INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 21.
Randolph and Jay counties, Indiana, contributed 3,000 visitors on September 21. At the head of the Randolph column marched 200 members of the "Old Men's Tippecanoe Club," of Winchester, led by Marshals J. B. Ross, A. J. Stakebake, and Auditor Cranor. Other leaders in the delegation were Mayor F. H. Bowen, Hon. Theo. Shockley, Geo. Patchell, W. S. Ensign, Frank Parker, Samuel Bell, Dr. G. Rynard, and Washington Smith, of Union City; J. W. Macy, J. S. Engle, Reverdy Puckett, A. C. Beeson, and John E. Markle, of Winchester.
The Jay County contingent was led by James A. Russell, B. D. Halfhill, Isaac McKinney, J. W. Williams, Eli Clark, J. C. Andrews, T. J. Cartwright, and Albert Martin. L. C. Hauseman was spokesman for the Hoosiers. Gen. Stone, of Randolph, spoke on behalf of the veterans.
From Dayton, Ohio, came 500 visitors, including 60 veterans of the campaign of '40, led by Secretary Edgar. Marshal James Applegate, Mr. Eckley, Dr. J. A. Ronspert, and W. R. Knaub were other leaders of the Ohio contingent. Col. John G. Lowe was their speaker, and referred to the fact that Gen. Harrison "had won his education and Miss Caroline M. Scott, now his estimable wife, when a resident of Ohio."
To these addresses the General, responding, said:
My Ohio and Indiana Friends—The magnitude and the cordiality of this demonstration are very gratifying. That these representatives of the State of my nativity, and these, my neighbors in this State of my early adoption, should unite this morning in giving this evidence of their respect and confidence is especially pleasing. I do remember Ohio, the State of my birth and of my boyhood, with affection and veneration. I take pride in her great history, the illustrious men she furnished to lead our armies, and the army of her brave boys who bore the knapsack and the gun for the Union. I take pride in her pure and illustrious statesmen. Ohio was the first of the Northwestern States to receive the western emigration after the Revolutionary War. When that tide of patriotism which had borne our country to freedom and had established our Constitution threw upon the West many of the patriots whose fortunes had been maimed or broken by their sacrifices in the Revolutionary War, this pure stream, pouring over the Alleghanies, found its first basin in the State of Ohio. [Cries of "Good! Good!"]
The waters of patriotism that had been distilled in the fires of the Revolution fertilized her virgin fields. [Applause.] I do not forget, however, that my manhood has all been spent in Indiana—that all the struggle which is behind me in life has this for its field. [Cheers.]
I brought to this hospitable State only that to which Col. Lowe has alluded—an education and a good wife. [Great cheering.] Whatever else I have, whatever else I have accomplished, for myself and for my family or the public, has been under the favoring and friendly auspices of these, my fellow-citizens of Indiana. [Applause.] To them I owe more than I can repay. My Indiana friends, you come from a county largely devoted to agriculture. The invitation of Nature was so generous that your people have generally accepted it. Guarded as your early settlers were, and as those of Ohio were, by that sword of liberty which was placed at your gates by the ordinance of 1787, stimulated, as you have been, by the suggestions of that great ordinance in favor of morality and education, you have, in your rural homes, one of the best communities in the world. [Applause.] You do not forget, farmers though you are, that 95 per cent. of the product of your farms is consumed at home, and you are too wise to put that in peril in a greedy search after foreign trade. [Great applause.] You will not sacrifice these great industries that have created in our country a consuming class for your products. [Cheers.] I do not think that there is any doubt what tariff policy England would wish us to adopt, and yet some say that England is trembling lest we should adopt free trade here [laughter], and so rob her of other markets that she now enjoys. [Laughter.] The story of our colonial days, when England, with selfish and insatiate avarice, laid her repressive hand upon our infant manufactories and attempted to suppress them all, furnishes the first object-lesson she gave us. Another was given when the life of this Nation—the child of England, as she has been wont to call us, speaking the mother tongue, having many institutions inherited from her—was imperilled. The offer of free trade by the Confederacy so touched the commercial greed of England that she forgot the ties of blood and went to the verge of war with us to advance the cause of the rebel Government. [Cheers.] But what England wants, or what any other country wants, is not very important—certainly not conclusive. [Cheers.]
What is best for us and our people should be the decisive question. [Cheers.] My Randolph County friends, there are State questions that must take a strong hold upon the minds of people like yours. The proposition to lift entirely out of the range and control of partisan politics the great benevolent institutions of the State is one that must commend itself to all your people. [Cheers.] If all those friends who sympathize with us upon this question had acted with us in 1886 we should then have accomplished this great reform. [Applause.] And now, to these old gentlemen whose judgment and large experience in life gives added value to their kind words; to these young friends who, for the first time, take a freeman's place in the line of battle to do duty for the right, I give my kindly greetings and best wishes in return for theirs. [Cheers.]