evidence of your old friendliness. My association with the Republicans
of Shelby County began in 1855, when I was a very young man and
a still younger politician. In that year, if I recollect right,
I canvassed every township of your county in the interest of Mr.
Campbell, who was then a candidate for County Clerk. Since then I have
frequently visited your county, and have always been received with the
most demonstrative evidence of your friendship. But in addition to
these political associations, which have given me an opportunity to
observe and to admire the steadfastness, the courage, the unflinching
faithfulness of the Republicans of Shelby County [cheers], I have
another association with your county, which I cherish with great
tenderness and affection. Two companies of the Seventieth Indiana were
made up of your brave boys: Company B, commanded by Captain Sleeth,
and Company F, commanded by Captain Endsley, who still lives among
you. [Cheers.] Many of the surviving members of these companies still
dwell among you. Many others are in the far West, and they, too, from
their distant homes have sent me a comrade's greeting. I recollect
a little story of Peach Tree Creek that may interest you. When the
Seventieth Indiana, then under command of Col. Sam Merrill, swung
up from the reserve into the front line to meet the enemy's charge,
the adjutant-general of the brigade, who had been directed to order
the advance, reported that the left of the Seventieth Indiana was
exposed. He said he had ordered the bluff old captain of Company F,
who was commanding the left wing, to reserve his left in order to
cover his flank, but that the old hickory had answered him with an
expletive--which I have no doubt he has repented of--that he "could
not see it," that he proposed that his end of the regiment should get
to the top of that hill as quick as the other end. [Prolonged cheers.]
We will venerate the memory of the dead of these companies and their
associate companies in other commands who gave up their lives in
defence of the flag.
But I turn aside from these matters of personal recollection to
say a word of more general concern. We are now at the opening of a
presidential campaign, and I beg to suggest to you, as citizens of
the State of Indiana, that there is always in such campaigns a danger
to be avoided, viz. That the citizen may overlook the important
local and State interests which are also involved in the campaign. I
beg, therefore, to suggest that you turn your minds not only to the
consideration of the questions connected with the national legislation
and national administration, but that you think deeply and well of
those things that concern our local affairs. There are some such now
presented to you that have to do with the honor and prosperity of the
State.
There are some questions that ought not to divide parties, but
upon which all good men ought to agree. I speak of only one.
The great benevolent institutions--the fruit of our Christian
civilization--endowed by the bounty of the State, maintained by public
taxes, and intended for the care and education of the disabled classes
of our community, ought to be lifted above all party influences,
benefit or control. [Cheers.] I believe you can do nothing that will
more greatly enhance the estimation in which the State of Indiana
is held by her sister States than to see to it that a suitable,
well-regulated, and strict civil service is provided for the
administration of the benevolent and penal institutions of the State
of Indiana. I will not talk longer; I thank you for this magnificent
evidence that I am still held in kindly regard by the Republicans of
Shelby County, and bid you good-night. [Cheers.]
INDIANAPOLIS, JULY 24.
On the twenty-fourth of July Champaign County, Illinois, contributed a
large delegation under the direction of Hon. F. K. Robeson, Z. Riley,
H. W. Mahan, and W. M. Whindley. Their parade was conspicuous for the
number of log-cabins, cider-barrels, coons, eagles, and other campaign
emblems.
Prominent members of the delegation were Rev. I. S. Mahan, H. M.
Dunlap, F. M. McKay, J. J. McClain, James Barnes, Rev. John Henry, H.
S. Clark, M. S. Goodrich, A. W. McNichols, Capt. J. H. Sands and three
veterans of 1836, the Rev. S. K. Reed, Stephen Freeman, and W. B.
Downing. Hon. Frank M. Wright delivered the address on behalf of the
visitors. General Harrison responded:
_My Friends_--I feel very conscious of the compliment which is
conveyed by your presence here to-day. You come as citizens of an
adjoining State to manifest, as your spokesman has said, some personal
respect for me, but much more, I think--your interest in the pending
contention of principles before the people of the United States. It
is fortunate that you are allowed, not only to express your interest
by such popular gatherings as these, but that you will be called upon
individually, after the debate is over, to settle this contention by
your ballots. An American political canvass, when we look through the
noise and tinsel that accompanies it, presents a scene of profound
interest to the student of government. The theory upon which our
Government is builded is that every qualified elector shall have an
equal influence at the ballot-box with every other. Our Constitutions
do not recognize fractional votes; they do not recognize the right
of one man to count one and a half in the determination of public
questions. It is wisely provided that whatever differences may exist
in intelligence, in wealth, or in any other respect, at the ballot-box
there shall be absolute equality. No interest can be truly subserved,
whether local or general, by any invasion of this great principle.
The wise work of our fathers in constructing this Government will
stand all tests of internal dissension and revolution, and all tests
of external assault, if we can only preserve a pure, free ballot.
[Applause.] Every citizen who is a patriot ought to lend his influence
to that end, by promoting necessary reforms in our election laws and
by a watchful supervision of the processes of our popular elections.
We ought to elevate in thought and practice the free suffrage that
we enjoy. As long as it shall be held by our people to be the jewel
above price, as long as each for himself shall claim its free exercise
and shall generously and manfully insist upon an equally free
exercise of it by every other man, our Government will be preserved
and our development will not find its climax until the purpose of
God in establishing this Government shall have spread throughout the
world--governments "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
[Cheers.]
You will not expect, nor would it be proper, that I should follow
the line of your spokesman's remarks, or even allude to some things
that he has alluded to; but I will not close without one word of
compliment and comradeship for the soldiers of Illinois. [Applause.]
I do not forget that many of them, like Logan--that fearless and
first of volunteer soldiers--at the beginning of the war were not
in sympathy with the Republican national administration. You had a
multitude of soldiers besides Logan, one of whom has been immortalized
in poetry--Sergeant Tillman Joy--who put their politics by "to keep
till the war was through;" and many, I may add, like Logan, when they
got home found new party associations. But we do not limit our praise
of the loyalty and faithfulness of your soldiers to any party lines,
for we realize that there were good soldiers who did resume their
ante-war politics when they came back from the army. To such we extend
a comrade's hand always, and the free and untrammelled exercise of his
political choice shall not bar our comradeship. It happened during the
war that three Illinois regiments were for some time under my command.
I had opportunity to observe their perfection in drill, their orderly
administration of camp duties, and, above all, the brilliant courage
with which they met the enemy. And, in complimenting them, I take
them as the type of that great army that Illinois sent out for the
preservation of the Union and the Constitution. Let me thank you again
for your friendly visit to-day; and if any of you desire a nearer
acquaintance, I shall be glad to make that acquaintance now.
INDIANAPOLIS, JULY 25.
Two thousand visitors from Edgar and Coles counties, Illinois, paid
their respects to the Republican nominee this day.
The excursion was under the auspices of the John A. Logan Club of Paris,
Charles P. Fitch, President. There were many farmers in the delegation,
also eighty-two veterans of the campaign of 1840, and the watchwords
of the day were "Old Tippecanoe and young Tippecanoe." The reception
took place at University Park, notable from this time forward for many
similar events. Prominent among the visitors were Geo. F. Howard, Capt.
F. M. Rude, J. W. Howell, E. R. Lodge, Capt. J. C. Bessier, M. Hackett,
James Stewart, and Mayor J. M. Bell of Paris; C. G. Peck and J. H. Clark
of Mattoon; and Hon. John W. Custor of Benton. State Senator George E.
Bacon delivered the congratulatory address. General Harrison replied:
_Senator Bacon and my Illinois Friends_--Some of my home friends
have been concerned lest I should be worn out by the frequent coming
of these delegations. I am satisfied from what I see before me
to-day that the rest of Illinois is here [laughter], and the concern
of my friends will no longer be excited by the coming of Illinois
delegations. [A voice, "We are all here!"] That you should leave the
pursuits of your daily life--the farm, the office, and the shop--to
make this journey gives me the most satisfactory evidence that your
hearts are enlisted in this campaign. I am glad to welcome here to-day
the John A. Logan Club of Paris. You have chosen a name that you will
not need to drop, whatever mutations may come in politics, so long as
there shall be a party devoted to the flag and to the Constitution,
and pledged to preserve the memories of the great deeds of those who
died that the Constitution might be preserved and the flag honored.
[Applause.] General Logan was indeed, as your spokesman has said, "the
typical volunteer soldier." With him loyalty was not a sentiment; it
was a passion that possessed his whole nature.
When the civil war broke out no one did more than he to solidify
the North in defence of the Government. He it was who said that all
parties and all platforms must be subordinated to the defence of the
Government against unprovoked assault. [A voice, "That's just what
he said!"] In the war with Mexico, as a member of the First Illinois
Regiment, and afterwards as the commander of the Thirty-first Illinois
in the civil war, he gave a conspicuous example of what an untrained
citizen could do in the time of public peril. In the early fight at
Donelson he, with the First Illinois Brigade, successfully resisted
the desperate assaults that were made upon his line; twice wounded, he
yet refused to leave the field. The courage of that gallant brigade
called forth from a Massachusetts poet the familiar lines:
"Thy proudest mother's eyelids fill,
As dares her gallant boy,
And Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill
Yearn to thee, Illinois."
[Applause.] He commanded successively brigades, divisions, corps
and armies, and fought them with unvarying success. I greet these
veterans of the campaign of 1840. You recall the pioneer days, the
log cabin days of the West, the days when muddy highways were the
only avenues of travel and commerce. You have seen a marvellous
development. The State of your adoption has become a mighty
commonwealth; you have seen it crossed and recrossed by railroads,
bringing all your farms into easy communication with distant
markets; you have seen the schoolhouse and church brought into every
neighborhood; you have seen this country rocked in the cradle of war;
you have seen it emerge from that dreadful trial and enter upon an era
of prosperity that seems to surpass all that had gone before.
To these young men who will, for the first time this year, take part
as citizens in determining a presidential election, I suggest that
you have become members of a party of precious memories. There has
been nothing in the history of the Republican party, nothing in the
platform of principles that it has proclaimed, that is not calculated
to stir the high impulses of your young hearts. The Republican party
has walked upon high paths. It has set before it ever the maintenance
of the Union, the honor of its flag, and the prosperity of our people.
It has been an American party [great cheering] in that it has set
American interests always to the front.
My friends of the colored organization, I greet you as Republicans
to-day. I recall the time when you were disfranchised; when your race
were slaves; when the doors of our institutions of learning were
closed against you, and even admittance to many of our Northern States
was denied you. You have read the story of your disfranchisement, of
the restoration to you of the common rights of men. Read it again;
read the story of the bitter and bigoted opposition that every statute
and constitutional amendment framed for your benefit encountered. What
party befriended you when you needed friends? What party has stood
always as an obstruction to the development and enlargement of your
rights as citizens? When you have studied these questions well you
will be able to determine not only where your gratitude is due, but
where the hopes of your race lie. [Cheers.]
INDIANAPOLIS, JULY 26.
From Clay County, Indiana, came three thousand coal-miners and others,
this day, under the auspices of the Harrison Miners' Club of Brazil.
Their parade, with dozens of unique banners and devices, was one of
the most imposing of the campaign. Prominent in the delegation were
Dr. Joseph C. Gifford, L. A. Wolfe, Jacob Herr, P. H. Penna, John F.
Perry, C. P. Eppert, E. C. Callihan, W. H. Lowery, Rev. John Cox, A. F.
Bridges, William Sporr, Carl Thomas, Geo. F. Fuller, John Gibbons, Sam'l
Blair, Thomas Washington, and Judge Coffey of Brazil. Major William
Carter and Edward Wilton, a miner, delivered addresses; Rob't L. McCowan
spoke for the colored members of the delegation. General Harrison, in
response, said:
_Gentlemen and Friends from Clay County_--I thank you for this
enthusiastic demonstration of your interest. I am glad to be assured
by those who have spoken for you to-day that you have brought here,
and desire to evidence, some personal respect for me; but this
demonstration has relation, I am sure, rather to principles than to
men. You come as representatives of the diversified interests of
your county. You are fortunate in already possessing diversified
industries. You have not only agriculture, but the mine and factory
which provide a home market for the products of your farms. You come
here, as I understand, from all these pursuits, to declare that in
your opinion your interests, as farmers, as miners, as mechanics,
as tradesmen, are identified with the maintenance of the doctrine
of protection to American industries, and the preservation of the
American market for American products. [Cheers.] Some resort to
statistics to show that the condition of the American workman is
better than that of the workman of any other country. I do not care
now to deal with statistics. One fact is enough for me. The tide of
emigration from all European countries has been and is towards our
shores. The gates of Castle Garden swing inward. They do not swing
outward to any American laborer seeking a better country than this.
[Cries of "Never!"]
My countrymen, these men, who have toiled at wages in other lands
that barely sustained life, and opened no avenue of promise to them or
to their children, know the good land of hope as well as the swallow
knows the land of summer. [Applause.] They testify that here there
are better conditions, wider and more hopeful prospects for workmen
than in any other land. The next suggestion I have to make is this:
that the more work there is to do in this country the higher the
wages that will be paid for the doing of it. [Applause.] I speak to
men who know that when the product of their toil is in demand in the
market, when buyers are seeking it, wages advance; but when the market
for your products is depressed, and the manufacturer is begging for
buyers, then wages go down. Is it not clear, then, that that policy
which secures the largest amount of work to be done at home is the
policy which will secure to laboring men steady employment and the
best wages? [Cheers and cries of "That is right!"] A policy which will
transfer work from our mines and our factories to foreign mines and
foreign factories inevitably tends to the depression of wages here.
[Applause and cries of "That is true!"] These are truths that do not
require profound study.
Having here a land that throws about the workingman social and
political conditions more favorable than are found elsewhere, if we
can preserve also more favorable industrial conditions we shall secure
the highest interests of our working classes. [Great cheering.] What,
after all, is the best evidence of a nation's prosperity, and the
best guarantee of social order, if it is not an intelligent, thrifty,
contented working class? Can we look for contentment if the workman
is only able to supply his daily necessities by his daily toil, but
is not able in the vigor of youth to lay up a store against old age?
A condition of things that compels the laborer to contemplate want,
as an incident of sickness or disability, is one that tends to social
disorder. [Applause and cries of "That is so!"] You are called upon
now to consider these problems. I will not debate them in detail,
others will. I can only commend them to your thoughtful consideration.
Think upon them; conclude for yourselves what policy as to our tariff
legislation will best subserve your interests, the interests of your
families, and the greatness and glory of the Nation of which you are
citizens. [Cheers.]
My colored friends who are here to-day, the emancipation of the
slave removed from our country that which tended to degrade labor. All
men are now free; you are thrown upon your own resources; the avenues
of intelligence and of business success are open to all. I notice
that the party to which we belong has been recently reproached by the
suggestion that we have not thoroughly protected the colored man in
the South. This has been urged as a reason why the colored people
should join the Democratic party. I beg the gentlemen who urge that
plea to answer this question: Against whom is it that the Republican
party has been unable, as you say, to protect your race? [Applause and
cries of "Good! Good!"] Thanking you again for this demonstration and
for your friendly expressions, I will, if it be your pleasure, drop
this formal method of communication and take my Clay County friends by
the hand. [Great cheering.]
The Clay County miners had not concluded their reception before a
delegation of several hundred arrived from Bloomington, Illinois,
headed by the John A. Logan Club, under the lead of General Geo. F.
Dick, William Maddox, John A. Fullwiller, M. B. Herr, and Dr. F. C.
Vandervoort. Their orator was Dr. W. H. H. Adams, formerly President of
the Illinois Wesleyan University. General Harrison, replying, said:
_My Bloomington Friends_--When I received here, yesterday, a very
large delegation from Illinois, I expressed the opinion that they
must be the "rest of the people of Illinois that had not been here
before." I suppose you are a remnant that could not get into line
yesterday. I thank you as I have thanked those who preceded you, for
the interest which the people of your State have manifested, and
for your cordial fellowship with Indiana. I will not discuss the
issues of the campaign. You have already thought upon the platforms
of the two parties. Some of you have perhaps taken your politics by
inheritance. It is now a good time to review the situation. We have
the same interests as citizens. Let us all consider the history and
declarations of the great parties and thoughtfully conclude which is
more likely to promote the general interests of our people. That is
the test. The British Parliament does not legislate with a view to
advance the interests of the people of the United States. [Cries of
"No, never!"] They--rightly--have in view the interest of that empire
over which Victoria reigns. Should we not, also, as Americans, in our
legislation, consider first the interests of our people? We invite
the thoughtful attention of those who have hitherto differed with us
as to these questions. Our interests are bound together. That which
promotes the prosperity of the community in which you dwell in kindly
association with your Democratic friends promotes your interests and
theirs alike. Thanking you for this visit, I will ask you to excuse me
from further speech. [Applause.]
INDIANAPOLIS, JULY 27.
Kosciusko County, Indiana, contributed two thousand visitors on the
twenty-seventh of July, under the leadership of Capt. C. W. Chapman,
James H. Cisney, Reub. Williams, Louis Ripple, J. E. Stevenson, Wm.
B. Wood, T. Loveday, John Wynant, Charles Adams, Nelson Richhart,
Captain A. S. Miller, Clinton Lowe, P. L. Runyon, James A. Cook, Frank
McGee, and John Burbaker, all of Warsaw. Judge H. S. Biggs made the
presentation address. General Harrison replied as follows:
_Mr. Biggs and my Kosciusko County Friends_--I did not need to be
assured of the friendliness of the Republicans of your county. It has
been evidenced too many times in the past. Before the convention at
Chicago the Republicans of your county gave me the assurance that my
nomination would meet the cordial approbation of your people. I am
glad to welcome you here to-day, and regret that your journey hither
has been so tedious. You are proud of the State in which you dwell;
proud of her institutions of learning; proud of her great benevolent
institutions, which I notice by one of these banners you have pledged
yourselves to protect from party spoliation and degradation. [Applause
and cries of "Good! Good!"] But while we have much that is cause for
congratulation, we are not enjoying that full equality of civil rights
in the State of Indiana to which we are entitled.
Our Government is a representative government. Delegates in Congress
and members of our State Senate and House of Representatives are
apportioned to districts, and the National and State Constitutions
contemplate that these districts shall be equal, so that, as far as
possible, each citizen shall have, in his district, the same potency
in choosing a Member of Congress or of our State Legislature as is
exercised by a voter in any other district. We do not to-day have that
condition of things. The apportionment of our State for legislative
and congressional purposes is unfair, and is known to be unfair to
all men. No candid Democrat can defend it as a fair apportionment. It
was framed to be unequal, it was designed to give to the citizens of
favored districts an undue influence. It was intended to discriminate
against Republicans. It is not right that it should be so. I hope the
time is coming, and has even now arrived, when the great sense of
justice which possesses our people will teach men of all parties that
party success is not to be promoted at the expense of an injustice to
any of our citizens. [Applause.] These things take hold of government.
If we would maintain that respect for the law which is necessary to
social order, our people must understand that each voter has his full
and equal influence in determining what the law shall be. I hope this
question will not be forgotten by our people until we have secured
in Indiana a fair apportionment for legislative and congressional
purposes. [Cheers.] When the Republicans shall secure the power of
making an apportionment, I hope and believe that the experiment of
seeking a party advantage by a public injustice will not be repeated.
[Great applause and cries of "Good! Good!"]
There are some other questions affecting suffrage, too, to which my
attention has, from circumstances, been particularly attracted. There
are in the Northwest several Territories organized under public law
with defined boundaries. They have been filled up with the elect of
our citizens--the brave, the enterprising and intelligent young men
from all the States. Many of the veterans of the late war have sought
under our beneficent homestead law new homes in the West. Several of
these Territories have been for years possessed of population, wealth,
and all the requisites for admission as States. When the Territory
of Indiana took the census which was the basis for its petition for
admission to the Union we had less than 64,000 people; we had only
thirteen organized counties. In the Territory of South Dakota there
are nearly half a million people. For years they have been knocking
for admission to the sisterhood of States.