[ST. JOHNSBURY, VERMONT, AUGUST 26.]
Brief stops were made at Wells River, McIndoes, and Barnet, and the President cordially thanked the people at each place. St. Johnsbury, where great preparations were made to welcome the distinguished guest, was reached at 4:30 P.M.
The President's party headed a procession which moved through the principal streets over a distance of two miles. The guard of honor consisted of 300 mounted veterans with drawn swords. The following prominent citizens met the President: Col. Franklin Fairbanks, Hon. Jonathan Ross, Chief Justice of Vermont, and Mrs. Ross; Rev. Dr. C. M. Lamson, L. D. Hazen, A. H. McLeod, Charles T. Walter, Hon. H. H. Powers, Col. Frederick Fletcher, H. H. Carr, C. H. Stevens, E. H. Blossom, S. H. Brackett, Lucius K. Hazen, Osborne Chase, George H. Cross, N. P. Bowman, Albert Worcester, H. I. Woods, Dr. G. B. Bullard, A. F. Walker, C. P. Carpenter, N. R. Switser, F. A. Carter, L. W. Fisher, J. B. Gage, C. H. Horton, L. N. Smythe, and Wm. H. Sargent. An incident of the parade was the reception by the school children. The President's carriage halted and several hundred of the children, led by H. H. May, rendered "America," at the conclusion of which six pretty little girls—Misses May Masten, Lala McNeil, Marian Moore, Lottie Holder, Beatrice May, and Emma May—stepped forward and presented a beautiful floral key, thus tendering the freedom of the city to the illustrious guest. The President reviewed the procession from "Undercliffe," the stately residence of Colonel and Mrs. Fairbanks, whose guest he was.
At night the town was brilliantly illuminated, and 10,000 residents gathered in the public park. Colonel Fairbanks made the welcoming address and introduced the President, who received an ovation and spoke as follows:
My Fellow-citizens—I could wish that I were in better voice and in full strength, that I might better respond to this most magnificent demonstration. I have rarely looked upon a scene more calculated to inspire a patriot than this upon which my eye rests to-night. I do most profoundly thank you for this great welcome. The taste and beauty and elaboration of these preparations exceed anything that I have looked upon in this journey. [Applause.] I am sure you are here to-night after making all this preparation to give witness by your presence of your love to the flag of our country [applause] and to those institutions of civil government and of liberty which that flag represents. [Applause.] It gives me great pleasure to see that the flag is everywhere. I journeyed across this continent, and, except when darkness shut in the landscape, I was never out of sight of the American flag. [Applause.] On those wide plains of the West, once called the Great American Desert, now and again, in the home of some adventurous settler, the flag appeared and was waved in greeting as our train sped on its way. I rejoiced to see it everywhere in the sight of school children. On that great demonstration in New York in observance of the centennial of the inauguration of Washington, as I moved from the Battery up through those streets dedicated to commerce, I saw every front covered with flags, hiding for the time those invitations to trade which covered their walls. The thought occurred to me, What will be done with these flags when this celebration is over? And it occurred to me to suggest at the centennial banquet that the flags should be taken into our school-houses. [Applause.] I rejoice to know that everywhere throughout the land, in all our patriotic towns and villages, movements are being inaugurated to display the American flag over our institutions of learning.
I have several times been brought in contact with incidents showing this love of the flag. I remember that when Hood was investing Nashville, and when that gallant, sturdy, unostentatious, but always faithful and victorious leader, Gen. George H. Thomas, was gathering the remnants of an army that he might confront his adversary in battle, it was assigned to me to intrench through the beautiful grounds of a resident in the suburbs of Nashville. The proprietor was a Tennessee Unionist. While I was digging and tearing the sod of his beautiful lawn, he was removing his library and other valuables from his mansion, for it was within easy range of the rebel fire. Happening into his library while he was thus engaged, he opened a closet below the book-shelf, and, taking out a handsome bunting, asked me whether I had a garrison flag. I told him no. "Well," he said, "take this. Sir, I have never been without the American flag in my house." [Applause.] I would be glad if that could be said by every one of our people. There is inspiration in it. It has a story wrought into its every fold until every thread has some lesson to tell of sacrifice and heroism. It is the promise of all that we hope for. It is to it and about it that we must gather and hold the affections of our people if these institutions are to be preserved. I have it in my mind as I saw it one night in Newport harbor. Going out of that harbor upon a Government vessel about midnight, when the heavens were darkened clouds, I saw a sight that lives fresh in my memory. The officers of the torpedo station had run up the Starry Banner upon the staff, and turned upon it as we moved out of the harbor two great electric search-lights. It revealed the banner, while the staff and buildings below it were all hidden in the blackness. I could see it as if it had been hung out of the battlements of heaven, lifting its folds in the darkness of night, a glorified emblem of the hope of a free people. [Applause.] Let us keep it thus in our hearts; let no other flag be borne in our marching processions. We have no place for the red flag of anarchy. [Applause.] This emblem typifies a free people, who have voluntarily placed themselves under the restraints of the law, who have consented that individual liberty shall cease where it infringes upon the right or property of another. This is our contract. This is the liberty which we offer those who cast in their lot with us, not a liberty to destroy, but a liberty to conserve and perpetuate. [Cheers.]
I am most happy to witness in this prosperous New England town so many evidences that your community is intelligent, industrious, enterprising, and your people lovers of home and order. You have here some great manufacturing establishments, whose fame and products have spread throughout the world. You have here a class of enterprising, public-spirited citizens, who are building these free libraries and galleries of art and are ministering to the good of generations that are to come. You have here an intelligent and educated class of skilled workmen, and nothing pleased me more as I passed through your streets to-day than to be told that here and there were the homes of the working people of St. Johnsbury [applause]—homes where every evidence of comfort was apparent; homes where taste has been brought to make attractive the abodes where tired men sought rest; homes that must have been made sweet for the children that are reared there, and comfortable for the wives whose place of toil and responsibility it is. Here is the anchor of our safety. This is the state that binds men to good order, to good citizenship, to the flag of the Constitution, a contented and prosperous working class. [Applause.] I will not cross any lines of division in my remarks to night, for this reception is general; but I will venture to say that all our public policy, all our legislation, may wisely keep in view the end of perpetuating an independent, contented, prosperous and hopeful working class in America. [Applause.] When hope goes out of the heart and life becomes so hard that it is no longer sweet, men are not safe neighbors and they are not good citizens, Let us, then, in cheerful, loving, Christian good neighborhood see that the blessings of our institutions, the fruits of labor, have that fair distribution that shall bring contentment into our homes. [Applause.]
But, my countrymen, I did not intend to speak even so long. I wish it were in my power to make some adequate return for the generous welcome you have given me. I am not a man of promises. I abhor pretension, but every such assembly as this that I see—this great cup of good-will which you put to my lips—gives me strength to do what I can for our country and for you. [Applause.]