Читать книгу Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States - Benjamin Harrison - Страница 36

Table of Contents

The residents of Put-in-Bay Island, about five hundred in number, tendered General Harrison a reception on the thirty-first of August. The steamboats from Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, and Sandusky brought several thousand excursionists. General Harrison and his party on their arrival from Middle Bass Island were met at the pier by all the residents of Put-in-Bay Island, headed by their most distinguished citizen John Brown, Jr., son of the celebrated "Ossawatomie" Brown, of Harper's Ferry fame.

From a pavilion in the adjacent grove John Brown introduced Hon. Charles Foster, who said:

Fellow-citizens—General Harrison came to Middle Bass for the purpose of rest and quiet. At the solicitation of a number of people of this section of country—a great number, I might say—he has kindly consented to give a reception here to-day, upon one condition—that he was not to make a speech. Now, fellow-citizens, I have the very great pleasure of presenting to you General Benjamin Harrison, the Republican candidate for the presidency. [Applause.]

As Governor Foster concluded, General Harrison arose midst a shout of welcome and spoke as follows:

My Friends—I have found Governor Foster to be a very agreeable and thoughtful host, and I find him to-day to be the most agreeable master of ceremonies who has ever attended me at a public reception. I like his announcement of the condition under which I appear before you to-day.

I never enjoy a banquet when my name is on the programme for a toast. I do not, therefore, intend to speak to you about any of those questions that are engaging your minds as citizens of this prosperous and mighty and happy Nation. We are here to-day as Americans, proud of the flag that symbolizes this great Union of States; proud of the story that has been written by our fathers in council and in war, in the formation and defence and perpetuation of our magnificent institutions, We are here in the immediate neighborhood of one of those great historic events that was among the most potential agencies in settling our title to the great Northwest. If we had stood where we stand to-day we could have heard the guns of Perry's fleet. If we had stood where we stand to-day we could have welcomed him as he came a victor into Put-in-Bay.

These institutions of ours are in our own keeping now, and not only our fundamental institutions, but the fame that has been won by those who have gone before. I may therefore properly say to-day that a campaign like this demands the thoughtful consideration of every American voter. We are prosperous. [Cheers.] The story of our prosperity, of our development in wealth, of our achievements in finance as a Nation, since and during the war, is almost as notable and almost as admirable as that of our achievements in arms.

The assembling of our revenue was even more difficult than the assembling of armies, and yet we were able to maintain those armies in the field, and have been able since not only to bear up the great load of debt, but to pay it off, until that which was once thought to be a burden that would crush our industries has come to be in our hands but as the ball the boy tosses in play [cheers]; and we are to-day confronted with the question, not how we shall get money, but how we shall wisely stop some of those avenues by which wealth is pouring into our public treasury.

It is an easier problem than that which confronted the great war Secretary, in whose name you so delight—how to raise revenue to prosecute the war successfully. It will be wisely solved. And may I note also the fact that, notwithstanding this complaint of excessive revenue, there are some who suggest that they are not able adequately to arouse the popular indignation against excessive taxation because they cannot disclose to the people when or how they are paying the taxes? [Applause.] It is taken, they say, so indirectly and so subtly that these—our plain people—don't know that they are paying them at all. [Applause.] But I must not cross this line of party discussion. I have had a pleasant stay in this most delightful neighborhood, and I cannot let this public opportunity pass without expressing, for myself and for Mrs. Harrison, our grateful appreciation of the kind and thoughtful hospitality which has been shown to us by the people of these islands. [Prolonged applause.]