BILLINGS PARK, AUGUST 27.Whenthe presidential party left St. Johnsbury on the morning of the 27th, they were joined by Hon. A. A. Woolson, C. S. Forbes, ex-Governor Farnham, and ex-Senator Pingree. At White River Junction the President's car was switched to a siding running to Billings Park, where the Vermont Association of Road and Trotting Horse Breeders was holding its annual exhibition. Senator Morrill, Col. Geo. W. Hooker, and Capt. A. W. Davis accompanied the party to the park, where carriages conveyed them over the grounds. A large crowd was present.Col. Hooker, as President of the Association, introduced President Harrison, who said: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.]
Whenthe presidential party left St. Johnsbury on the morning of the 27th, they were joined by Hon. A. A. Woolson, C. S. Forbes, ex-Governor Farnham, and ex-Senator Pingree. At White River Junction the President's car was switched to a siding running to Billings Park, where the Vermont Association of Road and Trotting Horse Breeders was holding its annual exhibition. Senator Morrill, Col. Geo. W. Hooker, and Capt. A. W. Davis accompanied the party to the park, where carriages conveyed them over the grounds. A large crowd was present.
Col. Hooker, as President of the Association, introduced President Harrison, who said:
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.]
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.]
BRADFORD, VERMONT, AUGUST 27.AtBradford 1,000 people assembled to do honor to the President, who arrived at 10A.M.The visitors were escorted to a platform near the station. Among the prominent residents who welcomed the Chief Executive were H. E. Parker, Judge S. M. Gleason, Roswell Farnham, John H. Watson, Dr. J. H. Jones, and L. J. Brown.Ex-Governor Farnham introduced the President, who spoke as follows: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 aresure 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.]
AtBradford 1,000 people assembled to do honor to the President, who arrived at 10A.M.The visitors were escorted to a platform near the station. Among the prominent residents who welcomed the Chief Executive were H. E. Parker, Judge S. M. Gleason, Roswell Farnham, John H. Watson, Dr. J. H. Jones, and L. J. Brown.
Ex-Governor Farnham introduced the President, who spoke as follows:
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 aresure 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.]
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 aresure 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.]
WINDSOR, VERMONT, AUGUST 27.Itwas raining when the President arrived at Windsor, at 1P.M.He was met by Senator William M. Evarts, accompanied by Hon. C. C. Beaman, of New York; Hon. Chester Pike, of Cornish, N. H., and the following prominent citizens, comprising the local Committee of Reception: Col. Marsh O. Perkins, Dwight Tuxbury, Hon. G. A. Davis, Dr. C. P. Holden, Dr. J. S. Richmond, U. L. Comings, George T. Low, Hon. Rollin Amsden, E. C. Howard, Charles H. Fitch, O. L. Patrick, Rev. E. N. Goddard, S. N. Stone, S. R. Bryant, J. M. Howe, George T. Hazen, S. M. Blood, S. E. Hoisington, Horace Weston, A. E. Houghton, A. J. Hunter, Allen Dudley, Dr. Deane Richmond, J. R. Brewster, A. D. Cotton, G. R. Guernsey, Charles N. Adams, Col. M. K. Paine, H. W. Stocker, George M. Stone, Harvey Miller, George T. Winn, and C. D. Penniman.After partaking of luncheon at the residence of Senator and Mrs. Evarts, the President was conducted to the Town Hall, and, being introduced to the assemblage by Colonel Perkins, he spoke as follows: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 afternoonto 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.]
Itwas raining when the President arrived at Windsor, at 1P.M.He was met by Senator William M. Evarts, accompanied by Hon. C. C. Beaman, of New York; Hon. Chester Pike, of Cornish, N. H., and the following prominent citizens, comprising the local Committee of Reception: Col. Marsh O. Perkins, Dwight Tuxbury, Hon. G. A. Davis, Dr. C. P. Holden, Dr. J. S. Richmond, U. L. Comings, George T. Low, Hon. Rollin Amsden, E. C. Howard, Charles H. Fitch, O. L. Patrick, Rev. E. N. Goddard, S. N. Stone, S. R. Bryant, J. M. Howe, George T. Hazen, S. M. Blood, S. E. Hoisington, Horace Weston, A. E. Houghton, A. J. Hunter, Allen Dudley, Dr. Deane Richmond, J. R. Brewster, A. D. Cotton, G. R. Guernsey, Charles N. Adams, Col. M. K. Paine, H. W. Stocker, George M. Stone, Harvey Miller, George T. Winn, and C. D. Penniman.
After partaking of luncheon at the residence of Senator and Mrs. Evarts, the President was conducted to the Town Hall, and, being introduced to the assemblage by Colonel Perkins, he spoke as follows:
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 afternoonto 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.]
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 afternoonto 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.]
CHARLESTOWN, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AUGUST 27.Notwithstandingthe heavy downpour, 1,000 or more sturdy citizens of historic old Charlestown welcomed the President to New Hampshire. The Reception Committee consisted of Hon. George Olcott, George S. Bond, Frank Finnigan, Col. Samuel Webber, Herbert W. Bond, and Frank W. Hamlin. Lincoln Post, G. A. R., Lyman F. Partridge Commander, also participated in the reception. Colonel Webber delivered an eloquent address of welcome.The President, responding, said: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.]
Notwithstandingthe heavy downpour, 1,000 or more sturdy citizens of historic old Charlestown welcomed the President to New Hampshire. The Reception Committee consisted of Hon. George Olcott, George S. Bond, Frank Finnigan, Col. Samuel Webber, Herbert W. Bond, and Frank W. Hamlin. Lincoln Post, G. A. R., Lyman F. Partridge Commander, also participated in the reception. Colonel Webber delivered an eloquent address of welcome.
The President, responding, said:
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.]
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.]
BELLOWS FALLS, VERMONT, AUGUST 27.Whenthe train arrived at Bellows Falls, the rain was pouring in torrents and the President was conducted to the Opera House by the veterans of E. H. Stoughton Post, G. A. R. The Committee of Reception consisted of Hon. Wm. A. Russell, Hon. A. N. Swain, Judge L. M. Read, Barnes Cannon, Jr., Wyman Flint, John T. Moore, C. W. Osgood, Thomas E. O'Brien, George H. Babbitt, and Capt. Walter Taylor, the latter a veteran of eighty years,who marshalled the hosts for Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison in 1836 and '40. The building was packed.Mr. Swain introduced President Harrison, who said: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 conquer 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.]
Whenthe train arrived at Bellows Falls, the rain was pouring in torrents and the President was conducted to the Opera House by the veterans of E. H. Stoughton Post, G. A. R. The Committee of Reception consisted of Hon. Wm. A. Russell, Hon. A. N. Swain, Judge L. M. Read, Barnes Cannon, Jr., Wyman Flint, John T. Moore, C. W. Osgood, Thomas E. O'Brien, George H. Babbitt, and Capt. Walter Taylor, the latter a veteran of eighty years,who marshalled the hosts for Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison in 1836 and '40. The building was packed.
Mr. Swain introduced President Harrison, who said:
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 conquer 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—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 conquer 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.]
BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT, AUGUST 27.Justbefore the train reached Brattleboro the rain ceased, and the President rode in a procession to the house of Col. J. J. Estey. The Committee of Reception consisted of Colonel Estey, Col. Kittredge Haskins, Dr. H. D. Holton, N. I. Hawley, F. W. Childs, ex-Governor Holbrook, Judge Wheeler, Hon. B. D. Harris, Hon. J. L. Martin, E. C. Crosby, Judge R. W. Clarke, C. F. Thompson, Col. W. C. Holbrook, George S. Dowley, Colonel Fuller, Dr. Conland, Dr. Ketchum, and G. A. Hines. Veterans of the G. A. R., and the Estey Guard, escorted the Chief Executive through the city. Several thousand were assembled on the grounds.Colonel Estey welcomed and presented the President, who made the following address: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 theDespatchbowing 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 buildingof 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.]
Justbefore the train reached Brattleboro the rain ceased, and the President rode in a procession to the house of Col. J. J. Estey. The Committee of Reception consisted of Colonel Estey, Col. Kittredge Haskins, Dr. H. D. Holton, N. I. Hawley, F. W. Childs, ex-Governor Holbrook, Judge Wheeler, Hon. B. D. Harris, Hon. J. L. Martin, E. C. Crosby, Judge R. W. Clarke, C. F. Thompson, Col. W. C. Holbrook, George S. Dowley, Colonel Fuller, Dr. Conland, Dr. Ketchum, and G. A. Hines. Veterans of the G. A. R., and the Estey Guard, escorted the Chief Executive through the city. Several thousand were assembled on the grounds.
Colonel Estey welcomed and presented the President, who made the following address:
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 theDespatchbowing 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 buildingof 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—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 theDespatchbowing 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 buildingof 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.]
RUTLAND, VERMONT, AUGUST 28.ThePresident and his party were guests of Secretary Proctor on the night of the 27th, at the village of Proctor, in the Green Mountains. The morning of the 28th, the party visited Rutland, and were met by the local Reception Committee: J. C. Baker, H. H. Dyer, W. G. Veazey, ex-Judge Barrett, J. W. Cramton, Dr. J. D. Hanrahan, C. H. Joyce, J. N. Woodfin, E. P. Gilson, P. W. Clement, George E. Lawrence, Henry F. Field, John N. Baxter, P. M. Meldon, John A. Sheldon, George J. Wardwell, Dr. Norman Seaver, and Henry Carpenter, President of the village.Arrived at Memorial Hall the President was greeted by a large assemblage, including many ladies. He was presented by Colonel Baker and made the following address: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 disturbed 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 beginning 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.]
ThePresident and his party were guests of Secretary Proctor on the night of the 27th, at the village of Proctor, in the Green Mountains. The morning of the 28th, the party visited Rutland, and were met by the local Reception Committee: J. C. Baker, H. H. Dyer, W. G. Veazey, ex-Judge Barrett, J. W. Cramton, Dr. J. D. Hanrahan, C. H. Joyce, J. N. Woodfin, E. P. Gilson, P. W. Clement, George E. Lawrence, Henry F. Field, John N. Baxter, P. M. Meldon, John A. Sheldon, George J. Wardwell, Dr. Norman Seaver, and Henry Carpenter, President of the village.
Arrived at Memorial Hall the President was greeted by a large assemblage, including many ladies. He was presented by Colonel Baker and made the following address:
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 disturbed 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 beginning 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.]
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 disturbed 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 beginning 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.]
PROCTOR, VERMONT, AUGUST 28.Onthe return to Proctor in the evening the President was tendered the final reception of his trip to Vermont. The village was elaborately decorated; an illuminated evergreen arch spanned the entrance to Secretary Proctor's beautiful grounds. The residences and grounds of E. R. Morse, F. D. Proctor, B. F. Taylor, W. E. Higbee, G. H. Davis, E. J. Boyce, J. H. Edson, and H. E. Spencer were also brilliantly illuminated. From a platform fronting the Secretary's home the party reviewed the procession of 1,000 workmen from the marble quarries.Secretary Proctor, in an affectionate address, introduced President Harrison, who spoke as follows: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 artistic 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 toocheap. 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.]
Onthe return to Proctor in the evening the President was tendered the final reception of his trip to Vermont. The village was elaborately decorated; an illuminated evergreen arch spanned the entrance to Secretary Proctor's beautiful grounds. The residences and grounds of E. R. Morse, F. D. Proctor, B. F. Taylor, W. E. Higbee, G. H. Davis, E. J. Boyce, J. H. Edson, and H. E. Spencer were also brilliantly illuminated. From a platform fronting the Secretary's home the party reviewed the procession of 1,000 workmen from the marble quarries.
Secretary Proctor, in an affectionate address, introduced President Harrison, who spoke as follows:
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 artistic 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 toocheap. 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.]
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 artistic 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 toocheap. 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.]
WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 17, 1891.The Augusta Exposition.President Harrisonon the above date received at the Executive Mansion a delegation of prominent citizens of Georgia, who extended to him a formal invitation to attend the Augusta Exposition in November. The delegation comprised the following citizens and Exposition directors: Hon. Patrick Walsh, Walter M. Jackson, J. P. Verdery, H. G. Smith, J. L. Gow, C. H. Ballard, J. J. Doughty, W. A. Garrett, G. J. Howard, W. H. Landrum, J. E. Barton, W. E. Keener, Percy Burum, J. P. Bones, J. M. Cranston, Crawford Mays, Maurice Walton, L. J. Henry, T. R. Gibson, P. J. O'Connor, Jules Rival, Joseph Ganahl, Jr., W. H. Barrett, Jr., P. A. Stovall, W. E. Platt, A. J. Gouley, Frank X. Dorr, and Hon. J. C. Clements.Chairman Walsh, on behalf of the committee, made the invitation address, to which the President, responding, said: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 stethoscopes, 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.
The Augusta Exposition.
President Harrisonon the above date received at the Executive Mansion a delegation of prominent citizens of Georgia, who extended to him a formal invitation to attend the Augusta Exposition in November. The delegation comprised the following citizens and Exposition directors: Hon. Patrick Walsh, Walter M. Jackson, J. P. Verdery, H. G. Smith, J. L. Gow, C. H. Ballard, J. J. Doughty, W. A. Garrett, G. J. Howard, W. H. Landrum, J. E. Barton, W. E. Keener, Percy Burum, J. P. Bones, J. M. Cranston, Crawford Mays, Maurice Walton, L. J. Henry, T. R. Gibson, P. J. O'Connor, Jules Rival, Joseph Ganahl, Jr., W. H. Barrett, Jr., P. A. Stovall, W. E. Platt, A. J. Gouley, Frank X. Dorr, and Hon. J. C. Clements.
Chairman Walsh, on behalf of the committee, made the invitation address, to which the President, responding, said:
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 stethoscopes, 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.
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 stethoscopes, 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.
WASHINGTON, D. C., OCTOBER 17, 1891.TheEcumenical Conference of the Methodist Church convened in the Metropolitan Church at Washington, D. C., on October 7, 1891. Rt. Rev. Thomas Bowman, Senior Bishop of the Church in America, presided at the opening, and Rev. William Arthur, M.A., of London, delivered the inaugural sermon. It was in every respect the greatest assembly in the history of Methodism.Among a few of the distinguished preachers and orators from abroad were: Rev. T. B. Stephenson, D.D., LL.D., Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, M.A., Rev. John Bond, Rev. F. W. Bourne, Rev. J. Ernest Clapham, and Rev. David J. Waller, D.D., all of London. The following Washingtonians comprised the Committee on Reception: Bishop J. F. Hurst, D.D.; Rev. G. H. Corey, D.D., Chairman; Rev. C. W. Baldwin, Rev. J. H. Becket, Rev. J. W. E. Bowen, Rev. T. E. Carson, Rev. R. H. G. Dyson, Rev. George Elliott, Rev. S. R. Murray, Rev. C. H. Phillips, Rev. J. A. Price, Rev. E. S. Todd, Rev. L. T. Widerman, Rev. J. T. Wightman, Rev. L. B. Wilson, Alexander Ashley, E. S. Atkinson, W. S. Birch, Gen. Cyrus Bussey, J. F. Chestnut, D. S. Cissell, Robert Cohen, George Compton, L. A. Cornish, G. S. Deering, Robert Dunn, A. B. Duval, Hon. M. G. Emery, Prof. Edgar Frisbie, D. B. Groff, T. A. Harding, Gen. S. S. Henkle, W. H. Houghton, W. J. Hutchinson, Thomas Jarvis, B. F. Leighton, William Mayse, H. B. Moulton, Hon. Hiram Price, B. Robinson, W. J. Sibley, T. B. Stahl, B. H. Stinemetz, H. L. Strang, G. W. F. Swartzell, Frederick Tasker, J. S. Topham, L. H. Walker, E. S. Wescott, J. B. Wilson, and W. R. Woodward.On the tenth day of the Conference, President Harrison, escorted by Rev. Dr. J. M. King, Secretary, and Rev. Dr. Corey, the pastor of Metropolitan Church, attended the session. Other distinguished visitors were Secretary of the Treasury Foster, Secretary of the Interior Noble, and Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British Minister.The chief essay of the session was delivered by Mr. Thomas Snape, of Liverpool, upon the topic of the day, "International Arbitration," a subject which made the presence of the President and the British envoy particularly appropriate.As the President ascended to the pulpit, all the delegates and the great audience instantly arose. The presiding officer of the day, Rev. T. G. Williams, of Montreal, presented the distinguished visitor, who was received with prolonged applause, in which the English delegates led.President Harrison then addressed the Conference as follows: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, youcome 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.]
TheEcumenical Conference of the Methodist Church convened in the Metropolitan Church at Washington, D. C., on October 7, 1891. Rt. Rev. Thomas Bowman, Senior Bishop of the Church in America, presided at the opening, and Rev. William Arthur, M.A., of London, delivered the inaugural sermon. It was in every respect the greatest assembly in the history of Methodism.
Among a few of the distinguished preachers and orators from abroad were: Rev. T. B. Stephenson, D.D., LL.D., Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, M.A., Rev. John Bond, Rev. F. W. Bourne, Rev. J. Ernest Clapham, and Rev. David J. Waller, D.D., all of London. The following Washingtonians comprised the Committee on Reception: Bishop J. F. Hurst, D.D.; Rev. G. H. Corey, D.D., Chairman; Rev. C. W. Baldwin, Rev. J. H. Becket, Rev. J. W. E. Bowen, Rev. T. E. Carson, Rev. R. H. G. Dyson, Rev. George Elliott, Rev. S. R. Murray, Rev. C. H. Phillips, Rev. J. A. Price, Rev. E. S. Todd, Rev. L. T. Widerman, Rev. J. T. Wightman, Rev. L. B. Wilson, Alexander Ashley, E. S. Atkinson, W. S. Birch, Gen. Cyrus Bussey, J. F. Chestnut, D. S. Cissell, Robert Cohen, George Compton, L. A. Cornish, G. S. Deering, Robert Dunn, A. B. Duval, Hon. M. G. Emery, Prof. Edgar Frisbie, D. B. Groff, T. A. Harding, Gen. S. S. Henkle, W. H. Houghton, W. J. Hutchinson, Thomas Jarvis, B. F. Leighton, William Mayse, H. B. Moulton, Hon. Hiram Price, B. Robinson, W. J. Sibley, T. B. Stahl, B. H. Stinemetz, H. L. Strang, G. W. F. Swartzell, Frederick Tasker, J. S. Topham, L. H. Walker, E. S. Wescott, J. B. Wilson, and W. R. Woodward.
On the tenth day of the Conference, President Harrison, escorted by Rev. Dr. J. M. King, Secretary, and Rev. Dr. Corey, the pastor of Metropolitan Church, attended the session. Other distinguished visitors were Secretary of the Treasury Foster, Secretary of the Interior Noble, and Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British Minister.
The chief essay of the session was delivered by Mr. Thomas Snape, of Liverpool, upon the topic of the day, "International Arbitration," a subject which made the presence of the President and the British envoy particularly appropriate.
As the President ascended to the pulpit, all the delegates and the great audience instantly arose. The presiding officer of the day, Rev. T. G. Williams, of Montreal, presented the distinguished visitor, who was received with prolonged applause, in which the English delegates led.
President Harrison then addressed the Conference as follows:
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, youcome 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.]
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, youcome 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.]
AMERICAN TIN PLATE, OCTOBER 23.Whilethe gubernatorial campaign in Ohio was in progress and Major McKinley was making his famous race, the question as to the successful manufacture of tin plate in the United States was one of the leading issues of the day. At this juncture W. C. Cronemyer, of the United States Iron and Steel Tin Plate Works, at Demmler, Pa., sent President Harrison a box of tin plate manufactured at the Demmler works, and received in return the following interesting letter, which was given wide publicity at the time: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.
Whilethe gubernatorial campaign in Ohio was in progress and Major McKinley was making his famous race, the question as to the successful manufacture of tin plate in the United States was one of the leading issues of the day. At this juncture W. C. Cronemyer, of the United States Iron and Steel Tin Plate Works, at Demmler, Pa., sent President Harrison a box of tin plate manufactured at the Demmler works, and received in return the following interesting letter, which was given wide publicity at the time:
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.
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.