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
Howard County sent a delegation of six hundred citizens this day, led
by Major A. N. Grant. The Lincoln League Club of Kokomo was commanded
by its President, John E. Moore. Other prominent citizens in the
delegation were Hon. J. N. Loop, J. A. Kautz, J. E. Vaile, John Ingalls,
W. E. Blackledge, B. B. Johnson, J. B. Landen, Dr. James Wright, H.
E. McMonigal, Edward Klum, Charles Pickett, and A. R. Ellis. Rev.
Father Rayburn, a voter in the campaign of 1840, was spokesman. General
Harrison, in reply, said:
_Father Rayburn and my Howard County Friends_--I think I may accept
this demonstration as evidence that the action of the Republican
convention at Chicago has been accepted with resignation by the
Republicans of Howard County. [Loud cheers.] You are the favored
citizens of a favored county. Your county has been conspicuous among
the counties of this State for its enterprise and intelligence. You
have been favored with a kindly and generous soil, cultivated by an
intelligent and educated class of farmers. Hitherto you have chiefly
drawn your wealth from the soil. You have had in the city of Kokomo
an enterprising and thrifty county town. You have been conspicuous
for your interest and devotion to the cause of education--for your
interest in bringing forward the coming generations well equipped for
the duties of citizenship. I congratulate you to-day that a new era of
prosperity has opened for your county in the discovery of this new and
free fuel to which Mr. Rayburn has alluded. A source of great wealth
has been opened to your people. You have already begun to realize what
it is to your county, though your expectations have hardly grasped
what it will be when the city of Kokomo and your other towns have
reached the full development which will follow this discovery. You
will then all realize--the citizens of that prosperous place as well
as the farmers throughout the county--the advantage of having a home
market for the products of your farms. [Cheers.] You may not notice
this so much in the appreciation of the prices of the staple products
of your farms, but you will notice it in the expansion of the market
for those more perishable products which cannot reach a distant market
and must be consumed near home. Is it not, then, time for you, as
thoughtful citizens, whatever your previous political affiliations
may have been, to consider the question, "What legislation will most
promote the development of the manufacturing interests of your county
and enlarge the home market for the products of your farm?" I shall
not enter upon a discussion of this question; it is enough to state
it, and leave it to your own intelligent consideration. [Cheers.]
Let me thank you again for this kindly visit, and beg you to excuse
any more extended remarks, and to give me now an opportunity of
thanking each of you personally for the kind things your chairman has
said in your behalf.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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