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The New York Times, October 17, 1880

GEN. GRANT IN HARTFORD
WELCOMED WITH PROCESSIONS, SPEECHES, AND FIRE-WORKS.

THE DEPARTURE FROM BOSTON - A PUBLIC RECEPTION IN HARTFORD - WELCOMED BY SAMUEL L. CLEMENS AND OTHERS - GEN. GRANT'S RESPONSE - STARTING FOR NEW YORK

BOSTON, Oct. 16. - Gen. Grant and party left the Brunswick about 8 o'clock this morning, and were driven to the depot of the New York and New England Road, where they took the train for Hartford. A large number of people assembled to see him off. At 8:20 the train moved off amid the cheers of the crowd.

HARTFORD, Oct. 16. - The train stopped a short time at Putnam, where a great number of people assembled. At Willimantic the train was backed down on the Providence Division, where the 1,500 employees of the Willimantic Linen Company assembled in front of their large new mill. Gen. Grant stood upon the platform and received a cordial welcome from the assembly. One of the girls employed in the mill presented him a cabinet containing an assortment of thread manufactured at the company's mills. Gen. Hawley joined the train here, and the party was also met by others of the special reception committee from Hartford, including James G. Batterson, whose guest Gen. Grant is; Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, ex-Gov. Marshall Jewell, Col. Frank W. Cheney, and other prominent citizens.

The train arrived at Hartford at 12 o'clock, and the party took carriages immediately for the Allyn House. The ladies of Gen. Grant's party went on to New York by special car attached to the 12:25 train from Hartford. The city was thronged with visitors, business was almost suspended, and the streets were lined with decorations, not only along the line of march of the procession, but elsewhere. After a collation at the Allyn House, Gen. Grant was formally received on a stand in Bushnell Park, addresses of welcome being made by Mr. James G. Batterson, Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) and Gen. Hawley.

Mr. Clemens spoke as follows:

GENERAL GRANT: I also am deputized to welcome you to the sincere and cordial hospitalities of Hartford, the city of the historic and revered Charter Oak, of which the most of this town is built. [Laugher.] At first it was proposed to have only one speaker to welcome you, but this was changed because it was feared that, considering the shortness of the crop of speeches this year, if anything occurred to prevent that speaker from delivering his speech you would feel disappointed. [Laughter and applause.] I desire at this point to refer to your past history. By years of colossal labor and colossal achievement, you at last beat down a gigantic rebellion and saved your country from destruction. Then the country commanded you to take the helm of State. You preferred your great office of General of the Army, and the rest and comfort which it afforded, but you loyally obeyed and relinquished permanently the ample and well-earned salary of the Generalship, and resigned your accumulating years to the chance mercies of a precarious existence. [Applause.] By this present fatiguing progress through the land you are mightily contributing toward saving your country once more, this time from dishonor and shame and from commercial disaster. [Applause.] You are now a private citizen, but private employments are closed against you because your name would be used for speculative purposes, and you have refused to permit that. But your country will reward you, never fear. [Loud applause.] When Wellington won Waterloo, a battle about on a level with some dozen of your victories, sordid England tried to pay him for that service with wealth and grandeur; she made him a Duke and gave him $4,000,000. If you had done and suffered for any other country what you have done and suffered for your own, you would have been affronted in the same sordid way, but thank God this vast and rich and mighty Republic is imbued to the core with a delicacy which will forever preserve her from so degrading a deserving son. Your country loves you. Your country is proud of you. Your country is grateful to you. [Applause.] Her applauses which have been thundering in your ears all these weeks and months, will never cease while the flag you saved continues to wave. [Great applause.] Your country stands ready from this day forth to testify her measureless love and pride and gratitude toward you in every conceivable inexpensive way. Welcome to Hartford, great soldier, honored statesman, unselfish citizen. [Loud and long-continued applause.]

Gen. Grant said: "Mr. President, and gentlemen of Hartford: I am very proud of the welcomes that I have received at the hands of my fellow-citizens from San Francisco to Boston; but this is the first occasion when I have been thrice welcomed. So much has been said in the three welcomes I have received that it leaves me little to say, except to disagree with the last speaker at tot he character of the American people for generosity. [Gen. Grant thus referred to remarks of Mark Twain substantially to the effect that 'Republics are ungrateful.'] I recognize their generosity; and what they have given me is more valued than gold or silver. No amount of the latter could compensate for the courtesy and kind feeling with which I have everywhere been received. I feel you have given testimony to that today, and for that I thank you one and all."

Gen. Grant and party then entered carriages, and were escorted through the city by a procession composed of 2,000 or more veterans and soldiers from all parts of the State, and nearly 3,000 members of the Republican campaign clubs of Hartford and the surrounding towns. After the parade, Gen. Grant, Gen. Hawley, Gen. Badeau, and other invited guests, dined with Mr. James G. Batterson. Subsequently there was a reception for an hour at the residence of Gen. William H. Bulkeley, after which there were a grand torch-light parade, illuminations, and decorations, and in a blaze of fire-works, electric lights and torches, and the cheers of thousands of people, Gen. Grant was escorted to the depot, leaving by the 10:25 P.M. train for New York.

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