The Middlebury Register

At the time Andrew Johnson was "swinging around the circle," the feeling of the people was that they would never again hear with complacency of a presidential party's traveling through the country like some puppet show upon exhibition. But President Hayes is received with greater favor and by his wise and liberal bearing disarms the criticisms ready to be hurled at him. The secret of this difference is readily perceivable. Instead of haranguing the crowds with speeches of his own successes and giving free opinions of his own greatness, President Hayes talks sense, is discreet, hearty, cordial and apparently sincere, and while having "the courage of his opinions," modestly claims for them only the respect they merit and win for themselves by their plain common sense. It is certainly gratifying that he is met by his political opponents and the elements from which he might expect opposition in the South, with so much cordiality. His first visit south of the Ohio river was to Louisville, Ky., Monday, and was a perfect ovation. His entrance upon the sacred soil of the "solid South" is described by a correspondent as follows: As soon as the president and his party reached the middle of the Ohio river, as their train moved across the fine bridge from the Indiana shore, Kentucky's greeting began, in the flags that fluttered from the graceful trusses of the bridge. On the southern bank of the river the crowd began. It lined the track up to the depot. It massed in thousands around that structure and it bordered Main street in dense columns along the thirteen squares between the railroad terminus and the hotel. From the fronts of the buildings thousands of flags were hung. Indeed, I think more stars and stripes waved in Louisville to-day than have been seen in the whole South, put together, since the war. Almost every window had its flag; and above the flags, leaning from the windows, and clothed in bright colors, were as many ladies at each as could look out, so that the procession, in its march, moved between rainbow-colored walls. Most touching and significant of the many interesting features of the reception was the long double line of confederate veterans, commanded by General Basil Duke, that acted as an escort to the president. Each of these old soldiers wore a white ribbon in his coat, and the horsemen who marshalled the battalion wore white sashes, emblematic of the peace which has come to heal the old feud between the North and South.