My Fellow-citizens—It gives me great pleasure to see you, and to have the testimony of your presence here this wet morning to the interest you take in this little party of strangers who are pausing only for a moment with you. We do not need any assurance, as we look over an American audience like this, that upon some things, at least, we are of one mind. One of these things is that we have a Union indissoluble; that we have a flag we all honor, and that shall suffer no dishonor from any quarter. While I regret the inclemency of the morning, I have been thinking that after all there was a sort of instructive moral force in the uncertainty of the weather, which our friends in Southern California do not enjoy. How can a boy or young woman be well trained in self-denial and resignation who does not know what it is to have a picnic or picnic dress spoiled by a shower, or some fishing excursion by a storm? I thank you for this welcome. [Cheers.]
[SALEM, OREGON, MAY 5.]
Salem, the capital of Oregon, was reached at 9 A.M. The local militia and several thousand citizens assembled to greet the President, including Governor Pennoyer, Mayor P. H. D'Arcy, Charles Morris, E. M. Waite, A. N. Gilbert, William Brown, and other prominent citizens; also, the Legislative Reception Committee, headed by Hon. Joseph Simon, President of the Senate, and Hon. T. T. Geer, Speaker of the House. En route from the depot to the State House thousands of people lined the sidewalks and several hundred school children, bearing flags, waved a cordial greeting. Arriving at the Assembly Chamber, Mayor D'Arcy presided and welcomed the President in the name of the city; he was followed by Governor Pennoyer, who extended "a generous, heartfelt welcome on behalf of the people of Oregon."
With marked earnestness President Harrison responded as follows:
Governor Pennoyer, Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—It is very pleasant to be assured by these kindly words which have been spoken by the Governor of this State and by the chief officer of this municipality that we are welcome to the State of Oregon and to the city of Salem. I find here, as I found elsewhere, that these cordial words of welcome are repeated with increased emphasis by the kindly faces of those who assemble to greet us. I am glad that here as elsewhere we look into the faces of happy, prosperous, contented, liberty-loving, patriotic American citizens. Our birthright, the wise anticipation of those who framed our Government, our national and constitutional organization, which has repeated itself in all the States of the Union, this wholesome and just division of power between the three great independent, co-ordinate branches of the Government—the executive, the legislative, and the judicial—has already demonstrated that what seems to the nations of Europe to be a complicated and jangling system produces in fact the most perfect harmony, and the most complete and satisfactory organization for social order and for national strength.
We stand here to-day in one of these halls set apart to the law-making body of your State. Those who assemble here are chosen by your suffrages. They come here as representatives to enact into laws those views of public questions which have met the sanction of the majority of your people, expressed in an orderly and honest way at the ballot-box. I hope it may be always found to be true of Oregon that your legislative body is a representative body; that coming from the people, its service is consecrated to the people, and the purpose of its creation is attained by giving to the well-ordered and well-disposed the largest liberty, by curbing, by wholesome laws, the ill-disposed and the lawless, and providing by economical methods for the public needs. The judiciary, that comes next in our system, to interpret and apply the public statutes, has been in our country a safe refuge for all who are oppressed. It is greatly to our credit as a Nation that with rare exceptions those who have worn the judicial ermine in the highest tribunals of the country, and notably in the Supreme Court of the United States, have continued to retain the confidence of the people of the whole country. The duty of the Executive is to administer the law; the military power is lodged with him under constitutional limitations. He does not frame statutes, though in most States, and under our national Government, a veto power is lodged in him with a view to secure reconsideration of any particular measure.
But a public executive officer has one plain duty: it is to enforce the law with kindness and forbearance, but with promptness and inexorable decision. He may not choose what laws he will enforce any more than the citizen may choose what laws he will obey. We have here but one king: it is the law, passed by those constitutional methods which are necessary to make it binding upon the people, and to that king all men must bow. It is my great pleasure to find so generally everywhere a disposition to obey the law. I have but one message for the North and for the South, for the East and the West, as I journey through this land. It is to hold up the law, and to say everywhere that every man owes allegiance to it, and that all law-breakers must be left to the deliberate and safe judgment of an established tribunal. You are justly proud of your great State. Its capabilities are enormous; its adaptation to comfortable life is peculiar and fine. The years will bring you increased population and increased wealth. I hope they will bring with it, marching in this stately progress of material things, those finer things—piety, pure homes, and orderly communities. But above all this State pride, over all our rejoicings in the advantages which are about us in our respective States, we look with greater pride to that great arch of government that unites these States and makes of them all one great Union. But, my fellow-citizens, the difficulties that I see interposed between us and the train which is scheduled to depart very soon warn me to bring these remarks to a speedy close. I beg again, most profoundly, to thank you for this evidence of your respect, this evidence of your love for the institutions of our common country. [Cheers.]