Heintzelman Post, G. A. R., Gen. Datus E. Coon, Commander, participated in the reception, which was held on the Plaza. Mayor Gunn delivered the address of welcome.
The President, responding, said:
Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—I am in slavery to a railroad schedule, and have but a few moments longer to tarry in your beautiful city. If there were no other reward for our journey across the continent, we have seen to-day about your magnificent harbor that which would have repaid us for all the toil of travel. [Applause.]
I do not come to tell you anything about California, for I have perceived in my intercourse with Californians in the East and during this brief stay among you that already you know all about California. [Laughter.]
You are, indeed, most happily situated. Every element that makes life comfortable is here; every possibility that makes life successful and prosperous is here; and I am sure, as I look into those kindly, upturned faces, that your homes have as healthful a moral atmosphere as the natural one that God has spread over your smiling land.
It is with regret that we now part from you. The welcome you have extended to us is magnificent, kindly, and tasteful. We shall carry away the most pleasant impression, and shall wish for you all that you anticipate in your largest dreams for your beautiful city [cheers]—that your harbor may be full of foreign and coast-wise traffic, that it may not be long until the passage of our naval and merchant marine shall not be by the Horn, but by Nicaragua. [Cheers.] I believe that great enterprise, which is to bring your commerce into nearer and cheaper contact with the Atlantic seaboard cities, both of this continent and of South America, will not be long delayed.
And now, again with most grateful thanks for your friendly attention, in my own behalf and in behalf of all who journey with me I bid you a most kindly farewell. [Prolonged cheers.]
At the conclusion of the President's address Governor Torres, of Lower California, in the uniform of a Major-General of the Mexican army, approached the President and read the following telegram from Gen. Porfirio Diaz, President of Mexico:
It has come to my knowledge that the President of the United States, Hon. Benjamin Harrison, shall visit San Diego on the 23d instant, and I let you know it so that you may call to congratulate him in my name and present him with my compliments.