And now, fellow-citizens, extending to such comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic as I see scattered about through this audience my most cordial greeting as a comrade, to these children and these ladies who share with you the privations of early life on the frontier, and to all my most cordial greeting and most sincere thanks for your kindly demonstration, I will bid you good-by. [Great cheering.]
[SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, MAY 9.]
At Pocatello the President was met by a committee representing the citizens of Ogden, Utah, who took this opportunity to pay their respects, it being impracticable to hold a reception in that city owing to the late hour the train passed. The Ogden committee consisted of Mayor W. H. Turner and wife, Hon. James A. Miner, E. M. Allison and wife, J. R. Elliott, W. N. Shilling and wife, Capt. Ransford Smith, Wm. H. Smith, M. N. Graves and wife, Col. A. C. Howard, Rev. A. J. Bailey, E. M. Correl and wife, Thomas Bell, J. Cortez and wife, W. W. Funge and wife, O. E. Hill and wife, John N. Boyle, Gilbert Belnap and wife, Joseph Belnap, J. S. Painter, Maj. R. H. Whipple, W. R. White, and Prof. T. B. Lewis.
The committee appointed by Governor Thomas to meet and welcome the President at the State line on behalf of the Territory of Utah consisted of Hon. E. P. Ferry, of Park City; H. G. Whitney, O. J. Salisbury, and M. K. Parsons, of Salt Lake; Lieutenant Dunning, of Fort Douglas; and Chief-Justice Zane, Associate Justice Anderson, Hon. C. S. Varian, Colonel Godfrey, John E. Dooly, Heber M. Wells, E. C. Coffin, and Spencer Clawson.
The presidential party arrived at the "City of Zion" at 2:45 A.M. At 8 o'clock they were met by Governor Thomas and Mayor Geo. M. Scott at the head of the following Citizens' Committee of Reception: Secretary Sells, Irving A. Benton, General Kimball, Colonel Nelson, Commissioner Robertson, C. C. Goodwin, Hon. J. T. Caine, R. C. Chambers, Fred Simon, Hoyt Sherman, Ellsworth Daggett, Judge Blackburn, Colonel Lett, James Hansborough, Frank D. Hobbs, Judge Miner, General Connor, Judge Bartch, J. H. Rumel, C. E. Allen, Arthur Pratt, H. G. McMillan, J. P. Bache, Judge Boreman, W. H. H. Spafford, A. J. Pendleton, Fred Heath, W. L. Pickard, H. Pembroke, Daniel Wolstenholm, Councilman Armstrong, W. P. Noble, Louis Cohn, W. P. Lynn, L. C. Karrick, E. R. Clute, J. B. Walden, J. M. Young, Sheriff Burt, Selectmen Howe, Miller, and Cahoon; C. B. Jack, W. H. Bancroft, R. Mackintosh, J. H. Bennett, Robert Harkness, H. W. Lawrence, J. B. Toronto, and Mesdames Zane, Salisbury, Dooly, Blunt, Chambers, Goodwin, James, Anderson, Lawrence, Gaylord, Simon, and Bartch; Miss Robertson, Mrs. I. A. Benton, and Mrs. Hobbs. This committee and a large body of citizens escorted the party to the Walker House, where breakfast was served. The President then headed a procession, composed of U.S. troops, State guards, G. A. R. veterans, pioneers, and many other local organizations, and was escorted to a pavilion in Liberty Park.
Governor Thomas and Mayor Scott delivered welcoming addresses, to which President Harrison responded as follows:
Fellow-citizens—The scenes which have been presented to us in this political and commercial metropolis of the Territory of Utah have been very full of beauty and full of hope. I have not seen in all this long journey, accompanied as it has been with every manifestation of welcome and crowned with flowers, anything that touched my heart more than that beautiful picture on one of your streets this morning when the children from the free public schools of Salt Lake City, waving the one banner that we all love [cheers] and singing an anthem of praise to that beneficent Providence that led our worthy forefathers to land and has followed the pathway of this Nation with His beneficent care until this bright hour, gave us their glad welcome. [Applause and cheers.]
My service in public life has been such as to call my special attention to, and to enlist my special interest in, the people of the Territories. It has been a pleasant duty to welcome the Dakotas, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming into the great sisterhood of the States. I think it has not fallen to any President of the United States to receive into the Union so large a number of States. The conditions that surround you in this Territory are of the most hopeful character. The diversity of your productions, your mines of gold and silver, iron, lead and coal, placed in such proximity as to make the work of mining and reduction easy and economical; your well-watered valley, capable, under the skilful touch of the husbandman, of transformation from barren wastes into fruitful fields—all these lying in easy reach and intercommunication, one with the other, must make the elements of a great commercial and political community. You do not need to doubt the future. You will step forward confidently and progressively in the development of your great material wealth.