_Mr. Woods and my Friends_--My voice is not in condition to speak at
much length in this cool night air. I am very deeply grateful for this
evidence of the respect of this large body of Indianapolis workingmen.
I am glad to be assured by what has been said to me that you realize
that this campaign has a special interest for the wage-earners of
America. [Cries of "Good! Good!"]
That is the first question in life with you, because it involves the
subsistence and comfort of your families. I do not wonder then that,
out of so many different associations in life, you have come together
into this organization to express your determination to vote for the
maintenance of the American system of protection. [Great cheering.]
I think you can all understand that it is not good for American
workingmen that the amount of work to be done in this country should
be diminished by transferring some of it to foreign shops. [Applause.]
Nor ought the wages paid for the work that is done here to be
diminished by bringing you into competition with the underpaid labor
of the old country. [Applause.]
I am not speaking any new sentiment to-night. Many times before the
Chicago convention I have, in public addresses, expressed the opinion
that every workingman ought to have such wages as would not only yield
him a decent and comfortable support for his family, and enable him
to keep his children in school and out of the mill in their tender
age, but would allow him to lay up against incapacity by sickness or
accident, or for old age, some fund on which he could rely. These
views I entertain to-night. I beg you to excuse further public speech
and to allow me to receive personally such of you as care to speak to
me. [Applause.]
INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 4.
Three States did homage to the Republican nominee this date. From Grand
Rapids and Muskegon, Mich., came 500 visitors, under the auspices of the
Belknap Club of Grand Rapids. The wife of Governor Luce was a member
of the delegation, accompanied by R. C. Luce and W. A. Davitt. Other
prominent members were: Judge F. J. Russell, Hon. A. B. Turner, Col. C.
T. Foote, J. B. Pantlind, Don J. Leathers, Col. E. S. Pierce, Wm. A.
Gavett, H. J. Felker, D. G. Crotty, H. J. Stevens, Aldrich Tateum, Louis
Kanitz, A. E. Yerex, and N. McGraft, of Grand Rapids; Thomas A. Parish
and Geo. Turner, of Grand Haven; and John J. Cappon, of Holland. John
Patton, Jr., of Grand Rapids, was orator.
The Ohio visitors came from Tiffin, Seneca County, led by the venerable
A. C. Baldwin, Capt. John McCormick, Albert Corthell, Capt. Edward
Jones, Edward Naylor, and J. B. Rosenburger. The wife of Gen. Wm. H.
Gibson was an honored guest of the delegation, accompanied by Mrs.
Robert Lysle and Mrs. Root. J. K. Rohn was spokesman for the Ohio
visitors.
The third delegation comprised 1,200 voters from Jay County, Indiana,
led by Gen. N. Shepherd, Theodore Bailey, Richard A. Green, John Geiger,
E. J. Marsh, Frank H. Snyder, and M. V. Moudy, of Portland. Jesse M. La
Follette was their speaker.
To these several addresses General Harrison, in response, said:
_My Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana Friends_--These cordial
manifestations of your personal regard move me very deeply [applause],
but I do not at all appropriate to myself the great expressions of
popular interest of which this meeting is only one. I understand
that my relation to these public questions and to the people is a
representative one--that the interest which thus expresses itself is
in principles of government rather than in men. [Cheers.] I am one
of the oldest Republicans; my first presidential vote was given to
the first Republican candidate for that office [applause], and it has
always been a source of profound gratification to me that, in peace
and war, a high spirit of patriotism and devotion to our country has
always pervaded and dominated the party. [Cheers.] When, during the
Civil War, the clouds hung low, disasters thickened, and the future
was crowded with uncanny fears, never did any Republican convention
assemble without declaring its faith in the ultimate triumph of our
cause [great cheering]; and now, with a broad patriotism that embraces
and regards the interests of all the States, it advocates policies
that will develop and unite all our communities in the friendly and
profitable interchange of commerce as well as in a lasting political
union. [Applause.] These great Western States will not respond to
the attempt to excite prejudice against New England. We advocate
measures that are as broad as our national domain; that are calculated
to distil their equal blessing upon all the land. [Cheers.] The
people of the great West recognize and value the great contribution
which those commonwealths about Plymouth Rock have made to the
civilization, material growth, and manhood of our Western States.
[Cheers.] We are not envious of the prosperity of New England; we
rejoice in it. We believe that the protective policy developed her
great manufacturing institutions and made her rich, and we do not
doubt that a continuance of that policy will produce the same results
in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. [Cheers.] We are not content to remain
wholly agricultural States in our relations to either New England or
old England. [Applause.] We believe that in all these great Western
States there are minerals in the soil and energy and skill in the
brains and arms of our people that will yet so multiply and develop
our manufacturing industries as to give us a nearer home market for
much of the products of our soil. [Cheers.] And for that great surplus
which now and always, perhaps, we shall not consume at home we think
a New England market better than a foreign market. [Enthusiastic and
prolonged cheering.] The issue upon this great industrial question
is drawn as sharply as the lines were ever drawn between contending
armies. Men are readjusting their party relations upon this great
question. The appeal that is now made for the defence of our American
system is finding its response, and many of those who are opposed to
us upon other questions are committing such questions to the future
for settlement, while they help us to settle now and for an indefinite
future the great question of the preservation of our commercial
independence. [Applause.] The Democratic party has challenged our
protected industries to a fight of extermination. The wage-earners of
our country have accepted the challenge. The issue of the contest will
settle for many years our tariff policy. [Prolonged cheering.] The
eloquent descriptions to which we have listened of the material wealth
of the great State of Michigan have been full of interest to us as
citizens of Indiana. We cannot doubt that the people of a State having
such generous invitations to the developments of great home wealth in
manufacturing and mining pursuits will understand the issue that is
presented, and will cast their influence in favor of that policy which
will make that development rapid and sure; and more than all, and
better than all, will maintain in her communities a well-paid class
of wage-workers. [Cheers.] Our wage-workers vote; they are American
citizens, and it is essential that they be kept free from the slavery
of want and the discontents bred of injustice. [Applause.]
I thank my Michigan friends for these handsome specimens of the
products of their mines and of their mills. I shall cherish them with
grateful recollection of this pleasant visit. [Applause.]
To my Indiana friends, always generous, I return my thanks for this
new evidence of their esteem. [Cheers.]
To my Ohio friends, who so often before have visited me with kind
expressions of their regard, I return the thanks of a native-born
Ohioan. [Prolonged cheers from the Ohio delegation.]
Three great States are grouped here to-day. I remember at Resaca,
when the field and staff of the regiments that were to make the
assault were ordered to dismount, there was a Michigan officer too
sick to go on foot and too proud to subject himself to the imputation
of cowardice by staying behind.
He rode alone, the one horseman in that desperate charge, and
died on that bloody hillside rather than subject his State to the
imputation that one of her sons had lingered when the enemy was to be
engaged. He was a noble type of the brave men these great States gave
to the country. [Cheers.]
INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 5.
Wisconsin and Indiana were the States represented at this day's
reception. The Wisconsin visitors came from Madison, Janesville, and
Beloit. Prominent among them were General Atwood, editor Wisconsin
_State Journal_, Surgeon-General Palmer, W. T. Van Kirk, and T. G.
Maudt. R. C. Spooner spoke for the Badgers.
Fountain County, Indiana, sent 2,000 visitors, led by a club of
Tippecanoe veterans. Among their representative men were H. La Tourette,
W. W. Layton, John H. Spence, of Covington; A. H. Clark, and W. H.
Malory, of Veedersburg; A. S. Peacock, H. C. Martin, and C. E. Holm, of
Attica. Capt. Benj. Hegeler, of Attica, delivered the address on behalf
of the Hoosiers.
General Harrison responded as follows:
_My Wisconsin and my Indiana Friends_--These great daily
manifestations of the interest of great masses of our people in the
principles represented by the Republican party are to me increasingly
impressive. I am glad to-day that Indiana has opportunity to welcome
a delegation from the magnificent State of Wisconsin. [Cheers.] It
offers a fitting opportunity to acknowledge my personal obligation and
the obligation of the Indiana Republicans for the early and constant
support which Wisconsin gave to the efforts of the Indiana delegation
in the Chicago convention. [Prolonged cheers.] To-day two States, not
contiguous in territory, but touching in many interests, are met to
express the fact that these great electoral contests affect all our
people. It is not alone in the choice of Presidential electors that
we have common interests. Our national Congress, though chosen in
separate districts, legislates for all our people. Wisconsin has a
direct interest that the ballot shall be free and pure in Indiana, and
Wisconsin and Indiana have a direct interest that the ballot shall be
free and pure in all the States. [Great cheering.] Therefore let no
man say that it is none of our business how elections are conducted in
other States. [Cheers.] I believe that this great question of a free
ballot, so much disturbed by race questions in the South, would be
settled this year if the men of the South who believe with us upon the
great question of the protection of American industries would throw
off old prejudices and vote their convictions upon that question.
[Cheers and cries of "Good! Good!"] I believe there are indications
that the independent manhood of the South will this year strongly
manifest itself in this direction. Those intelligent and progressive
citizens of the South who are seeking to build up within their own
States diversified industries will not much longer be kept in bondage
to the traditions of the days when the South was wholly a community of
planters.
When they assert their belief in a protective tariff, by supporting
the only party that advocates that policy, the question of a free
ballot, so far as it is a Southern question, will be settled forever,
for they will have the power to insist that those who believe with
them shall vote, and that their votes shall be counted. [Applause.]
The protective policy, by developing a home supply and limiting
importations, helps us to maintain the balance of trade upon our side
in our dealings with the world. [Cheers.] Under the tariff of 1846
from the year 1850 to 1860 the balance of trade was continuously
against us, aggregating in that period over three hundred millions
of dollars. Under the influence of a protective tariff the balance
of trade has been generally and largely with us, unless disturbed
by special conditions. Instead of sending our gold abroad to pay a
foreign balance we have usually been bringing foreign gold here to
augment our store. [Cheers.] I will not detain you further. These
daily demands upon me make it necessary that I shall speak briefly.
Let me thank most profoundly those gentlemen and ladies from Wisconsin
who have come so far to bring me this tribute of their respect. I very
highly value it. These, my Indiana friends, unite with me in thanking
you for your presence to-day. [Cheers from the Indianians.] To my
nearer friends, my Fountain County friends, let me say I am profoundly
grateful to you for this large and imposing demonstration and for the
interest you are individually taking in this campaign. [Cheers.] I
do not think of it as a personal campaign. It has always seemed to
me to be altogether greater than that, and when I thank you for your
interest and commend your zeal it is an interest in principles and a
zeal for the truth that I approve. [Cheers.]
INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 6.
Saturday, October 6, was one of the great days of the campaign. The
first delegation, numbering 2,000, came from Wells and Blackford
counties, Indiana. Conspicuous in their ranks were two large uniformed
clubs of ladies, one from Montpelier, and the Carrie Harrison Club of
Bluffton. In the Wells County contingent were many 1840 veterans and
21 newly-converted Democrats. Their leaders were Asbury Duglay, D. H.
Swaim, B. W. Bowman, Peter Ulmer, Silas Wisner, Joseph Milholland, J.
C. Hatfield, and T. A. Doan. J. J. Todd was their spokesman. Prominent
in the Blackford delegation were Frank Geisler, H. M. Campbell, W. L.
Ritter, Eli Hamilton, R. V. Ervin, W. A. Williams, John Sipe, and John
Cantwell, of Hartford City; J. C. Summerville, Wm. Pugh, J. H. Morrical,
G. A. Mason, John G. Ward, and J. M. Tinsley, of Montpelier. Hon. B. G.
Shinn delivered the address on behalf of the Blackford people.
General Harrison confined his speech to State questions. He said:
_My Wells and Blackford County Friends_--I am glad to meet you.
It is extremely gratifying to be assured by your presence here
this inclement day, and by the kind words which you have addressed
to me through your representatives, that I have some part in your
friendly regard as an individual. But individuals are not of the
first importance. That man who thinks that the prosperity of this
country or the right administration of its affairs is wholly dependent
upon him grossly exaggerates his value. The essential things to us
are the principles of government upon which our institutions were
builded, and by and through which we make that symmetrical and safe
growth which has characterized our Nation in the past, and which is
yet to raise it to a higher place among the nations of the earth.
[Applause.] We are Indianians--Hoosiers, if you please [cheers]--and
are proud of the State of which we are citizens. Your spokesmen have
referred with an honest pride to the counties from which you have
come, and that is well. But I would like to suggest to you that
every political community and neighborhood has a character of its
own, a moral character, as well as every man and every woman, and it
is exceedingly important, looked at even from the side of material
advantage, that our communities should maintain a good reputation
for social order, intelligence, virtue, and a faithful and willing
obedience to law. [Applause.] It cannot be doubted that such a
character possessed by any State or county attracts immigration and
capital, advances its material development, and enhances the value
of its farms. There has been much in the history of Indiana that is
exceedingly creditable. There have been some things--there are some
things to-day--that are exceedingly discreditable to us as a political
community; things that I believe retard the advancement of our State
and affect its material prosperity by degrading it in the estimation
of right-thinking men. One of those things is this patent and open
fact: that the great benevolent institutions of this State, instead
of being operated upon the high plane that public charities should
occupy, are being operated and managed upon the lowest plane of party
purposes and advantage. [Cries of "That's so!"] Another such thing is
of recent occurrence. In the campaign of 1886, after advising with
the chief law officer of the State, a Democratic Governor declared
to the people of this State that there was a vacancy in the office
of Lieutenant-Governor which the people were entitled to fill at the
ensuing general election. The Democratic party acted upon that advice,
assembled in convention in this hall, and nominated John C. Nelson
for Lieutenant-Governor. The Republican party followed with their
convention, and placed in nomination that gallant soldier, Robert S.
Robertson. [Cheers.] These two gentlemen went before the people of
Indiana and made a public canvass for the office. The election was
held, and Colonel Robertson was chosen by a majority of about 3,000.
[Applause.] Is there a man in the State, Democratic or Republican,
who doubts that if the choice had been otherwise, and Mr. Nelson
had received a majority at the polls, the House of Representatives,
which was Republican, would have met with the Democratic Senate in an
orderly joint meeting, for canvassing the votes, and that Mr. Nelson
would have been inaugurated as Lieutenant-Governor? [Cries of "No,
no!"] But the result was otherwise; and the public fame, the good
reputation of this State, was dishonored when, by force and brutal
methods, the voice of the people was stifled, and the man they had
chosen was excluded from the right to exercise the duties of the
office of Lieutenant-Governor. [Cries of "Yes, yes!"] Do the people
think that the attractiveness of Indiana as a home for Americans who
believe in social order and popular government has been increased
by this violent and disgraceful incident? Do our Democratic friends
who have an honest State pride, who would like to maintain the honor
and good reputation of the State, who would have the people of our
sister States believe that we have a people who believe in a warm
canvass but in a free ballot, and a manly and ready acquiescence in
election results, intend to support their leaders in this violent
exclusion from office of a duly chosen public officer? Do those
who are Democrats from principle, and not for personal spoils,
intend to support the men who have first prostituted our benevolent
institutions to party and now to personal advantage? These things, if
not reproved and corrected by our people, will not only disgrace us in
the estimation of all good people, but will substantially retard the
material development of the State. [Cheers.] I am not talking to-day
of questions in which I have any other interest than that you have,
my fellow-citizens. [Applause.] I believe the material prosperity of
Indiana, much more the honor, will be advanced if her people in this
State election shall rebuke the shameless election frauds that have
recently scandalized our State, the prostitution of our benevolent
institutions, and the wanton violence that overturned the result of
the popular election in 1886. [Great cheering.]
THE CHICAGO VETERANS.
The great event of the day was the reception tendered the veterans and
citizens from Chicago, Hyde Park, Pullman, South Chicago, and the town
of Lake. They numbered over 3,000, and arrived in the evening, after
stopping _en route_ at Danville, Ill., and Crawfordsville, Ind., to
participate in demonstrations. The Chicago contingent comprised 800
members of the Union Veteran Club, commanded by its President, Capt.
John J. Healy; 600 members of the Veteran Union League, led by Capt.
James J. Healy; the Blaine Club, Second Regiment Band, and many smaller
clubs. Leaders in the delegation were Major McCarty, Col. Dan. W. Munn,
Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, Jr., S. W. King, Charles H. Hann, and others.
Hyde Park sent several hundred rolling-mill men; the city of Pullman 200
car-builders; the town of Lake--"the largest village in the world"--was
represented by a flambeau club, the Lake View Screw Club, and numerous
other organizations. Their leading representatives were Col. J.
Hodgkins, Judge C. M. Hawley, Hon. John E. Cowells, Hon. B. E. Hoppin,
Geo. C. Ingham, Judge Freen, Hon. L. D. Condee, Joseph Hardacre, Edward
Maher, M. J. McGrath, A. G. Proctor, Frank I. Bennett, and Col. Foster.
The visitors were met by about 10,000 citizens and escorted to Tomlinson
Hall. When General Harrison appeared, accompanied by Judge E. B.
Martindale, Chairman of the Reception Committee, there ensued a scene
never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it. The 6,000 people
present arose to their chairs, surrounding the visiting veterans, all
frantically waving flags and banners. The demonstration continued
without abatement for ten minutes. General Harrison stood as if dazed by
the spectacle. Finally ex-Governor Hamilton, of Illinois, secured quiet,
and on behalf of the veterans addressed the gathering, followed by Judge
E. W. Keightly on behalf of the Hyde Park visitors.
General Harrison's response was by many regarded as his greatest speech
of the campaign. He said:
_Comrades and Friends_--It is a rare sight, and it is one very
full of interest to us as citizens of Indiana, to see this great
hall filled with the people of another State, come to evidence their
interest in great principles of government. [Cheers.] I welcome
to-night for myself and for our people this magnificent delegation
from Chicago and Hyde Park. [Cheers.] We have not before in the
procession of these great delegations seen its equal in numbers,
enthusiasm, and cordiality. I thank you profoundly for whatever of
personal respect there is in this demonstration [cheers]; but above
all, as an American citizen, I rejoice in this convincing proof that
our people realize the gravity and urgency of the issues involved in
this campaign. [Cheers.] I am glad to know that this interest pervades
all classes of our people. [Cheers.] This delegation, composed of the
business men of Chicago and of the men who wield the hammer in the
shops, shows a common interest in the right decision of these great
questions. [Great cheers.]
Our Government is not a government by classes or for classes of
our fellow-citizens. [Cheers.] It is a government of the people and
by the people. [Renewed cheering.] Its wise legislation distills its
equal blessings upon the homes of the rich and the poor. [Cheers.] I
am especially glad that these skilled, intelligent workmen coming out
of your great workshops have manifested, by their coming, to their
fellow-workmen throughout the country their appreciation of what is
involved for them in this campaign. [Prolonged cheers.]
May that God who has so long blessed us as a Nation long defer that
evil day when penury shall be a constant guest in the homes of our
working people, and long preserve to us that intelligent, thrifty
and cheerful body of workmen that was our strength in war and is our
guaranty of social order in time of peace! [Great cheering.] Comrades
of the Civil War, it was true of the great Union army, as it is said
to be of the kingdom of heaven--not many rich. [Cheers.] It was out of
the homes of our working people the great army came. It was the strong
arm inured to labor on the farm or in the shop that bore up the flag
in the smoke of battle, carried it through storms of shell and shot,
and lifted it again in honor over our national Capital. [Prolonged
cheers.]