Part 17

Three States did homage to the Republican nominee this date. From Grand Rapids and Muskegon, Mich., came 500 visitors, under the auspices of the Belknap Club of Grand Rapids. The wife of Governor Luce was a member of the delegation, accompanied by R. C. Luce and W. A. Davitt. Other prominent members were: Judge F. J. Russell, Hon. A. B. Turner, Col. C. T. Foote, J. B. Pantlind, Don J. Leathers, Col. E. S. Pierce, Wm. A. Gavett, H. J. Felker, D. G. Crotty, H. J. Stevens, Aldrich Tateum, Louis Kanitz, A. E. Yerex, and N. McGraft, of Grand Rapids; Thomas A. Parish and Geo. Turner, of Grand Haven; and John J. Cappon, of Holland. John Patton, Jr., of Grand Rapids, was orator.

The Ohio visitors came from Tiffin, Seneca County, led by the venerable A. C. Baldwin, Capt. John McCormick, Albert Corthell, Capt. Edward Jones, Edward Naylor, and J. B. Rosenburger. The wife of Gen. Wm. H. Gibson was an honored guest of the delegation, accompanied by Mrs. Robert Lysle and Mrs. Root. J. K. Rohn was spokesman for the Ohio visitors.

The third delegation comprised 1,200 voters from Jay County, Indiana, led by Gen. N. Shepherd, Theodore Bailey, Richard A. Green, John Geiger, E. J. Marsh, Frank H. Snyder, and M. V. Moudy, of Portland. Jesse M. La Follette was their speaker.

To these several addresses General Harrison, in response, said:

_My Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana Friends_--These cordial manifestations of your personal regard move me very deeply [applause], but I do not at all appropriate to myself the great expressions of popular interest of which this meeting is only one. I understand that my relation to these public questions and to the people is a representative one--that the interest which thus expresses itself is in principles of government rather than in men. [Cheers.] I am one of the oldest Republicans; my first presidential vote was given to the first Republican candidate for that office [applause], and it has always been a source of profound gratification to me that, in peace and war, a high spirit of patriotism and devotion to our country has always pervaded and dominated the party. [Cheers.] When, during the Civil War, the clouds hung low, disasters thickened, and the future was crowded with uncanny fears, never did any Republican convention assemble without declaring its faith in the ultimate triumph of our cause [great cheering]; and now, with a broad patriotism that embraces and regards the interests of all the States, it advocates policies that will develop and unite all our communities in the friendly and profitable interchange of commerce as well as in a lasting political union. [Applause.] These great Western States will not respond to the attempt to excite prejudice against New England. We advocate measures that are as broad as our national domain; that are calculated to distil their equal blessing upon all the land. [Cheers.] The people of the great West recognize and value the great contribution which those commonwealths about Plymouth Rock have made to the civilization, material growth, and manhood of our Western States. [Cheers.] We are not envious of the prosperity of New England; we rejoice in it. We believe that the protective policy developed her great manufacturing institutions and made her rich, and we do not doubt that a continuance of that policy will produce the same results in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. [Cheers.] We are not content to remain wholly agricultural States in our relations to either New England or old England. [Applause.] We believe that in all these great Western States there are minerals in the soil and energy and skill in the brains and arms of our people that will yet so multiply and develop our manufacturing industries as to give us a nearer home market for much of the products of our soil. [Cheers.] And for that great surplus which now and always, perhaps, we shall not consume at home we think a New England market better than a foreign market. [Enthusiastic and prolonged cheering.] The issue upon this great industrial question is drawn as sharply as the lines were ever drawn between contending armies. Men are readjusting their party relations upon this great question. The appeal that is now made for the defence of our American system is finding its response, and many of those who are opposed to us upon other questions are committing such questions to the future for settlement, while they help us to settle now and for an indefinite future the great question of the preservation of our commercial independence. [Applause.] The Democratic party has challenged our protected industries to a fight of extermination. The wage-earners of our country have accepted the challenge. The issue of the contest will settle for many years our tariff policy. [Prolonged cheering.] The eloquent descriptions to which we have listened of the material wealth of the great State of Michigan have been full of interest to us as citizens of Indiana. We cannot doubt that the people of a State having such generous invitations to the developments of great home wealth in manufacturing and mining pursuits will understand the issue that is presented, and will cast their influence in favor of that policy which will make that development rapid and sure; and more than all, and better than all, will maintain in her communities a well-paid class of wage-workers. [Cheers.] Our wage-workers vote; they are American citizens, and it is essential that they be kept free from the slavery of want and the discontents bred of injustice. [Applause.]

I thank my Michigan friends for these handsome specimens of the products of their mines and of their mills. I shall cherish them with grateful recollection of this pleasant visit. [Applause.]

To my Indiana friends, always generous, I return my thanks for this new evidence of their esteem. [Cheers.]

To my Ohio friends, who so often before have visited me with kind expressions of their regard, I return the thanks of a native-born Ohioan. [Prolonged cheers from the Ohio delegation.]

Three great States are grouped here to-day. I remember at Resaca, when the field and staff of the regiments that were to make the assault were ordered to dismount, there was a Michigan officer too sick to go on foot and too proud to subject himself to the imputation of cowardice by staying behind.

He rode alone, the one horseman in that desperate charge, and died on that bloody hillside rather than subject his State to the imputation that one of her sons had lingered when the enemy was to be engaged. He was a noble type of the brave men these great States gave to the country. [Cheers.]

INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 5.

Wisconsin and Indiana were the States represented at this day's reception. The Wisconsin visitors came from Madison, Janesville, and Beloit. Prominent among them were General Atwood, editor Wisconsin _State Journal_, Surgeon-General Palmer, W. T. Van Kirk, and T. G. Maudt. R. C. Spooner spoke for the Badgers.

Fountain County, Indiana, sent 2,000 visitors, led by a club of Tippecanoe veterans. Among their representative men were H. La Tourette, W. W. Layton, John H. Spence, of Covington; A. H. Clark, and W. H. Malory, of Veedersburg; A. S. Peacock, H. C. Martin, and C. E. Holm, of Attica. Capt. Benj. Hegeler, of Attica, delivered the address on behalf of the Hoosiers.

General Harrison responded as follows:

_My Wisconsin and my Indiana Friends_--These great daily manifestations of the interest of great masses of our people in the principles represented by the Republican party are to me increasingly impressive. I am glad to-day that Indiana has opportunity to welcome a delegation from the magnificent State of Wisconsin. [Cheers.] It offers a fitting opportunity to acknowledge my personal obligation and the obligation of the Indiana Republicans for the early and constant support which Wisconsin gave to the efforts of the Indiana delegation in the Chicago convention. [Prolonged cheers.] To-day two States, not contiguous in territory, but touching in many interests, are met to express the fact that these great electoral contests affect all our people. It is not alone in the choice of Presidential electors that we have common interests. Our national Congress, though chosen in separate districts, legislates for all our people. Wisconsin has a direct interest that the ballot shall be free and pure in Indiana, and Wisconsin and Indiana have a direct interest that the ballot shall be free and pure in all the States. [Great cheering.] Therefore let no man say that it is none of our business how elections are conducted in other States. [Cheers.] I believe that this great question of a free ballot, so much disturbed by race questions in the South, would be settled this year if the men of the South who believe with us upon the great question of the protection of American industries would throw off old prejudices and vote their convictions upon that question. [Cheers and cries of "Good! Good!"] I believe there are indications that the independent manhood of the South will this year strongly manifest itself in this direction. Those intelligent and progressive citizens of the South who are seeking to build up within their own States diversified industries will not much longer be kept in bondage to the traditions of the days when the South was wholly a community of planters.

When they assert their belief in a protective tariff, by supporting the only party that advocates that policy, the question of a free ballot, so far as it is a Southern question, will be settled forever, for they will have the power to insist that those who believe with them shall vote, and that their votes shall be counted. [Applause.] The protective policy, by developing a home supply and limiting importations, helps us to maintain the balance of trade upon our side in our dealings with the world. [Cheers.] Under the tariff of 1846 from the year 1850 to 1860 the balance of trade was continuously against us, aggregating in that period over three hundred millions of dollars. Under the influence of a protective tariff the balance of trade has been generally and largely with us, unless disturbed by special conditions. Instead of sending our gold abroad to pay a foreign balance we have usually been bringing foreign gold here to augment our store. [Cheers.] I will not detain you further. These daily demands upon me make it necessary that I shall speak briefly. Let me thank most profoundly those gentlemen and ladies from Wisconsin who have come so far to bring me this tribute of their respect. I very highly value it. These, my Indiana friends, unite with me in thanking you for your presence to-day. [Cheers from the Indianians.] To my nearer friends, my Fountain County friends, let me say I am profoundly grateful to you for this large and imposing demonstration and for the interest you are individually taking in this campaign. [Cheers.] I do not think of it as a personal campaign. It has always seemed to me to be altogether greater than that, and when I thank you for your interest and commend your zeal it is an interest in principles and a zeal for the truth that I approve. [Cheers.]

INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 6.

Saturday, October 6, was one of the great days of the campaign. The first delegation, numbering 2,000, came from Wells and Blackford counties, Indiana. Conspicuous in their ranks were two large uniformed clubs of ladies, one from Montpelier, and the Carrie Harrison Club of Bluffton. In the Wells County contingent were many 1840 veterans and 21 newly-converted Democrats. Their leaders were Asbury Duglay, D. H. Swaim, B. W. Bowman, Peter Ulmer, Silas Wisner, Joseph Milholland, J. C. Hatfield, and T. A. Doan. J. J. Todd was their spokesman. Prominent in the Blackford delegation were Frank Geisler, H. M. Campbell, W. L. Ritter, Eli Hamilton, R. V. Ervin, W. A. Williams, John Sipe, and John Cantwell, of Hartford City; J. C. Summerville, Wm. Pugh, J. H. Morrical, G. A. Mason, John G. Ward, and J. M. Tinsley, of Montpelier. Hon. B. G. Shinn delivered the address on behalf of the Blackford people.

General Harrison confined his speech to State questions. He said:

_My Wells and Blackford County Friends_--I am glad to meet you. It is extremely gratifying to be assured by your presence here this inclement day, and by the kind words which you have addressed to me through your representatives, that I have some part in your friendly regard as an individual. But individuals are not of the first importance. That man who thinks that the prosperity of this country or the right administration of its affairs is wholly dependent upon him grossly exaggerates his value. The essential things to us are the principles of government upon which our institutions were builded, and by and through which we make that symmetrical and safe growth which has characterized our Nation in the past, and which is yet to raise it to a higher place among the nations of the earth. [Applause.] We are Indianians--Hoosiers, if you please [cheers]--and are proud of the State of which we are citizens. Your spokesmen have referred with an honest pride to the counties from which you have come, and that is well. But I would like to suggest to you that every political community and neighborhood has a character of its own, a moral character, as well as every man and every woman, and it is exceedingly important, looked at even from the side of material advantage, that our communities should maintain a good reputation for social order, intelligence, virtue, and a faithful and willing obedience to law. [Applause.] It cannot be doubted that such a character possessed by any State or county attracts immigration and capital, advances its material development, and enhances the value of its farms. There has been much in the history of Indiana that is exceedingly creditable. There have been some things--there are some things to-day--that are exceedingly discreditable to us as a political community; things that I believe retard the advancement of our State and affect its material prosperity by degrading it in the estimation of right-thinking men. One of those things is this patent and open fact: that the great benevolent institutions of this State, instead of being operated upon the high plane that public charities should occupy, are being operated and managed upon the lowest plane of party purposes and advantage. [Cries of "That's so!"] Another such thing is of recent occurrence. In the campaign of 1886, after advising with the chief law officer of the State, a Democratic Governor declared to the people of this State that there was a vacancy in the office of Lieutenant-Governor which the people were entitled to fill at the ensuing general election. The Democratic party acted upon that advice, assembled in convention in this hall, and nominated John C. Nelson for Lieutenant-Governor. The Republican party followed with their convention, and placed in nomination that gallant soldier, Robert S. Robertson. [Cheers.] These two gentlemen went before the people of Indiana and made a public canvass for the office. The election was held, and Colonel Robertson was chosen by a majority of about 3,000. [Applause.] Is there a man in the State, Democratic or Republican, who doubts that if the choice had been otherwise, and Mr. Nelson had received a majority at the polls, the House of Representatives, which was Republican, would have met with the Democratic Senate in an orderly joint meeting, for canvassing the votes, and that Mr. Nelson would have been inaugurated as Lieutenant-Governor? [Cries of "No, no!"] But the result was otherwise; and the public fame, the good reputation of this State, was dishonored when, by force and brutal methods, the voice of the people was stifled, and the man they had chosen was excluded from the right to exercise the duties of the office of Lieutenant-Governor. [Cries of "Yes, yes!"] Do the people think that the attractiveness of Indiana as a home for Americans who believe in social order and popular government has been increased by this violent and disgraceful incident? Do our Democratic friends who have an honest State pride, who would like to maintain the honor and good reputation of the State, who would have the people of our sister States believe that we have a people who believe in a warm canvass but in a free ballot, and a manly and ready acquiescence in election results, intend to support their leaders in this violent exclusion from office of a duly chosen public officer? Do those who are Democrats from principle, and not for personal spoils, intend to support the men who have first prostituted our benevolent institutions to party and now to personal advantage? These things, if not reproved and corrected by our people, will not only disgrace us in the estimation of all good people, but will substantially retard the material development of the State. [Cheers.] I am not talking to-day of questions in which I have any other interest than that you have, my fellow-citizens. [Applause.] I believe the material prosperity of Indiana, much more the honor, will be advanced if her people in this State election shall rebuke the shameless election frauds that have recently scandalized our State, the prostitution of our benevolent institutions, and the wanton violence that overturned the result of the popular election in 1886. [Great cheering.]

THE CHICAGO VETERANS.

The great event of the day was the reception tendered the veterans and citizens from Chicago, Hyde Park, Pullman, South Chicago, and the town of Lake. They numbered over 3,000, and arrived in the evening, after stopping _en route_ at Danville, Ill., and Crawfordsville, Ind., to participate in demonstrations. The Chicago contingent comprised 800 members of the Union Veteran Club, commanded by its President, Capt. John J. Healy; 600 members of the Veteran Union League, led by Capt. James J. Healy; the Blaine Club, Second Regiment Band, and many smaller clubs. Leaders in the delegation were Major McCarty, Col. Dan. W. Munn, Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, Jr., S. W. King, Charles H. Hann, and others. Hyde Park sent several hundred rolling-mill men; the city of Pullman 200 car-builders; the town of Lake--"the largest village in the world"--was represented by a flambeau club, the Lake View Screw Club, and numerous other organizations. Their leading representatives were Col. J. Hodgkins, Judge C. M. Hawley, Hon. John E. Cowells, Hon. B. E. Hoppin, Geo. C. Ingham, Judge Freen, Hon. L. D. Condee, Joseph Hardacre, Edward Maher, M. J. McGrath, A. G. Proctor, Frank I. Bennett, and Col. Foster.

The visitors were met by about 10,000 citizens and escorted to Tomlinson Hall. When General Harrison appeared, accompanied by Judge E. B. Martindale, Chairman of the Reception Committee, there ensued a scene never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it. The 6,000 people present arose to their chairs, surrounding the visiting veterans, all frantically waving flags and banners. The demonstration continued without abatement for ten minutes. General Harrison stood as if dazed by the spectacle. Finally ex-Governor Hamilton, of Illinois, secured quiet, and on behalf of the veterans addressed the gathering, followed by Judge E. W. Keightly on behalf of the Hyde Park visitors.

General Harrison's response was by many regarded as his greatest speech of the campaign. He said:

_Comrades and Friends_--It is a rare sight, and it is one very full of interest to us as citizens of Indiana, to see this great hall filled with the people of another State, come to evidence their interest in great principles of government. [Cheers.] I welcome to-night for myself and for our people this magnificent delegation from Chicago and Hyde Park. [Cheers.] We have not before in the procession of these great delegations seen its equal in numbers, enthusiasm, and cordiality. I thank you profoundly for whatever of personal respect there is in this demonstration [cheers]; but above all, as an American citizen, I rejoice in this convincing proof that our people realize the gravity and urgency of the issues involved in this campaign. [Cheers.] I am glad to know that this interest pervades all classes of our people. [Cheers.] This delegation, composed of the business men of Chicago and of the men who wield the hammer in the shops, shows a common interest in the right decision of these great questions. [Great cheers.]

Our Government is not a government by classes or for classes of our fellow-citizens. [Cheers.] It is a government of the people and by the people. [Renewed cheering.] Its wise legislation distills its equal blessings upon the homes of the rich and the poor. [Cheers.] I am especially glad that these skilled, intelligent workmen coming out of your great workshops have manifested, by their coming, to their fellow-workmen throughout the country their appreciation of what is involved for them in this campaign. [Prolonged cheers.]

May that God who has so long blessed us as a Nation long defer that evil day when penury shall be a constant guest in the homes of our working people, and long preserve to us that intelligent, thrifty and cheerful body of workmen that was our strength in war and is our guaranty of social order in time of peace! [Great cheering.] Comrades of the Civil War, it was true of the great Union army, as it is said to be of the kingdom of heaven--not many rich. [Cheers.] It was out of the homes of our working people the great army came. It was the strong arm inured to labor on the farm or in the shop that bore up the flag in the smoke of battle, carried it through storms of shell and shot, and lifted it again in honor over our national Capital. [Prolonged cheers.]

After so many historical illustrations of the evil effects of abandoning the policy of protection for that of a revenue tariff, we are again confronted by the suggestion that the principle of protection shall be eliminated from our tariff legislation. Have we not had enough of such experiments? Does not the history of our tariff legislation tell us that every revenue tariff has been followed by business and industrial crashes, and that a return to the policy of protection has stimulated our industries and set our throbbing workshops again in motion? [Cheers.] And yet, again and again, the Democratic party comes forward with this pernicious proposition--for it has been from that party always that the proposition to abandon our protective policy and to substitute a revenue tariff has come. [Cries of "That's so!"]