Grand Army_ [cheers] _and Fellow-citizens_--This scene is inspiring.
This beautiful city, the fame of which your journeying citizens
have not failed to carry to the far East [laughter and cheers], has
become known to me as we can know by the hearing of the ear; and I am
rejoiced to add to my pleasant impressions of Colorado, and of its
commercial and political capital, that which is in sight of the eye,
which has but deepened and enlarged the favorable impressions which
I brought to your State. It is a marvellous thing that all we see
here is in a State whose existence dates from the dawn of the second
century of our national life. What a tremendous testimony to the
organizing power and energy of the American people this great State
is! That these wastes, so unpromising to the eye in that early time,
should have been invaded by the restless energy of indomitable men;
that they should have seen in visions that which was to follow their
heroic labor for the development of these hidden resources; that no
drought or drifting sand, no threat of mountain nor of sky, could turn
back these brave-hearted men who had set their faces to pierce and
uncover the hidden riches of these mountains. The pioneers of Colorado
are worthy of honor. Those who have entered into their labors, who
have come not toilsomely but on swift and easy wings into the heritage
that they have opened, should, always and everywhere, gratefully
acknowledge the services of those who made this easy pathway for their
feet. [Cheers.]
Your State is blessed in the diversity of its resources. You do not
depend on any one of the great industries of civilized life. You have
taken from your mines immense stores of the precious metals, but when
these are gone or their supply is diminished you will turn your eyes
toward those metals that we call base, but that after all enter in
so many ways into human life that they supply more enduring and in
the end more profitable industries. Your iron, and coal, and lead,
and building stone will be sources of income inexhaustible. These
valleys, touched by the magical power of irrigation, will yield to
your population abundant food, and you will yet have within yourselves
that happy commercial condition of a State producing and exchanging
within its own limits nearly all the necessaries of life. [Cheers.]
Transportation is always a burden. The industrial condition is always
best when the producers and the consumers are near together.
I am glad to know that you have not been so busy in delving into
the earth; that you have not so turned your minds to the precious
metal as to have forgotten that there is a blue sky above you; that
there are aspirations, and hopes, and glories that are greater than
all material things. [Cheers.] You have not failed to make sure that
the children, the blessed children of your homes, that are now coming
on, are made secure in the possession of a well-ordered and of a
well-endowed school system. [Cheers.] What a testimony it is to the
American character that, however intense the push for the things of
this life, however eager the pursuit of gain, you can never assemble a
community of 200 people that they do not begin to organize schools for
the children. [Cheers.] These common schools are not simply nurseries
of intellectual training; they are nurseries of citizenship. [Cheers.]
It has been a most happy sight to see the same old banner that we
bore into the smoke of battle and carried over dying comrades to
place it in triumph on the ramparts of the enemy now in the hands of
the children of Colorado. [Cheers.] Proof has been made a thousand
times--proof will be made whenever the occasion requires--that, as
much as we pursue gain and personal ends, we have nothing--property or
life--that we do not freely lay down upon the altar of our country for
the general good. [Cheers.] But, my fellow-citizens, this assemblage
is too vast, and the demand upon my time for public speech has been
too protracted, to enable me to pursue these remarks further.
Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, survivors of the
great war whose success preserved all that our fathers had devised
and established, whose success brought back this flag in honor and
established it again the undisputed emblem of an indissoluble Union
[cheers], God has bountifully lengthened out your days that you might
catch some glimpse of the glory that has come from the achievements in
which you bore an honorable part. But only the vision of the prophet
reaching out over centuries to come can catch the full glory of
what your deeds have wrought. I give you to-day a most affectionate
greeting [cheers]; I give you a regretful good-by. May you hold in
the community where you live that respect and honor to which you are
entitled. Let no Grand Army man ever dishonor in civil life the noble
record he made in war. May every blessing follow you, and if it shall
not be in God's dispensation to give you riches, at least, comrades,
you shall die with the glorious satisfaction of having contributed to
the greatest work that man ever wrought for humanity and good; and,
wrapped in the flag you followed, your comrades will, one by one, see
that in honored graves your bodies rest until the resurrection, and
that on each returning day of decoration flowers are strewn upon your
graves.
Citizens of Denver, I cannot close without expressing the great
satisfaction and surprise with which I have witnessed this morning the
magnificent commercial developments which have been made here. These
streets, these towering, substantial, and stately houses in which your
commerce is transacted, place you in the front rank of enterprise. I
do not think any city so young can claim so high a place. [Cheers.]
I thank you very sincerely for a demonstration which I cannot accept
as personal--all this is too great for any man--but as a spontaneous
tribute to our free institutions. I accept this as an evidence that in
all essential things we are one people. The fuller revelation of that
fact to us all has been worth all the labor and time we have mutually
expended in this long journey. In all essential things we are one; we
divide and strive and debate, but we are patriotic American citizens,
having a love for the Constitution and the flag that brings us all
at last to submit our opinion to the lawfully expressed wish of the
majority. [Cheers.]
And now again good-by. I shall leave behind me every good wish
for your prosperity, individually as a municipality and as a State.
[Cheers.]
After a drive over Capitol Hill the President and the gentlemen of his
party were the guests of W. H. Bush at the Hotel Metropole. Senator
Teller presided at luncheon.
Responding to a toast in honor of the President of the United States,
General Harrison said:
_Gentlemen_--I cannot fail to respond to such a toast. Indeed, I
should be unkind to you and to myself as well if I did not. However,
I cannot speak at length in thanking you for the gracious hospitality
I have received in Denver. I can truly say my visit has culminated
in Denver. For pleasure during my stay here, for perfection in
arrangement, for cordiality, and all things which go to make a stop
pleasant, Denver has given a climax of enjoyment.
It has given me great pleasure to take note of some of the things
which have made this beautiful city here and its recent and massive
developments a wonder to the civilization of to-day. I am apt to judge
the city by the home. That is with me the test, more than the business
buildings, the manufactories, etc. It gives me great pleasure to
state that in all my travels, and they have included all the States
but two, I have never seen a city with such elegant homes as here.
[Cheers.] I am sure, when you have worked out your silver mines and
the more common products, stone and granite, you will have that which
will last you for an indefinite time, and which will also add to the
beauty of your already beautiful city. [Cheers.]
I have the pleasure of testifying to the satisfaction with which the
party has spent these few days in the Centennial State. I hope I may
have the pleasure of being with you again at some near future time.
I say good-by, and again express our thanks for your hospitality,
which has been excelled nowhere on our journey. [Cheers.]
AKRON, COLORADO, MAY 12.
The President made his farewell Colorado speech at Akron at 9 o'clock
at night. The Reception Committee consisted of Hon. D. W. Irwin, R.
S. Langley, and J. M. Aitkin. Upward of 3,000 people welcomed the
distinguished travellers. Colonel Griffith and Gen. L. C. Colby,
Commander Nebraska State Guards, joined the party at Akron as the
representatives of Governor John M. Thayer.
Commander John N. Tague, of Akron Post, G. A. R., introduced President
Harrison, who said:
_My Friends_--It is very kind of you to gather here to-night as
we pass by. We have had a very pleasant trip. Our interest in your
State and our appreciation of its great resources have been very much
increased on this visit. I am glad to find--indeed, I knew I should
find--the same people here that we have in Illinois, Indiana, and
Ohio. Most of you come from some of those States, and you are not new
people. I have been very much pleased to notice that here, as well as
in the East, you take deep interest in schools and in all those things
that tend to elevate a community and to set social order on a firm and
secure basis. Allow me to thank you again, and to bid you good-night.
[Cheers.]
HASTINGS, NEBRASKA, MAY 13.
Hastings, Nebraska's third city, was reached at 6:30 the morning of
the 13th, and notwithstanding the early hour fully 10,000 people were
present to welcome the President. The Reception Committee consisted of
Mayor A. L. Clarke, Hon. John M. Ragan, C. H. Dietrich, Judge W. R.
Burton, F. H. Firman, W. M. Kerr, General Dilworth, J. J. Buchanan, R.
A. Batty, James B. Heartwell, A. F. Powers, A. V. Cole, M. Van Fleet,
Dr. Johnson, Dr. J. E. Hilts, A. H. Brown, Dr. Cook, R. B. Wahlquist,
and C. Cameron.
J. N. Clarke delivered the address of welcome and introduced President
Harrison, who said:
_My Fellow-countrymen_--There is a freshness and a beauty about
the Nebraska prairies, but I hope I will not fall in your esteem
if I say I do not like to get up early. [Shouts, "Neither do we!"]
Occasionally, in our trip, we seem to pick up an hour. When I retired
at Denver last night, at none too early an hour, I was told that we
would be at Hastings at 6:30. But we arrived here, it seems to me, at
5:20 by the time I went to bed by last night; but, my friends, all
these things that make labor of travel are as nothing compared with
the great gratification we find in such assemblages as this.
As we journeyed eastward we have seen the arid land where the
water ran in ditches and did not fall in showers. That system has
its advantages and its disadvantages, but I must confess that it
seems more homelike for me to get back to the land where the showers
fall and everything is fresh and green. This diversity of natural
conditions and of agricultural and mineral wealth makes the greatness
of our country. Diversity is found everywhere in nature, and it is
a happy thing. It is found in the field and crop, but never in the
people--any observing man can see that we are one people. [Cheers.]
The people I saw in California, in Arizona, and all along our journey,
were just such people as I see here; indeed, they were in a strict
sense the same people, because they are Yankees, Pennsylvanians,
Wisconsin men, Hoosiers, and Buckeyes--I think the Ohio man must be
here. [Several responses of "Here we are!"]
The Westerners are the overspill of the enterprising population
of the East. They kept going a little farther west, still a little
farther, until at last they touched the Pacific; and so anywhere the
traveller may go, if he will make himself known, the hands of old
neighbors will be stretched out to him. Out of all this comes the love
for the one flag, and I am glad to say that we have not passed any
little way station--even in Arizona, where a few scores had gathered
from distant ranches--but some one with an American flag was there and
American cheers for that flag. Sometimes the incidents were almost
pathetic. At one little station in Arizona, as we drew up in the
darkness, there were half a dozen ranchers on the platform. I noticed
on the lapels of two or three coats the Grand Army button. One of them
shouted, "There are but few of us, but let us give a cheer for the old
flag, boys!" [Cheers.]
I thank you most cordially for your gathering here. I do not know
whether it is prejudice or not, but anyway I always have a very high
opinion of a State whose chief production is corn. [Laughter and
applause.]
CRETE, NEBRASKA, MAY 13.
At Crete the President received a musical welcome. Nedela's band
rendered "America," and over 2,000 voices joined in the chorus. It was
a beautiful tribute to patriotism. Governor Thayer, accompanied by
Lieut. Gov. T. J. Majors, Secretary of State J. C. Allen, Auditor T. H.
Benton, Treasurer J. E. Hill, Atty. Gen. Geo. H. Hastings, Adjt. Gen. A.
V. Cole, Commissioner A. R. Humphry, and Col. H. E. Palmer, came down
from Lincoln and met the President's party at Crete. The local Reception
Committee consisted of Mayor Norris, ex-Governor Dawes, S. L. Andrews,
Capt. John Sherrill, and H. M. Wells.
Governor Thayer introduced the President, who said:
_My Friends_--It appears sometimes in the heat of political
campaigns that the American people do not agree upon anything; but
after it is all over we take a broader survey of things and we find
that underneath all these divisions is the bed rock of patriotism. In
that at least we have a common purpose.
I am glad to see these children here this morning. They have greeted
me everywhere with their happy smiles, and they brighten the way
quite as much as the flowers that have been given us. It is pleasant
to know that in these pioneer countries you are establishing common
schools in order that the generation which is coming on may have a
better chance than you had. I do not know of anything better than the
father and mother working and striving that their children may have an
easier and better chance in life than they had. I am very glad to see
you all this morning, and thank you for your cordial welcome. [Cheers.]
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, MAY 13
The capital of Nebraska was reached at 9 o'clock in the morning and the
Lincolnites gave the President a warm greeting. The State officials,
with Mayor Weir and the following prominent citizens, comprised the
Committee of Reception: Maj. H. C. McArthur, Charles H. Gere, E. E.
Brown, N. S. Harwood, C. M. Parker, C. E. Montgomery, S. S. Royce, A.
H. Weir, J. B. Archibald, W. E. Churchill, Alva Brown, John D. Wright,
Phelps Paine, J. B. Strode, C. H. Gould, Joseph Teeters, J. J. Imhoff,
John H. McClay, D. W. Mosely, J. H. McMurtry, Professor Bessey, and
Alva Kennard. During the march to the Capitol grounds the President was
escorted by the veterans of Farragut Post, Martin Howe Commander, and
Appomattox Post, C. W. Lyman Commander. Governor Thayer and Mayor Weir
each delivered an address welcoming the President to Nebraska and to
Lincoln.
President Harrison responded:
_Governor Thayer and Mr. Mayor_--It will, I think, be entirely
impossible for me to make myself heard by this vast assemblage,
situated as you are here this morning. Our stay with you is
necessarily brief, and yet I do not want you to feel that we have
discriminated against the political capital of one of the very
greatest of the newer States. I have been so pressed with the
engagements which have been suggested to us that I have only been able
to give three-quarters of an hour to Indianapolis, my own home. I have
given you the same, and I had hoped, very much, that this time could
be extended and that I would be able to address you with more comfort
to myself and to you.
We are here as American citizens, for common hope and love; we are
here the friends of the flag, of the Constitution, of social order,
of every school, of all that characterizes this Nation and makes it
better than any other nation in the world.
I thank you, most cordially thank you, for this magnificent
demonstration. It has but one fault, and that is it is altogether too
large to be suitably arranged with a view to public speaking.
I hope you will allow me again to thank you very sincerely for your
most cordial and magnificent welcome, and wish for you and your State
all prosperity and for the country of which we are common citizens a
career of unchecked glory. [Cheers.]
As the President was about to depart he was met by a committee
representing the Nebraska Travelling Men's Association, consisting of
President Fred A. Wilson, Secretary R. M. Simons, and Capt. J. S. Agey,
who presented him with an address of welcome printed on satin in gold.
In accepting the souvenir the President said:
Convey my thanks to the travelling men, for whom I entertain the
kindest regard. I remember them in the last campaign, and shall always
be thankful for the favors extended. I noticed your body in the
parade, and have never seen a finer representation of the fraternity.
[Renewed cheering.]
ASHLAND, NEBRASKA, MAY 13.
About 2,000 people greeted the President at Ashland. The school children
were assembled at the station under Superintendent Crabtree. Mayor J. C.
Railsback, H. H. Shedd, S. G. Bryan, Col. J. K. Clarke, R. E. Butler,
C. N. Folsom, M. Newman, W. T. Spere, J. H. Snell, J. H. Oliver, J. W.
Moon, and S. B. Hall, Commander of Bob McCook Post, G. A. R., welcomed
the President, who made a brief address, as follows:
_My Friends_--I am very much obliged to you for your cordial
welcome. We pause but for a moment, and it will not be possible for me
to make a speech. You are talking yourselves, and I am sure in very
high tones of patriotism, by your display of the national colors in
your own hands and in the hands of the school children, and by this
welcome to one who for the time is placed at the head of the national
Government. I have not accepted what I have seen on this trip as
personal; it is too much for any man. I accept it as the expression of
our people for the love of our flag and for the institutions which it
symbolizes. [Cheers.]
OMAHA, NEBRASKA, MAY 13.
President Harrison arrived at Omaha Wednesday noon and was accorded a
reception that in numbers and enthusiasm was scarcely surpassed during
the entire trip. He was met at Lincoln by an escort committee consisting
of Senator Charles F. Manderson, Senator A. S. Paddock, Hon. J. C.
Cowin, ex-Gov. R. B. Furnas, Maj. D. H. Wheeler, Judge J. M. Thurston,
G. W. Willard, W. V. Morse, D. J. O'Donohue, B. B. Wood, Dr. G. L.
Miller, C. Hartman, Maj. T. S. Clarkson, C. J. Greene, A. J. Poppleton,
Hon. J. E. Boyd, J. H. Millard, Thomas Swobe, A. P. Hopkins, Max Meyer,
W. F. Bechel, and T. J. Lowry.
Arrived at the station the President and his party were met and
welcomed by Mayor R. C. Cushing at the head of the following committee
of prominent citizens: Hon. E. S. Dundy, E. Wakely, T. J. Mahoney,
Dr. J. E. Summers, L. Berka, W. J. Broatch, Fred Metz, T. L. Kimball,
G. M. Hitchcock, J. A. Creighton, J. F. Coad, C. V. Gallagher, Herman
Kountze, W. A. Paxton, C. S. Chase, G. W. Lininger, Lee Hartley, Amos
Field, H. G. Burt, G. W. Holdrege, J. E. Kinney, Edward Rosewater, M.
V. Gannon, W. A. L. Gibbon, Henry Pundt, J. B. Furay, J. T. Clarke, E.
A. Cudahy, J. O. Phillippi, F. P. Hanlon, B. S. Baker, John Peters, W.
H. Alexander, Brad Slaughter, W. N. Nason, Euclid Martin, Henry Yates,
J. L. McCague, J. A. Wakefield, C. L. Chaffee, Julius Meyer, C. E.
Burmester, L. R. Rosaker, James Stephenson, J. M. Woolworth, Charles
Ogden, J. S. Webster, Col. Dudley Evans, Richard Smith, L. D. Fowler,
G. M. Nattinger, J. W. Eller, Simon Bloom, H. H. Benson, Capt. R. S.
Wilcox, S. Adamsky, J. A. Cusadore, O. G. Decker, Charles L. Thomas, M.
J. Feenan, Frank Moores, General Brooke and staff, and the following
city officials: C. S. Goodrich, John Rush, Lee Helsley, W. S. Shoemaker,
Silas Cobb, John Groves, Geo. W. Tillson, P. W. Birkhauser, Geo. C.
Whitlock, Geo. L. Dennis, A. B. Howatt, Clark Gapan, J. J. Galligan,
Wilber S. Seavey, James Flannery, H. L. Rammacciotti, James Gilbert,
Thomas J. McLean, J. H. Standeven, Thomas Riley, Thomas Bermingham, Fred
Hickstein, Peter A. Welch, and Frank R. Morrisey.
The ladies on the Reception Committee were Mrs. Alvin Saunders, Mrs.
General Brooke, Mrs. General Wheaton, Mrs. Judge Dundy, Mrs. Clark
Woodman, Mrs. H. W. Yates, Mrs. E. Rosewater, Mrs. S. S. Caldwell, and
Mrs. Geo. M. O'Brien.
An imposing procession, conducted by Chief Marshal C. F. Weller,
assisted by Jacob Fawcett and Capt. Geo. Porter, escorted the
presidential party to the pavilion near the Court House, from whence
the President reviewed the column, headed by the Second Regiment U.S.
Infantry. General Frederick, Col. M. V. Sheridan, Colonel Turson,
General Mulcahy, Captain Morseman, Major Potwin, Colonel Curtis, Colonel
Strong, Captain Richardson, Captain Rhodes, Captain Stickle, Major
Luddington, Lieutenant Jensen, Lieutenant Korty, and other members of
the Loyal Legion, awaited the Commander-in-Chief at the pavilion, around
which a vast concourse assembled. Mayor Cushing made the welcoming
address.
When the demonstration subsided President Harrison responded as follows:
_Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens_--I can accept without question
and with very deep gratitude these cordial words of welcome which
you have spoken on behalf of the people of this great city. Twice
before it has been my pleasure to spend a brief time in this great
commercial metropolis of the great Valley of the Missouri. I have had
opportunity, therefore, to witness the rapid development which your
city has made. I recollect it as I saw it in 1881, and as I see it
to-day I feel that I need to be told where I am. [Applause and cheers.]
These magnificent structures dedicated to commerce, these
magnificent churches lifting their spires toward the heavens, these
many school-houses consecrated to the training of those who shall
presently stand in our places to be responsible for these our public
institutions, these great stock-yards, where the meat product of the
great meat-producing States of the Missouri Valley is prepared for
market, and, above all and crowning all, these thousands of happy,
comfortable homes which characterize and constitute your great city
are a marvel and tribute to the enterprise and power of development of
the American people, unsurpassed, I think, by any city in the United
States. [Cheers.]
As I turn my face now toward Washington, as I hasten on to take up
public duties partially laid aside during this journey, I rejoice to
receive here in Omaha that same kindly greeting with which we were
welcomed as we journeyed from Washington through the South to the
Pacific. If anything were needed to call for a perfect surrender
of all personal thought in an absolute consecration of public duty
to the general good of all our people, I have found it in these
magnificent demonstrations. [Cheers.] We shall always have parties--it
is characteristic of free people--we need to have party divisions,
debate, and political contention; but it is pleasant to observe in all
this journey we have taken how large a stock of common patriotism we
find in all the people. [Cheers.]
You have here in Nebraska a State of magnificent capabilities. I
have seen the orange grove, and all those fruits which enrich and
characterize the State of California. I have seen Leadville, the
summit city, these mining camps upon the peaks where men are delving
into the earth to bring out the riches stored there, but I return
again to the land of the cornstalk with an affection that I cannot
describe. [Cheers.]
I am sure these friends who have delighted us with the visions
of loveliness and prosperity will excuse me if my birth and early
training in Ohio and Indiana leads me to the conclusion that the
States that raise corn are the greatest States in the world. [Cheers.]
We have a surplus production in these great valleys for which we
must seek foreign markets. It is pleasant to know that 90 per cent.
or more of our agricultural productions are consumed by our own
people. I do not know how soon it may be that we shall cease to be
dependent upon any foreign market for our farm products. With the
rapid development which is being made in manufacturing pursuits, with
the limitation which the rapid occupation of our public domain now
brings to our minds as to the increase of agriculture, it cannot be a
very distant day when the farmer shall realize the ideal condition and
find a market out of his own farm wagon for what he produces.