St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1891-05-14

ness OF your Valleys, o DlOSSOIHlIlS
orchards, of gardens laden with flow
ers. We have seen and been en-
tranced. Our pathway has been
strewn with flowers.
We have been surprised, when we
were in the region Of orchards and
roses, to be suddenly pulled up at
the station and asked to address
some remarks to a pyramid of pig
tin. Products of the mine, rare and
exceptional, have been added to the
products of the field, until the i'm
preston has been made upon my
mind that if any new want should
any want should be developed in
craftsmanship or any vacancies in
office we have a safe reservoir that
can be drawn upon ad libitum. But,
my friends, sweeter than all the in
cense of flowers, richer than all the
products of the mine, has been the
gracious, unaffected, hearty kindness
with which the people of California
have everywhere received us, with
out division, without dissent, SIM
pie and yet magnificent American
welcome. 1t is gratifying that 1T
should be so. We may carry into
our campaigns, to our conventions
and congresses, discussions and div1-
sions, but how grand it is that we
are people who bow reverently to
decision when it is rendered, and who
will follow the flag always-every-
where-with absolute devotion of
heart, without asking what party
may have given the leader in whose
hands it is placed. l believe that we
have come to new epoch as a ma
ton. There are opening portals be-
fore us inviting us to enter, opening
portals to trade and influence and
prestige such as we have never seen
before. We will pursue the paths of
peace; we are not a warlike nation.
All our instincts, all our history is in
the line of peace. Only the intolera-
bic aggression, only the peril of our
institutions of the flag can thorough
ly arose us. With capabilities for
war on land and sea unexcelled by
any nation in the world, we are
smitten with love of peace. We
would promote the peace of this
hemisphere by placing judiciously
some large guns about the Golden
Gate simply for saluting purposes,
and yet they should be of the best
modern type. We should have on
sea some good vessels. We do not
need as great a navy as some other
people, but we do need a sufficient
navy of frst-class ships, simply to
make sure that the peace of our hem
isphere is preserved; simply that we
may not leave great distant marts
and harbors of commerce and our
few citizens who may be dOm1c1led
there to feel lonesome for the sight of
the American flag. We are making
fine progress in the construction of
navy. The best English construc-
ness and perfection of some of our
latest ships. 1t is a source of great
gratifcat ton to me that, here in San
Francisco, the energy, enterprise and
courage of some of our citizens have
constructed plant capable of build
ing the best modern ships. l saw
with great delight the magnificent
launch of one of these new vessels.
1 hope that you may so enlarge your
capacities for construction that it
will not be necessary to send any
naval vessels around the Horn.
We want merchant ships. [ be-
lieve we have come to a time when
we should choose whether we will
continue to be non-participants in
the commerce of the world, or will
now vigorously, with the push and
energy which our people have shown
in other lines of enterprise, claim our
share Of the worlds commerce. l
will not enter into the discussion of
the methods of which the postal bill
of the last session of Congress marks
the beginning. Here in California,
where for so long a time a postal
service that did not pay its own way
was maintained by the government;
where for other years the govern
ment has maintained mail lines into
your valleys, reaching out to every
remote community and paying out
nearly a hundred times the revenue
that was derived from it, it ought
not to be difficult to persuade that
our ocean mail should not longer be
the only service for which we refuse
to expend even the revenues derived.
IL Is my DelleI THAT uHueI Tic opera
ton of the law to which 1 have re-
ferred we shall be able to stimulate
ship-building; to secure some new
lines of American steamships and to
increase the ports Of call of those
now established. 1t will be my effort
to do what may be done under the
powers lodged in me by law to open
and increase trade with the countries
of Central and South America.
hope it may not be long, | know it
will not be long, if we but unitedly
pursue this great scheme, until one
can take a sail in the Bay of San
Francisco and see some deep water
ship come in bearing our own flag.
During our excursion the other day
saw three vessels come in. One