An open air ceremony or presentation was decided upon and took place at 5 o’clock in the afternoon of June 15th upon the balcony in front of the old State House, the legislators occupying the room within. In response to the governor’s address Perry, deeply moved, spoke as follows:— “It was in my earliest boyhood, before the introduction of steamboats or railroads, that I often watched upon the shore for the first glimpse of the gaily decorated packet-sloop, that in those days usually brought the governor from Providence to this town, and witnessed with childlike delight, in sight of this very edifice, the pomp, parade and festivities of ‘Election Day.’ Since then I have traversed almost every part of the globe in the prosecution of the duties of a profession of which I am justly proud, and now, after a lapse of nearly half a century, when declining in life, to be called by the representatives of my native state back to these hallowed precincts, here to receive from the lips of its Chief Magistrate the commendation of my fellow-citizens, is an honor I little expected when as a boy midshipman, forty-six years ago, I first embarked upon an element, then and always the most congenial to my aspirations for honorable emprise.” [Illustration: SILVER SALVER IN POSSESSION OF COMMODORE PERRY’S DAUGHTER, MRS. AUGUST BELMONT.] Cherishing a keen remembrance and love of his boyhood’s home, he resolved to visit it, and also the ancestral farm and cemetery at South Kingston. In a call made upon one of his earliest friends he stated that his object was to purchase the Perry homestead, which he said would never have gone out of the family if he had not been at sea. He wished to erect a monument to his grandfather, Freeman Perry. While thus on his native heather, the burly Commodore would visit also Tower Hill where his father once lived, and his youngest sister, Mrs. Jane Butler of South Carolina, was born. When offered a guide he said he thought he knew the way better than his guide. Every foot, indeed, was familiar ground. Miss Oprah Rose, in writing, March 15th 1883, of this visit, says further: “I had never seen the Commodore before, but had seen his younger brother and sister. His hair, I noticed, was handsome and grew well on his forehead. His eyes indicated thought, and, as he turned them rather slowly, seemed to take in or comprehend what he saw; in manner he was easy and natural. As he walked away, I saw that he expressed character in the manner he carried his shoulders. It was a military air. He looked as if he expected to do his duty even if he made sacrifices.”