Benjamin Harrison

“ He is an able lawyer, an honest man and a good citizen. Benjamin Harrison is a man for whom every American citizen should vote. He would stand like a wall of fire on every question of honor with a foreign country. If you want to do your country a valuable service you will go to the polls and give a good square honest vote for Harrison."
Harrison received in Ohio a majority over Cleveland of 19,000 votes, and a majority of the electoral vote in the country. ”

“ She graduated in 1852 from Oxford, Ohio, Female Seminary. Benjamin Harrison, her future husband, took his degree at Oxford University in the same town. They were engaged at the time of their graduation, but Mrs. Harrison taught music in Carrollton, Kentucky, for one year before her marriage October 20, 1853, and removed to Indianapolis, Indiana. When the Civil War broke out, Benjamin Harrison decided to enter the army, his wife saying to him "Go and help to save your country, and let us trust in the shielding care of a higher Power for your protection and safe return." ”

“ The following, from a letter written by Washington in December, 1778, to Benjamin Harrison, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, intimates the grave anxieties which filled his mind, and the opinion of Congress with which he had returned from a visit to Philadelphia: "It appears as clear to me as ever the Sun did in its meridian brightness, that America never stood in more eminent need of the wise, patriotic, and spirited exertions of her Sons than at this period ”

“ If we seek to find the institutions of New England that have formed the character of its own people and have exercised a stronger moulding influence than that of any other section upon our whole people we shall find them, I think, in their temples, in their schools, in their town meetings and in their God-fearing homes. [Applause.] The courage of those who fought at Bennington, at Concord, Lexington, Bunker Hill, and Saratoga was born of a high trust in God. They were men who, fearing God, had naught else to fear. ”

“ It is not so much a matter of astonishment that the editors of Republican newspapers should have misjudged with regard to the cause of the social revolution as it is to find that eminently representative American, General Benjamin Harrison, the candidate of the Republican and the present President of the United States, giving expression to ideas so erroneous as those accredited to him in an interview published in the New York World, November 13, 1892. ”

“ This was a conflict of far more than local interest. It was watched with anxiety by both friends and foes of organized labor on both sides of the Atlantic; it claimed the attention of leaders of thought in all departments of human activity; it stirred up the British House of Parliament and the United States Congress, agitated the newspaper press of both continents, became an issue in the election for President and is said to have contributediv more largely to the defeat of Benjamin Harrison by Grover Cleveland than any other influence. ”

“ And notable men were there for him to observe; vast forces moving for him to study. Thomas Jefferson had again become a member of the House after his vindication from threatened impeachment. Patrick Henry was a member, too, and William Cabell, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, and other men whose names have become historic. During Marshall's later years in the Legislature, James Madison, George Mason, William Grayson, Edmund Randolph, George Nicholas, and others of like stature became Marshall's colleagues. ”

“ It is a brave thing to proclaim a law that condemns your own practices. You assume the fault and strive to attain. The fathers left to a baser generation the attempt to limit God's law of liberty to white men. It is not a right use of the fault of slavery to say that, because of it, our fathers did not mean "all men." It was one thing to tolerate an existing condition that the law of liberty condemned, in order to accomplish the union of the states, and it is quite another thing to create a condition contrary to liberty for a commercial profit. ”

“ Harrison was a cold-blooded man, But it is possible that such men are not as well qualified to judge of the temperature of a man's blood as his friends and intimates who have seen him in all the vicissitudes of his daily life, ministering with sympathy and self-sacrifice to relatives and friends who, overtaken by some great calamity, have found his heart as tender as a child's. ”

“ You have a soil christened with the blood of men who died for liberty, and you have well maintained the lessons they taught, living and dying. It was appropriate that the survivors of the late war, men who came home crowned with the consummating victory of liberty, should make the State of Kansas pre-eminently the soldier State of the Union. Now, after telling you that I am very grateful for your friendly greeting this morning, you will, I am sure, excuse me, in this tumult, from attempting further speech. May every good attend you in your homes ”

“ You are thankful for what He has wrought and chiefly for emancipation. It has opened up to diversified industries these States that were otherwise exclusively agricultural, and made it possible for you not only to raise cotton, but to spin and weave it, and has made Georgia such a State as it could not have been under the old conditions. I am sure we have many common purposes, and as God shall give us power to see truth and right, let us do our duty, and, while exacting all our own rights, let us bravely and generously give every other man his equal rights before the law. [Cheers.] ”

“ There has sometimes been in some regions of the great West a thought that New York, being largely a creditor State, was disposed to be a little hard with the debtor communities of the great West; but, my fellow-citizens, narrow views ought not to prevail with them or with you and will not in the light of friendly discussion. The law of commerce may be selfishness, but the law of statesmanship should be broader and more liberal. I do not intend to enter upon any subject that can excite division ”

“ I receive with great satisfaction the memento you have given me of the varied products of this most fertile and happy valley. I shall carry it with me to Washington as a reminder of a scene that will never fade from my memory. It is very pleasant to know that all these pursuits that so much engage your thoughts and so industriously employ your time have not turned your minds away from the love of the flag and of those institutions which spread their secure power over all your homes. What is it that makes the scattered homes of our people secure? There is no policeman at the door ”

“ I have no higher ambition than to stand well in the estimation of my comrades of the old Union army. I will not speak of any political topic. These men who stand before me gave the supreme evidence of their love and devotion to their country. No man could give more than they offered. The perpetuity of our institutions, the honor of what General Sherman so felicitously called the "old glory," demand the country shall always and in every appropriate way honor and reward the men who kept it a Nation. ”

“ We are glad to know that the enlightened sentiment of the South to-day unites with us in our congratulations that slavery has been abolished. They have come to realize, and many of their best and greatest men to publicly express, the thought that the abolition of slavery has opened a gateway of progress and material development to the South that was forever closed against her people while domestic slavery existed.
We send them the assurance that we desire the streams of their prosperity shall flow bank full. We would lay upon their people no burdens that we do not willingly bear ourselves. ”

“ These two thoughts are twin thoughts; the same logic supports both; and the Republican party holds them as the dual conclusion of one great argument.
Now, gentlemen, to the first voters, who come with the high impulse of recruits into this strife; to these old men, seasoned veterans of many a contest, and to these colored friends, whose fidelity has been conspicuous, I give my thanks and hearty greetings. [Applause.] There has been a desire expressed that the reception of these delegations should be individualized; that Delaware should be received by itself, and Decatur separately ”

“ Harrison to go on in that way he would elect himself in spite of any blundering of the committee or campaign managers.
A few extracts from some of these speeches may give an idea of their quality. To the California delegation the day after the nomination he said: “I feel sure, too, my fellow-citizens, that we have joined now a contest of great principles, and that the armies which are to fight out this great contest before the American people will encamp upon the high plains of principle and not in the low swamps of personal defamation or detraction.” ”

“ 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.] [70] 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. ”

“ Senator Harrison made the first reference of the evening to the name of "Chandler." It was talismanic; instantly a great wave of applause swept over the banquet-hall, and thenceforth the speaker carried his hearers with him.
The Senator spoke as follows:
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Michigan Club—I feel that I am at some disadvantage here to-night by reason of the fact that I did not approach Detroit from the direction of Washington city. I am a dead statesman ["No! No!"] ; but I am a living and rejuvenated Republican. ”

“ General Harrison's visitors to-day comprised six hundred G. A. R. veterans and their wives from Northwestern Kansas—en route to the Grand Encampment—under the lead of General W. H. Caldwell, Frank McGrath, C. E. Monell, W. S. Search, Dr. A. Patten, J. W. Garner, and Dr. J. R. King, of Beloit, Kan. Colonel W. C. [108] Whitney, Commander of the First Division, was orator, and assured General Harrison that "Kansas grew more corn and more babies than any other State in the Union." In response the General said:
My Comrades—I have a choice to make and you have one. ”

“ Our people will not fail at this time to recall the incidents which accompanied the institution of government under the Constitution, or to find inspiration and guidance in the teachings and example of Washington and his great associates, and hope and courage in the contrast which thirty-eight populous and prosperous States offer to the thirteen States, weak in everything except courage and the love of liberty, that then fringed our Atlantic seaboard. ”

“ I am glad to find—indeed, I knew I should find—the same people here that we have in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Most of you come from some of those States, and you are not new people. I have been very much pleased to notice that here, as well as in the East, you take deep interest in schools and in all those things that tend to elevate a community and to set social order on a firm and secure basis. Allow me to thank you again, and to bid you good-night. [Cheers.]
[461]
HASTINGS, NEBRASKA, MAY 13. ”

“ On the bloody fields of Kansas, Republicans died for their creed, and since then we have put in that book the sacred memory of our immortal leader who has been mentioned here to-night—Abraham Lincoln—who died for his faith and devotion to the principles of human liberty and constitutional union. And there have followed it a great army of men who have died by reason of the fact that they adhered to the political creed that we loved. It is the only party in this land which in the past has been proscribed and persecuted to death for its allegiance to the principles of human liberty. ”

“ The visitors were met by the Home Irish-American Protection Club, Patrick A. Ward, President, assisted by the Columbia Club and several thousand citizens. Their demonstration was one of the most notable of the campaign. This club was the first political organization in the country to congratulate General Harrison on his nomination. The evening of June 25 the club met and adopted the following, which was telegraphed the General:
The Irish-American Republican Club of Cook County, Illinois, congratulate you and the country upon your nomination. ”

“ You cannot know fully how he has grown into the respect and confidence of all who have been associated with him in the Cabinet and of all our legislators in Congress without distinction of party. I regret that there is some danger that you may reclaim him for Vermont [applause] ; yet it is quite natural that it should be so, and I shall do the best I can to get a substitute. The labors of public office at Washington are full of high responsibility and most burdensome toil. No man is endowed with an incapacity to make mistakes. ”

“ My Fellow-citizens—We have journeyed now about nine thousand miles, and I have never been, in all this distance, out of sight of an Ohio man. [Laughter and cheers.] Everywhere we have journeyed, whether in the New South, awakening under the new influences of freedom to an industrial life that was not possible under slavery ”

“ The demonstrations of approval were very marked, especially as the General warmed up to his denials of matters suggested by Chairman McDaniels' remarks. He said:
Mr. McDaniels and my Friends—I have seen, during this busy summer, many earnest and demonstrative assemblages of my fellow-citizens. I have listened to many addresses full of the kindest expressions toward me personally; but, among them all, none have been more grateful to me, none have more deeply touched me than this great assemblage of the workingmen of Indiana and these kind words which have been addressed to me in your behalf. ”