your State has made for their care and education I give the most
affectionate greeting. The children of this land are the light and
the life of our households. They are in the family what the blossoms
are in the orchard and garden. May they appreciate the blessings they
enjoy, and when they come to mature years and take up the unfinished
labors of their fathers, may they hold aloft the flag which their
fathers followed to battle and maintain all those things that conduce
to decent and orderly communities and to the purity of the home. To
these pioneers who have under discouragements and great difficulties
sought these Western homes and opened the way for civilization I give
my greeting, and to all I give the assurance that these distant States
are not forgotten by us who are, for the time, chosen to administer
public office at Washington. We take you all into our consideration,
our confidence, and our affection. I believe there is a great
community of interest that touches all our States. I believe that our
legislation should be as broad as our territory, should not be for
classes, but should be always in the interest of all our people. And
now, thanking you for this most interesting and cordial welcome, I bid
you good-by. [Cheers].
LE GRANDE, OREGON, MAY 7.
The President had an enthusiastic reception at Le Grande from several
thousand residents. The city was beautifully illuminated in honor of
the visit. The Committee of Reception consisted of Hon. J. H. Slater,
E. S. McComas, M. F. Honan, and R. E. Bryan. Mayor C. H. Finn made the
welcoming address.
The President responded:
_My Fellow-citizens_--It is very gratifying to see this vast
assembly here to-night, and I regret that our arrival was not in
the daylight, that we might have a better view of this city and its
surroundings, as well as of these prosperous and happy people who are
assembled here to-night. We have travelled many thousands of miles
on this journey, and it has been one continued succession of happy
greetings. We have passed through the land of flowers, and they have
strewn our pathway with them. We have come now to this north land
where the flowers are not so abundant, but where the welcome and
heartiness of the people is quite as manifest and quite as sincere.
I rejoice to have had the opportunity to see portions of the State
of Oregon which I had not previously visited. Your industries and
products are so varied that working together, supplying the wants of
different communities by the productions of each, it must be that you
shall grow in population, and that the rewards of your labor shall be
full and rich. But above all these material things in which you show
the country the resources of your people, I rejoice that social order,
education, good morals, and all those things that tend to promote
the human happiness, the peace of your communities, and the glory of
your State, are also here thought of and promoted. [Cheers.] We are
citizens of one great country, and I do not believe there is a nation
in the world where there is a more perfect unification of heart and
purpose than in the United States of America. I do not believe there
is anywhere any people more earnestly in love with their institutions
and with the flag that symbolizes them, more in love with peace and
peaceful industries, and yet stronger in their defence of the truth
and of the right. [Cheers.] I beg again to thank your citizens of this
city and of the surrounding country for this gracious and hospitable
welcome. [Cheers.]
BAKER CITY, OREGON, MAY 7.
The closing event of the long day was the reception at Baker City
at 11:30 P.M. Fifteen hundred people were present and the town was
illuminated. The Reception Committee was Mayor S. B. McCord, Hon. R. S.
Anderson, and Geo. H. Tracy. Joe Hooker Post, G. A. R., Fred K. Ernst,
Commander, was present.
Responding to Mr. Anderson's welcoming address President Harrison said:
_Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens_--It is very pleasing, so late at
night, to be greeted on our arrival here by this large audience and
by these hearty cheers. We thank you very sincerely for this evidence
of your friendly interest, and beg to assure you in return that not
only as public officers, but as citizens with you of this great
country, we are in hearty sympathy with all your pursuits and plans
and hopes in this distant State. I have heard before of its beauty
and the fertility and productiveness of its wheat fields and of the
rich mines which are found in this vicinity. Situated as you are, the
great question with you must be one of transportation, one of getting
the products of your field, the surplus of your agricultural products,
to a market. I hope you appreciate all the advantages in this regard
which the development of these Pacific cities is giving. Every great
manufacturing establishment that is built there produces and increases
population, and makes additional and nearer market for the products
of your fields. I hope the day is not far distant when the completion
of the Nicaragua Canal will make a shorter way to the Atlantic
seaboard States and much shorter and cheaper communication with a
European market. I am glad to be assured--indeed, I do not need the
assurance--that here in Oregon, as in the Central and Eastern States,
we are one people, loyal and united in the love for the flag which
some of these comrades aided to be victorious in the great war, and
that you are thoroughly in love with our American institutions. I am
glad to assure you that, so far as I am concerned, I know no sections
in this country. I desire to promote those measures which shall always
be for the interests of all classes, and which shall diffuse the
benefits of our institutions equally and fairly among all the States
and among all our people. [Cheers.]
BOISE CITY, IDAHO, MAY 8.
Boise City, the capital of Idaho, was reached at 7 o'clock the morning
of the 8th, where a stop of two hours was made. The following committee
of distinguished officials and citizens received the President: His
Excellency Gov. N. B. Willey and official staff, comprising Col. E. J.
Curtis, Col. J. A. Torrance, Lieutenant-Colonel Casswell, and Maj. Geo.
F. Hinton; Senator Geo. L. Shoup, Hon. James A. Pinney, Mayor of Boise
City; R. Z. Johnson, President Board of Trade; John Lemp, Charles A.
Clark, E. R. Leonard, C. W. Moore, J. W. Daniels, Calvin Cobb, A. J.
Glorieaux, Nathan Falk, Peter Sonna, A. R. Andola, J. H. Richards, Hon.
S. W. Moody, Capt. C. C. Stevenson, and Capt. D. W. Figgins.
The President was escorted to the Capitol grounds by Phil. Sheridan
Post, G. A. R., D. F. Baker Commander, A. C. Bellus, Senior
Vice-Commander, N. F. Kimball, Junior Vice-Commander. The parade was in
charge of Maj. H. E. Noyes, of the Fourth Cavalry, and was one of the
most creditable demonstrations witnessed on the trip. The local militia
and more than 1,000 school children participated. Every veteran and
each scholar carried a flag, which elicited from President Harrison a
beautiful tribute to the national symbol.
After the review Governor Willey and Mayor Pinney formally welcomed the
President, who responded as follows:
_My Friends_--This is instructive and inspiring to us all as
American citizens. It is my great pleasure to stand for a little while
this morning in the political Capitol of this fresh and new State.
I had great satisfaction in taking an official part in admitting
Idaho to the Union of States. I believed that it was possessed of a
population and resources and capable of a development that fairly
entitled her to take her place among the States of the American Union.
You are starting now upon a career of development which I hope and
believe will be uninterrupted. Your great mineral resources, now being
rapidly developed, have already brought you great wealth. Undoubtedly
these are to continue to be a source of enrichment and prosperity to
your State, but I do not forget that we must look at last for that
paramount and enduring prosperity and increase which our States should
have to a development of their agricultural resources. You will, of
course, as you have done, carefully guard and secure your political
institutions. You will organize them upon a basis of economy, and yet
of liberal progress. You will take care that only so much revenue
is taken from the people as is necessary to the proper public
expenditure. [Applause.]
I am glad to see that this banner of liberty, this flag of our
fathers, this flag that these--my comrades here present--defended
with honor and brought home with victory from the bloody strife of
the Civil War, is held in honor and estimation among you. [Great
applause.] Every man should take off his hat when the starry flag
moves by. It symbolizes a free republic; it symbolizes a Nation; not
an aggregation of States, but one compact, solid Government in all
its relations to the nations of the earth. [Applause.] Let us always
hold it in honor. I am glad to see that it floats not only over your
political Capitol, but over the school-houses of your State; the
children should be taught in the primary schools to know its story
and to love it. To these young children, entering by the beneficent
and early provision of your State into the advantages of that great
characteristic American institution--the common school--I give my
greeting this morning. May every good attend them in life, and as the
cares of life come on to take the place of the joys of childhood, God
grant that, instructed in mind and heart in those things that are high
and good, they may bear with honor the responsibility which you will
soon lay down.
To these comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, survivors
of the great war, upon whom the years are making their impression,
I do not doubt that these who stand by me have borne an honorable
part among your fellow-citizens in the development of the resources
of this, their adopted State. Not long will we tarry; but, my
comrades, the story of what you have done is undying, and I doubt
not this morning that the satisfaction of having had some small part
in redeeming this Nation and preserving its integrity will fill
your hearts with gladness, even under adverse conditions of life.
A grateful Nation honors you. Every community should give you its
respect, and I can only add to-day a comrade's greeting and a hearty
God bless you all! [Cheers.]
POCATELLO, IDAHO, MAY 8.
A great crowd, including several hundred Indians, greeted the
President's arrival at Pocatello the night of the 8th. The Committee of
Reception consisted of Frederick K. Walker, A. B. Bean, A. F. Caldwell,
John S. Baker, O. L. Cleveland, R. J. Hayes, E. C. Hasey, George Dash,
Frank Ramsey, J. J. Guheen, H. G. Guynn, and L. A. West. A large
delegation from Blackfoot was represented on the committee by Hon. F. W.
Beane, Col. J. W. Jones, and F. W. Vogler.
Chairman Savidge of the committee delivered the welcoming address and
introduced the President, who said:
_Fellow-citizens_--In 1881, that sad summer when General Garfield
lay so long in agony and the people suffered so long in painful
suspense, I passed up the Utah and Northern Narrow Gauge Railroad
through this place--if it was a place then--to Montana on a visit.
The country through which we have passed is therefore not unfamiliar
to me. I have known of its natural conditions, and I have seen
its capabilities when brought under the stimulating influence of
irrigation. I have had, during my term in the Senate, as Chairman of
the Committee on Territories of that body, to give a good deal of
attention to the condition and needs of our Territories. My sympathy
and interest have always gone out to those who, leaving the settled
and populous parts of our country, have pushed the frontiers of
civilization farther and farther to the westward until they have met
the Pacific Ocean and the setting sun. Pioneers have always been
enterprising people. If they had not been they would have remained at
home; they endured great hardships and perils in opening these great
mines of minerals which show in your State, and in bringing into
subjection these wild plains and making them blossom like gardens.
To all such here I would do honor, and you should do honor, for they
were heroes in the struggle for the subjugation of an untamed country
to the uses of man. I am glad to see that you have here so many happy
and prosperous people. I rejoice at the increase of your population,
and am glad to notice that with this development in population and in
material wealth you are giving attention to those social virtues--to
education and those influences which sanctify the home, make social
order secure, and honor and glorify the institutions of our common
country. [Cheers.]
I am glad, not only for the sake of the white man, but of the red
man, that these two extensive and useless reservations are being
reduced by allotment to the Indians for farms, which they are expected
to cultivate and thereby to earn their own living [cheers], that the
unneeded lands shall furnish homes for those who need homes. [Cheers.]
And now, fellow-citizens, extending to such comrades of the Grand
Army of the Republic as I see scattered about through this audience my
most cordial greeting as a comrade, to these children and these ladies
who share with you the privations of early life on the frontier, and
to all my most cordial greeting and most sincere thanks for your
kindly demonstration, I will bid you good-by. [Great cheering.]
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, MAY 9.
At Pocatello the President was met by a committee representing the
citizens of Ogden, Utah, who took this opportunity to pay their
respects, it being impracticable to hold a reception in that city owing
to the late hour the train passed. The Ogden committee consisted of
Mayor W. H. Turner and wife, Hon. James A. Miner, E. M. Allison and
wife, J. R. Elliott, W. N. Shilling and wife, Capt. Ransford Smith, Wm.
H. Smith, M. N. Graves and wife, Col. A. C. Howard, Rev. A. J. Bailey,
E. M. Correl and wife, Thomas Bell, J. Cortez and wife, W. W. Funge
and wife, O. E. Hill and wife, John N. Boyle, Gilbert Belnap and wife,
Joseph Belnap, J. S. Painter, Maj. R. H. Whipple, W. R. White, and Prof.
T. B. Lewis.
The committee appointed by Governor Thomas to meet and welcome the
President at the State line on behalf of the Territory of Utah consisted
of Hon. E. P. Ferry, of Park City; H. G. Whitney, O. J. Salisbury, and
M. K. Parsons, of Salt Lake; Lieutenant Dunning, of Fort Douglas; and
Chief-Justice Zane, Associate Justice Anderson, Hon. C. S. Varian,
Colonel Godfrey, John E. Dooly, Heber M. Wells, E. C. Coffin, and
Spencer Clawson.
The presidential party arrived at the "City of Zion" at 2:45 A.M. At
8 o'clock they were met by Governor Thomas and Mayor Geo. M. Scott at
the head of the following Citizens' Committee of Reception: Secretary
Sells, Irving A. Benton, General Kimball, Colonel Nelson, Commissioner
Robertson, C. C. Goodwin, Hon. J. T. Caine, R. C. Chambers, Fred Simon,
Hoyt Sherman, Ellsworth Daggett, Judge Blackburn, Colonel Lett, James
Hansborough, Frank D. Hobbs, Judge Miner, General Connor, Judge Bartch,
J. H. Rumel, C. E. Allen, Arthur Pratt, H. G. McMillan, J. P. Bache,
Judge Boreman, W. H. H. Spafford, A. J. Pendleton, Fred Heath, W. L.
Pickard, H. Pembroke, Daniel Wolstenholm, Councilman Armstrong, W.
P. Noble, Louis Cohn, W. P. Lynn, L. C. Karrick, E. R. Clute, J. B.
Walden, J. M. Young, Sheriff Burt, Selectmen Howe, Miller, and Cahoon;
C. B. Jack, W. H. Bancroft, R. Mackintosh, J. H. Bennett, Robert
Harkness, H. W. Lawrence, J. B. Toronto, and Mesdames Zane, Salisbury,
Dooly, Blunt, Chambers, Goodwin, James, Anderson, Lawrence, Gaylord,
Simon, and Bartch; Miss Robertson, Mrs. I. A. Benton, and Mrs. Hobbs.
This committee and a large body of citizens escorted the party to the
Walker House, where breakfast was served. The President then headed a
procession, composed of U.S. troops, State guards, G. A. R. veterans,
pioneers, and many other local organizations, and was escorted to a
pavilion in Liberty Park.
Governor Thomas and Mayor Scott delivered welcoming addresses, to which
President Harrison responded as follows:
_Fellow-citizens_--The scenes which have been presented to us in
this political and commercial metropolis of the Territory of Utah have
been very full of beauty and full of hope. I have not seen in all this
long journey, accompanied as it has been with every manifestation of
welcome and crowned with flowers, anything that touched my heart more
than that beautiful picture on one of your streets this morning when
the children from the free public schools of Salt Lake City, waving
the one banner that we all love [cheers] and singing an anthem of
praise to that beneficent Providence that led our worthy forefathers
to land and has followed the pathway of this Nation with His
beneficent care until this bright hour, gave us their glad welcome.
[Applause and cheers.]
My service in public life has been such as to call my special
attention to, and to enlist my special interest in, the people of
the Territories. It has been a pleasant duty to welcome the Dakotas,
Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming into the great sisterhood of
the States. I think it has not fallen to any President of the United
States to receive into the Union so large a number of States. The
conditions that surround you in this Territory are of the most hopeful
character. The diversity of your productions, your mines of gold and
silver, iron, lead and coal, placed in such proximity as to make the
work of mining and reduction easy and economical; your well-watered
valley, capable, under the skilful touch of the husbandman, of
transformation from barren wastes into fruitful fields--all these
lying in easy reach and intercommunication, one with the other, must
make the elements of a great commercial and political community. You
do not need to doubt the future. You will step forward confidently and
progressively in the development of your great material wealth.
The great characteristic of our American institutions--the compact
of our Government--is that the will of the majority, expressed by
legal methods at the ballot box, shall be the supreme law of all
our community. To the Territories of the United States a measure of
local government has always been given, but the supervisory control,
the supreme legislative and executive power has been, continuously,
as to the Territories, held and exercised by the general Government
at Washington. The territorial state has always been regarded as a
temporary one. The general Government has always looked forward to a
division of its vast domain--first, the territory northwest of the
Ohio, then the Louisiana purchase, then these accessions upon the
Pacific coast--into suitable sections for the establishment of free
and independent States. This great work of creating States has gone
forward from the Ohio to the Pacific, and now we may journey from
Maine to Puget Sound through established States. [Cheers.]
The purity of the ballot-box, the wise provisions and careful
guardianship that shall always make the expression of the will of the
people fair, pure and true, is the essential thing in American life.
We are a people organized upon principles of liberty, but, my good
countrymen, it is not license. It is liberty within and under the law.
[Great applause.] I have no discord, as a public officer, with men of
any creed or politics if they will obey the law. My oath of office, my
public duty, requires me to be against those who violate the law.
The foundation of American life is the American home. That which
distinguishes us from other nations whose political experience and
history have been full of strife and discord is the American home,
where one wife sits in single uncrowned glory. [Great applause and
cheers.] And now, my countrymen, I beg to assure you that every hope
you have for safe running on these lines of free government, on these
lines of domestic and social order, I have. For every one of you I
have the most cordial greeting. God bless and keep you and guide you
in the paths of social purity, order, and peace, and make you one of
the great communities of the American Union. [Cheers.]
_Chamber of Commerce Speech._
The visitors were then taken to the new Chamber of Commerce, where the
business men of the city greeted the Chief Executive. The occasion was
also the formal opening of the building for business.
President Harrison made an address. He said:
I am very glad to witness in this magnificent structure which
you are opening to-day for your use an evidence of the commercial
importance of the city. Organizations of this character are very
useful when rightly conducted, very promotive of the business
prosperity of the cities in which they are established, and of the
best interest of their membership. It is quite right that those who
may be engaged in the rivalries of business, pushing their several
lines of trade with the energy and enterprise that characterize our
people, should now and then assemble and lay aside things that are
personal and selfish and consider the things that affect the whole
community. These organizations, as I have known them in other States,
have been the council chamber in which large and liberal things have
been devised for the development of the interests and prosperity of
the community. I do not doubt that you will do so here; that new
enterprise will be welcomed, and that the friendly business hand
will be extended to those who are seeking investments. I wish you
all success in this enterprise, and I hope you may grow until its
membership shall embrace all of your commercial classes, and that
its influence may do for your business here what the water of your
mountain streams has done for the plains--make them grow longer and
more productive, and at the same time expel from them those mean
jealousies which sometimes divide men. [Prolonged Cheers.]
_Address to the School Children._
The party visited the Mormon Tabernacle, which was profusely decorated
with bunting and flags. On the side of the Temple in large letters
was the motto "Fear God; Honor the President." The entire city was
tastefully decorated. The President reviewed the school children, about
2,000 in number. They rendered patriotic songs, and he addressed them in
the following happy speech:
_To the School Children_--In all this joyous journey through
this land of flowers and the sunny South I have seen nothing more
beautiful and inspiring than this scene which burst upon us so
unexpectedly. This multitude of children bearing waving banners
makes a scene which can never fade from our memories. Here, in these
children from the free schools established and guarded by your public
authorities, is the hope of Utah and the country. [Cheers.] I give you
my thanks for a demonstration that has cheered my heart. May each of
you enjoy every blessing that a free country and a more beneficent and
kindly Creator can bestow. [Cheers.]
LEHI CITY, UTAH, MAY 9.
The first stop after leaving the capital of Utah was at Lehi City, where
a large sugar factory is located. The Committee of Reception consisted
of Mayor A. J. Evans, Bishop T. R. Cutler, James Harwood, and C. A.
Granger.
The President made a brief address, saying:
_My Friends_--This industry which you have established here is very
interesting to me. I hope it is to open the way to a time when we
shall have a home supply of sugar for every household. [Cheers.]
PROVO CITY, UTAH, MAY 9.
The presidential train arrived at Provo--the Garden City of Utah--at
1:30 P.M. The greeting was a cordial one; about 1,000 school children
were present. The Reception Committee was Mayor J. E. Booth, R. H. Dodd,
J. R. Bishop, J. B. McCauslin, M. M. Kellogg, W. S. Myton, E. A. Wilson,
Wm. H. King, D. D. Houtz, Dr. J. N. Christensen, Dr. H. Simmons, F. F.
Reed, G. W. Olger, and W. Burlew.
Mayor Booth introduced the President, who spoke as follows: