Part 13

_Governor Rusk, Comrades of the Grand Army, and Ladies_--I did not suppose that the Constitution of our country would be subjected to so serious a fracture by the executive of one of our great States. [Laughter.] Four years is the constitutional term of the President. [Laughter.] I am glad to see you; I return your friendly greetings most heartily. Your association is a most worthy one. As I said to some comrades who visited me this morning, it has the best reason for its existence of any human organization that I know of. [Applause.] I am glad to know that your recent encampment at Columbus was so largely attended, and was in all its circumstances so magnificent a success. The National Encampment of the G. A. R. is an honor to any city. The proudest may well array itself in its best attire to welcome the Union veterans of the late war. In these magnificent gatherings, so impressive in numbers and so much more impressive in the associations they revive, there is a great teaching force. If it is worth while to build monuments to heroism and patriotic sacrifice that may stand as dumb yet eloquent instructors of the generation that is to come, so it is worth while that these survivors of the war assemble in their national encampments and march once more, unarmed, through the streets of our cities, whose peace and prosperity they have secured. [Applause.]

Every man and every woman should do them honor. We have a body of citizen soldiers instructed in tactics and strategy and accustomed to the points of war that make this Nation very strong and formidable. I well remember that even in the second year of the war instructors in tactics were rare in our own camps. They are very numerous now. [Laughter.] Yet, while this Nation was never so strong in a great instructed, trained body of veteran soldiers, I think it was never more strongly smitten with the love of peace. The man that would rather fight than eat has not survived the last war. [Laughter.] He was laid away in an early grave or enrolled on the list of deserters. But he would be mistaken who supposes that all the hardships of the war--its cruel, hard memories--would begin to frighten those veterans from the front if the flag was again assailed or the national security or dignity imperilled. [Applause and cries of "You are right!"] The war was also an educator in political economy.

These veterans, who saw how the poverty of the South in the development of her manufacturing interests paralyzed the skill of her soldiers and the generalship of her captains, have learned to esteem and value our diversified manufacturing interests. [Applause.] You know that woollen mills and flocks would have been more valuable to the Confederacy than battalions; that foundries and arsenals and skilled mechanical labor was the great lack of the Confederacy. You have learned that lesson so well that you will not wish our rescued country, by any fatal free-trade policy, to be brought to a like condition. [Applause and cries of "Good! good!"] And now, gentlemen, I had a stipulation that I was not to speak at all. [Laughter.] You will surely allow me now to stop this formal address, and to welcome my comrades to our home. [Applause.]

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 15.

General Harrison held three receptions this date. The first was tendered the Scott Rifles of Kansas City, all members of the G. A. R., _en route_ home from the Columbus encampment. They wore the regulation blue uniform and carried muskets. Captain Brant introduced his company, stating that in bringing their arms with them "they did not intend to do General Harrison any violence." The General responded:

_Captain and Comrades_--I did not need to be assured that comrades of the Grand Army, whether bearing arms or not, brought me no peril. No loyal and orderly citizen will mistrust their friendliness. The people of Indiana will not ask that you procure any permit or give bond to keep the peace before passing through this loyal State with arms in your hands.

I am especially complimented by the visit of this organized company of the Missouri militia, composed wholly of Union veterans. It gives evidence that those who served in the Civil War are still watchful of the honor and safety of our country and its flag; that our Government may rest with security upon the defence which our citizen-soldiers offer.

And now, without alluding at all to any topic of partisan interest, I bid you welcome, and will be pleased to have a personal introduction to each of you, if that is your pleasure.

The second reception was extended to a delegation of twelve hundred workingmen from New Albany, Floyd County, organized into political clubs, among whose leaders were Walter B. Godfrey, M. Y. Mallory, Geo. B. Cardwell, M. M. Hurley, W. A. Maynor, Andrew Fite, Chas. R. Clarke, J. W. Edmonson, L. L. Pierce, Horace Brown, N. D. Morris, T. W. Armstrong, D. C. Anthony, John Hahn, R. E. Burke, Albert Hopkins, F. D. Connor, Frank Norton, M. McDonald, M. H. Sparks, W. H. Russell, J. N. Peyton, Daniel Prosser, Geo. Roberts, and G. H. Pennington. A band of G. A. R. veterans from far-off Texas happened to be present at the reception, among them Col. J. C. De Gress, Wm. Long, John Herman, S. C. Slade, W. H. Nye, W. H. Tuttle, Geo. A. Knight, and Dr. S. McKay. James A. Atkinson, a glassblower of the De Pauw works at New Albany, delivered an able address on behalf of the visitors. General Harrison responded as follows:

_My Fellow-citizens_--There is something very distinctive, very interesting, and very instructive in this large delegation of workingmen from the city of New Albany. Your fellow-workman and spokesman has so eloquently presented that particular issue upon which you have the greatest interest that I can add nothing to the force or conclusiveness of his argument. He has said that the interests of the workingmen were especially involved in the pending political contest. I think that is conceded even by our political opponents. I do not think there is a man so dull or so unfair as to deny that the reduction of our tariff rates so as to destroy the principle of protection now embodied in our laws will have an influence on your wages and on the production of your mills and factories. If this be true, then your interest in the question is apparent. You will want to know whether the influence of the proposed reduction of rates is to be beneficial or hurtful; whether the effect will be to stimulate or diminish production; whether it will be to maintain or increase the rate of wages you are now receiving, or to reduce them. As you shall settle these questions, so will you vote in November. [Applause.]

No man can doubt that a reduction of duties will stimulate the importation of foreign merchandise. None of these plate-glass workers can doubt that a reduction of the duty upon plate-glass will increase the importation of French plate-glass.

None of these workers in your woollen mills can doubt that the reduction of the duty upon the product of their mills will increase the importation of foreign woollen goods.

And, if that is true, is it not also clear that this increased importation of foreign-made goods means some idle workingmen in your mills? The party that favors such discriminating duties as will develop American production and secure the largest amount of work for our American shops is the party whose policy will promote your interests. [Applause and cries of "Hit him again!"] I have heard it said by some leaders of Democratic thought that the reduction proposed by the Mills bill, and the further reduction which some of them are candid enough to admit they contemplate, will stimulate American production by opening foreign markets and that the interests of our Indiana manufacturing establishments would thus be promoted. But those who advance this argument also say that it will not do to progress too rapidly in the direction of free trade--that we must go slowly, because our protected industries cannot stand too rapid an advance; it would not be safe. [Laughter.] Now, my countrymen, if this plan of revenue reform is to be promotive of our manufacturing interests, why go slowly? Why not open the gates wide and let us have the promised good all at once? [Laughter and applause.]

Is it that these philosophers think the cup of prosperity will be so sweet and full that our laboring people cannot be allowed to drink it at one draught? [Applause and cries of "Good! good!"] No, my countrymen, this statement implies what these gentlemen know to be true--that the effect of the proposed legislation is diminished production and diminished wages, and they desire that you shall have an opportunity to get used to it. [Applause.] But I cannot press this discussion further. I want to thank you for the cordial things you have said to me by him who has spoken for you. I trust, and have always trusted, the intelligence and conscience of our working people. [Applause.]

They will inevitably find out the truth, and when they find it they will justify it. Therefore, there are many things that have been said to which I have not and shall not allude while this contest is on. They are with you: the truth is accessible to you, and you will find it. Now, thanking you most heartily for the personal respect you have evidenced, and congratulating you upon your intelligent devotion to that great American system which has spread a sky of hope above you and your children, I bid you good-by. [Cheers.]

The crowning event of the day was the reception of several hundred members of the Irish-American Republican Club of Cook County and Chicago. The visitors were met by the Home Irish-American Protection Club, Patrick A. Ward, President, assisted by the Columbia Club and several thousand citizens. Their demonstration was one of the most notable of the campaign. This club was the first political organization in the country to congratulate General Harrison on his nomination. The evening of June 25 the club met and adopted the following, which was telegraphed the General:

The Irish-American Republican Club of Cook County, Illinois, congratulate you and the country upon your nomination. We greet the gallant soldier and true American, and rejoice with our fellow-citizens of every nationality in the glad assurance your nomination gives that the industries of our country will be protected and the honor of the Nation maintained with the same courage and devotion that distinguished you on the bloody field of Resaca. We salute the next President of the Republic.

NATHAN P. BRADY, _President_.

Leaders of the delegation were Hon. John F. Finerty, F. J. Gleason, Dennis Ward, Richard Powers, and Messrs. Russell and O'Morey. Thomas F. Byron, of Lowell, Mass., founder of the Land League in America, accompanied the club. In the absence of President Brady their spokesman was Mr. John F. Beggs. General Harrison delivered one of his happiest responses. He said:

_Mr. Beggs and my Friends of the Irish-American Republican Club of Cook County, Ill._--You were Irishmen, you are Americans [cheers]--Irish-Americans [continued cheering], and though you have given the consecrated loyalty of your honest hearts to the starry flag and your adopted country, you have not and you ought not to forget to love and venerate the land of your nativity. [Great applause.] If you could forget Ireland, if you could be unmoved by her minstrelsy, untouched by the appeals of her splendid oratory, unsympathetic with her heroes and martyrs, I should fear that the bonds of your new citizenship would have no power over hearts so cold and consciences so dead. [Cheers.]

What if a sprig of green were found upon the bloody jacket of a Union soldier who lay dead on Missionary Ridge? The flag he died for was his flag and the green was only a memory and an inspiration.

We, native or Irish born, join with the Republican convention in the hope that the cause of Irish home rule, progressing under the leadership of Gladstone and Parnell [cheers] upon peaceful and lawful lines, may yet secure for Ireland that which as Americans we so much value--local home rule. [Cheering.] I am sure that you who have, in your own persons or in your worthy representatives, given such convincing evidence of your devotion to the American Constitution and flag and to American institutions will not falter in this great civil contest which your spokesman has so fittingly described. Who, if not Irish-Americans versed in the sad story of the commercial ruin of the island they love, should be instructed in the beneficent influence of a protective tariff? [Continuous cheering.] Who, if not Irish-Americans should be able to appreciate the friendly influences of the protective system upon their individual and upon their home life? Which of you has not realized that not the lot of man only, but the lot of woman, has been made softer and easier under its influence? [Applause and "Hear! hear!"] Contrast the American mother and wife, burdened only with the cares of motherhood and of the household, with the condition of women in many of the countries of the Old World, where she is loaded also with the drudgery of toil in the field. [Applause.]

I know that none more than Irishmen, who are so characterized by their deference for women, and whose women have so fitly illustrated that which is pure in female character, will value this illustration of the good effects of our American system upon the home life. [Continued applause.]

There are nations across the sea who are hungry for the American market. They are waiting with eager expectation for the adoption of a free-trade policy by the United States. [Cries of "That will never happen!"] The English manufacturer is persuaded that an increased market for English goods in America is good for him, but I think it will be impossible to persuade the American producer and the American workman that it is good for them. [Applause and cries of "That's right!"] I believe that social order, that national prosperity, are bound up in the preservation of our existing policy. [Loud cheering and cries of "You are right!"] I do not believe that a republic can live and prosper whose wage-earners do not receive enough to make life comfortable, who do not have some upward avenues of hope open before them. When the wage-earners of the land lose hope, when the star goes out, social order is impossible, and after that anarchy or the Czar. [Cheering.]

I gratefully acknowledge the compliment of your call, and exceedingly regret that the storm without made it impossible for me to receive you at my house. [Applause and cries of "Thanks! thanks!"] I will now be glad to take each member of your club by the hand. [Continued cheering.]

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 18.

General Harrison's callers to-day numbered about five thousand, over half of whom came from Vermilion County, Illinois, led by a company of young ladies, in uniform, from the town of Sidell. Hon. Samuel Stansbury of Danville was Marshal of the delegation, aided by E. C. Boudinot, D. G. Moore, Chas. A. Allen, J. G. Thompson, and W. C. Cowan. Col. W. R. Jewell, editor Danville _Daily News_, was spokesman. General Harrison, in response, said:

_My Illinois Friends_--The people of your State were very early in giving evidence to our people and to me that they are deeply and generally interested in this campaign. I welcome you and accept your coming as evidence that the early interest you manifested has suffered no abatement. It was not an impulse that stirred you, but a deep conviction that matters of great and lasting consequence to your country are involved in this campaign. Your representative in Congress, Hon. Joseph Cannon, is well known in Indiana. [Applause.] I have known him for many years; have observed his conduct in the National Congress, and always with admiration. He is a fearless, aggressive, honest Republican leader. [Applause and cries of "Good! good!"] He is worthy of the favor and confidence you have shown him.

If some one were to ask to-day, "What is the matter with the United States?" [laughter and cries of "She's all right!"] I am sure we would hear some Democratic friend respond, "Its people are oppressed and impoverished by tariff taxation." [Laughter.] Ordinarily our people can be trusted to know when they are taxed; but this Democratic friend will tell us that the tariff tax is so insidious that our people pay it without knowing it. That is a very unhappy condition, indeed. But his difficulties are not all surmounted when he has convinced his hearers that a customs duty is a tax, for history does not run well with his statement that our people have been impoverished by our tariff system. Another answer to your question will be perhaps that there is now a great surplus in the Treasury--he will probably not state the figures, for there seems to be a painful uncertainty about that. I have sometimes thought that this surplus was held chiefly to be talked about. The laws provide a use for it that would speedily place it in circulation. If a business man finds an accumulated surplus that he does not need in his business, that stands as a bank balance and draws no interest, and if he has notes outside to mature in the future he will make a ready choice between leaving his balance in the bank and using it to take up his obligations. [Applause.] But in our national finances the other choice has been made, and this surplus remains in the national bank without interest, while our bonds, which, under the law, might be retired by the use of it, continue to draw interest.

You have a great agricultural State. Its prairies offer the most tempting invitation to the settler. I have heard it suggested that one reason why you have outstripped Indiana in population was because the men who were afraid of the "deadening" passed over us to seek your treeless plains. [Applause.] But you have not been contented to be only an agricultural community. You have developed your manufactures and mechanical industries until now, if my recollection is not at fault, for every two persons engaged in agricultural labor you have one engaged in manufacturing, in the mechanical arts and mining. It is this subdivision of labor, these diversified industries, that make Illinois take rank so near the head among the States. By this home interchange of the products of the farm and shop, made possible by our protective system, Illinois has been able to attain her proud position in the union of the States. Shall we continue a policy that has wrought so marvellously since the war in the development of all those States that have given hospitable access to manufacturing capital and to the brawn and skill of the workingman? [Cries of "Good! good!" and cheers.]

From Louisville, Ky., came 1,000 enthusiastic visitors, led by the Hon. Wm. E. Riley, Hon. R. R. Glover, Hon. Albert Scott, W. W. Huffman, W. M. Collins, M. E. Malone, and J. J. Jonson. A. E. Willson, of Louisville, delivered a stirring address on behalf of the Republicans of Kentucky, to which General Harrison responded as follows:

_My Kentucky Friends_--There have been larger delegations assembled about this platform, but there has been none that has in a higher degree attracted my interest or touched my heart. [Applause.] It has been quite one thing to be a Republican in Illinois and quite another to be a Republican in Kentucky. [Applause.] Not the victors only in a good fight deserve a crown; those who fight well and are beaten and fight again, as you have done, deserve a crown, though victory never yet has perched on your banner. [A voice, "It will perch there, though, don't you forget it!"] Yes, it will come, for the bud of victory is always in the truth. I will not treat you to-day to any statistics from the census reports [laughter], nor enter the attractive field of the history of your great State. I have believed that these visiting delegations were always well advised as to the history and statistics of their respective States. [Laughter.] If this trust has been misplaced in other cases, certainly Kentuckians can be trusted to remember and perhaps to tell all that is noble in the thrilling history of their great State. [Great applause.] Your history is very full of romantic and thrilling adventure and of instances of individual heroism. Your people have always been proud, chivalric, and brave. In the late war for the Union, spite of all distraction and defection, Kentucky stood by the old flag. [Applause.] And now that the war is over and its bitter memory is forgotten, there is not one, I hope, in all your borders, who does not bless the outcome of that great struggle. [Applause.] Surely there are none in Kentucky who do not rejoice that the beautiful river is not a river of division. [Great applause.] And now what hinders that Kentucky shall step forward in the great industrial rivalry between the States? Is there not, as your spokesman has suggested, in the early and thorough instruction which the people of Kentucky received from the mouth of your matchless orator, Henry Clay [applause], a power that shall yet and speedily bring back Kentucky to the support of our protective system? [Applause.] Can the old Whigs, who so reverently received from the lips of Clay the gospel of protection, much longer support a revenue policy that they know to be inimical to our national interests? If when Kentucky was a slave State she found a protective tariff promoted the prosperity of her people, what greater things will the same policy not do for her as a free State? She has now opened her hospitable doors to skilled labor; her coal and metals and hemp invite its transforming touch. Why should she not speedily find great manufacturing cities spring up in her beautiful valleys? Shall any old prejudice spoil this hopeful vision? [Great applause.] I remember that Kentucky agitated for seven years and held nine conventions before she secured a separate statehood. May I not appeal to the children of those brave settlers who, when but few in number, composed of distant and feeble settlements, were received into the Union of States, to show their chivalry and love of justice by uniting with us in the demand that Dakota and Washington shall be admitted? [Applause.] Does not your own story shame those who represent you in the halls of Congress and who bar the door against communities whose numbers and resources so vastly outreach what you possessed when you were admitted to statehood? We look hopefully to Kentucky. The State of Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln [enthusiastic cheering] cannot be much longer forgetful [cries of "No! no!"] of the teachings of those great leaders of thought.

I believe that Kentucky will place herself soon upon the side of the truth upon these great questions. [A voice, "We believe it!" Another voice, "We will keep them out of Indiana, anyhow!" Great cheering.] Thank you. There is no better way that I know of to keep one detachment of an army from re-enforcing another than by giving that detachment all it can do in its own field. [Applause and laughter.]