[RICHMOND, VERMONT, AUGUST 26.]
President Harrison passed the night at St. Albans. On his departure, the morning of the 26th, he was accompanied by Secretary Proctor, ex-Governor Smith and wife, Colonel and Mrs. E. C. Smith, Tracy Smith, Hon. H. H. Powers, Henry R. Start, D. Sage McKay, Col. Geo. T. Childs, and Col. M. J. Horton, of Governor Page's staff.
The first stop of the day was at Richmond, where a large audience greeted the party. Among the prominent citizens who received the President were: Judge E. B. Andrews, Hon. U. S. Whitcomb, Capt. G. A. Edwards, Dr. C. W. Jacobs, Hon. H. A. Hodges, C. P. Rhodes and Edgar T. Jacobs. The veterans of Bronson Barber Post, G. A. R., were present in a body.
Congressman Powers introduced the President, who said:
My Fellow-citizens—It is a little early in the morning to begin the daily round of speech-making, and yet I cannot refrain from saying to you how highly I appreciate your morning welcome. There is the tonic of your fine mountain air and the glory of your sunshine in these cordial manifestations of your respect and good-will. I hope no American citizen will ever begrudge the President of the United States the refreshment which comes from these occasional visits through the country, and from that draught of good-will which he receives as he looks into the faces and takes the hands of these good people, who have no other interest in the Government than that it shall be honestly administered for the general good. Washington is not always full of that kind of people; we are more certain, perhaps, to find them in the country. And yet no one should complain of honest criticism, and perhaps fault-finding has its use, for occasionally it must be well grounded and disclose to us errors we might otherwise have failed to discern. But, after all, the bracing of the good-will of the good people of this country is very essential to those who, in the midst of great perplexity and doubt and under staggering responsibility, endeavor as they see the right to do it. No man can do more than this, and I look upon this popular feature of our Government, the readiness of communication, the nearness and familiarity of access which the people have with all public servants, as a great safeguard to those who might otherwise become separated from those impulses which are, after all, the safest and best. [Applause.] I have had great pleasure in passing through your beautiful valley this morning. I can most sincerely commend what I see in these farms and thrifty homes. Vermont is a mountain State, and, I suppose, because your horizon is a little high you are more frequently than we who live on the plains compelled to look up. That may account for a great many of the good things which we discover in the New England character. I thank you for your kindness. [Applause.]
[WATERBURY, VERMONT, AUGUST, 26.]
Waterbury was reached at 10:30 A.M. Governor Page and Hon. W. W. Grout joined the party here. About 10,000 people were assembled to greet the President, prominent among whom were: G. E. Moody, Esq., Hon. G. W. Rundall, Hon. E. F. Palmer, M. M. Knight, George W. Atkins, John Batchelder, L. H. Haines, Justin W. Moody, C. C. Warren, W. R. Elliott, C. H. Arms, Charles Wells, Dr. Henry Janes, and F. H. Atherton.
Hon. Wm. Paul Dillingham made the welcoming address and introduced the President, who responded as follows:
My Friends—It is very pleasant to know that a public officer may travel everywhere through this great land of ours—and only those who have traversed it can understand how great it is—and find always his sure defence and care in the good-will and respect of the people who surround him. If we bar out the irresponsible crank, so far as I can see the President is in no peril, except that he may be killed by the superabundant kindness of the people. [Laughter.] There seems to be an impression that his strength and capacity for speech-making is unfailing [laughter] and that his arm is a hickory limb. But it is very kind of you and all these good, people of Vermont who have met me on this journey to express so pleasantly by your cheers, and much more by your kindly faces, the love and loyalty you have for those in the situation with which the suffrage of the people has for the time connected me. The New England character is one that has been much written about, much discussed, and I think that even those who have found points for the sharpest criticism have, when they adopted the Yankee method of averages, concluded that the influences emanating from Plymouth Rock and diffusing themselves first through the New Hampshire Grants and then the Western Reserve of Ohio, and so scattering and disseminating the seeds of intelligence and love of liberty throughout the whole land, have been good for the whole country. The New England man is a man with his eye open everywhere. I have sometimes thought that the habit of attention, of giving the whole mind to the business in hand, had its very natural origin and development in New England agriculture. The man who holds a plough in a stumpy or stony ground learns the lesson that he had better give his mind to the business in hand. [Laughter.] Otherwise the revenge and punishments for inattention are so prompt and severe that he is quickly called back from any mental wanderings into which he may have fallen. I had occasion to say a moment ago that the fact that the mountain regions of the world had always furnished the bravest champions of liberty and the most strenuous defenders of the faith was possibly owing to the fact that their horizon was so high that if they looked at all they were compelled to look up. [Laughter and applause.]