On the arrival of the train at Middlebury at 11:30 A.M. another large and enthusiastic throng was on hand. The President was greeted by ex-Gov. John W. Stewart, Col. A. A. Fletcher, G. S. Wainwright, Judge James M. Slade, Charles M. Wilds, E. H. Thorp, E. P. Russell, B. S. Beckwith, E. J. Mathews, John H. Stewart, A. J. Marshall, Col. T. M. Chapman, Rufus Wainwright, and Frank A. Bond. The veterans of Russel Post, G. A. R., were present in a body, also the Sons of Veterans.
Governor Stewart introduced the President, who said:
My Fellow-citizens—Though I have not before had the pleasure of looking into the faces of many of you, Vermont has for many years been familiar to me, and has been placed high in my esteem by the acquaintance I have formed at Washington with the representatives you have sent there. It has been a great pleasure to me to know your esteemed fellow-citizen, Governor Stewart. Your State and district and the Nation at large have had in him a most able and faithful champion of all that was true and clean and right. [Three cheers were given for Governor Stewart.]
You have been particularly fortunate, I think, in your representatives at Washington, as I had occasion to say the other day at Bennington. I am glad to be here at the site of this institution of learning—Middlebury College, which is soon to complete its hundredth year of modest yet efficient service in training the minds of your young men for usefulness in life. These home institutions, in which these able and faithful men assiduously give themselves and their lives to the building up and development of the intelligence—and not only that, but of the moral side of your young men—are bulwarks of strength to your State and to your community. They cannot be too highly esteemed and honored by you; because, my countrymen, kings may rule over an ignorant people, and by their iron control hold them in subjection and in the quietness of tyranny, but a free land rests upon the intelligence of its people, and has no other safety than in well-grounded education and thorough moral training. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and applause.] Again I thank you for this cordial greeting which Vermont gives me this morning, and to these comrades and friends I extend a comrade's greeting and good wishes. [Applause.]
[VERGENNES, VERMONT, AUGUST 25.]
At Vergennes a large and joyful crowd greeted the distinguished traveller. The Reception Committee comprised Hon. J. G. Hindes, Mayor of the city; Hon. J. D. Smith, Herrick Stevens, and J. N. Norton.
Secretary Proctor introduced the President, who spoke as follows:
My Fellow-citizens—I have had, as you know, some experience in this business of speaking from the end of a railroad train. But it has seemed to me this morning that these Vermont towns are closer together than on any other route I have travelled. [Laughter.] Perhaps it is because your State is not very large, and you have had to put your towns close together in order to get them all in. [Laughter.] I have heard an interesting story of the origin of this city of Vergennes. I suppose it was one of the earliest instances in the history of our country, if not the very first, of a city being constructed upon paper before it was built upon the ground. [Laughter.] That has come to be quite a familiar practice in these late days of speculation, but it is singular that a city charter and the ample corporate limits of one mile square should have been given to Vergennes before this century began. If the expectations of the founder of this city have not been realized fully, you have more than realized all the thoughts of Ethan Allan and his contemporaries in the greatness and prosperity of your State and in the richer glory and higher greatness of the Nation of which you are a part. [Cheers.]