President Harrison arose and amid great cheering began:
Mr. Arkell and Friends—It was a part of the covenant of this feast that it should be a silent one; not exactly a Quaker meeting, as Mr. Arkell has said, because silence there is apt to be broken by the moving of the spirit. That is not a safe rule for a banquet. [Laughter.] I rise only to thank your generous host and these gentlemen from different parts of the State who honor this occasion for their friendliness and their esteem. We are gathered here in a spot which is historic. This mountain has been fixed in the affectionate and reverent memory of all our people and has been glorified by the death on its summit of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. [Applause.] It is fit that that great spirit that had already lifted its fame to a height unknown in American history should take its flight from this mountain-top. It has been said that a great life went out here; but great lives, like that of General Grant, do not go out. They go on. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and great applause.] I will ask you in a reverent and affectionate and patriotic remembrance of that man who came to recover all failures in military achievement, and with his great generalship and inflexible purpose to carry the flag of the republic to ultimate triumph, recalling with reverent interest his memory, to drink a toast in silence as a pledge that we will ever keep in mind his great services, and in doing so will perpetuate his great citizenship and the glory of the Nation he fought to save.
[SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK, AUGUST 21.]
The President left Mt. McGregor the afternoon of the 21st, and reached Saratoga at 4 o'clock, where 50,000 people joined in an ovation to him. It was the largest gathering ever seen in Saratoga, and the town was resplendent with colors. The Chief Executive was met by a reception committee composed of Hon. John R. Putnam, Hon. A. Bockes, Hon. Henry Hilton, Hon. H. S. Clement, Hon. James M. Marvin, Hon. John W. Crane, Hon. J. W. Houghton, Gen. W. B. French, Hon. John Foley, Hon. D. Lohnas, Col. David F. Ritchie, Hon. Lewis Varney, Lieut. A. L. Hall, Edward Kearney, John A. Manning, George B. Cluett, Prof. Edward N. Jones, and J. G. B. Woolworth. Wheeler Post, G. A. R., acted as an escort of honor.
Arrived at the Grand Union Hotel, the President was greeted with great clapping of hands and the waving of 10,000 handkerchiefs by the ladies. He reviewed the procession from the piazza, and, on being introduced by Village President Lohnas, spoke a follows:
My Fellow-citizens—The greatness of this assembly makes it impossible that I should do more than thank you for the magnificent welcome which you have extended me to-day. I have great pleasure in being again for a few days in Saratoga—this world renowned health and pleasure resort. It gives me great satisfaction to witness, on the part of the citizens of Saratoga and of the visitors who are spending a season for refreshment or recuperation here, the expression of kindness which beams upon me from all your faces. I am sure the explanation of all this is that you are all American citizens, lovers of the flag and the Constitution [applause], and in thus assembling you give expression to your loyalty and patriotism. [Applause.] It is not, I am sure, an individual expression; it is larger and better than that, for this country of ours is distinguished in naught else more than in the fact that its people give their love and loyalty and service, not to individuals, but to institutions. [Applause.] We love this country because it is a land of liberty, because the web and woof of its institutions are designed to promote and secure individual liberty and general prosperity. [Applause.] We love it because it not only does not create, but because it does not tolerate, any distinction between men other than that of merit. [Applause.] I desire to thank those comrades who wear the honored badge of the Grand Army of the Republic for their escort and their welcome. I never see this badge anywhere that I do not recognize its wearer as a friend. [Applause.] Survivors of a great struggle for the perpetuity of our institutions—having endured in march and camp and battle the utmost that men can endure, and given the utmost that men can give—they are now as citizens of this republic in civic life doing their part to maintain order in its communities and to promote in peace the honor and prosperity of the country they saved. [Applause.] Thanking you once more for your friendliness and cordial enthusiasm, I will ask you to excuse me from further speech. [Great applause.]
[FROM SARATOGA THROUGH VERMONT.]
The last day of the President's stay at Saratoga Springs he was tendered a reception by Mr. and Mrs. J. S. T. Stranahan, of Brooklyn, at the Pompeiian House of Pansa. Admission was by card, and several hundred well-known people paid their respects to the Chief Magistrate. The wives of Governor Jackson, of Maryland, ex-Governor Baldwin, of Michigan, and Hon. George Bliss, of New York, assisted the host and hostess in receiving. Hon. David F. Ritchie introduced the guests.