The Public Reception.
The speech-making within doors being over, President Harrison entered a side room, where he received the Tippecanoe Club, shaking hands cordially with all. He was then conducted to the Governor's Room, where he received the members of the Legislature. Meanwhile a great crowd massed on the beautiful grounds and waited impatiently for the reappearance of the President. Finally he made his way from the interior to the front of the Capitol. Governor Page introduced him. The President spoke as follows:
Governor Page and Fellow-citizens—This sunshine is as warm as a Vermont welcome. [Applause.] It is of the highest quality. It has life in it. But too much of it is prostrating. [Laughter.] I have felt, in endeavoring to respond to these calls, that I was possibly overtaxing my own strength, and perhaps overcrowding the Press Association. [Laughter.] I am not naturally a gossip, I think I had some reputation as a taciturn man, but it is gone. [Laughter.] I have not given it up willingly. I have struggled to retain it, but it has been forcefully taken from me by kindness of my fellow-citizens, whom I have met so frequently within the last year. Perhaps, however, if I preserve other virtues I can let this go. [Laughter.] It is a great thing to be a citizen of the United States. I would not have you abate at all the love and loyalty you have for Vermont. But I am glad to know that always in your history as a State and a people you have felt that the higher honor, the more glorious estate, was to be a citizen of the United States of America. [Applause.] This association of States is a geographical necessity. We can never consent that hostile boundaries shall be introduced with all that such divisions imply. We must be one from Maine to California, one from the Lakes to the Gulf [applause], and everywhere in all that domain we must insist that the behests of the Federal Constitution and of the laws written in the Federal statute-book shall be loyally obeyed. [Applause.] A statesman of one of the Southern States said to me, with tears in his eyes, shortly after my inauguration: "Mr. President, I hope you intend to give the poor people of my State a chance." I said in reply: "A chance to do what? If you mean, sir, that they shall have a chance to nullify any law, and that I shall wink at the nullification of it, you ask that which you ought not to ask and that which I cannot consider. [Applause.] If you mean that obeying every public law and giving to every other man his full rights under the law and the Constitution, they shall abide in my respect and in the security and peace of our institutions. Then they shall have, so far as in my power lies, an equal chance with all our people." [Applause.] We may not choose what laws we will obey; the choice is made for us. When a majority have, by lawful methods, placed a law upon the statute-book, we may endeavor to repeal it, we may challenge its wisdom, but while it is the law it challenges our obedience. [Applause.]
I thank you for the kindliness of this greeting in this capital of Vermont. I wish for you and your gallant State and for all your people in all their good, God-fearing homes continuance of that personal liberty, that material prosperity, that love of the truth which has always characterized them. [Applause.]
[PLAINFIELD, VERMONT, AUGUST 26.]
At Montpelier the President's party was joined by Hon. F. A. Dwinnel, Gen. F. E. Alfred, Gen. W. H. Gilmore, V. R. Sartwell, W. A. Stowell, Col. H. E. Folsom, Fletcher D. Proctor, Frank C. Partridge; also, E. W. Smith and John Bailey, of Newbury.
The first stop in the afternoon was at Plainfield, where 1,000 people gave the President a cordial greeting. Among the leading citizens participating in the reception were: Joseph Lane, George D. Kidder, Leroy F. Fortney, E. J. Bartlett, H. E. Cutler, Henry Q. Perry, D. B. Smith, H. G. Moore, John A. Fass, Ira F. Page, Nelson Shorey, H. W. Batchelder, and W. B. Page. W. E. Martin Post, G. A. R., H. H. Hollister Commander, occupied a conspicuous position.
President Harrison was introduced by Senator Dwinnel, and said:
My Fellow-citizens and Comrades—For I see here, as everywhere, some of those who wore the blue and carried the flag in the great Civil War gathered to greet me. It gives me pleasure to stop for a moment and to thank you for the friendliness which has brought you from your homes to make this journey bright with your presence and cordial welcome. I have been talking so much to-day that I will not attempt to make a speech. I have already said a great deal about Vermont, have expressed my esteem for it and for its people, and all that. I have been very sincere, for I think that your State does hold a very high place among the States. Your sons, who have gone out to represent you and to take part in those stirring enterprises which have laid the foundations of new States, have already borne themselves with honor and with true New England thrift, obtaining in the long run the full share of all the good things that were going. I met some of them in California. They are scattered this broad land over, and I think they carry with them everywhere the love of the flag, respect for law and order, love of liberty and of education, and interest in all those things that make the communities where they abide prosperous and happy. I think I owe a special debt to this neighborhood for a pair of good Vermont horses that Secretary Proctor selected for me, and in the driving of which I have had great relaxation and pleasure. Your Vermont horses are well trained. The Morgan horse has the good habit of entering into consultation with the driver whenever there is any trouble. [Laughter and applause.]