[ST. ALBANS, VERMONT, AUGUST 25.]
The President and party embarked at Burlington on board Col. W. Seward Webb's yacht Elfrida and greatly enjoyed the sail on Lake Champlain, landing at Maquam in the evening, whence a special train carried them to St. Albans, where they were welcomed by the Committee of Reception, consisting of Hon. A. D. Tenney, George T. Childs, Alfred A. Hall, T. M. Deal, W. Tracy Smith, B. F. Kelley, A. L. Weeks, and A. W. Fuller. After dining at Governor Smith's the President, at 9 P.M., was escorted to the Welden House, fronting St. Albans Park. Twelve thousand people greeted him. The scene was one of unusual beauty; from the branching elms hung 2,000 Chinese lanterns.
When the President appeared on the balcony the enthusiasm was great. He was introduced by Hon. E. C. Smith, and spoke as follows:
My Fellow-citizens—I fear that my voice will not permit me suitably to acknowledge this magnificent demonstration. In the tour which I made this spring across the continent I witnessed very many great assemblages and looked upon very many brilliant and entrancing scenes, but I recall none outside the greater cities more beautiful and worthy than this in St. Albans to-night. [Applause.] Most deeply do I feel whatever of personal respect you thus evidence, and yet more highly do I appreciate that love of American institutions, that fealty to the flag, which I am sure is the dominant impulse in this great assembly. [Applause.]
Your situation upon this great water line connecting the St. Lawrence with the Hudson was an early suggestion to the trader as well as to the invader. The Indian canoe, the boat of the fur-trader, ploughed these waters in the early days of our history. At a later time they suggested to the military leaders of Great Britain who commanded the armies sent for the subjection of the colonies that familiar strategy of severing the colonies into two parts by moving and establishing posts upon Champlain and the Hudson. These attempts and the brave resistance which was made by our people, in which Vermont had so conspicuous and creditable a part, have made all the shores of Lake Champlain historic ground. In the address delivered by President Bartlett in 1877 at the observance of the centennial of the battle of Bennington, I noticed that he said, "Trading Manchester sent two regiments to conquer a market," and it recalled to my mind the fact that one of the great motives of resistance on the part of the colonies was the unjust trade restrictions and exactions which were imposed upon them by the mother country in order to secure the American markets for the British manufacturer. You recall how severe and persistent were the measures adopted in order to repress and crush out the establishment of manufacturing industries in the colonies. This battle for a market was never more general or more strenuous than now among all of the nations of the world, though now generally not pushed to bloodshed. [Applause.] All of the countries of the Old World have through colonial extension by the division of Africa, much as a boy might divide a watermelon among his fellows, had reference largely to trade extensions and enlarged markets. In this contest we have ourselves engaged, not by attempting to push our political domain into lands that are not rightfully ours, not by attempting to overthrow or subjugate the weaker but friendly powers of this hemisphere, but by those methods of peaceful and profitable interchange which are good for them as for us, [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.] Secure in the great American market for our manufactures—a market the best per capita of any in the world—we have come now to believe that we may well extend our trade and send our manufactured products to other countries across the seas and in ships carrying the American flag. [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.] We do not need in any degree to break down or injure our own domestic industries. We are consuming, to an enormous extent, of tropical products not produced by our people, and by a fair exchange with the nations sending us sugar, tea, and coffee we propose and have entered successfully upon the enterprise of opening the markets of Central and South America to the manufacturing establishments of New England and the United States. [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.]
I am sure every American will rejoice in the success which has thus far attended these efforts, and will rejoice that with this expanding trade to the southward there opens before us this year a largely increased traffic in agricultural products with the nations of Europe. We have never in the history of our country harvested such a crop as has now been gathered into the granaries of the United States. [Applause.] We shall have an enormously large surplus of breadstuffs for exportation, and it happens that in this period of our abundance crop failures or shortages in India, in Russia, in France, in Germany, and England have opened a market that will require the last bushel of grain we have to sell. [Cries of "Good! good!" and applause.] Rejoicing in the peace that pervades our land, proud of institutions which have for more than a hundred years witnessed their adequacy to give peace and security at home and to preserve our National honor abroad, rejoicing in the great increase of material wealth which is flowing in upon us, may we not on these great lines of enterprise, lifting ourselves now to newer and larger thoughts of what this country may be, enter upon these opening avenues of trade and influence upon which are the beckoning invitations of friendly peoples? [Applause.]
Let me thank you again for this magnificent assemblage of Vermont patriots and of Vermont women, who have shared with her gallant men the sacrifices and suffering that this State has borne that it might be born among the States, and, having been admitted to the sisterhood, might, though small in geographical extent and population, bear a noble and honorable part in the work of holding up the American character and defending the American flag. [Great applause.]