GENERAL RECEPTION COMMITTEES.

COMMITTEE FROM CITY COUNCIL.

COMMITTEE FROM POSTS 2 AND 45, G. A. R.

ADDRESS OF WELCOME ON BEHALF OF THE STATE AND CITY.
Mayor Ed. Watkins.

RESPONSES.

Governor Daniel H. Hastings and Adjutant General Thomas J. Stewart.

ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TENNESSEE G. A. R. Colonel H. B. Case.

RESPONSE.

General J. P. S. Gobin, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic.

ADDRESSES ON BEHALF OF THE UNITED CONFEDERATE VETERANS.

Captain J. F. Shipp.
Colonel L. T. Dickinson.

RESPONSE.

Captain George W. Skinner, Secretary of Executive Committee of the
Chickamauga-Chattanooga Battlefields Commission.

At the conclusion of the speaking, Governor Hastings, Commander-in-Chief Gobin, and other distinguished visitors will hold an informal reception on the platform.

ADDRESS OF WELCOME ON BEHALF OF THE STATE AND CITY.

MAYOR ED. WATKINS, Presiding Officer.

YR

UR EXCELLENCY, Governor of Pennsylvania and Staff, Ladies and Gentlemen:-It is my pleasure on behalf of the people of the State of Tennessee, and particularly of the city of Chattanooga, to extend to you, our distinguished visiting friends, a cordial welcome. We are extremely happy to have you with us on this occasion, and we trust that we may be able to make your stay pleasant and entertaining. We cannot more fittingly illustrate the pleasure it affords us than to say on behalf of the citizens of Tennessee, that we are a younger member in the sisterhood of states and, like the younger children at home, we are extremely happy to have our older brothers from the great Keystone State with us on this occasion. Younger in the sisterhood of states, however, we say to our older brothers that when the next quarter of a century shall have rolled around it is our purpose and determination to have reached you in the race of progress, and then it can only be said that the two greatest states of the Union are the Keystone State of Pennsylvania, and the Volunteer State of Tennessee.

Thirty odd years ago, when many of you were here, the circumstances and surroundings were vastly different. Martial music filled the air and the glitter and shine of musketry was seen from every hilltop. You then captured the city of Chattanooga by force of arms, but to-day you have captured her through the avenues of that common loyalty to the National Government which is shared alike by the boys who wore the blue and the boys who wore the gray. Dixie and Yankee Doodle have become so blended into each other until it takes the combined strains of music emanating from both pieces to constitute the popular national air. No spirit of animosity between the once contending forces exists to-day.

With all this we invite you to feel your perfect freedom within the great city of Chattanooga, because we have the most chivalric and the most generous people in the world. Perhaps you may not understand exactly why I should make this assertion.

In the early days of Chattanooga we sent missionaries to the older states and gathered from their midst many of their best people and transplanted them into Chattanooga-more than two hundred and fifty of our very best citizens came from your great State. Thus, bringing together the very best people from various sections of the country, we have built

up a city peculiar to itself, and, therefore, as the municipal head of the government, I am happy to say to you that we have the finest people in the world. Bright, flashing minds from different sections of the country have rubbed off the rugged edges of sectional prejudice and obstinate determination and have left the polished minds of the most loyal citizens of the nation. The commingling of our citizenship in this manner has blended the manners and habits of the various sections into a cultivated harmony.

It is said on a public occasion of this kind it is not with entire good taste to render an apology for the surrounding circumstances, but I am constrained to override the rules of propriety and say to you that we are extremely sorry that we have not present on this occasion the Hon. Robt. L. Taylor, the distinguished Governor of Tennessee, in order that he, as the head of the State of Tennessee, might extend to you a welcome which he, in his inimitable style, alone could do. He is so engaged in the performance of his official duties that it is impossible for him to be with us. Therefore, in behalf of the good people of Tennessee and in response to the express wish of the city government, I extend that cordial welcome which the good people of Chattanooga extend you, also on behalf of the people of the State of Tennessee.

There is but one flag-the flag of our common country, which unfurls itself above the heads of the soldiers of Pennsylvania and the soldiers of Tennessee. Let the invader who seeks to destroy our national freedom plant his footsteps upon this continent, and the boys who wore the blue and the gray will vie with each other as to the extent of their loyalty.

Therefore, to you who constituted the soldiers of the Union army in 1863 when you occupied the hills and hollows which surround the city, on behalf of the Confederate soldiers of the State of Tennessee, I tender a most hearty and cordial welcome on this occasion.

Every man and every woman in the great State of Tennessee echoes the welcome back as it stretches across hilltops and valleys.

With pleasure we invite you to visit with freedom the historic places and spots which surround our beautiful city. We ask you to go to the crest of towering Lookout, which lifts its peaks above our city, and there witness the panorama which stretches out before you, and which is unequaled by any scenery upon the American continent.

We ask you also to visit our beautiful cemetery where the silent dead, who fought for their country, slumber peacefully in Nature's most beautiful yard.

We invite you also to visit the historic spots on Missionary Ridge and Orchard Knob and there behold the battle ground of the celebrated battle of Missionary Ridge between General Bragg and General Grant; but above all, do not neglect to follow the majestic Tennessee as she flows through the Cumberland Mountains, winding her way onward, in order that you may behold the prettiest river scenery in the world.

I am not unmindful of the great honor that is conferred upon us by having this distinguished assembly of the people from one of the greatest states of the Union held in our city, and this reason makes us all the more anxious to have you feel and enjoy the freedom of our city and the hospitality of our people.

As a distinct token of the pleasure and love which we maintain for you and of the welcome which we desire to extend to you, I herewith hand to your Excellency, the Governor of the great State of Pennsylvania, this key with the National colors attached thereto, and say to you that it will unlock to you every privilege and every right and every pleasure that Chattanooga can afford. Its size is emblematic of the fact that in order to enter the hearts of the good people of Chattanooga you require but little force.

Take this as a memento of that warm appreciation which we have for you and for your citizens, and make your stay as pleasant as possible.

RESPONSE.

GOVERNOR DANIEL H. HASTINGS.

Μ'

R. MAYOR, Ladies and Gentlemen:-We, as representatives of Pennsylvania, come into the presence of this splendid representative gathering with uncovered heads and warm hearts to return sincere thanks for your kindly welcome. We are here on a mission of love. We have been looking forward to this event for many months. We were compelled to wait till the government provided a national park. We waited till the State of Pennsylvania provided transportation to the scenes of your conquest. More than that, Pennsylvania, claiming you as children, arranged to put monuments upon the field to be an everlasting memorial of your valor and the valor of your comrades who fell in battle. We wanted to visit the Centennial but were warned that we might be endangered by yellow fever; we had to husk our corn, make our apple butter, thresh our buckwheat, get our winter wood, and clothe our children for school. We could not come sooner.

Words fail me to tell how glad we are to be with you.

We are perhaps better acquainted with each other than with the younger generation. When these old soldiers of Pennsylvania return they may tell of visiting the national cemetery and finding the graves of brave men who fell on the battlefields. Mayhap when they return they may have to tell some widow and orphans the old, old story. No one can tell who ministered to your loved one in his last hours; no one can tell