Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/40

20 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS cess and well-being." Addressing a meeting on the day of Sheridan s funeral: "He was one of those great commanders who, upon the field of battle, towered a very god of war. . . . He rested and re freshed his command with the wine of victory, and found recuperation in the dispersion of the enemy that confronted him." To a delegation of farmers : "I congratulate you not so much upon the rich farms of your country as upon your virtuous and happy homes. The home is the best, as it is the first, school of citizenship." All these campaign speeches, with a description of the circumstances of their delivery, are collected in a volume published by Lovell & Co., of New York. But more remarkable than these are the one hundred and forty addresses delivered during his trip to the Pacific coast and back a journey of 10,000 miles, which was accomplished in thirty-one days, from April 15 to May 15, 1890, without the variation of one minute from the prearranged schedule for arriving and departing from the hun dreds of stations on the way. These addresses were non-political, and breathe throughout a spirit of high patriotism and a call to the high responsibili ties of citizenship. In a letter to an American friend who had sent him the volume containing these speeches, the late Lord Coleridge says : "The speeches give me a very high idea of Mr. Harrison. We know very little here of your politicians, and