Colonel Stanton made the welcoming address and introduced President Harrison to the great assemblage, who responded as follows:
Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—The brief time which we are able in this hasty journey to allot to the city of Pueblo has now almost expired. It has given me pleasure to drive through the streets of this prosperous and enterprising municipality and to see that you are concentrating great business interests which must in the future make you a very important centre in this great State. You have in this State a variety of resources unexcelled, I think, by any other State. Your attention was very naturally first directed toward the precious metals, to the mining of gold and silver. The commoner ores were neglected. Your cities were mining camps. Nowhere in all our history has the American capacity for civil organization been so perfectly demonstrated as in the mining camps of the West. Coming here entirely beyond the range of civil institutions, where courts, sheriffs, and police officers could not give a hand to suppress the unruly at a time when our mining laws were unframed, these pioneer miners of California, Colorado, Nevada, Montana, and Idaho wrought out for themselves in their mining camps a system of government and mining laws that have received the approval of the State. [Cheers.] It was quite natural that interest should have been first directed toward the precious metals. You are coming to realize that the baser metals, as we call them, with which your great hills are stored are of great and more lasting value. [Cheers.] We passed this morning through a region where I was surprised to see orchards that reminded me of California. Now for all these things, for the beneficent influence under which you live, for that good law that has distributed this public domain freely to every man who desires to make a home for himself and family, for this free Government that extends its protection over the humblest as well as the mighty, for all these resources of sky and air and earth, the people of Colorado should be joyously thankful. [Cheers.] I am glad to hail you as fellow-citizens. I am glad for a moment to stand in the midst of you, to see your great capabilities, and to assure you that my best wishes are with you in the development of them all. [Cheers] I am glad to know that Colorado, this young Centennial State, has established a system of free public schools unexcelled by any State in the Union [Cheers.] But, my friends, as I said once before, I am in slavery to a railroad schedule, and time is up Good-by. [Cheers.]
[COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, MAY 11.]
The presidential party arrived at Colorado Springs at 6 o'clock in the evening and received the heartiest kind of a welcome. They were met at the station by the Hon. Ira G. Sprague, Mayor of the city, at the head of a large Committee of Reception, comprising the following prominent citizens: Judge John Campbell, J. F. Seldomridge, J. H. Barlow, Irving Howbert, J. W. Stillman, W. S. Jackson, B. F. Crowell, Col. Geo. De La Vergne, Hon. W. F. Slocum, J. A. Hayes, Jr., E. Barnett, Geo. H. Stewart, G. S. Barnes, W. A. Conant, W. L. Weed, H. C. McCreery, E. W. Davis, D. Heron, W. R. Roby, C. H. White, C. E. Noble, B. W. Steele, L. H. Gowdy, J. H. B. McFerran, D. M. Holden, W. S. Nichols, Dr. T. G. Horn, Dr. W. A. Campbell, Thomas Hughes, J. P. Barnes, W. A. Roby, Dr. B. P. Anderson, Judge J. B. Severy, T. A. McMorris, F. L. Martin, J. M. Sellers, H. H. Stevens, J. A. Weir, Geo. W. Thorne, J. J. Hagerman, H. C. Lowe, L. R. Ehrich, J. F. Pebbles, Charles Thurlow, A. Van Vechten, E. S. Wooley, J. M. Ellison, C. C. Hoyt, Dr. W. M. Strickler, Dr. J. P. Grannis, Dr. S. E. Solly, Judge William Harrison, W. H. Reed, Geo. F. Whitney, E. A. Colburn, W. R. Barnes, Charles W. Collins, N. O. Johnson, E. W. Giddings, P. C. Helm, C. E. Durkee, W. C. Stark, Matt Wilbur, C. E. Stubbs, H. C. Fursman, J. H. Sinclair, L. P. Lowe, J. C. Woodbury, W. H. Tilton, L. A. Pease, Thomas Barber, David McShane, H. A. Fuller, W. A. Perkins, Fred Robinson, Geo. B. Perry, Count James Pourtales, W. B. Faunce, E. M. Stedman, M. W. Everleth, Dr. O. Gillette, A. A. McGooney, E. J. Eaton, Matt France, Henry L. B. Wills, H. S. Ervay, C. J. Reynolds, Frank White, W. F. Anderson, Thomas Parrish, P. A. McCurdy, C. B. Crowell, W. A. Otis, J. N. Bolton, H. A. Ferugson, H. Collbran, Geo. P. Riplet, H. G. Lunt, T. H. Edsall, A. L. Lawton, W. H. D. Merrill, K. H. Field, Dr. H. T. Cooper, A. J. Denton, H. I. Reid, C. W. Howbert, W. H. Hoagland, J. W. D. Stovell, S. H. Kingsley, F. A. Mangold, Dr. T. C. Kirkwood, Godfrey Kissell, Thomas Gough, V. Z. Reed, H. S. Van Petten, T. S. Brigham, O. P. Hopkins, D. C. Dudley, E. R. Stark, A. S. Holbrook, Milo Rowell, Charles Walker, Prof. J. E. Ray, W. S. Nichols, Thomas Shideler, Leonard Jackson, L. C. Dana, L. E. Sherman, Samuel Bradford, William Clark, F. E. Dow, Geo. P. Vaux, I. J. Woodworth, A. A. Williams, W. D. Belden, W. H. Goshen, D. A. Russell, C. L. Gillingham, C. E. Aiken, Dr. G. W. Lawrence, Geo. H. Parsons, Jehu Fields, Edward Ferris, E. F. Clark, A. Sutton, Phil Strubel, F. A. Sperry, P. K. Pattison, L. H. Gilbert, Prof. Wm. Strieby, Theo. Harrison, F. H. Morley, E. T. Ensign, Wm. Lennox, W. H. McIntyre, J. E. Newton, John Hundley, Dr. F. Hale, John Lennox, Wm. Bischoff, N. J. Davis, J. L. Clinton, J. D. O'Haire, Dr. B. St. G. Tucker, E. S. Josleyn, Seth Baker, Joseph Dozier, O. Roberts, J. E. Ray, J. Plumb, H. Hall, Dr. M. S. Smith, W. H. Sanford, Lawrence Myers, S. N. Nye, John Potter, C. H. Burgess, L. G. Goodspeed, J. Sumner, E. F. Rudy, Maj. O. Remick, E. S. Bumstead, G. C. Hemenway, John Simmons, H. Halthusen, William Banning, Reuben Berrey, A. H. Corman, F. D. Pastorious, J. L. Armit, Judson Bent, Rev. James B. Gregg, Rev. A. R. Kieffer, Rev. R. Montague, Rev. H. H. Bell, Rev. J. P. Lucas, Rev. M. D. Ormes, Rev. H. E. Warner, and Rev. M. Carrington.
The G. A. R. veterans comprised the presidential guard of honor during the parade through the city. Civic organizations from Manitou, Colorado City, Colfax, and Koener participated in the demonstration, which was very fine and received the special commendation of President Harrison.
After the parade the Garfield School was visited, and the President addressed the scholars as follows:
You have very appropriately named this school in which you have gathered a portion of the children of Colorado Springs for instruction—Garfield. I understand another of your public schools is named after Abraham Lincoln. That, too, is a most appropriate designation; for where, in all the story of our country, among its men who have been illustrious in civil pursuits or in war, can two names be found which furnish more inspiration and hope to the youth of the land than the names of Lincoln and Garfield? [Applause.] Both men came of parentage so poor that no advantages attended their early years, and yet each by his own indomitable will, by the persevering improvement of the meagre opportunities they enjoyed, reached the highest place in our land, and are to-day embalmed in the affectionate recollection of their countrymen. I bid you all to read the lessons of these great lives, and to ponder them well, for while not all may achieve all they achieved, useful and honorable position may be achieved by you all. Wishing you every prosperity and success, I bid you good-by. [Cheers.]
At night the city was brilliantly illuminated. A public reception was held at the Hotel Antlers. The President and his party were assisted by Governor and Mrs. Routt and the Citizens' Committee. The welcoming ceremonies took place before a great assemblage; Mayor Sprague made the address.
The President, responding, said: