Part 10

_My Friends_--The magnitude of this gathering, I fear, quite out-reaches the capacity of my voice. It is so great and so cordial, it has been accompanied by so many kind expressions, that my heart is deeply touched--too deeply to permit of extended or connected speech. I return most cordially the greetings of these friends from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois [cheers], a trio of great States lying in this great valley, endowed by nature with a productive capacity that rivals the famous valley of the Nile, populated by a people unsurpassed in intelligence, manly independence and courage. [Applause and cheers.] The association of these States to-day brings to my mind the fact that in the brigade with which I served Indiana, Ohio and Illinois were represented [applause]--three regiments from Illinois, the One Hundred and Second, the One Hundred and Fifth and the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth; one from Ohio, the Seventy-ninth, and one from Indiana, the Seventieth Infantry. I have seen the men of these States stand together in the evening parade. I have seen them also charge together in battle, and die together for the flag they loved [great applause], and when the battle was over I have seen the dead gathered from the field they had enriched with their blood and laid side by side in a common grave. Again you evidence by your coming that these great States have in peace common interests and common sympathies. The Republican party has always been hospitable to the truth. [Applause and laughter.] It has never shunned debate. It has boldly, and in the courage of the principles it has advocated, opened the lists and challenged all comers. It has never found it necessary or consistent with its great principles to suppress free discussion of any question. There is not a Republican community where any man may not advocate without fear his political beliefs. [Cries of "That's so!"] There is not a Republican voting precinct where any man, whatever may have been his relations to the flag during the war, may not freely exercise his right to vote. [Cheers.] There is not one such precinct where the right of a Confederate soldier freely to cast the ballot of his choice would not be defended by the Union veterans of the war. [Applause and cries of "That's true!"] Our party is tolerant of political differences. It has always yielded to others all that it demanded for itself. It has been intolerant of but one thing: disloyalty to the flag and to the Union of States. [Great applause.] It has had the good fortune to set in the Constitution and in the permanent laws of our country many of the great principles for which it has contended. It has not only persuaded a majority of our thinking people, but it has had the unusual fortune to compel those who opposed it to give a belated assent to every great principle it has supported.

Now, gentlemen, I am sure you will excuse further speech. What I say here must necessarily be very general. It would not be in good taste for me to make too close or too personal an application of Republican principles. [Laughter and applause and cries of "You're a dandy!"]

I do not know what to say further. I have up to this time greeted personally all those who came. My courage is a little shaken as I look upon this vast multitude, but for a time, at least--so long as I can, and to those who especially desire it, I will give a personal greeting. [Great and prolonged applause.]

INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 18.

The commercial travelling men, and their friends, from the cities of Peoria, Bloomington, Terre Haute, and Lafayette, about a thousand in number, paid their respects to General Harrison on the afternoon of the 18th of August. The Bloomington delegation was led by J. H. Sprague and Dan Van Elsler, the Peoria Club by J. G. Jones. Each delegation was escorted by a splendid band.

They were met and escorted to the Harrison residence by a committee from the Indianapolis Commercial Travellers' Association, comprising G. C. Webster, C. H. McPherson, John V. Parker, W. H. Schmidt, D. W. Coffin, Harry Gates, R. K. Syfers, W. F. Winchester, Wm. Sisson, T. P. Swain, C. L. Schmidt, Ed. Finney, O. W. Moorman, Charles Lefler, M. P. Green, J. L. Barnhardt, Berg. Applegate, G. R. Rhoads, Hon. J. H. Rowell, of Bloomington; and Hon. J. S. Starr of Peoria spoke on behalf of the visitors. General Harrison said:

_Gentlemen of the Commercial Travellers' Association of Peoria, Bloomington, Lafayette, and Terre Haute_--I thank you for this most cordial and beautiful demonstration. The respect of such a body of men is a valuable acquisition. But I am particularly glad that a class so large and so influential, and one that touches so many communities, is loyally and earnestly devoted to the principles of the Republican party. I have travelled somewhat in the wake of the commercial men, and have observed that they have the habit of getting the best of everything wherever they go. [Applause and laughter. A voice: "That's the reason we are here!"] I am therefore quite ready to credit the statement of the gentleman who has just spoken in your behalf when he tells me that the commercial travellers are all Republicans. [Applause and cries of "He was right!"] I should expect they would get the best politics that were to be found. [Laughter and applause.]

Your calling is an active one--you are always on the move. You are quick to discover the wants of local trade. You are persuasive in speech and address; you are honest for the love of integrity, and do not forget that you must again face your customer after the goods are delivered. [Laughter and applause.] The men who employed you have chosen you, picked you out, and they subject you to the weekly test of success. You have been proved and not found wanting. The wide intercourse you have with your fellow-men and the wide view you get of our country must tend to make you liberal and patriotic.

The provincialism that once existed in this country has largely disappeared, and the commercial travellers have been an important agency in bringing this about. This going to and fro has given you a fuller comprehension, not only of the extent of this country, but of the greatness and unity of its people. [Cheers.] I have thought that the prophet Daniel must have had a vision of the commercial travellers when he said that in the last days many should run to and fro and knowledge should be increased. [Laughter and applause.]

You will not expect me to enter upon the discussion of any of the topics which have been suggested by those who have spoken for you. Most of them I have already alluded to in public speech since my nomination, and upon some of them I have spoken more fully before. Let me suggest but this one thought: Do not allow any one to persuade you that this great contest as to our tariff policy is one between schedules. It is not a question of a seven per cent. reduction. [Applause.] It is a question between wide-apart principles. [Cries of "That's right!"]

The principle of protection, the intelligent recognition in the framing of our tariff laws of the duty to protect our American industries and maintain the American scale of wages by adequate discriminating duties [cries of "That's right!" "That's it!"] on the one hand, and on the other a denial of the constitutional right to make our customs duties protective, or the assertion of the doctrine that free competition with foreign products is the ideal condition to which all our legislation should tend. [Applause.]

Let me now, in behalf not only of myself, but of my family, thank you for your visit and ask you to enter our home. [Applause.]

TOLEDO, OHIO, AUGUST 21.

General Harrison left Indianapolis on the morning of August 21, '88, for a two weeks' outing and vacation at Middle Bass Island, Lake Erie, where he was the guest--upon invitation of ex-Gov. Charles Foster, of Ohio--of the Middle Bass Fishing Club, Mather Shoemaker, Sr., President.

He was accompanied by Mrs. Harrison, Judge Wm. A. Woods and wife, Miss Woods, Samuel Miller, and representatives of the Associated Press and Cincinnati _Commercial-Gazette_.

His departure was not generally known, consequently there was no demonstration along the line until Defiance, Ohio, was reached, where several hundred people had gathered. Hon. C. A. Flickinger delivered a brief address of welcome.

General Harrison, speaking from the train, said:

_Gentlemen_--I am very much obliged to you for this reception. You will excuse me, I am sure, for not attempting to make any speech. This evidence of your friendly feeling is gratifying to me. We were intending to travel to-day in quietness, and I am confident you will conform to our wishes in that respect by allowing me to say simply, "How do you do" and "Good-by."

Toledo was reached early in the evening, and several thousand citizens and militia welcomed the distinguished travellers. A committee of reception, comprising James M. Brown, Chairman, Mayor Hamilton, Hon. E. D. Potter, J. C. Bonner, John Berdan, C. A. King, Calvin Barker, Fred Eaton, Col. S. C. Reynolds, Judge R. F. Doyle, Judge Joseph Cummings, Hon. John F. Kumler, Hon. Richard Waite, Wm. Baker, and Judge Austin, escorted General Harrison and his party to the residence of Wm. Cummings, whose guests they were. At night an open-air mass-meeting was held in Memorial Hall Square, where ten thousand men assembled. Gov. Foster spoke at length, and was followed by General Harrison, who was introduced by Hon. J. M. Brown, President of the Executive Committee United Republican Clubs, and spoke as follows:

_My Friends_--You have already been told that this reception was not planned by me, and yet I do not regret that I have yielded to the urgent solicitation of your representatives and have consented to stand for a few moments in the presence of this magnificent and instructive audience. [Applause.] I say instructive, for that public man is dull indeed who does not gather both instruction and inspiration from such meetings as this. [Applause.] I thank you for any measure of personal respect and interest which your coming here to-night may witness, but I do not see in this immense gathering any testimony that is personal to me. I prefer to regard it as another witness added to the long number I have seen before of the deep-seated and earnest interest of our people in the public questions that are to be settled in November. [Applause.] I choose rather to regard it as a pledge that this interest you manifest in me to-night will not stop here, but is the pledge of continued and earnest personal work by each one of you for those principles which have won the consent of your minds and the love of your hearts. [Applause.] I cannot enter in any detail into the discussion of public questions; I would not at all put myself between you and these great, important issues. I would, in all I may say, put them to the front. We are here citizens of a great, prosperous, magnificent Nation. We have common interests. We are here charged with the common duties to perpetuate, if we can, the prosperity and to maintain the honor of this great Republic. [Applause.] We are here to-night in the enjoyment of free government. We are here in the individual possession of better opportunities of development, of a larger prosperity, and of more individual comfort than are possessed by any other people in the world. [Applause.] The great economic question as to what shall be our future legislative policy is stated with a distinctness in this campaign that it has never had before, and I believe the verdict and decision will have an emphasis and finality that it has never had before. [Applause.] If there is any one here present to-night that knows of any land that spreads a more promising sky of hope above the heads of the poor and the laboring man than this, I would be glad if he would name it. The one fact that I do not need to stop to demonstrate by statistics, the one fact that I could call out of this vast audience hundreds of witnesses to support by their personal testimony, is that the scale of American wages is higher than that of any other country in the world. [Applause.] If this were not true, why is it that the workingmen and the working-women of the older lands turn their faces hitherward? If there is a better country, one that offers better wages, fuller hopes than this, why is it that those who are in quest of such better things have not found it out and turned their faces thitherward? Now, if that is true, then why is it true, and how is it to be continued--this condition of our country? It is because, and only because, we have for years, by our protective tariff, discriminated in favor of American manufacturers and American workingmen. [Applause.] Strike down this protective system, bring our workingmen and working-women in equal competition in the products of their toil with those who labor abroad, and nothing is clearer than that these mills and factories must reduce wages here to the level with wages abroad, or they must shut down. You have the choice to make; you, the free citizens of this country, whose ballots sway its destiny, will settle these questions in November. [Applause.] I ask you how? Don't be deceived by the suggestion that this is any contest over a seven per cent. reduction in the tariff schedule. We are allowed now to say, I think, that all those who are entitled to speak for the Democratic party have declared that it is opposed to protection. That being so, the issue is clearly, distinctly, strongly drawn. I beg you all--not in my interest, but in your own; in the interest of your families and the country you love--to ponder this question; to think upon it with that seriousness its importance demands, and when you have thought it out, settle it, settle it in November, so that we shall be free for years to come from this agitation in behalf of free trade. [Great applause.]

I thank you again for this kindly demonstration. I beg you to accept these brief suggestions as the only but inadequate return that I can make you for this kindness. [Applause.]

PUT-IN-BAY, OHIO, AUGUST 31.

The residents of Put-in-Bay Island, about five hundred in number, tendered General Harrison a reception on the thirty-first of August. The steamboats from Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, and Sandusky brought several thousand excursionists. General Harrison and his party on their arrival from Middle Bass Island were met at the pier by all the residents of Put-in-Bay Island, headed by their most distinguished citizen John Brown, Jr., son of the celebrated "Ossawatomie" Brown, of Harper's Ferry fame.

From a pavilion in the adjacent grove John Brown introduced Hon. Charles Foster, who said:

_Fellow-citizens_--General Harrison came to Middle Bass for the purpose of rest and quiet. At the solicitation of a number of people of this section of country--a great number, I might say--he has kindly consented to give a reception here to-day, upon one condition--that he was not to make a speech. Now, fellow-citizens, I have the very great pleasure of presenting to you General Benjamin Harrison, the Republican candidate for the presidency. [Applause.]

As Governor Foster concluded, General Harrison arose midst a shout of welcome and spoke as follows:

_My Friends_--I have found Governor Foster to be a very agreeable and thoughtful host, and I find him to-day to be the most agreeable master of ceremonies who has ever attended me at a public reception. I like his announcement of the condition under which I appear before you to-day.

I never enjoy a banquet when my name is on the programme for a toast. I do not, therefore, intend to speak to you about any of those questions that are engaging your minds as citizens of this prosperous and mighty and happy Nation. We are here to-day as Americans, proud of the flag that symbolizes this great Union of States; proud of the story that has been written by our fathers in council and in war, in the formation and defence and perpetuation of our magnificent institutions, We are here in the immediate neighborhood of one of those great historic events that was among the most potential agencies in settling our title to the great Northwest. If we had stood where we stand to-day we could have heard the guns of Perry's fleet. If we had stood where we stand to-day we could have welcomed him as he came a victor into Put-in-Bay.

These institutions of ours are in our own keeping now, and not only our fundamental institutions, but the fame that has been won by those who have gone before. I may therefore properly say to-day that a campaign like this demands the thoughtful consideration of every American voter. We are prosperous. [Cheers.] The story of our prosperity, of our development in wealth, of our achievements in finance as a Nation, since and during the war, is almost as notable and almost as admirable as that of our achievements in arms.

The assembling of our revenue was even more difficult than the assembling of armies, and yet we were able to maintain those armies in the field, and have been able since not only to bear up the great load of debt, but to pay it off, until that which was once thought to be a burden that would crush our industries has come to be in our hands but as the ball the boy tosses in play [cheers]; and we are to-day confronted with the question, not how we shall get money, but how we shall wisely stop some of those avenues by which wealth is pouring into our public treasury.

It is an easier problem than that which confronted the great war Secretary, in whose name you so delight--how to raise revenue to prosecute the war successfully. It will be wisely solved. And may I note also the fact that, notwithstanding this complaint of excessive revenue, there are some who suggest that they are not able adequately to arouse the popular indignation against excessive taxation because they cannot disclose to the people when or how they are paying the taxes? [Applause.] It is taken, they say, so indirectly and so subtly that these--our plain people--don't know that they are paying them at all. [Applause.] But I must not cross this line of party discussion. I have had a pleasant stay in this most delightful neighborhood, and I cannot let this public opportunity pass without expressing, for myself and for Mrs. Harrison, our grateful appreciation of the kind and thoughtful hospitality which has been shown to us by the people of these islands. [Prolonged applause.]

FORT WAYNE, IND., SEPTEMBER 4, 1888.

General Harrison and party, _en route_ home from Middle Bass Island, arrived at Toledo on the evening of Sept. 3, and were again the guests of Wm. Cummings. At night they were tendered a reception by Mr. and Mrs. John Berdan, at their residence.

On the morning of Sept. 4 the party started homeward. The first stop was at Fort Wayne, where several thousand Hoosiers welcomed their leader. Supt. Wall, of the Pittsburg and Fort Wayne Railroad, introduced the general, who spoke as follows:

_My Friends_--I desire to thank you for this cordial demonstration. I thank you not so much for myself as for the party to which most of us have given the consent of our minds. I am glad to know that the people are moved to a thoughtful consideration of those questions which are this year presented for their determination. Under a popular government like ours it is of the first importance that every man who votes should have some reason for his vote; that every man who attaches himself to this or that political party should intelligently understand both the creed and the purposes of the party to which he belongs. I think it is universally conceded by Democrats as well as by Republicans that the questions involved in this campaign do have a very direct bearing upon the national prosperity, and upon the prosperity and welfare of the individual citizen. I think it is conceded that the result of this election will affect beneficently or injuriously our great manufacturing interests, and will affect for weal or for woe the workingmen and working-women who fill these busy hives of industry. [Applause.] This much is conceded. I do not intend to-day to argue the question in any detail. I want to call your attention to a few general facts and principles, and the first one--the one I never tire of mentioning; the one I deem so important that I do not shun the charge that I am repeating myself--is this: that the condition of the wage-workers of America is better than that of the wage-workers of any other country in the world. [Applause.] Now, if that be true, it is important that you should each find out why it is so; that each one of you should determine for himself what effect a protective tariff has had and is likely to have upon his wages and his prosperity. Does it need to be demonstrated that if we reduce our tariff to a revenue level, if we abolish from it every consideration of protection, more goods will come in from abroad than come in now? And what is the necessary effect? It is the transfer to foreign shops of work that you need here; it is to diminish American production and increase English production.