Chapter V: Part 5

They were met and escorted to the Harrison residence by a committee from the Indianapolis Commercial Travellers' Association, comprising G. C. Webster, C. H. McPherson, John V. Parker, W. H. Schmidt, D. W. Coffin, Harry Gates, R. K. Syfers, W. F. Winchester, Wm. Sisson, T. P. Swain, C. L. Schmidt, Ed. Finney, O. W. Moorman, Charles Lefler, M. P. Green, J. L. Barnhardt, Berg. Applegate, G. R. Rhoads, Hon. J. H. Rowell, of Bloomington; and Hon. J. S. Starr of Peoria spoke on behalf of the visitors. General Harrison said:

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

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

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

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

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

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

TOLEDO, OHIO, AUGUST 21.

General Harrison left Indianapolis on the morning of August 21, '88, for a two weeks' outing and vacation at Middle Bass Island, Lake Erie, where he was the guest--upon invitation of ex-Gov. Charles Foster, of Ohio--of the Middle Bass Fishing Club, Mather Shoemaker, Sr., President.

He was accompanied by Mrs. Harrison, Judge Wm. A. Woods and wife, Miss Woods, Samuel Miller, and representatives of the Associated Press and Cincinnati _Commercial-Gazette_.

His departure was not generally known, consequently there was no demonstration along the line until Defiance, Ohio, was reached, where several hundred people had gathered. Hon. C. A. Flickinger delivered a brief address of welcome.

General Harrison, speaking from the train, said:

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

Toledo was reached early in the evening, and several thousand citizens and militia welcomed the distinguished travellers. A committee of reception, comprising James M. Brown, Chairman, Mayor Hamilton, Hon. E. D. Potter, J. C. Bonner, John Berdan, C. A. King, Calvin Barker, Fred Eaton, Col. S. C. Reynolds, Judge R. F. Doyle, Judge Joseph Cummings, Hon. John F. Kumler, Hon. Richard Waite, Wm. Baker, and Judge Austin, escorted General Harrison and his party to the residence of Wm. Cummings, whose guests they were. At night an open-air mass-meeting was held in Memorial Hall Square, where ten thousand men assembled. Gov. Foster spoke at length, and was followed by General Harrison, who was introduced by Hon. J. M. Brown, President of the Executive Committee United Republican Clubs, and spoke as follows:

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

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

PUT-IN-BAY, OHIO, AUGUST 31.

The residents of Put-in-Bay Island, about five hundred in number, tendered General Harrison a reception on the thirty-first of August. The steamboats from Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, and Sandusky brought several thousand excursionists. General Harrison and his party on their arrival from Middle Bass Island were met at the pier by all the residents of Put-in-Bay Island, headed by their most distinguished citizen John Brown, Jr., son of the celebrated "Ossawatomie" Brown, of Harper's Ferry fame.

From a pavilion in the adjacent grove John Brown introduced Hon. Charles Foster, who said:

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

As Governor Foster concluded, General Harrison arose midst a shout of welcome and spoke as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

FORT WAYNE, IND., SEPTEMBER 4, 1888.

General Harrison and party, _en route_ home from Middle Bass Island, arrived at Toledo on the evening of Sept. 3, and were again the guests of Wm. Cummings. At night they were tendered a reception by Mr. and Mrs. John Berdan, at their residence.

On the morning of Sept. 4 the party started homeward. The first stop was at Fort Wayne, where several thousand Hoosiers welcomed their leader. Supt. Wall, of the Pittsburg and Fort Wayne Railroad, introduced the general, who spoke as follows:

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

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

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

HUNTINGTON, IND., SEPTEMBER 4.

The next stop was at Huntington, where two thousand people were congregated.

In response to repeated calls General Harrison said:

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

PERU, IND., SEPTEMBER 4.

At Peru a committee, headed by Hon. A. C. Bearss and Giles W. Smith, waited upon General Harrison, who addressed an audience of over two thousand as follows:

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

KOKOMO, IND., SEPTEMBER 4.

The city of Kokomo welcomed the party in the evening with a brilliant illumination by natural gas. Three thousand people were present. General Harrison said:

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

TIPTON, IND., SEPTEMBER 4.

At Tipton Junction, where several hundred people had congregated, General Harrison said:

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

NOBLESVILLE, IND., SEPTEMBER 4.

At Noblesville the train was met by a special from Indianapolis, bearing the Columbia Club, a uniformed organization of three hundred prominent young men, who had come to escort General Harrison to his home.

To the assembled citizens of Noblesville the general said:

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

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 4.

The home-coming of General Harrison was a veritable ovation. Fifteen thousand people greeted and accompanied him to his residence, led by the Columbia Club, the Veterans' Regiment, and the Railroad Men's Club. Escorted by Gen. Foster, Daniel M. Ransdell, and W. N. Harding, General Harrison--standing in his own door--facing the great assembly, said:

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

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 6.

On the night of Sept. 6 General Harrison, in company with General A. P. Hovey, Ex-Gov. A. G. Porter, Hon. James N. Huston, Hon. R. B. F. Pierce, Judge Walker, and other friends, reviewed from the balcony of the New-Denison Hotel ten thousand marching Republicans.

It was one of the most brilliant and successful demonstrations of the campaign. The great line was composed of eighty-two Republican clubs and associations of the city of Indianapolis, commanded by Chief Marshal Hon. Geo. W. Spahr, assisted by the following mounted aids: Major Geo. Herriott, Moses G. McLain, Dan'l M. Ransdell, Thomas F. Ryan, W. H. H. Miller, John B. Elam, Dr. Austin Morris, Col. I. N. Walker, Wm. L. Taylor, W. A. Pattison, Capt. O. H. Hibben, Charles Murray, Ed. Thompson, Charles Wright, S. D. Pray, J. E. Haskell, Wm. Thomas, W. H. Tucker, Joseph Forbes, Ed. Harmon, Lou Wade, John W. Bowlus, M. L. Johnson, Miles Reynolds, W. E. Tousey, R. H. Rees, and W. D. Wiles.

The column was divided into four divisions, commanded by Col. N. R. Ruckle, Col. James B. Black, Horace McKay, and Hon. Stanton J. Peelle. A great mass-meeting followed the parade, and the issues of the campaign were presented by General Hovey, Gov. Porter and Hon. John M. Butler.

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 8.

General Harrison on this date received perhaps the most unique delegation of the campaign: a band of one hundred girls and misses, aged from seven to fifteen years, organized by Mrs. Mattie McCorkle. At their head rode Master Charles Pettijohn, six years old, mounted upon a pony, followed by a drum corps of eight young boys. The girls marched four abreast, dressed in uniforms of red, white and blue, carrying mounted Japanese lanterns. They were commanded by Miss Florence Schilling. After singing "Marching through Georgia," Master Pettijohn, on behalf of the young ladies, presented the general a handsome bouquet and made an address. General Harrison honored the young orator and the club with a speech, and said:

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

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

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

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 10.

General Harrison's visitors to-day comprised six hundred G. A. R. veterans and their wives from Northwestern Kansas--_en route_ to the Grand Encampment--under the lead of General W. H. Caldwell, Frank McGrath, C. E. Monell, W. S. Search, Dr. A. Patten, J. W. Garner, and Dr. J. R. King, of Beloit, Kan. Colonel W. C. Whitney, Commander of the First Division, was orator, and assured General Harrison that "Kansas grew more corn and more babies than any other State in the Union." In response the General said:

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

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

GENERAL HARRISON'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.

INDIANAPOLIS, IND., September 11, 1888.
HON. M. M. ESTEE AND OTHERS, COMMITTEE, ETC.:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
BENJAMIN HARRISON.

CLAYTON, IND., SEPTEMBER 13.

_Reunion of the Seventieth Indiana Regiment._

General Harrison, accompanied by Mrs. Harrison and Mrs. McKee, on September 13 attended the fourteenth reunion of the Seventieth Indiana Regimental Association at Clayton village, Hendricks County.