[INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 13.]
Two large and influential organizations visited General Harrison on October 13. From Milwaukee came 400 members of the Young Men's Republican Club—Paul D. Carpenter, President; George Russell, Secretary. Among other prominent members were Samuel Chandler, who organized the pilgrimage, and Walter W. Pollock. President Carpenter—son of the late Senator Matt Carpenter—and C. S. Otjen, a wage-worker, were spokesmen for the club.
The second and largest delegation was the Chicago German-American Republican Club—Franz Amberg, President; F. J. Buswick, Secretary. Accompanying them was the Excelsior Band and sixteen voices from the Orpheus Maennerchor Society of Chicago. Among the widely known members with the club were Hon. Chris. Mamer, Louis Huck, Peter Hand, Edward Bert, Peter Mahr, Henry Wulf, City Treasurer Plantz, N. F. Plotke, and Alderman Tiedemann. As General Harrison entered the hall the reception exercises were opened by the Maennerchor Society with the inspiring hymn—"This is the Lord's own day." Addresses on behalf of the visitors were made by Hon. Wm. Vocke, Henry Greenbaum, and Andrew Soehngen; also, General Fred Knefler for the German Republicans of Indiana, and Hon A. B. Ward, of Dakota.
General Harrison, responding to both visiting delegations, said:
My Friends of the German-American Republican Club of Chicago, and of the Club of Milwaukee, and my Home German Friends—I am very grateful for the kind words you have addressed to me. The long journey most of you have taken upon this inclement day to tender your respects to me as the candidate of the Republican party is very convincing evidence that you believe this civil contest to be no mock tournament, but a very real and a very decisive battle for great principles. [Cheers]. My German-American friends, you are a home-loving people; father, mother, wife, child are words that to you have a very full and a very tender meaning. [Cheers.] The old father and mother never outlive the veneration and love of the children in a German household. [Cheers.] You have come from the fatherland in families, and have set up again here the old hearth-stones. Out of this love of home there is naturally born a love of country—it is only the widening of the family circle—and so our fellow-citizens of German birth and descent did not fail to respond with alacrity and enthusiasm to the call of their adopted country when armies were mustered for the defence of the Union. [Cheers.] The people of Indiana will long remember the veteran Willich and the Thirty-second Regiment of Indiana Volunteers (or First German), which he took into the field in 1861. The repulse by this regiment alone of an attacking force under General Hindman of 1,100 infantry, a battalion of Texas Rangers, and four pieces of artillery at Rowlett's Station, in December, 1861, filled our people with enthusiasm and pride. Again and again the impetuous Texas horsemen threw themselves with baffled fury upon that square of brave hearts. No bayonet point was lowered, no skulker broke the wall of safety that enclosed the flag. [Cheers.]
Your people are industrious, thrifty, and provident. To lay by something is one of life's earliest lessons in a German home. These national traits naturally drew your people to the support of the Republican party when it declared for freedom and free homes in the Territories. [Cheers.] They secured your adherence to the cause of the Union in the Civil War. They gave us your help in the long struggle for resumption and an honest currency, and I do not doubt that they will now secure our sympathy and help in this great contest in behalf of our American homes. Your people are largely wage-earners. They have prospered under a protective tariff, and will not, I am sure, vote for such a change in our tariff policy as will cut them off from their wages that margin which they are now able to lay aside for old age and for their children.
And now a word to my young friends from Wisconsin. You have come into the possession of the suffrage at an important, if not critical, time in our public affairs. The Democratic party out of power was a party of negations. It did not secure its present lease of power upon the platform or the policies it now supports and advocates. [Cheers.] The campaign of 1884 was not made upon the platform of a tariff for revenue only. Our workingmen were soothed with phrases that implied some regard to their interests, and Democrats who believed in a protective tariff were admitted to the party councils and gladly heard in public debate. [Cheers.] But four years of power have changed all this. Democrats who thought they could be protectionists and still maintain their party standing have been silenced or their opinions coerced. The issue is now distinctly made between "protection and something that is not protection." [Cheers.] The Republican party fearlessly accepts the issue and places itself upon the side of the American home and the American workingman. [Cheers.] We invite these young men who were too young to share the glory of the struggle for our political unity to a part in this contest for the preservation of our commercial independence. [Cheers.]
And now to these friends who are the bearers of gifts, one word of thanks. I especially value this cane as a token of the confidence and respect of the workingmen of Bay View. [Cheers.] I accept their gift with gratitude, and would wish you, sir, to bear in return my most friendly regards and good wishes to every one of them. I do not need to lean on this beautiful cane, but I do feel like resting upon the intelligent confidence of the men who sent it. [Great cheering.] I am glad to know that they have not stumbled over the simple problem that is presented for their consideration in this campaign. They know that an increase of importation means diminished work in American shops. [Cheers.] To my friend who brings this beautiful specimen of American workmanship, this commonly accepted token of good luck, I give my thanks. But we will not trust wholly in this symbol of good luck. The earnest individual effort of the American people only can make the result of this contest so decisive, so emphatic, that we shall not for a generation hear any party contest the principle that our tariff laws shall adequately protect our own workingmen. [Great cheering.]