a royal welcome. As he drove through the city amid the roar of cannon,
it is estimated that fully 200,000 people greeted him, and his journey
partook of a triumph. The committee of escort that met the President at
Kansas City consisted of ex-Gov. E. O. Stanard, Col. S. W. Fordyce, Hon.
R. C. Kerens, and Marcus Bernheimer. The guard of honor was a detail
from the Grand Army, commanded by Major Leo Rassieur.
The President was met on arrival by the following distinguished
Committee of Reception: His Honor, Mayor Noonan, D. M. Houser, Geo. D.
Reynolds, R. M. Scruggs, Nelson Cole, Col. James G. Butler, Col. J. O.
Churchill, Daniel Catlin, Wm. M. Senter, John Orrick, John S. Moffett,
S. Newman, D. P. Rowland, John J. Daly, A. B. Ewing, Miles Sells,
John Dillon, Professor Waterhouse, Frank Buchanan, John B. Harlow,
Marquand Foster, Philip Brockman, Wm. Grassmuck, Chas. Scudder, John
J. O'Brien, T. J. Cummings, John H. Terry, J. S. Finkenbauer, C. J.
Hanabrinck, L. Bohle, O. M. Dean, John M. Sellers, James Green, Dr.
Thomas O'Reilly, Samuel Kennard, O. M. Haye, John A. Scudder, H. L.
Morrill, S. H. H. Clark, John Scullen, C. C. Maffitt, Joseph Franklin,
Hon. F. G. Niedringhaus, Hon. Nathan Frank, W. M. Kinsey, E. S. Rowse,
Geo. D. Barnard, J. L. Boland, D. H. King, C. P. Walbridge, B. F.
Harnett, Geo. Taylor, R. P. Tansey, A. S. White, F. A. Wann, M. M.
Bodenheimer, W. A. Hargadine, George A. Baker, John N. Booth, Geo. W.
Parker, J. D. Thompson, George A. Medill, E. C. Simmons, Edwin C. Kehr,
G. A. Finkelnburg, Marcus Bernheimer, L. Beavis, Charles F. Joy, Henry
Hitchcock, Wm. H. Thompson, W. F. Niedringhaus, Charles Espenschied, A.
B. Goodbaugh, Jonathan Rice, Jacob Meyer, Goodman King, D. C. Nugent,
John Davis, J. D. Bascom, R. W. Shapleigh, Edgar D. Tilton, John C.
Wilkinson, D. D. Walker, Frederick Vaughn, E. F. Williams, J. H. Wear,
C. D. Comfort, C. C. Rainwater, F. W. Humphrey, Michael McGinnis, John
Wahl, W. L. Hughes, and Thomas H. West.
After reviewing the parade from the balcony of the Southern Hotel the
President and Secretary Tracy visited the Merchants' Exchange and
were tendered a reception by the business men of the city. Mr. Marcus
Bernheimer, President of the Exchange, occupied the presiding chair and
introduced Gov. D. R. Francis, who, in an eloquent address, welcomed
the President in the name of the people of Missouri. The Governor was
followed by Hon. Edward A. Noonan, Mayor of St. Louis, who extended a
"sincere and hearty greeting," on behalf of the residents of the city.
Hon. Charles Parsons then introduced the President, who addressed the
assemblage as follows:
_Governor Francis, Mr. Mayor, and Fellow-citizens_--It is very
grateful and very healthful to be so cordially received by you this
morning. The office which I have been called upon to administer
is very great in dignity, but it is very full of care and heavy
responsibility. The man who with conscientious regard and a proper
appreciation of the great trust seeks to administer it for the public
good will find himself daily beset with perplexities and doubts,
and daily besieged by those who differ with him as to the public
administration. But it is a great comfort to know that we have an
intelligent, thoughtful, and, at the same time, a very kind people,
who judge benevolently and kindly the acts of those public servants
of whose good disposition to do right they are not left in doubt. And
it is very pleasant to know--and I do not need these eloquent words
of assurance to have already impressed upon me--the great lesson that
there are more things in which we agree and have common interests
than in which we differ. But our differences of opinion as to public
administration are all brought together in a genuine patriotism and
love of country. [Applause]. It gives me pleasure to witness since
my last visit to St. Louis evidence of that steady and uninterrupted
growth which this great commercial centre has made since its birth as
an Indian trading-post on the Mississippi. No year has been without
its added evidences of progress, development, accumulation of wealth,
and increase in population. You have now passed any period of doubt or
uncertainty, and the career of St. Louis is assured. You have grown
like the oak, annually adding a ring to the prosperity and wealth and
commercial importance of your great city. You have struck the roots
of your influence broad and deep into the nourishing earth of this
great fertile land in which you have lived; and the branches--the
high branches of your enterprise--are reaching toward the sunlight
that shines upon them. You are situated upon the Mississippi River,
giving you water communication with the sea, a communication which
this Government has undertaken to improve and secure, and which I
believe will be made secure by appropriate legislation. [Applause.]
Nor do I know any reason why these great lines of railway stretching
from St. Louis to the Southwest may not yet touch great ports of
commerce, deep harbors, until they shall become trunk lines. We have
come to regard only these lines of railway communication to eastern
seaboards as trunk lines. I do not know why. Indeed, I believe that in
the future, when we shall have seized again, as we will seize if we
are true to ourselves, our own fair part of commerce upon the sea, and
when we shall have again our appropriate share of South American trade
[cheers], that these railroads from St. Louis, touching deep harbors
on the gulf, and communicating there with lines of steamships, shall
touch the ports of South America and bring their tribute to you. You
shall in all these things find a special interest, but an interest
that will be shared, as all great interests are, by the Nation and
people, of which you are a loyal and enterprising part. And now, my
friends, again let me thank you, and all those who have spoken in your
behalf, for these friendly words. These great industries of commerce
and manufactures here are entwined in friendly helpfulness. As they
are diversified your prosperity is increased; but under them all,
as the only secure rock upon which they can rest, is social order
and obedience to the law. Let it never be forgotten anywhere that
commerce builds only upon social order. Be watchful and careful of
every instrumentality or suggestion which puts itself against the law.
Where the law is wrong make it right. [Cries of "Good!" and cheering.]
Let that be the one rule of conduct in the public relations of every
American citizen. And now, my friends, again let me say thank you and
good-by.
At the conclusion of the reception on 'Change the President, escorted
by the Committee of Reception, visited the Fair Grounds and attended
a banquet in his honor at the Jockey Club House. In the evening the
distinguished guests visited the Exposition, where a tremendous crowd
gathered. As the President entered Music Hall, Gilmore's famous band
struck up "Hail to the Chief." The great audience stood and called
repeatedly for a speech. The President arose in his box and bowed
several times; but there was no denying their demands, and Governor
Francis finally introduced his excellency, who said:
_Ladies and Gentlemen_--I have sometimes thought that the life of
the President of the United States is like that of the policeman in
the opera--not a happy one. So many cares strew his path, so many
people's welfare is to be considered, that wiser heads than mine may
well be puzzled. The attention of this mighty audience to-night has
been distracted from the concert by my entrance, not withstanding the
fact that it has a leader more a master of his art than any other on
the continent. I did not, nor do I desire to make a speech to-night.
But as I have always declared myself in favor of the rule of the
majority, I feel compelled to do so.
From early morn till late this evening the day has been one of
unalloyed pleasure to me. Every possible courtesy has been shown our
party, and we have gathered, I assure you, a most high opinion of your
people and your city. This building is in every way a credit to St.
Louis, the metropolis of the Southwest, and its exhibits do credit to
the merchants and manufacturers represented. I am glad to see that the
higher arts go hand-in-hand with mechanics. Art, music, poetry, and
song should not be separated from the homes of the poor, and such an
institution as this cannot fail to instil all that is good into the
hearts of every one. Before I close let me tell you all how grateful
and how complimented I feel at my hearty reception in your midst. I
shall always recall this day with happy remembrance. Now, won't you
crown the great courtesies of the day by allowing me to end my speech?
[Applause.]
ANDERSON, INDIANA, OCTOBER 13.
President Harrison passed the Sabbath quietly at his Indianapolis
residence, and early Monday morning, accompanied by Secretary Tracy and
Marshal Ransdell, started for Washington.
The first stop was at Pendleton, where the President shook hands with
quite a crowd. Anderson, the county seat of Madison County, was reached
at 7:10, and a large concourse of people greeted the travellers. The
President was received by Hon. Winfield T. Durbin, Chas. T. Doxey, W. A.
Kittinger, John F. McClure, Caleb Brown, Jacob Koehler, Francis Watkins,
A. A. Small, and other leading citizens. Mayor Terhune, in a patriotic
address, presented the Chief Executive.
After acknowledging the cordial greeting, the President spoke of the
rapid industrial development of that section consequent upon the
discovery and development of natural gas, and predicted a fine future
for the county. Concluding, he said:
I am here to-day, returning to my duties at Washington from a trip
taken to meet some of my old comrades during the war. There are some
here this morning. I bid them God-speed; I give them a comrade's
greeting; and to you, my old-time friends, not in politics, but in
that pride and association which makes us all Indianians--we are
all proud of our State and proud of our communities--I desire to
say that while I have friends elsewhere, these were my earliest
friends--friends of my boyhood almost, for I was scarcely more than
a boy when I became a citizen of this State, and I always turn to it
with affectionate interest. [Cheers.]
MUNCIE, INDIANA, OCTOBER 13.
At Muncie the assemblage was very large, numbering over 10,000, and the
President received the most vociferous greeting of the day. Here, as at
other points in the State, hundreds of General Harrison's old friends
crowded forth to welcome him and bid him God-speed. Prominent among
these were: Hon. Frank Ellis, Mayor of the city; Hon. M. C. Smith, Hon.
John C. Eiler, Hon. Fred W. Heath, Hon. W. W. Orr, Hon. O. N. Cranor,
Hon. Geo. W. Cromer, Judge O. J. Lotz, Dr. G. W. H. Kemper, Dr. Thos.
J. Bowles, Dr. A. B. Bradbury, A. L. Kerwood, Geo. L. Lenon, F. E.
Putnam, Thos. H. Kirby, Charles H. Anthony, D. H. H. Shewmaker, Theodore
F. Rose, N. N. Spence, Chas. M. Kimbrough, Webster S. Richey, Thos. L.
Zook, John T. Watterhouse, J. W. Ream, C. E. Jones, and R. I. Patterson.
Mayor Ellis delivered a brief welcoming address and introduced the
President, who spoke as follows:
_My Fellow-citizens_--I have known this beautiful city of yours and
many of the people of this prosperous county for more than thirty
years. I have known in a general way the development of your interests
by almost yearly visits to the city of Muncie, but it seems to me that
in these two years I have been out of the State you have made more
progress than in any ten years when I was in the State. [Cheers.] I
think it was in the year 1886, when I spent a night in Muncie, that
my attention was drawn by some of your citizens, as darkness settled
down, to a remarkable and what was then thought to be chiefly a
curious red glow in your horizon. It was, if I recollect aright, about
the earliest development of natural gas in Indiana, and the extent of
this great field was wholly unknown. How rapidly events have crowded
each other since! You have delved into the earth and have found the
supply of this most adaptable and extraordinary fuel inexhaustible;
and what has it done for you? No longer are you transporting coal from
the distant mines to feed your furnaces. No longer are you sending the
choppers into the woods to cut your trees and haul them in, that they
may bring you winter heat and fuel. The factories have been coming
to you. This convenient heat and serviceable fuel is found in the
humblest home in Muncie. How it has added to your comfort only those
who have used it know. How much it has added to your prosperity and
development of manufactures here you have only begun to know. [Cheers.]
The sunlight will not more surely shed its beams on us this morning
than this great tide of prosperity which has set in through this gas
belt in Indiana shall go on increasing until all these cities and
towns within its radius are full of busy men and humming machinery.
What does all this mean? It means employment for men. It means happy
and comfortable homes for an increasing population. It means an
increased home market for the products of your farm. It means that
the farmer will have a choice of crops, and will have consumers for
perishable products of his farm at his very door. It means, if you
preserve the order of your community, if this good county of Delaware
continues to maintain its reputation as a law-abiding, liberty-loving,
free-school-loving population [cheers], that you shall have a
prosperity--an increase of riches and of human comfort that we have
scarcely conceived.
And now, my friends, all over this, and above all this, and better
than it all, let us keep in mind those higher things that make our
country great. I do not forget that your good county sent to the war
of the Union, in the gallant regiments that went from this State, a
multitude of brave men to stand by the flag. [Cheers.] Some of them
are with you to-day. [Applause.] Now let that love of the flag be
still uppermost in your hearts. Nothing has pleased me more as I
passed through some of our Western States than to see that the school
children everywhere had the starry flag in their hands. [Cheers.] Let
it be so here and everywhere. Let them learn to love it, to know its
beauty, in order that when the time of peril comes they may be ready
to defend it. [Applause.] Now to these friends, I am most grateful for
your appreciative kindness, and if I shall be able, in the discharge
of high and difficult duties, to maintain the respect and confidence
of my fellow-citizens of Indiana, other things will take care of
themselves.
WINCHESTER, INDIANA, OCTOBER 13.
Winchester's greeting was of the most cordial character; a large share
of the population of Randolph County seemed to have turned out to do
the President honor. Among the prominent citizens participating were:
Leander J. Monks, Albert O. Marsh, Martin B. Miller, C. W. Moore, Dennis
Kelley, W. R. Way, W. E. Miller, T. F. Moorman, Albert Canfield, John
R. Engle, A. C. Beeson, E. L. Watson, Thos. S. Gordon, H. P. Kizer, J.
E. Watson, John T. Chenoweth, W. H. Reinheimer, B. Hawthorne, and B. W.
Simmons.
Gen. Thomas M. Browne, on behalf of the citizens, delivered an eloquent
address of welcome, and closed by introducing President Harrison, who
said:
_My Friends_--It gives me great pleasure to hear from the lips of
your honored fellow-citizen, my old-time army comrade, these words of
welcome, spoken in your behalf. I thank you and him for his assurance
that your assembling here together is without regard to difference
in belief, and as American citizens having common interests and a
common love for the flag and the Constitution. Now, to these good
people of Randolph County I render this morning my sincere thanks
for their hearty and cordial welcome. No public servant, in whatever
station, can ever be indifferent to the good esteem of men and women
and children like these. You do not know how much these kindly faces,
these friendly Indiana greetings, help me in the discharge of duties
that are not always easy.
I bid you good-by and God-speed. I do wish for Indiana and all her
people the greatest happiness that God can give. [Prolonged cheers.]
UNION CITY, INDIANA, OCTOBER 13.
The President found another great crowd awaiting him at Union City,
including several hundred school children, each waving a flag. Between
rows of children he was escorted to the park near the station by a
committee consisting of Hon. Theo. Shockney, B. F. Coddington, J. S.
Reeves, and Geo. W. Patchell. Arrived at the park he was met by James
B. Ross, S. R. Bell, L. C. Huesman, J. F. Rubey, W. S. Ensign, L. D.
Lambert, J. B. Montani, C. S. Hardy, J. C. Platt, Judge J. W. Williams,
R. G. Clark, H. H. Le Fever, H. D. Grahs, Chas. Hook, and other
prominent citizens. Senator Shockney made the welcoming address. The
President, responding, said:
_Senator Shockney and Fellow-citizens_--The conditions are not such
here that I can hope to make many of you hear the few words that
it is possible for me to speak to you. I have found myself in this
tour through these Western States, undertaken for the purpose of
meeting some of my comrades of the late war, who had invited me to
be with them at their annual gatherings, repeating the words "Thank
you" everywhere. I have felt how inadequate this word or any other
word was to express the sense of gratitude I should feel to these
friendly fellow-citizens who everywhere greeted me with kind words and
kinder faces. I feel very grateful to see you, and to realize that
if there are any fault-finders, sometimes with reason, and sometimes
without, that the great body of our people are interested only in good
government, in good administration, and that the offices shall be
filled by men who understand that they are the servants of the people,
and who serve them faithfully and well. If it were not so a President
would despair. Great as the Government is, vast as is our civil list,
it is wholly inadequate to satisfy the reasonable demands of men, and
so, from disappointment, reasonable or unreasonable, we turn with
confidence and receive with encouragement these kindly greetings from
the toilers of the country--the men and women who only ask from the
Government that it shall protect them in their lives, their property,
and their homes; that it shall encourage education, provide for these
sweet young children, so that they shall have an easier road in life
than their fathers had, and that there shall be an absence of corrupt
intent or act in the administration of public business.
And now, standing on the line which divides these two States,
the one for which I have the regard every man should feel for his
birthplace, and the other to which I owe everything I have received
in civil life or public honor, I beg to call your attention to the
fact how little State lines have to do with American life. Some of
you pay your taxes on that side of the line, some on this, but in
your intercourse, business, and social ties you cross this line
unknowingly. Above both and greater than both--above the just pride
which Ohioans have in that noble State, and above the just pride which
we have in Indiana--there floats this banner that is the common banner
of us all. We are one in citizenship; we are one in devotion to the
Government, which makes the existence of States possible and their
destruction impossible. [Cheers.] And now, to these children, to my
Grand Army friends, and to these old citizens, many of whom I have
met under other conditions, I beg to say God bless you every one, and
good-by.
DE GRAFF, OHIO, OCTOBER 13.
Crossing the Ohio line a short stop was made at Sidney, where the
President shook hands and received a delegation from Bellefontaine
headed by Judge Wm. Lawrence. At De Graff the President met with a
cordial reception, especially from the school children. He was welcomed
by ex-Mayor H. P. Runyon, Dr. W. W. Hamer, Dr. W. H. Hinkle, W. E.
Haris, G. W. Harnish, John F. Rexer, Dr. F. M. Galer, Dr. Wm. Hance, R.
O. Bigley, D. S. Spellman, D. W. Koch, Benjamin Bunker, W. H. Valentine,
J. W. Strayer, and S. E. Loffer.
Superintendent of Schools Joseph Swisher introduced the President, who
said:
_My Friends_--I am very glad to see you all, and especially these
dear young children. I have been passing through a country glorious
in the autumnal tints which make a landscape that can be seen nowhere
else in the world, and yet I turn always from these decaying glories
of nature with great delight to look into the bright faces of these
happy children, where I see a greater, because immortal, glory. I
thank them for their presence here this morning. I wish their lives
may be as sunny and bright through manhood and through womanhood,
finding happiness in usefulness. I wish I had time to shake hands with
you all. [Cheers.]
BELLEFONTAINE, OHIO, OCTOBER 13.
Bellefontaine accorded the President an enthusiastic welcome. The
Committee of Reception consisted of Dr. A. L. Wright, Mayor of the
city; Judge William Lawrence, Judge West, Judge Price, J. C. Brand, D.
Hennesy, Geo. W. Emerson, Aaron Gross, A. C. Elliott, A. E. Griffen, H.
J. King, J. E. West, I. N. Zearing, and J. Q. A. Campbell.
Mayor Wright delivered a brief welcoming address and introduced the
President, who spoke as follows:
_My Fellow-citizens_--I wish all of you could have seen what I have
seen in this extended but hasty visit through some of the great States
of the central West, the broader view which we get as we journey
through this country of the capabilities of its soil, of the beauties
of its landscape, of the happiness of its homes, but, above all, of
the sturdy manhood of its people, can but be useful to every public
man and every patriot. [Applause.] No one can make such a journey
as we have and look into the faces of hundreds of thousands of his
fellow-citizens and see how here in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa,
Kansas, and Missouri they are everywhere characterized by a sturdy
independence and intelligent thoughtfulness and manhood, and doubt
the future of this country of which they are citizens. Nothing can
shake its repose as long as this great mass of people in these homes,
on these farms, in these shops and city dwelling-places are true to
themselves and to their children. Not every one can hope to reach the
maximum of human wealth or enjoyment, but nowhere else is there so
general a diffusion of human comfort and the conveniences of life as
in this land of ours. You must not, then, show unthankfulness to the
framers of our great Constitution or to God by indulging in gloomy
forebodings or in unreasonable complaint. He has not promised that
everywhere and every season the fields should give full returns. He
has promised that the food of man should not fail, and where else
is famine unknown? Other countries have now and then appealed for
philanthropic help from abroad to feed their population, greater or
less. The United States has always a surplus after its people are fed,
and for this we should be thankful. I have been told everywhere that
though crops in some respects and in some places have been short, the
general prosperity is very great. Everywhere I have been told that no
wheel is idle, and that no hand is idle that seeks employment that
honest bread may come to his household. I believe that we are on an
upward grade of prosperity, if we will be brave and hopeful and true,
that shall lead us perhaps to a development and an increase of wealth
we have never before attained. And now, my fellow-citizens, thanking
you for this friendly morning greeting, I bid you good-by. [Applause.]
Let me have the pleasure, however, of introducing to you my valued
associate at Washington--Secretary Tracy. [Applause.]
CRESTLINE, OHIO, OCTOBER 13.