this demonstration are very gratifying. That these representatives of
the State of my nativity, and these, my neighbors in this State of my
early adoption, should unite this morning in giving this evidence of
their respect and confidence is especially pleasing. I do remember
Ohio, the State of my birth and of my boyhood, with affection and
veneration. I take pride in her great history, the illustrious men she
furnished to lead our armies, and the army of her brave boys who bore
the knapsack and the gun for the Union. I take pride in her pure and
illustrious statesmen. Ohio was the first of the Northwestern States
to receive the western emigration after the Revolutionary War. When
that tide of patriotism which had borne our country to freedom and had
established our Constitution threw upon the West many of the patriots
whose fortunes had been maimed or broken by their sacrifices in the
Revolutionary War, this pure stream, pouring over the Alleghanies,
found its first basin in the State of Ohio. [Cries of "Good! Good!"]
The waters of patriotism that had been distilled in the fires of the
Revolution fertilized her virgin fields. [Applause.] I do not forget,
however, that my manhood has all been spent in Indiana--that all the
struggle which is behind me in life has this for its field. [Cheers.]
I brought to this hospitable State only that to which Col. Lowe has
alluded--an education and a good wife. [Great cheering.] Whatever
else I have, whatever else I have accomplished, for myself and for
my family or the public, has been under the favoring and friendly
auspices of these, my fellow-citizens of Indiana. [Applause.] To
them I owe more than I can repay. My Indiana friends, you come from
a county largely devoted to agriculture. The invitation of Nature
was so generous that your people have generally accepted it. Guarded
as your early settlers were, and as those of Ohio were, by that
sword of liberty which was placed at your gates by the ordinance of
1787, stimulated, as you have been, by the suggestions of that great
ordinance in favor of morality and education, you have, in your rural
homes, one of the best communities in the world. [Applause.] You do
not forget, farmers though you are, that 95 per cent. of the product
of your farms is consumed at home, and you are too wise to put that
in peril in a greedy search after foreign trade. [Great applause.] You
will not sacrifice these great industries that have created in our
country a consuming class for your products. [Cheers.] I do not think
that there is any doubt what tariff policy England would wish us to
adopt, and yet some say that England is trembling lest we should adopt
free trade here [laughter], and so rob her of other markets that she
now enjoys. [Laughter.] The story of our colonial days, when England,
with selfish and insatiate avarice, laid her repressive hand upon our
infant manufactories and attempted to suppress them all, furnishes
the first object-lesson she gave us. Another was given when the life
of this Nation--the child of England, as she has been wont to call
us, speaking the mother tongue, having many institutions inherited
from her--was imperilled. The offer of free trade by the Confederacy
so touched the commercial greed of England that she forgot the ties
of blood and went to the verge of war with us to advance the cause of
the rebel Government. [Cheers.] But what England wants, or what any
other country wants, is not very important--certainly not conclusive.
[Cheers.]
What is best for us and our people should be the decisive question.
[Cheers.] My Randolph County friends, there are State questions that
must take a strong hold upon the minds of people like yours. The
proposition to lift entirely out of the range and control of partisan
politics the great benevolent institutions of the State is one that
must commend itself to all your people. [Cheers.] If all those friends
who sympathize with us upon this question had acted with us in 1886 we
should then have accomplished this great reform. [Applause.] And now,
to these old gentlemen whose judgment and large experience in life
gives added value to their kind words; to these young friends who,
for the first time, take a freeman's place in the line of battle to
do duty for the right, I give my kindly greetings and best wishes in
return for theirs. [Cheers.]
INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER
On the afternoon of September 22 General Harrison was visited by 600
Chicago "drummers," organized as the Republican Commercial Travellers'
Association of Chicago and accompanied by the celebrated Second Regiment
Band. They were escorted to the Harrison residence by the Columbia Club
and 200 members of the Republican Commercial Travellers' Escort Club of
Indianapolis, George C. Webster, President; Ernest Morris, Secretary.
The entire business community turned out to greet the visitors as they
marched through the city, performing difficult evolutions, under the
command of Chief Marshal Vandever and his aids--C. S. Felton, P. H.
Brockway, B. F. Horton, Joseph Pomroy, W. H. Haskell, Geo. W. Bristol,
A. C. Boyd, Geo. H. Green, and Secretary H. A. Morgan.
General Harrison's appearance was signalized by a remarkable
demonstration. Col. H. H. Rude delivered the address on behalf of his
associates.
In response General Harrison made one of his best speeches. He said:
_Sir, and Gentlemen of the Republican Commercial Travellers'
Association of Chicago_--I bid you welcome to my home. I give you
my most ardent thanks for this cordial evidence of your interest
in those great principles of government which are advocated by the
Republican party, whose candidate I am. I am not unfamiliar with the
value, efficiency, and intelligence of the commercial travellers
of our country. [Cheers.] The contribution you make to the success
of the business communities with which you are identified is large
and indispensable. I do not doubt that one of the strongest props
of Chicago's commercial greatness would be destroyed if you were
withdrawn from the commercial forces of that great city. [Cheers.] The
growth and development of Chicago has been one of the most marvellous
incidents in the story of American progress. It is gratifying to know
that your interest is enlisted in this political campaign. It is very
creditable to you that in the rush of the busy industries and pushing
trade of your city you have not forgotten that you are American
citizens and that you owe service, not to commerce only, but to your
country. [Great cheering.] It is gratifying to be assured that you
propose to bring your influence into the great civil contest which is
now engaging the interest of our people. The intelligence and energy
which you give to your commercial pursuits will be a most valuable
contribution to our cause. [Cheers.] The power of such a body of men
is very great.
I want now to introduce to you for a moment another speaker--an
Englishman. Within the last year I have been reading, wholly without
any view to politics, the story of our diplomatic relations with
England during the Civil War. The motive that most strongly influenced
the English mind in its sympathy with the South was the expectancy of
free trade with the Confederacy [cries of "That's right!"], and among
the most influential publications intended to urge English recognition
and aid to the Confederates was a book entitled "The American Union,"
by James Spence. It was published in 1862, and ran through several
editions. Speaking of the South he said:
"No part of the world can be found more admirably placed for
exchanging with this country the products of industry to mutual
advantage than the Southern States of the Union. Producing in
abundance the material we chiefly require, their climate and the
habits of the people indispose them to manufactures, and leave to
be purchased precisely the commodities we have to sell. They have
neither the means nor the desire to enter into rivalry with us.
Commercially they offer more than the capabilities of another India
within a fortnight's distance from our shores. The capacity of a
Southern trade when free from restrictions may be estimated most
correctly by comparison. The condition of those States resembles
that of Australia, both non-manufacturing countries, with the
command of ample productions to offer in exchange for the imports
they require."
The author proceeds to show that at the time England's exports to
our country were only thirteen shillings per capita of our population,
while the exports to Australia were ten pounds sterling per capita.
Let me now read you what is said of the Northern States:
"The people of the North, whether manufacturers or ship-owners,
regard us as rivals and competitors, to be held back and cramped
by all possible means. [Applause and cries of "That's it!"] They
possess the same elements as ourselves--coal, metals, ships, an
aptitude for machinery, energy and industry--while the early
obstacles of deficient capital and scanty labor are rapidly
disappearing. [Applause and a voice, "Exactly!"]
"For many years they have competed with us in some manufactures
in foreign markets, and their peculiar skill in the contrivance of
labor-saving machinery daily increases the number of articles they
produce cheaper than ourselves. [Loud cheering and a voice, "We'll
knock them out again!"]
"Thus, to one part of the world our exports are at the rate of
ten pounds sterling per head, while those to the Union amount to but
thirteen shillings per head."
I have read these extracts because they seemed to me very suggestive
and very instructive. The South offered free trade to Europe in
exchange for an expected recognition of their independence by England
and France. [Cries of "You are right!"] The offer was very attractive
and persuasive to the ruling classes of England. They took Confederate
bonds and sent out armed cruisers to prey upon our commerce. They
dallied with Southern agents, fed them with delusive hopes, and thus
encouraged the South to protract a hopeless struggle. They walked to
the very edge of open war with the United States, forgetful of all the
friendly ties that had bound us as nations, and all this to satisfy
a commercial greed. We may learn from this how high a price England
then set upon free trade with a part only of the States. [A voice, "We
remember it!"]
But now the Union has been saved and restored. Men of both armies
and of all the States rejoice that England's hope of a commercial
dependency on our Southern coast was disappointed. The South is under
no stress to purchase foreign help by trade concessions. She will now
open her hospitable doors to manufacturing, capital, and skilled labor.
It is not now true that either climate or the habits of her people
indispose them to manufactures. Of the Virginias, North Carolina,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Missouri, it may be now said, as
Mr. Spence said of the more northern States, "They possess the same
elements as ourselves [England]--coal, metals, ships, an aptitude
for machinery, energy, and industry--while the early obstacles of
deficient capital and scanty labor are rapidly disappearing." And I
am sure there is a "New South"--shackled as it is by traditions and
prejudices--that is girding itself to take part in great industrial
rivalry with England, which Mr. Spence so much deprecates. These great
States will no longer allow either Old England or New England to spin
and weave their cotton, but will build mills in the very fields where
the great staple is gathered. [Applause.] They will no longer leave
Pennsylvania without an active rival in the production of iron. They
surely will not, if they are at all mindful of their great need and
their great opportunity, unite in this crusade against our protected
industries.
Our interests no longer run upon sectional lines, and it cannot be
good for any part of our country that Mr. Spence's vision of English
trade with us should be realized. [Cries of "Never! Never!"] Commerce
between the States is working mightily, if silently, to efface all
lingering estrangements between our people, and the appeal for the
perpetuation of the American system of protection will, I am sure,
soon find an answering response among the people of all the States.
[Loud cheering.]
I thank you again for this beautiful and cordial demonstration, and
will now be glad to meet you personally.
INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 25.
The third delegation from Wabash County during the campaign arrived
on September 25, a thousand strong, headed by Hon. Jesse Arnold, Col.
Homan Depew, Thomas Black, W. D. Caldwell, Obed Way, Thomas McNamee,
Rob't Thompson, Wm. Alexander, Robert Wilson, Andrew Egnew, C. S. Haas,
W. W. Stewart, W. H. Bent, Robert Stewart, and W. D. Gachenour. Their
spokesman was Capt. B. F. Williams. Parke County, Indiana, contributed a
large delegation the same day, under the lead of John W. Stryker, Jacob
Church, John R. Johnson, A. O. Benson, W. W. McCune, Joseph H. Jordan,
and A. A. Hargrave, of Rockville, and 300 school children, in charge of
A. R. McMurty. Dr. T. F. Leech was orator for the Parke visitors.
General Harrison spoke as follows:
_My Wabash County Friends and my Little Friends from Parke_--I
am very glad to meet you here to-day. My friend who has spoken for
Wabash County has very truly said that the relations between me and
the Republicans of that county have always been exceedingly cordial.
I remember well when I first visited your county in 1860, almost a
boy in years, altogether a boy in political experience. I was then a
candidate for Reporter of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of this
State. You had in one of your own citizens, afterward a distinguished
soldier, a candidate for that office in the convention that nominated
me, but that did not interfere at all with the cordial welcome from
your people when, as the nominee of the party, I came into your
county. I think from that day to this my name has never been mentioned
in any convention for any office that I have not had almost the
unanimous support of the Republicans of Wabash County. [Applause.]
This is no new interest which you now manifest to-day. The expressions
of your confidence have been very numerous and have been continued
through nearly thirty years.
There is one word on one subject that I want to say. Our Democratic
friends tell us that there are about a hundred millions--their
arithmeticians do not agree on the exact figures--in the public
Treasury for which the Government has no need. They have found only
this method of using it, viz.: depositing it in the national banks of
the country, to be loaned out by them to our citizens at interest, the
Government getting no interest whatever from the banks. I suggested,
and it was not an original suggestion with me--Senator Sherman has
advocated the same policy with great ability in the Senate--that
this money had better be used in buying Government bonds, because
the Government would make some money in applying it that way, and
there was no other way in which they could get any interest on it
at all. But it is said if we use it in this manner we pay a premium
to the bondholders. But it is only the same premium that the bonds
are bringing in the market. In other words, as I said the other day,
capitalists who can use their money as they please--put it out on
mortgages, at interest, or in any other way--think the Government
bond at the current rate of premium is a good investment for them.
Now, the Government can buy those bonds at that premium and save a
great deal of interest. I will not undertake to give you figures. One
issue of these bonds matures in 1907, and bears four per cent. annual
interest. Now, suppose this surplus money were to remain all that
time in the banks without bringing any interest to the Government;
is there a man here so dull that he cannot see the great loss that
would result to the people? I have another objection to this policy:
the favoritism that is involved in it. We have heard--and from such
high authority that I think that we must accept it as true--that the
great patronage appertaining to the office of President of the United
States involves a public peril. Now, suppose we add to that danger a
hundred millions of dollars that the Secretary of the Treasury can put
in this community or that, in this bank or that, at his pleasure; is
not the power of the executive perilously increased? Is it right that
the use of this vast sum should be a matter of mere favoritism, that
the Secretary should be allowed to put $10,000,000 of this surplus
in Indianapolis and none of it in Kansas City, or $75,000,000 in New
York and none in Indianapolis? If the money is used in buying bonds it
finds its natural place--goes where it belongs. This is a most serious
objection to the present method of dealing with the surplus. But if
you still object to paying the market premium when we buy these bonds,
see how it works the other way. The banks deposit their bonds in the
Treasury to secure these deposits, get the Government money without
interest, and still draw interest on their bonds. If any of you had a
note for a thousand dollars due in five years, bearing interest, and
your credit was so good that the note was worth a premium, and you had
twelve hundred dollars that you could not put out at interest so as
to offset the interest on your note, would you not make money by using
this surplus to take up the note at a fair premium? Would you think
it wise finance to give the thousand dollars that you had on hand to
your creditor without interest and allow him to deposit your note with
you as security, you paying interest on the note until it was due and
getting no interest on your deposit? [Laughter and applause.].
I welcome my young friends from Parke County. There is nothing
fuller of interest than childhood. There is so much promise and
hope in it. Expectancy makes life very rosy to them and them very
interesting to us who have passed beyond the turn of life. [Applause.]
You are fortunate in these kind instructors, who from week to week
instil into your minds the principles of religion and of morality;
but do not forget that there is another vine of beauty that may be
appropriately twined with those--the love of your country and her
institutions. [Applause.] I thank you again for this cordial evidence
of your regard. The skies are threatening, and as there is danger that
our meeting may be interrupted by rain I will stop here in order that
I may meet each of you personally. [Cheers.]
INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 26.
Ohio and Indiana united to-day again, through their delegations,
aggregating 4,000 citizens, in paying their respects to General
Harrison. The Tippecanoe Veteran Association of Columbus, Ohio, J. E.
St. Clair, President, comprising 200 veterans, whose ages averaged 76
years, was escorted by the Foraker Club of Columbus, led by President
Reeves. The veterans were accompanied by the venerable Judge John
A. Bingham, of Cadiz, and Gen. Geo. B. Wright, of Columbus, both of
whom made addresses. No other club or organization, during the entire
campaign, was the recipient of such marked attentions as the Ohio
veterans; the youngest among them was 68 years of age. Among the oldest
were Wm. Armstrong, aged 91; Ansel Bristol, 80; H. H. Chariton, 84;
Francis A. Crum, 82; Joseph Davis, 84; Henry Edwards, 80; John Fields,
82; John A. Gill, 82; J. L. Grover, 81; J. A. S. Harlow, 87; Harris
Loomis, 84; Dan'l Melhousen, 80; Sam'l McCleland, 80; Judge John Otstot,
86; James Park, 80; Daniel Short, 83; John Saul, 86; George Snoffer,
85; David Taylor, 87; Jacob Taylor, 88; J. D. Fuller, 82, and Luther
Hillery, aged 90, who knew William Henry Harrison before his first
nomination. Prominent in the Foraker Club were Dr. A. W. Harden and D.
K. Reif.
The Tipton County, Indiana, visitation was under the auspices of the
First Voters' Club of the town of Tipton. A large club of Tippecanoe
campaign veterans headed their column, led by Chief Marshal J. A.
Swoveland, assisted by M. W. Pershing, James Johns, John F. Pyke, R. J.
McCalion, Isaac Booth, J. Q. Seright, and J. Wolverton. Judge Daniel
Waugh, of Tipton, was the mouthpiece of the delegation.
From Elkhart County, Indiana, came a notable delegation of a thousand
business men, prominent among whom were State Senator Davis, Hon. Geo.
W. Burt, Daniel Zook, H. J. Beyerle, E. G. Herr, D. W. Neidig, T. H.
Dailey, D. W. Granger, and I. W. Nash, of Goshen; and James H. State, A.
C. Manning, J. W. Fieldhouse, J. G. Schreiner, A. P. Kent, J. H. Cainon,
Frank Baker, and Jacob Berkley, of Elkhart City. Hon. O. Z. Hubbell
was spokesman for the delegation. Judge Bingham's eloquent address was
listened to with marked attention.
General Harrison responded as follows:
_Gentlemen, my Ohio and Indiana Friends_--Again about this platform
there are gathered representatives from these two great States. Your
coming is an expression of a common interest, a recognition of the
fact that there is a citizenship that is wider than the lines of any
State. [Cheers.] That over and above that just pride in your own
communities, which you cherish so jealously, there is a fuller pride
in the one flag, to which we all give our allegiance, and in the
one Constitution, which binds the people of these States together
indissolubly in a Government strong enough to protect its humblest
citizen wherever he may sojourn. [Prolonged cheers.] Your State
institutions are based, like those of the Nation, upon the great
principles of human liberty and equality, and are consecrated to the
promotion of social order and popular education. But, above all this,
resting on like foundations, is the strong arch of the Union that
binds us together as a Nation. You are citizens of the United States,
and as such have common interests that suggest this meeting. [Cheers.]
I cannot speak separately to the various organizations represented
here. There is a broad sense in which you are one. But I cannot omit
to pay a hearty tribute of thanks to these venerable men who are
gathered about me to-day. I value this tribute from them more than
words can tell. I cannot, without indelicacy, speak much of that
campaign to which they brought the enthusiasm of their earlier life
and to which their memories now turn with so much interest. If, out
of it, they have brought on with them in life to this moment and have
transferred to me some part of the respect which another won from
them, then I will find in their kindness a new stimulus to duty.
[Applause and cries, "We have; we have!"] In looking over, the other
day, a publication of the campaign of 1840, I fell upon a card signed
by fifteen Democrats of Orange, N. J., giving their reasons for
leaving the Democratic party. It has occurred to me that it might be
interesting to some of these old gentlemen. [Cries of "We want to hear
it!" and "Read it!"]
It was as follows: "We might give many reasons for this change in
our political opinions. The following, however, we deem sufficient:
We do not believe the price of labor in this free country should be
reduced to the standard prescribed by despots in foreign countries.
[Applause.] We do not believe in fighting for the country and being
unrepresented in the councils of the country. We do not believe in an
exclusive, hard, metallic currency any more than we believe in hard
bread or no bread! We do not believe it was the design of the framers
of the Constitution that the President should occupy his time during
the first term in electioneering for his re-election to a second
term!" [Loud laughter and applause.] I have read this simply as an
historical curiosity and to refresh your recollections as to some of
the issues of that campaign. If it has any application to our modern
politics I will leave you to make it. [Laughter and applause.] I have
recently been talking, and have one thing further to say, about the
surplus.