Chapter XXIII: Part 23

_Comrades and Fellow-citizens_--It is pleasant to come this morning
upon an assemblage of comrades gathering with their families to a
social reunion to recall their services and sacrifices and to bathe
their souls in the glory of this bright day and of this great land
that they fought to save. [Applause.] Such assemblages are full
of interest to the veterans, and they are full of instruction and
inspiration to those who gather with them. It is our habit in the
West, as it is yours here, to have these annual meetings, and it is
always a pleasure to me when I can arrange to meet with the comrades
of my old regiment, or of the old brigade, or with the veterans of
any regiment of any State who stood for the flag. [Applause.] There
is a pathetic side to all this. We gather with diminished ranks from
year to year. We miss the comrades who are dropping by the way. We see
repeated now that which we saw as the great column moved on in the
campaign of the war--a comrade dropping out, borne to the hospital,
followed to the grave--and yet these soldier memories and thoughts
are brightened by the glories which inspire and attend all these
gatherings of the veterans of the war. We see the old flag again, and
I am glad to believe that there has never been a period in our history
when there was more love for it. [Applause.]

It is quite natural that it should be so. These veterans who stand
about me have seen many days and months in camps and battlefields and
in devastated country through which they marched when there was on
all the horizon one thing of beauty--that glorified flag. [Applause.]
They brought home the love of it in their hearts, wrought in every
fibre of their nature; and it is very natural that the children who
have come on should catch this inspiration and love from the fathers
who perilled everything that the flag might still be held in honor,
and still be an emblem of the authority of one Constitution over an
undivided Nation. We see to-day how worthy the land was for which
our comrades died, and for which you, my comrades, offered your
lives, in its great development and its increasing population, in
its multiplying homes, where plenty and prosperity, the love of God
and social order, and all good things abide. In this great Nation,
striding on in wealth and prosperity to the very first place among the
nations of the earth; in this land, in truth as well as in theory the
land of the free, we see that which was worthy of the utmost sacrifice
of the truest men. [Prolonged Cheers.]

I recall with pleasure that some of the New York regiments, coming
to the Western army with Hooker and Howard and Gerry and Williams and
others, served in the same corps to which I was designated during the
great campaign upon Atlanta. Some of the comrades who made that march
from Chattanooga to Atlanta and the sea are here to-day, survivors of
one of the greatest, in all its aspects, of all the campaigns of the
war. You came from those bloody fields upon the Potomac, and struck
hands with us of the West as brothers. You helped us in the struggle
there to cut the Confederacy in twain, and, lapping around by the sea,
to strike hands with Grant again near Appomattox. [cheers.]

I thank you again most cordially for your friendly demonstration
and presence. If I had the power to call down blessings upon my
fellow-men, the home of every comrade here would be full of all
prosperity. [Applause.]

FAIR HAVEN, VERMONT, AUGUST 25.

At Whitehall the party was joined by Adj.-Gen. T. S. Peck and Col. M. J. Horton, of Governor Page's staff. When the Vermont line was reached General Peck, in the name of the Governor, formally welcomed the President to the State. Fair Haven was reached at 10 o'clock. The Reception Committee was Hon. Samuel L. Hazard, Andrew N. Adams, George M. Fuller, and Wm. V. Roberts.

Mr. Hazard introduced President Harrison, who said:

_My Fellow-citizens_--We have already lost some minutes at your
station, and it will not be possible for me to hold the train longer.
I thank you for this friendly greeting, and for the kindness which
beams upon me from the faces of these contented and happy men and
women of the good State of Vermont. I am glad to see about me the
evidences of the indomitable pluck and successful enterprise which
characterize so highly all of your New England States. When you found
the stones too thick to make agriculture profitable you compelled
the rocks to yield you a subsistence, and these great slate and
marble industries have become the centre of wealthy and prosperous
communities. You are here, each in his own place; these good ladies in
that supremely influential position, the American home, and you, my
countrymen, in the shops and in the fields, making contributions to
the prosperity and glory of this great Nation. It is pleasant to know
that the love of country, stimulated by the teaching of the father and
of the mother, revived by these recollections of the first struggle
for independence, deepened by the sacrifices which were made in the
Civil War to preserve what our fathers had purchased for us, are still
holding sway in the hearts of our people. [Cheers.]

We are conspicuously a people abiding in respect and honor for
the law. The law, as expressed in our constitutions and in our
statute-books, is the sovereign to which we all bow. We acknowledge
no other. To the law each and every one should give his undivided
allegiance and his faithful service. There is no other rule that
will bring and maintain in our communities that peaceful and orderly
condition, that good neighborhood and kindly intercourse, which is
so essential to the happiness of any community. I am sure that these
things, now as of old, characterize these New England communities,
where the strife which your colder climate and your soil compel you
to make for your subsistence has bred habits of thrift, economy, and
independence, and the love of liberty which I am sure is as fadeless
as the stars. [Applause.]

Thanking you again for this pleasant morning reception, I will bid
you good-by. [Applause.]

CASTLETON, VERMONT, AUGUST 25.

At Castleton there was a large crowd, including 200 pupils of the Normal School, who pelted the President with roses and golden-rod. The Reception Committee comprised Hon. Henry L. Clark, A. E. Leavenworth, S. B. Ellis, and A. L. Ramson.

Judge Clark introduced the President, who said:

_Ladies and Gentlemen_--It is very pleasant to meet here, mingling
with the citizens of this neighborhood, the pupils of your Normal
School. One of the most influential characters in the history of the
United States is the New England school-teacher. If we could follow
the track of these intelligent men and women who have gone out from
the New England States into the West and South; if we could trace
those strong, yet slender and hard-to-be-discovered, threads of
influence which they have started in the communities to which they
went; if we could know how they have impressed on the minds of the
pupils brought under their care the great lessons of self-respect
and love for free institutions and social order,--we should have a
higher thought than we have yet had of the power and dignity of these
pioneers of education. [Cheers.]

BRANDON, VERMONT, AUGUST 25.

Brandon gave the travellers a hearty reception at 11 A.M. Ex-Gov. J. W. Stewart, of Middlebury, Hon. Aldace F. Walker, of Chicago; G. G. Benedict and C. S. Forbes, of St. Albans, joined the party here. Ex-Governor Ormsbee welcomed the President on behalf of the residents of Brandon.

General Harrison said:

_My Fellow-citizens_--The kindly pelting which I have received at
the hands of some of your ladies and of these bright children reminds
me of a like experience on the California trip, when we were so pelted
with bouquets of handsome flowers that we were very often compelled
to retreat from the platform and take cover in the car. These gifts
of flowers which you bring to me here are the products of your fields
and not of your gardens. The beautiful golden-rod! It is pleasant to
think that in this plant, so widely distributed, slightly diversified
in its characteristics, but spreading over nearly our whole country,
we have a type of the diversity and yet the oneness of our people; and
I am glad to think that its golden hue typifies the gladness and joy
and prosperity that is over all our fields this happy year, and, I
trust, in all your homes. I thank you for your pleasant greeting this
morning, and bid you good-by. [Cheers.]

MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT, AUGUST 25.

On the arrival of the train at Middlebury at 11:30 A.M. another large and enthusiastic throng was on hand. The President was greeted by ex-Gov. John W. Stewart, Col. A. A. Fletcher, G. S. Wainwright, Judge James M. Slade, Charles M. Wilds, E. H. Thorp, E. P. Russell, B. S. Beckwith, E. J. Mathews, John H. Stewart, A. J. Marshall, Col. T. M. Chapman, Rufus Wainwright, and Frank A. Bond. The veterans of Russel Post, G. A. R., were present in a body, also the Sons of Veterans.

Governor Stewart introduced the President, who said:

_My Fellow-citizens_--Though I have not before had the pleasure of
looking into the faces of many of you, Vermont has for many years
been familiar to me, and has been placed high in my esteem by the
acquaintance I have formed at Washington with the representatives
you have sent there. It has been a great pleasure to me to know your
esteemed fellow-citizen, Governor Stewart. Your State and district and
the Nation at large have had in him a most able and faithful champion
of all that was true and clean and right. [Three cheers were given for
Governor Stewart.]

You have been particularly fortunate, I think, in your
representatives at Washington, as I had occasion to say the other day
at Bennington. I am glad to be here at the site of this institution of
learning--Middlebury College, which is soon to complete its hundredth
year of modest yet efficient service in training the minds of your
young men for usefulness in life. These home institutions, in which
these able and faithful men assiduously give themselves and their
lives to the building up and development of the intelligence--and
not only that, but of the moral side of your young men--are bulwarks
of strength to your State and to your community. They cannot be too
highly esteemed and honored by you; because, my countrymen, kings may
rule over an ignorant people, and by their iron control hold them in
subjection and in the quietness of tyranny, but a free land rests
upon the intelligence of its people, and has no other safety than in
well-grounded education and thorough moral training. [Cries of "Good!
Good!" and applause.] Again I thank you for this cordial greeting
which Vermont gives me this morning, and to these comrades and friends
I extend a comrade's greeting and good wishes. [Applause.]

VERGENNES, VERMONT, AUGUST 25.

At Vergennes a large and joyful crowd greeted the distinguished traveller. The Reception Committee comprised Hon. J. G. Hindes, Mayor of the city; Hon. J. D. Smith, Herrick Stevens, and J. N. Norton.

Secretary Proctor introduced the President, who spoke as follows:

_My Fellow-citizens_--I have had, as you know, some experience in
this business of speaking from the end of a railroad train. But it has
seemed to me this morning that these Vermont towns are closer together
than on any other route I have travelled. [Laughter.] Perhaps it is
because your State is not very large, and you have had to put your
towns close together in order to get them all in. [Laughter.] I have
heard an interesting story of the origin of this city of Vergennes.
I suppose it was one of the earliest instances in the history of our
country, if not the very first, of a city being constructed upon paper
before it was built upon the ground. [Laughter.] That has come to be
quite a familiar practice in these late days of speculation, but it
is singular that a city charter and the ample corporate limits of one
mile square should have been given to Vergennes before this century
began. If the expectations of the founder of this city have not been
realized fully, you have more than realized all the thoughts of Ethan
Allan and his contemporaries in the greatness and prosperity of your
State and in the richer glory and higher greatness of the Nation of
which you are a part. [Cheers.]

I am glad this morning to look into the contented faces of another
audience of New England people. You were greatly disparaged in the
estimation of some of our people before the Civil War. There had
spread unfortunately over the minds of our Southern brethren the
impression that you were so much given to money, to thrift, and
to toil that your hands had forgotten how to fight. It was a most
wholesome lesson when the whole country learned again in the gallant
charges and stubborn resistances of the Vermont Brigade that the
old New England spirit still lived; that Paul Revere still rode the
highways of New England; and that the men of Concord and Lexington
and Bennington still ploughed her fields. [Applause.] I am glad to
meet you this bright, joyous morning; and I am sure, in view of the
fatigues that have preceded and that are to follow, you will excuse
me from further speech, and accept my most heartfelt thanks for your
friendliness. [Applause.]

BURLINGTON, VERMONT, AUGUST 25.

Burlington gave the President a royal reception Tuesday noon. The Queen City was elaborately decorated, and all business was suspended during the demonstration. The distinguished visitors were welcomed by Senator George F. Edmunds, his honor Mayor Hazelton, Col. Le Grand B. Cannon, Hon. E. J. Phelps, Gen. William Wells, ex-Gov. U. A. Woodbury, Hon. B. B. Smalley, Hon. G. G. Benedict, C. F. Wheeler, ex-Governor Barstow, C. W. Woodhouse, and Elias Lyman, President of the Board of Aldermen. After luncheon at the home of Senator Edmunds, the President was escorted through the Fletcher Library to a platform fronting the park, where 20,000 people greeted him.

Mayor Hazelton delivered the address of welcome and introduced President Harrison, who responded as follows:

_Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens_--I am not a little intimidated as I
face so unexpectedly this vast concourse of the citizens of this great
State of Vermont. I say great, though your territorial extent does not
place you among large States; great in an origin that gave occasion
for an early and resolute expression of that love of liberty which
has always pervaded your people; great in a population that has never
bowed the knee to the arrogance of power or to the blandishments of
wealth, and has, through all the history of the State, maintained the
inspiration of its early annals for love of personal independence. I
rejoice to be present to-day at the home of one of your distinguished
public servants, with whom it was my good fortune for a time to be
associated in the discharge of public duties. I am glad to see here,
at his own home, the respect and honor in which George F. Edmunds
is deservedly held by the people of Vermont. [Applause.] Having for
six years witnessed the value of his services as a legislator in the
Senate of the United States, I share with you the regret that this
country is no longer to enjoy those services; though it is a source
of gratification to you, as it is to me, to know that in his love and
loyalty to the State that he has so highly honored, in his love and
loyalty to the Union of States, there will be no call for his wise
counsel and help that will not find a ready response from the walks of
life which he has chosen to resume. [Applause.]

My fellow-citizens, it is true, as your Mayor has said, happily
true, that we not infrequently, and with ease, lift ourselves above
all the contentions of party strife and stand in the clear, inspiring
and stimulating sunshine as American patriots. [Applause.] We are
conspicuously a people who give their allegiance to institutions and
not to men. [Applause.] It were a happy thing for others of our sister
republics on this hemisphere if they could follow this great example.
Our people are not slow to appreciate public services. They are not
reluctant to acknowledge transcendent genius, but they give their
loyalty as citizens to institutions, and not to parties or to men.
[Applause.] This was happily shown in our great rebellion, when party
divisions, that seemed to lift barriers between us like these mountain
peaks, were obliterated in a moment by that love for the Constitution
and the flag which pervaded all our people [applause]--a love that
made the people of all these great States one; that sent from Vermont
and Massachusetts, as from Indiana, those stalwart and devoted sons
who offered--many of them gave--their lives for the perpetuity of the
Union and the honor of the flag. Let us pursue our lines of division.
It is characteristic of a free people--it is essential--that mental
agitation and unrest out of which the highest and best is evolved. But
let us never forget that the fundamental thought of our Government
is the rule of the majority, lawfully expressed at pure and clean
elections, and that, when thus expressed, the laws enacted by those
chosen to make our laws are not less of the minority than of the
majority. [Applause.] Those who make the laws are our servants, to
whom we yield the respect of office and that measure of personal
regard to which their lives may entitle them. [Applause.]

We are this year a most favored and happy people. Drouth has blasted
the crops of many of the nations of the world. Most of the peoples
of Europe are short of food. And God has this year, mercifully to
us, mercifully to them, made our store-houses to burst with plenty.
We have a great surplus of breadstuffs, and there is not a bushel of
wheat, corn, rye or oats that will not find a ready market this year.
Happy are we in this great prosperity; happy that again out of your
abundance the lack of other peoples may be supplied. Let us be careful
that our heads are not turned by too much prosperity. It has been out
of hardness, out of struggles, out of self-denials, out of that thrift
and economy which was an incident of your soil, that the best things
in New England have come. [Applause.] And, while thankful to God for a
season that diffuses its blessings as this sweet sunshine is diffused
into all our homes, let us remember that it is not, after all, riches
that exalt the Nation. It is a pure, clean, high, intellectual, moral,
and God-fearing citizenship that is our glory and security as a
Nation. [Applause.]

Let me thank you again for the friendliness of your manifestations,
for the opportunity to stand for a few moments in this most
beautiful city. [Applause.] You have the advantage of many of our
municipalities. You have not only the beauties of these groves and
gardens and pleasant streets and lovely homes, but from these hilltops
you have laid under contribution fifty miles in either direction to
beautify Burlington. [Applause.] I thank you, and part with you with
regret that my stay cannot be longer and my intercourse with you more
personal and informal. [Applause.]

ST. ALBANS, VERMONT, AUGUST 25.

The President and party embarked at Burlington on board Col. W. Seward Webb's yacht _Elfrida_ and greatly enjoyed the sail on Lake Champlain, landing at Maquam in the evening, whence a special train carried them to St. Albans, where they were welcomed by the Committee of Reception, consisting of Hon. A. D. Tenney, George T. Childs, Alfred A. Hall, T. M. Deal, W. Tracy Smith, B. F. Kelley, A. L. Weeks, and A. W. Fuller. After dining at Governor Smith's the President, at 9 P.M., was escorted to the Welden House, fronting St. Albans Park. Twelve thousand people greeted him. The scene was one of unusual beauty; from the branching elms hung 2,000 Chinese lanterns.

When the President appeared on the balcony the enthusiasm was great. He was introduced by Hon. E. C. Smith, and spoke as follows:

_My Fellow-citizens_--I fear that my voice will not permit me
suitably to acknowledge this magnificent demonstration. In the tour
which I made this spring across the continent I witnessed very many
great assemblages and looked upon very many brilliant and entrancing
scenes, but I recall none outside the greater cities more beautiful
and worthy than this in St. Albans to-night. [Applause.] Most deeply
do I feel whatever of personal respect you thus evidence, and yet more
highly do I appreciate that love of American institutions, that fealty
to the flag, which I am sure is the dominant impulse in this great
assembly. [Applause.]

Your situation upon this great water line connecting the St.
Lawrence with the Hudson was an early suggestion to the trader as
well as to the invader. The Indian canoe, the boat of the fur-trader,
ploughed these waters in the early days of our history. At a later
time they suggested to the military leaders of Great Britain who
commanded the armies sent for the subjection of the colonies that
familiar strategy of severing the colonies into two parts by moving
and establishing posts upon Champlain and the Hudson. These attempts
and the brave resistance which was made by our people, in which
Vermont had so conspicuous and creditable a part, have made all the
shores of Lake Champlain historic ground. In the address delivered
by President Bartlett in 1877 at the observance of the centennial of
the battle of Bennington, I noticed that he said, "Trading Manchester
sent two regiments to conquer a market," and it recalled to my mind
the fact that one of the great motives of resistance on the part of
the colonies was the unjust trade restrictions and exactions which
were imposed upon them by the mother country in order to secure the
American markets for the British manufacturer. You recall how severe
and persistent were the measures adopted in order to repress and crush
out the establishment of manufacturing industries in the colonies.
This battle for a market was never more general or more strenuous than
now among all of the nations of the world, though now generally not
pushed to bloodshed. [Applause.] All of the countries of the Old World
have through colonial extension by the division of Africa, much as a
boy might divide a watermelon among his fellows, had reference largely
to trade extensions and enlarged markets. In this contest we have
ourselves engaged, not by attempting to push our political domain into
lands that are not rightfully ours, not by attempting to overthrow or
subjugate the weaker but friendly powers of this hemisphere, but by
those methods of peaceful and profitable interchange which are good
for them as for us, [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.] Secure in
the great American market for our manufactures--a market the best
per capita of any in the world--we have come now to believe that
we may well extend our trade and send our manufactured products to
other countries across the seas and in ships carrying the American
flag. [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.] We do not need in any
degree to break down or injure our own domestic industries. We are
consuming, to an enormous extent, of tropical products not produced
by our people, and by a fair exchange with the nations sending us
sugar, tea, and coffee we propose and have entered successfully upon
the enterprise of opening the markets of Central and South America to
the manufacturing establishments of New England and the United States.
[Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.]

I am sure every American will rejoice in the success which has
thus far attended these efforts, and will rejoice that with this
expanding trade to the southward there opens before us this year a
largely increased traffic in agricultural products with the nations
of Europe. We have never in the history of our country harvested such
a crop as has now been gathered into the granaries of the United
States. [Applause.] We shall have an enormously large surplus of
breadstuffs for exportation, and it happens that in this period of
our abundance crop failures or shortages in India, in Russia, in
France, in Germany, and England have opened a market that will require
the last bushel of grain we have to sell. [Cries of "Good! good!"
and applause.] Rejoicing in the peace that pervades our land, proud
of institutions which have for more than a hundred years witnessed
their adequacy to give peace and security at home and to preserve our
National honor abroad, rejoicing in the great increase of material
wealth which is flowing in upon us, may we not on these great lines
of enterprise, lifting ourselves now to newer and larger thoughts of
what this country may be, enter upon these opening avenues of trade
and influence upon which are the beckoning invitations of friendly
peoples? [Applause.]

Let me thank you again for this magnificent assemblage of Vermont
patriots and of Vermont women, who have shared with her gallant men
the sacrifices and suffering that this State has borne that it might
be born among the States, and, having been admitted to the sisterhood,
might, though small in geographical extent and population, bear a
noble and honorable part in the work of holding up the American
character and defending the American flag. [Great applause.]

RICHMOND, VERMONT, AUGUST 26.

President Harrison passed the night at St. Albans. On his departure, the morning of the 26th, he was accompanied by Secretary Proctor, ex-Governor Smith and wife, Colonel and Mrs. E. C. Smith, Tracy Smith, Hon. H. H. Powers, Henry R. Start, D. Sage McKay, Col. Geo. T. Childs, and Col. M. J. Horton, of Governor Page's staff.

The first stop of the day was at Richmond, where a large audience greeted the party. Among the prominent citizens who received the President were: Judge E. B. Andrews, Hon. U. S. Whitcomb, Capt. G. A. Edwards, Dr. C. W. Jacobs, Hon. H. A. Hodges, C. P. Rhodes and Edgar T. Jacobs. The veterans of Bronson Barber Post, G. A. R., were present in a body.

Congressman Powers introduced the President, who said:

_My Fellow-citizens_--It is a little early in the morning to begin
the daily round of speech-making, and yet I cannot refrain from saying
to you how highly I appreciate your morning welcome. There is the
tonic of your fine mountain air and the glory of your sunshine in
these cordial manifestations of your respect and good-will. I hope
no American citizen will ever begrudge the President of the United
States the refreshment which comes from these occasional visits
through the country, and from that draught of good-will which he
receives as he looks into the faces and takes the hands of these
good people, who have no other interest in the Government than that
it shall be honestly administered for the general good. Washington
is not always full of that kind of people; we are more certain,
perhaps, to find them in the country. And yet no one should complain
of honest criticism, and perhaps fault-finding has its use, for
occasionally it must be well grounded and disclose to us errors we
might otherwise have failed to discern. But, after all, the bracing
of the good-will of the good people of this country is very essential
to those who, in the midst of great perplexity and doubt and under
staggering responsibility, endeavor as they see the right to do it.
No man can do more than this, and I look upon this popular feature
of our Government, the readiness of communication, the nearness
and familiarity of access which the people have with all public
servants, as a great safeguard to those who might otherwise become
separated from those impulses which are, after all, the safest and
best. [Applause.] I have had great pleasure in passing through your
beautiful valley this morning. I can most sincerely commend what I see
in these farms and thrifty homes. Vermont is a mountain State, and, I
suppose, because your horizon is a little high you are more frequently
than we who live on the plains compelled to look up. That may account
for a great many of the good things which we discover in the New
England character. I thank you for your kindness. [Applause.]

WATERBURY, VERMONT, AUGUST, 26.

Waterbury was reached at 10:30 A.M. Governor Page and Hon. W. W. Grout joined the party here. About 10,000 people were assembled to greet the President, prominent among whom were: G. E. Moody, Esq., Hon. G. W. Rundall, Hon. E. F. Palmer, M. M. Knight, George W. Atkins, John Batchelder, L. H. Haines, Justin W. Moody, C. C. Warren, W. R. Elliott, C. H. Arms, Charles Wells, Dr. Henry Janes, and F. H. Atherton.

Hon. Wm. Paul Dillingham made the welcoming address and introduced the President, who responded as follows:

_My Friends_--It is very pleasant to know that a public officer may
travel everywhere through this great land of ours--and only those who
have traversed it can understand how great it is--and find always
his sure defence and care in the good-will and respect of the people
who surround him. If we bar out the irresponsible crank, so far as I
can see the President is in no peril, except that he may be killed
by the superabundant kindness of the people. [Laughter.] There seems
to be an impression that his strength and capacity for speech-making
is unfailing [laughter] and that his arm is a hickory limb. But it
is very kind of you and all these good, people of Vermont who have
met me on this journey to express so pleasantly by your cheers, and
much more by your kindly faces, the love and loyalty you have for
those in the situation with which the suffrage of the people has for
the time connected me. The New England character is one that has
been much written about, much discussed, and I think that even those
who have found points for the sharpest criticism have, when they
adopted the Yankee method of averages, concluded that the influences
emanating from Plymouth Rock and diffusing themselves first through
the New Hampshire Grants and then the Western Reserve of Ohio, and
so scattering and disseminating the seeds of intelligence and love
of liberty throughout the whole land, have been good for the whole
country. The New England man is a man with his eye open everywhere.
I have sometimes thought that the habit of attention, of giving the
whole mind to the business in hand, had its very natural origin and
development in New England agriculture. The man who holds a plough in
a stumpy or stony ground learns the lesson that he had better give
his mind to the business in hand. [Laughter.] Otherwise the revenge
and punishments for inattention are so prompt and severe that he is
quickly called back from any mental wanderings into which he may
have fallen. I had occasion to say a moment ago that the fact that
the mountain regions of the world had always furnished the bravest
champions of liberty and the most strenuous defenders of the faith was
possibly owing to the fact that their horizon was so high that if they
looked at all they were compelled to look up. [Laughter and applause.]

My countrymen, we have a great and happy land--a people dwelling in
happy homes, and that is the origin of government, and there is the
essential of a contented citizenship. As long as we can preserve this
independence and self-respect, and that degree of comfort in the home
that makes it a pleasant abode when the day's toil is ended, and that
enables by the most careful thrift the head of the household to lay by
for the family and to lighten in some measure the care and labor of
the children that are to follow him, there can be no happier land than
ours. If we would perpetuate and secure that which we have had handed
down to us and which we have so well preserved until this hour, this
is the essential thing.

I thank you for this kindly greeting, and beg you to accept my
sincerest good-will. I can say nothing of public affairs. Every man
called to public office is subject to the infirmities that belong to
our nature--the capacity to make mistakes. He can be, if he is true,
sure of one thing--that in all that he does he has it in his mind to
do the best he can for all the people. [Prolonged cheers.]

MONTPELIER, VERMONT, AUGUST 26.

A great throng greeted the President's arrival at the Vermont capital. He was met by a Reception Committee consisting of 15 prominent citizens: Col. Fred E. Smith, Hon. Charles Dewey, Prof. J. A. DeBoer, J. C. Houghton, M. E. Smilie, L. Bart Cross, G. H. Gurnsey, T. C. Phinney, H. W. Kemp, D. F. Long, C. P. Pitkin, J. W. Brock, George Wing, F. W. Morse, and Thomas Marvin. The First Regiment N. G. V., commanded by Adjutant-General Peck, with the Sons of Veterans, escorted the President and Governor Page to the State House, the former walking the entire distance with uncovered head, surrounded by a guard of honor detailed from George Crook Post, G. A. R. From the Governor's Room they were conducted to the hall of the House of Representatives, where the Legislature of Vermont was assembled in joint session. The members arose and remained standing until the Chief Magistrate was seated between Governor Page and Lieutenant-Governor Fletcher.

After the applause subsided the Lieutenant-Governor introduced President Harrison, who addressed the legislators as follows:

_Mr. President and Gentlemen, the Legislature of the State of
Vermont_--I am grateful to you for this cordial reception, which
crowns a series of friendly demonstrations which began with my entry
into this good State and have continued to this interesting and
important occasion. I am glad to meet the chosen representatives of
the towns of Vermont, appointed to the discharge of functions of
legislating for the general good. The wisdom of our fathers devised
that system of governmental division for the general Government which
has found adoption or adaptation in all the States--the division of
the powers of the Government into three great co-ordinate departments,
each independent, and yet having close and important relations one
with the other, and each adapted in the highest degree to secure the
liberty of the individual, the welfare of our community, and the
national honor and prosperity. [Applause.] It has been fortunate for
us as a people that no serious clash has occurred to these great
departments. The constitutional balance and counterbalance have
preserved with marvellous exactness, with the perfection of the most
perfect machinery, the relations of these several departments, each
doing its appropriate work and producing the great result which had
been intended. Surely there is no other country where the springs
of government are higher than here. The impulses of our people are
drawn from springs that lie high in the hills of duty and loyalty.
They respect and obey the law, because it is the orderly expression
of their own will. The compact of our Government is a rule by the
majority.

The sanction of all law is that it is the expression by popular
election of the will of a majority of our people. Law has no other
sanction than that with us; and happy are we, and happy are those
communities where the election methods are so honestly and faithfully
prescribed and observed that no doubt is thrown upon the popular
expression and no question of the integrity of the ballot is ever
raised. [Applause.] If we shall ever or anywhere allow a doubt to
settle into the minds of our people whether the results of our
elections are honestly attained, whether the laws made are framed by
those who have been properly chosen by the majority, then all sanction
is withdrawn from law and all respect from the rulers who by a false
ballot are placed in public office. [Applause.]

I am glad to congratulate you upon your constituencies, intelligent,
devoted and patriotic. I am glad to congratulate you that the State
of Vermont, from its earliest aspirations and efforts for liberty
and self-government, which developed into your Constitution in 1777,
down through all the story of toil and the struggles which have beset
you as a State, and the vicissitudes which have beset the country of
which you are an honored part, that the State of Vermont and her sons
in the councils of the Nation and on the blood-stained battle-fields
of the great war have borne themselves worthily. [Applause.] Will you
permit me now to thank you again for this demonstration and for the
opportunity to stand for a moment in your presence? I am sure that we
may each, from this occasion, in the discharge of public duty, draw
some impulse to a more perfect exercise of our powers for the public
good. [Applause.]

_The Public Reception._

The speech-making within doors being over, President Harrison entered a side room, where he received the Tippecanoe Club, shaking hands cordially with all. He was then conducted to the Governor's Room, where he received the members of the Legislature. Meanwhile a great crowd massed on the beautiful grounds and waited impatiently for the reappearance of the President. Finally he made his way from the interior to the front of the Capitol. Governor Page introduced him. The President spoke as follows:

_Governor Page and Fellow-citizens_--This sunshine is as warm as a
Vermont welcome. [Applause.] It is of the highest quality. It has life
in it. But too much of it is prostrating. [Laughter.] I have felt, in
endeavoring to respond to these calls, that I was possibly overtaxing
my own strength, and perhaps overcrowding the Press Association.
[Laughter.] I am not naturally a gossip, I think I had some reputation
as a taciturn man, but it is gone. [Laughter.] I have not given it up
willingly. I have struggled to retain it, but it has been forcefully
taken from me by kindness of my fellow-citizens, whom I have met so
frequently within the last year. Perhaps, however, if I preserve other
virtues I can let this go. [Laughter.] It is a great thing to be a
citizen of the United States. I would not have you abate at all the
love and loyalty you have for Vermont. But I am glad to know that
always in your history as a State and a people you have felt that the
higher honor, the more glorious estate, was to be a citizen of the
United States of America. [Applause.] This association of States is a
geographical necessity. We can never consent that hostile boundaries
shall be introduced with all that such divisions imply. We must be one
from Maine to California, one from the Lakes to the Gulf [applause],
and everywhere in all that domain we must insist that the behests
of the Federal Constitution and of the laws written in the Federal
statute-book shall be loyally obeyed. [Applause.] A statesman of one
of the Southern States said to me, with tears in his eyes, shortly
after my inauguration: "Mr. President, I hope you intend to give the
poor people of my State a chance." I said in reply: "A chance to do
what? If you mean, sir, that they shall have a chance to nullify
any law, and that I shall wink at the nullification of it, you ask
that which you ought not to ask and that which I cannot consider.
[Applause.] If you mean that obeying every public law and giving to
every other man his full rights under the law and the Constitution,
they shall abide in my respect and in the security and peace of our
institutions. Then they shall have, so far as in my power lies, an
equal chance with all our people." [Applause.] We may not choose
what laws we will obey; the choice is made for us. When a majority
have, by lawful methods, placed a law upon the statute-book, we may
endeavor to repeal it, we may challenge its wisdom, but while it is
the law it challenges our obedience. [Applause.]

I thank you for the kindliness of this greeting in this capital of
Vermont. I wish for you and your gallant State and for all your people
in all their good, God-fearing homes continuance of that personal
liberty, that material prosperity, that love of the truth which has
always characterized them. [Applause.]

PLAINFIELD, VERMONT, AUGUST 26.

At Montpelier the President's party was joined by Hon. F. A. Dwinnel, Gen. F. E. Alfred, Gen. W. H. Gilmore, V. R. Sartwell, W. A. Stowell, Col. H. E. Folsom, Fletcher D. Proctor, Frank C. Partridge; also, E. W. Smith and John Bailey, of Newbury.

The first stop in the afternoon was at Plainfield, where 1,000 people gave the President a cordial greeting. Among the leading citizens participating in the reception were: Joseph Lane, George D. Kidder, Leroy F. Fortney, E. J. Bartlett, H. E. Cutler, Henry Q. Perry, D. B. Smith, H. G. Moore, John A. Fass, Ira F. Page, Nelson Shorey, H. W. Batchelder, and W. B. Page. W. E. Martin Post, G. A. R., H. H. Hollister Commander, occupied a conspicuous position.

President Harrison was introduced by Senator Dwinnel, and said:

_My Fellow-citizens and Comrades_--For I see here, as everywhere,
some of those who wore the blue and carried the flag in the great
Civil War gathered to greet me. It gives me pleasure to stop for a
moment and to thank you for the friendliness which has brought you
from your homes to make this journey bright with your presence and
cordial welcome. I have been talking so much to-day that I will not
attempt to make a speech. I have already said a great deal about
Vermont, have expressed my esteem for it and for its people, and all
that. I have been very sincere, for I think that your State does hold
a very high place among the States. Your sons, who have gone out to
represent you and to take part in those stirring enterprises which
have laid the foundations of new States, have already borne themselves
with honor and with true New England thrift, obtaining in the long
run the full share of all the good things that were going. I met some
of them in California. They are scattered this broad land over, and I
think they carry with them everywhere the love of the flag, respect
for law and order, love of liberty and of education, and interest in
all those things that make the communities where they abide prosperous
and happy. I think I owe a special debt to this neighborhood for a
pair of good Vermont horses that Secretary Proctor selected for me,
and in the driving of which I have had great relaxation and pleasure.
Your Vermont horses are well trained. The Morgan horse has the good
habit of entering into consultation with the driver whenever there is
any trouble. [Laughter and applause.]

ST. JOHNSBURY, VERMONT, AUGUST 26.

Brief stops were made at Wells River, McIndoes, and Barnet, and the President cordially thanked the people at each place. St. Johnsbury, where great preparations were made to welcome the distinguished guest, was reached at 4:30 P.M.

The President's party headed a procession which moved through the principal streets over a distance of two miles. The guard of honor consisted of 300 mounted veterans with drawn swords. The following prominent citizens met the President: Col. Franklin Fairbanks, Hon. Jonathan Ross, Chief Justice of Vermont, and Mrs. Ross; Rev. Dr. C. M. Lamson, L. D. Hazen, A. H. McLeod, Charles T. Walter, Hon. H. H. Powers, Col. Frederick Fletcher, H. H. Carr, C. H. Stevens, E. H. Blossom, S. H. Brackett, Lucius K. Hazen, Osborne Chase, George H. Cross, N. P. Bowman, Albert Worcester, H. I. Woods, Dr. G. B. Bullard, A. F. Walker, C. P. Carpenter, N. R. Switser, F. A. Carter, L. W. Fisher, J. B. Gage, C. H. Horton, L. N. Smythe, and Wm. H. Sargent. An incident of the parade was the reception by the school children. The President's carriage halted and several hundred of the children, led by H. H. May, rendered "America," at the conclusion of which six pretty little girls--Misses May Masten, Lala McNeil, Marian Moore, Lottie Holder, Beatrice May, and Emma May--stepped forward and presented a beautiful floral key, thus tendering the freedom of the city to the illustrious guest. The President reviewed the procession from "Undercliffe," the stately residence of Colonel and Mrs. Fairbanks, whose guest he was.

At night the town was brilliantly illuminated, and 10,000 residents gathered in the public park. Colonel Fairbanks made the welcoming address and introduced the President, who received an ovation and spoke as follows:

_My Fellow-citizens_--I could wish that I were in better voice and
in full strength, that I might better respond to this most magnificent
demonstration. I have rarely looked upon a scene more calculated
to inspire a patriot than this upon which my eye rests to-night. I
do most profoundly thank you for this great welcome. The taste and
beauty and elaboration of these preparations exceed anything that I
have looked upon in this journey. [Applause.] I am sure you are here
to-night after making all this preparation to give witness by your
presence of your love to the flag of our country [applause] and to
those institutions of civil government and of liberty which that flag
represents. [Applause.] It gives me great pleasure to see that the
flag is everywhere. I journeyed across this continent, and, except
when darkness shut in the landscape, I was never out of sight of the
American flag. [Applause.] On those wide plains of the West, once
called the Great American Desert, now and again, in the home of some
adventurous settler, the flag appeared and was waved in greeting as
our train sped on its way. I rejoiced to see it everywhere in the
sight of school children. On that great demonstration in New York in
observance of the centennial of the inauguration of Washington, as I
moved from the Battery up through those streets dedicated to commerce,
I saw every front covered with flags, hiding for the time those
invitations to trade which covered their walls. The thought occurred
to me, What will be done with these flags when this celebration is
over? And it occurred to me to suggest at the centennial banquet
that the flags should be taken into our school-houses. [Applause.]
I rejoice to know that everywhere throughout the land, in all our
patriotic towns and villages, movements are being inaugurated to
display the American flag over our institutions of learning.

I have several times been brought in contact with incidents showing
this love of the flag. I remember that when Hood was investing
Nashville, and when that gallant, sturdy, unostentatious, but always
faithful and victorious leader, Gen. George H. Thomas, was gathering
the remnants of an army that he might confront his adversary in
battle, it was assigned to me to intrench through the beautiful
grounds of a resident in the suburbs of Nashville. The proprietor was
a Tennessee Unionist. While I was digging and tearing the sod of his
beautiful lawn, he was removing his library and other valuables from
his mansion, for it was within easy range of the rebel fire. Happening
into his library while he was thus engaged, he opened a closet below
the book-shelf, and, taking out a handsome bunting, asked me whether I
had a garrison flag. I told him no. "Well," he said, "take this. Sir,
I have never been without the American flag in my house." [Applause.]
I would be glad if that could be said by every one of our people.
There is inspiration in it. It has a story wrought into its every fold
until every thread has some lesson to tell of sacrifice and heroism.
It is the promise of all that we hope for. It is to it and about it
that we must gather and hold the affections of our people if these
institutions are to be preserved. I have it in my mind as I saw it one
night in Newport harbor. Going out of that harbor upon a Government
vessel about midnight, when the heavens were darkened clouds, I saw
a sight that lives fresh in my memory. The officers of the torpedo
station had run up the Starry Banner upon the staff, and turned upon
it as we moved out of the harbor two great electric search-lights. It
revealed the banner, while the staff and buildings below it were all
hidden in the blackness. I could see it as if it had been hung out
of the battlements of heaven, lifting its folds in the darkness of
night, a glorified emblem of the hope of a free people. [Applause.]
Let us keep it thus in our hearts; let no other flag be borne in our
marching processions. We have no place for the red flag of anarchy.
[Applause.] This emblem typifies a free people, who have voluntarily
placed themselves under the restraints of the law, who have consented
that individual liberty shall cease where it infringes upon the right
or property of another. This is our contract. This is the liberty
which we offer those who cast in their lot with us, not a liberty to
destroy, but a liberty to conserve and perpetuate. [Cheers.]

I am most happy to witness in this prosperous New England town so
many evidences that your community is intelligent, industrious,
enterprising, and your people lovers of home and order. You have here
some great manufacturing establishments, whose fame and products have
spread throughout the world. You have here a class of enterprising,
public-spirited citizens, who are building these free libraries and
galleries of art and are ministering to the good of generations that
are to come. You have here an intelligent and educated class of
skilled workmen, and nothing pleased me more as I passed through your
streets to-day than to be told that here and there were the homes of
the working people of St. Johnsbury [applause]--homes where every
evidence of comfort was apparent; homes where taste has been brought
to make attractive the abodes where tired men sought rest; homes that
must have been made sweet for the children that are reared there,
and comfortable for the wives whose place of toil and responsibility
it is. Here is the anchor of our safety. This is the state that
binds men to good order, to good citizenship, to the flag of the
Constitution, a contented and prosperous working class. [Applause.]
I will not cross any lines of division in my remarks to night, for
this reception is general; but I will venture to say that all our
public policy, all our legislation, may wisely keep in view the end
of perpetuating an independent, contented, prosperous and hopeful
working class in America. [Applause.] When hope goes out of the heart
and life becomes so hard that it is no longer sweet, men are not safe
neighbors and they are not good citizens, Let us, then, in cheerful,
loving, Christian good neighborhood see that the blessings of our
institutions, the fruits of labor, have that fair distribution that
shall bring contentment into our homes. [Applause.]

But, my countrymen, I did not intend to speak even so long. I wish
it were in my power to make some adequate return for the generous
welcome you have given me. I am not a man of promises. I abhor
pretension, but every such assembly as this that I see--this great cup
of good-will which you put to my lips--gives me strength to do what I
can for our country and for you. [Applause.]

BILLINGS PARK, AUGUST 27.

When the 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: