Part 38

_Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens_--Our whole pathway through the State of California has been paved with good-will. We have been made to walk upon flowers. Our hearts have been touched and refreshed at every point by the voluntary offerings of your hospitable people. Our trip has been one continued ovation of friendliness. I have had occasion to say before that no man is entitled to appropriate to himself these tributes. They witness a peculiar characteristic of the American people. Unlike many other people less happy, we give our devotion to a Government, to its Constitution, to its flag, and not to men. We reverence and obey those who have been placed by our own suffrages and choice in public stations, but our allegiance, our affection, is given to our beneficent institutions, and upon this rock our security is based. We are not subject to those turbulent uprisings that prevail where the people follow leaders rather than institutions; where they are caught by the glamour and dash of brilliant men rather than by the steady law of free institutions.

I rejoice to be for a moment among you this morning. The history of this city starts a train of reflections in my mind that I cannot follow out in speech, but the impression of them will remain with me as long as I live. [Applause.] California and its coast were essential to the integrity and completeness of the American Union. But who can tell what may be the result of the establishment here of free institutions, the setting up by the wisdom and foresight and courage of the early pioneers in California of a commonwealth that was very early received into the American Union? We see to-day what has been wrought. But who can tell what another century will disclose, when these valleys have become thick with a prosperous and thriving and happy people? I thank you again for your cordial greeting and bid you good-morning. [Cheers.]

SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA, MAY 1.

At 8 o'clock Friday morning the presidential train halted at Santa Cruz, the City of the Holy Cross, where another floral greeting awaited the distinguished guests. They were met by Mayor G. Bowman at the head of a committee of prominent citizens, among whom were: Col. Thomas P. Robb, W. P. Young, Dr. T. W. Drullard, W. Finkeldey, O. J. Lincoln, W. J. McCollum, A. L. Weeks, P. R. Hinds, W. H. Galbraith, E. C. Williams, Duncan McPherson, Wm. T. Jeter, A. A. Taylor, W. D. Storey, F. A. Hihn, Z. N. Goldsby, Richard Thompson, R. C. Kirby, J. H. Logan, A. J. Jennings, Judge McCann, J. F. Cunningham, Benj. Knight, Z. Barnet, E. C. Williams, and J. T. Sullivan. Grand Marshal J. O. Wanzer, with his aids, U. S. Nichols, M. S. Patterson, H. Fay, W. D. Haslam, R. H. Pringle, W. C. Hoffman, and George Chittenden, acted as an escort of honor to the President during the parade. When the Pacific Ocean House was reached Mayor Bowman made a welcoming address. After the reception the party visited the grove of big trees near the city.

As the President arose to respond the great audience cheered enthusiastically. He said:

_Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens_--It seems to me like improvidence that all this tasteful and magnificent display should be but for a moment. In all my journeying in California, where every city has presented some surprise and where each has been characterized by lavish and generous display, I have not seen anything so suddenly created and yet so beautiful. I am sure we have not ridden through any street more attractive than this. I thank you most sincerely for this cordial welcome. I am sure you are a loyal, and I know you are a loving and kindly people. [Cheers.] We have been received, strangers as we were, with affection, and everywhere as I look into the faces of this people I feel my heart swell with pride that I am an American and that California is one of the American States. [Cheers.]

LOS GATOS, CALIFORNIA, MAY 1.

The first stop after leaving Santa Cruz was at Los Gatos, overlooking the Santa Clara Valley, where a large assemblage welcomed the party. The Committee of Reception comprised the Board of Town Trustees and W. H. B. Trantham, James H. Lyndon, G. A. Dodge, and C. F. Wilcox. E. O. C. Ord Post, G. A. R., James G. Arthur, Commander, was out in full force.

Chairman J. W. Lyndon made the address of welcome and introduced President Harrison, who said:

_My Fellow citizens_--If California had lodged a complaint against the last census I should have been inclined to entertain it and to order your people to be counted again. [Laughter.] From what I have seen in these days of pleasant travel through your State I am sure the census enumerators have not taken you all. We have had another surprise in coming over these mountains to find that not the valleys alone of California, but its hill-tops are capable of productive cultivation. We have been greatly surprised to see vineyards and orchards at these altitudes, and to know that your fields rival in productiveness the famous valleys of your State.

I thank you for your cordial greeting. It overpowers me I feel that these brief stops are but poor recompense for the trouble and care you have taken. I wish we could tarry longer with you. I wish I could know more of you individually, but I can only thank you and say that we will carry away most happy impressions of California, and that in public and in private life it will give me pleasure always to show my appreciation of your great State. [Cheers.]

SAN FRANCISCO, MAY 1.

_Chamber of Commerce Reception._

The President returned to San Francisco from his trip to Monterey and Santa Cruz at noon Friday, May 1. He was met across the bay by W. W. Montague, Geo. C. Perkins, and Oliver Eldridge, constituting a committee of escort from the Chamber of Commerce. Arrived at the Chamber of Commerce the President was met by the following Reception Committee, trustees of the Chamber, composed of: William L. Merry, A. J. Ralston, W. T. Y. Schenck, Robert Watt, A. R. Briggs, James Carolan, N. W. Spaulding, General Dimond, John Rosenfeld, Charles R. Allen, J. J. McKinnon, C. B. Stone, and Louis Parrott. On the floor of the Merchants' Exchange the President was greeted by a great and enthusiastic assembly, composed of members of the following bodies invited to participate in the reception: Mexican War Veterans, Society of Pioneers, Territorial Pioneers, Geographical Society, Art Association, Geological Society, State Board of Trade, Board of Trade of the city, Bar Association, Bankers' Association, Produce Exchange, San Francisco Stock Exchange, Merchants' Exchange, Boards of Brokers, Boards of Marine Institute, Chamber of Commerce, Manufacturers' Association, and California Academy of Sciences. Colonel Taylor, President of the Chamber of Commerce, delivered an able address upon the trade of the Pacific coast, and closed by cordially welcoming President Harrison, Postmaster-General Wanamaker, and Secretary Rusk.

When the President arose to respond he was greeted with a storm of applause. His address was punctured throughout with cheers. He said:

_Mr. President and Gentlemen of these Assembled Societies_--I have been subjected during my stay in California in some respects to the same treatment the policeman accords to the tramp--I have been kept moving on. You have substituted flowers and kindness for the policeman's baton. And yet, notwithstanding all this, we come to you this morning not exhausted or used up, but a little fatigued. Your cordial greetings are more exhilarating than your wine, and perhaps safer for the constitution. [Laughter and applause.]

I am glad to stand in the presence of this assemblage of business men. I have tried to make this a business Administration. [Applause.] Of course we cannot wholly separate politics from a national Administration, but I have felt that every public officer owed his best service to the people, without distinction of party [cries of "Good! good!" and applause]; that in administering official trusts we were in a very strict sense, not merely in a figurative sense, your servants. It has been my desire that in every branch of the public service there should be improvement. I have stimulated all the Secretaries and have received stimulus from them in the endeavor, in all the departments of the Government that touch your business life, to give you as perfect a service as possible. This we owe to you; but if I were pursuing party ends I should feel that I was by such methods establishing my party in the confidence of the people. [Applause.]

I feel that we have come to a point where American industries, American commerce, and American influence are to be revived and extended. The American sentiment and feeling was never more controlling than now; and I do not use that term in the narrow sense of native American, but to embrace all loyal citizens, whether native-born or adopted, who have the love of our flag in their hearts. [Great cheering.] I shall speak to-night, probably, at the banquet of business men, and will not enter into any lengthy discussion here. Indeed, I am so careful not to trespass upon any forbidden topic, that I may not in the smallest degree offend those who have forgotten party politics in extending this greeting to us, that I do not know how far I should talk upon these public questions. But since your Chairman has alluded to them, I can say I am in hearty sympathy with the suggestions he has made. I believe there are methods by which we shall put the American flag upon the sea again. [Applause.] In speaking the other day I used an illustration which will perhaps be apt in this company of merchants. You recall, all of you, certainly those of my age, the time when no merchant sent out travelling men. He expected the buyer to come to his store. Perhaps that was well enough; but certain enterprising men sought custom by putting travelling men with samples on the road. However the conservative merchant regarded that innovation, he had but one choice--to put travelling men on the road or go out of business. In this question of shipping we are in a similar condition. The great commercial governments of the world have stimulated their shipping interests by direct or indirect subsidies, while we have been saying: "No, we prefer the old way." We must advance or--I will not say go out of business, for we have already gone out. [Applause.] I thank you most cordially for your greeting, and bid you good-by. [Applause.]

ADDRESS TO THE VETERANS, MAY 1.

From the Chamber of Commerce the President and his party were escorted to the Mechanics' Pavilion by the Veteran Guard under Captain Knowlton, preceded and followed by Lincoln, Garfield, Cass, Meade, Liberty, and Geo. Sykes posts, G. A. R. Fully 10,000 children and citizens were assembled to witness the May Day festivities under the auspices of the G. A. R. posts. Escorted by Grand Marshal Saloman, the President advanced to the stage and was received by Hon. Henry C. Dibble, who presented him to the throng of veterans and children.

He spoke as follows:

_Comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic_--It will not be possible in so large a hall for me to make myself heard, and yet I cannot refuse when appealed to to say a word of kindly greeting to those comrades who have found their homes on the Pacific coast. I have no doubt that all the loyal States of the Union are represented in this assembly, and it is pleasant to know that, after the strife and hardships of those years of battle, you have found among the flowers and fruits of the earth homes that are full of pleasantness and peace.

It was that these things might continue to be that you went to battle; it was that these homes might be preserved; it was that the flag and all that it symbolizes might be perpetuated, that you fought and many of our comrades died. All this land calls you blessed. The fruits of division and strife that would have been ours if secession had succeeded would have been full of bitterness. The end that was attained by your valor under the providence of God has brought peace and prosperity to all the States. [Applause.]

It gave me great pleasure in passing through the Southern States to see how your work had contributed to their prosperity. No man can look upon any of these States through which we campaigned and fought without realizing that what seemed to their people a disaster was, under God, the opening of a great gate of prosperity and happiness.

All those fires of industry which I saw through the South were lighted at the funeral pyre of slavery. [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.] They were impossible under the conditions that existed previously in those States. We are now a homogeneous people. You in California, full of pride and satisfaction with the greatness of your State, will always set above it the greater glory and the greater citizenship which our flag symbolizes. [Cheers.] You went into the war for the defence of the Union; you have come out to make your contribution to the industries and progress of this age of peace. As in our States of the Northwest the winter covering of snow hides and warms the vegetation, and with the coming of the spring sun melts and sinks into the earth to refresh the root, so this great army was a covering and defence, and when the war was ended, turned into rivulets of refreshment to all the pursuits of peace. There was nothing greater in all the world's story than the assembling of this army except its disbandment. It was an army of citizens; and when the war was over the soldier was not left at the tavern--he had a fireside toward which his steps hastened. He ceased to be a soldier and became a citizen. [Cheers.]

I observe, as I look into your faces, that the youth of the army must have settled on the Pacific coast. [Laughter and applause.] You are younger men here than we are in the habit of meeting at our Grand Army posts in the East. May all prosperity attend you; may you be able to show yourselves in civil life, as in the war, the steadfast, unfaltering, devoted friends of this flag you are willing to die for. [Great cheering.]

PALACE HOTEL BANQUET, MAY 1.

In the evening President Harrison attended a grand banquet given in his honor by the prominent citizens at the Palace Hotel. Of all the entertainments extended to the distinguished visitors on their journey this banquet was beyond question the most notable. Representatives of the business, professional, political, educational, and society circles of the city were present in numbers. The brilliant affair was largely directed by Colonel Andrews, Alfred Bovier, Geo. R. Sanderson, and Messrs. Le Count, Jackson, and Menzies of the Citizens' Committee.

The President was escorted to the banquet hall by General Barnes and introduced to the distinguished assembly quite early in the evening. After the vociferous cheering subsided General Harrison rewarded the magnificent assemblage with an address that called forth from the press of the country general commendation, and is only second to his great speech at Galveston. He said:

_Mr. President and Gentlemen_--When the Queen of Sheba visited the court of Solomon and saw its splendors she was compelled to testify that the half had not been told her. Undoubtedly the emissaries of Solomon's court, who had penetrated to her distant territory, found themselves in a like situation to that which attends Californians when they travel East--they are afraid to put too much to test the credulity of their hearers [laughter and applause], and as a gentleman of your State said to me, it has resulted in a prevailing indisposition among Californians to tell the truth out of California. [Laughter and applause.] Not at all because Californians are unfriendly to the truth, but solely out of compassion for their hearers they address themselves to the capacity of those who hear them. [Laughter.] And taking warning by the fate of the man who told a sovereign of the Indies that he had seen water so solid that it could be walked upon, they do not carry their best stories away from home. [Laughter.]

It has been, much as I have heard of California, a brilliant disillusion to me and to those who have journeyed with me. The half had not been told of the productiveness of your valleys, of the blossoming orchards, of the gardens laden with flowers. We have seen and been entranced. Our pathway has been strewn with flowers. We have been surprised, when we were in a region of orchards and roses, to be suddenly pulled up at a station and asked to address some remarks to a pyramid of pig tin. [Laughter and applause.]

Products of the mine, rare and exceptional, have been added to the products of the field, until now the impression has been made upon my mind that if any want should be developed in the arts, possibly if any wants should be developed in statesmanship, or any vacancies in office [great laughter], we have here a safe reservoir that can be drawn upon _ad libitum_. [Laughter]. But, my friends, sweeter than all the incense of flowers, richer than all the products of mines, has been the gracious, unaffected, hearty kindness with which the people of California have everywhere received us. Without division, without dissent, a simple yet magnificent and enthusiastic American welcome. [Great applause.]

It is gratifying that it should be so. We may carry into our campaigns, to our conventions and congresses, discussions and divisions, but how grand it is that we are a people who bow reverently to the decision when it is rendered, and who will follow the flag always, everywhere, with absolute devotion of heart without asking what party may have given the leader in whose hands it is placed. [Enthusiastic cheering.]

I believe that we have come to a new epoch as a Nation. There are opening portals before us inviting us to enter--opening portals to trade and influence and prestige such as we have never seen before. [Great applause.] We will pursue the paths of peace; we are not a warlike Nation; all our instincts, all our history is in the lines of peace. Only intolerable aggression, only the peril of our institutions--of the flag--can thoroughly arouse us. [Great applause.] With capability for war on land and on sea unexcelled by any nation in the world, we are smitten with the love of peace. [Applause.] We would promote the peace of this hemisphere by placing judiciously some large guns about the Golden Gate [great and enthusiastic cheering]--simply for saluting purposes [laughter and cheers], and yet they should be of the best modern type. [Cheers.]

We should have on the sea some good vessels. We don't need as great a navy as some other people, but we do need a sufficient navy of first-class ships, simply to make sure that the peace of the hemisphere is preserved [cheers]; simply that we may not leave the great distant marts and harbors of commerce and our few citizens who may be domiciled there to feel lonesome for the sight of the American flag. [Cheers.]

We are making fine progress in the construction of the navy. The best English constructors have testified to the completeness and perfection of some of our latest ships. It is a source of great gratification to me that here in San Francisco the energy, enterprise, and courage of some of your citizens have constructed a plant capable of building the best modern ships. [Cries of "Good! good!" and cheers.]

I saw with delight the magnificent launch of one of these new vessels. I hope that you may so enlarge your capacities for construction that it will not be necessary to send any naval vessel around the Horn. We want merchant ships. [Cheers.] I believe we have come to a time when we should choose whether we will continue to be non-participants in the commerce of the world or will now vigorously, with the push and energy which our people have shown in other lines of enterprise, claim our share of the world's commerce. [Cheers.]

I will not enter into the discussion of methods of the Postal bill of the last session of Congress, which marks the beginning. Here in California, where for so long a time a postal service that did not pay its own way was maintained by the Government, where for other years the Government has maintained mail lines into your valleys, reaching out to every remote community, and paying out yearly a hundred times the revenue that was derived, it ought not to be difficult to persuade you that our ocean mail should not longer be the only service for which we refuse to expend even the revenues derived from it.

It is my belief that, under the operation of the law to which I have referred, we shall be able to stimulate ship-building, to secure some new lines of American steamships, and to increase the ports of call of all those now established. [Enthusiastic cheering.]

It will be my effort to do what may be done under the powers lodged in me by the law to open and increase trade with the countries of Central and South America. I hope it may not be long--I know it will not be long if we but unitedly pursue this great scheme--until one can take a sail in the bay of San Francisco and see some deep-water ships come in bearing our own flag. [Enthusiastic and continued cheering.]

During our excursion the other day I saw three great vessels come in; one carried the Hawaiian and two the English flag. I am a thorough believer in the construction of the Nicaragua Canal. You have pleased me so much that I would like a shorter water communication between my State and yours. [Cheers.] Influences and operations are now started that will complete, I am sure, this stately enterprise; but, my fellow-citizens and Mr. President, this is the fifth time this day that I have talked to gatherings of California friends, and we have so much taxed the hospitality of San Francisco in making our arrangements to make this city the centre of a whole week's sight-seeing that I do not want to add to your other burdens the infliction of longer speech. [Cries of "Go on!"] Right royally have you welcomed us with all that is rich and prodigal in provision and display. With all graciousness and friendliness I leave my heart with you when I go. [Great and prolonged cheering.]

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, MAY 2.

Early Saturday morning, May 2, the President left San Francisco, accompanied by Mrs. Harrison and Mrs. Dimmick, Secretary Rusk, Marshal Ransdell, and Major Sanger, to visit the capital city, Sacramento. They were met at Davisville by a special committee consisting of: Hon. Newton Booth, Hon. A. P. Catlin, Hon. W. C. Van Fleet, Col. J. B. Wright, Hon. J. O. Coleman, Maj. Wm. McLaughlin, Col. C. H. Hubbard, Hon. N. Curtis, Hon. Theo. Reichert, R. B. Harmon, and Hon. W. C. Hendricks.