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 President was welcomed at Johnson City by 3,000 people. S. K. N.
Patton Post, G. A. R, with Maj. A. Cantwell, J. M. Erwin, and W. Hodges,
acted as a guard of honor to the Chief Magistrate. The committee to
receive and entertain the President comprised: Mayor Ike T. Jobe, Hon.
W. G. Mathes, President Board of Trade; Hon. T. F. Singiser, Hon. A.
B. Bowman, Hon. B. F. Childress, Thos. E. Matson, Jas. M. Martin, J.
C. Campbell, H. C. Chandler, J. W. Cox, C. W. Marsh, L. W. Wood, J.
A. Mathes, H. W. Hargraves, J. F. Crumley, M. N. Johnson, and W. W.
Kirkpatrick.
Congressman Alfred A. Taylor presented the President, who spoke as
follows:
_My Fellow-citizens_--The office of President of the United States
is one of very high honor and is also one of very high responsibility.
No man having conscientiously at heart the good of the whole people,
whose interests are, under the law, in some degree committed to his
care, can fail to feel a most oppressive sense of inadequacy when he
comes to the discharge of these high functions.
Elected under a system of government which gives to the majority
of our people who have expressed their wishes through constitutional
methods the right to choose their public servants, when he has taken
the oath that inducts him into office he becomes the servant of all
the people, and while he may pursue the advocacy of those measures to
which the people have given their approval by his choice, he should
always act and speak with a reserve and a respect for the opinion
of others that shall not alienate from him the good-will of his
fellow-citizens, without regard to political belief.
I shall not speak of what has been done, but I have a supreme regard
for the honor of the Nation, a profound respect for the Constitution,
and a most sincere desire to meet the just expectations of my
fellow-citizens. I am not one of those who believe that the good of
any class can be permanently and largely attained except upon lines
which promote the good of all our people.
I rejoice in the Union of the States. I rejoice to stand here
in East Tennessee among a people who so conspicuously and at such
sacrifice during the hour of the Nation's peril stood by the flag
and adhered to their convictions of public duty [cheers]; and I am
especially glad to be able to say that those who, following other
views of duty, took sides against us in that struggle, without
division in voice or heart to-day praise Almighty God that He
preserved us one Nation. [Cheers.]
There is no man, whatever his views upon the questions that then
divided us, but, in view of the marvellous benefits which are
disseminating themselves over these States, must also bless God to-day
that slavery no longer exists and that the Union of free States is
indissoluble. [Cheers.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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