to. I understand very
well that it was not by reason of ability or talents that I was
chosen. But that which does rejoice me is that here, where I have
been known from my childhood, there are those that come and rejoice
at the result.

I trust, my friends, that as I run along in this desultory way--for
you well know that since I learned that I was to be here to-night,
the multitude of letters, and visits, and telegrams requiring
attention have given me no time to prepare for a reception like
this--you must, therefore, put up with hastily-formed sentences,
very unfitly representing the sentiments appropriate to the
occasion. Let me, if I may do it without too much egotism, recur to
the history of my connection with Fremont. Forty-two years ago my
uncle, Sardis Birchard, brought me to this place, and I rejoice, my
friends, in the good taste and good feeling which have placed his
portrait here to-night. He, having adopted me as his child, brought
me to Fremont. I recollect well the appearance of the then Lower
Sandusky, consisting of a few wooden buildings scattered along the
river, with little paint on them, and these trees none of them
grown, the old fort still having some of its earthworks remaining,
so that it could be easily traced. A pleasant village this was for
a boy to enjoy himself in. There was the fishing on the river,
shooting water-fowls above the dam, at the islands and the lake.
Perhaps no boy ever enjoyed his departure from home better than I
did when I first came to Fremont.

But now see what this town is,--how it has grown. It has not
increased to a first-class city, but it has become a pleasant home,
so pleasant, so thriving that I rejoice to think that whatever may
be the result next fall it will be pleasant to return to it when
the contest is over. If defeated, I shall return to you oftener
than if I go to the White House. If I go there I shall look forward
with pleasure to the time when I shall be permitted to return to
you, to be a neighbor with you again. And really we have cause to
be satisfied with our home and the interests which the future has
in store for us here. Larger cities always have strife and rivalry,
from which we are free, and yet we are well situated between two
commercial centers, the Eastern and Wester