It gave me great pleasure in passing through the Southern States to see how your work had contributed to their prosperity. No man can look upon any of these States through which we campaigned and fought without realizing that what seemed to their people a disaster was, under God, the opening of a great gate of prosperity and happiness.
All those fires of industry which I saw through the South were lighted at the funeral pyre of slavery. [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.] They were impossible under the conditions that existed previously in those States. We are now a homogeneous people. You in California, full of pride and satisfaction with the greatness of your State, will always set above it the greater glory and the greater citizenship which our flag symbolizes. [Cheers.] You went into the war for the defence of the Union; you have come out to make your contribution to the industries and progress of this age of peace. As in our States of the Northwest the winter covering of snow hides and warms the vegetation, and with the coming of the spring sun melts and sinks into the earth to refresh the root, so this great army was a covering and defence, and when the war was ended, turned into rivulets of refreshment to all the pursuits of peace. There was nothing greater in all the world's story than the assembling of this army except its disbandment. It was an army of citizens; and when the war was over the soldier was not left at the tavern—he had a fireside toward which his steps hastened. He ceased to be a soldier and became a citizen. [Cheers.]
I observe, as I look into your faces, that the youth of the army must have settled on the Pacific coast. [Laughter and applause.] You are younger men here than we are in the habit of meeting at our Grand Army posts in the East. May all prosperity attend you; may you be able to show yourselves in civil life, as in the war, the steadfast, unfaltering, devoted friends of this flag you are willing to die for. [Great cheering.]
[PALACE HOTEL BANQUET, MAY 1.]
In the evening President Harrison attended a grand banquet given in his honor by the prominent citizens at the Palace Hotel. Of all the entertainments extended to the distinguished visitors on their journey this banquet was beyond question the most notable. Representatives of the business, professional, political, educational, and society circles of the city were present in numbers. The brilliant affair was largely directed by Colonel Andrews, Alfred Bovier, Geo. R. Sanderson, and Messrs. Le Count, Jackson, and Menzies of the Citizens' Committee.
The President was escorted to the banquet hall by General Barnes and introduced to the distinguished assembly quite early in the evening. After the vociferous cheering subsided General Harrison rewarded the magnificent assemblage with an address that called forth from the press of the country general commendation, and is only second to his great speech at Galveston. He said:
Mr. President and Gentlemen—When the Queen of Sheba visited the court of Solomon and saw its splendors she was compelled to testify that the half had not been told her. Undoubtedly the emissaries of Solomon's court, who had penetrated to her distant territory, found themselves in a like situation to that which attends Californians when they travel East—they are afraid to put too much to test the credulity of their hearers [laughter and applause], and as a gentleman of your State said to me, it has resulted in a prevailing indisposition among Californians to tell the truth out of California. [Laughter and applause.] Not at all because Californians are unfriendly to the truth, but solely out of compassion for their hearers they address themselves to the capacity of those who hear them. [Laughter.] And taking warning by the fate of the man who told a sovereign of the Indies that he had seen water so solid that it could be walked upon, they do not carry their best stories away from home. [Laughter.]
It has been, much as I have heard of California, a brilliant disillusion to me and to those who have journeyed with me. The half had not been told of the productiveness of your valleys, of the blossoming orchards, of the gardens laden with flowers. We have seen and been entranced. Our pathway has been strewn with flowers. We have been surprised, when we were in a region of orchards and roses, to be suddenly pulled up at a station and asked to address some remarks to a pyramid of pig tin. [Laughter and applause.]