I am glad this morning to look into the contented faces of another audience of New England people. You were greatly disparaged in the estimation of some of our people before the Civil War. There had spread unfortunately over the minds of our Southern brethren the impression that you were so much given to money, to thrift, and to toil that your hands had forgotten how to fight. It was a most wholesome lesson when the whole country learned again in the gallant charges and stubborn resistances of the Vermont Brigade that the old New England spirit still lived; that Paul Revere still rode the highways of New England; and that the men of Concord and Lexington and Bennington still ploughed her fields. [Applause.] I am glad to meet you this bright, joyous morning; and I am sure, in view of the fatigues that have preceded and that are to follow, you will excuse me from further speech, and accept my most heartfelt thanks for your friendliness. [Applause.]
[BURLINGTON, VERMONT, AUGUST 25.]
Burlington gave the President a royal reception Tuesday noon. The Queen City was elaborately decorated, and all business was suspended during the demonstration. The distinguished visitors were welcomed by Senator George F. Edmunds, his honor Mayor Hazelton, Col. Le Grand B. Cannon, Hon. E. J. Phelps, Gen. William Wells, ex-Gov. U. A. Woodbury, Hon. B. B. Smalley, Hon. G. G. Benedict, C. F. Wheeler, ex-Governor Barstow, C. W. Woodhouse, and Elias Lyman, President of the Board of Aldermen. After luncheon at the home of Senator Edmunds, the President was escorted through the Fletcher Library to a platform fronting the park, where 20,000 people greeted him.
Mayor Hazelton delivered the address of welcome and introduced President Harrison, who responded as follows:
Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens—I am not a little intimidated as I face so unexpectedly this vast concourse of the citizens of this great State of Vermont. I say great, though your territorial extent does not place you among large States; great in an origin that gave occasion for an early and resolute expression of that love of liberty which has always pervaded your people; great in a population that has never bowed the knee to the arrogance of power or to the blandishments of wealth, and has, through all the history of the State, maintained the inspiration of its early annals for love of personal independence. I rejoice to be present to-day at the home of one of your distinguished public servants, with whom it was my good fortune for a time to be associated in the discharge of public duties. I am glad to see here, at his own home, the respect and honor in which George F. Edmunds is deservedly held by the people of Vermont. [Applause.] Having for six years witnessed the value of his services as a legislator in the Senate of the United States, I share with you the regret that this country is no longer to enjoy those services; though it is a source of gratification to you, as it is to me, to know that in his love and loyalty to the State that he has so highly honored, in his love and loyalty to the Union of States, there will be no call for his wise counsel and help that will not find a ready response from the walks of life which he has chosen to resume. [Applause.]
My fellow-citizens, it is true, as your Mayor has said, happily true, that we not infrequently, and with ease, lift ourselves above all the contentions of party strife and stand in the clear, inspiring and stimulating sunshine as American patriots. [Applause.] We are conspicuously a people who give their allegiance to institutions and not to men. [Applause.] It were a happy thing for others of our sister republics on this hemisphere if they could follow this great example. Our people are not slow to appreciate public services. They are not reluctant to acknowledge transcendent genius, but they give their loyalty as citizens to institutions, and not to parties or to men. [Applause.] This was happily shown in our great rebellion, when party divisions, that seemed to lift barriers between us like these mountain peaks, were obliterated in a moment by that love for the Constitution and the flag which pervaded all our people [applause]—a love that made the people of all these great States one; that sent from Vermont and Massachusetts, as from Indiana, those stalwart and devoted sons who offered—many of them gave—their lives for the perpetuity of the Union and the honor of the flag. Let us pursue our lines of division. It is characteristic of a free people—it is essential—that mental agitation and unrest out of which the highest and best is evolved. But let us never forget that the fundamental thought of our Government is the rule of the majority, lawfully expressed at pure and clean elections, and that, when thus expressed, the laws enacted by those chosen to make our laws are not less of the minority than of the majority. [Applause.] Those who make the laws are our servants, to whom we yield the respect of office and that measure of personal regard to which their lives may entitle them. [Applause.]
We are this year a most favored and happy people. Drouth has blasted the crops of many of the nations of the world. Most of the peoples of Europe are short of food. And God has this year, mercifully to us, mercifully to them, made our store-houses to burst with plenty. We have a great surplus of breadstuffs, and there is not a bushel of wheat, corn, rye or oats that will not find a ready market this year. Happy are we in this great prosperity; happy that again out of your abundance the lack of other peoples may be supplied. Let us be careful that our heads are not turned by too much prosperity. It has been out of hardness, out of struggles, out of self-denials, out of that thrift and economy which was an incident of your soil, that the best things in New England have come. [Applause.] And, while thankful to God for a season that diffuses its blessings as this sweet sunshine is diffused into all our homes, let us remember that it is not, after all, riches that exalt the Nation. It is a pure, clean, high, intellectual, moral, and God-fearing citizenship that is our glory and security as a Nation. [Applause.]
Let me thank you again for the friendliness of your manifestations, for the opportunity to stand for a few moments in this most beautiful city. [Applause.] You have the advantage of many of our municipalities. You have not only the beauties of these groves and gardens and pleasant streets and lovely homes, but from these hilltops you have laid under contribution fifty miles in either direction to beautify Burlington. [Applause.] I thank you, and part with you with regret that my stay cannot be longer and my intercourse with you more personal and informal. [Applause.]