Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States

by Benjamin Harrison

[GALESBURG, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 8.]

The Public Reception.

During the trip from Peoria the President and Secretary Tracy rode a goodly portion of the distance on the locomotive with Engineer Frank Hilton, a veteran who served in the President's old command. Galesburg, the principal objective point of the journey, was reached at noon on October 8, where 10,000 patriotic citizens greeted their arrival. Mayor Loren Stevens, at the head of the following committee, received and welcomed the President: Forrest F. Cooke, President of the Day, Judge A. A. Smith, Hon. H. M. Sisson, Hon. O. F. Price, Maj. H. H. Clay, Z. Beatty, Henry Emerich, James M. Ayres, Francis A. Free, Gersh Martin, F. C. Rice, C. D. Hendryx, Gen. F. C. Smith, John Bassett, R. W. Sweeney, Sam'l D. Harsh, Colonel Phelps, Hon. Philip S. Post, Rev. John Hood, Rev. G. J. Luckey, H. A. Drake, Matthias O'Brien, K. Johnson, C. P. Curtis, H. C. Miles, Capt. E. O. Atchinson, and Mr. Weeks. Fully 2,000 veterans participated in the parade; also the local militia, commanded by Captain Elder and Lieutenants Ridgley and Tompkins; Company D, Fifth Regiment, from Quincy, Capt. F. B. Nichols, Lieutenants Treet and Whipple; Company H, Sixth Regiment, Monmouth, Capt. D. E. Clarke, Lieutenants Shields and Turnbull; Company I, Sixth Regiment, Morrison, Capt. W. F. Colebaugh, Lieutenants Griffin and Baker.

Arriving at the Court-House Park, Mayor Stevens delivered the address of welcome. President Harrison responded as follows:

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—The magnitude of this vast assemblage to-day fills me with surprise and with consternation as I am called to make this speech to you. I came here to meet with the survivors of my old brigade. I came here with the expectation that the day would chiefly be spent in their companionship and in the exchange of those cordial greetings which express the fondness and love which we bear to each other; but to my surprise I have found that here to-day the First Brigade, for the first time in its history, has been captured. One or two of them I have been able to take by the hand, a few more of them I have seen as they marched by the reviewing stand, but they seemed to have been swallowed up in this vast concourse of their associate comrades and their fellow-citizens of Illinois. I hope there may yet be a time during the day when I shall be able to take each by the hand, and to assure them that in the years of separation since muster-out day I have borne them all sacredly in my affectionate remembrance. They were a body of representative soldiers, coming from these great central States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and as the borders of those States touch in friendly exchange, so the elbows of these great heroes and patriots touched in the great struggle for the Union. Who shall say who was chiefest? Who shall assign honors where all were brave? The distinction that Illinois may claim in connection with this organization is that, given equal courage, fidelity, and loyalty to every man, Illinois furnished three-fifths of the brigade. But possibly I should withhold here those suggestions which come to me, and which will be more appropriate when I meet them in a separate organization.

I have been greatly impressed with this assemblage to-day in this beautiful city, in this rich and prosperous State. The thought had occurred to me, and the more I thought of it the more sure I was of the conclusion, that nowhere on the face of the earth except in the United States of America, under no flag that kisses any breeze, could such an assemblage as this have been gathered. Who are these? Look into these faces; see the evidences of contentment, thrift, prosperity, and intelligence that we read in all these faces. They have come by general summons from all these homes, of village, city, and farm, and here they are to-day the strength and rock of our security as a Nation; the people who furnished an invincible army when its flag was in danger; the people upon whose enlightened consciences and God-fearing hearts this country may rest with unguarded hope. Where is the ultimate distribution of governmental powers? How can all the efforts of President, cabinet and judges, and armies, even, serve to maintain this country, to continue it in its great career of prosperity, if there were lacking this great law-abiding, liberty-loving people by whom they are chosen to these important offices? It is the great thought of our country that men shall be governed as little as possible, but full liberty shall be given to individual effort, and that the restraints of law shall be reserved for the turbulent and disorderly. What is it that makes our communities peaceful? What is it that makes these farm-houses safe? It is not the policemen. It is not the soldiers. It is this great and all-pervading American sentiment that exalts the law, that stands with threatening warning to the law-breaker, and, above all, that pervading thought that gives to every man what is his and claims only what is our own. The war was only fought that the law might not lose its sanction and its sanctity. If we had suffered that loss, dismemberment would have been a lesser one. But we taught those who resisted law and taught the world that the great sentiment of loyalty to our written laws was so strong in this country that no associations, combinations, or conspiracies could overturn it. Our Government will not fail to go on in this increased career of development, in population, in wealth, in intelligence, in morality, so long as we hold up everywhere in the local communities and in the Nation this great thought that every man shall keep the law which secures him in his own rights, and shall not trample upon the rights of another. Let us divide upon tariff and finance, but let there never be a division among the American people upon this question, that nowhere shall the law be overturned in the interests of anybody. If it fails of beneficent purpose, which should be the object of all law, then let us modify it, but while it is a law let us insist that it shall be obeyed. When we turn from that and allow any other standard of living to be set up, where is your security, where is mine, when some one else makes convenience more sacred, more powerful than the law of the land?

I believe to-day that the great rock of our security is this deeply imbedded thought in the American heart that does not, as in many of our Spanish-American countries, give its devotion to the man, but to the law, the Constitution, and to the flag. So that in that hour of gloom, when that richest contribution of all gems that Illinois has ever set in our Nation's diadem, Abraham Lincoln, and in that hour of the consummation of his work, dies by the hand of the assassin, Garfield, who was to meet a like fate, might say to the trembling and dismayed people: "Lincoln is dead, but the Government at Washington still lives."

My fellow-citizens, to all those who, through your Mayor, have extended me their greeting, to all who are here assembled, I return my most sincere thanks. I do not look upon such assemblages without profound emotion. They touch me, and I believe they teach me, and I am sure that the lessons are wholesome lessons. We have had here to-day this procession of veterans, aged and feeble many of them. That is retrospective. That is part of the great story of the past, written in glorious letters on the firmament that is spread above the world. And in these sweet children who have followed we read the future. How sweet it was to see them bearing in their infant hands these same banners that those veterans carried amid the shot and battle and dying of men! I had occasion at the centennial celebration of the inauguration of Washington in New York, being impressed by the great display of national colors, to make a suggestion that the flag should be taken into the schoolhouses, and I am glad to know that in that State there is daily a little drill of the children that pays honor to the flag. But, my friends, the Constitution provides that I shall annually give information to Congress of the state of the Union and make such recommendations as I may think wise, and it has generally been understood, I think, that this affirmative provision contains a negative and implies that the President is to give no one except Congress any information as to the state of the Union, and that he shall especially make no suggestions that can be in any shape misconstrued.

I confess that it would give me great pleasure, if the occasion were proper, to give you some information as to the state of the Union as I see it, and to make some suggestions as to what I think would be wise as affecting the state of the Union. But I would not on an occasion like this, when I am greeted here by friends, fellow-citizens of all shades of thought in politics and in the Church, say a word that could mar the harmony of this great occasion. I trust we are all met here together to-day as loyal-loving American citizens, and that over all our divisions and differences there is this great arch of love and loyalty binding us together.