Chapter IV: Part 4

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

General Alger responded as follows:

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

INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 1.

The month of August opened with two thousand visitors from Morgan and Brown counties, including thirty survivors of General Harrison's former regiment. The several clubs comprising the Brown County delegation were led by Norman J. Roberts, Leander Woods, Wm. Griffin, E. D. Turner, and C. W. Mackenzie of Nashville.

Prominent in the Morgan County detachment were W. W. Kennedy, W. C. Banta, John Hardwick, M. G. Branch, David Wilson, H. C. Hodges, R. C. Griffitt, J. G. Bain, John S. Newby, J. G. Kennedy, U. M. Hinson, Merwin Rowe, Hon. J. H. Jordan, H. R. Butler, W. C. Barnett, John C. Comer, Geo. Mitchell, and J. I. Hilton of Martinsville. Hon. G. A. Adams spoke for the visitors.

General Harrison, responding, said:

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

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

INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 3.

On the third of August, with the mercury registering ninety-nine degrees, thirty-five hundred visitors arrived from Montgomery and Clinton counties, Indiana. Their parade, carrying miniature log-cabins and other emblems, was one of the most enthusiastic demonstrations of the campaign. Fifty voters of 1840 headed the column led by Major D. K. Price, aged 92. The Montgomery County delegation was marshalled by John H. Burford, W. W. Thornton, T. H. B. McCain, John S. Brown, E. P. McClarkey, John Johnson, J. R. Bonnell, D. W. Roundtree, T. H. Ristine, H. M. Billingsley, Dumont Kennedy, and Clerk Hulett of Crawfordsville. Their spokesman was Hon. Peter S. Kennedy.

Among the Clinton County leaders were Albert H. Coble, Edward R. Burns, A. T. Dennis, Wm. H. Staley, R. P. Shanklin, S. A. Coulton, J. W. Harrison, J. T. Hockman, Nicholas Rice, Ambrose Colby, Oliver Hedgecock, and Dr. Gard of Frankfort. Judge J. C. Suit was their orator.

In reply to their addresses General Harrison said:

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

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

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

INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 4.

The most remarkable night demonstration of the campaign occurred August 4, the occasion being the visit of the Harrison and Morton Railroad Club of Terre Haute, a thousand strong. They were met by twelve hundred members of the Indianapolis Railroad Club, and, escorted by several thousand citizens, marched to the Harrison residence.

At the head of the column rolled the model of a monster locomotive, emitting fire and smoke and bearing the significant number 544, Hundreds of stores and residences along the line of march were illuminated.

At the head of the visiting club marched its officers: President, D. T. Downs; Secretary, Chas. E. Carter; Treasurer, Benj. McKeen; and Vice-Presidents, R. B. Woolsey, J. L. Pringle, J. N. Evanhart, E. G. South, L. M. Murphy, H. M. Kearns, George Leckert, and W. H. Miller.

President Downs delivered an address and presented an engrossed copy of the club roster. General Harrison spoke from a stand in front of his residence, and said:

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

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

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

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

INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 6.

Monday, August 6, General Harrison received a visit from one hundred members of the Kansas City Blaine Club, accompanied by many ladies, _en route_ to New York to welcome the Maine statesman on his return from Europe. Col. R. H. Hunt led the club, and delivered a stirring address on behalf of the Republicans of Missouri. On concluding he introduced Miss Abbie Burgess, who presented the General a beautiful badge inscribed "The Kansas City Blaine Club Greet Their Next President." Miss Burgess made the presentation in the name of the working-women of America.

General Harrison responded briefly to these addresses, stating that he found he had been talking a great deal of late; "but," he added, "I never begin it; some one else always starts it." He returned his cordial thanks to the visitors for the compliment of their call.

Speaking of the trip which the visitors were making, he commended its purpose in meeting upon his return to America "that matchless defender of Republican principles--James G. Blaine." He felt sure that no circumstance would be omitted in doing him merited honor. He was glad to know that the Republicans of Missouri are so zealous and aggressive. He believed that they had, perhaps, too much acquiesced in the majorities against them, and had not offered such resistance as would prove their own strength. In the coming canvass he thought the economic questions at issue ought to work to the interest of Republicans in Missouri and overcome in part the prevailing Democratic prejudices there. He also expressed the hope that the race question would cease to divide men by prejudices that should long ago have become extinct.

In reply to Miss Burgess' address the General expressed his grateful appreciation of the souvenir, and said that the women of the land could never be forgotten. To those of them who are toilers for their daily bread the first thought goes out in considering the question that involves depreciation of wages, and concluded by declaring if cheaper coats and cheaper garments were to be had by still further reducing the wages of the sewing-women of America, then he was not in favor of cheaper apparel.

INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 7.

Indianapolis contained several thousand visitors at this period, in attendance on the State convention; in addition to these, however, on the seventh of August two large delegations arrived. The first came from Tippecanoe County. The city of Lafayette was represented by the Lincoln Club, H. C. Tinney, President; the Garfield Club, Henry Vinton, President; and the Young Men's Republican Club Association. Among other prominent members of the delegation were James M. Reynolds, N. I. Throckmorton, W. H. Caulkins, Charles E. Wilson, Wm. Fraser, John B. Sherwood, Charles Terry, John Opp, Alexander Stidham, Matt Heffner, S. Vater, Maurice Mayerstein, Geo. A. Harrison, W. D. Hilt, P. W. Sheehan, C. H. Henderson, Henry Marshall, J. W. Jefferson, Wm. E. Beach, John B. Gault, and H. M. Carter. Hon. B. Wilson Smith delivered an address on behalf of his townsmen.

General Harrison, in his response, touched upon the origin and principles of the Republican party. He said:

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

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

The second delegation comprised fifteen hundred citizens from Vanderburg County. The Tippecanoe Club of Evansville, with sixty veterans, led the column.

Leaders in the delegation were ex-Congressman Heilman, Henry S. Bennett, Chas. H. McCarer, J. E. Iglehart, W. A. Wheeler, C. R. Howe, J. W. Compton, S. B. Sansom, S. A. Bate, John H. Osborn, John W. Davidson, Henry Ludwig, Wm. Koelling, A. S. Glover, J. W. Roelker, R. C. Wilkinson, James D. Parvin, Wm. Warren, Chas. L. Roberts, and Geo. N. Wells.

Dr. W. G. Ralston delivered an address in the name of the delegation.

General Harrison, in reply, said:

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

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

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

INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 8.

_The Republican State Convention._

The Republican State Convention convened at Tomlinson Hall, city of Indianapolis, August 8, 1888, and concluded its work in one day.

It was the largest attended and most enthusiastic convention ever held in Indiana. Hon. Wm. H. Calkins of Indianapolis was chosen Chairman, and Mark L. De Motte of Valparaiso Secretary. The following ticket was nominated, and in November triumphantly elected:

_Governor_--Alvin P. Hovey, Posey County.

_Lieutenant-Governor_--Ira J. Chase, Hendricks County.

_Secretary of State_--Charles F. Griffin, Lake County.

_Auditor of State_--Bruce Carr, Orange County.

_Treasurer_--J. A. Lemcke, Vanderburg County.

_Attorney-General_--L. T. Michner, Shelby County.

_Superintendent Public Instruction_--H. M. LaFollette, Boone County.

_Reporter Supreme Court_--John L. Griffiths, Marion County.

JUDGES OF SUPREME COURT.

_First District_--Silas T. Coffey, Clay County.

_Second District_--J. G. Berkshire, Jennings County.

_Fourth District_--Walter Olds, Whitely County.

_Electors-at-Large_--James M. Shackelford, Vanderburg County; Thomas H. Nelson, Vigo County.

Judge Gardner, a delegate from Daviess County, introduced a resolution, which was unanimously adopted midst great enthusiasm, inviting General Harrison to visit the convention, and designating Hon. Richard W. Thompson, John W. Linck and E. P. Hammond a committee to convey the invitation.

On the platform, with the presiding officer, to meet the distinguished guest were the Hon. James N. Huston, Hon. John M. Butler, Hon. Will Cumback, William Wallace, Hon. W. P. Fishback, Hon. A. C. Harris, Rev. Dr. Backus, Judge E. B. Martindale, General Thomas Bennett, Judge J. H. Jordan, and the Republican State officials.

The entrance of General Harrison, escorted by the committee, was followed by a tumultuous scene rarely witnessed outside of a national convention, the demonstration lasting nearly ten minutes. Chairman Calkins finally succeeded in introducing--"the next President"--and General Harrison spoke as follows:

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

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

INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 14.

Godfrey Commandery, Knights Templars, of Chicago, colored men, _en route_ to the Grand Conclave at Louisville, paid their respects to General Harrison on the 13th, and were individually presented by Eminent Commander H. S. Cooper. On August 14 the visitors aggregated 6,000.

The first delegation came from Hamilton County, Indiana, headed by eighty veterans of the Tippecanoe Club, Charles Swain, President. There were nine Lincoln League organizations in line. Among the leaders were J. K. Bush, J. E. Walker, F. B. Pfaff, J. R. Christian, Benj. Goldsmith, Ike Hiatt, and C. R. Davis, of Noblesville, and Captain Carl, of Arcadia. Hon. J. R. Gray was their spokesman.

General Harrison, in reply, said:

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

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

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

The other delegations of the day came from Macon and Douglas counties, Illinois, numbering 3,000. A notable feature of the Douglas County display was the tattered old battle-flag of the Twenty-first Illinois Regiment--General Grant's original regiment--borne by seven survivors.

Capt. T. D. Minturn, of Tuscola, was spokesman. At the head of the Macon County column marched 300 uniformed members of the Young Men's Republican Club of Decatur, led by Captain Wm. M. Strange and Wm. Frazier; Prof. L. A. Estes, of Westfield, headed a company from that town. Andrew H. Mills, of Decatur, spoke for the Macon County people.

General Harrison said:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 15.

Rush, Decatur, and Delaware counties, Indiana, contributed fully five thousand visitors on the 15th of August. Rush County sent twenty Republican clubs, mainly township organizations, led by one hundred veterans of 1836 and '40. The prominent Republicans of the delegation were Hon. John K. Gowdy, John M. Stevens, A. L. Riggs, W. J. Henley, John F. Moses, T. M. Green, J. C. Kiplinger, J. W. Study, and G. W. Looney, of Rushville; R. R. Spencer and J. A. Shannon, of Richland. Judge W. A. Cullen was their spokesman.

General Harrison, responding, said:

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

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

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

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

The visitors from Decatur and Delaware counties were received together. The Decatur delegation numbered fifteen hundred, led by B. F. Bennett, John F. Goddard, V. P. Harris, J. J. Hazelrigg, Geo. Anderson, Edward Speer, A. G. Fisher, F. M. Sherwood, and A. S. Creath, of Greensburg. Their spokesman was the Hon. Will Cumback. Delaware County sent twelve organizations, conspicuous among which were the Tippecanoe Club, the Veterans Regiment, and Lincoln Colored Club. Among the leaders of the delegation were ex-Senator M. C. Smith, A. F. Collins, Hon. James N. Templer, Major J. F. Wildman, Rev. T. S. Guthrie, J. D. Hoyt, Geo. F. McCulloch, W. W. Orr, Joseph G. Lefler, Lee Coffeen, C. F. W. Neely, Ed. R. Templer, W. H. Murray, W. H. Stokes, John S. Aldredge, J. R. Shoemaker, Jacob Stiffler, Web S. Richey, T. H. Johnson and others, of Muncie. Rev. N. L. Bray spoke on behalf of the Lincoln Club, but R. S. Gregory delivered the address for the delegation as a whole.

In reply to these several addresses General Harrison said:

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

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

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

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

INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 17.

Delegations from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, aggregating between nine and ten thousand visitors, paid their respects to the Republican nominee on the seventeenth of August.

The Ohio delegation came from Bellefontaine, Logan County, led by Judge William Lawrence. They carried a beautiful old silk banner that had been presented to a Logan County club at the hands of Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison in 1840.

Ford County, Illinois, sent a large delegation, headed by Judge A. Sample and Col. C. Bogardus, of Paxton. The Young Men's Club--Wm. Ramsey, President, and the Paxton League--T. T. Thompson, President, were conspicuous in this delegation.

The Kankakee County (Illinois) delegation, headed by the Republican club of the City of Kankakee in campaign uniforms, was led by Judge T. S. Sawyer, D. H. Paddock, F. S. Hatch, W. F. Kenoga, H. L. Richardson, J. F. Leonard, R. D. Sherman, Geo. R. Letourneau, and Judge J. N. Orr.

Morgan County, Illinois, contributed the largest delegation of the day, over two thousand, with three drum corps, one, the Jacksonville Juvenile Drum Corps, led by Thomas Barbour, aged 81. Prominent in the Morgan delegation were C. G. Rutledge, President Young Men's Republican Club, B. F. Hilligass, D. M. Simmons, Dr. P. G. Gillett, Sam'l W. Nichols, Judge M. T. Layman, J. G. Loomis, A. P. and J. M. Smith, veterans of '40, and Henry Yates, son of Illinois' war Governor--all of Jacksonville.

The Indiana visitors came from three counties--Bartholomew, Johnson, and Vermilion.

The Bartholomew contingent was composed largely of veterans of the late war, who were led by a company of their daughters in uniform. Among their representative members were John C. Orr, W. W. Lambert, John H. Taylor, John F. Ott, J. W. Morgan, John Sharp, T. B. Prother, Andrew Perkinson, and H. Rost, of Columbus.

The Johnson County delegation numbered two thousand, led by W. T. Pritchard, D. W. Barnett, Jessie Overstreet, J. H. Vannuys, I. M. Thompson, Jacob Hazlett, and John Brown, of Franklin.

Vermilion County sent fifteen hundred enthusiastic visitors, commanded by A. J. Ralph, Marshal of the delegation. Other leaders were Hon. R. B. Sears, W. L. Porter, Rob't A. Parrett, S. B. Davis, R. H. Nixon, Geo. H. Fisher, and Andrew Curtis, of Newport.

The speakers on behalf of these several delegations were: Hon. William Lawrence, of Ohio; Hon. Frank L. Cook, Paxton, Ill.; Judge C. R. Starr, Kankakee County, Ill.; Prof. Wm. D. Saunders, Jacksonville, Ill.; Major W. T. Strickland, Bartholomew County, Ind.; Col. Sam'l P. Oyler, Johnson County, Ind.; Hon. H. H. Connelly, Vermilion County, Ind. To these addresses General Harrison responded as follows:

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

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

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

INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 18.

The commercial travelling men, and their friends, from the cities of Peoria, Bloomington, Terre Haute, and Lafayette, about a thousand in number, paid their respects to General Harrison on the afternoon of the 18th of August. The Bloomington delegation was led by J. H. Sprague and Dan Van Elsler, the Peoria Club by J. G. Jones. Each delegation was escorted by a splendid band.