844 



UNITED STATES. 



our Southern communities. This is to be deplored, 

 though it was perhaps unavoidable; but those who 

 resisted the change should remember that under our 

 institutions there was no middle ground lor the negro 

 race between slavery and equal citizenship. There 

 can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the 

 United States. Freedom can never yield its fullness 

 of blessings so long as the law or its administration 

 places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any 

 virtuous citizen. The emancipated race has made re- 

 markable progress with unquestionable devotion to 

 the Union, with patience ana *entleness not born of 

 fear. They h.ivu followed the light as God gave them 

 to see the light. They are rapidly laying the material 

 foundation of self-support ; widening the circle of in- 

 telligenca, and beginning to enjoy the blessings that 

 gathered around "the homes of industrious people. 

 They deserve the generous encouragement of all good 

 men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend, 

 they shall enjoy full and equal protection of Consti- 

 tution and laws. The full and free enjoyment of 

 equal suffrage is still a question, and a frank state- 

 ment of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged 

 that, in many places, honest local government is im- 

 possible if the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed 

 to vote. These are grave allegations. So far as the 

 latter is true, it is the only palliation that can be 

 offered for opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad 

 local government is certainly a great evil, which 

 ought to be prevented, but to violate the freedom and 

 sanctity of suffrage is more than an evil ; it is a crime, 

 which, if persisted in, will destroy the Government 

 itself. If in other lands it be high treason to com- 

 pass the death of the King, it should be counted no 

 less a crime here to strangle our sovereign power and 

 stifle its voice. It has been said that unsettled ques- 

 tions have no pity for the repose of nations ; it should 

 be said, with the utmost emphasis, that this question 

 of suffrage will never give repose or safety to the 

 States or~to the nation until each, within its own juris- 

 diction, makes and keeps the ballot free and pure by 

 the strong sanctions of the law. But the danger 

 which arises from ignorance in the voter can not bo 

 denied. It covers a field far wider than that of negro 

 suffrage, and the present condition of that race. It is 

 a danger that lurks and hides in the sources and 

 foundations of power in every State. We have no 

 standard by which to measure the disaster that may 

 be brought upon us by ignorance and vice in the citi- 

 zens, when joined to corruption and fraud in suffrage. 

 The voters of the Union, who make and unmake 

 constitutions, and upon whose will hang the desti- 

 nies of our governments, can transmit their supreme 

 authority to no successors save the coining generation 

 of voters who are sole heirs of sovereign powers. If 

 that generation comss to its inheritance, blinded by 

 ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall of the re- 

 public will be certain and remediless. The census 

 has already sounded the alarm in the appalling figures 

 which mark how dangerously high the tide of illit- 

 eracy has risen among our voters and their children. 

 To the South this question is of supreme importance ; 

 but the responsibility for the existence of slavery does 

 not rest upon the South alone. The nation itself is 

 responsible for the extension of suffrage, and is under 

 special obligation to aid in removing the illiteracy 

 which it has added to the voting population. To the 

 North and South alike there is but one remedy. All 

 constitutional powers of the nation and States, and 

 all the volunteer forces of the people should be sum- 

 moned to meet this danger by the saving influence of 

 universal education. It is the high privilege and sa- 

 cred duty of those now living to educate their suc- 

 cessors, and provide by intelligence and virtue for the 

 inheritance which awaits them. In this beneficent 

 work sections and races should be forgotten, and par- 

 tisanship should be unknown. Let our hope find a 

 new meaning in the divine oracle which declares that 

 " a little child shall lead them," for our little children 

 will soon control the destinies of the republic. 



My countrymen, we do not differ in our judgment 

 concerning the controversies of the first genera- 

 tions^ and fifty years hence our children will not 

 be divided in their opinions concerning our con- 

 troversies. They will surely bless their fathers and 

 their fathers' God that the Union was preserved, 

 that slavery was overthrown, and that both races 

 were made equal before the law. We may retard, 

 but we can not prevent. Is it not possible for us 

 now to make a truce with time by anticipating and 

 accepting its inevitable verdict ? Enterprises of the 

 highest importance to our moral and material well- 

 being invite us, and offer ample scope for the employ- 

 ment of our best powers. Let all our people, leaving 

 behind them the battle-field of dead issues, move for- 

 ward, and, in the strength of liberty and restored 

 Union, win the grander victories of peace. The pros- 

 perity which now prevails is without a parallel in our 

 history. Fruitful seasons have done much to secure 

 it, but they have not done all. The preservation of 

 public credit, and the resumption of specie payments, 

 so successfully attained by the Administration of my 

 predecessor, have enabled our people to secure the 

 blessings which the seasons brought. By experience 

 of commercial nations, in all ages, it has been found 

 that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation 

 for the monetary system. Confusion has recently 

 been created by the variations in the relative value of 

 the two metals, but I confidently believe that an ar- 

 rangement can be made between the leading commer- 

 cial nations which will secure the general use of both 

 metals. Congress should provide that compulsory 

 coinage of silver, now required by law, may not dis- 

 turb our monetary system by driving either metal out 

 of circulation. If possible, such adjustment should 

 be made that the purchasing power of every corned 

 dollar will be exactly equal as a debt-paying power 

 in all the countries of the world. The chief duty of 

 the national Government in connection with the cur- 

 rency of the country is to coin money and declare its 

 value. Grave doubts have been entertained whether 

 Congress is authorized by the Constitution to make 

 any form of paper money a legal tender. The present 

 issue of United States paper has been sustained by the 

 necessities of war, but paper should depend for its 

 value and currency upon its convenience, and in its 

 prompt redemption in coin at the will of the holder, 

 and not upon its compulsory circulation. These notes 

 are not money, but a promise to pay money. If the 

 holders demand it, the promise should be kept. The 

 refunding of the national debt, at a lower rate of in- 

 terest, should be accomplished without compelling the 

 withdrawal of national-bank notes, and thus disturb 

 the business of the country. I venture to refer to the 

 position 1 have occupied on financial questions during 

 a long service in Congress, and to say that time and 

 experience have strengthened the opinions I have 

 often expressed on these subjects. The finances of 

 the Government shall suffer no detriment which it 

 may be possible for my Administration to prevent. 



The interests of agriculture deserve more attention 

 -from the Government than they have yet received. 

 The farms of the United States are the homes and 

 give employment to more than one half our people, 

 and furnish* much the largest part of all our exports. 

 As the Government lights our coast for the protection 

 of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so it should 

 give to the tillers of the soil the best light and prac- 

 tical science. 



Our manufactures are rapidly making us industri- 

 ally independent, and are opening to capital and labor 

 new and profitable fields of employment. Their steady 

 and healthy growth should be maintained. Our facil- 

 ities for transportation should be promoted by contin- 

 ued improvement of our harbors and great interior 

 water-ways, and by increase of our tonnage on the 

 oceans. The development of the world's commerce 

 has led to urgent demand for shortening the great sea- 

 voyage around Cape Horn by the construction of ship- 

 canals or railways across the isthmus which unites the 



