Part 39

A presidential salute at 8 o'clock announced the arrival of the Chief Magistrate, who was welcomed by Hon. W. D. Comstock, Mayor of the city, at the head of the following distinguished Committee of Reception: Hon. J. W. Armstrong, Prof. E. C. Atkinson, Hon. Frederick Cox, Edwin F. Smith, H. M. Larue, P. S. Lawson, W. A. Anderson, Wells Drury, C. K. McClatchy, Maj. H. Weinstock, A. A. Van Voorhies, A. S. Hopkins, T. W. Humphrey, Hon. F. R. Dray, Wm. Beckman, R. D. Stephens, W. P. Coleman, Dr. Wm. H. Baldwin, Allen Towle, Dr. G. L. Simmons, C. T. Wheeler, J. C. Pierson, W. H. H. Hart, A. Abbott, Chas. McCreary, Rev. Stephenson, T. M. Lindley, E. W. Roberts, Grove L. Johnson, Frank Miller, Dr. W. R. Cluness, H. W. Byington, Chris. Green, Clinton L. White, Alonzo R. Conklin, Wm. Geary, Gen. A. L. Hart, Dr. S. Bishop, L. Tozer, D. H. McDonald, L. W. Grothan, W. H. Ambrose, J. S. McMahon, Geo. W. Chesley, W. R. Strong, Rev. A. C. Herrick, T. M. Lindley, H. J. Small, Felix Tracy, C. A. Luhrs, Philip Scheld, Wm. Land, H. G. May, C. A. Jenkins, Geo. C. McMulle, Jabez Turner, M. A. Baxter, O. W. Erlewine, Albert Hart, L. Elkus, B. B. Brown, T. C. Adams, B. U. Steinman, G. W. Safford, W. D. Perkins, Ed. F. Taylor, A. J. Johnston, E. Greer, L. Mebus, W. E. Gerber, S. E. Carrington, E. C. Hart, Dr. M. Gardner, Dr. T. W. Huntington, Chris. Weisel, Joseph E. Werry, W. F. Knox, E. W. Hale, Dr. G. M. Dixon, W. O. Bowers, Geo. W. Hancock, E. G. Blessing, A. J. Rhoads, R. S. Carey, E. B. Willis, Jud C. Brusie, T. L. Enright, V. S. McClatchy, Wm. J. Davis, Dr. J. R. Laine, Geo. M. Mott, Harrison Bennett, R. M. Clarken, Jerry Paine, J. W. Wilson, John Weil, Gen. J. G. Martine, H. B. Neilson, Chas. M. Campbell, M. S. Hammer, J. M. Avery, Dr. H. L. Nichols, W. W. Cuthbert, James I. Felter, R. H. Singleton, E. M. Luckett, L. L. Lewis, C. S. Houghton, C. A. Yoerk, T. H. Berkey, P. Herzog, M. J. Dillman, Robert T. Devlin, A. Poppert, J. L. Huntoon, Capt. Wm. Siddons, Maj. W. A. Gett, C. J. Ellia, F. W. Fratt, Judge H. O. Beatty, W. A. Curtis, H. A. Guthrie, Thomas Scott, Benj. Wilson, Chas. Wieger, H. Fisher, C. H. Gilman, W. L. Duden, S. S. Holl, J. Frank Clark, H. G. Smith, L. Williams, John Gruhler, F. A. Jones, R. J. Van Voorhies, James Woodburn, Samuel Gerson, M. A. Burke, C. C. Bonte, Lee Stanley, Perrin Stanton, A. Mazzini, John F. Slater, J. E. Burke, Capt. J. H. Roberts, Thos. Geddes, S. L. Richards, M. M. Drew, Gen. Geo. B. Cosbey, J. F. Linthicum, J. N. Larkin, Richard Burr, and Samuel Lavenson.

The march from the depot to the Capitol grounds was one continuous ovation. The veterans of Warren, Sumner, and Fair Oaks posts, G. A. R., acted as an escort of honor. The militia was commanded by Gen. T. W. Sheehan. More than 30,000 people witnessed or participated in the demonstration. As the President passed Pioneer Hall he halted the column to receive the greetings of the venerable members of the Sacramento Society. Governor Markham delivered an eloquent address, reciting the discovery of gold in California, reviewing the President's tour through the State, and bidding him "good-by and God-speed." Ex-Governor Booth and Secretary Rusk also made short speeches. Postmaster-General Wanamaker was detained at San Francisco, inspecting sites for a new post-office. His absence was a disappointment to the postal employees, who sent him a silver tablet, the size of a money-order, engraved with their compliments, as a memento.

The President's address was as follows:

_Governor Markham and Fellow-citizens_--Our eyes have rested upon no more beautiful or impressive sight since we entered California. This fresh, delightful morning, this vast assemblage of contented and happy people, this building, dedicated to the uses of civil government--all things about us tend to inspire our hearts with pride and with gratitude.

Gratitude to that overruling Providence that turned hither after the discovery of this continent the steps of those who had the capacity to organize a free representative government.

Gratitude to that Providence that has increased the feeble colonies on an inhospitable coast to these millions of prosperous people, who have found another sea and populated its sunny shores with a happy and growing people. [Applause.]

Gratitude to that Providence that led us through civil strife to a glory and a perfection of unity as a people that was otherwise impossible.

Gratitude that we have to-day a Union of free States without a slave to stand as a reproach to that immortal declaration upon which our Government rests. [Cheers.]

Pride that our people have achieved so much; that, triumphing over all the hardships of those early pioneers, who struggled in the face of discouragement and difficulties more appalling than those that met Columbus when he turned the prows of his little vessels toward an unknown shore; that, triumphing over perils of starvation, perils of savages, perils of sickness, here on the sunny slope of the Pacific they have established civil institutions and set up the banner of the imperishable Union. [Cheers.]

Every Californian who has followed in their footsteps, every man and woman who is to-day enjoying the harvest of their endeavors, should always lift his hat to the pioneer of '49. [Cheers.]

We stand here at the political centre of a great State, in this building where your lawmakers assemble, chosen by your suffrages to execute your will in framing those rules of conduct which shall control the life of the citizen. May you always find here patriotic, consecrated men to do your work. May they always assemble here with a high sense of duty to those brave, intelligent, and honorable people. May they catch the great lesson of our Government, that our people need only such regulation as shall restrain the ill-disposed and shall give the largest liberty to individual enterprise and effort. [Cheers.]

No man is gifted with speech to describe the beauty and the impressiveness of this great occasion. I am awed in this presence. I bow reverently to this great assembly of free, intelligent, enterprising American sovereigns. [Cheers.]

I am glad to have this hasty glimpse of this early centre of immigration. I am glad to stand at the place where that momentous event, the discovery of gold, transpired, and yet, after you have washed your sand of gold, after the eager rush for sudden wealth, after all this you have come into a heritage in the possession of these fields, in those enduring and inexhaustible treasures of your soil, which will perpetually sustain a great population.

In parting, sir [to the Governor], to you as the representative of this people I give the most hearty thanks of all who journey with me and my own for the early, continuous, kindly, yea, even affectionate attention which has followed us in all our footsteps through California. [Great cheering.]

BENICIA, CALIFORNIA, MAY 2.

On leaving Sacramento the President made a brief stop at Benicia, where a large crowd greeted him, including the school children, who bombarded him with flowers. The welcoming committee was D. M. Hart, President of the Board of Trustees; A. Dalton, Jr., S. C. Gray, and W. H. Foreman.

In response to calls for a speech the President said:

_My Friends_--I thank you most sincerely for this pleasant tribute which I have received from these children. It is a curious thing, perhaps, that among the earliest towns that became familiar to me in my younger days was Benicia. In 1857, when the United States sent an armed expedition to Utah, and thence across the continent, I happened to have an elder and much-beloved brother who was a lieutenant in that campaign. He was stationed at Benicia Barracks, and his letters from this place have fixed it in my memory, and recalls to me, as I stand here this morning, very tender memories of one who has long since gone to his rest. I thank you again for this demonstration.

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, MAY 2.

_State University._

The President arrived at West Berkeley station at 1 o'clock and was met by the Berkeley Reception Committee, consisting of C. R. Lord, J. L. Scotchler, R. Rickard, E. F. Neihauser, Samuel Heywood, C. Gaines, J. S. Eastman, John Squires, F. B. Cone, Chris. Johnson, John Finn, George Schmidt, L. Gottshall, A. F. Fonzo, H. W. Taylor, and C. E. Wulferdingen. A procession was formed, and amid thousands of enthusiastic onlookers the party was driven to the State University. At the main entrance the President found the Faculty, the University Battalion, and about 1,000 other people awaiting his coming. Acting President Kellogg briefly welcomed the distinguished guest.

The President, standing with uncovered head in the carriage, spoke as follows:

It gives me great pleasure even to inspect these grounds and the exterior of these buildings devoted to education. Our educational institutions, beginning with the primary common schools and culminating in the great universities of the land, are the instrumentalities by which the future citizens of this country are to be trained in the principles of morality and in the intellectual culture which will fit them to maintain, develop, and perpetuate what their fathers have begun.

I am glad to receive your welcome, and only regret that it is impossible for me to make a closer observation of your work. I unite with you in mourning the loss which has come to you in the death of Professor Le Conte. I wish for the institution and for those who are called here to train the young the guidance and blessing of God in all their endeavors.

_Institute of the Dumb and Blind._

Leaving the University the President was rapidly driven through a beautiful residence district and entered the grounds of the California Institute of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind. Before the great edifice stood the teachers: G. B. Goodall, T. D'Estrella, T. Grady, F. O'Donnell, Henry Frank, Douglas Kieth, C. T. Wilkinson, N. F. Whipple, Mary Dutch, Laura Nourse, Elizabeth Moffitt, Rose Sedgwick, Otto Fleissner, and Charles S. Perry. Assembled on the green were more than 200 afflicted little ones. The blind welcomed the President with their sympathetic voices, the dumb looked upon him and smiled, while the deaf waved their little hands with joy. Superintendent Wilkinson in an address warmly thanked the party for their visit.

The President, responding, said:

It gives me great pleasure to stop for a moment at one of these institutions so characteristic of our Christian civilization. In the barbarous ages of the world the afflicted were regarded by superstition unhelpful, or treated with cruel neglect; but in this better day the States are everywhere making magnificent provision for the comfort and education of the blind and deaf and dumb.

Where one avenue to the mind has been closed science is opening another. The eye does the work of the ear, the finger the work of the tongue for the dumb, and touch becomes sight to the blind. I am sure that gladness has come to all these young hearts through the benevolent, careful, and affectionate instruction they are receiving here. I thank you, and wish all of you the utmost happiness through life.

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, MAY 2.

Leaving the Asylum for the Blind the presidential party was driven rapidly to Oakland, passing through the suburban town of Temescal, where a large crowd, including several hundred school children, greeted the distinguished visitors. The President was accompanied by Mayor Melvin Chapman and the following members of the Oakland Reception Committee: Ex-Mayor John R. Glascock, Hon. Geo. E. Whitney, Senator W. E. Dargie, J. G. McCall, A. C. Donnell, T. C. Coogan, John P. Irish, Hon. E. S. Denison, C. D. Pierce, J. W. McClymonds, W. D. English, H. M. Sanborn, M. J. Keller, J. F. Evans, A. W. Bishop, W. W. Foote, Robert McKillican, Charles G. Yale, G. W. McNear, W. R. Thomas, C. B. Evans, and Maj. F. R. O'Brien.

As the presidential carriage turned into Jackson Street at half-past 1 o'clock nearly 10,000 school children welcomed the Chief Magistrate with a fusillade of bouquets. The crowd was so great the President was unable to reach the reviewing stand, where Mr. Wanamaker awaited him. Making the best of the situation, Mayor Chapman arose in the carriage and formally welcomed the President on behalf of the citizens.

President Harrison, speaking from the same carriage, responded as follows:

_Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens_--I am glad to meet you all, and I assure you I appreciate this magnificent demonstration. I must congratulate you upon your fine institutions, and particularly your streets, which, I believe, are the best in the country. I thank you for this reception most heartily. I regret that your enthusiasm and the vast size of this assembly has somewhat disconcerted the programme marked out, but I can speak as well from here as from the stand, which seems to be inaccessible. I return my sincere thanks for your welcome and express the interest and gratification I have felt this morning in riding through some of the streets of your beautiful city. I thank you most sincerely for your friendliness and bid you good-by. [Great cheering.]

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, MAY 2.

_Union League Reception._

Immediately on returning from his arduous trip to Sacramento and Oakland the President attended a reception in his honor tendered by members of the Union League at their club-house. The affair was one of the most notable of any in which the presidential guests participated during their visit to the golden West, and was conducted under the direction of the following committee: A. E. Castle, Joseph S. Spear, Jr., F. S. Chadbourne, W. H. Chamberlain, T. H. Minor, J. H. Hegler, Frank J. French, J. T. Giesting, William Macdonald, J. S. Mumaugh, R. D. Laidlaw, S. K. Thornton, W. D. Sanborn, Joseph Simonson, J. M. Litchfield, and L. H. Clement.

The President entered upon the arm of Wendell Easton, President of the Union League Club, followed by the first lady of the land, escorted by Governor Markham. The Reception Committee comprised: Senator Stanford, General Dimond, M. H. de Young, Judge Estee, I. C. Stump, W. C. Van Fleet, C. J. Bandmann, W. E. Dargie, N. P. Chipman, Lewis Gerstle, F. A. Vail, Col. W. R. Shafter, Mrs. Leland Stanford, Mrs. R. D. Laidlaw, Mrs. W. H. Chamberlain, Mrs. Joseph S. Spear, Jr., Mrs. W. W. Morrow, Mrs. F. L. Castle, Mrs. M. H. de Young, Mrs. N. P. Chipman, Mrs. C. J. Bandmann, Miss Emma Spreckels, Miss Thornton, Mrs. Wendell Easton, Mrs. S. W. Backus, Mrs. G. H. Sanderson, Mrs. W. E. Dargie, Miss Stump, Miss Reed, and others prominent in society.

After the long and brilliant column had passed before the presidential line Samuel M. Shortridge stepped before the President and in an eloquent address in behalf of the Union League Club presented him with a fac-simile, in gold, of the invitation issued to the reception.

General Harrison, in accepting the beautiful souvenir, said:

California is full of ambuscades, not of a hostile sort, but with all embarrassments that attend surprise. In a hasty drive this afternoon, when I thought I was to visit Oakland, I was suddenly drawn up in front of a college and asked to make an address, and in a moment afterward before an asylum for the deaf, dumb, and blind, the character of which I did not know until the carriage stopped in front of it. All this taxes the ingenuity as your kindness moves the heart of one who is making a hurried journey through California. I do not need such souvenirs as this to keep fresh in my heart this visit to your State. It will be pleasant, however, to show to others who have not participated in this enjoyment the record of a trip that has been very eventful and one of perpetual sunshine and happiness. I do not think I could have endured the labor and toil of travel unless I had been borne up by the inspiriting and hearty good-will of your people. I do not know what collapse is in store for me when it is withdrawn. I fear I shall need a vigorous tonic to keep up to the high level of enjoyment and inspiration which your kind treatment has given me. I thank you for this pleasant social enjoyment and this souvenir of it. [Applause.]

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, MAY 3.

_Farewell._

Sunday evening the President and his party, after passing a restful day at the Palace Hotel, quietly took their leave of San Francisco and repaired to their palatial train. Mayor Sanderson and his secretary, Mr. Steppacher, Col. Charles F. Crocker and Colonel Andrews, of the Reception Committee, escorted the party to their train. The President personally thanked these gentlemen for their kind and unremitting attentions during their visit. Shortly before the train resumed its long journey, at a quarter past midnight, the President gave out the following card of thanks to the people of California:

I desire, for myself and for the ladies of our party, to give an expression of our thanks for many individual acts of courtesy, which, but for the pressure upon our time, would have been specially acknowledged. Friends who have been so kind will not, I am sure, impute to us any lack of appreciation or intended neglect. The very excess of their kindness has made any adequate, and much more, any particular, return impossible. You will all believe that there has been no purposed neglect of any locality or individual. We leave you with all good wishes for the State of California and all her people.

BENJ. HARRISON.

RED BLUFF, CALIFORNIA, MAY 4.

Monday morning, May 4, found the presidential train rolling through Northern California. A short stop was made at Tehama, where the President shook hands with the crowd in the rain. Red Bluff, the county seat of Tehama County, was reached at 8:30 o'clock, and several thousand people greeted the President, among them D. D. Dodson and Capt. J. T. Matlock, the latter an old army friend who served in General Harrison's regiment.

On being presented to the assemblage by his former comrade the President spoke as follows:

_My Friends_--It is very pleasant to meet here an old comrade of the Seventieth Indiana Volunteers. Your fellow citizen, Captain Matlock, who has spoken for you, commanded one of the companies of my regiment, and is, therefore, a very old and very dear friend. Once before in California I had a like surprise. The other day a glee club began to sing a song that was familiar to me, and I said to those standing about me. "Why, that song was written by a lieutenant in my old regiment, and I have not heard it since the war." Presently the leader of the glee club turned his face toward me and I found he was the identical lieutenant and the composer of the song, singing it for my benefit. All along I have met old Indiana acquaintances, and I am glad to see them, whether they were of my old command or from other regiments of the great war. They all seem to be prosperous and happy. Captain Matlock was about the same size during the war that he is now. I very well remember, according to his own account, that at Resaca he undertook to make a breastwork of some "down timber," but he found, after looking about, that it was insufficient cover, and took a standing tree. [Laughter.]

Seriously, my friends, you have a most beautiful State, capable of promoting the comfort of your citizens in a very high degree, and although already occupying a high place in the galaxy of States, it will, I am sure, take a much higher one. It is pleasant to see how the American spirit prevails among all your people, the love for the flag and the Constitution, those settled and permanent things that live whether men go or come. They came to us from our fathers and will pass down to our children. You are blessed with a genial climate and a most productive soil. I see you have in this northern part of California what I have seen elsewhere--a well-ordered community, with churches and school-houses, which indicates that you are not giving all your thoughts to material things, but thinking of those things that qualify the soul for the hereafter. We have been treated to another surprise this morning in the first shower we have seen in California. I congratulate you that it rains here. May all blessings fall upon you, like the gentle rain. [Cheers.]

REDDING, CALIFORNIA, MAY 4.

At Redding, Shasta County, the distinguished travellers were welcomed by several hundred school children, marshalled by William Jackson. Mayor Brigman and the members of the City Council, with W. P. England, L. H. Alexander, B. F. Roberts, Mrs. E. A. Reid, and other prominent residents, participated in the reception. Judge C. C. Bush, through whose exertions the visit was secured, delivered an address of welcome and introduced the President, who spoke as follows:

_My Fellow-citizens_--It is very pleasant, as we near the northern line of California, after having traversed the valleys of the south, and are soon to leave the State in which we have had so much pleasurable intercourse with its people, to see here, as I have seen elsewhere, multitudes of contented, prosperous, and happy people. I am assured you are here a homogeneous people, all Americans, all by birth or by free choice lovers of one flag and one Constitution. It seems to me as I look into the faces of these California audiences that life must be easier here than it is in the old States. I see absolutely no evidences of want. Every one seems to be well nourished. Your appearance gives evidence that the family board is well supplied, and from the gladness on your faces it is evident that in your social relations everything is quiet, orderly, and hopeful. I thank you for your friendly demonstrations. I wish it were possible for me to do more in exchange for all your great kindness than simply to say thank you; but I do profoundly thank you, and shall carry away from your State the very happiest impressions and very pleasant memories. [Cheers.]

SISSON, CALIFORNIA, MAY 4.

A brief stop was made at Dunsmuir, where the President shook hands with and thanked the people for their greeting, remarking that he was glad to find that even on the hilltops of California they found something profitable to do.

Sisson, at the foot of Mount Shasta, was reached at 3 o'clock; it was the last stopping-point in California, and the entire population turned out in honor of the visitors. The Committee of Reception was Asa Persons, Hugh B. Andrews, Oliver E. Moors, T. J. Sullivan, Frank B. Moors, and the veterans of Mount Shasta Post, G. A. R.

President Harrison, addressing the assemblage, said:

_My Friends_--I have been talking now over a trip of 6,000 miles and feel pretty well talked out; but I can always say, as I say to you now, that it is ever a very great pleasure to me to see these kindly faces turned toward me. We have received in South California, in their orange groves, a very hearty welcome, and it is very pleasant to come now to this fine scenery among these snow-capped mountains. I have no doubt that you find here in this high altitude an inspiration for all good things. I thank you again for your cordial greeting.

ASHLAND, OREGON, MAY 4.

The first stop in Oregon was at Ashland, at 8 P.M., in a drizzling rain. An escort committee from the Oregon Legislature and the Portland Board of Trade, headed by Hon. Joseph Simon, President of the Senate, met the Chief Executive at this point. The local Reception Committee comprised Mayor G. M. Grainger, Hon. J. M. McCall, D. R. Mills, Dr. J. Hall, and Col. J. T. Bowditch, Judge Advocate General O. N. G.

Responding to the greeting of the Legislative Committee the President said: