[POMONA, CALIFORNIA, APRIL 22.]
At Pomona the President's car was profusely decorated with floral designs by the ladies of the town. The members of the Reception Committee were Senator J. E. McComas, Rev. Chas. F. Loop, W. E. Ward, W. M. Woody, A. H. Wilbur, F. P. Firey, C. I. Lorbeer, Capt. T. C. Thomas, Geo. Osgoodby, C. D. Ambrose, Con Howe, John E. Packard, and E. B. Smith. Vicksburg Post, G. A. R., H. H. Williams, Commander, was in attendance.
Responding to their cheers and calls the President said:
This cordial demonstration of respect, these friendly greetings, make me your debtor. I beg to thank you for it all, and out of such gatherings as these, out of the friendly manifestations you have given me on my entrance to California, I hope to get new impulses to a more faithful and diligent discharge of the public duties which my fellow-citizens have devolved upon me. No man can feel himself adequate to these responsible functions, but I am sure if you shall judge your public servants to be conscientiously devoted to your interests, to the bringing to the discharge of their public duties a conscientious fidelity and the best intelligence with which they are endowed, you will pardon any shortcoming. Again I thank you for your friendliness and beg you to excuse me from further speech.
[LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, APRIL 22.]
The famous city of Los Angeles was reached at 3 o'clock on the afternoon of the 22d. An ovation awaited the President and his party here the like of which they had not witnessed. They were met at Colton by a committee of escort consisting of Mayor Henry T. Hazard and Mrs. Hazard, Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Spence, H. W. Hellman, Gen. and Miss Mathews, W. C. Furrey and wife, Judge and Mrs. S. O. Houghton, A. W. Francisco and wife, Col. H. G. Otis and wife, J. A. Kelly and wife, H. Z. Osborne and wife, Capt. George J. Ainsworth, Mrs. Hervey Lindley, E. H. Lamme, and L. N. Breed. Fully 20,000 voices greeted the President's arrival at the station, where the members of the Citizens' Reception Committee, of which Mayor Hazard was Chairman, received him. This committee comprised the leading men of the city, among whom were Hon. R. F. Del Valle, Gen. John Mansfield, Gen. E. P. Johnson, Gen. A. McD. McCook, Gen. E. E. Hewitt, Maj. Geo. E. Gard, Hon. John R. Mathews, Maj. E. W. Jones, Col. H. C. Corbin, Maj. A. W. Barrett, Col. T. A. Lewis, Eugene Germain, C. F. A. Last, J. Frankenfeld, W. H. Workman, Joseph Mesmer, L. I. Garnsey, G. J. Griffith, John W. Green, J. F. Humphreys, H. L. Macneil, A. E. Pomeroy, Frank W. Sabichi, I. H. Polk, J. W. Haverstick, S. B. Hynes, R. S. Baker, Harris Newmark, J. C. Kays, Maj. J. R. Toberman, I. R. Dunkleberger, Maj. A. W. Elderkin, ex-Gov. Geo. Stoneman, K. H. Wade, A. E. Fletcher, Col. Joseph R. Smith, W. W. Howard, Maj. W. H. Toler, Capt. W. H. Seamans, George W. Bryant, Poindexter Dunn, Judge Lewis H. Groff, Hon. R. B. Carpenter, Maj. E. F. C. Klokke, Hon. S. M. White, W. H. Perry, S. C. Hubbell, S. H. Mott, I. N. Van Nuys, A. Haas, J. de Barth Shorb, Maj. George S. Patton, Maj. E. L. Stern, Dr. H. Nadeau, K. Cohn, O. W. Childs, Jr., L. Lichtenberger, A. H. Denker, Col. George H. Smith, A. Glassell, Herman Silver, Louis Mesmer, J. M. Elliott, S. B. Caswell, Dr. Eyraud, William R. Rowland, D, Amestoy, J. M. Glass, M. L. Wicks, J. A. Booty, Maj. A. F. Kimball, Capt. H. K. Bailey, Judge W. P. Wade, Judge Walter Van Dyke, Judge W. H. Clarke, Judge J. W. McKinley, Judge B. N. Smith, Judge Lucien Shaw, W. W. Robinson, A. Lowe, K. Loeb, Hancock Banning, Capt. Will Banning, T. W. Brotherton, W. J. Brodrick, M. S. Severance, J. Illich, Gen. D. Remick, R. Cohen, Fred Eaton, H. Siegel, V. Dol, M. Polaski, Dr. John S. Griffin, J. F. Humphreys, J. M. Davies, Washington Hadley, George C. Cook, Sanford Johnson, C. O. Collins, Col. F. A. Eastman, D. Desmond, C. Ducommun, James McLachlan, J. E. Plater, J. F. Towell, John S. Chapman, G. Wiley Wells, Judge Enoch Knight, J. W. Hendricks, George A. Vignolo, George R. Valiant, Philip Garnier, Judge W. P. Gardiner, T. J. Weldon, R. M. Widney, A. C. Shafer, Freeman G. Teed, Chas. H. White, John Keneally, Joseph Shoder, Judge J. D. Bicknell, Thomas A. Lewis, Dr. W. G. Cochran, Louis Phillips, Richard Gird, D. M. McGarry, J. T. Sheward, J. M. Hale, B. F. Coulter, Andrew Mullen, H. Jevne, W. S. Moore, L. L. Bradbury, H. J. Fleishman, Dr. J. P. Widney, George L. Arnold, L. A. Sheldon, Will D. Gould, R. R. Haines, John McRae, C. J. Ellis, J. K. Tufts, Dan McFarland, L. Harris, L. Ebinger, A. E. Pomeroy, ex-Gov. J. G. Downey, ex-Gov. Pico, T. E. Rowan, O. T. Johnson, Col. W. G. Schreiber, Dr. W. Lindley, O. H. Churchill, W. G. Kerckhoff, J. A. Muir, Silas Hoolman, Hon. J. F. Crank, I. B. Newton, James Castruccio, J. A. Kelly, L. E. Mosher, A. F. Coronel, J. C. Daly, Dr. W. L. Graves, H. W. O'Melveny, J. H. Shanklin, Charles Froman, Albert M. Stephens, A. W. Hutton, Rev. W. J. Chichester, H. T. Gage, Anson Brunson, Charles Silent, Dr. Joseph Kurtz, Judge T. K. Wilson, Rev. A. G. Meyer, Simon Maier, Jacob Kuhrts, Judge J. D. Bethune, Judge M. T. Allen, Albert McFarland, W. E. Hughes, Herman Silver, Williamson Dunn, R. J. Northam, Capt. F. N. Marion, Capt. A. M. Thornton, L. Roeder, H. T. Newell, E. A. Forrester, John W. Wolfskill, Joseph Wolfskill, H. J. Shoulter, Niles Pease, F. E. Brown, M. G. Jones, John J. Schallert, Walter Patrick, Charles F. Harper, F. W. King, J. M. Griffith, C. H. Hance, J. A. Henderson, Newell Mathews, John Wigmore, W. C. Howell, H. Baruch, L. W. Blum, Andrew W. Ryan, J. Schumacher, E. T. Wright, A. B. Whitney, H. C. Austin, A. E. Davis, M. Dodsworth, R. Rees, William Lacy, Jotham Bixby, J. W. Potts, L. A. Grant, T. H. Ward, George P. McLain, J. J. Warner, Henry Owens, F. M. Nickell, J. H. Dockweiler, Dan Innes, M. D. Johnson, Ed. D. Gibson, Charles Stern, H. D. Barrows, M. V. Biscailuz, H. Hiller, J. E. Yoakum, J. P. Moran, J. W. Hinton, George Hansen, Len J. Thompson, W. S. Maxwell, L. Polaski, Theo. Summerland, Joseph Mullaly, P. Beaudry, James Hanley, L. Bixby, William M. Friesner, C. Ganahl, Tom Strohm, B. T. Tolbert, Sherman Smith, John A. Hughes, H. V. Van Dusen, John Bernard, O. J. Muchmore, C. F. Heinzman, J. C. Quinn, William Pridham, L. C. Goodwin, C. H. Alford, E. H. Hutchinson, W. H. Rhodes, A. McNally, E. E. Crandall, J. W. Hendrick, H. W. Mills, John Goldsworthy, Thomas Pierson, Robert E. Wirshing, Cyrus Vena, S. W. Luitweiler, R. H. Slater, H. Bartning, A. H. Denker, E. B. Millar, A. L. Bath, T. S. C. Lowe, Frank H. Howard, Joseph Maier, J. Frank Burns, Conrad Jacoby, Charles A. Homer, Judge A. Brunson, Mark G. Jones, D. McFarland, J. J. Gosper, J. M. Frew, R. Dillon, Dr. K. D. Wise, T. D. Mott, J. C. Dotter, W. T. Lambie, Frank Gibson, John Bryson, C. H. Bradley, V. Ponet, M. C. Marsh, F. J. Capitan, William Ferguson, M. Meyberg, L. Jacoby, H. Mosgrove, A. Hamburger, Al Workman, W. T. Dalton, S. Hutton, Dr. J. H. Bryant, Fred Gilmore, J. H. Book, C. E. Day, C. B. Woodhead, Gen. E. Bouton, Robert Steere, F. N. Meyers, L. M. Wagner, and F. E. Lopez.
As the President passed through the crowded streets of the city, escorted by several hundred G. A. R. veterans, he encountered a veritable rain of flowers at the hands of several thousand school children. Arriving at the grand stand Mayor Hazard, for the Reception Committee, formally welcomed the President, who responded as follows:
Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—My stay among you will not be long enough to form an individual judgment of the quality of your people, but it has been long enough already to get a large idea of the number of them. [Cheers.] I beg of you to accept my sincere thanks for this magnificent demonstration of your respect. I do not at all assume that these huzzas and streamers and banners with which you have greeted me to-day are a tribute to me individually. I receive them as a most assuring demonstration of the love of the people of California for American institutions. [Great and prolonged cheering.] And well are these institutions worthy of all honor. The flag that you have displayed here to-day, the one flag, the banner of the free and the symbol of the indissoluble union of the States, is worthy of the affections of our people. Men have died for it on the field of battle; women have consecrated it with their tears and prayers as they placed the standard in the hands of brave men on the morning of battle. It is historically full of tender interest and pride. It has a glorious story on the sea in those times when the American navy maintained our prestige and successfully beat the navies of our great antagonist. [Cheers.]
It has a proud record from the time of our great struggle for independence down to the last sad conflict between our own citizens. We bless God to-day that these brave men who, working out His purpose on the field of battle, made it again the symbol of a united people. [Cheers.] Our institutions, of which this flag is an emblem, are free institutions. These men and women into whose faces I look are free men and women. I do not honor you by my presence here to-day. I hold my trust from you and you honor me in this reception. [Great cheers.] This magnificent domain on the Pacific coast, seized for the Union by the energy and courage and wise forethought of Frémont and his associates, is essential to our perfection. Nothing more important in territorial extension, unless it be the purchase of the territory of Louisiana and the control of the Mississippi River, has ever occurred in our national history. [Great cheering.] We touch two oceans, and on both we have built commonwealths and great cities, thus securing in that territory individuality and association which give us an assurance of perpetual peace. [Cheers.] No great conflict of arms can ever take place on American soil if we are true to ourselves and have forever determined that no civil conflict shall again rend our country. [Cheers.]