The merchant must know when his order will be received, and when his consignment will be returned, or there can be no trade between distant communities. What we need, therefore, is the establishment of American steamship lines between our ports and the ports of Central and South America. [Applause.] Then it will no longer be necessary that an American minister, commissioned to an American State, shall take an English ship to Liverpool to find another English ship to carry him to his destination. We are not to be frightened by the use of that ugly word "subsidy." [Laughter.] We should pay to American steamship lines a liberal compensation for carrying our mails, instead of turning them over to British tramp steamships. [Applause.] We do not desire to dominate these neighboring governments; we do not desire to deal with them in any spirit of aggression. We desire those friendly political, mental, and commercial relations which shall promote their interests equally with ours. We should not longer forego those commercial relations and advantages which our geographical relations suggest and make so desirable. If you will excuse me from further public speech I will be glad to take by the hand my Henry County friends. [Cheers.]
Mr. Harrison arrived home—after the Henry County reception in University Park—in time to welcome his guest, Gen. R. A. Alger of Michigan, the distinguished gentlemen meeting for the first time. In the afternoon several hundred of the Henry County visitors, escorted by the local clubs, marched to the Harrison residence to pay their respects to General Alger.
In introducing his guest General Harrison said:
My Fellow-citizens—I have had the pleasure to-day to receive in my own home a distinguished citizen of a neighboring State; distinguished not only for his relation to the civil administration of affairs in his State, but also as one of those conspicuous soldiers contributed by Michigan to the armies of the Union when our national life was in peril. I am sure you will be glad to make broader the welcome I have given him, and to show him that he has a warm place in the affections of our Indiana people. Let me present to you General Alger of Michigan. [Prolonged applause.]
General Alger responded as follows:
Gentlemen—I thank you very much for this cordial greeting. I thank you very kindly, General Harrison, for the pleasant words you have said of me personally. I wish to say—as you would know if you lived in Michigan—that I am not a speechmaker. I composed a few speeches some weeks ago, and General Harrison has been delivering them ever since. [Laughter.] After reading his speeches carefully, each one of them a gem of concentrated thought, I have made up my mind that the Chicago Convention made no mistake. [Applause.] We have not held any post-mortem in our State. We are glad that we have such a gallant candidate, a man in whose composition no flaw can be found, in whose life no act or word can be adversely criticised. We are as proud in Michigan of your candidate—who is our candidate also—as we could possibly be were any other man in the universe named. We are all Harrison men in Michigan now; and the place he has in our hearts is just as warm as though he lived within our own borders. [Applause.] You Hoosiers have no patent upon this. [Applause.] The people of the United States have a great crisis before them. The question as to the life and prosperity of our industrial institutions is at stake. We have, as we have always had, since this country was worth caring for, the opposition of the English Government.
[INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 1.]
The month of August opened with two thousand visitors from Morgan and Brown counties, including thirty survivors of General Harrison's former regiment. The several clubs comprising the Brown County delegation were led by Norman J. Roberts, Leander Woods, Wm. Griffin, E. D. Turner, and C. W. Mackenzie of Nashville.
Prominent in the Morgan County detachment were W. W. Kennedy, W. C. Banta, John Hardwick, M. G. Branch, David Wilson, H. C. Hodges, R. C. Griffitt, J. G. Bain, John S. Newby, J. G. Kennedy, U. M. Hinson, Merwin Rowe, Hon. J. H. Jordan, H. R. Butler, W. C. Barnett, John C. Comer, Geo. Mitchell, and J. I. Hilton of Martinsville. Hon. G. A. Adams spoke for the visitors.