Monday morning, May 4, found the presidential train rolling through Northern California. A short stop was made at Tehama, where the President shook hands with the crowd in the rain. Red Bluff, the county seat of Tehama County, was reached at 8:30 o'clock, and several thousand people greeted the President, among them D. D. Dodson and Capt. J. T. Matlock, the latter an old army friend who served in General Harrison's regiment.
On being presented to the assemblage by his former comrade the President spoke as follows:
My Friends—It is very pleasant to meet here an old comrade of the Seventieth Indiana Volunteers. Your fellow citizen, Captain Matlock, who has spoken for you, commanded one of the companies of my regiment, and is, therefore, a very old and very dear friend. Once before in California I had a like surprise. The other day a glee club began to sing a song that was familiar to me, and I said to those standing about me. "Why, that song was written by a lieutenant in my old regiment, and I have not heard it since the war." Presently the leader of the glee club turned his face toward me and I found he was the identical lieutenant and the composer of the song, singing it for my benefit. All along I have met old Indiana acquaintances, and I am glad to see them, whether they were of my old command or from other regiments of the great war. They all seem to be prosperous and happy. Captain Matlock was about the same size during the war that he is now. I very well remember, according to his own account, that at Resaca he undertook to make a breastwork of some "down timber," but he found, after looking about, that it was insufficient cover, and took a standing tree. [Laughter.]
Seriously, my friends, you have a most beautiful State, capable of promoting the comfort of your citizens in a very high degree, and although already occupying a high place in the galaxy of States, it will, I am sure, take a much higher one. It is pleasant to see how the American spirit prevails among all your people, the love for the flag and the Constitution, those settled and permanent things that live whether men go or come. They came to us from our fathers and will pass down to our children. You are blessed with a genial climate and a most productive soil. I see you have in this northern part of California what I have seen elsewhere—a well-ordered community, with churches and school-houses, which indicates that you are not giving all your thoughts to material things, but thinking of those things that qualify the soul for the hereafter. We have been treated to another surprise this morning in the first shower we have seen in California. I congratulate you that it rains here. May all blessings fall upon you, like the gentle rain. [Cheers.]
[REDDING, CALIFORNIA, MAY 4.]
At Redding, Shasta County, the distinguished travellers were welcomed by several hundred school children, marshalled by William Jackson. Mayor Brigman and the members of the City Council, with W. P. England, L. H. Alexander, B. F. Roberts, Mrs. E. A. Reid, and other prominent residents, participated in the reception. Judge C. C. Bush, through whose exertions the visit was secured, delivered an address of welcome and introduced the President, who spoke as follows:
My Fellow-citizens—It is very pleasant, as we near the northern line of California, after having traversed the valleys of the south, and are soon to leave the State in which we have had so much pleasurable intercourse with its people, to see here, as I have seen elsewhere, multitudes of contented, prosperous, and happy people. I am assured you are here a homogeneous people, all Americans, all by birth or by free choice lovers of one flag and one Constitution. It seems to me as I look into the faces of these California audiences that life must be easier here than it is in the old States. I see absolutely no evidences of want. Every one seems to be well nourished. Your appearance gives evidence that the family board is well supplied, and from the gladness on your faces it is evident that in your social relations everything is quiet, orderly, and hopeful. I thank you for your friendly demonstrations. I wish it were possible for me to do more in exchange for all your great kindness than simply to say thank you; but I do profoundly thank you, and shall carry away from your State the very happiest impressions and very pleasant memories. [Cheers.]