in grandeur. The train made a short stop on the hanging bridge over the
Arkansas River in the Grand Cañon. Emerging through the Royal Gorge
the party reached Cañon City at 2 P.M. amid the cheers of its entire
population, including 400 school children. Mayor J. M. Bradbury, T. M.
Harding, A. D. Cooper, and Warden W. A. Smith were among the prominent
residents who welcomed the President; also, Greenwood Post, G. A. R.,
Dr. J. L. Prentiss, Commander.
President Harrison spoke as follows:
_Comrades and Fellow-citizens_--It gives me great pleasure to see
you and accept with a thankful heart those cordial greetings with
which you have met us. I have been talking so much since I left
Washington that I really am almost talked out; and yet, until I shall
have altogether lost my voice, of which there does not seem to be any
prospect, I cannot refrain from saying thank you to those friends who
greet us with such affectionate interest. We do appreciate it very
highly. But I do not at all assume it is merely your interest in me.
It is, I am sure, your interest in the country, in its Constitution,
and in its flag--the flag for which these comrades fought, which they
carried through the stress of battle and brought home in honor. It is
our free institutions, our free ballot, our representative Government,
that you all honor in coming here to-day. It is very surprising and
very pleasant to drop down out of these snow-clad summits and to have
passed into our hands in the valley, branches of peach and pear and
bouquets of flowers, the first fruits of spring--a spring more genial
here than it seemed at Leadville this morning. [Applause.] I am very
glad to have revealed to me the possibilities of this country, and to
see how, under the system of irrigation, that which seemed to be a
waste--accursed of God--comes to be a very garden of Eden in beauty
and productiveness. I hope you have not only the fruits and flowers
of paradise, but that you have in your homes that state of peace and
blessedness which prevailed before our first mother took the apple.
[Applause.] To these comrades I want to give a comrade's greeting. I
know of no higher honor in this world than to be called "comrade" by
the survivors of those who saved the Union, [Applause.]
FLORENCE, COLORADO, MAY 11.
The next stop was at Florence, in the oil district, whose citizens gave
the President a most cordial greeting. The Reception Committee comprised
Mayor Isaac Canfield, Senator J. A. McCandless, J. F. Collins, J. H.
McDaniel, Thomas Robinson, Thomas E. Spencer, Richard McDonald, W. J.
Daniels, and Joseph Patterson. An enthusiastic citizen proposed three
cheers "for the first President who has thought enough of us to come and
see us." They were given with a will, and the President responded as
follows:
_My Fellow citizens_--I am very much obliged to you for this
greeting. I expect there have been other Presidents who thought
of you, though they have not visited you. This has been a very
pleasant and instructive journey to me. I thought I had kept myself
reasonably well informed of the capabilities of this country and of
its productions, but I am amazed to find how things are put together.
We come out of the snow where everything is barren and where labor
is under ground, where the precious metals are being extracted, and
there is nothing pleasant in the landscape except the snow covered
mountains, and presently we are into a land of fruit, and have handed
up to us great branches laden with well-set peach and pear, and are
showered again, as we were in California, with the flowers of the
early spring, and now, to my surprise, we seem to be in the oil
region of Pennsylvania. These numerous derricks and oil lodes remind
us of things about Oil City. Until I saw them I was not aware that
you had here in Colorado oil production. It shows us how impartial,
after all, the great Creator has been. He has given us everywhere
possibilities which, if well improved, will make comfortable, happy
homes. You have the metals, precious and common, and the coal that
is needed for the smelter; oil to light your homes and lubricate
your machinery, and these orchards and beautiful valleys, all in the
right proximity. No man could have improved upon it. [Applause.] Our
Government intends to have a careful and impartial consideration of
all its people. We do not recognize classes or distinctions. We want
everybody to be prosperous and happy, especially the working people.
[Cheers.]
I do not know how our institutions could endure unless we so
conduct our public affairs and society that every man who is sober
and industrious shall be able to make a good, comfortable living and
lay something aside for old age or for evil days; to have hope in his
heart and better prospects for his children. That is the strength
of American institutions. Whatever promotes that I want to favor.
Whatever tends to pauperize our people or impair the earning power of
the laboring class I do not favor. [Cheers.]
PUEBLO, COLORADO, MAY 11.
An artillery salute welcomed the party to Pueblo at 3:30 P.M. Mayor W.
B. Hamilton, Col. M. H. Fitch, D. W. Barkley, Hon. I. W. Stanton, A.
McClelland, and O. H. P. Baxter comprised the committee that escorted
the President from Glenwood Springs. Arrived at the station the Chief
Executive was conveyed to the Court House Square by the following
Committee of Reception: E. C. Lyman, Paul Wilson, Benjamin Guggenheim,
D. L. Holden, E. R. Chew, Fred Betts, N. O. McClees, W. A. Moses, F.
E. Baldwin, A. S. Dwight, J. R. Flickenger, R. M. Stevenson, W. B.
McKinney, John Lockin, E. C. Billings, A. F. Ely, W. B. Palmer, J. S.
Johnston, N. E. Guyot, M. Studzinski, G. T. Nash, J. W. Purdy, P. F.
Sharp, S. A. Abbey, E. H. Martin, N. S. Walpole, T. J. Cribbs, J. G.
Keller, and C. C. Gaines. Upton Post, G. A. R., C. J. Long Commander,
and many other organizations participated in the parade.
At the Court House Square 6,000 children greeted the President, who was
introduced by Dr. William A. Olmsted and said:
_Children of the Public Schools and Others_--I am glad to meet
such an immense number here, and I can't allow this opportunity
to pass without expressing to you my thanks for this whole-souled
reception. It moves my heart to say that from your appearances you are
well taught, not only in manners but in your intellectual pursuits;
your bright, ruddy faces show health, and as you are living in this
healthful place it speaks marvels for Pueblo. The country need fear
no attack from foreign foes when such an army as you'll some day make
would be called into action. You have your destiny all before you, and
no one can tell but that some of these boys may be a President and
these beautiful girls advise those who are born to fill high places
in the Government. Children, I am pleased to see you, and will hold
in dear remembrance this, my first visit to Pueblo--a city full of
American genius and enterprise, which will hold its own and keep on
apace with that progress characteristic of Americans. God bless you
all. [Cheers.]
As Mrs. Harrison's carriage drew up the school children presented her
with a handsome painting--the "Colorado Columbine." The President then
visited the Colorado Mineral Palace, where President L. S. McLain and
Secretary Livezey of the Exposition presented him with specimens of rich
ore.
Colonel Stanton made the welcoming address and introduced President
Harrison to the great assemblage, who responded as follows:
_Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens_--The brief time which we are able
in this hasty journey to allot to the city of Pueblo has now almost
expired. It has given me pleasure to drive through the streets of
this prosperous and enterprising municipality and to see that you
are concentrating great business interests which must in the future
make you a very important centre in this great State. You have in
this State a variety of resources unexcelled, I think, by any other
State. Your attention was very naturally first directed toward the
precious metals, to the mining of gold and silver. The commoner ores
were neglected. Your cities were mining camps. Nowhere in all our
history has the American capacity for civil organization been so
perfectly demonstrated as in the mining camps of the West. Coming
here entirely beyond the range of civil institutions, where courts,
sheriffs, and police officers could not give a hand to suppress the
unruly at a time when our mining laws were unframed, these pioneer
miners of California, Colorado, Nevada, Montana, and Idaho wrought out
for themselves in their mining camps a system of government and mining
laws that have received the approval of the State. [Cheers.] It was
quite natural that interest should have been first directed toward the
precious metals. You are coming to realize that the baser metals, as
we call them, with which your great hills are stored are of great and
more lasting value. [Cheers.] We passed this morning through a region
where I was surprised to see orchards that reminded me of California.
Now for all these things, for the beneficent influence under which you
live, for that good law that has distributed this public domain freely
to every man who desires to make a home for himself and family, for
this free Government that extends its protection over the humblest as
well as the mighty, for all these resources of sky and air and earth,
the people of Colorado should be joyously thankful. [Cheers.] I am
glad to hail you as fellow-citizens. I am glad for a moment to stand
in the midst of you, to see your great capabilities, and to assure
you that my best wishes are with you in the development of them all.
[Cheers] I am glad to know that Colorado, this young Centennial State,
has established a system of free public schools unexcelled by any
State in the Union [Cheers.] But, my friends, as I said once before, I
am in slavery to a railroad schedule, and time is up Good-by. [Cheers.]
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, MAY 11.
The presidential party arrived at Colorado Springs at 6 o'clock in the
evening and received the heartiest kind of a welcome. They were met at
the station by the Hon. Ira G. Sprague, Mayor of the city, at the head
of a large Committee of Reception, comprising the following prominent
citizens: Judge John Campbell, J. F. Seldomridge, J. H. Barlow, Irving
Howbert, J. W. Stillman, W. S. Jackson, B. F. Crowell, Col. Geo. De
La Vergne, Hon. W. F. Slocum, J. A. Hayes, Jr., E. Barnett, Geo. H.
Stewart, G. S. Barnes, W. A. Conant, W. L. Weed, H. C. McCreery, E. W.
Davis, D. Heron, W. R. Roby, C. H. White, C. E. Noble, B. W. Steele,
L. H. Gowdy, J. H. B. McFerran, D. M. Holden, W. S. Nichols, Dr. T. G.
Horn, Dr. W. A. Campbell, Thomas Hughes, J. P. Barnes, W. A. Roby, Dr.
B. P. Anderson, Judge J. B. Severy, T. A. McMorris, F. L. Martin, J. M.
Sellers, H. H. Stevens, J. A. Weir, Geo. W. Thorne, J. J. Hagerman, H.
C. Lowe, L. R. Ehrich, J. F. Pebbles, Charles Thurlow, A. Van Vechten,
E. S. Wooley, J. M. Ellison, C. C. Hoyt, Dr. W. M. Strickler, Dr. J. P.
Grannis, Dr. S. E. Solly, Judge William Harrison, W. H. Reed, Geo. F.
Whitney, E. A. Colburn, W. R. Barnes, Charles W. Collins, N. O. Johnson,
E. W. Giddings, P. C. Helm, C. E. Durkee, W. C. Stark, Matt Wilbur, C.
E. Stubbs, H. C. Fursman, J. H. Sinclair, L. P. Lowe, J. C. Woodbury, W.
H. Tilton, L. A. Pease, Thomas Barber, David McShane, H. A. Fuller, W.
A. Perkins, Fred Robinson, Geo. B. Perry, Count James Pourtales, W. B.
Faunce, E. M. Stedman, M. W. Everleth, Dr. O. Gillette, A. A. McGooney,
E. J. Eaton, Matt France, Henry L. B. Wills, H. S. Ervay, C. J.
Reynolds, Frank White, W. F. Anderson, Thomas Parrish, P. A. McCurdy, C.
B. Crowell, W. A. Otis, J. N. Bolton, H. A. Ferugson, H. Collbran, Geo.
P. Riplet, H. G. Lunt, T. H. Edsall, A. L. Lawton, W. H. D. Merrill, K.
H. Field, Dr. H. T. Cooper, A. J. Denton, H. I. Reid, C. W. Howbert, W.
H. Hoagland, J. W. D. Stovell, S. H. Kingsley, F. A. Mangold, Dr. T. C.
Kirkwood, Godfrey Kissell, Thomas Gough, V. Z. Reed, H. S. Van Petten,
T. S. Brigham, O. P. Hopkins, D. C. Dudley, E. R. Stark, A. S. Holbrook,
Milo Rowell, Charles Walker, Prof. J. E. Ray, W. S. Nichols, Thomas
Shideler, Leonard Jackson, L. C. Dana, L. E. Sherman, Samuel Bradford,
William Clark, F. E. Dow, Geo. P. Vaux, I. J. Woodworth, A. A. Williams,
W. D. Belden, W. H. Goshen, D. A. Russell, C. L. Gillingham, C. E.
Aiken, Dr. G. W. Lawrence, Geo. H. Parsons, Jehu Fields, Edward Ferris,
E. F. Clark, A. Sutton, Phil Strubel, F. A. Sperry, P. K. Pattison,
L. H. Gilbert, Prof. Wm. Strieby, Theo. Harrison, F. H. Morley, E. T.
Ensign, Wm. Lennox, W. H. McIntyre, J. E. Newton, John Hundley, Dr.
F. Hale, John Lennox, Wm. Bischoff, N. J. Davis, J. L. Clinton, J.
D. O'Haire, Dr. B. St. G. Tucker, E. S. Josleyn, Seth Baker, Joseph
Dozier, O. Roberts, J. E. Ray, J. Plumb, H. Hall, Dr. M. S. Smith, W. H.
Sanford, Lawrence Myers, S. N. Nye, John Potter, C. H. Burgess, L. G.
Goodspeed, J. Sumner, E. F. Rudy, Maj. O. Remick, E. S. Bumstead, G. C.
Hemenway, John Simmons, H. Halthusen, William Banning, Reuben Berrey,
A. H. Corman, F. D. Pastorious, J. L. Armit, Judson Bent, Rev. James B.
Gregg, Rev. A. R. Kieffer, Rev. R. Montague, Rev. H. H. Bell, Rev. J. P.
Lucas, Rev. M. D. Ormes, Rev. H. E. Warner, and Rev. M. Carrington.
The G. A. R. veterans comprised the presidential guard of honor during
the parade through the city. Civic organizations from Manitou, Colorado
City, Colfax, and Koener participated in the demonstration, which was
very fine and received the special commendation of President Harrison.
After the parade the Garfield School was visited, and the President
addressed the scholars as follows:
You have very appropriately named this school in which you
have gathered a portion of the children of Colorado Springs for
instruction--Garfield. I understand another of your public schools
is named after Abraham Lincoln. That, too, is a most appropriate
designation; for where, in all the story of our country, among its
men who have been illustrious in civil pursuits or in war, can two
names be found which furnish more inspiration and hope to the youth
of the land than the names of Lincoln and Garfield? [Applause.] Both
men came of parentage so poor that no advantages attended their early
years, and yet each by his own indomitable will, by the persevering
improvement of the meagre opportunities they enjoyed, reached the
highest place in our land, and are to-day embalmed in the affectionate
recollection of their countrymen. I bid you all to read the lessons
of these great lives, and to ponder them well, for while not all may
achieve all they achieved, useful and honorable position may be
achieved by you all. Wishing you every prosperity and success, I bid
you good-by. [Cheers.]
At night the city was brilliantly illuminated. A public reception was
held at the Hotel Antlers. The President and his party were assisted
by Governor and Mrs. Routt and the Citizens' Committee. The welcoming
ceremonies took place before a great assemblage; Mayor Sprague made the
address.
The President, responding, said:
_Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens_--I am sure you will crown the
kindness which you have shown me to-day by permitting me to make my
response to these words of welcome exceedingly brief. I have spoken
four or five times to-day, and the chill of the evening will not allow
me to exercise my voice with the accustomed immunity, but I cannot
refrain from saying to you how much we have been pleased by the hasty
glimpse we have been permitted to get of this beautiful city. The fame
of Colorado Springs has spread throughout the entire East. I heard
much of the beauty of its location, the grandeur and sublimity of
these mountains that stand about bulwarked, as it is, like Jerusalem
of old; of the health-giving atmosphere that fills this valley, of
the marvellous springs, refreshing and life giving, which break out
from your mountain sides; of these marvellous and weird products of
time that stand in the Garden of the Gods--of all this I had heard.
But, my countrymen, no spring that ever broke from mountain side, no
bracing air that ever filled these valleys, was more refreshing and
invigorating to the invalid or to the weary than your hearty greeting
has been to us. [Cheers.]
I visit your great State for the first time. When this journey has
been completed only two of the States of the Union, and only its
most distant Territory, will have escaped my personal inspection and
observation. From Maine to California, from the northern line of
Michigan, where it is washed by the waters of the Sault Ste. Marie,
to the Savannah, I have traversed this broad land of ours, and out
of all this journeying, out of all this mingling with our people, I
have come to be a prouder and, I hope, a better American. We have
a country whose diversity of climate, soil, and production makes
it, in a degree not true of other people in the world, independent
and self-contained. None of the necessaries of life, and few of its
luxuries, would be denied to us if we were to limit ourselves to
articles of American growth and production. [Cheers.] But better than
all this, greater than our bulk, are those things that enter into and
characterize the American social and political life. A distinguished
Englishman journeying in this country not many years ago, speaking
of his observations, rather caustically mentioned that the question
most often propounded to him was whether he was not surprised by the
great size of the country. He was a man of discernment, one who looked
beneath the surface, who had learned to measure the mighty impulses
which turn the current of human civilization, and rebuking this pride
of bulk he said: Yes, it was a surprise, but greater still to him was
the surprise that over 60,000,000 people could maintain and preserve
under free republican institutions the social order and individual
liberty which was maintained here; greater to him than bulk was the
marvel that this great people could have survived and maintained
its institutions under the terrible stress of the great Civil War;
greater than all else to him was that unification of the people which
seemed to follow that period of deadly strife. I rejoice to be with
you to-night as an American citizen. I rejoice in the glory which the
Centennial State has brought to the Union, and which will greatly
increase. [Cheers.]
DENVER, COLORADO, MAY 12.
On his arrival at Denver, at 9:45 Tuesday morning, President Harrison
received an ovation. The tribute was a spontaneous, hearty one,
emphasized by the acclaim of 100,000 people. Governor Routt, ex-Senator
Tabor, ex-Senator Hill, and other distinguished citizens escorted the
presidential party from Glenwood Springs.
The Chief Executive was met at the Union Depot by the Hon. Platt Rogers,
Mayor of the city, and 200 prominent residents, comprising the Committee
of Reception, as follows: D. H. Moffat, I. B. Porter, C. E. Taylor,
Wolfe Londoner, J. E. Leet, Professor Haswell, S. H. Standart, W. S.
Cheesman, James Leonard, W. D. Todd, Adolph Zang, Phil. Bockfinger,
T. M. Patterson, C. S. Thomas, J. M. Berkey, M. J. McNamara, C. H.
Reynolds, J. D. McGilvray, H. N. Chittenden, J. A. Thatcher, J. S.
Wolfe, Dr. L. E. Lemen, Edward Eddy, Dr. Stedman, E. R. Barton, D.
Sheedy, H. B. Chamberlin, George Tritch, James Rice, Victor Elliott, E.
Monash, Thomas E. Poole, W. J. Barker, J. T. Cornforth, J. K. Mullen,
E. B. Light, Fine P. Ernest, Colonel Dodge, Donald Fletcher, W. G.
Fisher, A. C. Fisk, M. Hallett, F. A. Meredith, Charles B. Kountz, I.
E. Blake, Dr. Dennison, W. H. James, C. M. Kittredge, Joseph H. Smith,
William Stapleton, J. C. Helm, S. T. Smith, P. J. Flynn, Isaac Brinker,
Judge Rising, Frank Bishop, Supervisor Anderson, J. W. Roberts, Herman
Strauss, J. H. Brown, A. B. McKinley, W. J. Barker, H. P. Steele,
Lafe Pence, George F. Batchelder, Rev. J. M. Freeman, John Arkins,
ex-Governor Grant, J. M. Lawrence, J. J. Joslin, F. J. V. Skiff, W.
S. Decker, John Corcoran, W. B. Felker, F. B. Hill, J. D. Best, John
Riethmann, Thomas Hayden, Anthony Sweeney, ex-Governor Cooper, Charles
D. Cobb, John Evans, William Scott Lee, Peter Magnes, Dr. Bancroft, E.
F. Hallack, R. H. McMann, S. L. Holzman, H. R. Wolcott, J. S. Brown,
M. B. Carpenter, Joseph Cresswell, R. W. Woodbury, E. M. Ashley, J. S.
Appel, E. L. Scholtz, Dennis Sullivan, Samuel Elbert, G. W. Clayton,
J. C. Montgomery, G. C. De Bronkart, Louis Mack, C. S. Morey, George
E. Randolph, William Barth, T. S. McMurray, J. E. Bates, C. F. Wilson,
Rev. Myron W. Reed, Dr. Graham, J. L. McNeill, W. H. Bush, G. G. Symes,
Rodney Curtis, J. W. Nesmith, O. E. Le Fevre, Judge Furman, H. J. Adams,
J. C. Twombly, Judge Graham, F. Rinne, Supervisor Slack, Gen. W. A.
Hamill, H. P. Parmelee, General Dunn, J. H. Poole, George Raymond, J.
W. Hampton, Henri Foster, W. C. Lothrop, James H. Blood, E. W. Merritt,
Wm. Harris, General Humphrey, Daniel Ryan, R. S. Roe, R. W. Speer, C. S.
Lee, Jos. Milner, J. A. McDonald, Judge Bentley, M. Currigan, M. D. Van
Horn, Fred Walsen, Dr. H. K. Steele, Assyria Hall, A. P. Rittenhouse,
Richard Sopris, F. C. Goudy, C. H. Hackley, Isaac N. Stevens, Thomas
Croke, J. P. Ewing, George C. Manly, J. T. Adams, George Ady, D. W.
Hart, Judge Alvin Marsh, C. D. Titus, Supervisor Chase, Otto Mears, H.
Solomon, D. F. Carmichael, Amos Steck, E. S. Chapman, W. B. Hanscome,
R. A. Gurley, C. H. Sage, Rev. Dr. Tupper, Henry Apple, Herbert George,
W. H. Firth, Egbert Johnson, F. E. Edbrooke, S. K. Hooper, Thos. G.
Anderson, A. D. Shepard, J. S. McGilvray, E. L. Fox, D. C. Packard, O.
Whittemore, David May, Ralph Voorhees, Senator Cochrane, J. M. Daily,
Col. C. J. Clark, H. L. Morris, Rev. Father Malone, Dr. Blickensderfer,
J. M. Downing, C. M. Hampson, Thomas Nicholas, Judge Miller, Jerome
Riche, J. D. McGilvray, W. H. Milburn, F. H. Kreuger, L. H. Guldman, W.
N. Byers, William M. Bliss, George H. Graham, Lewis Price, Jay Cook,
Jr., C. S. Prowitt, S. C. Shepard, O. Carstarphen, Captain J. T. Smith,
and Hugh Butler.
The parade was an imposing and brilliant spectacle, in charge of Chief
Marshal A. H. Jones, assisted by Gen. E. K. Stimson, Chief of Staff,
and the following aides: John C. Kennedy, Adjutant-General of Colorado;
Benjamin F. Klee, E. J. Brooke, W. H. Conley, John A. McBeth, W. Y.
Sedam, N. G. Dunn, George Ady, Thomas R. Scott, John Corcoran, B. A.
Harbour, Thomas Baldwin, G. G. Symes, S. A. Shepard, and Robert R.
Wright. Over 1,000 G. A. R. comrades were in line, led by George W.
Cook, and several hundred Sons of Veterans, commanded by Col. C. H.
Anderson. The President's carriage, drawn by six white horses, was
escorted by Lieut. Col. A. W. Hogle and staff. Countless thousands
thronged the streets along the route of the procession. As the column
passed the High School 10,000 scholars and children gave the President
and Mrs. Harrison an enthusiastic greeting. A vast assemblage awaited
the President's arrival at the reviewing stand, where he was met by the
Colorado Pioneers, led by Maj. William Wise. Governor Routt delivered an
eloquent address of welcome, followed by Mayor Rogers, who portrayed
the triumphant struggle and growth of Denver. President Harrison
responded as follows: