Monday afternoon, August 11, the cruiser Baltimore, bearing President Harrison, Secretary Rusk, Secretary Noble, and a number of friends, entered Boston harbor, saluted by the Atlanta, the Kearsage, the Petrel, the Yorktown, the Dolphin, the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius, and the torpedo-boat Cushing. The distinguished guests were met by the Hon. John Q. A. Brackett, Governor of Massachusetts; Hon. Alanson W. Beard, Collector of the Port; Adj.-Gen. Samuel Dalton, Surg.-Gen. Alfred F. Holt, Judge Adv. Gen. Edward O. Shepard, Col. Sidney M. Hedges, Col. Wm. P. Stoddard, Col. Samuel E. Winslow, and Col. Edward V. Mitchell, of the Governor's military staff; Hon. Thomas N. Hart, Mayor of Boston; Hon. Geo. L. Goodale, Chairman Executive Committee National Encampment, G. A. R.; Hon. John D. Long, President National Encampment Committee; Hon. E. S. Converse, Treasurer; and Secretary Silas A. Barton.
Many thousand visiting veterans greeted the head of the Nation as he passed through the historic streets escorted by the First Battalion of Cavalry. Arrived at the Hotel Vendome, the President and his party, as guests of the Commonwealth, attended a State banquet, presided over by Governor Brackett. There was no speech-making. Other distinguished guests were Vice-President Morton, Secretaries Proctor and Tracy, General Sherman, Admiral Gherardi, Gov. Leon Abbett, of New Jersey, and Lieutenant-Governor Hale, of Massachusetts. Later in the evening Governor Brackett and staff escorted the President to the Parker House, where they participated in a reception given by E. W. Kinsley Post of Boston to Lafayette Post 149 of New York. Many veterans of national fame were present, among them Gen. Lucius Fairchild, Gen. Dan'l E. Sickles, Corporal James Tanner, ex-Gov. Austin Blair, of Michigan, Commander Viele, of Lafayette Post, and the following prominent citizens of Massachusetts, comprising the Reception Committee of the National Encampment: Hon. Henry H. Sprague, President Massachusetts Senate; Hon. Wm. E. Barrett, Speaker Massachusetts House; Hon. Wm. Power Wilson, Chairman Boston Aldermen; Horace G. Allen, President Common Council; Hon. John F. Andrew, Geo. H. Innis, Charles E. Osgood, Arthur A. Fowle, Fred C. King, Paul H. Kendricken, J. H. O'Neil, Joel Goldthwaite, Hon. Charles J. Noyes, Hon. E. A. Stevens, Horace G. Allen, Capt. Nathan Appleton, Col. Albert Clarke, Chas. D. Rohan, F. C. Brownell, and A. S. Fowle, of Boston; Gen. A. B. R. Sprague and Col. H. E. Smith, of Worcester; John W. Hersey, of Springfield; John M. Deane, Fall River; Gen. J. W. Kimball, Fitchburg; Maj. Geo. S. Merrill, Lawrence; Wm. H. Lee, Greenwood; S. W. Benson, Charlestown; Joseph O. Burdett, Hingham; Col. Myron P. Walker, Belchertown; and Arthur A. Smith, of Griswoldsville. The reception concluded with a banquet. Col. Charles L. Taylor acted as toastmaster and presented General Harrison, who received an ovation.
In response to these cordial greetings the President said:
Comrades—I do not count it the least of those fortunate circumstances which have occasionally appeared in my life that I am able to be here to-night to address you as comrades of the Grand Army of the United States. [Great applause.] It is an association great in its achievement and altogether worthy of perpetuation until the last of its members have fallen into an honorable grave. It is not my purpose to-night to address you in an extended speech, but only to say that, whether walking with you in the private pursuits of life, or holding a place of official responsibility, I can never, in either, forget those who upheld the flag of this Nation in those days when it was in peril. Everything that was worthy of preservation in our history past, everything that is glowing and glorious in the future, which we confront, turned upon the issue of that strife in which you were engaged. Will you permit me to wish for each of you a life full of all sweetness, and that each of you may preserve, undimmed, the love for the flag which called you from your homes to stand under its folds amid the shock of battle and amid dying men. I believe there are indications to-day in this country of a revived love for the flag. [Applause.] I could wish that no American citizen would look upon it without saluting it. [Loud applause.]
[BOSTON, AUGUST 12.]
G. A. R. National Encampment.
The morning of August 12 the President and the several members of his Cabinet, with Vice-President Morton, Governor Brackett, Mayor Hart, General Sherman, Governor Dillingham and staff, of Vermont; Governor Davis, of Rhode Island; Hon. William McKinley, Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, Mrs. John A. Logan, Mrs. R. A. Alger, Mrs. McKee, Mrs. A. L. Coolidge, and Lillian Nordica, the prima donna, reviewed the grand parade of the veterans from a stand in Copley Square. As the head of the great column appeared, led by Commander-in-Chief R. A. Alger, with mounted staff and escort numbering 600 officers, the President and his Cabinet arose and saluted the veterans. General Alger and Gen. B. F. Butler reviewed the column from a stand in Adams Square. The parade was five hours and thirty-five minutes in passing.
In the evening the Mayor's Club of Boston tendered a banquet to President Harrison and other distinguished visitors. Mayor Fisher, of Waltham, introduced the Chief Executive, who said:
Mr. Chairman—I wish only to thank you for this cordial welcome. Being upon my feet, I cannot refrain from expressing here my deep sense of gratitude for all the evidences of friendliness which have been shown me during my brief stay in Boston. The President of the United States, whosoever he may have been, from the first to the last, has always found in the citizenship of Massachusetts stanch supporters of the Union's Constitution. [Applause.] It has never occurred that he has called upon this great commonwealth for support that it has not been cordially and bravely rendered. In this magnificent parade which we have seen to-day of the survivors of the Massachusetts regiments in the war for the Union, and in this magnificent parade of the Sons of Veterans, coming on now to take the fathers' place in civil life and to stand as they were in their day as bulwarks of the Nation's defence, we have seen a magnificent evidence of what Massachusetts has done in defence of the Union and of the flag, and in these young men sure promise of what she would do again if the exigencies should call upon her to give her blood in a similar cause. [Applause.]