reservoir that can be drawn upon ad libitum. [Laughter]. But, my friends, sweeter than all the incense of flowers, richer than all the products of mines, has been the gracious, unaffected, hearty kindness with which the people of California have everywhere received us. Without division, without dissent, a simple yet magnificent and enthusiastic American welcome. [Great applause.]

It is gratifying that it should be so. We may carry into our campaigns, to our conventions and congresses, discussions and divisions, but how grand it is that we are a people who bow reverently to the decision when it is rendered, and who will follow the flag always, everywhere, with absolute devotion of heart without asking what party may have given the leader in whose hands it is placed. [Enthusiastic cheering.]

I believe that we have come to a new epoch as a Nation. There are opening portals before us inviting us to enter—opening portals to trade and influence and prestige such as we have never seen before. [Great applause.] We will pursue the paths of peace; we are not a warlike Nation; all our instincts, all our history is in the lines of peace. Only intolerable aggression, only the peril of our institutions—of the flag—can thoroughly arouse us. [Great applause.] With capability for war on land and on sea unexcelled by any nation in the world, we are smitten with the love of peace. [Applause.] We would promote the peace of this hemisphere by placing judiciously some large guns about the Golden Gate [great and enthusiastic cheering]—simply for saluting purposes [laughter and cheers], and yet they should be of the best modern type. [Cheers.]

We should have on the sea some good vessels. We don't need as great a navy as some other people, but we do need a sufficient navy of first-class ships, simply to make sure that the peace of the hemisphere is preserved [cheers]; simply that we may not leave the great distant marts and harbors of commerce and our few citi[388]zens who may be domiciled there to feel lonesome for the sight of the American flag. [Cheers.]

We are making fine progress in the construction of the navy. The best English constructors have testified to the completeness and perfection of some of our latest ships. It is a source of great gratification to me that here in San Francisco the energy, enterprise, and courage of some of your citizens have constructed a plant capable of building the best modern ships. [Cries of "Good! good!" and cheers.]

I saw with delight the magnificent launch of one of these new vessels. I hope that you may so enlarge your capacities for construction that it will not be necessary to send any naval vessel around the Horn. We want merchant ships. [Cheers.] I believe we have come to a time when we should choose whether we will continue to be non-participants in the commerce of the world or will now vigorously, with the push and energy which our people have shown in other lines of enterprise, claim our share of the world's commerce. [Cheers.]

I will not enter into the discussion of methods of the Postal bill of the last session of Congress, which marks the beginning. Here in California, where for so long a time a postal service that did not pay its own way was maintained by the Government, where for other years the Government has maintained mail lines into your valleys, reaching out to every remote community, and paying out yearly a hundred times the revenue that was derived, it ought not to be difficult to persuade you that our ocean mail should not longer be the only service for which we refuse to expend even the revenues derived from it.

It is my belief that, under the operation of the law to which I have referred, we shall be able to stimulate ship-building, to secure some new lines of American steamships, and to increase the ports of call of all those now established. [Enthusiastic cheering.]

It will be my effort to do what may be done under the powers lodged in me by the law to open and increase trade with the countries of Central and South America. I hope it may not be long—I know it will not be long if we but unitedly pursue this great scheme—until one can take a sail in the bay of San Francisco and see some deep-water ships come in bearing our own flag. [Enthusiastic and continued cheering.]

During our excursion the other day I saw three great vessels come in; one carried the Hawaiian and two the English flag. I am a thorough believer in the construction of the Nicaragua Canal. You have pleased me so much that I would like a shorter water[389] communication between my State and yours. [Cheers.] Influences and operations are now started that will complete, I am sure, this stately enterprise; but, my fellow-citizens and Mr. President, this is the fifth time this day that I have talked to gatherings of California friends, and we have so much taxed the hospitality of San Francisco in making our arrangements to make this city the centre of a whole week's sight-seeing that I do not want to add to your other burdens the infliction of longer speech. [Cries of "Go on!"] Right royally have you welcomed us with all that is rich and prodigal in provision and display. With all graciousness and friendliness I leave my heart with you when I go. [Great and prolonged cheering.]

Governor Markham and Fellow-citizens—Our eyes have rested upon no more beautiful or impressive sight since we entered California. This fresh, delightful morning, this vast assemblage of contented and happy people, this building, dedicated to the uses of civil government—all things about us tend to inspire our hearts with pride and with gratitude.

Gratitude to that overruling Providence that turned hither after the discovery of this continent the steps of those who had the capacity to organize a free representative government.

Gratitude to that Providence that has increased the feeble colonies on an inhospitable coast to these millions of prosperous people, who have found another sea and populated its sunny shores with a happy and growing people. [Applause.]

Gratitude to that Providence that led us through civil strife to a glory and a perfection of unity as a people that was otherwise impossible.

Gratitude that we have to-day a Union of free States without a slave to stand as a reproach to that immortal declaration upon which our Government rests. [Cheers.]

Pride that our people have achieved so much; that, triumphing over all the hardships of those early pioneers, who struggled in the face of discouragement and difficulties more appalling than those that met Columbus when he turned the prows of his little vessels[392] toward an unknown shore; that, triumphing over perils of starvation, perils of savages, perils of sickness, here on the sunny slope of the Pacific they have established civil institutions and set up the banner of the imperishable Union. [Cheers.]

Every Californian who has followed in their footsteps, every man and woman who is to-day enjoying the harvest of their endeavors, should always lift his hat to the pioneer of '49. [Cheers.]

We stand here at the political centre of a great State, in this building where your lawmakers assemble, chosen by your suffrages to execute your will in framing those rules of conduct which shall control the life of the citizen. May you always find here patriotic, consecrated men to do your work. May they always assemble here with a high sense of duty to those brave, intelligent, and honorable people. May they catch the great lesson of our Government, that our people need only such regulation as shall restrain the ill-disposed and shall give the largest liberty to individual enterprise and effort. [Cheers.]

No man is gifted with speech to describe the beauty and the impressiveness of this great occasion. I am awed in this presence. I bow reverently to this great assembly of free, intelligent, enterprising American sovereigns. [Cheers.]

I am glad to have this hasty glimpse of this early centre of immigration. I am glad to stand at the place where that momentous event, the discovery of gold, transpired, and yet, after you have washed your sand of gold, after the eager rush for sudden wealth, after all this you have come into a heritage in the possession of these fields, in those enduring and inexhaustible treasures of your soil, which will perpetually sustain a great population.

In parting, sir [to the Governor], to you as the representative of this people I give the most hearty thanks of all who journey with me and my own for the early, continuous, kindly, yea, even affectionate attention which has followed us in all our footsteps through California. [Great cheering.]

My Friends—I thank you most sincerely for this pleasant tribute which I have received from these children. It is a curious thing, perhaps, that among the earliest towns that became familiar to me in my younger days was Benicia. In 1857, when the United States sent an armed expedition to Utah, and thence across the continent, I happened to have an elder and much-beloved brother who was a lieutenant in that campaign. He was stationed at Benicia Barracks, and his letters from this place have fixed it in my memory, and recalls to me, as I stand here this morning, very tender memories of one who has long since gone to his rest. I thank you again for this demonstration.

It gives me great pleasure even to inspect these grounds and the exterior of these buildings devoted to education. Our educational institutions, beginning with the primary common schools and culminating in the great universities of the land, are the instrumentalities by which the future citizens of this country are to be trained in the principles of morality and in the intellectual culture which[394] will fit them to maintain, develop, and perpetuate what their fathers have begun.

I am glad to receive your welcome, and only regret that it is impossible for me to make a closer observation of your work. I unite with you in mourning the loss which has come to you in the death of Professor Le Conte. I wish for the institution and for those who are called here to train the young the guidance and blessing of God in all their endeavors.

It gives me great pleasure to stop for a moment at one of these institutions so characteristic of our Christian civilization. In the barbarous ages of the world the afflicted were regarded by superstition unhelpful, or treated with cruel neglect; but in this better day the States are everywhere making magnificent provision for the comfort and education of the blind and deaf and dumb.

Where one avenue to the mind has been closed science is opening another. The eye does the work of the ear, the finger the work of the tongue for the dumb, and touch becomes sight to the blind. I am sure that gladness has come to all these young hearts through the benevolent, careful, and affectionate instruction they are receiving here. I thank you, and wish all of you the utmost happiness through life.

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—I am glad to meet you all, and I assure you I appreciate this magnificent demonstration. I must congratulate you upon your fine institutions, and particularly your streets, which, I believe, are the best in the country. I thank you for this reception most heartily. I regret that your enthusiasm and the vast size of this assembly has somewhat disconcerted the programme marked out, but I can speak as well from here as from the stand, which seems to be inaccessible. I return my sincere thanks for your welcome and express the interest and gratification I have felt this morning in riding through some of the streets of your beautiful city. I thank you most sincerely for your friendliness and bid you good-by. [Great cheering.]

California is full of ambuscades, not of a hostile sort, but with all embarrassments that attend surprise. In a hasty drive this afternoon, when I thought I was to visit Oakland, I was suddenly drawn up in front of a college and asked to make an address, and in a moment afterward before an asylum for the deaf, dumb, and blind, the character of which I did not know until the carriage stopped in front of it. All this taxes the ingenuity as your kindness moves the heart of one who is making a hurried journey through California. I do not need such souvenirs as this to keep fresh in my heart this visit to your State. It will be pleasant, however, to show to others who have not participated in this enjoyment the record of a trip that has been very eventful and one of perpetual sunshine and happiness. I do not think I could have endured the labor and toil of travel unless I had been borne up by the inspiriting and hearty good-will of your people. I do not know what collapse is in store for me when it is withdrawn. I fear I shall need a vigorous tonic to keep up to the high level of enjoyment and inspiration which your kind treatment has given me. I thank you for this pleasant social enjoyment and this souvenir of it. [Applause.]

I desire, for myself and for the ladies of our party, to give an expression of our thanks for many individual acts of courtesy, which, but for the pressure upon our time, would have been specially acknowledged. Friends who have been so kind will not, I am sure, impute to us any lack of appreciation or intended[398] neglect. The very excess of their kindness has made any adequate, and much more, any particular, return impossible. You will all believe that there has been no purposed neglect of any locality or individual. We leave you with all good wishes for the State of California and all her people.

Benj. Harrison.

My Friends—It is very pleasant to meet here an old comrade of the Seventieth Indiana Volunteers. Your fellow citizen, Captain Matlock, who has spoken for you, commanded one of the companies of my regiment, and is, therefore, a very old and very dear friend. Once before in California I had a like surprise. The other day a glee club began to sing a song that was familiar to me, and I said to those standing about me. "Why, that song was written by a lieutenant in my old regiment, and I have not heard it since the war." Presently the leader of the glee club turned his face toward me and I found he was the identical lieutenant and the composer of the song, singing it for my benefit. All along I have met old Indiana acquaintances, and I am glad to see them, whether they were of my old command or from other regiments of the great war. They all seem to be prosperous and happy. Captain Matlock was about the same size during the war that he is now. I very well remember, according to his own account, that at Resaca he undertook to make a breastwork of some "down timber," but he found, after looking about, that it was insufficient cover, and took a standing tree. [Laughter.]

Seriously, my friends, you have a most beautiful State, capable of promoting the comfort of your citizens in a very high degree,[399] and although already occupying a high place in the galaxy of States, it will, I am sure, take a much higher one. It is pleasant to see how the American spirit prevails among all your people, the love for the flag and the Constitution, those settled and permanent things that live whether men go or come. They came to us from our fathers and will pass down to our children. You are blessed with a genial climate and a most productive soil. I see you have in this northern part of California what I have seen elsewhere—a well-ordered community, with churches and school-houses, which indicates that you are not giving all your thoughts to material things, but thinking of those things that qualify the soul for the hereafter. We have been treated to another surprise this morning in the first shower we have seen in California. I congratulate you that it rains here. May all blessings fall upon you, like the gentle rain. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—It is very pleasant, as we near the northern line of California, after having traversed the valleys of the south, and are soon to leave the State in which we have had so much pleasurable intercourse with its people, to see here, as I have seen elsewhere, multitudes of contented, prosperous, and happy people. I am assured you are here a homogeneous people, all Americans, all by birth or by free choice lovers of one flag and one Constitution. It seems to me as I look into the faces of these California audiences that life must be easier here than it is in the old States. I see absolutely no evidences of want. Every one seems to be well nourished. Your appearance gives evidence that the family board is well supplied, and from the gladness on your faces it is evident that in your social relations everything is quiet, orderly, and[400] hopeful. I thank you for your friendly demonstrations. I wish it were possible for me to do more in exchange for all your great kindness than simply to say thank you; but I do profoundly thank you, and shall carry away from your State the very happiest impressions and very pleasant memories. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I have been talking now over a trip of 6,000 miles and feel pretty well talked out; but I can always say, as I say to you now, that it is ever a very great pleasure to me to see these kindly faces turned toward me. We have received in South California, in their orange groves, a very hearty welcome, and it is very pleasant to come now to this fine scenery among these snow-capped mountains. I have no doubt that you find here in this high altitude an inspiration for all good things. I thank you again for your cordial greeting.

Mr. Simon and Gentlemen of the Committee—I esteem it an honor that the Legislature of the State of Oregon has taken this notice of my visit, and I receive with pleasure this welcome you have extended to me. I am very glad to greet you, and it will give me pleasure to see you further before leaving the State.

My Friends—This cordial welcome, under the infelicitous circumstances, is very gratifying to us as we enter the great State of Oregon. In the State of California we had sunshine, and it was perhaps to be expected that the favorable weather conditions should draw about our platform a large concourse of people, but you have evidenced your interest in the Government and the flag and your friendly interest in us by turning out on this inclement night to bid us welcome to your State. I thank you most sincerely, and wish for you and yours all good, and for your State a continued career of development and prosperity.

Comrades and Fellow-citizens—It gives me great pleasure to see you to-night, especially these old comrades, to whom I am glad to give a comrade's greeting. I would have you think of me as a comrade. I recall those army scenes which are fresh in your minds as well as mine, the scenes of privation, suffering, and battle, and I am glad to see that the old flag you took to the field and brought[402] home in honor is still held in honor among you. It is a beautiful emblem of a great Government. We ought to teach our children to love it and to regard it as a sacred thing, a thing for which men have died and for which men will die. It symbolizes the government of the States under one Constitution, for while you are all Oregonians as I am an Indianian, and each has his pride in State institutions and all that properly pertains to our State Government, we have a larger and greater pride in the fact that we are citizens of a Nation, of a Union of States, having a common Constitution. [Cheers.]

It is this flag that represents us on the sea and in foreign countries, it is under this flag that our navies sail and our armies march. I thank you for this cordial greeting. I hope you have found in this State comfortable homes, and that in the years that remain to you God will follow you with those blessings which your courage and patriotism and sacrifices have so well merited. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—It gives me great pleasure to see you, and to have the testimony of your presence here this wet morning to the interest you take in this little party of strangers who are pausing only for a moment with you. We do not need any assurance, as we look over an American audience like this, that upon some[403] things, at least, we are of one mind. One of these things is that we have a Union indissoluble; that we have a flag we all honor, and that shall suffer no dishonor from any quarter. While I regret the inclemency of the morning, I have been thinking that after all there was a sort of instructive moral force in the uncertainty of the weather, which our friends in Southern California do not enjoy. How can a boy or young woman be well trained in self-denial and resignation who does not know what it is to have a picnic or picnic dress spoiled by a shower, or some fishing excursion by a storm? I thank you for this welcome. [Cheers.]

Governor Pennoyer, Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—It is very pleasant to be assured by these kindly words which have been spoken by the Governor of this State and by the chief officer of this municipality that we are welcome to the State of Oregon and to the city of Salem. I find here, as I found elsewhere, that these cordial words of welcome are repeated with increased emphasis by the kindly faces of those who assemble to greet us. I am glad that here as elsewhere we look into the faces of happy, prosperous, con[404]tented, liberty-loving, patriotic American citizens. Our birthright, the wise anticipation of those who framed our Government, our national and constitutional organization, which has repeated itself in all the States of the Union, this wholesome and just division of power between the three great independent, co-ordinate branches of the Government—the executive, the legislative, and the judicial—has already demonstrated that what seems to the nations of Europe to be a complicated and jangling system produces in fact the most perfect harmony, and the most complete and satisfactory organization for social order and for national strength.

We stand here to-day in one of these halls set apart to the law-making body of your State. Those who assemble here are chosen by your suffrages. They come here as representatives to enact into laws those views of public questions which have met the sanction of the majority of your people, expressed in an orderly and honest way at the ballot-box. I hope it may be always found to be true of Oregon that your legislative body is a representative body; that coming from the people, its service is consecrated to the people, and the purpose of its creation is attained by giving to the well-ordered and well-disposed the largest liberty, by curbing, by wholesome laws, the ill-disposed and the lawless, and providing by economical methods for the public needs. The judiciary, that comes next in our system, to interpret and apply the public statutes, has been in our country a safe refuge for all who are oppressed. It is greatly to our credit as a Nation that with rare exceptions those who have worn the judicial ermine in the highest tribunals of the country, and notably in the Supreme Court of the United States, have continued to retain the confidence of the people of the whole country. The duty of the Executive is to administer the law; the military power is lodged with him under constitutional limitations. He does not frame statutes, though in most States, and under our national Government, a veto power is lodged in him with a view to secure reconsideration of any particular measure.

But a public executive officer has one plain duty: it is to enforce the law with kindness and forbearance, but with promptness and inexorable decision. He may not choose what laws he will enforce any more than the citizen may choose what laws he will obey. We have here but one king: it is the law, passed by those constitutional methods which are necessary to make it binding upon the people, and to that king all men must bow. It is my great pleasure to find so generally everywhere a disposition to obey the law. I have but one message for the North and for the South, for the[405] East and the West, as I journey through this land. It is to hold up the law, and to say everywhere that every man owes allegiance to it, and that all law-breakers must be left to the deliberate and safe judgment of an established tribunal. You are justly proud of your great State. Its capabilities are enormous; its adaptation to comfortable life is peculiar and fine. The years will bring you increased population and increased wealth. I hope they will bring with it, marching in this stately progress of material things, those finer things—piety, pure homes, and orderly communities. But above all this State pride, over all our rejoicings in the advantages which are about us in our respective States, we look with greater pride to that great arch of government that unites these States and makes of them all one great Union. But, my fellow-citizens, the difficulties that I see interposed between us and the train which is scheduled to depart very soon warn me to bring these remarks to a speedy close. I beg again, most profoundly, to thank you for this evidence of your respect, this evidence of your love for the institutions of our common country. [Cheers.]

My Young Friends—It gives me great pleasure to stop for a moment to see these evidences of the good work the Government is doing for you and the good work you are doing for yourselves. All the purposes of the Government toward you and your people are benevolent and friendly. It is our wish that you may become such people as your neighbors are—industrious, kindly, peaceful, and self-respecting. Everything that I can do to promote this end will be gladly done. I hope your instructors and all those who are brought close to you will in every way express and carry out the benevolent and kindly intentions of the Government.

Fellow-citizens—This is a very pleasant morning reception. The heartiness and genuineness of your greeting is unmistakable, and I beg to assure you that we most heartily appreciate and return your kindly thoughts. You have here a most important State, one of those bordering on the Pacific, completing the autonomy of our great country, and giving us a seaboard on the Pacific as well as upon the Atlantic which was essential to our completeness and separateness as a people. The interesting story of the early settlement of Oregon, of the international contest which for some time threatened international war, is fresh in the minds of these pioneers, and I am sure is taught to these children of your public schools. The work of those who set up the American flag here, and who secured to us this fertile region, is worthy of mention and of honorable commemoration by this generation, which is entering into their labors. Your State has added another to that succession of kindly greetings which began when we left the national capital. We have come out of the land of irrigation and roses into this land where the Lord takes care of the crops; and this dependence upon the seasons is not without its instructive and moral influences. Nature seems to have made a fresh, white toilet for us as we have come down the banks of this beautiful river. To the pioneers, to those who have entered in with less labor to the inheritance left to them, to these children and to these comrades of the Grand Army, I give my most hearty greeting.

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—No more brilliant or inspiring scene than this has been presented to our eyes in this wonderful series of receptions which have been extended to us on our journey. You have been filled with regret to-day that your weeping skies did not present to us the fair spectacle which you had hoped; and yet this very discouragement has but added to the glory of this magnificent reception. [Cheers.] To stand in the bright sunshine of a genial day and to wave a welcome is not so strong a proof of the affectionate interest of a people as you have given to-day standing in this down-pouring rain [Cheers.] In the presence of a multitude like this, in a scene made brilliant by these decorations, I stand inadequate to any suitable expression of the gratitude that fills my heart. [Cheers.]

I was quite inclined to stand by the Superintendent of the Census in the count which he made of the States; but I am afraid if I had witnessed this scene, pending your application for a recount, that it would have been granted. [Laughter and great cheering.] I am sorry that it could not have been made as the people turned out to give us this welcome; I am sure no one would have been missed. [Laughter and cheers.]

This State is interesting in its history. The establishment of the authority of the United States over this region was an important event in our national history. The possession of the Columbia and of Puget Sound was essential to the completeness and the roundness of our empire. We have here in this belt of States, reaching from[409] the Gulf of California to the Straits of Fuca, a magnificent possession which we could not have dispensed with at all. [Cheers.] The remoteness of Oregon from the older settled States, the peril and privation which attended the steps of the pioneer as he came hither, delayed the development of this great country. You are now but beginning to realize the advantage of closer and easier communications. You are but now beginning to receive from an impartial and beneficent Government that attention which you well deserve. [Cheers.]

That this river of yours should be made safe and deep, so that waiting commerce may come without obstruction to your wharf, is to be desired. [Cheers.] It should receive those appropriations which are necessary to make the work accomplish the purpose in view. [Cheers.] I believe that you may anticipate a largely increased commerce. Looking out as you do toward the regions across the Pacific, it would be but natural that this important centre should draw from them and exchange with them a great and increasing commerce. [Cheers.] I am in entire sympathy with the suggestion of the Mayor that it is important that this commerce should be carried in American ships. [Cheers.] A few days ago, when I sailed in the harbor of San Francisco, I saw three great deep water ships come into that port. One carried the flag of Hawaii and two the English flag. None bore at the masthead the Stars and Stripes. I believe it is the duty of the national Government to take such steps as will restore the American merchant marine. [Cheers.] Why shall we not have our share in the great commerce of the world? I cannot but believe—and such inspiring presences as this but kindle and confirm my belief—that we are come to a time when this Nation should look to the future and step forward bravely and courageously in new lines of enterprise. [Cheers.]

The Nicaragua Canal should be completed. [Cheers.] Our harbors should have adequate defence. [Cheers.] We should have upon the sea a navy of first-class ships. [Cheers.] We are here in the most kindly relations to these South American and Central American countries. We have been content that Europe should do the commerce of these nations. We have not availed ourselves of the advantages of neighborhood and of friendly kindred republican institutions to develop our commerce with those people. We have, fortunately, as a result of the great conference of American nations, set on foot measures that I confidently hope will bring to us speedily our just share of this great commerce. [Cheers.]

I am glad to know that we are here to-night as American citi[410]zens, lovers of the one flag and the one Constitution. [Enthusiastic cheering.] Proud of Oregon! Yes, you may well be proud of Oregon. But, my countrymen, above all, crowning all, greater than all, is our American citizenship. [Great cheering.] What would one of these States be without the other? What is it that gives us prestige abroad and power at home? It is that we have formed a government of the people, that we have one flag and speak with one voice to all the nations of the earth. [Enthusiastic cheering.] I hope that narrow sentiment that regards the authority of the United States or its officers as alien or strange has once and forever been extinguished in this land of ours. [Great cheering.] My countrymen, I am profoundly grateful for this magnificent demonstration. I accept it as a tribute to your institutions and to your country. No man is worthy of it; he can only return for it a fresh consecration of himself to the duties of public office and private citizenship. [Great cheering.] Again I assure you that you have given us to-day what is to my mind, under the conditions, taking into account the population of your city, the most splendid demonstration we have seen on the whole journey. [Prolonged and enthusiastic cheering.]

Fellow-countrymen—I am proud to be present at this magnificent demonstration. I am especially pleased at the address the President has delivered. Instead of having it printed for Congress he has reserved it for the people of Oregon, and personally brought you his message. [Cheers.] What you have done to-day has certainly touched his heart; and no man would be human who did not feel moved at this wonderful welcome that you have prepared for your President. I think you had him in mind all the time, and wanted to show that your loyalty and affection would wash. [Laughter and cheers.]

I am proud to be an American citizen, and to see how the people rally round the flag and the chief standard-bearer, the President of the United States. [Cheers.] From the day he started from home his pathway has been strewn with garlands, and many times our way has lain through a path knee-deep with flowers. They have been scattered all the way from Virginia to Oregon; but[411] above all is the hearty, loving, loyal welcome that has been extended to us at every stop we have made. On the boundary of your State, at the little town of Salem [laughter], I think, a welcome was spoken most beautifully and heartily by your Governor. [Tremendous cheering.] But you have about 60,000 majority over Salem. [Cheers.]

How can any one thank you for it except to go back to Washington and do the very best in his power for your good and the good of the whole people? Some of us Eastern people are doing now what Columbus did 400 years ago—we are discovering America. [Cheers.] If what you have done for us here to-night and what you have done to-day is a true index to your energy and determination, what is there you will not grasp and do when you get at it? [Cheers.] I am sure you will find one opportunity in aiding in the postal telegraph. We are going to have penny postage all the country over. [Cheers.] But before that time comes let us go out into the new States as the villages and hamlets build up and let us give them the mail with the freest intercourse and the fullest facility. I will now make way for the next man, for the largest Secretary of all is still to come. [Cheers and laughter.]

Ladies and Gentlemen—It is with great pleasure that I meet you here to-night. I would not have a heart if I did not say that I have been touched by this demonstration and the demonstration on your streets to-day. [Cheers.] I account for this in a different way from those who have preceded me. I saw on your streets to-day more ladies than I saw in any city which we have visited since we left Washington. And the beautiful children! While we have had more flowers in other States, we have not met more beautiful women and lovely children. I tell you, in order to raise anything sweetly and beautifully you must have rain. [Cheers.] Congress has passed a law providing that the Weather Bureau be turned over to me July 1, and if I can control the weather and another President comes here I will see that you have a flood. [Cheers and laughter.] I will endeavor, however, after July 1 to give you thirteen months' rain every year. I have been touched to the heart in many ways since I came to your beautiful city. I have met friends who were my boyhood's friends away back in Wisconsin, and comrades who served with[412] me in battle and in camp. [Cheers.] I would fail to do my duty if I did not say that I am glad to see you all. God bless them and may the future deal kindly with you all. [Great cheering.]

My Fellow-citizens—It is very kind of you to turn out so early in the morning. I can count among my pleasantest experiences in the Northwest this very early rising. I am a good deal of a Daniel Webster as to early risings. [Laughter.] It gives me great pleasure to notice the evidence of increased population as contrasted with what I saw six years ago as I passed through this country. I was so unfortunate then as to find it enveloped in smoke, so that the mountain tops were invisible. I am afraid we are to have this experience repeated on this visit on account of the fog. I suppose this is because the beauties of your country are so great that they have to be shaded to the eyes of a stranger. Seriously, however, you have a great commonwealth. I do not doubt that your future is to be one of great development and great increase in population, and that you are to found here a very contented, prosperous, and happy people. Fortunately you have a capacity for great agricultural development after you have cleared away the forests; and that, after all, is the permanent foundation of every American city. It is well enough to have trees on the land and mines in the earth; but trees will be cut down and mines be dug out, and the only thing that lasts is good soil in the hands of good husbandmen. I thank you most sincerely. [Cheers.]

Ladies—I cannot thank you enough for all your kindness. I shall take your gifts home and treasure them all my life as mementos of a most enjoyable visit to your beautiful city. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—I feel that it would be cruel to prolong this exposure which you are enduring in the inclement weather of the day. I visited your city and the region of Puget Sound six years ago. I found this country then enveloped in smoke, so that these grand mountain-tops, of which mention has been made in the address of welcome, were hidden from our view. I come again and the smoke is replaced by fog, and we are still, I suppose, to take the existence of these snow-clad peaks on faith. [Laughter and applause.] I don't know but there is a benevolent provision for your comfort in the fact that this magnificent scenery, this unmatched body of water are frequently hidden from the eye of the traveller. If every one who journeys hither could see it all everybody would want to live here, and there wouldn't be room. [Laughter and cheers.] I congratulate you, citizens of Tacoma, upon the magnificent, almost magical, transformation which has been wrought here in these six years since I first saw your city. It has been amazing: it is a tribute to the energy and the enterprise and courage of your people that will endure and increase and attract in a yet higher degree the attention of the whole country.

A harbor like this, so safe and commodious and deep, upon Puget Sound, should be made to bear a commerce that is but yet in its infancy. I would like to see the prows of some of these great steamship lines entering your ports and carrying the American flag at the masthead. [Cheers.] I believe we have come to the time in our development as a people when we must step forward with bold progress, or we will lose the advantage we have already attained. We have within ourselves the resources, and a market of which the world is envious. We have been content, in the years gone by, to allow other nations to do the carrying trade[415] of the world. We have been content to see the markets of these American republics lying south of us mastered and controlled by European nations. I think the period of discontent with these things has now come to our people, and I believe the time is auspicious for the enlargement of our commerce with these friendly republics lying to the south of us. I believe the time is propitious for re-establishing upon the sea the American merchant marine, that shall do its share of the carrying trade of the world. [Applause.]

My friends, I desire to again express to you my regret that to give us this magnificent welcome, under circumstances so inauspicious, you have been exposed to so much wet. I especially regretted, as I passed those long lines of dear school children, that they should have been exposed in order to do us honor. I will not detain you longer. For your city, for this magnificent young State that we have received into the great sisterhood of the Union, of which you are a glorious part, we give our aspirations, our prayers, and our best endeavors. [Applause.]

Mr. Mayor—I accept with great gratification these words of welcome on behalf of the citizens of Seattle. It will give me great pleasure to contrast my observations of your State in 1885 with what I shall see to-day. I have not lost track of the progress of Seattle, but have, through friends, been advised of the marvellous development which you have made, and how you have repeated in the substantial character of your edifices the story of the Chicago fire, coming as you have out of what seemed a disaster with increased magnificence, and finding in it really an advantage. I will defer until I am in the presence of your people any further acknowledgment of your courtesies, and will now only thank you, as you are repeating here what we have observed on our whole trip, namely, the unification of all our people and the absolute oneness of sentiment in devotion to our institutions and the flag.

Judge Burke and Fellow-citizens—I am sure you have too much kindness in your heart to ask me to make an address to you this afternoon. This chilly air, this drizzling rain, the long exposure during the day which you and these precious children have suffered, warn me, on your account as well as my own, that I should say but a few words in recognition of this magnificent welcome. Six years ago I visited your beautiful city, and the distinguished gentleman who has been your spokesman to-day was one of a hospitable committee that pointed out to me the beauties of this location. You were then largely a prospective city. Some substantial and promising improvements had been begun, but it was a period of expectancy rather than of realization. I am glad to come to-day and to see how fully and perfectly the large expectations then entertained by your enterprising people have been realized. It is a matter of amazement to look upon these towering substantial granite and iron structures in which the great business of your city is transacted. That disaster, as it seemed to you, which swept away a large portion of the business part of your city was like the afflictions that come to the saints, a blessing in disguise. [Cheers.] You have done what Chicago did. You have[418] improved the disaster by rearing structures and completing edifices that were unthought of before. Those who were not enterprising or liberal have been compelled to be liberal and enterprising in order that they might realize rents for their property made vacant by fire. [Cheers.]

I fully appreciate the importance of this great body of water upon which your city is situated. This sound, this inland sea, must be in the future the highway, the entrepot, of a great commerce. I do most sincerely believe that we are entering now upon a new development that will put the American flag upon the seas and bring to our ports in American bottoms a largely increased share of the commerce of the world. [Cheers.] As I have said in other places, for one I am thoroughly discontented with the present condition of things. We may differ as to methods, but I believe the great patriotic heart of our people is stirred, and that they are bent upon recovering that share of the world's commerce which we once happily enjoyed. Your demonstration to day under these unfavorable environments has been most creditable to your city. We have certainly seen nothing in a journey characterized by great demonstrations to surpass this magnificent scene. [Cheers.] I realize what your spokesman has said, that in all this there is a patriotic expression of the love of our people for the flag and for the Constitution. [Cheers.] And now, my friends, thanking you for all you have done for me, humbly confessing my inability to repay you, pledging to you my best efforts to promote the good of all our people, and that I will have a watchful observation of the needs of your State, of your harbors, for defence, improvement, and security, I bid you good by. [Cheers.]

I leave you very reluctantly, and I shall always be sorry that my time was so limited here that I could not do justice to your hospitality. [Great cheering.]

I can only thank you once more; you have given me a royal welcome, and I carry away with me the most grateful memory of[419] your kindness. I was up until past midnight last night, making a speech, and had to be up at 6 o'clock this morning to speak to some friends in Oregon. I leave you with the best wishes for your city and the State. [Enthusiastic cheers.]

The reasons given by the President for not making a speech certainly apply to those who are in your programme to follow him. I cannot, however, leave the platform without thanking you for that share of the welcome that falls to us who attended. There is a chill in the air, but there is no lack of warmth in the cordial greeting that you have given to us who, though we felt ourselves to be strangers among you, have found ourselves to be among friends. I have been trying to find out since the census report was announced what the reason was that Philadelphia had fallen behind. [Laughter and applause.] It is all very plain to me now. This city set on a hill I shall put down in my book as Philadelphia Junior. [Applause.] You have the family likeness. I recognize some of you by name, and I do not wonder that you have settled in this beautiful spot, so rich in its resources, where you discovered everything that we have in Pennsylvania except one thing, and I expect you will find that before long, and I am sure that I hope that you will find the anthracite coal stored away somewhere in your hills. I know if you undertake to find it you will do it. [Applause.] You need no better illustration than the choir over yonder, that could not be stopped even to allow the President to speak. [Applause and laughter.] I shall carry away from here a story that I am afraid they will call a California story, but I will get your Mayor to give me a certificate that I was perfectly sober—that there was nothing but water. [Applause and laughter.] And I shall try to recommend what I have seen in this wild West, where people have their splendid schools, their many churches, their refined homes, and where there is such a hearty welcome for all that come in their midst. For my part of the work at Washington I have already given you evidence that the Post-office Department was thinking of the Pacific coast. I shall do the best that I can as a business man for this splendid business people that you have in your city and for the many more that are to come; that all the facilities of the mail—quickening it, increasing it—shall be given to you; that you shall not say that your Government does not give you all the assistance in building up your great[420] enterprises and swelling the prosperity of all this coast. I say good-by to you and give you a heart full of good wishes. [Continued applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—I am very glad to see you to-night, but I am sure you will excuse me from speaking when you remember that I have been out in the rain all day at Tacoma and Seattle, and have had to talk several times. I am glad to see you, and appreciate the friendly interest you manifest in coming out here to-night in such great numbers to greet us with such kindliness. I have known for a long time of the great hop industry of this region, and I am glad to know that it has proven profitable. The question of the Puyallup reservation was one of the last which was brought officially to my attention before leaving, and I expect it will be one of the first I shall take up on my return. Good-night and good-by.

My Friends—I am very much obliged to you for this midnight reception. We passed you this morning without stopping, and regretted it when we saw the number who had collected here. We gladly yielded to your request to stop to-night in order to show our appreciation of your kindness. It is very pleasant for me to see those people who have no interest in politics except for good government. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I am very much obliged to you for your kindly greeting, and, as we stop only a few moments, I can only express my sincere thanks for your presence.

My Friends—It is very pleasant to see you this morning, and to come out into the sunshine after two or three days of chilly rain. I have been talking so much, and so much in the dampness, that my voice is not very good; but my heart is always fresh and open to these receptions. I thank you very sincerely for your friendliness and wish for you all, and especially for these little ones, every happiness in life. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I have spoken at all times of the night and all hours of the day, and under conditions much less auspicious than those around us this morning. We have here a bright sunshine and a bracing air, and everything in nature adds to the gladness of this demonstration which you have made in our honor. I most sincerely thank you for this evidence of your friendliness. I assure you that it is very pleasant, and I cannot but believe that it is very useful for those who are charged with public duties at Washington occasionally to move about a little and look into the faces of the plain, patriotic people of the country. Most of the people who come to see me at Washington want something, and as the provision made by law is not adequate to meet all these wants there is very apt to be a great deal of discontent; but when we get out among the great masses of the people, among those who are doing the work of the farm, of the shop, and of the office, who have a patriotic pride in their country and its institutions, and are kindly disposed, charitable in their judgments, and who have no other interests than that the laws shall be faithfully executed and the whole interest of the people faithfully looked after, we find great refreshment in their presence. I am sure we have such an audience here this morning. You will not expect of any officer that he will altogether avoid mistakes; you have a right to expect a conscientious, courageous fidelity to public duty. I quite sympathize with the suggestion of your Mayor, that it is one of the proper Government functions to improve and to open to safe navigation the great waterways of our country. The Government of the United States has reserved to itself the exclusive control of all navigable inland waters, and that being so, it is, of course, incumbent upon the Government to see that the people have the best possible use of them. They are important, as they furnish cheap transportation, and touch points that are often, either for economy or natural reasons, inaccessible to railway traffic. I thank you again for your interest and bid you a kindly farewell. If no ill happens to you that I do not wish, and all the good comes to you that I do wish in your behalf, your lives will be full of pleasantness and peace. [Enthusiastic cheers.]

I am glad to greet the great father. Indian and white man are now one family, friendly, and I give you the hand of welcome for my people. You represent one race, I another, but we are all of one Government, and between red man and white there should no longer be war. My people want only peace. In behalf of my tribe I say welcome, President.

My Fellow-citizens—Among all the surprises that have greeted us on our journey I do not remember any that burst upon us with more suddenness than this beautiful sight that you have arranged for our welcome here. Travelling for some hours through a sparsely settled region, I did not at all anticipate that so large an assemblage could be gathered here. I am glad to read in your faces a full confirmation of the Mayor's words of welcome. You have a pride in the common heritage of Government which our fathers organized for us. You honor the flag which floats about us here. It is pleasant to meet here, scattered over these plains of the West, so many veterans of the great Civil War, men who came out of the army poor as they went into it, men who did not serve their country for reward, but out of a loving fealty to its flag and to their Government; men who asked no questions about pay, but went with loyal hearts to battle, determined that the flag[424] should be maintained in its supremacy from sea to sea; men who, returning safely from the vicissitudes of the camp and the march and from the perils of battle, have been ever since giving their brave endeavors to open this new country, to increase its prosperity, and by honorable labor to make comfortable homes for themselves and their children. I greet you to-day, comrades, with a loving heart. God grant that these later days—for years are increasing with us all—may be full of sunshine, full of the respect of your neighbors, full of prosperity, and crowned at last with the full blessing of immortality.

To these little ones now enjoying the beneficent provisions which your State has made for their care and education I give the most affectionate greeting. The children of this land are the light and the life of our households. They are in the family what the blossoms are in the orchard and garden. May they appreciate the blessings they enjoy, and when they come to mature years and take up the unfinished labors of their fathers, may they hold aloft the flag which their fathers followed to battle and maintain all those things that conduce to decent and orderly communities and to the purity of the home. To these pioneers who have under discouragements and great difficulties sought these Western homes and opened the way for civilization I give my greeting, and to all I give the assurance that these distant States are not forgotten by us who are, for the time, chosen to administer public office at Washington. We take you all into our consideration, our confidence, and our affection. I believe there is a great community of interest that touches all our States. I believe that our legislation should be as broad as our territory, should not be for classes, but should be always in the interest of all our people. And now, thanking you for this most interesting and cordial welcome, I bid you good-by. [Cheers].

My Fellow-citizens—It is very gratifying to see this vast assembly here to-night, and I regret that our arrival was not in the daylight, that we might have a better view of this city and its surroundings, as well as of these prosperous and happy people who are assembled here to-night. We have travelled many thousands of miles on this journey, and it has been one continued succession of happy greetings. We have passed through the land of flowers, and they have strewn our pathway with them. We have come now to this north land where the flowers are not so abundant, but where the welcome and heartiness of the people is quite as manifest and quite as sincere. I rejoice to have had the opportunity to see portions of the State of Oregon which I had not previously visited. Your industries and products are so varied that working together, supplying the wants of different communities by the productions of each, it must be that you shall grow in population, and that the rewards of your labor shall be full and rich. But above all these material things in which you show the country the resources of your people, I rejoice that social order, education, good morals, and all those things that tend to promote the human happiness, the peace of your communities, and the glory of your State, are also here thought of and promoted. [Cheers.] We are citizens of one great country, and I do not believe there is a nation in the world where there is a more perfect unification of heart and purpose than in the United States of America. I do not believe there is anywhere any people more earnestly in love with their institutions and with the flag that symbolizes them, more in love with peace and peaceful industries, and yet stronger in their defence of the truth and of the right. [Cheers.] I beg again to thank your citizens of this city and of the surrounding country for this gracious and hospitable welcome. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—It is very pleasing, so late at night, to be greeted on our arrival here by this large audience and by these hearty cheers. We thank you very sincerely for this evidence of your friendly interest, and beg to assure you in return that not only as public officers, but as citizens with you of this great country, we are in hearty sympathy with all your pursuits and plans and hopes in this distant State. I have heard before of its beauty and the fertility and productiveness of its wheat fields and of the rich mines which are found in this vicinity. Situated as you are, the great question with you must be one of transportation, one of getting the products of your field, the surplus of your agricultural products, to a market. I hope you appreciate all the advantages in this regard which the development of these Pacific cities is giving. Every great manufacturing establishment that is built there produces and increases population, and makes additional and nearer market for the products of your fields. I hope the day is not far distant when the completion of the Nicaragua Canal will make a shorter way to the Atlantic seaboard States and much shorter and cheaper communication with a European market. I am glad to be assured—indeed, I do not need the assurance—that here in Oregon, as in the Central and Eastern States, we are one people, loyal and united in the love for the flag which some of these comrades aided to be victorious in the great war, and that you are thoroughly in love with our American institutions. I am glad to assure you that, so far as I am concerned, I know no sections in this country. I desire to promote those measures which shall always be for the interests of all classes, and which shall diffuse the benefits of our institutions equally and fairly among all the States and among all our people. [Cheers.]

My Friends—This is instructive and inspiring to us all as American citizens. It is my great pleasure to stand for a little while this morning in the political Capitol of this fresh and new State. I had great satisfaction in taking an official part in admitting Idaho to the Union of States. I believed that it was possessed of a population and resources and capable of a development that fairly entitled her to take her place among the States of the American Union. You are starting now upon a career of development which I hope and believe will be uninterrupted. Your great mineral resources, now being rapidly developed, have already brought you great wealth. Undoubtedly these are to continue to be a source of enrichment and prosperity to your State, but I do not forget that we must look at last for that paramount and enduring prosperity and increase which our States should have to a development of their agricultural resources. You will, of course, as you have done, carefully guard and secure your political institutions. You will organize them upon a basis of economy, and yet of liberal progress. You will take care that only so much revenue is taken from the people as is necessary to the proper public expenditure. [Applause.]

I am glad to see that this banner of liberty, this flag of our fathers, this flag that these—my comrades here present—defended[428] with honor and brought home with victory from the bloody strife of the Civil War, is held in honor and estimation among you. [Great applause.] Every man should take off his hat when the starry flag moves by. It symbolizes a free republic; it symbolizes a Nation; not an aggregation of States, but one compact, solid Government in all its relations to the nations of the earth. [Applause.] Let us always hold it in honor. I am glad to see that it floats not only over your political Capitol, but over the school-houses of your State; the children should be taught in the primary schools to know its story and to love it. To these young children, entering by the beneficent and early provision of your State into the advantages of that great characteristic American institution—the common school—I give my greeting this morning. May every good attend them in life, and as the cares of life come on to take the place of the joys of childhood, God grant that, instructed in mind and heart in those things that are high and good, they may bear with honor the responsibility which you will soon lay down.

To these comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, survivors of the great war, upon whom the years are making their impression, I do not doubt that these who stand by me have borne an honorable part among your fellow-citizens in the development of the resources of this, their adopted State. Not long will we tarry; but, my comrades, the story of what you have done is undying, and I doubt not this morning that the satisfaction of having had some small part in redeeming this Nation and preserving its integrity will fill your hearts with gladness, even under adverse conditions of life. A grateful Nation honors you. Every community should give you its respect, and I can only add to-day a comrade's greeting and a hearty God bless you all! [Cheers.]

Fellow-citizens—In 1881, that sad summer when General Garfield lay so long in agony and the people suffered so long in painful suspense, I passed up the Utah and Northern Narrow Gauge Railroad through this place—if it was a place then—to Montana on a visit. The country through which we have passed is therefore not unfamiliar to me. I have known of its natural conditions, and I have seen its capabilities when brought under the stimulating influence of irrigation. I have had, during my term in the Senate, as Chairman of the Committee on Territories of that body, to give a good deal of attention to the condition and needs of our Territories. My sympathy and interest have always gone out to those who, leaving the settled and populous parts of our country, have pushed the frontiers of civilization farther and farther to the westward until they have met the Pacific Ocean and the setting sun. Pioneers have always been enterprising people. If they had not been they would have remained at home; they endured great hardships and perils in opening these great mines of minerals which show in your State, and in bringing into subjection these wild plains and making them blossom like gardens. To all such here I would do honor, and you should do honor, for they were heroes in the struggle for the subjugation of an untamed country to the uses of man. I am glad to see that you have here so many happy and prosperous people. I rejoice at the increase of your population, and am glad to notice that with this development in population and in material wealth you are giving attention to those social virtues—to education and those influences which sanctify the home, make social order secure, and honor and glorify the institutions of our common country. [Cheers.]

I am glad, not only for the sake of the white man, but of the red man, that these two extensive and useless reservations are being reduced by allotment to the Indians for farms, which they are expected to cultivate and thereby to earn their own living [cheers], that the unneeded lands shall furnish homes for those who need homes. [Cheers.]

And now, fellow-citizens, extending to such comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic as I see scattered about through this audience my most cordial greeting as a comrade, to these children and these ladies who share with you the privations of early life on the frontier, and to all my most cordial greeting and most sincere thanks for your kindly demonstration, I will bid you good-by. [Great cheering.]

Fellow-citizens—The scenes which have been presented to us in this political and commercial metropolis of the Territory of Utah have been very full of beauty and full of hope. I have not seen in all this long journey, accompanied as it has been with every manifestation of welcome and crowned with flowers, anything that touched my heart more than that beautiful picture on one of your streets this morning when the children from the free public schools of Salt Lake City, waving the one banner that we all love [cheers] and singing an anthem of praise to that beneficent Providence that led our worthy forefathers to land and has followed the pathway of this Nation with His beneficent care until this bright hour, gave us their glad welcome. [Applause and cheers.]

My service in public life has been such as to call my special attention to, and to enlist my special interest in, the people of the Territories. It has been a pleasant duty to welcome the Dakotas, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming into the great sisterhood of the States. I think it has not fallen to any President of the United States to receive into the Union so large a number of States. The conditions that surround you in this Territory are of the most hopeful character. The diversity of your productions, your mines of gold and silver, iron, lead and coal, placed in such proximity as to make the work of mining and reduction easy and[432] economical; your well-watered valley, capable, under the skilful touch of the husbandman, of transformation from barren wastes into fruitful fields—all these lying in easy reach and intercommunication, one with the other, must make the elements of a great commercial and political community. You do not need to doubt the future. You will step forward confidently and progressively in the development of your great material wealth.

The great characteristic of our American institutions—the compact of our Government—is that the will of the majority, expressed by legal methods at the ballot box, shall be the supreme law of all our community. To the Territories of the United States a measure of local government has always been given, but the supervisory control, the supreme legislative and executive power has been, continuously, as to the Territories, held and exercised by the general Government at Washington. The territorial state has always been regarded as a temporary one. The general Government has always looked forward to a division of its vast domain—first, the territory northwest of the Ohio, then the Louisiana purchase, then these accessions upon the Pacific coast—into suitable sections for the establishment of free and independent States. This great work of creating States has gone forward from the Ohio to the Pacific, and now we may journey from Maine to Puget Sound through established States. [Cheers.]

The purity of the ballot-box, the wise provisions and careful guardianship that shall always make the expression of the will of the people fair, pure and true, is the essential thing in American life. We are a people organized upon principles of liberty, but, my good countrymen, it is not license. It is liberty within and under the law. [Great applause.] I have no discord, as a public officer, with men of any creed or politics if they will obey the law. My oath of office, my public duty, requires me to be against those who violate the law.

The foundation of American life is the American home. That which distinguishes us from other nations whose political experience and history have been full of strife and discord is the American home, where one wife sits in single uncrowned glory. [Great applause and cheers.] And now, my countrymen, I beg to assure you that every hope you have for safe running on these lines of free government, on these lines of domestic and social order, I have. For every one of you I have the most cordial greeting. God bless and keep you and guide you in the paths of social purity, order, and peace, and make you one of the great communities of the American Union. [Cheers.]

I am very glad to witness in this magnificent structure which you are opening to-day for your use an evidence of the commercial importance of the city. Organizations of this character are very useful when rightly conducted, very promotive of the business prosperity of the cities in which they are established, and of the best interest of their membership. It is quite right that those who may be engaged in the rivalries of business, pushing their several lines of trade with the energy and enterprise that characterize our people, should now and then assemble and lay aside things that are personal and selfish and consider the things that affect the whole community. These organizations, as I have known them in other States, have been the council chamber in which large and liberal things have been devised for the development of the interests and prosperity of the community. I do not doubt that you will do so here; that new enterprise will be welcomed, and that the friendly business hand will be extended to those who are seeking investments. I wish you all success in this enterprise, and I hope you may grow until its membership shall embrace all of your commercial classes, and that its influence may do for your business here what the water of your mountain streams has done for the plains—make them grow longer and more productive, and at the same time expel from them those mean jealousies which sometimes divide men. [Prolonged Cheers.]

To the School Children—In all this joyous journey through this land of flowers and the sunny South I have seen nothing more[434] beautiful and inspiring than this scene which burst upon us so unexpectedly. This multitude of children bearing waving banners makes a scene which can never fade from our memories. Here, in these children from the free schools established and guarded by your public authorities, is the hope of Utah and the country. [Cheers.] I give you my thanks for a demonstration that has cheered my heart. May each of you enjoy every blessing that a free country and a more beneficent and kindly Creator can bestow. [Cheers.]

My Friends—This industry which you have established here is very interesting to me. I hope it is to open the way to a time when we shall have a home supply of sugar for every household. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—This is another of those bright and beautiful pictures that have been spread before our eyes on this whole journey from Washington. I am glad to stop for a moment in this enterprising and prosperous city. I am glad to know that you are adding manufacturing to your agriculture, and[435] that you are weaving some of the abundance of wool that is furnished by your flocks. It is the perfection of society, commercially, when you find immediately at your own doors a market for those things that you have to sell. You are a long way from the seaboard. The transportation companies, however fair their rates may be, must levy very heavy tolls upon your produce for taking it to the Atlantic or to the Pacific. It is then a pleasing thing when, instead of sending your wool to some distant city to be woven into cloth, you can do that work yourselves as you develop, bringing in these manufacturing industries whose employees consume the products of your farm and in turn give to the farmer that which he and his children have to wear. You are approaching the most independent commercial condition. When every farmer is able to sell from his own wagon everything he produces and is emancipated from transportation tolls, he is independent and prosperous.

I am glad to see these dear children here coming from the free schools of your city. The public school is a most wholesome and hopeful institution. It has an assimilative power possessed by no other institution in our country. Where the children of rich and poor mingle together on the play-ground and in the school-room, there is produced a unity of feeling and a popular love for public institutions that can be brought about in no other way. [Cheers.] God bless and promote your public schools until every child in your Territory shall be gathered into them. [Cheers.]

I want to express my interest in these dear children who have gathered here. It is very pleasant to have at all these little stations these expressions of your good-will. I rejoice to see the development which has taken place in these regions since I was here a few years ago, and I have no doubt that it will go on until all your valleys are prosperous and full of happy homes. [Cheers.]

My Friends—Your towns in Utah are very close together. I scarcely close an address at one before we are in the corporate limits of another; but I am glad to receive here this pleasant welcome. The evidence of kindliness which I read in all your faces is very reassuring and very comforting. It is delightful, I think, to those who are charged with public duties to come now and then and look into the faces of the people who have no other interest than that the Government shall be well administered. [Cheers.] I cannot hope, of course, to give a post office to everybody. I have endeavored in the selection of those who are to administer the functions of public office for the general Government to secure good men. I have desired that everywhere they should understand that they were the servants of the people [applause], that they were to give the best public service possible, and that they were to treat everybody alike.

It has been very pleasant to-day to ride through this most extraordinary valley, and to notice how productive your fields are and how genial and kindly your people are. [Cheers.]

I am to do whatever I can in public office to serve our people. I am glad to contribute whatever I can as a citizen to the general prosperity and to the glory and dignity of our country. [Cheers.]

And now one word or two to these few comrades who gather about me. They are not many, but they are entitled to honor. Those who struggled in the early years to establish homes in the West, and those who in the hour of public distress and peril bared their breasts to the shaft of battle that the Nation might live, are worthy of the highest regard. [Cheers.] You have entered into[437] the heritage which they bought and preserved. May you, with as true, loyal hearts as they, preserve and hand down to your children these institutions. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—In arranging the programme of this trip, and desiring to find one day in the seven for rest, we selected this spot because of its fame throughout the East as one of delightful location and natural attractions. I am glad this selection was made. It has given me much pleasure—the beauty of your surroundings and especially the picturesque attractiveness and magnificence of the scenery. The city which you are launching forth upon the tide of usefulness and prosperity will grow in fame. I thank you most cordially for this souvenir, and I leave with you my most earnest hope for the prosperity of the city.

This is one of the most beautiful of all the souvenirs that have been presented me on this trip. I wish to say to you that I do not regard your visit as an intrusion. I will not undertake to dilate upon the fatigue of this trip. I have been leaning over the hind rail of the train for a long time, and I came to Glenwood Springs tired. I wish to remain quiet, not from any puritanical notion of the Sabbath, and I hope none of you will feel that way. It is not because I don't want to see you. It is the contrary, I assure you, and I regret my inability to give you all a public reception.

I have for Aspen and her people the kindest wishes. As for the State of Colorado, it will grow more vigorous and richer in all that makes an American commonwealth.

In common with Western States, Colorado has had the pick of the people of the Eastern States. It seems to me as though her citizens had passed competitive examination for push and enterprise, and only the worthless were turned back at the ferry. I thank you for your liberality.

Mr. Mayor, Fellow-citizens and Children—Our stop at Glenwood Springs was, as you all know, intended to be for rest; and yet I have not felt that I could deny myself to this large body of friends assembled from the homes of this city, and, perhaps, to an even larger body of friends who have come from some of the neighboring towns to pay their respects and testify their good-will. The trip we have been making has been a prolonged one, and it has been a continued experience of speech-making and hand-shaking. The physical labor has been very great, and I think if one had been called upon to do the same amount of work without the stimulus and inspiration which have come from the happy faces and kind hearts of the people who have greeted us, almost any man would have given out. Certainly I would had I not been borne up and helped by the wonderful kindness of our people.

I have been intensely interested in what I have seen. It has testified to me of the unity of the people East and West. Out here you take on some peculiarities as we do in Indiana, but underneath these peculiarities there is the same true American grit and spirit. [Applause.] It is not wonderful that this should be so. It is not a mere likeness between different people, because you are precisely the same people that I have known in the Central and Eastern States. Everywhere I have gone I have seen Hoosiers; everywhere Mr. Wanamaker has gone he has seen Pennsylvanians; everywhere General Rusk has gone Wisconsin hands have been reached up to him. These new States have been filled up by the enterprising and pushing young men of the older States. They have set out to find here greater advantages, more rapid pathways to wealth and competence. Many of them have found it, many of them are still perhaps in the hard struggle of life; but to you all, to every man, whether he is mine-owner or handles the pick, I bring you my warmest sympathy and my most sincere thanks for your friendly greeting. [Applause.]

Our Government was instituted by wise men—men of broad views. It was based upon the idea of the equal rights of men. It absolutely rejects the idea of class distinction and insists that men should be judged by their behavior. That is a good rule; those who are law-abiding and well-disposed, those who pursue their vocations lawfully and with due respect to the rights of others, are the true American citizens. I am glad to know that the love of our institutions is so deeply imbedded in your hearts. It has been a most delightful and cheering thing to see that the starry banner, the same old flag that some of you carried amid the smoke of battle, the rattle of musketry, booming of cannon, and the dying[441] of men, is in the hands of such children. [Applause.] Some of the prettiest as well as some of the most hopeful sights we have looked upon have been these companies of children gathered on the streets or hill-sides waving this banner.

The American institutions deserve our watchful care. All our communities should be careful in the beginning to establish law and maintain it. It is very difficult when lawlessness once obtains the upper hand to put it down. It is very easy to keep it out of any community if the well-disposed, true-hearted people will sink all their differences, religious and political, and stand together as citizens for the good of their municipalities. [Applause.]

I want to thank the children who have gathered for this Sabbath-day's observance. I have had a life that has been full of labor. From my early manhood until this hour my time has had many demands upon it. I have been under the pressure of the practice of my profession. I have been under the pressure of political campaigns and of public office, and yet in all these pursuits, and under all these conditions, I have found, simply as a physical question, without reference to its religious aspects at all, that I could do more by working six days than seven.

I think you will all find it so, and that as a civil institution rest on the Sabbath day is good for man. It is not only good, but it is the right of the workingman. Men should have one free day in which to think of their families, of themselves, of things that are not material, but are spiritual. [Applause.]

I desire to express from a sincere and earnest heart my thanks to you all for all your kindness, giving you in return simply the pledge that I will in all things keep in mind what seems to me to be the true interests of our people. I have no thought of sections, I have no thought upon any of the great public questions that does not embrace the rights and interests of all our people and all our States. I believe we shall find a common interest and safe ground upon all the great questions, and by moderating our own views and making reasonable and just concessions we shall find them all settled wisely and in the true interest of the people. [Applause.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—This rare, pure atmosphere, this bright sunshine, the national colors, this multitude of lifted, smiling faces to greet us is a scene that should raise the dullest heart to emotions of thankfulness and pride—pride wholly separated from personal considerations, a pride in which everything personal is swallowed up by the contemplation that all this is the outcome,[443] the manifestation, the culmination of free American institutions. [Cheers.] We stand here on this mountain-top and see what I think is the highest evidence of American pluck to be found in the United States. [Laughter and applause.] I have addressed my fellow-citizens on many thousands of occasions, but never before stood so near the dome. [Cheers.] It is a wonderful testimony to the energy and adaptation of the American that he should have pushed his way to this high altitude, above the snow-line, and erected here these magnificent and extensive industries and these beautiful and happy homes. I rejoice with you in all that has been accomplished here.

I bring thanks to you for that great contribution you have made to the wealth of a country we all love. [Cheers.] I bring to you the assurance that as an individual citizen and as a public officer my interest, my affection, and my duty embrace all the people of this land. [Cries of "Good!" and cheers.]

I am glad to know we have in the past history of our country found that happy unity of interest which has acted beneficially upon all our institutions and all our people. With due regard to all local interests, we should seek that general legislation which touches with kindly fingers the humblest homes in our land. I do most sincerely thank you for this token of the product of your mines. It is a precious metal, but much more precious to me is the kindly thought and the generous welcome which you have given us in Leadville. [Cheers.]

My lungs are unaccustomed to this rare and stimulating atmosphere, and you will permit me to close by giving you all, to the men who, deep down in these mines, are toilsomely working out the precious metal, to those who welcome you in your homes when you return from your toil, the wives and children who add grace and sweetness to our lives, to these children who have gathered to greet us, a most cordial salutation and a regretful good-by. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I am very glad to see your bright and kind faces this morning, and to tarry for a few moments, just long enough to say "How do you do?" and "Good-by." It is very pleasant to find everywhere and at every station the same friendly looks and the same kindly greeting. I am glad to have an opportunity that I have not previously had of seeing the State of Colorado, great in her present condition and having a greater future development than perhaps you yourselves realize. This combination of agricultural and mining industries can work but good for the high development of Colorado. Your cattle and your sheep and your mines and your agriculture in your valleys all produce that ideal condition of things in which you find a nearer market for what you raise. I hope the time will come when in addition to smelting furnaces in your mines you will learn to weave the wool from your sheep in place of sending it abroad to be made into clothing. The more you can develop these things and do your own work the more prosperous will be your condition. These dear children have cheered me heartily all the way on this journey. The public schools are worthy of your most thoughtful care. It is there that the children meet on a common ground. It is there class distinctions are wiped out. It is the great American institution. You have well named your little hamlet Buena Vista. [Cheers.]

I have looked with great interest, in passing through these mountain gorges, at the enterprise of the people who have constructed intersecting lines of railroad upon these difficult grades and through threatening cañons. It has not been many days since such feats of engineering would have been regarded as impossible, and yet now railroads have touched the highest points, have gone above the snow line, have reached elevated mines, and brought isolated valleys into rapid and easy communication with the more settled parts of the country. It has given me great pleasure to look upon the beautiful valley in which the town of Salida is situated, and which will undoubtedly be capable of large agricultural production when a system of irrigation is completed. It might be desirable to the people of Indiana and Illinois and other agricultural States if Colorado had to buy her wheat and corn from them, but our larger interest makes it desirable that every community should supply its own wants. I anticipate with pleasure the day when these mountain States will not be content with mining, but shall add agricultural pursuits and manufacturing, and when the wool which is sheared from the flocks will be woven at home. [Cheers.]

It is a pleasant condition of things when all classes are prosperous, when the workingman has fair wages that leave him some margin above his daily necessities. I should lose hope for our institutions when there should be despairing classes among us. An American citizen could not be a good citizen who did not have hope in his heart. Every boy, however humble, can pass through[446] our public schools and climb to any position of usefulness and honor he has the ability to attain. There have been marvellous instances of what courage and pluck and intelligence may do in this way.

To the children I give a cordial greeting. They have been a happy feature of almost every gathering in the journey. I hope they may all receive that attention which will make them men and women of intelligence, and capable of taking a full share in all these good things in the community and in the State, for which they are to be responsible. [Cheers.]

Comrades and Fellow-citizens—It gives me great pleasure to see you and accept with a thankful heart those cordial greetings with which you have met us. I have been talking so much since I left Washington that I really am almost talked out; and yet, until I shall have altogether lost my voice, of which there does not seem to be any prospect, I cannot refrain from saying thank you to those friends who greet us with such affectionate interest. We do appreciate it very highly. But I do not at all assume it is merely your interest in me. It is, I am sure, your interest in the country, in its Constitution, and in its flag—the flag for which these comrades fought, which they carried through the stress of battle and brought home in honor. It is our free institutions, our free ballot, our representative Government, that you all honor in coming here to-day. It is very surprising and very pleasant to drop down out of these snow-clad summits and to have passed into our hands in the valley, branches of peach and pear and bouquets of flowers, the[447] first fruits of spring—a spring more genial here than it seemed at Leadville this morning. [Applause.] I am very glad to have revealed to me the possibilities of this country, and to see how, under the system of irrigation, that which seemed to be a waste—accursed of God—comes to be a very garden of Eden in beauty and productiveness. I hope you have not only the fruits and flowers of paradise, but that you have in your homes that state of peace and blessedness which prevailed before our first mother took the apple. [Applause.] To these comrades I want to give a comrade's greeting. I know of no higher honor in this world than to be called "comrade" by the survivors of those who saved the Union, [Applause.]

My Fellow citizens—I am very much obliged to you for this greeting. I expect there have been other Presidents who thought of you, though they have not visited you. This has been a very pleasant and instructive journey to me. I thought I had kept myself reasonably well informed of the capabilities of this country and of its productions, but I am amazed to find how things are put together. We come out of the snow where everything is barren and where labor is under ground, where the precious metals are being extracted, and there is nothing pleasant in the landscape except the snow covered mountains, and presently we are into a land of fruit, and have handed up to us great branches laden with well-set peach and pear, and are showered again, as we were in California, with the flowers of the early spring, and now, to my surprise, we seem to be in the oil region of Pennsylvania. These numerous derricks and oil lodes remind us of things about Oil City. Until I saw them I was not aware that you had here in[448] Colorado oil production. It shows us how impartial, after all, the great Creator has been. He has given us everywhere possibilities which, if well improved, will make comfortable, happy homes. You have the metals, precious and common, and the coal that is needed for the smelter; oil to light your homes and lubricate your machinery, and these orchards and beautiful valleys, all in the right proximity. No man could have improved upon it. [Applause.] Our Government intends to have a careful and impartial consideration of all its people. We do not recognize classes or distinctions. We want everybody to be prosperous and happy, especially the working people. [Cheers.]

I do not know how our institutions could endure unless we so conduct our public affairs and society that every man who is sober and industrious shall be able to make a good, comfortable living and lay something aside for old age or for evil days; to have hope in his heart and better prospects for his children. That is the strength of American institutions. Whatever promotes that I want to favor. Whatever tends to pauperize our people or impair the earning power of the laboring class I do not favor. [Cheers.]

Children of the Public Schools and Others—I am glad to meet such an immense number here, and I can't allow this opportunity to pass without expressing to you my thanks for this whole-souled reception. It moves my heart to say that from your appearances you are well taught, not only in manners but in your intellectual pursuits; your bright, ruddy faces show health, and as you are living in this healthful place it speaks marvels for Pueblo. The country need fear no attack from foreign foes when such an army as you'll some day make would be called into action. You have your destiny all before you, and no one can tell but that some of these boys may be a President and these beautiful girls advise those who are born to fill high places in the Government. Children, I am pleased to see you, and will hold in dear remembrance this, my first visit to Pueblo—a city full of American genius and enterprise, which will hold its own and keep on apace with that progress characteristic of Americans. God bless you all. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—The brief time which we are able in this hasty journey to allot to the city of Pueblo has now almost expired. It has given me pleasure to drive through the streets of this prosperous and enterprising municipality and to see that you are concentrating great business interests which must in the future make you a very important centre in this great State. You have in this State a variety of resources unexcelled, I think, by any other State. Your attention was very naturally first directed toward the precious metals, to the mining of gold and silver. The commoner ores were neglected. Your cities were mining camps. Nowhere in all our history has the American capacity for civil organization been so perfectly demonstrated as in the mining camps[450] of the West. Coming here entirely beyond the range of civil institutions, where courts, sheriffs, and police officers could not give a hand to suppress the unruly at a time when our mining laws were unframed, these pioneer miners of California, Colorado, Nevada, Montana, and Idaho wrought out for themselves in their mining camps a system of government and mining laws that have received the approval of the State. [Cheers.] It was quite natural that interest should have been first directed toward the precious metals. You are coming to realize that the baser metals, as we call them, with which your great hills are stored are of great and more lasting value. [Cheers.] We passed this morning through a region where I was surprised to see orchards that reminded me of California. Now for all these things, for the beneficent influence under which you live, for that good law that has distributed this public domain freely to every man who desires to make a home for himself and family, for this free Government that extends its protection over the humblest as well as the mighty, for all these resources of sky and air and earth, the people of Colorado should be joyously thankful. [Cheers.] I am glad to hail you as fellow-citizens. I am glad for a moment to stand in the midst of you, to see your great capabilities, and to assure you that my best wishes are with you in the development of them all. [Cheers] I am glad to know that Colorado, this young Centennial State, has established a system of free public schools unexcelled by any State in the Union [Cheers.] But, my friends, as I said once before, I am in slavery to a railroad schedule, and time is up Good-by. [Cheers.]

You have very appropriately named this school in which you have gathered a portion of the children of Colorado Springs for instruction—Garfield. I understand another of your public schools is named after Abraham Lincoln. That, too, is a most appropriate designation; for where, in all the story of our country, among its men who have been illustrious in civil pursuits or in war, can two names be found which furnish more inspiration and hope to the youth of the land than the names of Lincoln and Garfield? [Applause.] Both men came of parentage so poor that no advantages attended their early years, and yet each by his own indomitable will, by the persevering improvement of the meagre opportunities they enjoyed, reached the highest place in our land, and are to-day embalmed in the affectionate recollection of their countrymen. I bid you all to read the lessons of these great lives, and to ponder them well, for while not all may achieve all they achieved, useful[453] and honorable position may be achieved by you all. Wishing you every prosperity and success, I bid you good-by. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—I am sure you will crown the kindness which you have shown me to-day by permitting me to make my response to these words of welcome exceedingly brief. I have spoken four or five times to-day, and the chill of the evening will not allow me to exercise my voice with the accustomed immunity, but I cannot refrain from saying to you how much we have been pleased by the hasty glimpse we have been permitted to get of this beautiful city. The fame of Colorado Springs has spread throughout the entire East. I heard much of the beauty of its location, the grandeur and sublimity of these mountains that stand about bulwarked, as it is, like Jerusalem of old; of the health-giving atmosphere that fills this valley, of the marvellous springs, refreshing and life giving, which break out from your mountain sides; of these marvellous and weird products of time that stand in the Garden of the Gods—of all this I had heard. But, my countrymen, no spring that ever broke from mountain side, no bracing air that ever filled these valleys, was more refreshing and invigorating to the invalid or to the weary than your hearty greeting has been to us. [Cheers.]

I visit your great State for the first time. When this journey has been completed only two of the States of the Union, and only its most distant Territory, will have escaped my personal inspection and observation. From Maine to California, from the northern line of Michigan, where it is washed by the waters of the Sault Ste. Marie, to the Savannah, I have traversed this broad land of ours, and out of all this journeying, out of all this mingling with our people, I have come to be a prouder and, I hope, a better American. We have a country whose diversity of climate, soil, and production makes it, in a degree not true of other people in the world, independent and self-contained. None of the necessaries of life, and few of its luxuries, would be denied to us if we were to limit ourselves to articles of American growth and pro[454]duction. [Cheers.] But better than all this, greater than our bulk, are those things that enter into and characterize the American social and political life. A distinguished Englishman journeying in this country not many years ago, speaking of his observations, rather caustically mentioned that the question most often propounded to him was whether he was not surprised by the great size of the country. He was a man of discernment, one who looked beneath the surface, who had learned to measure the mighty impulses which turn the current of human civilization, and rebuking this pride of bulk he said: Yes, it was a surprise, but greater still to him was the surprise that over 60,000,000 people could maintain and preserve under free republican institutions the social order and individual liberty which was maintained here; greater to him than bulk was the marvel that this great people could have survived and maintained its institutions under the terrible stress of the great Civil War; greater than all else to him was that unification of the people which seemed to follow that period of deadly strife. I rejoice to be with you to-night as an American citizen. I rejoice in the glory which the Centennial State has brought to the Union, and which will greatly increase. [Cheers.]

Governor Routt, Mr. Mayor, Pioneers of Colorado, Comrades of the Grand Army [cheers] and Fellow-citizens—This scene is inspiring. This beautiful city, the fame of which your journeying citizens have not failed to carry to the far East [laughter and cheers], has become known to me as we can know by the hearing of the ear; and I am rejoiced to add to my pleasant impressions of Colorado, and of its commercial and political capital, that which is in sight of the eye, which has but deepened and enlarged the favorable impressions which I brought to your State. It is a marvellous thing that all we see here is in a State whose existence dates from the dawn of the second century of our national life. What a tremendous testimony to the organizing power and energy of the American people this great State is! That these wastes, so unpromising to the eye in that early time, should have been invaded by the restless energy of indomitable men; that they should have seen in visions that which was to follow their heroic labor for the development of these hidden resources; that no drought or drifting sand, no threat of mountain nor of sky, could turn back these brave-hearted men who had set their faces to pierce and uncover the hidden riches of these mountains. The pioneers of Colorado are worthy of honor. Those who have entered into their labors, who have come not toilsomely but on swift and easy wings into the heritage that they have opened, should, always and everywhere, gratefully acknowledge the services of those who made this easy pathway for their feet. [Cheers.]

Your State is blessed in the diversity of its resources. You do not depend on any one of the great industries of civilized life. You have taken from your mines immense stores of the precious metals, but when these are gone or their supply is diminished you will turn your eyes toward those metals that we call base, but that after all enter in so many ways into human life that they supply more enduring and in the end more profitable industries. Your iron, and coal, and lead, and building stone will be sources of income inexhaustible. These valleys, touched by the magical power of irrigation, will yield to your population abundant food, and you will yet have within yourselves that happy commercial condition of a State producing and exchanging within its own limits nearly all the necessaries of life. [Cheers.] Transportation is always a burden. The industrial condition is always best when the producers and the consumers are near together.

I am glad to know that you have not been so busy in delving into the earth; that you have not so turned your minds to the precious metal as to have forgotten that there is a blue sky above you; that there are aspirations, and hopes, and glories that are greater than all material things. [Cheers.] You have not failed to make sure that the children, the blessed children of your homes, that are now coming on, are made secure in the possession of a well-ordered and of a well-endowed school system. [Cheers.] What a testimony it is to the American character that, however intense the push for the things of this life, however eager the pursuit of gain, you can never assemble a community of 200 people that they do not begin to organize schools for the children. [Cheers.] These common schools are not simply nurseries of intellectual training; they are nurseries of citizenship. [Cheers.]

It has been a most happy sight to see the same old banner that we bore into the smoke of battle and carried over dying comrades to place it in triumph on the ramparts of the enemy now in the hands of the children of Colorado. [Cheers.] Proof has been made a thousand times—proof will be made whenever the occasion requires—that, as much as we pursue gain and personal ends, we have nothing—property or life—that we do not freely lay down upon the altar of our country for the general good. [Cheers.] But, my fellow-citizens, this assemblage is too vast, and the demand upon my time for public speech has been too protracted, to enable me to pursue these remarks further.

Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, survivors of the great war whose success preserved all that our fathers had devised and established, whose success brought back this flag in honor and established it again the undisputed emblem of an indissoluble Union [cheers], God has bountifully lengthened out your days that you might catch some glimpse of the glory that has come from the achievements in which you bore an honorable part. But only the vision of the prophet reaching out over centuries to come can catch the full glory of what your deeds have wrought. I give you to-day a most affectionate greeting [cheers]; I give you a regretful good-by. May you hold in the community where you live that respect and honor to which you are entitled. Let no Grand Army man ever dishonor in civil life the noble record he made in war. May every blessing follow you, and if it shall not be in God's dispensation to give you riches, at least, comrades, you shall die with the glorious satisfaction of having contributed to the greatest work that man ever wrought for humanity and good; and, wrapped in the flag you followed, your comrades will,[459] one by one, see that in honored graves your bodies rest until the resurrection, and that on each returning day of decoration flowers are strewn upon your graves.

Citizens of Denver, I cannot close without expressing the great satisfaction and surprise with which I have witnessed this morning the magnificent commercial developments which have been made here. These streets, these towering, substantial, and stately houses in which your commerce is transacted, place you in the front rank of enterprise. I do not think any city so young can claim so high a place. [Cheers.] I thank you very sincerely for a demonstration which I cannot accept as personal—all this is too great for any man—but as a spontaneous tribute to our free institutions. I accept this as an evidence that in all essential things we are one people. The fuller revelation of that fact to us all has been worth all the labor and time we have mutually expended in this long journey. In all essential things we are one; we divide and strive and debate, but we are patriotic American citizens, having a love for the Constitution and the flag that brings us all at last to submit our opinion to the lawfully expressed wish of the majority. [Cheers.]

And now again good-by. I shall leave behind me every good wish for your prosperity, individually as a municipality and as a State. [Cheers.]

Gentlemen—I cannot fail to respond to such a toast. Indeed, I should be unkind to you and to myself as well if I did not. However, I cannot speak at length in thanking you for the gracious hospitality I have received in Denver. I can truly say my visit has culminated in Denver. For pleasure during my stay here, for perfection in arrangement, for cordiality, and all things which go to make a stop pleasant, Denver has given a climax of enjoyment.

It has given me great pleasure to take note of some of the things which have made this beautiful city here and its recent and massive developments a wonder to the civilization of to-day. I am apt to judge the city by the home. That is with me the test, more than the business buildings, the manufactories, etc. It gives me great pleasure to state that in all my travels, and they have in[460]cluded all the States but two, I have never seen a city with such elegant homes as here. [Cheers.] I am sure, when you have worked out your silver mines and the more common products, stone and granite, you will have that which will last you for an indefinite time, and which will also add to the beauty of your already beautiful city. [Cheers.]

I have the pleasure of testifying to the satisfaction with which the party has spent these few days in the Centennial State. I hope I may have the pleasure of being with you again at some near future time.

I say good-by, and again express our thanks for your hospitality, which has been excelled nowhere on our journey. [Cheers.]

My Friends—It is very kind of you to gather here to-night as we pass by. We have had a very pleasant trip. Our interest in your State and our appreciation of its great resources have been very much increased on this visit. I am glad to find—indeed, I knew I should find—the same people here that we have in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Most of you come from some of those States, and you are not new people. I have been very much pleased to notice that here, as well as in the East, you take deep interest in schools and in all those things that tend to elevate a community and to set social order on a firm and secure basis. Allow me to thank you again, and to bid you good-night. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-countrymen—There is a freshness and a beauty about the Nebraska prairies, but I hope I will not fall in your esteem if I say I do not like to get up early. [Shouts, "Neither do we!"] Occasionally, in our trip, we seem to pick up an hour. When I retired at Denver last night, at none too early an hour, I was told that we would be at Hastings at 6:30. But we arrived here, it seems to me, at 5:20 by the time I went to bed by last night; but, my friends, all these things that make labor of travel are as nothing compared with the great gratification we find in such assemblages as this.

As we journeyed eastward we have seen the arid land where the water ran in ditches and did not fall in showers. That system has its advantages and its disadvantages, but I must confess that it seems more homelike for me to get back to the land where the showers fall and everything is fresh and green. This diversity of natural conditions and of agricultural and mineral wealth makes the greatness of our country. Diversity is found everywhere in nature, and it is a happy thing. It is found in the field and crop, but never in the people—any observing man can see that we are one people. [Cheers.] The people I saw in California, in Arizona, and all along our journey, were just such people as I see here; indeed, they were in a strict sense the same people, because they are Yankees, Pennsylvanians, Wisconsin men, Hoosiers, and Buckeyes—I think the Ohio man must be here. [Several responses of "Here we are!"]

The Westerners are the overspill of the enterprising population of[462] the East. They kept going a little farther west, still a little farther, until at last they touched the Pacific; and so anywhere the traveller may go, if he will make himself known, the hands of old neighbors will be stretched out to him. Out of all this comes the love for the one flag, and I am glad to say that we have not passed any little way station—even in Arizona, where a few scores had gathered from distant ranches—but some one with an American flag was there and American cheers for that flag. Sometimes the incidents were almost pathetic. At one little station in Arizona, as we drew up in the darkness, there were half a dozen ranchers on the platform. I noticed on the lapels of two or three coats the Grand Army button. One of them shouted, "There are but few of us, but let us give a cheer for the old flag, boys!" [Cheers.]

I thank you most cordially for your gathering here. I do not know whether it is prejudice or not, but anyway I always have a very high opinion of a State whose chief production is corn. [Laughter and applause.]

My Friends—It appears sometimes in the heat of political campaigns that the American people do not agree upon anything; but after it is all over we take a broader survey of things and we find that underneath all these divisions is the bed rock of patriotism. In that at least we have a common purpose.

I am glad to see these children here this morning. They have greeted me everywhere with their happy smiles, and they brighten[463] the way quite as much as the flowers that have been given us. It is pleasant to know that in these pioneer countries you are establishing common schools in order that the generation which is coming on may have a better chance than you had. I do not know of anything better than the father and mother working and striving that their children may have an easier and better chance in life than they had. I am very glad to see you all this morning, and thank you for your cordial welcome. [Cheers.]

Governor Thayer and Mr. Mayor—It will, I think, be entirely impossible for me to make myself heard by this vast assemblage, situated as you are here this morning. Our stay with you is necessarily brief, and yet I do not want you to feel that we have discriminated against the political capital of one of the very greatest of the newer States. I have been so pressed with the engagements which have been suggested to us that I have only been able to give three-quarters of an hour to Indianapolis, my own home. I have given you the same, and I had hoped, very[464] much, that this time could be extended and that I would be able to address you with more comfort to myself and to you.

We are here as American citizens, for common hope and love; we are here the friends of the flag, of the Constitution, of social order, of every school, of all that characterizes this Nation and makes it better than any other nation in the world.

I thank you, most cordially thank you, for this magnificent demonstration. It has but one fault, and that is it is altogether too large to be suitably arranged with a view to public speaking.

I hope you will allow me again to thank you very sincerely for your most cordial and magnificent welcome, and wish for you and your State all prosperity and for the country of which we are common citizens a career of unchecked glory. [Cheers.]

Convey my thanks to the travelling men, for whom I entertain the kindest regard. I remember them in the last campaign, and shall always be thankful for the favors extended. I noticed your body in the parade, and have never seen a finer representation of the fraternity. [Renewed cheering.]

My Friends—I am very much obliged to you for your cordial welcome. We pause but for a moment, and it will not be possible for me to make a speech. You are talking yourselves, and I am[465] sure in very high tones of patriotism, by your display of the national colors in your own hands and in the hands of the school children, and by this welcome to one who for the time is placed at the head of the national Government. I have not accepted what I have seen on this trip as personal; it is too much for any man. I accept it as the expression of our people for the love of our flag and for the institutions which it symbolizes. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—I can accept without question and with very deep gratitude these cordial words of welcome which you have spoken on behalf of the people of this great city.[467] Twice before it has been my pleasure to spend a brief time in this great commercial metropolis of the great Valley of the Missouri. I have had opportunity, therefore, to witness the rapid development which your city has made. I recollect it as I saw it in 1881, and as I see it to-day I feel that I need to be told where I am. [Applause and cheers.]

These magnificent structures dedicated to commerce, these magnificent churches lifting their spires toward the heavens, these many school-houses consecrated to the training of those who shall presently stand in our places to be responsible for these our public institutions, these great stock-yards, where the meat product of the great meat-producing States of the Missouri Valley is prepared for market, and, above all and crowning all, these thousands of happy, comfortable homes which characterize and constitute your great city are a marvel and tribute to the enterprise and power of development of the American people, unsurpassed, I think, by any city in the United States. [Cheers.]

As I turn my face now toward Washington, as I hasten on to take up public duties partially laid aside during this journey, I rejoice to receive here in Omaha that same kindly greeting with which we were welcomed as we journeyed from Washington through the South to the Pacific. If anything were needed to call for a perfect surrender of all personal thought in an absolute consecration of public duty to the general good of all our people, I have found it in these magnificent demonstrations. [Cheers.] We shall always have parties—it is characteristic of free people—we need to have party divisions, debate, and political contention; but it is pleasant to observe in all this journey we have taken how large a stock of common patriotism we find in all the people. [Cheers.]

You have here in Nebraska a State of magnificent capabilities. I have seen the orange grove, and all those fruits which enrich and characterize the State of California. I have seen Leadville, the summit city, these mining camps upon the peaks where men are delving into the earth to bring out the riches stored there, but I return again to the land of the cornstalk with an affection that I cannot describe. [Cheers.]

I am sure these friends who have delighted us with the visions of loveliness and prosperity will excuse me if my birth and early training in Ohio and Indiana leads me to the conclusion that the States that raise corn are the greatest States in the world. [Cheers.]

We have a surplus production in these great valleys for which we must seek foreign markets. It is pleasant to know that 90 per[468] cent. or more of our agricultural productions are consumed by our own people. I do not know how soon it may be that we shall cease to be dependent upon any foreign market for our farm products. With the rapid development which is being made in manufacturing pursuits, with the limitation which the rapid occupation of our public domain now brings to our minds as to the increase of agriculture, it cannot be a very distant day when the farmer shall realize the ideal condition and find a market out of his own farm wagon for what he produces.

It has been a source of constant thought and zealous effort on the part of the Administration at Washington to secure larger foreign markets for our farm products. I rejoice that in the last two years some of those obstructions which hindered the free access of our meat products to American markets have been removed. I rejoice to know that we have now freer, larger access for our meats to the markets of England and of Europe than we have had in many years. [Applause.] I rejoice to know that this has brought better prices to the stock-raisers of these great western valleys. I believe, under the provision looking to reciprocal trade in the law of the last Congress, that we shall open yet larger and nearer markets for the products of Nebraska farmers. [Cheers.] So distant as you are from the Atlantic seaboard, it may have seemed to you that your interest in the revival of our trade, in the re-establishment of an American merchant marine, was not perceptible or direct.

Not long since an inquiry was made as to the origin of the freight that was carried by one of the Brazilian steamers from the port of New York, and it was found that twenty-five States had made contribution to that cargo, and among those States was the State of Nebraska. [Cheers.] And so by such methods as we can it is our purpose to enlarge our foreign markets for the surplus productions of our great country. And we hope—and we think this hope fills the great West as well as the East—that when this increased traffic and commerce is found upon the sea it shall be carried in American bottoms. [Cheers.]

A few days ago, sailing in the harbor of San Francisco, I saw three great deep-water ships enter the Golden Gate. One carried the flag of Hawaii and two the British flag, and at Portland they took the pains to tow up from the lower harbor and to deck in bunting an American ship that was lying in the harbor. It was a curious sight—one they thought important to exhibit to strangers visiting that city. Why, my countrymen, I hope the day is not far distant when the sight of great American ships flying the Stars[469] and Stripes at the fore will be familiar not only in our own ports, but in every busy mart of commerce the world around. [Cheers.]

This Government of ours cannot do everything for everybody. The theory of our Government is large individual liberty. It is that we shall take out of the way all legislative obstructions to the free and honest pursuit of all human industries; that each individual shall in his own place have the best chance possible to develop the highest prosperity for himself and his family.

Some functions are lodged with our Government. It must provide a currency for the use of our people, for I believe the time has gone by when we will be content to return to the old system of an issue of money by State banks. But I will not discuss such questions. I only desire to say this—which is common ground upon which we can all stand—that whatever money the Government issues, paper or coin, must be good money. [Cheers.]

I have an idea that every dollar we issue should be as good as any dollar we issue, for, my countrymen, whenever we have any money, paper or coin, the first errand that dollar does is to pay some workingman for his daily toil. No one so much as the laboring man and the farmer requires a full value dollar of permanent value the year around. [Cheers.]

But, my countrymen, I had not intended to speak so long. I hope I have not intruded upon any ground of division. I am talking, not as a partisan, but as an American citizen, desiring by every method to enhance the prosperity of all our people; to have this great Government in all that it undertakes touch with beneficence and equal hands the pursuits of the rich and of the poor. [Cheers.] Nothing has been so impressive in all this journey as the magnificent spirit of patriotism which pervades our people. I have seen enough American flags to wrap the world around. [Great applause and cheers.]

The school children have waved it joyously to us, and many a time in some lonesome country home on the bleak sand I have seen a man or woman or a little boy come to the door of a cabin as we hurried by waving the starry banner in greeting to our train. I am sure, as your Mayor has said, that this same magnificent, patriotic, American spirit pervades you all here to-day.

God bless you all; prosper you in every endeavor; give glory and increase to your city, and settle all its institutions upon a secure basis of social order and obedience to the law. [Great cheering.]

It gives me great pleasure to receive this cordial greeting from the teachers and pupils of the Omaha public schools. The most pleasant features of this journey have been the beautiful and cordial receptions given us by the school children. I am pleased to notice the magnificent system of schools you have here in Omaha—part of a system that had its origin in New England and now extends over this entire country, the mainstay of this great Government. A number of years ago I was standing upon the banks of the headwaters of the Missouri River, where its waters are pure and limpid, but after passing through the bad lands of Dakota the waters of the mighty river become contaminated and impure, as you see it rolling by your beautiful city. Let me hope that none of you, my little friends, will ever become tainted by contact with the bad lands of experience as you journey through life on to manhood and womanhood. God bless you all; good-by.

My Little Friends—You do not feel half as badly as I do at the thought that I made my speech intended for you to your papas and mammas. I have not the time to attempt to repeat it, but I can't get away without telling you of the affectionate interest I[471] have in all the children of this great country. Bless you—you are the blossoms of our homes. With a good-by and another God bless you I am off. [Great cheering.]

My Friends—It gives me great pleasure to thank you for this cordial greeting as we cross the river. I was not anticipating a meeting here or any call for an address. I see about me some of my old comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, and I want to give them a comrade's greeting. I have seen them everywhere; even out on the sands of Arizona I found them gathered together, and it has always been a pleasure to meet them. [Cheers.]

My Friends—It gives me great pleasure to see you and to receive from you this hearty greeting. Our schedule is so close that we can tarry only a moment with you, and therefore I can only say thank you and good-by. [Cheers.]

My Friends—This multitude is a great surprise. I have already spoken six or seven times to-day, and am very much fatigued, so that I shall not attempt to speak. Indeed, my time is so close that I can tarry but a moment. But I would be untrue to myself if I did not acknowledge this most magnificent demonstration. I thank you most sincerely for your kindness and bid you good-night.

My Fellow-citizens—I have only time to assure you that I appreciate very highly this evidence of your respect. We have ex[473]tended our journey to the Pacific coast: we have crossed the sandy plain, where for days together the eye saw little to refresh it, where the green of the blue grass that is so restful to the eye was wanting, and yet again and again at some lone station in the desert a few children from a school and some of the enterprising people who had pushed out there to make new homes assembled with this old banner in their hands and gave us a hearty American welcome. I am glad to return to this central body of States in which I was raised; glad to be again in the land of the buckeye, the beech, and the maple. To these dear children I want to say one word of thanks. They have done for us much on this journey to make it pleasant; their bright faces have cheered us; I love to see them. The care the States are taking for their education is wisely bestowed. God bless them all; open to their feet pleasant ways and qualify them better than we have been in our generation to uphold and perpetuate these magnificent civil institutions. Thanking you most sincerely for this kindly demonstration I bid you good-by. [Great cheers.]

Governor Fifer and Fellow-citizens—During this extended journey, in the course of which we have swept from the Atlantic coast to the Golden Gate, and northward to the limits of our territory, we have stood in many spots of interest and looked upon scenes that were full of historical associations and of national interest and inspiration. The interest of this journey culminates to-day as we stand here for a few moments about the tomb of Lincoln. As I passed through the Southern States and noticed those great centres of busy industry which had been builded since the war, as I saw how the fires of furnaces had been kindled where there was once a solitude, I could not then but think and say that it was the hand that now lies beneath these stones that kindled and inspired all that we beheld; all these fires of industry were lighted at the funeral pyre of slavery. The proclamation of Abraham Lincoln can be read on all those mountain sides where free men are now bending their energies to the development of States that had long been under the paralysis of human slavery.

I come to-day to this consecrated and sacred spot with a heart filled with emotions of gratitude that that God who wisely turned toward our Eastern shores a body of God-fearing and liberty-loving men to found this republic did not fail to find for us in the hour of our extremity one who was competent to lead the hearts and sympathies and hold up the courage of our people in the time of our greatest national peril.

The life of Abraham Lincoln teaches more useful lessons than any other character in American history. Washington stands remote from us. We think of him as dignified and reserved, but we think of Lincoln as one whose tender touch the children, the poor—all classes of our people—felt at their firesides and loved. The love of our people is drawn to him because he had such a great heart—such a human heart. The asperities and hardships of his early life did not dull, but broadened and enlivened, his sympathies. That sense of justice, that love of human liberty which dominated all[475] his life, is another characteristic that our people will always love. You have here in keeping a most precious trust. Toward this spot the feet of the reverent patriots of the years to come will bend their way. As the story of Lincoln's life is read his virtues will mould and inspire many lives.

I have studied it and have been filled with wonder and admiration. His life was an American product; no other soil could have produced it. The greatness of it has not yet been fully discovered or measured. As the inner history of the times in which he lived is written we find how his great mind turned and moved, in time of peril and delicacy, the affairs of our country in their home and foreign relations with that marvellous tact, with that never-failing common-sense which characterized this man of the people. And that impressive lesson we have here this morning. I see in the military uniform of our country, standing as guards about this tomb, the sons of a race that had been condemned to slavery and was emancipated by his immortal proclamation. And what an appropriate thing it is that these whose civil rights were curtailed even in this State are now the trusted, affectionate guards of the tomb in which he sleeps!

We will all again and again read the story of Lincoln's life, and will find our hearts and minds enlarged, our loves and our charities broadened, and our devotion to the Constitution, the flag, and the free Government which he preserved to us, intensified. And now, my friends, most cordially do I thank you for these kind words of welcome. I shall go from this tomb impressed with new thoughts as to the responsibilities of those who bear the responsibilities, though in less troublous times, of that great man to whose memory my soul bows this morning. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—I feel that we make a very poor return to you here for your cordial welcome, and for these extensive prepara[476]tions which you have made to do us honor, but this journey has been so long, the time consumed already so great, the demand for my presence in Washington is such that I cannot protract the stay here with you this morning. I beg all to believe that most heartily and sincerely I thank you for this cordial welcome from Illinois, for the interesting moments that we have spent about the tomb of that man who would have made the fame of Illinois imperishable and Springfield the Mecca for patriotic feet if no other man in the history of the State had ever come to eminence—Abraham Lincoln. [Cheers.] In his life you have a treasury of instruction for your children, a spring of inspiration for your people that will be lasting. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—We have been now something more than four weeks traversing this broad and beautiful domain which, without regard to State lines, we call our country. We have passed with such rapidity that our intercourse with the people has necessarily been brief and attended by many inconveniences to them. Everything that kind hearts could do to make the trip pleasant to us has been done, and yet I have always felt that our hasty call at these prosperous cities where so much pains have been taken in decoration to do honor to us gives us opportunity to make very inadequate returns to them. We have been shooting like a meteor as to rapidity, but without its luminosity. [Laughter.][477] It is very pleasant after seeing California, Arizona, Idaho, and Colorado, States in which the annual rainfall is inadequate to the annual crops, and where the dependence of the husbandman is wholly upon irrigation, to come again in these Central States, familiar to me from my boyhood, to see crops that the Lord waters in every season. The land of the blue grass is the land of my love. Nowhere can there be seen fairer landscapes, nowhere richer farms, than here in your own great State of Illinois, a State whose history has been full of illustrious achievements, rich in possibilities, where lived our illustrious sons; a State whose population is intelligent, contented, orderly, and liberty-loving; a State whose development has not yet begun to approach its possible limits; a State having advantages by the location, swept as it is by two of the great waterways of the continent, advantages of access and markets by lake and rail and river unexcelled by any State in the Union; a State that has not forgotten that the permanence of our free institutions depends upon the intelligence of the people, and has carefully, at the very beginning, laid a foundation for a common-school system in which every man's child may have a free education. [Cheers.] These are not simply schools of intelligence, but, as I have said before, they are schools of statesmanship. They tend as much as any other public institution to make our people a Nation of loving people. Here on these benches and on this playground the people of rich and poor mingle together, and the pampered son gets his airs rubbed off with the vigor of his playmates. ["That's so!" and cheers.] Our Government does not undertake to regulate many of the affairs of civil life. The bright blue sky of hope is above every boy's head, affording great opportunities for advancement, and then our people are left to themselves. Certain great duties are devolved upon the Government—to provide revenue and finance and in every branch of public interest to legislate in the general interests of all the people. I thank you most heartily for this great demonstration. We leave you with our thanks, our best wishes for your State, your city, and especially for these dear little ones from your schools who come to greet us. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—It is very kind of you to assemble here in such large numbers to extend to us a greeting as we hurry through your beautiful State. We can tarry with you but for a moment, for we are in true sense pilgrims. It is pleasant to look in your faces and to read there the same kindly thoughts and the same friendliness that seems to have covered this whole land as we have journeyed through it. I do not like to say anything anywhere that makes a line of division; for I know that these assemblages are without regard to politics, and that men of all parties have extended to us a cordial greeting. The flag, the institutions, and the general good of our people are themes which we appreciate, are themes which we honor, though we may approach them on different lines. I am glad to notice as I journey through your State the evidences of a coming harvest that I hope will be bountiful. Wishing for you every good, I bid you good-by. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I have but one message for all these vast assemblies of my fellow-citizens who have been greeting us for something more than a month at every point where we have stopped. That message is to thank you for all these greetings and for the friendliness which shines in your faces. I am glad this is a Government by the people, because they are the most capable governors that can be found. No man can traverse this country, as I have done, from the Potomac to the Golden Gate and from the Golden Gate to the cities that open on Puget Sound, to the great North Sea, and can look into the faces of these people that come from every pursuit, without feeling that this Government, raised upon the bulwark of patriotism, is, by God's goodness, a perpetual institution. The patriotism of our people, their unselfish love for the flag, the great good-nature with which they lay aside all sharp party divisions and come together under one banner, is very gratifying to us all. Our trip has been attended by many incidents that have been full of pleasure and sometimes full of pathos.

We have never lost sight of the flag in all this journey. Sometimes out on the Great American Desert, as it used to be called, where nothing but the sage brush gave evidence of the power of nature to clothe the earth, from a little dug-out, where some man had set out to make a home for himself, would float the starry banner. [Cheers.]

This is a great country, girded around by the Grand Army of the Republic. I have never been out of the fellowship of that great organization. I have never stopped on all this trip but some comrade did not stretch up his hand to greet me. I have evidence that some of you are here to-day in this great State, such a magnificent contribution to the Grand Army that they were. I am glad to see these children. They have added grace and beauty to every meeting which we have had in this long journey. Cherish it in your community—this most beneficial institution—the common school of your State.

And now, thanking your kindly welcome, and sorry that we can tarry for only these few minutes, I bid you good-by, and God bless you. [Prolonged cheering.]

My Friends—We have had a long journey, and one that has been attended by a great many pleasant incidents. We have had cheers of welcome reaching from our first stop, at Roanoke, Va., stretching across the mountains of Tennessee and Northern Georgia and Alabama, down through Arkansas and Texas, and along the Pacific coast. Everywhere we have had the most cordial and kindly greeting; but as I cross to-day the border line of Indiana and meet again these old friends I find in your welcome a sweetness that exceeds it all.

Governor Hovey, Mayor Sullivan and Friends—I do not think I can speak much to-day. The strain of this long journey, the frequent calls that have been made upon me to speak to my fellow citizens from Washington to the Golden Gate, from the Golden Gate to the Straits of Fuca, and from the most northwestern portion of our territory here to my own home, has left me somewhat exhausted in body and in mind, and has made my heart so open to these impressions, as I greet my old home friends, that I cannot, I fear, command myself sufficiently to speak to you at any length. Our path has been attended by the plaudits of multitudes; our way has been strewn with flowers; we have journeyed through the orchards of California, laden with its golden fruit; we have climbed to the summit of great mountains and have seen those rich mines from which the precious metals are extracted; we have dropped again suddenly into fruitful valleys, and our pathway has been made glad by the cheerful and friendly acclaim of our American fellow-citizens without regard to any party division [applause]; but I beg to assure you that all the sweetness of the flowers that have been showered upon us, that all the beauty of these almost tropical landscapes upon which we have looked, that all the richness of these precious mines sink into forgetfulness as I receive to day this welcome from my old friends. [Great applause.] My manhood has known no other home but this. It was the scene of my early struggles; it has been the scene, and you have been the instruments and supporters in every success I have achieved in life. I come to lay before you to-day my thankful offering for your friendly helpfulness that was extended to me as a boy and that has been mine in all the years of our intercourse that have intervened until this hour. [Applause.] I left you a little more than two years ago to take up the work of the most responsible[483] office in the world. I went to these untried duties sustained by your helpful friendliness. I come to you again after these two years of public office to confess many errors, but to say to you that I have had but one thought in my mind. It was to use whatever influence had been confided to me for the general good of all our people. [Applause.] Our stay to-day is so brief that I must deny myself the pleasure I would have in taking these old friends by the hand. God bless you all. I have not forgotten, I can never forget, Indianapolis. [Prolonged applause.] I look forward to it, if my life shall be spared, as the city in which I shall rest when the hard work of life is done. I rejoice in its increase, in its development as a commercial centre. I love its homes, its people; and now if you will pardon me the effort of further speech and believe me when I say this is a most interesting and tender moment to me, allow me to say to you for a time, God bless you every one and good-by. [Great cheering.]

My Fellow-citizens—We are now about completing a very long journey. For something more than four weeks we have been speeding across the country, from the Potomac to the Golden Gate, and northward along Puget Sound. The trip, while it has been full of pleasurable incidents, while it has been attended with every demonstration of friendliness and respect, has, as you can well understand, been full of labor. I began this day—and it is only a sample of many—at 5 o'clock this morning, by speaking to my fellow-citizens at Hannibal, Mo., and from that place to this I have been almost continuously on my feet or shaking hands over[484] this platform with friends who had gathered there. We have seen regions that were new to me, people that were strangers, and yet, throughout the whole of this journey we have been pervaded, surrounded, inspired by the magnificent spirit of American patriotism. [Cheers.] I come now to pass through my own State. I have so often within the last two years been at Indianapolis and passed through Richmond that I did not expect you would take any special notice of our passage to-night. I am all the more gratified that you should have surprised us by this magnificent demonstration. As I had occasion to say at Indianapolis, the respect, the confidence, the affectionate interest of my Indiana friends is more valuable to me than anything else in life. I went from you two years ago to new duties, borne down with a sense of the great responsibility that was upon me, and I am glad to believe from what I see to-night that I have at least saved the respect and friendship of my Indiana fellow-citizens. [Cries of "That's so!" and cheers.] And now, as I return again to labors and duties that are awaiting me, I leave with you my most affectionate greeting and sincere desire for the prosperity of Indiana and all its citizens. I hope that my life will be spared to be once more a dweller in this great State. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—We have journeyed now about nine thousand miles, and I have never been, in all this distance, out of sight of an Ohio man. [Laughter and cheers.] Everywhere we have journeyed, whether in the New South, awakening under the new influences of freedom to an industrial life that was not possible under slavery; whether on the deserts of Arizona or among the orange groves of California, or in one of those wonderful States that have been builded within the last few years on Puget Sound, some one, noting the fact that I was Ohio-born, would claim kin-ship, and so far as I could judge, in my limited observation of them, I think they carried the Ohio faculty with them to their new homes of getting their fair share of things. [Laughter and cheers.] I do most cordially thank you, citizens of Dayton, for this pleasant and friendly demonstration. I cannot talk long. This whole journey has been a succession of speeches. I have come to think it must be tiresome to you to have one of my speeches every morning with your breakfast coffee. [Cries of "No! no!" and applause.] But it has been a most cheerful thing to me to observe everywhere, even in those distant and sparsely settled regions of the West, that the American flag was never out of sight. I do not think I have ever lost sight of the Stars and Stripes since we left Washington. [Cheers.] Several times we have been deeply touched as we moved along over the sandy plains to see at some isolated and very humble cabin a man or child step to the door and unfurl the Starry Banner. [Cheers.] Everywhere I have met comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, everywhere the atmosphere seemed to be pervaded by a magnificent spirit of Americanism. [Cheers.] We are one people—one in our purposes, aims and lives; one in our fealty to the flag, the Constitution, and the indissoluble Union of the States. [Cheers.]

[486]

Ohio has always maintained a magnificently conspicuous place in the sisterhood of the States—peopled, as she was, by the great patriots of the Revolutionary period; receiving, as she did, in this great basin, that overspill of patriotism that moved toward the West after the Revolutionary struggle was ended. She has given to the Government, in army life and in the civil service, a magnificent galaxy of great men. [Cheers.] In the hope that this journey, which has been full of toil, may not prove unprofitable to the people, as it certainly has not been unprofitable to me, I leave you to take up my public duties with new encouragement and new resolves to do the best I can for all the people. [Cheers.]

My Friends—I began my day's work at 5 o'clock and have already made ten speeches, but I feel that a few spoken words are but small return to those who have gathered to express their friendly regard. No man is worthy to hold office in this Republic who does not sincerely covet the good-will and respect of the people. The people may not agree in their views on public questions, but while they have a great many points of difference they have more of agreement, and I believe we are all pursuing the same great end—the glory of our country, the permanency of our institutions, and the general good of our people. The springs of all good government—the most important things after all—are in the local communities. In the townships, school districts, and municipalities, there the utmost care should be taken. If their affairs are wisely and economically administered, those of the State and the Nation are sure to be. Upon these foundation stones the safety of the Nation rests, and I am glad to know that so much careful thought is being given to these questions by public men and the people generally. Thanking you for your attendance and cordial greeting. I bid you good-night. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—I left Hannibal, Mo., this morning at 6 o'clock, and have made twelve speeches to-day. You have been very thoughtful to meet us here, and I know you will excuse me if I say nothing more than I thank you. Good-night. [Applause.]

My Friends—The book has been closed. I have been talking so much while on this trip that I am sure you will excuse me this morning. It has been a delightful journey, yet we experienced, perhaps, that which is the crowning joy of all trips—getting back home; that is the place for us. [Cheers.] I am glad to have this greeting from my Pennsylvania friends this morning. Mr. Wanamaker was not far wrong when he said that after Indiana Pennsylvania was pretty close to me. It was in one of these valleys, not very distant from your political Capitol, that my mother was born and reared, and of course this State and this section of Pennsyl[488]vania has always had a very dear interest for me. [Cheers and great noise from steam being blown off at shops.] Of the applause that we have enjoyed on this journey our reception here has been the most original of all. [Prolonged cheering.]

Governor Pattison and Fellow citizens—I thank you for the courtesy of this reception at the political centre of the great State of Pennsylvania. I was informed, a little while ago, by the stenographer who had accompanied me on this trip, that I had made 138 speeches, and when I saw the magnitude of my offence against the American people I was in hopes I should be permitted to pass through Harrisburg without adding anything to it. I will only express my thanks and appreciation. No one needs to tell you anything about Pennsylvania or its resources; indeed, my work was very much lightened on this journey, because I found that all the people clear out to Puget Sound had already found out more about their country than I could possibly tell them. [Cheers.]

It is a pleasant thing that we appreciate our surroundings. We[489] love our own home, our own neighborhood, our own State. It would be a sad thing if it were not so. There is only just enough discontent to keep our people moving a little. Now and then some boy gets restless in the homestead and pushes out to the West; the result is a thorough mingling of the people. I do not know what would have become of Pennsylvania if some people from other States had not come in and some of your people gone out. It is this that makes the perfect unity of our country. It was delightful on our trip to meet old faces from home. Though they had apparently been discontented with Indiana and left it, they were willing to recall the fact, as I came near to them, that they were Hoosiers. It was very pleasant, also, to see people as they met the Postmaster-General put up their hands and say, "I am from the old Keystone State." General Rusk was never out of sight of a Wisconsin man, and of course the Ohio man was always there. [Laughter and applause.] Our journey has been accompanied with the labor of travel, but out of it all I think I have a higher sense of the perfect unity of our people and of their enduring, all-pervading patriotism. [Cheers.]

Mr. Mayor, Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, and Fellow-citizens—I esteem it a great pleasure to stand in this historic edifice in this historic city and to take part to-day as a comrade of the Grand Army of the Republic in these most interesting and instructive exercises, which commemorate events which have been most deeply sunk in our hearts. I think it eminently appropriate that we should stand for a little time before going to the graves of our fallen comrades in this edifice, where the foundations of independence were laid and put into development to make this great Nation to-day. In my recent extensive trip through the country I was able to see the effects of planting these seeds of freedom, in the flourishing plants that have grown. [Applause.]

We are here in a community that was instituted on principles of peace and good will among men. But you gave a conspicuous illustration of the facts that the fruits of peace need to be protected.

You did not all depart from the great lessons taught when you united with the comrades from all the other States to hold up the banner of the Union and to maintain peace and to perpetuate it at all times. You went out to maintain peace, and you have established in the affections of all of us the flag of our faith, and the question of submission to the Constitution and the law in all States has been settled to the contentment of all.

I appreciate most highly this welcome, and I take part in these exercises with a sense of their fitness and a sense of the greatness of the event which they commemorate.

I have never been able to think that this day is one for mourning, but think that instead of the flag being at half mast it should be at the peak. I feel that the comrades whose graves we honor to-day would rejoice if they could see where their valor has placed us. I feel that the glory of their dying and the glory of their achievement covers all grief and has put them on an imperishable roll of honor.

Commander, Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, and Fellow-citizens—I have neither the strength nor the voice adequate to any extended speech to-day. I come to you as a comrade to take part in the interesting exercises of this Memorial Day. It gives me special pleasure to combine with that tribute which I have usually been able to pay since this day was instituted to the dead of all our armies a special mark of respect to that great soldier who won Gettysburg. It is impossible to separate some impressions of sorrow from these exercises, for they bring to memory comrades who have gone from us. How vividly there comes to my memory many battle scenes; not the impetuous rush of conflict, but the hour of sadness that followed victory. Then it was our sad duty to gather from the field the bodies of those who had given the last pledge of loyalty.

There is open to my vision more than one yawning trench in which we laid the dead of the old brigade. We laid them, elbow touching elbow, in the order in which they had stood in the line of battle. We left them in the hasty sepulchre and marched on. Now we rejoice that a grateful Government has gathered together the scattered dust of all these comrades and placed them in beautiful and safe places of honor and repose. I cannot but feel that if they could speak to us to-day they would say put the flag at the top of the mast.

I have recently returned from an extended tour of the States, and nothing so impressed and refreshed me as the universal display of[493] this banner of beauty and glory. It waved over every school-house, it was in the hands of the school children. As we sped across the sandy wastes at some solitary house a man, a woman, a child would come to the door and wave it in loyal greeting. Two years ago I saw a sight that has ever been present in my memory. As we were going out of the harbor of Newport about midnight on a dark night some of the officers of the torpedo station had prepared for us a beautiful surprise. The flag at the top of the station was unseen in the darkness of the night, when suddenly electric search-lights were turned on it, bathing it in a flood of light.

All below the flag was hidden, and it seemed to have no touch with earth, but to hang from the battlements of heaven. It was as if Heaven was approving the human liberty and human equality typified by that flag.

Let us take on this occasion a new draught of courage, make new vows of consecration, for, my countrymen, it was not because it was inconvenient that the rebel States should go, not that it spoiled the autonomy of the country, but because it was unlawful that all this sacrifice had to be made, to bring them back to their allegiance. Let us not forget that as good citizens and good patriots it is our duty always to obey the law and to give it our loyal support and insist that every one else shall do so. There is no more mischievous suggestion made than that the soldiers of the Union Army desire to lay any yoke on those who fought against us other than the yoke of the law. We cannot ask less than that in all relations they shall obey the law, and that they shall yield to every other man his full rights under the law.

I thank you for the pleasure of participating in these exercises with you to-day, and give you a comrade's best wishes and a comrade's good-by.

My Fellow-citizens—I am very much obliged to you for this friendly greeting. It is pleasant to run out of the rain and mist that have hung about our train for an hour or two into this bright sunshine and into the gladness of the pleasant welcome which you have extended to us. You are situated here in a region full of historic interest. Every child learns early here the story of the sacrifice and courage of those who laid the foundation of this Government, which has grown beyond the conception of even the wisest of our fathers. I am sure that in these things you must all find inspiration to good citizenship, and it is pleasant to know that you rejoice that it has left its impress upon the hearts of all[495] our people; that upon the Sacramento as well as upon the Hudson men love the old memories and the old flag. [Applause.]

I am glad to pause with you a moment in passing to the observance in Vermont of one of those great battle events which led to the independence of our country. We have great common interests as a people, and, while we divide as to the method by which we would promote the national prosperity, I am sure we are all devoted in heart to the country and the institutions that have done so much for us. In the interest of good government we are one; we all believe that the Government should be so administered that all the people shall share equally in its benefits; that there shall be no favored class. I thank you again, and bid you good-by. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—Perhaps I had better spend the moment or two that remains in saying a word to all of you than in shaking hands with the few that can gather about the car. You ask for a speech. It is not very easy to know what one can talk about on such an occasion as this. Those topics that are most familiar to me, because I am brought in daily contact with them, namely, public affairs, are in some measure prohibited to me, and I must speak therefore only of those things upon which we agree; for I have no doubt, if we were closely interrogated, some differences would develop in the views of those assembled here. That is one of the things we are proud of and that tend to the perpetuity and purity of our institutions—that we are permitted to differ in our views, to be independent in our opinions, and to be answerable to our consciences and to God only for the convictions we entertain. I am sure, however, we all rejoice in the evidences of prosperity[496] which are spread over this good land of ours. We rejoice in the freedom and happiness and contentment that are in our communities and in our homes. We rejoice to know that no cloud is over our horizon; that we are at peace with the world and at peace among ourselves. I think the world has come to understand that it is well to be at peace with us [applause], and I am sure we have come to understand that it is very well to be at peace among our selves. [Applause.]

Our situation is one of great favor. We are pretty widely separated from those who would hurt us, if there are any such. We are secure in our great isolation, and we are secure, too, in our great and patriotic people. [Applause.] We do not maintain armies; we do not need to extend the conscription list until it takes old age and youth. We maintain only the merest skeleton of an army, but we have already seen how speedily it may develop into gigantic proportions, and how, in a few months, it may take on the discipline that makes it the equal of any of the great armies of the world. [Applause.] We have this year a season of unusual productiveness. The orchards are laden with fruit, the gardens yield their abundant supplies to the table, and the fields have produced crops that are too great for our storehouses.

God has greatly blessed us, and it happens that this season of our abundance is not only good for us, but for the world; for again, as many times before, the nations of Europe, by reason of crop failures, must look to us to feed their people. We have a great surplus and an assorted market for it. Our riches must be greatly increased as the result of two magnificent harvests. Their good effects will be felt in every home, contentment upon the farm, and well-paid labor in all our cities and centres of manufacture. Thus it should be. Thus, I am sure, we all rejoice that it is, because these institutions of ours can have no danger except in a discontented citizenship. As long as men have a free and equal chance, as long as the labor of their hands may bring the needed supplies into the household, as long as there are open avenues of hope and advancement to the children they love, men are contented—they are good, loyal, American citizens. [Applause.] And now I thank you again for your kindness. [Cheers.]

Governor Hill, Mr. Mayor, and Fellow-citizens—The conditions of the evening, these threatening and even dripping clouds, are not favorable to any extended speech. I receive with great gratification the very cordial expressions which have fallen from the lips of his excellency, the Governor of this great State, and of his honor, the Mayor of this great municipality. It is very gratifying to me to be thus assured that as American citizens, as public officers administering each different functions in connection with the government of the Nation, of the State, and of the municipality, we, in common with this great body of citizens, whose servants we all are, have that common love for our institutions, and that common respect for those who, by the appointed constitutional methods, have been chosen to administer them, as on such occasions as this entirely obliterates all differences and brings us together in the great and enduring brotherhood of American citizens. [Prolonged cheering.]

This great capital of a great State I have had the pleasure of visiting once or twice before. I have many times visited your commercial capital, and have traversed in many directions the great and prosperous Empire State. You have concentrated here great wealth and great productive capacity for increased wealth, great financial institutions that reach out in their influences and effects over the whole land. You have great prosperity and great responsibility. The general Government is charged with certain great functions in which the people have a general interest. Among these is the duty of providing for our people the money with which[499] its business transactions are conducted. There has sometimes been in some regions of the great West a thought that New York, being largely a creditor State, was disposed to be a little hard with the debtor communities of the great West; but, my fellow-citizens, narrow views ought not to prevail with them or with you and will not in the light of friendly discussion. The law of commerce may be selfishness, but the law of statesmanship should be broader and more liberal. I do not intend to enter upon any subject that can excite division; but I do believe that the general Government is solemnly charged with the duty of seeing that the money issued by it is always and everywhere maintained at par. I believe that I speak that which is the common thought of us all when I say that every dollar, whether paper or coin, issued or stamped by the general Government should always and everywhere be as good as any other dollar. I am sure that we would all shun that condition of things into which many peoples of the past have drifted, and of which we have had in one of the great South American countries a recent example—the distressed and hopeless condition into which all business enterprise falls, when a nation issues an irredeemable or depreciated money. The necessities of a great war can excuse that.

I am one of those that believe that these men from your shops, these farmers remote from money centres, have the largest interest of all people in the world in having a dollar that is worth one hundred cents every day in the year, and only such. If by any chance we should fall into a condition where one dollar is not so good as another I venture the assertion that that poorer dollar will do its first errand in paying some poor laborer for his work. Therefore, in the conduct of our public affairs I feel pledged, for one, that all the influences of the Government should be on the side of giving the people only good money and just as much of that kind as we can get. [Cheers.]

Now, my fellow-citizens, we have this year a most abundant, yes, extraordinary, grain crop. All of the great staples have been yielded to the labor of the farmer in a larger measure than ever before. A leading agricultural paper estimated that the produce of our farms will be worth $1,000,000,000 more this year than ever before, and it happens that just with this great surplus in our barns we find a scarcity in all the countries of Europe. Russia has recently prohibited the export of rye, because she needs her crop to feed her own people. The demands in France and in England and Germany will absorb every bushel of the great surplus we shall have after our people are fed, and, whatever complaints there may[500] have been in the past, I believe this year will spread a smile of gladness over the entire agricultural population of our country.

This is our opportunity, and I cannot see how it shall be possible but that these exports of grain, now reaching the limit of the capacity of our railroads and of our ships, shall soon bring back to us the lost gold we sent to Europe and more that we did not lose. I was told by an officer of the West Shore road to-day that that road alone was carrying 100,000 bushels of wheat every day into New York, and that it scarcely stopped an hour in the elevator, but was run immediately into the bottom of a steam vessel that was to carry it abroad. [Cheers.]

This is only an illustration of what is going on. As the result of it our people must be greatly enriched. Where there has been complaint, where there has been poverty, there must come this year plenty, for the gardens have loaded the table, the orchards cannot bear the burdens that hang upon their reddening limbs, and the granaries are not equal to the product of our fields. We ought, then, this day to be a happy people. We ought to be grateful for these conditions and careful everywhere to add to them the virtue of patience, frugality, love of order, and, to crown all, a great patriotism and devotion to the Constitution and the law—always our rule of conduct as citizens. [Cheers.]

My fellow-citizens, it is very difficult to speak in this heavy atmosphere. I beg, therefore, that you will allow me to thank you for your friendly demonstration, and bid you good-night.

My Friends—I attempted a little while ago to speak in Albany in this damp atmosphere, and find my voice is so much roughened by the effort that I can hardly hope to make myself heard by you. I am glad to have the opportunity to pause some moments in the city of Troy, to look into the faces of its industrious and thrifty population. I have long known of your city as a city of industry—as a great manufacturing city—sending out its products to all the land, and by the skill of its workmen and the integrity of its merchants finding everywhere a market for wares kept up to the standard. [Applause.]

I am quite used to having my speeches punctuated by steam-whistles. I am sure that you realize here in a large degree the benefit of a policy that keeps the American market for the American workmen. [Cries of "Good!" and applause.] I try to be broadly philanthropic in my thoughts about the human race, but cannot help thinking that an American workman has a stronger claim on my sympathy and help than any other workman. [Applause.]

I believe that our institutions are only safe while we have intelligent and contented working classes. I would adopt constitutional methods—any administrative method—that would preserve this country from the condition into which some others have unfortunately fallen, where a hard day's work does not bring sustenance for the workman and his family. [Applause.] I would be glad if there were not a home in Troy—not a home in the United States of America—where there was not plenty for man and wife and child; where there was not only sustenance, but a margin of saving that might make the old age of the husband and wife and the life of the children easier than this generation has been. [Cheers.]

Mr. President and Fellow-citizens—There are several obvious reasons why I should not attempt to speak to you at this time. This great audience is so uncomfortably situated that a further prolongation of these exercises cannot be desirable, but the stronger reason is that you have just listened with rapt attention to a most scholarly and interesting review of those historical incidents which have suggested this assemblage and to those lessons which they furnish to thoughtful and patriotic men. [Applause.] A son of Vermont honored by his fellow-citizens, honored by the Nation[504] which he has served in distinguished public functions, honored by the profession of which he is an ornament and an instructor, has spoken for Vermont [applause]; and it does not seem to me fit that these golden sentences should be marred by any extemporaneous words which I can add. I come to you under circumstances that altogether forbid preparation. I have no other preparation for speech than this inspiring cup of good-will which you have presented to my lips. [Applause.] The most cordial welcome which has been extended to me to-day makes it unfitting that I should omit to make a cordial acknowledgment of it. Perhaps I may be permitted, as a citizen of a Western State, to give expression to the high regard and honor in which Vermont is held. Perhaps I may assume, as a public officer representing in some sense all the States of the Union, to bring to-day their appreciation of the history and people of this patriotic State. Its history is unique, as Mr. Phelps has said. The other colonies staked their lives, their fortunes and honor upon the struggle for independence, with the assurance that if, by their valor and sacrifice, independence was achieved, all these were assured. The inhabitants of the New Hampshire grants alone fought with their fellow-countrymen of the colonies for liberty, for political independence, unknowing whether, when it had been achieved, the property, the homes upon which they dwelt, would be assured by the success of the confederate colonies. They could not know—they had the gravest reason to fear—that when the authority of the confederation of the States had been established this very Government, to whose supremacy Vermont had so nobly contributed, might lend its authority to the establishment of the claims of New York upon their homes; and yet, in all this story, though security of property would undoubtedly have been pledged by the royal representative, Vermont took a conspicuous, unselfish, and glorious part in achieving the independence of the united colonies, trusting to the justice of her cause for the ultimate security of the homes of her people. [Applause.]

It is a most noble and unmatched history; and if I may deliver the message of Indiana as a citizen of that State, and as a public officer the message of all the States, I came to say, "Worthy Vermont!" [Cheers]. She has kept the faith unfalteringly from Bennington until this day. She has added, in war and peace, many illustrious names to our roll of military heroes and of great statesmen. Her representation in the national Congress, as it has been known to me, has been conspicuous for its influence, for the position it has assumed in committee and in debate, and, so far[505] as I can recall, has been without personal reproach. [Cheers] We have occasionally come to Vermont with a call that did not originate with her people, and those have been answered with the same pure, high consecration to public duty as has been the case with those who have been chosen by your suffrages to represent the State, and I found when the difficult task of arranging a Cabinet was devolved upon me that I could not get along without a Vermont stick in it [laughter and applause], and I am sure you have plenty of timber left in each of the great political parties. [Cheers.] The participation of this State in the War of the Rebellion was magnificent. Her troops took to the fields of the South that high consecration to liberty which had characterized their fathers in the Revolutionary struggle. [Applause.] They did not forget, on the hot savannas of the South, the green tops of these hills, ever in their vision, lifting up their hearts in faith that God would again bring the good cause of freedom to a just issue. [Applause.] We are to-day approaching the conclusion of a summer of extraordinary fruitfulness. How insignificant the stores that were gathered at Bennington in 1777 compared with these great storehouses bursting with fulness to-day! Our excess meets the deficiency of Europe, and a ready market is offered for all our cereals. We shall grow richer by contributions which other countries shall make as they take from our storehouses the food needed to sustain their people. But after all, it is not the census tables of production or of wealth that tell the story of the greatness of this country. Vermont has not been one of the rich States of the Union in gold and silver, and its lands have not given the returns that some of the fertile riversides of the West yield. There has been here constant effort and honest toil; but out of all this there has been brought a sturdy manhood, which is better than riches, on which, rather than to wealth, the security of our country rests. [Applause.] I beg you to accept my sincere thanks again for the evidence of your friendliness, and my apology that the conditions are not such as to enable me to speak as I could wish. [Cheers]

Mr. President and Fellow-citizens—Whatever temporary injury my voice has suffered was not at the hands of Vermont. [Laughter and applause.] New York is responsible. In Albany I spoke in the rain to a large assemblage. Perhaps, if it were worth while to trace this vocal infirmity further, I might find its origin at Cape[507] May [laughter], for I think I started upon this trip with the elements of a cold that has to some degree marred the pleasure which I had anticipated to-day. But, notwithstanding what my friend, General Veazey, has described as "the dilapidated condition" of my voice, I will respond to his request to say a word to you. I know that General Veazey had been put in charge of the transportation lines of the country; but I did not expect to find him in charge of what the boys used to call the "cracker line." [Laughter.] It seems that his capacity for usefulness in the public service is so great and so diversified that you have called upon him to conduct the exercises of this magnificent occasion. He is a most excellent Interstate Commerce Commissioner [applause], an honor to your State, and I have no criticism of him as President of the day, except that he calls too much attention to me. [Laughter and applause.]

This scene, these tables so bountifully and so tastefully spread, was one full of beauty when we entered, but it seems now to have taken on some of that "dilapidation" which General Veazey ascribed to my voice. [Laughter.] I am sure that if the supplies gathered at Bennington to-day had been here in 1777 that struggle would have been much more obstinate. [Laughter.] But, my fellow-citizens, there is much in this occasion that is full of instruction to the strangers who by your hospitable invitation have the privilege of meeting with you. Wherever men may have been born within this galaxy of great States, which makes the greater Union, there is respect and honor for the New England character. It has been a source of strength to the Nation in its development in material things. It has furnished to literature and to invention some of the largest contributions; but, more than all this, it has done a great work for all the States, and especially those States of the West and Northwest, in which its enterprising sons have found new homes, in establishing everywhere a love of social order and a patriotic devotion to the Union of States. [Applause.] If we seek to find the institutions of New England that have formed the character of its own people and have exercised a stronger moulding influence than that of any other section upon our whole people we shall find them, I think, in their temples, in their schools, in their town meetings and in their God-fearing homes. [Applause.] The courage of those who fought at Bennington, at Concord, Lexington, Bunker Hill, and Saratoga was born of a high trust in God. They were men who, fearing God, had naught else to fear. That devotion to local self-government which originated and for so long maintained the town meeting, establishing[508] and perpetuating a true democracy, an equal, full participation and responsibility in all public affairs on the part of every citizen, was the cause of the development of the love of social order and respect for law which has characterized your communities, has made them safe and commemorable abodes for your people. These migrations between the States have been to your loss, but there is now a turning back to these States of New England and to some of its unused farms, which I believe is to continue and increase. The migration which you have sent into the South to develop its industries, to open its mines, to set up factories and furnaces, is doing marvellous work in unifying our people. [Applause.] As I journeyed recently across the continent this oneness of our people was strongly impressed upon me. I think these centennial observances which have crowded one upon another from Concord to the centennial of the adoption of the Constitution and the organization of the Supreme Court have turned the thought of our people to the most inspiring incident in our history, and have greatly intensified and developed our love of the flag and our Constitution. [Applause.] I do not believe there has been a time in our history when there has been a deeper, fonder love for the unity of the States, for the flag that emblematizes this unity, and for the Constitution which cements it. [Applause.]

I believe we have come to a time when we may look out to greater things. Secure in our own institutions, enriched almost beyond calculation, I believe we have reached a time when we may take a large part in the great transactions of the world. [Cheers.] I believe our people are prepared now to insist that the American flag shall again be seen upon the sea [applause], and that our merchants and manufacturers are ready to seize the golden opportunity that is now offered for extending our commerce into the States of Central and South America. [Cheers.] I believe that conservative views of finance will prevail in this country. [Applause.] I am sure discontent and temporary distress will not tempt our people to forsake those safe lines of public administration in which commercial security alone rests. [Applause.] As long as the general Government furnishes the money of the people for their great business transactions I believe we will insist, as I have said before, that every dollar issued, whether paper or coin, shall be as good and be kept as good as any other dollar that issues. [Cheers.] The purity, the equality of what we call dollars must be preserved, or an element of uncertainty and of bankruptcy will be introduced into all business transactions. This I may say without crossing lines of division: How this end is to be attained I will not at[509]tempt to sketch, but I do not hesitate to say that I feel myself, in the public interest, pledged so far as in me lies to maintain that equality between our circulating money that is essential to the perfect use of all. [Prolonged applause.]

I have gone beyond the promise of the President of the day, and have been betrayed by your friendliness into speaking two or three words. May I, in closing, tender to these good women of Vermont my thanks for the grace and sweetness which their services and their presence have lent to this happy occasion? May I say to them that the devoted services of their mothers, their courage and patience and helpfulness shown by the women in the great struggle for liberty cannot be too highly appreciated? It was an easier fate to march with bared breasts against the Hessian ramparts at Bennington than to sit in the lonely homestead awaiting the issue with tearful eyes uplifted to God in prayer for those who perilled their lives for the cause. All honor to the New England mother, the queen of the New England home! [Applause.] There, in those nurseries of virtue and truth, have been found the strongest influences that have moulded your people for good and led your sons to honor. [Great cheering.]

Mr. Arkell and Friends—It was a part of the covenant of this feast that it should be a silent one; not exactly a Quaker meeting, as Mr. Arkell has said, because silence there is apt to be broken by the moving of the spirit. That is not a safe rule for a banquet. [Laughter.] I rise only to thank your generous host and these gentlemen from different parts of the State who honor this occasion for their friendliness and their esteem. We are gathered here in a spot which is historic. This mountain has been fixed in the affectionate and reverent memory of all our people and has been glorified by the death on its summit of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. [Applause.] It is fit that that great spirit that had already lifted its fame to a height unknown in American history should take its flight from this mountain-top. It has been said that a great life went out here; but great lives, like that of General Grant, do not go out. They go on. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and great applause.] I will ask you in a reverent and affectionate and patriotic remembrance of that man who came to recover all failures in military achievement, and with his great generalship and inflexible purpose to carry the flag of the republic to ultimate triumph, recalling with reverent interest his memory, to drink a toast in silence as a pledge[511] that we will ever keep in mind his great services, and in doing so will perpetuate his great citizenship and the glory of the Nation he fought to save.

My Fellow-citizens—The greatness of this assembly makes it impossible that I should do more than thank you for the magnificent welcome which you have extended me to-day. I have great pleasure in being again for a few days in Saratoga—this world renowned health and pleasure resort. It gives me great satisfaction to witness, on the part of the citizens of Saratoga and of the visitors who are spending a season for refreshment or recuperation here, the expression of kindness which beams upon me from all your faces. I am sure the explanation of all this is that you are all American citizens, lovers of the flag and the Constitution [applause], and in thus assembling you give expression to your loyalty and patriotism. [Applause.] It is not, I am sure, an individual expression; it is larger and better than that, for this country of ours is distinguished in naught else more than in the fact that its people[512] give their love and loyalty and service, not to individuals, but to institutions. [Applause.] We love this country because it is a land of liberty, because the web and woof of its institutions are designed to promote and secure individual liberty and general prosperity. [Applause.] We love it because it not only does not create, but because it does not tolerate, any distinction between men other than that of merit. [Applause.] I desire to thank those comrades who wear the honored badge of the Grand Army of the Republic for their escort and their welcome. I never see this badge anywhere that I do not recognize its wearer as a friend. [Applause.] Survivors of a great struggle for the perpetuity of our institutions—having endured in march and camp and battle the utmost that men can endure, and given the utmost that men can give—they are now as citizens of this republic in civic life doing their part to maintain order in its communities and to promote in peace the honor and prosperity of the country they saved. [Applause.] Thanking you once more for your friendliness and cordial enthusiasm, I will ask you to excuse me from further speech. [Great applause.]

Comrades and Fellow-citizens—It is pleasant to come this morning upon an assemblage of comrades gathering with their families to a social reunion to recall their services and sacrifices and to bathe their souls in the glory of this bright day and of this great land that they fought to save. [Applause.] Such assemblages are full of interest to the veterans, and they are full of instruction and inspiration to those who gather with them. It is our habit in the West, as it is yours here, to have these annual meetings, and it is always a pleasure to me when I can arrange to meet with the comrades of my old regiment, or of the old brigade, or with the veterans of any regiment of any State who stood for the flag. [Applause.] There is a pathetic side to all this. We gather with diminished ranks from year to year. We miss the comrades who are dropping by the way. We see repeated now that which we saw as the great column moved on in the campaign of the war—a comrade dropping out, borne to the hospital, followed to the grave—and yet these soldier memories and thoughts are brightened by the glories which inspire and attend all these gatherings of the veterans of the war. We see the old flag again, and I am glad to believe that there has never been a period in our history when there was more love for it. [Applause.]

It is quite natural that it should be so. These veterans who stand about me have seen many days and months in camps and battlefields and in devastated country through which they marched when there was on all the horizon one thing of beauty—that glorified flag. [Applause.] They brought home the love of it in their hearts, wrought in every fibre of their nature; and it is very natural that the children who have come on should catch this in[514]spiration and love from the fathers who perilled everything that the flag might still be held in honor, and still be an emblem of the authority of one Constitution over an undivided Nation. We see to-day how worthy the land was for which our comrades died, and for which you, my comrades, offered your lives, in its great development and its increasing population, in its multiplying homes, where plenty and prosperity, the love of God and social order, and all good things abide. In this great Nation, striding on in wealth and prosperity to the very first place among the nations of the earth; in this land, in truth as well as in theory the land of the free, we see that which was worthy of the utmost sacrifice of the truest men. [Prolonged Cheers.]

I recall with pleasure that some of the New York regiments, coming to the Western army with Hooker and Howard and Gerry and Williams and others, served in the same corps to which I was designated during the great campaign upon Atlanta. Some of the comrades who made that march from Chattanooga to Atlanta and the sea are here to-day, survivors of one of the greatest, in all its aspects, of all the campaigns of the war. You came from those bloody fields upon the Potomac, and struck hands with us of the West as brothers. You helped us in the struggle there to cut the Confederacy in twain, and, lapping around by the sea, to strike hands with Grant again near Appomattox. [cheers.]

I thank you again most cordially for your friendly demonstration and presence. If I had the power to call down blessings upon my fellow-men, the home of every comrade here would be full of all prosperity. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—We have already lost some minutes at your station, and it will not be possible for me to hold the train longer.[515] I thank you for this friendly greeting, and for the kindness which beams upon me from the faces of these contented and happy men and women of the good State of Vermont. I am glad to see about me the evidences of the indomitable pluck and successful enterprise which characterize so highly all of your New England States. When you found the stones too thick to make agriculture profitable you compelled the rocks to yield you a subsistence, and these great slate and marble industries have become the centre of wealthy and prosperous communities. You are here, each in his own place; these good ladies in that supremely influential position, the American home, and you, my countrymen, in the shops and in the fields, making contributions to the prosperity and glory of this great Nation. It is pleasant to know that the love of country, stimulated by the teaching of the father and of the mother, revived by these recollections of the first struggle for independence, deepened by the sacrifices which were made in the Civil War to preserve what our fathers had purchased for us, are still holding sway in the hearts of our people. [Cheers.]

We are conspicuously a people abiding in respect and honor for the law. The law, as expressed in our constitutions and in our statute-books, is the sovereign to which we all bow. We acknowledge no other. To the law each and every one should give his undivided allegiance and his faithful service. There is no other rule that will bring and maintain in our communities that peaceful and orderly condition, that good neighborhood and kindly intercourse, which is so essential to the happiness of any community. I am sure that these things, now as of old, characterize these New England communities, where the strife which your colder climate and your soil compel you to make for your subsistence has bred habits of thrift, economy, and independence, and the love of liberty which I am sure is as fadeless as the stars. [Applause.]

Thanking you again for this pleasant morning reception, I will bid you good-by. [Applause.]

Ladies and Gentlemen—It is very pleasant to meet here, mingling with the citizens of this neighborhood, the pupils of your Normal School. One of the most influential characters in the history of the United States is the New England school-teacher. If we could follow the track of these intelligent men and women who have gone out from the New England States into the West and South; if we could trace those strong, yet slender and hard-to-be-discovered, threads of influence which they have started in the communities to which they went; if we could know how they have impressed on the minds of the pupils brought under their care the great lessons of self-respect and love for free institutions and social order,—we should have a higher thought than we have yet had of the power and dignity of these pioneers of education. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—The kindly pelting which I have received at the hands of some of your ladies and of these bright children reminds me of a like experience on the California trip, when we were so pelted with bouquets of handsome flowers that we were very often compelled to retreat from the platform and take cover in the car. These gifts of flowers which you bring to me here are the products of your fields and not of your gardens. The beautiful golden-rod! It is pleasant to think that in this plant, so widely distributed, slightly diversified in its characteristics, but spreading over nearly our whole country, we have a type of the diversity and yet the oneness of our people; and I am glad to think that its golden hue typifies the gladness and joy and prosperity that is over all our fields this happy year, and, I trust, in all your homes. I thank you for your pleasant greeting this morning, and bid you good-by. [Cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—Though I have not before had the pleasure of looking into the faces of many of you, Vermont has for many years been familiar to me, and has been placed high in my esteem by the acquaintance I have formed at Washington with the representatives you have sent there. It has been a great pleasure to me to know your esteemed fellow-citizen, Governor Stewart. Your State and district and the Nation at large have had in him a most able and faithful champion of all that was true and clean and right. [Three cheers were given for Governor Stewart.]

You have been particularly fortunate, I think, in your representatives at Washington, as I had occasion to say the other day at Bennington. I am glad to be here at the site of this institution of learning—Middlebury College, which is soon to complete its hundredth year of modest yet efficient service in training the minds of your young men for usefulness in life. These home institutions, in which these able and faithful men assiduously give themselves and their lives to the building up and development of the intelligence—and not only that, but of the moral side of your young men—are bulwarks of strength to your State and to your community. They cannot be too highly esteemed and honored by you; because, my countrymen, kings may rule over an ignorant people, and by their iron control hold them in subjection and in the quietness of tyranny, but a free land rests upon the intelligence of its people, and has no other safety than in well-grounded education and thorough moral training. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and applause.] Again I thank you for this cordial greeting which Vermont gives me this morning, and to these comrades and friends I extend a comrade's greeting and good wishes. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—I have had, as you know, some experience in this business of speaking from the end of a railroad train. But it has seemed to me this morning that these Vermont towns are closer together than on any other route I have travelled. [Laughter.] Perhaps it is because your State is not very large, and you have had to put your towns close together in order to get them all in. [Laughter.] I have heard an interesting story of the origin of this city of Vergennes. I suppose it was one of the earliest instances in the history of our country, if not the very first, of a city being constructed upon paper before it was built upon the ground. [Laughter.] That has come to be quite a familiar practice in these late days of speculation, but it is singular that a city charter and the ample corporate limits of one mile square should have been given to Vergennes before this century began. If the expectations of the founder of this city have not been realized fully, you have more than realized all the thoughts of Ethan Allan and his contemporaries in the greatness and prosperity of your State and in the richer glory and higher greatness of the Nation of which you are a part. [Cheers.]

I am glad this morning to look into the contented faces of another audience of New England people. You were greatly disparaged in the estimation of some of our people before the Civil War. There had spread unfortunately over the minds of our Southern brethren the impression that you were so much given to money, to thrift, and to toil that your hands had forgotten how to fight. It was a most wholesome lesson when the whole country learned again in the gallant charges and stubborn resistances of the Vermont Brigade that the old New England spirit still lived; that Paul Revere still rode the highways of New England; and that the men of Concord and Lexington and Bennington still ploughed her fields. [Applause.] I am glad to meet you this bright, joyous morning; and I am sure, in view of the fatigues that have preceded and that are to follow, you will excuse me from further speech, and accept my most heartfelt thanks for your friendliness. [Applause.]

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—I am not a little intimidated as I face so unexpectedly this vast concourse of the citizens of this great State of Vermont. I say great, though your territorial extent does not place you among large States; great in an origin that gave occasion for an early and resolute expression of that love of liberty which has always pervaded your people; great in a population that has never bowed the knee to the arrogance of power or to the blandishments of wealth, and has, through all the history of the State, maintained the inspiration of its early annals for love of personal independence. I rejoice to be present to-day at the home of one of your distinguished public servants, with whom it was my good fortune for a time to be associated in the discharge of public duties. I am glad to see here, at his own home, the respect and honor in which George F. Edmunds is deservedly held by the people of Vermont. [Applause.] Having for six years witnessed the value of his services as a legislator in the Senate of the United States, I share with you the regret that this country is no longer to enjoy those services; though it is a source of gratification to you, as it is to me, to know that in his love and loyalty to the State that he has so highly honored, in his love and loyalty to the Union of States, there will be no call for his wise counsel and help that will not find a ready response from the walks of life which he has chosen to resume. [Applause.]

My fellow-citizens, it is true, as your Mayor has said, happily true, that we not infrequently, and with ease, lift ourselves above all the contentions of party strife and stand in the clear, inspiring and stimulating sunshine as American patriots. [Applause.] We are conspicuously a people who give their allegiance to institutions and not to men. [Applause.] It were a happy thing for others of our sister republics on this hemisphere if they could follow this great example. Our people are not slow to appreciate public services. They are not reluctant to acknowledge transcendent genius, but they give their loyalty as citizens to institutions, and not to parties or to men. [Applause.] This was happily shown in our great rebellion, when party divisions, that seemed to lift barriers between us like these mountain peaks, were obliterated in a moment by that love for the Constitution and the flag which pervaded all our people [applause]—a love that made the people of all these great States one; that sent from Vermont and Massachusetts, as from Indiana, those stalwart and devoted sons who offered—many of them gave—their lives for the perpetuity of the Union and the honor of the flag. Let us pursue our lines of division. It is characteristic of a free people—it is essential—that mental agitation and unrest out of which the highest and best is evolved. But let us never forget that the fundamental thought of our Government is the rule of the majority, lawfully expressed at pure and clean elections, and that, when thus expressed, the laws enacted by those chosen to make our laws are not less of the minority than of the majority. [Applause.] Those who make the laws are our servants, to whom we yield the respect of office and that measure of personal regard to which their lives may entitle them. [Applause.]

We are this year a most favored and happy people. Drouth has blasted the crops of many of the nations of the world. Most of the peoples of Europe are short of food. And God has this year, mercifully to us, mercifully to them, made our store-houses to burst with plenty. We have a great surplus of breadstuffs, and there is not a bushel of wheat, corn, rye or oats that will not find a ready market this year. Happy are we in this great prosperity; happy that again out of your abundance the lack of other peoples may be supplied. Let us be careful that our heads are not turned by too much prosperity. It has been out of hardness, out of struggles, out of self-denials, out of that thrift and economy which was an incident of your soil, that the best things in New England have come. [Applause.] And, while thankful to God for a season that diffuses its blessings as this sweet sunshine is diffused into all our homes,[521] let us remember that it is not, after all, riches that exalt the Nation. It is a pure, clean, high, intellectual, moral, and God-fearing citizenship that is our glory and security as a Nation. [Applause.]

Let me thank you again for the friendliness of your manifestations, for the opportunity to stand for a few moments in this most beautiful city. [Applause.] You have the advantage of many of our municipalities. You have not only the beauties of these groves and gardens and pleasant streets and lovely homes, but from these hilltops you have laid under contribution fifty miles in either direction to beautify Burlington. [Applause.] I thank you, and part with you with regret that my stay cannot be longer and my intercourse with you more personal and informal. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—I fear that my voice will not permit me suitably to acknowledge this magnificent demonstration. In the tour which I made this spring across the continent I witnessed very many great assemblages and looked upon very many brilliant and entrancing scenes, but I recall none outside the greater cities more beautiful and worthy than this in St. Albans to-night. [Applause.][522] Most deeply do I feel whatever of personal respect you thus evidence, and yet more highly do I appreciate that love of American institutions, that fealty to the flag, which I am sure is the dominant impulse in this great assembly. [Applause.]

Your situation upon this great water line connecting the St. Lawrence with the Hudson was an early suggestion to the trader as well as to the invader. The Indian canoe, the boat of the fur-trader, ploughed these waters in the early days of our history. At a later time they suggested to the military leaders of Great Britain who commanded the armies sent for the subjection of the colonies that familiar strategy of severing the colonies into two parts by moving and establishing posts upon Champlain and the Hudson. These attempts and the brave resistance which was made by our people, in which Vermont had so conspicuous and creditable a part, have made all the shores of Lake Champlain historic ground. In the address delivered by President Bartlett in 1877 at the observance of the centennial of the battle of Bennington, I noticed that he said, "Trading Manchester sent two regiments to conquer a market," and it recalled to my mind the fact that one of the great motives of resistance on the part of the colonies was the unjust trade restrictions and exactions which were imposed upon them by the mother country in order to secure the American markets for the British manufacturer. You recall how severe and persistent were the measures adopted in order to repress and crush out the establishment of manufacturing industries in the colonies. This battle for a market was never more general or more strenuous than now among all of the nations of the world, though now generally not pushed to bloodshed. [Applause.] All of the countries of the Old World have through colonial extension by the division of Africa, much as a boy might divide a watermelon among his fellows, had reference largely to trade extensions and enlarged markets. In this contest we have ourselves engaged, not by attempting to push our political domain into lands that are not rightfully ours, not by attempting to overthrow or subjugate the weaker but friendly powers of this hemisphere, but by those methods of peaceful and profitable interchange which are good for them as for us, [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.] Secure in the great American market for our manufactures—a market the best per capita of any in the world—we have come now to believe that we may well extend our trade and send our manufactured products to other countries across the seas and in ships carrying the American flag. [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.] We do not need in any degree to break down or injure our own domes[523]tic industries. We are consuming, to an enormous extent, of tropical products not produced by our people, and by a fair exchange with the nations sending us sugar, tea, and coffee we propose and have entered successfully upon the enterprise of opening the markets of Central and South America to the manufacturing establishments of New England and the United States. [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.]

I am sure every American will rejoice in the success which has thus far attended these efforts, and will rejoice that with this expanding trade to the southward there opens before us this year a largely increased traffic in agricultural products with the nations of Europe. We have never in the history of our country harvested such a crop as has now been gathered into the granaries of the United States. [Applause.] We shall have an enormously large surplus of breadstuffs for exportation, and it happens that in this period of our abundance crop failures or shortages in India, in Russia, in France, in Germany, and England have opened a market that will require the last bushel of grain we have to sell. [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.] Rejoicing in the peace that pervades our land, proud of institutions which have for more than a hundred years witnessed their adequacy to give peace and security at home and to preserve our National honor abroad, rejoicing in the great increase of material wealth which is flowing in upon us, may we not on these great lines of enterprise, lifting ourselves now to newer and larger thoughts of what this country may be, enter upon these opening avenues of trade and influence upon which are the beckoning invitations of friendly peoples? [Applause.]

Let me thank you again for this magnificent assemblage of Vermont patriots and of Vermont women, who have shared with her gallant men the sacrifices and suffering that this State has borne that it might be born among the States, and, having been admitted to the sisterhood, might, though small in geographical extent and population, bear a noble and honorable part in the work of holding up the American character and defending the American flag. [Great applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—It is a little early in the morning to begin the daily round of speech-making, and yet I cannot refrain from saying to you how highly I appreciate your morning welcome. There is the tonic of your fine mountain air and the glory of your sunshine in these cordial manifestations of your respect and good-will. I hope no American citizen will ever begrudge the President of the United States the refreshment which comes from these occasional visits through the country, and from that draught of good-will which he receives as he looks into the faces and takes the hands of these good people, who have no other interest in the Government than that it shall be honestly administered for the general good. Washington is not always full of that kind of people; we are more certain, perhaps, to find them in the country. And yet no one should complain of honest criticism, and perhaps fault-finding has its use, for occasionally it must be well grounded and disclose to us errors we might otherwise have failed to discern. But, after all, the bracing of the good-will of the good people of this country is very essential to those who, in the midst of great perplexity and doubt and under staggering responsibility, endeavor as they see the right to do it. No man can do more than this, and I look upon this popular feature of our Government, the readiness of communi[525]cation, the nearness and familiarity of access which the people have with all public servants, as a great safeguard to those who might otherwise become separated from those impulses which are, after all, the safest and best. [Applause.] I have had great pleasure in passing through your beautiful valley this morning. I can most sincerely commend what I see in these farms and thrifty homes. Vermont is a mountain State, and, I suppose, because your horizon is a little high you are more frequently than we who live on the plains compelled to look up. That may account for a great many of the good things which we discover in the New England character. I thank you for your kindness. [Applause.]

My Friends—It is very pleasant to know that a public officer may travel everywhere through this great land of ours—and only those who have traversed it can understand how great it is—and find always his sure defence and care in the good-will and respect of the people who surround him. If we bar out the irresponsible crank, so far as I can see the President is in no peril, except that he may be killed by the superabundant kindness of the people. [Laughter.] There seems to be an impression that his strength and capacity for speech-making is unfailing [laughter] and that his arm is a hickory limb. But it is very kind of you and all these good, people of Vermont who have met me on this journey to express so pleasantly by your cheers, and much more by your kindly faces, the love and loyalty you have for those in the situation with which the suffrage of the people has for the time con[526]nected me. The New England character is one that has been much written about, much discussed, and I think that even those who have found points for the sharpest criticism have, when they adopted the Yankee method of averages, concluded that the influences emanating from Plymouth Rock and diffusing themselves first through the New Hampshire Grants and then the Western Reserve of Ohio, and so scattering and disseminating the seeds of intelligence and love of liberty throughout the whole land, have been good for the whole country. The New England man is a man with his eye open everywhere. I have sometimes thought that the habit of attention, of giving the whole mind to the business in hand, had its very natural origin and development in New England agriculture. The man who holds a plough in a stumpy or stony ground learns the lesson that he had better give his mind to the business in hand. [Laughter.] Otherwise the revenge and punishments for inattention are so prompt and severe that he is quickly called back from any mental wanderings into which he may have fallen. I had occasion to say a moment ago that the fact that the mountain regions of the world had always furnished the bravest champions of liberty and the most strenuous defenders of the faith was possibly owing to the fact that their horizon was so high that if they looked at all they were compelled to look up. [Laughter and applause.]

My countrymen, we have a great and happy land—a people dwelling in happy homes, and that is the origin of government, and there is the essential of a contented citizenship. As long as we can preserve this independence and self-respect, and that degree of comfort in the home that makes it a pleasant abode when the day's toil is ended, and that enables by the most careful thrift the head of the household to lay by for the family and to lighten in some measure the care and labor of the children that are to follow him, there can be no happier land than ours. If we would perpetuate and secure that which we have had handed down to us and which we have so well preserved until this hour, this is the essential thing.

I thank you for this kindly greeting, and beg you to accept my sincerest good-will. I can say nothing of public affairs. Every man called to public office is subject to the infirmities that belong to our nature—the capacity to make mistakes. He can be, if he is true, sure of one thing—that in all that he does he has it in his mind to do the best he can for all the people. [Prolonged cheers.]

Mr. President and Gentlemen, the Legislature of the State of Vermont—I am grateful to you for this cordial reception, which crowns a series of friendly demonstrations which began with my entry into this good State and have continued to this interesting and important occasion. I am glad to meet the chosen representatives of the towns of Vermont, appointed to the discharge of functions of legislating for the general good. The wisdom of our fathers devised that system of governmental division for the general Government which has found adoption or adaptation in all the States—the division of the powers of the Government into three great co-ordinate departments, each independent, and yet having close and important relations one with the other, and each adapted in the highest degree to secure the liberty of the individual, the welfare of our community, and the national honor and prosperity. [Applause.] It has been fortunate for us as a people that no serious[528] clash has occurred to these great departments. The constitutional balance and counterbalance have preserved with marvellous exactness, with the perfection of the most perfect machinery, the relations of these several departments, each doing its appropriate work and producing the great result which had been intended. Surely there is no other country where the springs of government are higher than here. The impulses of our people are drawn from springs that lie high in the hills of duty and loyalty. They respect and obey the law, because it is the orderly expression of their own will. The compact of our Government is a rule by the majority.

The sanction of all law is that it is the expression by popular election of the will of a majority of our people. Law has no other sanction than that with us; and happy are we, and happy are those communities where the election methods are so honestly and faithfully prescribed and observed that no doubt is thrown upon the popular expression and no question of the integrity of the ballot is ever raised. [Applause.] If we shall ever or anywhere allow a doubt to settle into the minds of our people whether the results of our elections are honestly attained, whether the laws made are framed by those who have been properly chosen by the majority, then all sanction is withdrawn from law and all respect from the rulers who by a false ballot are placed in public office. [Applause.]

I am glad to congratulate you upon your constituencies, intelligent, devoted and patriotic. I am glad to congratulate you that the State of Vermont, from its earliest aspirations and efforts for liberty and self-government, which developed into your Constitution in 1777, down through all the story of toil and the struggles which have beset you as a State, and the vicissitudes which have beset the country of which you are an honored part, that the State of Vermont and her sons in the councils of the Nation and on the blood-stained battle-fields of the great war have borne themselves worthily. [Applause.] Will you permit me now to thank you again for this demonstration and for the opportunity to stand for a moment in your presence? I am sure that we may each, from this occasion, in the discharge of public duty, draw some impulse to a more perfect exercise of our powers for the public good. [Applause.]

Governor Page and Fellow-citizens—This sunshine is as warm as a Vermont welcome. [Applause.] It is of the highest quality. It has life in it. But too much of it is prostrating. [Laughter.] I have felt, in endeavoring to respond to these calls, that I was possibly overtaxing my own strength, and perhaps overcrowding the Press Association. [Laughter.] I am not naturally a gossip, I think I had some reputation as a taciturn man, but it is gone. [Laughter.] I have not given it up willingly. I have struggled to retain it, but it has been forcefully taken from me by kindness of my fellow-citizens, whom I have met so frequently within the last year. Perhaps, however, if I preserve other virtues I can let this go. [Laughter.] It is a great thing to be a citizen of the United States. I would not have you abate at all the love and loyalty you have for Vermont. But I am glad to know that always in your history as a State and a people you have felt that the higher honor, the more glorious estate, was to be a citizen of the United States of America. [Applause.] This association of States is a geographical necessity. We can never consent that hostile boundaries shall be introduced with all that such divisions imply. We must be one from Maine to California, one from the Lakes to the Gulf [applause], and everywhere in all that domain we must insist that the behests of the Federal Constitution and of the laws written in the Federal statute-book shall be loyally obeyed. [Applause.] A statesman of one of the Southern States said to me, with tears in his eyes, shortly after my inauguration: "Mr. President, I hope you intend to give the poor people of my State a chance." I said in reply: "A chance to do what? If you mean, sir, that they shall have a chance to nullify any law, and that I shall wink at the nullification of it, you ask that which you ought not to ask and that which I cannot consider. [Applause.] If you mean that obeying every public law and giving to every other man his full rights under the law and the Constitution, they shall abide in my respect and in the security and peace of our institutions. Then they shall have, so far as in my power lies, an equal chance with all our people." [Applause.] We may not choose what laws we will obey; the choice is made for us. When a majority have, by[530] lawful methods, placed a law upon the statute-book, we may endeavor to repeal it, we may challenge its wisdom, but while it is the law it challenges our obedience. [Applause.]

I thank you for the kindliness of this greeting in this capital of Vermont. I wish for you and your gallant State and for all your people in all their good, God-fearing homes continuance of that personal liberty, that material prosperity, that love of the truth which has always characterized them. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens and Comrades—For I see here, as everywhere, some of those who wore the blue and carried the flag in the great Civil War gathered to greet me. It gives me pleasure to stop for a moment and to thank you for the friendliness which has brought you from your homes to make this journey bright with your presence and cordial welcome. I have been talking so much to-day that I will not attempt to make a speech. I have already said a great deal about Vermont, have expressed my esteem for it and for its people, and all that. I have been very sincere, for I think that your State does hold a very high place among the States. Your sons, who have gone out to represent you and to take part[531] in those stirring enterprises which have laid the foundations of new States, have already borne themselves with honor and with true New England thrift, obtaining in the long run the full share of all the good things that were going. I met some of them in California. They are scattered this broad land over, and I think they carry with them everywhere the love of the flag, respect for law and order, love of liberty and of education, and interest in all those things that make the communities where they abide prosperous and happy. I think I owe a special debt to this neighborhood for a pair of good Vermont horses that Secretary Proctor selected for me, and in the driving of which I have had great relaxation and pleasure. Your Vermont horses are well trained. The Morgan horse has the good habit of entering into consultation with the driver whenever there is any trouble. [Laughter and applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—I could wish that I were in better voice and in full strength, that I might better respond to this most magnificent demonstration. I have rarely looked upon a scene more calculated to inspire a patriot than this upon which my eye rests to-night. I do most profoundly thank you for this great welcome. The taste and beauty and elaboration of these preparations exceed anything that I have looked upon in this journey. [Applause.] I am sure you are here to-night after making all this preparation to give witness by your presence of your love to the flag of our country [applause] and to those institutions of civil government and of liberty which that flag represents. [Applause.] It gives me great pleasure to see that the flag is everywhere. I journeyed across this continent, and, except when darkness shut in the landscape, I was never out of sight of the American flag. [Applause.] On those wide plains of the West, once called the Great American Desert, now and again, in the home of some adventurous settler, the flag appeared and was waved in greeting as our train sped on its way. I rejoiced to see it everywhere in the sight of school children. On that great demonstration in New York in observance of the centennial of the inauguration of Washington, as I moved from the Battery up through those streets dedicated to commerce, I saw every front covered with flags, hiding for the time those invitations to trade which covered their walls. The thought occurred to me, What will be done with these flags when this celebration is over? And it occurred to me to suggest at the centennial banquet that the flags should be taken into our school-houses. [Applause.] I rejoice to know that everywhere throughout the land, in all our[533] patriotic towns and villages, movements are being inaugurated to display the American flag over our institutions of learning.

I have several times been brought in contact with incidents showing this love of the flag. I remember that when Hood was investing Nashville, and when that gallant, sturdy, unostentatious, but always faithful and victorious leader, Gen. George H. Thomas, was gathering the remnants of an army that he might confront his adversary in battle, it was assigned to me to intrench through the beautiful grounds of a resident in the suburbs of Nashville. The proprietor was a Tennessee Unionist. While I was digging and tearing the sod of his beautiful lawn, he was removing his library and other valuables from his mansion, for it was within easy range of the rebel fire. Happening into his library while he was thus engaged, he opened a closet below the book-shelf, and, taking out a handsome bunting, asked me whether I had a garrison flag. I told him no. "Well," he said, "take this. Sir, I have never been without the American flag in my house." [Applause.] I would be glad if that could be said by every one of our people. There is inspiration in it. It has a story wrought into its every fold until every thread has some lesson to tell of sacrifice and heroism. It is the promise of all that we hope for. It is to it and about it that we must gather and hold the affections of our people if these institutions are to be preserved. I have it in my mind as I saw it one night in Newport harbor. Going out of that harbor upon a Government vessel about midnight, when the heavens were darkened clouds, I saw a sight that lives fresh in my memory. The officers of the torpedo station had run up the Starry Banner upon the staff, and turned upon it as we moved out of the harbor two great electric search-lights. It revealed the banner, while the staff and buildings below it were all hidden in the blackness. I could see it as if it had been hung out of the battlements of heaven, lifting its folds in the darkness of night, a glorified emblem of the hope of a free people. [Applause.] Let us keep it thus in our hearts; let no other flag be borne in our marching processions. We have no place for the red flag of anarchy. [Applause.] This emblem typifies a free people, who have voluntarily placed themselves under the restraints of the law, who have consented that individual liberty shall cease where it infringes upon the right or property of another. This is our contract. This is the liberty which we offer those who cast in their lot with us, not a liberty to destroy, but a liberty to conserve and perpetuate. [Cheers.]

I am most happy to witness in this prosperous New England town so many evidences that your community is intelligent, in[534]dustrious, enterprising, and your people lovers of home and order. You have here some great manufacturing establishments, whose fame and products have spread throughout the world. You have here a class of enterprising, public-spirited citizens, who are building these free libraries and galleries of art and are ministering to the good of generations that are to come. You have here an intelligent and educated class of skilled workmen, and nothing pleased me more as I passed through your streets to-day than to be told that here and there were the homes of the working people of St. Johnsbury [applause]—homes where every evidence of comfort was apparent; homes where taste has been brought to make attractive the abodes where tired men sought rest; homes that must have been made sweet for the children that are reared there, and comfortable for the wives whose place of toil and responsibility it is. Here is the anchor of our safety. This is the state that binds men to good order, to good citizenship, to the flag of the Constitution, a contented and prosperous working class. [Applause.] I will not cross any lines of division in my remarks to night, for this reception is general; but I will venture to say that all our public policy, all our legislation, may wisely keep in view the end of perpetuating an independent, contented, prosperous and hopeful working class in America. [Applause.] When hope goes out of the heart and life becomes so hard that it is no longer sweet, men are not safe neighbors and they are not good citizens, Let us, then, in cheerful, loving, Christian good neighborhood see that the blessings of our institutions, the fruits of labor, have that fair distribution that shall bring contentment into our homes. [Applause.]

But, my countrymen, I did not intend to speak even so long. I wish it were in my power to make some adequate return for the generous welcome you have given me. I am not a man of promises. I abhor pretension, but every such assembly as this that I see—this great cup of good-will which you put to my lips—gives me strength to do what I can for our country and for you. [Applause.]

Colonel Hooker and Fellow-citizens—I have been called upon to address my fellow-citizens under many diverse and some very peculiar circumstances, but I think that those that surround me this morning are absolutely unique. I understood that in the programme Secretary Proctor had arranged for a day of pleasure here at this horse fair, and that a more attractive entertainment was to be provided for you and for me than speech-making. I am not well up in the rules of the track, but I suppose on a morning like this some allowance will be made for a heavy track, and if the horses are entitled to it I think I may claim an allowance myself. [Laughter.] Therefore, I have only to thank you for the friendliness of your reception and to express my interest in this great industry which is represented here—the breeding of horses. I understand that it was so arranged that, after I had seen the flower of the manhood and womanhood of Vermont, I should be given an exhibition of the next grade in intelligence and worth in the State—your good horses. [Applause.] I have had recently, through the intervention of the Secretary of War, the privilege of coming into possession of a pair of Vermont horses. They are all I could wish for, and, as I said the other day at the little village from which they came, they are of good Morgan stock, of which some one has said that their great characteristic was that they enter into consultation with the driver whenever there is any difficulty. [Laughter and applause.] Thanking you again, I hope you will give me the allowance to which a heavy track entitles me. [Applause.]

Ladies and Gentlemen—I will only say a few words to thank you for this welcome which is extended to me this morning, and which it seems to me furnishes some proof of your well wishes and kindly feelings. I have had a journey through Vermont that will be very pleasant in my recollection, although attended with some instances of an unpleasant nature. As I understood the purpose of this trip when I gave my assent to it at the request of your excellent fellow-citizen, whom you kindly loaned me for a little while, and are now, as far as I can see, about to reclaim, the trip was to be one of relaxation, and to visit him and some of his friends. It seems to me that the circle has been enlarged beyond the limit of his friends, and if not that they include the whole of the people of Vermont. It is very pleasant to pass through your enterprising manufacturing towns, and to see this rural population, which, after all, is the foundation of all State organizations, which are based upon the farms of old New England. The farm has been, perhaps, one of the most productive measures toward the enrichment of this country in things that are greater than the material things—in manhood, valor in warfare, and statesmanship in political life. It has been a matter of great pleasure to me as we have driven through the streets of these cities, from Bennington until this time, to observe one thing. As we pass by your streets I have seen some aged father or mother or grandfather or grandmother placed in a position for best observation and kindly attended by some member of the family, showing that family love, that veneration for the aged, that has, to me, been a source of particular gratification. For, after all, the home is the beginning and centre of all good things. The life of our Nation is learned in the first rudiments of government at home and that lesson of veneration for things that are good. With these elements I think you are[537] sure to make the career of Vermont not greater in temporary things, but greater in those things which are more productive to the Nation and to mankind. [Prolonged cheers.]

My Fellow-citizens—I am about completing a very pleasant trip through the State of Vermont—a trip which, while not the first, has furnished the only occasion on which I have really been brought in contact with the people of your State. My previous journeys were those of a summer tourist, snatching these fine and attractive views as we sped along some of your lines of railway, but getting little impression of the character of the people who occupy these towns and rural homesteads. It has given me great pleasure on this occasion to receive at the hands of your people everywhere a most cordial reception, It has been a source of constant regret to me that I am able on such occasions as we have here this afternoon[538] to make so small a return for the care, preparation, and friendly interest which the people manifest. I am under such limitations as to them and about which I may talk that the fertility of a very rich and highly cultivated mind and imagination would be necessary to furnish one with something new or interesting to say in response to the repeated calls. I have supposed that all of these meetings were expressions of patriotism and of popular interest in a Government which Mr. Lincoln so felicitously described as "a government of the people, by the people, for the people." [Applause.] It is pleasant to have the personal esteem and respect of my fellow-citizens, but I have not thought of appropriating to myself these demonstrations. It is very gratifying to see a people in love with their civil institutions and with that glorious flag which typifies our diversity and our unity. [Applause.] I have said before that it seemed to me this is the essential element and base of every republican government, that the loyalty and love of the people should be given to our institutions and not to men. [Applause.] I think it is one element of discord and unhappiness in some of our sister republics that the minds of these patriotic and generous people are too much swayed by their admiration for men, that they are often swept away from the moorings of principle by the love of a leader. I have rejoiced to find everywhere in the State of Vermont what seemed to me to be a deep-seated, earnest patriotism. [Applause.] It is to be hoped that we may not soon have any call for such manifestations as you have given in the past on the battle-fields from Bennington to the surrender of Appomattox. [Cheers.]

It is pleasant to be here to day at the home of my esteemed friend and your fellow-townsman, the Hon. William M. Evarts. [Applause.] I am glad that he has introduced into Vermont model farming [laughter and applause], and has shown you what the income of a large city law practice can do in the fertilization of a farm. [Laughter and applause.] He has assured me to-day that his farm yields a net income. I accept the statement of my host with absolute faith—and yet Mr. Evarts' reputation as a bookkeeper is not the best in the world. [Laughter and applause.] It is pleasant to see him and to be for a while in his genial presence, and to have this journey illuminated by a visit to his home. I hope he may dwell long with you in peace and honor, as he will always dwell in the honor and esteem of our whole people. [Applause.]

Colonel Webber and Fellow-citizens—I think it might be said to-day that New Hampshire has "gone wet," as they say when the election returns come in on a vote against prohibition. I am very much obliged to you for this extraordinary manifestation of your interest, for to stand in this downpour of rain is certainly an evidence that you have a most friendly interest in this little party of tourists, who touch in a journey through Vermont the mainspring of the State of New Hampshire. I have been talking about Vermont for the last two or three days, but if you will take the pains, in the comfort of your own homesteads, to read all the good things I have said about Vermont, and then understand that they are all said of New Hampshire, it will abbreviate my speech and will be expressive of my opinion of that sturdy, enterprising, masterful New England character which you share with them. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens—I will wait a moment until they turn out the footlights. They put a barrier between us, and I always prefer to get my light from above. [Applause.] We can only tarry in this busy city a few moments. The inclement character of the day has driven us to shelter, and the finding of a shelter has consumed some small part of the allotment of time which our schedule gives to you. I greatly appreciate the value and importance of these manufacturing centres, which are now, fortunately for us, not characteristic of New England alone, but are found west of the Ohio and of the Mississippi and of the Missouri. I am one of those who believe that in a diversification of pursuits we make most rapid increase in wealth and attain best social relations and development. I am one of those who believe that Providence did not set apart the United States to be a purely agricultural region, furnishing its surplus to supply the lack of other people of the world while they do all the manufacturing for us. I think there are suggestions in our very geographical position, and a great many of them in our history and experience, that we may well desire and reach for that condition in which we shall raise our own food and in which a manufacturing class, withdrawn from agriculture and other pursuits, shall furnish the farmer a market for his surplus near to his fields and gardens, while he exchanges with the farmer the products of the shop and the loom.

I would not introduce politics. I do not intend to cross any lines of division, but I think we all agree, though we may differ as to the means by which it is to be done, that the nearer together the producer and the consumer can be brought the less waste there is in transportation and the greater the wealth. [Applause.] It is known to you all that our 65,000,000 people furnish per capita a larger market than any other like number of people. This grows out of the fact that our capacity for purchasing is larger than is found in those countries where poverty holds a larger sway. The workingman buys more, has more to buy with in America than in any other land in the world. [Applause.] I mentioned the other day at St. Albans that this was the era of the battle for a market. The whole world is engaged in it. The thought was suggested to me by a sentence in the address of President Bartlett at the observance of the centennial of the battle of Bennington in 1877. He says, "Trading Manchester furnished two regiments to Burgoyne to con[541]quer a market." The foreign policy of the United States has never been selfish. There has always been, if you will trace it through the struggles of Greece and of our South American neighbors for independence and a free Government, a brave, generous tone of sympathy with struggling people the world round in our diplomatic policy. I think we may well challenge comparison with the foreign policy of any other great Government in the world in this regard. It has never been our policy to push our trade forward at the point of the bayonet. We have always believed that it should be urged upon the ground of mutual advantage; and upon this ground alone are we now endeavoring, by every means in our power, to open the markets of our sister republics in Central and South America to the products of American shops and farmers. [Applause.]

We do not covet their territory. The day of filibustering aggression has gone by in the United States. We covet their good will. We wish for them settled institutions of government, and we desire those exchanges that are mutually profitable. We have found that we were receiving from some of these countries enormous annual imports of sugar, coffee, and hides, and we have now placed these articles on the free list upon the condition that they give to the products of the United States fair reciprocity. [Applause.] If our own laws, or any aggressive movement we are making for a larger share in the commerce of the world, should excite the commercial jealousy and rivalry of other countries we shall not complain if those rivalries find only proper expressions. We have come to a time in our development as a Nation when I believe that interest on money is low enough for us to turn some of our accumulated capital from the railways into steam transportation on the sea; that the time has come when we shall recover a full participation in the carrying trade of the world, when under the American flag steamships shall carry our products to neighboring markets and bring back their exchange to our harbors. Larger foreign markets for the products of our farms and of our factories and a larger share in the carrying trade of the world, peaceful relations with all mankind, with naval and coast defences that will silently make an effective argument on the side of peace, are the policies that I would pursue. [Applause.]

My Fellow citizens—Governor Proctor held out to me the suggestion that this trip to Vermont would be a very restful one. He has the queerest appreciation of what rest means of any man I know. [Laughter.]

When I attended the centennial demonstration of the inauguration of Washington in New York, I spent part of one day on the bridge of the Despatch bowing to the fleet in the bay as we moved down to the Battery, and the balance of the day shaking hands at the City Hall, attending a ball at night; ten hours the next day reviewing a procession, with a banquet at night; and about as many hours the day following reviewing the civic procession; and when released from the stand about 5 o'clock in the evening I hurried to the Jersey City depot to take the train, scarcely able to stand upon my feet. One of the gentlemen of the committee said to me: "Well, Mr. President, I hope you have enjoyed these three days of rest in New York." [Laughter.]

I wish I could see you more satisfactorily than I am able to do on a hurried trip like this, but Governor Proctor kept me up very late last night, and he was the last man down to breakfast this morning himself.

All that I have seen in your State has but increased the respect I have always entertained for your people. My recent journey of somewhat great length through the country has very deeply impressed upon me the fact of the unity of our people. The building[543] of these great railroad lines making every part of every State familiar, and stretching across the continent so as to bring within easy access the most distant parts of our country, has had a great tendency to unify our people and to wipe out whatever there was provincial or local in our character. It has rubbed off some of the edges of the New England character, and has rubbed on some of the New England polish upon the West. In fact, wherever we have any combining, nothing makes it homogeneous except a thorough mixer, and the American people have certainly had a most thorough mixing. [Cheers.]

One of your war Governors was saying to me to-day, as we came along in the train, your own distinguished fellow-citizen, that on a journey West not long ago everywhere Vermont men came to meet him; and as I went recently across the continent the railroad train scarcely stopped at any station that some one from Indiana did not reach up his hand and claim recognition; and so it is in all the States.

The West is now turning a little back toward the East, and I have found some people, who probably had some ancestral connection with New England, but whose birth, early residence, and business life were in the West, who have come back to the old home. All this is pleasant, all this is surety of the future of our country. It is pleasant to know that the South is being obliterated, that all that made it distinctive in the sense of separation or alienation is being gradually wiped out. [Applause.]

Of course, the prejudices of generations are not like marks upon the blackboard, that can be rubbed out with a sponge. These are more like the deep glacial lines that the years have left in the rock; but the water, when that surface is exposed to its quiet, gentle, and perpetual influence, wears even these out, until the surface is smooth and uniform. And so these influences are at work in our whole country, and we should be hopeful for it, hopeful for its future. I am sure you each feel pride in your American citizenship, and would show readiness to defend it in war, and I am sure that from every class of your community would come the response: "We will maintain it, honorable and high, in peace."

I thank you most sincerely for your friendly greeting, and regret that I am not able to speak to you more satisfactorily, and can only accept with a heart full of appreciation these marks of your respect. [Applause.]

My Fellow-citizens and Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic—It gives me great pleasure this morning, tired as I am, to see and to have an opportunity to express my thanks to this large assemblage of the good citizens of Rutland. My journey through your State has been attended with every evidence of respect which it was possible for the people to bestow. Your chairman has spoken of the fact that the President of the United States may travel everywhere through our country without any attendance of policemen. As I have had occasion to say before, the only peril he is likely to meet, if the railroads take good care of him and the cranks keep out of the way, is from the over-kindness of the people [laughter and applause]; and there is more peril in that than you will understand at first thought. It is pleasant to stand upon the steps of this Memorial Hall, erected as a place of deposit for trophies of the great Civil War and as a monument of honor to those soldiers from Vermont who aided so conspicuously in making that war successful. We cannot tell how much hung upon that contest. No orator has yet been inspired to describe adequately the gravity of the great issue which was fought out upon the battlefields of the War of the Rebellion. We say it was a contest to preserve the unity of our republic, and so it was; but what dismemberment would have meant; how greatly it would have increased the cost of government; how sadly it would have dis[545]turbed the plan of our border communities; how it would have degraded in the eyes of the world this great people; how it would have rejoiced the enemies of popular government, no tongue has yet adequately described. But it was not to be so. God has desired that this experiment of free government should have a more perfect trial, and it was impossible that the brave men of the loyal States should consent to dismemberment of the Union. We were very patient, so patient, in the early contest, as it ranged through the great debate of convention and Congress that our brethren of the South altogether mistook the temper of our people. Undoubtedly there were evidences that the men of trade were reluctant to have those lines of profitable communication, which had been so long maintained with the South, broken off. Undoubtedly that character so undesirable in our politics—the doughface—was particularly conspicuous in those days of discussion, but we were altogether misjudged when the people of the South concluded that they might support their threats of disunion which had so long rung in Congress, and so long filled their boasting press, by force of arms.

I shall never forget, nor will any of you who are old enough to remember it, that great electric thrill and shock which passed through our whole country when the first gun was fired at Sumter. Debate was closed. Our orators were withdrawn, and a great wave of determined patriotism swept over the country higher than any tidal wave ever lifted itself upon a devastated coast [applause], and it was not to be stayed in its progress until the last vestige of rebellion had been swept from the face of our beloved land. The men of New England were a peaceful people. The farmers and the farmers' sons were not brawlers. They were not found at the tavern. They were abiding under the sheltering moral influences and quietude of these New England hills. But the man who thought that the spirit of 1776 had been quenched was badly mistaken. The same resolute love of liberty, the same courage to face danger for a cause that had its inspiration in high moral purposes and resolves abided in the hearts of your people. [Applause.] Possibly the war might have been avoided if the South had understood this, but it was so written in the severe but benevolent purposes of God. There was a great scroll of emancipation to be written. There was a martyr President, who was to affix his name to a declaration that would be as famous as that to which your fathers fixed their signature in 1776. It was to be in truth as well as in theory a free people [applause], and there was no other pathway to emancipation than along the bloody track of armies, not seeing at the be[546]ginning nor having the purpose that finally was accomplished, but guided by the hand of power and wisdom that is above us and over us to the accomplishment of that glorious result that struck the shackles from four millions of slaves. [Applause.]

I greet most affectionately these comrades of the war who are before me to-day. Let them abide in honor in all your communities. Let shafts of marble and bronze lift themselves in all your towns to tell the story of patriots' work well done and to teach the generations that are to come how worthy their fathers were. Let us preserve all these inspiring lessons of history, all these individual examples of heroism, of which Vermont furnished so many during the war. Let them not be forgotten. Let them be the illuminated and inspiring pages of your State's history, and then, whatever shock may come to us in the future, whenever the hand of anarchy or disorder shall be raised, whenever foreign powers shall seek to invade the rights or liberties of this great people, there will be found again an impenetrable bulwark in the brave hearts of a sturdy and patriotic people. [Applause.] You will, I am sure, crown your kindness by excusing me from attempting further speech and allowing me to express, as I part from you, my good wishes for Vermont and all her good people. [Applause.]

It is not my privilege to call you neighbors, but I am sure I may call you friends. This journey in Vermont is crowned to-night by a reception and a good-by that is surpassingly brilliant and artis[547]tic in its preparation and one that I have never seen exceeded. But above all this, I have been able here in Proctor to witness in its best manifestation that which I have seen elsewhere in New England and especially in Vermont—a community of workers, men industriously pursuing mechanical avocations and doing it under conditions of the greatest possible comfort. As I look upon these homes in which you dwell and contrast them with the wretchedness of the crowded tenement-houses of our great cities; as I inhale to-night the bracing air of these mountains, and as my eye has looked to-day upon their green summits, I have said how happy is the lot of that man and that woman who work in one of these bright, wholesome New England villages. [Applause.] It has seemed to me that the relation of our mutual friend who has inaugurated and developed these works in which many of you find employment was that of a public benefactor and a personal friend. [Applause.] The simplicity and naturalness of his own life among you, his ready appreciation of the loyalty and intelligence of those who are employed by him, his interest in their success in life, is the ideal relation between the employer and his workmen. [Applause.] I would to God it was always and everywhere so, that when a man is put at a machine he should not be regarded by his employer as a part of it, that the human nature, the aspirations of a man, should still be recognized, and the relations with the employer be that of mutual confidence and helpfulness and respect! [Applause.]

You are sharers in the responsibilities of local government, of the government of your State and of the Nation, of which Vermont is one of the honored members. I am sure that you have pride in the faithful discharge of all these duties. I cannot but feel that our national policy should be in the direction of saving our working people from that condition of hopelessness which comes when wages are barely adequate to the sustenance of animal life. [Applause.] There is no hope for any community where this state of things exists, and there will be no hope for the Nation should it become the general condition of the workingmen of America. That man or woman out of whose heart hope has gone, who sees nothing better in life, before whom the vista of life stretches in one dead level of unending and half-requited toil, that man's estate is calculated to make him reckless in character. It is one of the beneficent conditions of citizenship here that there are no disabilities put in the way of ambitions and the aspiring. I hope it may always be so. I cannot always sympathize with that demand which we hear so frequently for cheap things. Things may be too[548] cheap. They are too cheap when the man who produces them upon the farm or the man or woman who produces them in the factory does not get out of them living wages with a margin for old age and for a dowry for the incidents that are to follow. [Applause.] I pity that man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth or shapes it into a garment shall starve in the process. [Applause.]

I am most profoundly grateful to you, my fellow-citizens, and to my good friend Governor Proctor, for this beautiful demonstration—this magnificent rural welcome which we have had here to-day. It will live always in my memory. I shall carry this community in my thoughts as one of the best types of American neighborhood life. I have found in him a most valuable contribution to the administration of the Government at Washington. [Applause.] You cannot know fully how he has grown into the respect and confidence of all who have been associated with him in the Cabinet and of all our legislators in Congress without distinction of party. I regret that there is some danger that you may reclaim him for Vermont [applause]; yet it is quite natural that it should be so, and I shall do the best I can to get a substitute. The labors of public office at Washington are full of high responsibility and most burdensome toil. No man is endowed with an incapacity to make mistakes. We can, however, all of us, in public or private trust, be sure of our motives. These are our own. We can know whether we are pursuing low and selfish ends or have set before us the general good, the highest good of all our people. Judgment upon what has been done is with you. I am sure only that I have had it in my heart to do that which should in the highest degree promote the prosperity of our people and lift the glorious flag yet higher in the esteem of the world. [Great applause.] We have been endeavoring to open a foreign market for American trade. If these efforts are met, as I trust they will be, by enterprise on the part of our merchants and manufacturers, I do not doubt that the next ten years will see a most gratifying increase in our foreign trade. [Applause.] They should diligently set themselves to the study of the new markets into which their goods may now go. The most intelligent representatives should be sent there, and their goods adapted to the market that is to be supplied. This I have no doubt they will do, and I add the expectation that we shall presently have a most gratifying increase in the American merchant marine. [Applause.]

Gentlemen—I recall with pleasure the visit made by some of your representatives. I think I have repeatedly, on every suitable occasion, especially during my recent visit to the South, expressed my sincere hope of the development of those marvellous resources so long hidden from sight, but now about to be opened up. I had occasion to say then that you would realize the advantage of combining manufactures with agriculture. The old system made of Georgia a plantation State. I would not have it less so. But you may still develop other industries without destroying the surface of the country. There is no competition between these industries; one does not supersede the other. The farmer still has his near market for some products that will not bear transportation. Out of this diversity I think the highest development will come. Recently I made a trip through New England and was deeply impressed with the numerous industries and small factories showing in little places, where the lives and homes of the workmen were so much cleaner and purer than in the great cities, and this was made possible by the great diversity of small interests. In Vermont I came upon a busy little factory surrounded by cottages in the midst of the hills. I was told that the proprietor made stetho[550]scopes, and out of a small beginning had built up a great trade. These little things make happy homes; bring money, trade, and development. I am greatly interested in these things, and I would be very happy to see this development in Alabama and Georgia as in any Northern State. We all wish it. Whether I can be with you or not I cannot now say. I have a good many very important matters demanding attention from now on to the meeting of Congress. Some are home matters of importance and some are foreign. Looking back over the last year, it would seem probable that there was a conspiracy among the powers to see that those in responsible places should have no rest. Many of these things must now come to my personal attention. If I cannot be with you, you will know that my heart is with you. If I can I will come, but the time now being so close to the meeting of Congress it is doubtful.

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Conference—I come here this morning to make an expression of my respect and esteem for this great body of delegates assembled from all the countries of the world, and much more to give a manifestation of my respect and love for that greater body of Christian men and women for whom you stand. Every Ecumenical Conference is a distinct step in the direction, not only of the unification of the Church, but of the unification of the human race.

Assembling from countries unlike in their civil institutions, from churches not wholly in accord as to doctrine or church order, you[552] come together to find that the unlikeness is not so great as you had thought, and to find your common sympathies and common purposes greater and larger than you had thought—large enough presently to overspread and to extinguish all these transitory lines of division.

I am glad to know that as followers of Wesley, whose hymns we sing, you have been in consultation as to the methods by which these minor divisions among you might be obliterated. It is the natural order that subdivisions should be wiped out before the grand divisions of the Church can be united. [Applause.] Who does not greatly rejoice that the controversial clash of the churches is less than it once was; that we hear more of the Master and His teachings of love and duty than of hair-splitting theological differences? [Applause.]

Many years ago, while visiting in Wisconsin, when Sunday came around I went with some friends to the little Methodist church in an adjoining village. The preacher undertook to overturn my Presbyterianism. [Laughter and applause.] An irreverent friend who sat beside me as the young man delivered his telling blows against Calvinism was constantly emphasizing the points made by nudging me with his elbow. [Laughter.] Now I am glad to say that very often since then I have worshipped in Methodist churches, and that is the last experience of that kind I have had. [Applause]

You have to-day as the theme of discussion the subject of international arbitration; and this being a public, or, in a large sense of the word, a political question, perhaps makes my presence here as an officer of the United States especially appropriate. [Applause.]

It is a curious incident that some days ago, and before I was aware of the theme or the occasion which we have here this morning, I had appointed this afternoon to visit the great gun foundry of the United States at the navy yard. Things have come in their proper sequence. I am here at this arbitration meeting before I go to the gun factory. [Laughter.]

This subject is one that has long attracted the attention, and I think I may say has, perhaps, as greatly attracted the interest and adherence of the United States as that of any other Christian power in the world. [Applause.]

It is known to you all that in the recent conference of the American states at Washington the proposition was distinctly made and adopted by the representatives of all, or nearly all, of the governments of America that, as applied to this hemisphere, all international disputes should be settled by arbitration. [Applause.]

Of course there are limitations as yet, in the nature of things, to the complete and general adoption of such a scheme. It is quite possible to apply arbitration to a dispute as to a boundary line; it is quite impossible, it seems to me, to apply it to a case of international feud. If there is present a disposition to subjugate, an aggressive spirit to seize territory, a spirit of national aggrandizement that does not stop to consider the rights of other men and other people—to such a case and to such a spirit international arbitration has none, or, if any, a remote and difficult application.

It is for a Christian sentiment, manifesting itself in a nation, to remove forever such causes of dispute; and then what remains will be the easy subject of adjustment by fair international arbitration. But I had not intended to enter into a discussion of this great theme, for the setting forth of which you have appointed those who have given it special attention. Let me, therefore, say simply this: that for myself—temporarily in a place of influence in this country—and much more for the great body of its citizenship, I express the desire of America for peace with the whole world. [Applause.] It would have been vain to suggest the pulling down of block-houses or family disarmament to the settlers on a hostile Indian frontier. They would have told you rightly that the conditions were not ripe. And so it may be and is probably true that a full application of the principle is not presently possible, the devil still being unchained. [Laughter.]

We will have our gun foundries, and possibly will best promote the settlement of international disputes by arbitration, by having it understood that if the appeal is to a fiercer tribunal we shall not be out of the debate. [Great applause.] There is a unity of the Church and of humanity, and the lines of progress are the same.

It is by this great Christian sentiment, characterized not only by a high sense of justice, but by a spirit of love and forbearance, mastering the civil institutions and governments of the world, that we shall approach universal peace and adopt arbitration methods of settling disputes. [Applause.]

Let me thank you, Mr. Chairman, and you, gentlemen of this Conference, for the privilege of standing before you for a moment, and for this most cordial welcome which you have given to me. I beg to express again my high appreciation of the character of this delegation and the membership of the great Church from which you come, and to wish that in your remaining deliberations and in your journeys to far-distant homes you may have the guidance and care of that God whom we all revere and worship. [Applause.]

Executive Mansion, October 19, 1891.

My Dear Sir—I have your letter of October 15, and also a box of bright tin plate which you send as a specimen of the product being turned out by the United States Iron and Tin Plate Company. I have no skill in determining the character of this work; but, to the eye, it seems to be eminently satisfactory, and I thank you for this evidence that a new industry has been established in the United States.

I cannot quite understand how an American can doubt that we have the mechanical skill and business sagacity to establish successfully here the manufacture of tin plate. No other country, certainly, surpasses us in the inventive genius of its citizens or in the business sagacity of its capitalists. It is surprising to me that any patriotic American should approach this question with a desire to see this great and interesting experiment fail, or with an unwillingness to accept the evidences of its success. It will be a great step in the direction of commercial independence when we produce our own tin plate.

It seems to me that nothing, unless it be a lack of faith in the maintenance of the present law, can thwart this desirable achievement. I can understand how our success should be doubted and our failure accepted with satisfaction in Wales, but I cannot understand how any American can take that view of the question or why he should always approach every evidence of the successful establishment of this industry in this country with a disposition to discredit it and reject it. If the great experiment is to fail, our own people should not add to the mortification of failure the crime of rejoicing in it.

Very truly yours,

Benjamin Harrison.

Mr. President—I have the honor to present the credentials which accredit me in the capacity of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the republic of Chili in the United States of North America. The object of the mission which the Government of Chili has confided to me is to cultivate and maintain the relations of peace and friendship between the United States and Chili, which have ever been close and cordial. For the accomplishment of this purpose I rely upon the kindness and good-will which the United States Government has always manifested for the representatives of Chili. Permit me to express my country's sincere wishes for the prosperity and welfare of this noble country, which is so highly favored by Providence, and for your own happiness.

Mr. Minister—I am glad to receive from your hands the letters accrediting you as the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the republic of Chili to the United States. The presence of a representative of the Government of Chili at this capital will, I hope, tend to promote a good understanding between the two governments and the early settlement, upon terms just and honorable to both, of the diplomatic questions now somewhat urgently awaiting adjustment. The Government of the United States, as well as its people, particularly desire and rejoice in the prosperity of all our neighbors in this hemisphere. Our diplomatic relations with them have always been and will continue to be free from intermeddling with their internal affairs. Our people are too just to desire that the commercial or political advantage of this Government should be sought by the promotion of disastrous dissensions in other countries. We hear with sorrow every fresh tale of war or internal strife, and are always ready to give our friendly offices to the promotion of peace. If these are not acceptable or do not avail, it is our policy to preserve an honorable and strict neutrality, as was done during the recent war in Chili. Tempting commercial and political advantages may be offered for our aid or influence by one or the other of the two contending parties, but this we have not deemed to be consistent with the obligations of international honor and good-will. This Government was quite as determined in its refusal to allow a war-vessel of the United States to carry to a neutral port, where it could be made available for war purposes, the silver of Balmaceda, as it was to give aid to the forces opposing him. The questions involved were Chilian questions, and this Government endeavored to observe those principles of non-intervention upon which it had so strongly insisted when civil war disturbed our own people. I cannot doubt that this policy will commend itself to those who now administer the Government of Chili; nor can I doubt that when excitement has given place to calmness, when the truth is ascertained and the selfish and designing perversions of recent incidents have been exposed, our respective governments will find a basis of increased mutual respect, confidence, and friendship.

Mr. Minister, this Government and our people rejoice that peace has been restored in Chili, and that its Government is the expression of the free choice of its people. You may assure your honored President, who has been chosen under circumstances which so strongly testify to his moderation and to the esteem in which he is held by the people of all parties, that the Government of the[558] United States entertains only good-will for him and for the people of Chili, and cannot doubt that the existing and all future differences between the two governments will find an honorable adjustment. To you, Mr. Minister, I tender a personal welcome.

So far as I have yet been able to learn, no other explanation of this bloody work has been suggested than that it had its origin in hostility to these men as sailors of the United States, wearing the uniform of their Government, and not in any individual act or personal animosity. The attention of the Chilian Government was at once called to this affair, and a statement of the facts obtained by the investigation we had conducted was submitted, accompanied by a request to be advised of any other or qualifying facts in the possession of the Chilian Government that might tend to relieve this affair of the appearance of an insult to this Government. The Chilian Government was also advised that if such qualifying facts did not exist, this Government would confidently expect full and prompt reparation.

It is to be regretted that the reply of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government was couched in an offensive tone. To this no response has been made. This Government is now awaiting the result of an investigation which has been conducted by the criminal court at Valparaiso. It is reported unofficially that the investigation is about completed, and it is expected that the result will soon be communicated to this Government, together with some adequate and satisfactory response to the note by which the attention of Chili was called to this incident. If these just expectations should be disappointed or further needless delay intervene, I will, by a special message, bring this matter again to the attention of Congress for such action as may be necessary. The entire correspondence with the Government of Chili will at an early day be submitted to Congress.

I do not doubt that certain and necessary provisions for the safety of the men who operate these roads will yet be made compulsory by public and general law. The dangers connected with your calling are very great, and the public interest, as well as your own, requires that they should be reduced to the minimum. I do not doubt that we shall yet require that uniformity in the construction of railroad cars that will diminish the danger of those, who must pass between them in order to make up trains.

I have twice before urgently called the attention of Congress to the necessity of legislation for the protection of the lives of railroad employees, but nothing has yet been done. During the year ending June 30, 1890, 369 brakemen were killed and 7,841 maimed while engaged in coupling cars. The total number of railroad employees killed during the year was 2,451 and the number injured 22,390. This is a cruel and largely a needless sacrifice, The Government is spending nearly one million dollars annually to save the lives of shipwrecked seamen; every steam-vessel is rigidly inspected and required to adopt the most approved safety appliances. All this is good; but how shall we excuse the lack of interest and effort in behalf of this army of brave young men who in our land commerce are being sacrificed every year by the continued use of antiquated and dangerous appliances? A law requiring of every railroad engaged in inter-State commerce the equipment each year of a given per cent. of its freight cars with automatic couplers and air brakes would compel an agreement between the roads as to the kind of brakes and couplers to be used, and would very soon and very greatly reduce the present fearful death-rate among railroad employees.

The method of appointment by the States of electors of President and Vice-President has recently attracted renewed interest by reason of a departure by the State of Michigan from the method which had become uniform in all the States. Prior to 1832 various methods had been used by the different States, and even by the same State. In some the choice was made by the Legislature; in others electors were chosen by districts, but more generally by the voters of the whole State upon a general ticket. The movement toward the adoption of the last-named method had an early beginning and went steadily forward among the States, until in 1832 there remained but a single State—South Carolina—that had not adopted it. That State, until the Civil War, continued to choose its electors by a vote of the Legislature, but after the war changed its method and conformed to the practice of the other States. For nearly sixty years all the States save one have appointed their electors by a popular vote upon a general ticket, and for nearly thirty years this method was universal.

After a full test of other methods, without important division or dissent in any State and without any purpose of party advantage, as we must believe, but solely upon the considerations that uniformity was desirable and that general election in territorial divisions not subject to change was most consistent with the popular character of our institutions, best preserved the equality of the voters, and perfectly removed the choice of President from the baneful influence of the "gerrymander," the practice of all the States was brought into harmony. That this concurrence should now be broken is, I think, an unfortunate and even a threatening episode, and one that may well suggest whether the States that still give their approval to the old and prevailing method ought not to secure, by a constitutional amendment, a practice which has had the approval of all. The recent Michigan legislation pro[561]vides for choosing what are popularly known as the Congressional electors for President by Congressional districts, and the two Senatorial electors by districts created for that purpose. This legislation was, of course, accompanied by a new Congressional apportionment, and the two statutes bring the electoral vote of the State under the influence of the "gerrymander."

These gerrymanders for Congressional purposes are in most cases buttressed by a gerrymander of the legislative districts, thus making it impossible for a majority of the legal voters of the State to correct the apportionment and equalize the Congressional districts. A minority rule is established that only a political convulsion can overthrow. I have recently been advised that in one county of a certain State three districts for the election of members of the Legislature are constituted as follows: One has 65,000 population, one 15,000, and one 10,000; while in another county, detached, non-contiguous sections have been united to make a legislative district. These methods have already found effective application to the choice of Senators and Representatives in Congress, and now an evil start has been made in the direction of applying them to the choice by the States of electors of President and Vice-President. If this is accomplished, we shall then have the three great departments of the Government in the grasp of the "gerrymander," the legislative and executive directly and the judiciary indirectly, through the power of appointment.

An election implies a body of electors having prescribed qualifications, each one of whom has an equal value and influence in determining the result. So when the Constitution provides that "each State shall appoint [elect], in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors," etc., an unrestricted power was not given to the legislatures in the selection of the methods to be used. "A republican form of government" is guaranteed by the Constitution to each State, and the power given by the same instrument to the legislatures of the States to prescribe methods for the choice, by the State, of electors must be exercised under that limitation. The essential features of such a government are the right of the people to choose their own officers and the nearest practicable equality of value in the suffrages given in determining that choice.

It will not be claimed that the power given to the Legislature would support a law providing that the persons receiving the smallest vote should be the electors, or a law that all the electors should be chosen by the voters of a single Congressional district. The State is to choose, and under the pretence of regulating methods the[562] legislature can neither vest the right of choice elsewhere nor adopt methods not conformable to republican institutions. It is not my purpose here to discuss the question whether a choice by the Legislature or by the voters of equal single districts is a choice by the State, but only to recommend such regulation of this matter by constitutional amendment as will secure uniformity and prevent that disgraceful partisan jugglery to which such a liberty of choice, if it exist, offers a temptation.

Nothing just now is more important than to provide every guaranty for the absolutely fair and free choice by an equal suffrage, within the respective States, of all the officers of the national Government, whether that suffrage is applied directly, as in the choice of members of the House of Representatives, or indirectly, as in the choice of Senators and electors of President. Respect for public officers and obedience to law will not cease to be the characteristics of our people until our elections cease to declare the will of majorities fairly ascertained, without fraud, suppression, or gerrymander. If I were called upon to declare wherein our chief national danger lies, I should say, without hesitation, in the overthrow of majority control by the suppression or perversion of the popular suffrage. That there is a real danger here all must agree, but the energies of those who see it have been chiefly expended in trying to fix responsibility upon the opposite party, rather than in efforts to make such practices impossible by either party.

Is it not possible now to adjourn that interminable and inconclusive debate while we take, by consent, one step in the direction of reform by eliminating the gerrymander, which has been denounced by all parties, as an influence in the selection of electors of President and members of Congress? All the States have, acting freely and separately, determined that the choice of electors by a general ticket is the wisest and safest method, and it would seem there could be no objection to a constitutional amendment making that method permanent. If a legislature chosen in one year upon purely local questions should, pending a presidential contest, meet, rescind the law for a choice upon a general ticket, and provide for the choice of electors by the legislature, and this trick should determine the result, it is not too much to say that the public peace might be seriously and widely endangered.

I have alluded to the "gerrymander" as affecting the method of selecting electors of President by Congressional districts, but the primary intent and effect of this form of political robbery have relation to the selection of members of the House of Representa[563]tives. The power of Congress is ample to deal with this threatening and intolerable abuse. The unfailing test of sincerity in election reform will be found in a willingness to confer as to remedies and to put into force such measures as will most effectually preserve the right of the people to free and equal representation.

An attempt was made in the last Congress to bring to bear the constitutional powers of the general Government for the correction of frauds against the suffrage. It is important to know whether the opposition to such measures is really vested in particular features supposed to be objectionable or includes any proposition to give to the election laws of the United States adequacy to the correction of grave and acknowledged evils. I must yet entertain the hope that it is possible to secure a calm, patriotic consideration of such constitutional or statutory changes as may be necessary to secure the choice of the officers of the Government to the people by fair apportionments and free elections. I believe it would be possible to constitute a commission, non-partisan in its membership and composed of patriotic, wise, and impartial men, to whom a consideration of the question of the evils connected with our election system and methods might be committed with a good prospect of securing unanimity in some plan for removing or mitigating those evils. The Constitution would permit the selection of the commission to be vested in the Supreme Court, if that method would give the best guaranty of impartiality.

This commission should be charged with the duty of inquiring into the whole subject of the law of elections as related to the choice of officers of the national Government, with a view to securing to every elector a free and unmolested exercise of the suffrage and as near an approach to an equality of value in each ballot cast as is attainable.

While the policies of the general Government upon the tariff, upon the restoration of our merchant marine, upon river and harbor improvements, and other such matters of grave and general concern are liable to be turned this way or that by the results of Congressional elections and administrative policies, sometimes involving issues that tend to peace or war, to be turned this way or that by the results of a presidential election, there is a rightful interest in all the States and in every Congressional district that will not be deceived or silenced by the audacious pretence that the question of the right of any body of legal voters in any State or in any Congressional district to give their suffrages freely upon these general questions is a matter only of local concern or control. The demand that the limitations of suffrage shall be found in the law,[564] and only there, is a just demand, and no just man should resent or resist it. My appeal is, and must continue to be, for a consultation that shall "proceed with candor, calmness, and patience upon the lines of justice and humanity, not of prejudice and cruelty."

To the consideration of these very grave questions I invite not only the attention of Congress, but that of all patriotic citizens. We must not entertain the delusion that our people have ceased to regard a free ballot and equal representation as the price of their allegiance to laws and to civil magistrates.

I have been greatly rejoiced to notice many evidences of the increased unification of our people and of a revived national spirit. The vista that now opens to us is wider and more glorious than ever before. Gratification and amazement struggle for supremacy as we contemplate the population, wealth, and moral strength of our country. A trust, momentous in its influence upon our people and upon the world, is for a brief time committed to us, and we must not be faithless to its first condition—the defence of the free and equal influence of the people in the choice of public officers and in the control of public affairs.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

· · · · · ·

We have now received from the Chilian Government an abstract of the conclusions of the Fiscal General upon the testimony taken by the Judge of Crimes in an investigation which was made to extend over nearly three months. I very much regret to be compelled to say that this report does not enable me to modify the conclusion announced in my annual message. I am still of the opinion that our sailors were assaulted, beaten, stabbed, and killed, not for anything they or any one of them had done, but for what the Government of the United States had done, or was charged with having done, by its civil officers and naval commanders. If that be the true aspect of the case, the injury was to the Government of the United States, not to these poor sailors who were assaulted in a manner so brutal and so cowardly.

· · · · ·

It is not claimed that every personal collision or injury in which a sailor or officer of such naval vessel visiting the shore may be involved raises an international question; but I am clearly of the opinion that where such sailors or officers are assaulted by a resident populace, animated by hostility to the Government whose uniform these sailors and officers wear, and in resentment of acts done by their Government, not by them, their nation must take notice of the event as one involving an infraction of its rights and dignity—not in a secondary way, as where a citizen is injured and presents his claim through his own Government, but in a primary way, precisely as if its minister or consul or the flag itself had been the object of the same character of assault. The officers and sailors of the Baltimore were in the harbor of Valparaiso under the orders of their Government, not by their own choice. They were upon the shore by the implied invitation of the Government of Chili and with the approval of their commanding officer; and it does not distinguish their case from that of a consul that his stay is more permanent or that he holds the express invitation of the local government to justify his longer residence. Nor does it affect the question that the injury was the act of a mob. If there had[566] been no participation by the police or military in this cruel work and no neglect on their part to extend protection, the case would still be one, in my opinion, when its extent and character are considered, involving international rights.

The scene ... is very graphically set before us by the Chilian testimony. The American sailors, who, after so long an examination, have not been found guilty of any breach of the peace so far as the Chilian authorities are able to discover, unarmed and defenceless, are fleeing for their lives, pursued by overwhelming numbers, and fighting only to aid their own escape from death or to succor some mate whose life is in greater peril. Eighteen of them are brutally stabbed and beaten, while one Chilian seems, from the report, to have suffered some injury; but how serious or with what character or weapon, or whether by a missile thrown by our men or by some of his fellow-rioters, is unascertained.

The pretence that our men were fighting "with stones, clubs, and bright arms" is, in view of these facts, incredible. It is further refuted by the fact that our prisoners, when searched, were absolutely without arms, only seven penknives being found in the possession of the men arrested, while there were received by our men more than thirty stab wounds, every one of which was inflicted in the back, and almost every contused wound was in the back or back of the head. The evidence of the ship's officer of the day is that even the jack-knives of the men were taken from them before leaving the ship....

No amount of evasion or subterfuge is able to cloud our clear vision of this brutal work....

It is quite remarkable and quite characteristic of the management of this affair by the Chilian police authorities that we should now be advised that Seaman Davidson, of the Baltimore, has been included in the indictment, his offence being, so far as I have been able to ascertain, that he attempted to defend a shipmate against an assailant who was striking at him with a knife. The perfect vindication of our men is furnished by this report; one only is found to have been guilty of criminal fault, and that for an act clearly justifiable....

The evidence of our sailors clearly shows that the attack was expected by the Chilian people, that threats had been made against our[567] men, and that, in one case somewhat early in the afternoon, the keeper of one house into which some of our men had gone closed his establishment in anticipation of the attack, which he advised them would be made upon them as darkness came on....

Several of our men sought security from the mob by such complete or partial changes in their dress as would conceal the fact of their being seamen of the Baltimore, and found it then possible to walk the streets without molestation. These incidents conclusively establish that the attack was upon the uniform—the nationality—and not upon the men.

· · · · ·

The testimony of Captain Jenkins, of the American merchant ship Keweenaw, which had gone to Valparaiso for repairs, and who was a witness of some part of the assault upon the crew of the Baltimore, is strongly corroborative of the testimony of our own sailors when he says that he saw Chilian sentries drive back a seaman, seeking shelter, upon a mob that was pursuing him. The officers and men of Captain Jenkins' ship furnish the most conclusive testimony as to the indignities which were practised toward Americans in Valparaiso. When American sailors, even of merchant ships, can only secure their safety by denying their nationality, it must be time to readjust our relations with a government that permits such demonstrations.

As to the participation of the police, the evidence of our sailors shows that our men were struck and beaten by police officers before and after arrest, and that one at least was dragged with a lasso about his neck by a mounted policeman. That the death of Riggin was the result of a rifle-shot fired by a policeman or soldier on duty is shown directly by the testimony of Johnson, in whose arms he was at the time, and by the evidence of Charles Langen, an American sailor not then a member of the Baltimore's crew, who stood close by and saw the transaction. The Chilian authorities do not pretend to fix the responsibility of this shot upon any particular person, but avow their inability to ascertain who fired it, further than that it was fired from a crowd....

The communications of the Chilian Government in relation to this cruel and disastrous attack upon our men, as will appear from the correspondence, have not in any degree taken the form of a manly and satisfactory expression of regret, much less of apology. The event was of so serious a character that, if the injuries suffered by our men had been wholly the result of an accident in a Chilian port, the incident was grave enough to have called for some public expression of sympathy and regret from the local authorities. It[568] is not enough to say that the affair was lamentable, for humanity would require that expression, even if the beating and killing of our men had been justifiable. It is not enough to say that the incident is regretted, coupled with the statement that the affair was not of an unusual character in ports where foreign sailors are accustomed to meet. It is not for a generous and sincere government to seek for words of small or equivocal meaning in which to convey to a friendly power an apology for an offence so atrocious as this. In the case of the assault by a mob in New Orleans upon the Spanish consulate in 1851, Mr. Webster wrote to the Spanish minister, Mr. Calderon, that the acts complained of were "a disgraceful and flagrant breach of duty and propriety," and that his Government "regrets them as deeply as Minister Calderon or his Government could possibly do;" that "these acts have caused the President great pain, and he thinks a proper acknowledgment is due to Her Majesty's Government." He invited the Spanish consul to return to his post, guaranteeing protection, and offered to salute the Spanish flag if the consul should come in a Spanish vessel. Such a treatment by the Government of Chili of this assault would have been more creditable to the Chilian authorities; and much less can hardly be satisfactory to a government that values its dignity and honor.

· · · · ·

On the 21st instant I caused to be communicated to the Government of Chili, by the American minister at Santiago, the conclusions of this Government after a full consideration of all the evidence and of every suggestion affecting this matter, and to these conclusions I adhere. They were stated as follows:

"First. That the assault is not relieved of the aspect which the early information of the event gave to it, viz.: That of an attack upon the uniform of the United States Navy, having its origin and motive in a feeling of hostility to this Government, and not in any act of the sailors or of any of them.

"Second. That the public authorities of Valparaiso flagrantly failed in their duty to protect our men, and that some of the police and of the Chilian soldiers and sailors were themselves guilty of unprovoked assaults upon our sailors before and after arrest. He [the President] thinks the preponderance of the evidence and the inherent probabilities lead to the conclusion that Riggin was killed by the police or soldiers.

"Third. That he [the President] is therefore compelled to bring the case back to the position taken by this Government in the note of Mr. Wharton of October 23 last, ... and to ask for a suit[569]able apology and for some adequate reparation for the injury done to this Government."

In the same note the attention of the Chilian Government was called to the offensive character of a note addressed by Mr. Matta, its Minister of Foreign Affairs, to Mr. Montt, its minister at this capital, on the 11th ultimo. This despatch was not officially communicated to this Government; but, as Mr. Montt was directed to translate it and to give it to the press of this country, it seemed to me that it could not pass without official notice. It was not only undiplomatic, but grossly insulting to our naval officers and to the Executive Department, as it directly imputed untruth and insincerity to the reports of the naval officers and to the official communications made by the Executive Department to Congress. It will be observed that I have notified the Chilian Government that, unless this note is at once withdrawn and an apology as public as the offence made, I will terminate diplomatic relations.

The request for the recall of Mr. Egan upon the ground that he was not persona grata was unaccompanied by any suggestion that could properly be used in support of it, and I infer that the request is based upon official acts of Mr. Egan which have received the approval of this Government. But however that may be, I could not consent to consider such a question until it had first been settled whether our correspondence with Chili could be conducted upon a basis of mutual respect.

In submitting these papers to Congress for that grave and patriotic consideration which the questions involved demand, I desire to say that I am of the opinion that the demands made of Chili by this Government should be adhered to and enforced. If the dignity as well as the prestige and influence of the United States are not to be wholly sacrificed, we must protect those who, in foreign ports, display the flag or wear the colors of this Government against insult, brutality, and death inflicted in resentment of the acts of their Government, and not for any fault of their own. It has been my desire in every way to cultivate friendly and intimate relations with all the governments of this hemisphere. We do not covet their territory; we desire their peace and prosperity. We look for no advantage in our relations with them, except the increased exchanges of commerce upon a basis of mutual benefit. We regret every civil contest that disturbs their peace and paralyzes their development, and are always ready to give our good offices for the restoration of peace. It must, however, be understood that this Government, while exercising the utmost forbearance toward weaker powers, will extend its strong and adequate protection to[570] its citizens, to its officers, and to its humblest sailors when made the victims of wantonness and cruelty in resentment, not of their personal misconduct, but of the official acts of their Government.

Upon information received that Patrick Shields, an Irishman and probably a British subject, but at the time a fireman of the American steamer Keweenaw, in the harbor of Valparaiso for repairs, had been subjected to personal injuries in that city—largely by the police—I directed the Attorney-General to cause the evidence of the officers and crew of that vessel to be taken upon its arrival in San Francisco; and that testimony is also herewith transmitted. The brutality and even savagery of the treatment of this poor man by the Chilian police would be incredible if the evidence of Shields was not supported by other direct testimony and by the distressing condition of the man himself when he was finally able to reach his vessel....

A claim for reparation has been made in behalf of this man, for while he was not a citizen of the United States, the doctrine long held by us, as expressed in the Consular Regulations, is "the principles which are maintained by this Government in regard to the protection, as distinguished from the relief, of seamen are well settled. It is held that the circumstance that the vessel is American is evidence that the seamen on board are such; and in every regularly documented merchant vessel the crew will find their protection in the flag that covers them."

I have as yet received no reply to our note of the 21st instant, but in my opinion I ought not to delay longer to bring these matters to the attention of Congress for such action as may be deemed appropriate.

Benj. Harrison.

Executive Mansion,
January 25, 1892.