We are a peace-loving Nation, and yet we cannot be sure that everybody else will be peaceful, and therefore I am glad that by the general consent of our people and by the liberal appropriations from Congress we are putting on the sea some of the best vessels of their class afloat [cheers], and that we are now prepared to put upon their decks as good guns as are made in the world; and when we have completed our programme, ship by ship, we will put in their forecastles as brave Jack Tars as serve under any flag. [Great cheering.] The provident care of our Government should be given to your sea-coast defences until all these great ports of the Atlantic and Pacific are made safe. [Cheers.]
But, my countrymen, this audience overmatches a voice that has been in exercise from Roanoke, Va., to Los Angeles. I beg you, therefore, again to receive my most hearty thanks and excuse me from further speech. [Great and prolonged cheering.]
In the evening the President was escorted to the pavilion, with a view to receiving personally the citizens, but when he viewed the great assemblage he desisted from the herculean task of taking each one by the hand, and instead thereof made the following address:
Ladies and Gentlemen—I thank you for the warm greeting that you have given me and the royal welcome you have extended to my party and myself to your lovely city. I am thoroughly aware of the non-partisan character of this gathering, and appreciate the good-will with which you have gathered here in this vast building to receive me. I had a touching evidence of the non-partisan character of this gathering—and the good-will as well—just now when a man said to me: "I want to shake hands with you, even if I did lose a thousand dollars on your election." There will be no trouble to keep the flame of patriotism and love of country glowing so long as the American people thus manifest their loyalty to the officers whom the will of the people has placed in power. I thank you again for your good-will and hearty welcome. [Great cheering.]
[SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, APRIL 23.]
The presidential party reached San Diego Wednesday evening and was escorted at once to Coronado Beach Hotel. The Indiana residents of the city called upon the President shortly after his arrival, and Mr. Wright delivered an address in their behalf.
The President, in response, said:
My Friends—I regret that I can only say thank you. Our time is now due to the citizens of San Diego, and I have promised not to detain that committee. It is particularly pleasurable to me to see, as I have done at almost every station where our train stopped, some Indianian, who stretched up the hand of old neighborship to greet me as I passed along. It is this intermingling of our people which sustains the merit of the home. The Yankee intermingles with the Illinoisian, the Hoosier with the Sucker, and the people of the South with them all; and it is this commingling which gives that unity which marks the American Nation. I am glad to know that there are so many of you here, and as I said to some Hoosiers as I came along, I hope you have secured your share of these blessings.
The formal reception of the President took place Thursday morning, when he was welcomed by Mayor Douglas Gunn, at the head of the following Committee of Reception: Hon. John D. Works, Hon. Eli H. Murray, Hon. W. W. Bowers, Howard M. Kutchin, Hon. Olin Wellborn, E. S. Babcock, Col. W. G. Dickinson, Col. Chalmers Scott, Hon. G. W. Hardacre, W. J. Hunsaker, Hon. George Puterbaugh, E. S. Torrance, W. L. Pierce, Watson Parrish, M. A. Luce, N. H. Conklin, Maj. Levi Chase, Col. E. J. Ensign, James P. Goodwin, M. L. Ward, Col. A. G. Gassen, James McCoy, Dr. R. M. Powers, W. N. King, A. E. Horton, L. S. McLure, T. S. Van Dyke, Col. John Kastle, Carl Schutze, Geo. D. Copeland, M. Sherman, H. L. Story, D. C. Reed, S. W. Switzer, Col. G. G. Bradt, Thos. Gardner, E. N. Buck, Dr. D. Gochenauer, Henry Timken, Col. W. L. Vestal, C. W. Pauly, Col. G. M. Brayton, U. S. A.; Capt. Leonard Hay, Capt. W. R. Maize, Lieut. E. B. Robertson, John R. Berry, H. T. Christian, D. H. Hewitt, Col. A. G. Watson, Daniel Stone, W. E. Howard, J. S. Buck, R. C. Allen, A. V. Lomeli, Mexican Consul; J. B. Neilson, Danish Consul; J. W. Girvin, Hawaiian Consul; M. Blochman, French Vice-Consul; Bryant Howard, Jacob Gruendike, J. W. Collins, John Long, Frank A. Kimball, S. Levi, Gen. T. T. Crittenden, J. F. Sinks, Dr. P. C. Remondino, O. J. Stough, J. S. Mannasse, Frank M. Simpson, J. E. Fishburne, Warren Wilson, T. A. Nerney, H. C. Treat, F. S. Jennings, T. M. Loup, Dr. J. G. Beck, Capt. C. T. Hinde, G. S. Havermale, H. A. Howard, Philip Morse, George W. Marston, Fred N. Hamilton, E. W. Morse, J. S. Gordon, E. J. Louis, R. M. Dooley, E. W. Bushyhead, O. S. Witherby, W. J. Prout, William Collier, J. H. Gay, G. H. Ballou, F. S. Plympton, J. P. Winship, Tomas Alvarado, Col. E. B. Spileman, Ariosto McCrimmon, Paul H. Blades, and Walter G. Smith.