Postmaster-General Wanamaker introduced the distinguished traveller, saying: "Outside of Indiana I think the President could not be more at home than he is in Pennsylvania, and he requires no introduction."
The President spoke as follows:
My Friends—The book has been closed. I have been talking so much while on this trip that I am sure you will excuse me this morning. It has been a delightful journey, yet we experienced, perhaps, that which is the crowning joy of all trips—getting back home; that is the place for us. [Cheers.] I am glad to have this greeting from my Pennsylvania friends this morning. Mr. Wanamaker was not far wrong when he said that after Indiana Pennsylvania was pretty close to me. It was in one of these valleys, not very distant from your political Capitol, that my mother was born and reared, and of course this State and this section of Pennsylvania has always had a very dear interest for me. [Cheers and great noise from steam being blown off at shops.] Of the applause that we have enjoyed on this journey our reception here has been the most original of all. [Prolonged cheering.]
[HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, MAY 15.]
The arrival at Harrisburg at 1:15 P.M. was heralded by a presidential salute, and 10,000 cheers went up as the President emerged on the rear platform, accompanied by Secretary Rusk and Postmaster-General Wanamaker.
Among the prominent citizens who pressed forward to greet the travellers was his excellency Governor Pattison, Speaker Thompson, of the House of Representatives, Secretary of the Commonwealth Harrity, Adjutant-General McClelland, Hon. B. F. Meyers, Private Secretary Tate, and many members of the Legislature. The Governor's Troop, commanded by Lieutenant Ott, presented arms and Bugler Bierbower sounded the President's march as the Chief Magistrate appeared. Governor Pattison cordially welcomed the President and presented him to the great assemblage.
President Harrison closed his long series of brilliant and interesting addresses in the following words:
Governor Pattison and Fellow citizens—I thank you for the courtesy of this reception at the political centre of the great State of Pennsylvania. I was informed, a little while ago, by the stenographer who had accompanied me on this trip, that I had made 138 speeches, and when I saw the magnitude of my offence against the American people I was in hopes I should be permitted to pass through Harrisburg without adding anything to it. I will only express my thanks and appreciation. No one needs to tell you anything about Pennsylvania or its resources; indeed, my work was very much lightened on this journey, because I found that all the people clear out to Puget Sound had already found out more about their country than I could possibly tell them. [Cheers.]
It is a pleasant thing that we appreciate our surroundings. We love our own home, our own neighborhood, our own State. It would be a sad thing if it were not so. There is only just enough discontent to keep our people moving a little. Now and then some boy gets restless in the homestead and pushes out to the West; the result is a thorough mingling of the people. I do not know what would have become of Pennsylvania if some people from other States had not come in and some of your people gone out. It is this that makes the perfect unity of our country. It was delightful on our trip to meet old faces from home. Though they had apparently been discontented with Indiana and left it, they were willing to recall the fact, as I came near to them, that they were Hoosiers. It was very pleasant, also, to see people as they met the Postmaster-General put up their hands and say, "I am from the old Keystone State." General Rusk was never out of sight of a Wisconsin man, and of course the Ohio man was always there. [Laughter and applause.] Our journey has been accompanied with the labor of travel, but out of it all I think I have a higher sense of the perfect unity of our people and of their enduring, all-pervading patriotism. [Cheers.]