Читать книгу Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States - Benjamin Harrison - Страница 33

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Delegations from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, aggregating between nine and ten thousand visitors, paid their respects to the Republican nominee on the seventeenth of August.

The Ohio delegation came from Bellefontaine, Logan County, led by Judge William Lawrence. They carried a beautiful old silk banner that had been presented to a Logan County club at the hands of Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison in 1840.

Ford County, Illinois, sent a large delegation, headed by Judge A. Sample and Col. C. Bogardus, of Paxton. The Young Men's Club—Wm. Ramsey, President, and the Paxton League—T. T. Thompson, President, were conspicuous in this delegation.

The Kankakee County (Illinois) delegation, headed by the Republican club of the City of Kankakee in campaign uniforms, was led by Judge T. S. Sawyer, D. H. Paddock, F. S. Hatch, W. F. Kenoga, H. L. Richardson, J. F. Leonard, R. D. Sherman, Geo. R. Letourneau, and Judge J. N. Orr.

Morgan County, Illinois, contributed the largest delegation of the day, over two thousand, with three drum corps, one, the Jacksonville Juvenile Drum Corps, led by Thomas Barbour, aged 81. Prominent in the Morgan delegation were C. G. Rutledge, President Young Men's Republican Club, B. F. Hilligass, D. M. Simmons, Dr. P. G. Gillett, Sam'l W. Nichols, Judge M. T. Layman, J. G. Loomis, A. P. and J. M. Smith, veterans of '40, and Henry Yates, son of Illinois' war Governor—all of Jacksonville.

The Indiana visitors came from three counties—Bartholomew, Johnson, and Vermilion.

The Bartholomew contingent was composed largely of veterans of the late war, who were led by a company of their daughters in uniform. Among their representative members were John C. Orr, W. W. Lambert, John H. Taylor, John F. Ott, J. W. Morgan, John Sharp, T. B. Prother, Andrew Perkinson, and H. Rost, of Columbus.

The Johnson County delegation numbered two thousand, led by W. T. Pritchard, D. W. Barnett, Jessie Overstreet, J. H. Vannuys, I. M. Thompson, Jacob Hazlett, and John Brown, of Franklin.

Vermilion County sent fifteen hundred enthusiastic visitors, commanded by A. J. Ralph, Marshal of the delegation. Other leaders were Hon. R. B. Sears, W. L. Porter, Rob't A. Parrett, S. B. Davis, R. H. Nixon, Geo. H. Fisher, and Andrew Curtis, of Newport.

The speakers on behalf of these several delegations were: Hon. William Lawrence, of Ohio; Hon. Frank L. Cook, Paxton, Ill.; Judge C. R. Starr, Kankakee County, Ill.; Prof. Wm. D. Saunders, Jacksonville, Ill.; Major W. T. Strickland, Bartholomew County, Ind.; Col. Sam'l P. Oyler, Johnson County, Ind.; Hon. H. H. Connelly, Vermilion County, Ind. To these addresses General Harrison responded as follows:

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.]