Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United StatesHarrison, Benjamin
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Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States
Harrison, Benjamin
Harrison, Benjamin, 1833-1901; Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- Politics and government
The evening of the day following his nomination General Harrison was
visited by the surviving members of his old regiment, the Seventieth
Indiana Volunteers, led by Major George W. Grubbs of Martinsville. There
was also present a delegation from Boone County headed by the Hon. Henry
L. Bynum, O. P. Mahan and S. J. Thompson; also the returning delegates
from Vermont to the Chicago convention, headed by Gov. Redfield Proctor
and General J. G. McCullough.
Responding to the address of Major Grubbs, on behalf of the veterans,
General Harrison said:
_Comrades_--Called, as I have been, by the national convention of
one of the great political parties of this country to be its candidate
for the presidency, it will probably be my fortune before the election
to receive many delegations representing various interests and classes
of our fellow-citizens, but I am sure that out of them all there will
come none whose coming will touch my heart so deeply as this visit
from my comrades of the Seventieth Indiana and these scattered members
of the other regiments that constituted the First Brigade of the Third
Division of the Twentieth Army Corps. I recall the scene to which
Major Grubbs has alluded. I remember that summer day, when, equipped
and armed, we were called to leave our homes and cross the Ohio River
and enter the territory that was in arms against the Government which
we were sworn to support. I recall, with you, the tender parting, the
wringing of hearts with which we left those we loved. I recall the
high and buoyant determination, the resolute carriage with which you
went to do your part in the work of suppressing the great rebellion.
I remember the scenes through which we went in that hard discipline
of service and sickness, and all of those hard incidents which are
necessary to convert citizens into veterans.
I remember the scenes of battle in which we stood together. I
remember especially that broad and deep grave at the foot of the
Resaca hill where we left those gallant comrades who fell in that
desperate charge. I remember, through it all, the gallantry, devotion
and steadfastness, the high set patriotism you always exhibited. I
remember how, after sweeping down with Sherman from Chattanooga to the
sea and up again through the Carolinas and Virginia, you, with those
gallant armies that had entered the gate of the South by Louisville
and Vicksburg, marched in the great review up the grand avenue of our
Nation's capital.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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