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
To these veterans of 1840 who kindly transfer to this the interest
they felt in that campaign, to these first voters who come to join us
with the high impulses of youth, I desire to extend my sincere thanks.
[Applause.]
INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 4.
The most remarkable night demonstration of the campaign occurred August
4, the occasion being the visit of the Harrison and Morton Railroad
Club of Terre Haute, a thousand strong. They were met by twelve hundred
members of the Indianapolis Railroad Club, and, escorted by several
thousand citizens, marched to the Harrison residence.
At the head of the column rolled the model of a monster locomotive,
emitting fire and smoke and bearing the significant number 544, Hundreds
of stores and residences along the line of march were illuminated.
At the head of the visiting club marched its officers: President, D.
T. Downs; Secretary, Chas. E. Carter; Treasurer, Benj. McKeen; and
Vice-Presidents, R. B. Woolsey, J. L. Pringle, J. N. Evanhart, E. G.
South, L. M. Murphy, H. M. Kearns, George Leckert, and W. H. Miller.
President Downs delivered an address and presented an engrossed copy of
the club roster. General Harrison spoke from a stand in front of his
residence, and said:
_Mr. Downs, Gentlemen of the Terre Haute Railroad Club, and
Fellow-citizens_--I am amazed and gratified at the character of this
demonstration to-night. I do not find words to express the emotions
which swell in my heart as I look into your faces and listen to the
kindly greetings which you have given me through your representative.
He has not spoken in too high praise of the railroad men of the United
States. The character of the duties they are called to discharge
require great intelligence, in many departments the best skill in the
highest mechanic arts, and in all, even in the lowest grade of labor
in connection with railroad management, there is required, for the
safety of the public who entrust themselves to your care, fidelity
and watchfulness, not only in the day, but in the darkness. The man
who attends the switch, the trackman who observes the condition of
the track--all these have put into their charge and keeping the
lives of men and women and the safety of our commerce. Therefore it
is that the exigencies of the service in which you are engaged have
operated to select and call into the service of our great railroad
corporations a picked body of men. I gratefully acknowledge to-night
the service you render to the country of which I am a citizen. The
great importance of the enterprises with which you are connected have
already suggested to our legislators that they owe duties to you as
well as to the travelling and mercantile public. The Congress of the
United States has, under that provision of the Constitution which
commits to its care all foreign and interstate commerce, undertaken
to regulate the great interstate railroads in the interest of equal
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