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PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



well be permitted to fade into insignificance. The 

 question we liave to consider for the immediate 

 welfare of those States of the Union is the question 

 of government or no government, of social order and 

 all the peaceful industries and the happiness that 

 belong to it, or return to barbarism. It is a question 

 in which every citizen of the nation is deeply inter- 

 ested, and with respect to which we ought not to be, 

 in a partisan sense, either Republicans or Demo- 

 crats, but fellow-citizens, and fellow-men, to whom 

 the interests of a common country and a com- 

 mon humanity are dear. 



The sweeping revolution of the entire labor 

 system of a large portion of our country, and the 

 advance of four millions of people from a condition 

 of servitude to that of citizenship, upon an equal 

 footing with their former masters, could not occur 

 without presenting problems of the gravest mo- 

 ment, to be dealt with by the emancipated race, by 

 their former masters, and by the General Govern- 

 ment, the author of the act of emancipation. That it 

 was a wise, just, and providential act, fraught with 

 good for all concerned, is now generally conceded 

 throughout the country. That a. moral obligation rests 

 upon the National Government to employ its consti- 

 tutional power and influence to establish the rights 

 of the people it has emancipated ? and to protect 

 them in the enjoyment of those rights when they 

 are infringed or assailed, is also generally admit- 

 ted. 



The evils which afflict the Southern States can 

 only be removed or remedied by the united and 

 harmonious efforts of both races, actuated by motives 

 of mutual sympathy and regard ; and while in duty 

 bound and fully determined to protect the rights of 

 all by every constitutional means at the disposal of 

 my administration, I am sincerely anxious to use 

 every legitimate influence in favor of honest and 

 efficient local self-government as the true resource 

 of those States for the promotion of the content- 

 ment and prosperity of their citizens. In the effort 

 I shall make to accomplish this purpose I ask the 

 cordial cooperation of all who cherish an interest 

 in the welfare of the country, trusting that party ties 

 and the prejudice of races will be freely surrendered 

 in behalf olf the great purpose to be accomplished. 

 In the important work of restoring the South, it is 

 not the political situation alone that merits atten- 

 tion. The material development of that section of 

 the country has been arrested by the social and po- 

 litical revolution through which it has passed, and 

 now needs and deserves the considerate care of the Na- 

 tional Government within the just limits prescribed 

 by the Constitution and wise public economy. 

 But at the basis of all prosperity, for that as well as 

 for every other part of the country, lies the improve- 

 ment of the intellectual and moral condition of the 

 people. Universal suffrage should rest upon uni- 

 versal education. To this end liberal and perma- 

 nent provision should be made for the support of free 

 schools by the State governments, and, if need be, 

 supplemented by legitimate aid from national au- 

 thority. Let me assure my countrymen of the 

 Southern States that it is my earnest desire to regard 

 and promote their truest interests, the interests of 

 the white and of the colored people both and 

 equally, and to put forth my best efforts in behalf 

 of a civil policy which will forever wipe out in 

 our political affairs the color line, and the distinction 

 between the North nnd South, to the end that we 

 may not have merely a united North or a united 

 South, but a united country. I ask the attention of 

 the public to the paramount necessity of reform in 

 our civil service, a reform not merely as to certain 

 abuses and practices of so-called official patronage 

 which have come to have the sanction of usage in 

 the several departments of our Government, but a 

 change in the system of appointment itself, a reform 

 that shall be thorough, radical, and complete, a re- 

 turn to the principles and practices of the founders 



of the Government. They neither expected nor de- 

 sired from public officers any partisan service. 



They meant that public officers should owe their 

 whole service to the Government and to the people. 

 They meant that the officer should be secure in his 

 tenure as long as his personal character remained 

 untarnished and the performance of his duties satis- 

 factory. They held that appointments to office were 

 not to be made nor expected merely as rewards lor 

 partisan services, nor merely on the nomination of 

 members of Congress as being entitled in any re- 

 spect to the control of such appointments. "The 

 fact that both the great political parties of the coun- 

 try, in declaring their principles prior to the election, 

 gave prominent place to the subject of reform of our 

 civil service, recognizing and strongly urging its 

 necessity in terms almost identical in their specific 

 import with those I have here employed, must Le 

 accepted as a conclusive argument in behalf of those 

 measures. It must be regarded as the expression 

 of the united voice and will of the whole country 

 upon this subject, and both political parties are vir- 

 tually pledged to give it their unreserved support. 

 The President of the United States of necessity owes 

 his election to office to the suffrage and zealous la- 

 bors of a political party, the members of which 

 cherish with ardor, and regard as of essential impor- 

 tance, the principles of their party organization. 

 But he should strive to be always mindful of the 

 fuct that he serves his party best who serves Lis 

 country best. 



In furtherance of the reform we seek and in other 

 important respects a change of great importance, I 

 recommend an amendment to the Constitution pre- 

 scribing a term of six years for the presidential office 

 and forbidding a reelection. 



With respect to the financial condition of the 

 country I shall not attempt an extended history of 

 the embarrassment and prostration which we nave 

 suffered during the past three years. The depression 

 in all our varied commercial and manufacturing 

 interests throughout the country, which began in 

 September, 1878, still continues. 



It is very gratifying, however, to be able to Fay 

 that there are indications all around us of a comir.g 

 change to prosperous times. Upon the currency 

 question, intimately connected as it is with this topic, 

 I may be permitted to repeat here the statement 

 made in my letter of acceptance, that in my 

 judgment the feeling of uncertainty inseparable 

 from an irredeemable paper currency, with its 

 fluctuations of values, is one of the greatest ob- 

 stacles to a return to prosperous times. 



The only safe paper currency is one which rests 

 upon a coin basis, and is at all times promptly con- 

 vertible into coin. I adhere to the views heretofore 

 expressed by me in favor of congressional legislation 

 in behalf of an early resumption of specie payments, 

 and I am satisfied not only that mis is wise, but 

 that the interests as well as the public sentiment of 

 the country imperatively demand it. 



Passing from these remarks upon the condition 

 of our own country to consider pur relations with 

 other lands, we are reminded, by international com- 

 plications abroad threatening the peace of Europe, 

 that our traditional rule of non-interference in the 

 affairs of foreign nations has proved of great value 

 in past times, and ought to be strictly observed. 



The policy inaugurated by my honored predeces- 

 sor, President Grant, of submitting to arbitration 

 grave questions in dispute between ourselves and 

 foreign powers, points to a new and incomparably 

 the best instrumentality for the preservation of 

 peace, and will, as I believe, become n beneficent 

 example of the course to be pursued in similar 

 emergencies by other nations. 



If, unhappily, questions of difference should nt 

 any time during the period of my administration 

 arise between the United States and any foreipn 

 government, it will certainly be my disposition and 



