in the Northern States any jealousy of this great material progress
which the South is making wholly misconceives the friendly heart of
the people of the North. It is my wish, as I am sure it is the wish
of all with whom I associate in political life, that the streams of
prosperity in the South may run bank-full; that in everything that
promotes the prosperity of the State, the security and comfort of the
community, and the happiness of the individual home, your blessings
may be full and unstinted.
We live in a Government of law. The compact of our organization
is that a majority of our people, taking those methods which are
prescribed by the Constitution and law, shall determine our public
policies and choose our rulers. It is our solemn compact; it cannot
safely be broken. We may safely differ about policies; we may safely
divide upon the question as to what shall be the law; but when the
law is once enacted no community can safely divide on the question of
implicit obedience to the law.
It is the one rule of conduct for us all. I may not choose as
President what laws I will enforce, and the citizen may not choose
what laws he will obey. Upon this broad principle our institutions
rest. If we save it, all the agitations and tumults of our campaigns,
exciting though they may be, will be harmless to move our Government
from its safe and abiding foundation.
If we abandon it, all is gone. Therefore, my appeal everywhere is
to hold the law in veneration and reverence. We have no other king;
public officers are your servants; but in the august and majestic
presence of the law we all uncover and bow the knee.
May every prosperity attend you. May this ground, made memorable by
one of the most gallant assaults and by one of the most successful
defences in the story of the war, never again be stained by
blood; but may our people, in one common love of one flag and one
Constitution, in a common and pervading fealty to the great principles
of our Government, go on to achieve material wealth, and in social
development, in intelligence, in piety, in everything that makes
a nation great and a people happy, secure all the Lord has in His
mind for a Nation that He has so conspicuously blessed. [Great and
prolonged cheering.]
CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, APRIL 15.
Chattanooga was reached Wednesday morning at 8:30 o'clock. The President
was received with marked cordiality and enthusiasm by the several
thousand citizens assembled at the station. At this point the party
was joined by the President's younger brother, Mr. Carter B. Harrison,
and his wife, of Murfreesboro, Tenn. The following prominent citizens
comprised the committee that received the President: Hon. J. B. Merriam,
Mayor of Chattanooga; Hon. H. Clay Evans, Judge David M. Key, H. S.
Chamberlain, D. J. O'Connell, Henophen Wheeler, John Crimmins, Maj. J.
F. Shipp, Col. Tomlinson Fort, John T. Wilder, Adolph S. Ochs, John B.
Nicklin, L. G. Walker, A. J. Gahagan, C. E. James, F. G. Montague, H. M.
Wiltse, John W. Stone, J. B. Pound, E. W. Mattson, and Judge Whiteside.
The committee escorted the distinguished guests to the summit of
Lookout Mountain. At the Lookout Inn President Harrison pointed out
to his immediate companions the spot where he was encamped for a time
during the war. From the mountain the party was driven about the city,
which was profusely decorated. All the school children in the city stood
in front of their respective schools and waved flags and shouted as the
President and Mrs. Harrison drove by. Assembled around the platform
where the general reception was held were many thousand people.
Ex-Congressman Evans, amid deafening cheers, introduced the President,
who said:
_My Fellow-citizens_--I have greatly enjoyed the opportunity of
seeing Chattanooga again. I saw it last as the camp of a great army.
Its only industries were military, its stores were munitions of war,
its pleasant hill-tops were torn with rifle-pits, its civic population
the attendants of an army campaign. I see it to-day a great city, a
prosperous commercial centre. I see these hill-tops, then bristling
with guns, crowned with happy homes; I see these streets, through
which the worn veterans of many campaigns then marched, made glad with
the presence of happy children. Everything is changed.
The wand of an enchanter has touched these hills, and old Lookout,
that frowned over the valleys from which the plough had been
withdrawn, now looks upon the peaceful industries of country life.
All things are changed, except that the flag that then floated over
Chattanooga floats here still. [Cheers.] It has passed from the hand
of the veterans, who bore it to victory in battle, into the hands
of the children, who lift it as an emblem of peace. [Cheers.] Then
Chattanooga was war's gateway to the South; now it is the gateway of
peace, commerce, and prosperity. [Cheers.]
There have been two conquests--one with arms, the other with the
gentle influences of peace--and the last is greater than the first.
[Cheers.] The first is only great as it made way for that which
followed; and now, one again in our devotion to the Constitution and
the laws, one again in the determination that the question of the
severance of the federal relations of these States shall never again
be raised, we have started together upon a career of prosperity and
development that has as yet given only the signs of what is to come.
I congratulate Tennessee, I congratulate this prosperous city, I
congratulate all those who through this gateway give and receive
the interchanges of friendly commerce, that there is being wrought
throughout our country a unification by commerce, a unification by
similarity of institutions and habits, that shall in time erase every
vestige of difference, and shall make us, not only in contemplation of
the law, but in heart and sympathy, one people. [Cheers.]
I thank you for your cordial greeting to-day, and hope for the
development of the industries of our country and for the settling of
our institutions upon the firm base of a respect for the law. In this
glad springtime, while the gardens are full of blossoms and the fields
give promise of another harvest, and your homes are full of happy
children, let us thank God for what He has wrought for us as a people,
and, each in our place, resolutely maintain the great idea upon which
everything is builded--the rule of the majority, constitutionally
expressed, and the absolute equality of all men before the law.
[Cheers.]
CARTERSVILLE, GEORGIA, APRIL 15.
The first stop after crossing the Georgia State line was Cartersville,
where a citizens' committee, headed by M. G. Dobbins, W. H. Howard, and
Walter Akerman, received the President, who in response to repeated
calls said:
_My Friends_--I am very much obliged to you for coming here in this
shower to show your good-will. I can only assure you that I entirely
reciprocate your good feelings. I have had great pleasure to-day in
passing over some parts of the old route that I took once before under
very different and distressing circumstances, to find how easy it is,
when we are all agreed, to travel between Chattanooga and Atlanta.
I am glad to see the evidences of prosperity that abound through
your country, and I wish you in all your relations every human good.
[Cheers.]
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, APRIL 15.
"What War has ravaged Commerce can bestow,
And he returns a Friend who came a Foe."
The presidential party travelled over the Western and Atlantic route
from Chattanooga to Atlanta, passing through historic battle-grounds
with which the President and other members of his party were once
familiar. General Harrison actively participated in the Atlanta campaign
and held the chief command at the battle of Resaca. It was with keen
interest, therefore, that he viewed this memorable field in company
with Marshal Ransdell, who lost an arm there. Short stops were made
at the battle-fields of Chickamauga, Tunnel Hill, Resaca, Dug Gap,
and Kennesaw. At Marietta the President was met by a committee from
the city government of Atlanta, consisting of Mayor W. A. Hemphill,
Aldermen Hutchison, Woodward, Rice, Shropshire, and Middlebrooks;
Councilmen Murphy, Hendrix, Lambert, Holbrook, Sawtell, King, Turner,
McBride, and City Clerk Woodward. These officials were accompanied by a
special committee of citizens representing the Chamber of Commerce and
the veteran associations, comprising ex-Gov. R. B. Bullock, Gen. J. R.
Lewis, Capt. John Milledge, Julius L. Brown, S. M. Inman, Hon. J. T.
Glenn, and Hon. W. L. Calhoun.
A vast throng greeted the President's arrival. Gov. William J. Northen
and the other members of the Reception Committee received the party.
Governor Northen said: "I am glad to welcome your excellency to the
State of Georgia. You will find among us a loyal and hospitable people,
and in their name I welcome you to the State."
Replying, the President said it gave him great pleasure to visit the
Empire State of the South, the wonderful evidences of the prosperity of
which were manifest in the stirring city of Atlanta.
In the evening the President and his party were tendered a reception
at the Capitol by Governor Northen and Mayor Hemphill, assisted by
Chief-Justice Bleckley, Judge Simmons, Judge Lumpkin, Gen. Phil. Cook,
Comptroller-General Wright, Judge Van Epps, and the following prominent
citizens: E. P. Chamberlin, J. W. Rankin, G. T. Dodd, Judge Hook, R. J.
Lowry, J. W. English, Hoke Smith, Phil. Breitenbucher, J. G. Oglesby,
John Silvey, Capt. Harry Jackson, Jacob Haas, W. L. Peel, B. F. Abbott,
John Fitten, Joe Hirsch, George Hillyer, A. A. Murphy, P. Romare, J. B.
Goodwin, David Wyly, G. H. Tanner, Dr. Henry S. Wilson, J. F. Edwards,
M. A. Hardin, A. J. McBride, John J. Doonan, Hugh Inman, J. H. Mountain,
M. C. Kiser, E. P. Howell, A. E. Buck, Edgar Angier, Col. L. M. Terrell,
S. A. Darnell, John C. Manly, T. B. Neal, Walter Johnson, Major Mims,
W. R. Brown, Col. T. P. Westmoreland, Albert Cox, Clarence Knowles, H.
M. Atkinson, J. C. Kimball, C. A. Collier, Rhode Hill, Howard Van Epps,
W. H. Venable, G. W. Adair, F. T. Ryan, L. P. Thomas, H. F. Starke, W.
A. Wright, Amos Fox, R. L. Rodgers, H. C. Divine, W. M. Scott, A. B.
Carrier, W. B. Miles, T. C. Watson, and L. B. Nelson.
At the conclusion of the reception the President, accompanied by Mayor
Hemphill, Hon. A. L. Kontz, and Superintendent Slaton, visited the night
school, where the boys gave him an enthusiastic welcome and called for a
speech.
The President said:
I am glad to be with you to-night. Having but a few minutes to spare
I would offer a few words of encouragement to you. Most, if not all,
of you are here at night because your circumstances are such that the
day must be given to toil. The day is your earning period. The night
must, therefore, be set apart for study. I am glad to see that so many
find it in your hearts to be here in this school; it is a very hopeful
sign. I think it has in it the promise that you will each become a
useful citizen in this country. Pluck and energy are two essential
elements. A boy wants to be something. With pluck and energy success
is assured. There is a day of hope above every one of you.
I bid you good cheer and would offer encouragement to every one of
you, and I know every one of you may be useful and honorable citizens
in this community, whose officers have taken the interest to organize
this school for your benefit. I very sincerely and earnestly wish
you God-speed. Stick to your studies and don't neglect to acquire a
needful education, and you may one day occupy the positions of honor
which are held by those to-day in charge of the affairs of your city.
ATLANTA, APRIL 16.
On the morning of the 16th the President's party bade adieu to Atlanta.
More than 10,000 people were present. Mayor Hemphill invited the
President to the rear platform of the train and presented him to the
assemblage. In response to their cheers he said:
_My Fellow-citizens_--I desire, in parting from you, to give
public expression of my satisfaction and enjoyment in my brief visit
to Atlanta. I saw this city once under circumstances of a very
unfavorable character. I did not think I would like it, although we
were making great efforts to get it. [Laughter.] I am glad after all
these years to see the great prosperity and development that has come
to you. I think I am able to understand some of the influences that
are at the bottom of it, and I am sure that I look into the faces of
a community that, whatever their differences may have been, however
they viewed the question of the war when it was upon us, can have but
one thought as to what was best. We can all say with the Confederate
soldier who carried a gun for what seemed to him to be right, that God
knew better than any of us what was best for the country and for the
world.
You are thankful for what He has wrought and chiefly for
emancipation. It has opened up to diversified industries these States
that were otherwise exclusively agricultural, and made it possible
for you not only to raise cotton, but to spin and weave it, and has
made Georgia such a State as it could not have been under the old
conditions. I am sure we have many common purposes, and as God shall
give us power to see truth and right, let us do our duty, and, while
exacting all our own rights, let us bravely and generously give every
other man his equal rights before the law. [Cheers.]
Thanking you for your reception, which has been warm and
hospitable, I go from you very grateful for your kindness and very
full of hope for your future.
I cannot wish more than that those enterprising land-owners whose
work in grading and laying new additions I saw yesterday will realize
all their hopes. I am very sure if that is done Atlanta will not long
be rated the second city of the South. [Cheers.]
At the conclusion of the President's address there were many calls for
Mr. Wanamaker. These finally brought the Postmaster-General to the
platform, who said:
That man is unfortunate who is called on to speak after a President.
But at such a moment as this, parting from people who in a single
night have shown so much kindness and good-fellowship, it is not
difficult to return at least our grateful thanks for your most
generous welcome. Of all objects in your city I have looked with most
interest upon the house where a great light had gone out, and felt
again the common sorrow in the absence of Henry Grady, a man whose
life and influences were larger than Atlanta. The words he spoke and
the principles he stood for cannot be forgotten. If we can but learn
to know each other and understand each other there will be fewer
differences than might be supposed. By more frequent intercourse and a
fairer consideration of each other we should rise to a higher level of
happiness. I wish we had come sooner and could stay longer. [Cheers.]
TALLAPOOSA, GEORGIA, APRIL 16.
The city of Tallapoosa was bedecked with flags and bunting in honor of
the distinguished visitors, and gave the President a cordial reception.
Mayor A. J. Head and the following representative citizens were among
those who greeted the Chief Executive: James H. Rineard, Walker Brock,
U. G. Brock, J. A. Head, R. M. Strickland, J. C. Parker, W. T. King, R.
G. Bently, T. J. Barrett, J. T. Tuggle, R. J. McBride, G. W. Bullard, C.
Tallafario, J. A. Burns, J. R. Knapp, C. W. Fox, M. C. Reeve, M. Munson,
W. W. Summerlin, S. J. Cason, J. H. Davis, S. White, A. Hass, T. L.
Dougherty, G. A. Stickney, N. L. Hutchens, O. F. Sampson, H. Martin, M.
C. Haiston, G. W. Tumlin, and J. C. Murrey.
Responding to the welcoming cheers the President addressed the assembly
as follows:
_My Fellow-citizens_--This large assemblage of people from this new
and energetic city is very pleasant, and I thank you for the welcome
that it implies. All of these evidences of extending industry are
extremely pleasing to me as I observe them. They furnish employment to
men; they imply comfortable homes, contented families, a safe social
organization, and are the strength of the Nation.
I am glad to see that these enterprises that are taking the ores
from the earth and adapting them to the uses of civilization have
not been started here unaccompanied by that more important work--the
work of gathering the children into the schools and instructing them,
that they in their turn may be useful men and women. [Applause.] I am
glad to greet these little ones this morning; it is a cheerful sight.
We are soon to lay down the work of life and the responsibilities of
citizenship, these mothers are soon to quit the ever-recurring and
never-ending work of the home and give it into new hands.
It is of the utmost consequence that these little ones be trained
in mind and taught the fear of God and a benevolent regard for their
fellow-men, in order that their lives and social relations may be
peaceful and happy. We are citizens of one country, having one flag
and one destiny. We are starting upon a new era of development, and I
hope this development is to keep pace and to be the promoting cause of
a very perfect unification of our people. [Cheers.]
We have a Government whose principles are very simple and very
popular. The whole theory of our institutions is that, pursuing those
election methods which we have prescribed under the Constitution,
every man shall exercise freely the right that the suffrage law
confides to him, and that the majority, if it has expressed its will,
shall conclude the issue for us all. There is no other foundation.
This was the enduring base upon which the fathers of our country
placed our institutions. Let us always keep them there. Let us press
the debate in our campaigns as to what the law should be; but let us
keep faith and submit with the reverence and respect which are due to
the law when once lawfully enacted. [Applause.]
The development which is coming to you in these regions of the
South is marvellous. In ten years you increased your production of
iron about 300 per cent.--nearly a million and a quarter of tons--and
you have only begun to open these mines and to put these ores to the
process of reduction. Now, I want to leave this thought with you: In
the old plantations of the South you got everything from somewhere
else; why not make it all yourselves? [Cheers.]
ANNISTON, ALABAMA, APRIL 16.
Many thousands greeted the President on his arrival at Anniston. The
Reception Committee consisted of Mayor James Noble, J. W. Lapsley, H. W.
Bailey, T. G. Garrett, B. F. Cassady, John J. Mickle, C. H. Camfield, J.
J. Willett, J. C. Sproull, R. H. Cobb, I. Finch, and Alex. S. Thweatt.
The committee appointed by the Alabama State Sunday-School Association,
then in session, was: Joseph Hardie, Geo. B. Eager, P. P. Winn, M.
J. Greene, and C. W. O'Hare. On the part of the colored citizens the
Committee of Reception was: Rev. W. H. McAlpine, Wm. J. Stevens, S. E.
Moses, Rev. J. F. Fitspatrick, and Rev. Jas. W. Brown. Daniel Tyler
Post, G. A. R., H. Rosenbaum, Commander, G. B. Randolph acting Adjutant,
also participated. The Hon. John M. McKleroy delivered the address of
welcome, followed by Wm. J. Stevens in behalf of the colored people.
President Harrison responded as follows:
_Fellow-citizens_--I very much regret that I am able to make so
little return to you for this cordial manifestation of your respect
and friendship; and yet, even in these few moments which I am able to
spend with you, I hope I shall gather and possibly be able to impart
some impulse that may be mutually beneficial. I am glad to see with
the eye that of which I have kept informed--the great development
which is taking place in the mineral regions of the Southern States.
I remember, as a boy, resident upon one of the great tributaries
of the Mississippi, how the agricultural products of those States,
the corn and provisions raised upon the fertile acres of the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys, were marketed in the South. The old broad-horn
took its way down the Mississippi, stopping at the plantations to
sell the provisions upon which the people of the South were largely
sustained. The South was then essentially a plantation region,
producing one or two great staples that found a ready market in the
world, but dependent for its implements of industry and domestic
utensils upon the States of the North Mississippi Valley.
I am glad all this is changed, that you are realizing the benefits
of diversified agriculture, and that the production upon your farms of
the staples which you once bought elsewhere is largely increasing; and
I am glad that to diversified agriculture you have also added these
great mechanical pursuits which have brought into your communities
artisans and laborers who take from the adjacent farms the surplus of
your fertile lands. [Cheers.] There has been received in the South
since the war not less than $8,000,000,000 for cotton, and while I
rejoice in that, I am glad to know that in this generous region there
are near 100,000 acres devoted to raising watermelons. [Laughter.]
No farmer, certainly no planter in the old time, would have
consented to sell watermelons. You are learning that things which were
small and despised have come to be great elements in your commerce.
Now your railroads make special provision for the transportation of a
crop which brings large wealth to your people.
I mention this as a good illustration of the changing conditions
into which you are entering. You are realizing the benefits of home
markets for what you produce, and I am sure you will unite with me
in those efforts which we ought to make, not only to fill our own
markets with all that this great Nation of 65,000,000 needs, but to
reach out to other markets and enter into competition with the world
for them. [Cheers.] This we shall do, and with all this mechanical
and commercial development we shall realize largely that condition of
unification of heart and interest to which those who have spoken for
you have so eloquently alluded. [Cheers.]
And now, wishing that the expectations of all who are interested in
this stirring young city may be realized, that all your industries
may be active and profitable, I add the wish that those gentler and
kindlier agencies of the school and church, of a friendly social life,
may always pervade and abide with you as a community. [Cheers.]
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, APRIL 16.
Large delegations came from Mobile, Selma, Montgomery, Sheffield, and
other points in Alabama, to participate in the grand ovation tendered
President Harrison and his party at Birmingham on April 16. Gov.
Thomas G. Jones and the following members of his staff welcomed the
presidential party at Henryellen: Adjt.-Gen. Charles B. Jones, Col. F.
L. Pettus, Col. Eugene Stollenwerck, Col. M. P. Le Grand, Col. W. W.
Quarles, Col. B. L. Holt, Lieut. James B. Erwin, and J. K. Jackson,
Secretary to the Governor. The Governor's party was accompanied by five
members from the Citizens' Committee: Col. E. T. Taliaferro, Rufus N.
Rhodes, J. W. Hughes, R. L. Houston, and C. A. Johnston.