PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



6C3 



from such employment was effected deliberately, 

 and with solicitous care for the peace and good or- 

 der of society and the protection of the property 

 and persons and every right of all classes of citizens. 



The results that have followed are indeed sig- 

 nificant and encouraging. All apprehension of 

 danger from remitting those States to local self- 

 government is dispelled ; and a most salutary change 

 in the minds of the people has begun, and is in 

 progress in every part of that section of the country 

 once the theatre of unhappy civil strife, substituting 

 for suspicion, distrust, and aversion, concord, friend- 

 ship, and patriotic attachment to the Union. No 

 unprejudiced mind will deny that the terrible and 

 often fatal collisions which for several years have 

 been of frequent occurrence, and have agitated and 

 alarmed the public mind, have almost entirely 

 ceased, and that a spirit of mutual forbearance and 

 hearty national interest has succeeded. There has 

 been a general reestablishment of order, and of the 

 orderly administration of justice. Instances of re- 

 maining lawlessness have become of rare occurrence ; 

 political turmoil and turbulence have disappeared ; 

 useful industries have been resumed ; public credit 

 in the Southern States has been greatly strength- 

 ened ; and the encouraging benefits of a revival of 

 commerce between the sections of the country, lately 

 embroiled in civil war, are fully enjoyed. Such are 

 some of the results already attained, upon which the 

 country is to be congratulated. They are of such 

 importance that we may with confidence patiently 

 await the desired consummation that will surely 

 come with the natural progress of events. 



It may not be improper here to say that it should 

 be our fixed and unalterable determination to pro- 

 tect, by all available and proper means, under the 

 Constitution and laws, the lately emancipated race 

 in the enjoyment of their rights and privileges ; and 

 I urge upon those to whom heretofore the colored 

 people have sustained the relation of bondmen the 

 wisdom and justice of humane and liberal local leg- 

 islation with respect to their education and general 

 welfare. A firm adherence to the laws ; both nation- 

 al and State, as to the civil and political rights of 

 the colored people, now advanced to full and equal 

 citizenship ; the immediate repression and sure pun- 

 ishment by the national and local authorities, within 

 their respective jurisdictions, of every instance of 

 lawlessness and violence toward them, is required 

 for the security alike of both races, and is justly 

 demanded by the public opinion of the country and 

 the age. In this way the restoration of harmony 

 and good-will, and the complete protection of every 

 citizen in the full enjoyment of every constitutional 

 right, will surely be attained. Whatever" authority 

 rests with me to this end, I shall not hesitate to put 

 forth. 



Whatever belongs to the power of Congress and 

 the jurisdiction of the courts of the Union, they may 

 confidently be relied upon to provide and perform. 

 And to the Legislatures, the courts, and the exec- 

 utive authorities of the several States, I earnestly 

 appeal to secure, by adequate, appropriate, and sea- 

 sonable means, within their borders, these common 

 and uniform rights of a united people, which loves 

 liberty, abhors oppression, and reveres justice. 

 These objects are very dear to my heart. I shall 

 continue most earnestly to strive for their attain- 

 ment. The cordial cooperation of all classes of 

 all sections of the country and of both races is 

 required for this purpose ; and with these blessing* 

 assured, and not otherwise, we may safely hope to 

 hand down our free institutions of government un- 

 impaired to the generation that will succeed us. 



Among the other subjects of great and general 

 importance to the people of this country, I cannot 

 be mistaken, I think, in regarding as preeminent 

 the policy and measures which are designed to se- 

 cure the restoration of the currency to that normal 

 and healthful condition in which, by the resumption 



of specie payments, our internal trade and foreign 

 commerce may be brought into harmony with the 

 system of exchanges which is based upon the pre- 

 cious metals as the intrinsic money of the world. 

 In the public judgment that this end should be 

 sought and compassed a speedily and securely as 

 the resources of the people and the wisdom of their 



government can accomplish, there in a much greater 

 degree of unanimity than is found to concur in the 

 specific measures which will bring the country to 

 this desired end, or the rapidity of the steps by 

 which it can be safely reached. 



Upon a most anxious and deliberate examination 

 which I have felt it my duty to give to the subject, 

 I am but the more confirmed in the opinion which 

 I expressed in accepting the nomination for the 

 Presidency, and again upon my inauguration, that 

 the policy of resumption should be pursued by every 

 suitable means, and that no legialatiom would be 

 wise that should disparage the importance or retard 

 the attainment of that result. I have no disposition, 

 and certainly no right, to question the sincerity or 

 the intelligence of opposing opinions, and would 

 neither conceal nor undervalue the considerable 

 difficulties, and even occasional distresses, which 

 may attend the progress of the nation toward this 

 primary condition to its general and permanent 

 prosperity. I must, however, adhere to my most 

 earnest conviction that any wavering in purpose or 

 unsteadiness in methods, so far from avoiding or 

 reducing the inconvenience inseparable from the 

 transition from an irredeemable to a redeemable 

 paper currency, would only tend to increased and 

 prolonged disturbance in values, and, unlesa re- 

 trieved, must end in serious disorder, dishonor, 

 and disaster in the financial affair* of the govern- 

 ment and of the people. 



The mischiefs which I apprehend, and urgently 

 deprecate, are confined to no cluss of people iudeeu, 

 but seem bo mo most certainly to threaten the in- 

 dustrious masses, whether their occupations are of 

 skilled or common labor. To them, it seems to me, 

 it is of prime importance that their labor should be 

 compensated in money which is itself fixed in 

 exchangeable value by being irrevocably measured 

 by the labor necessary to its production. This 

 permanent quality of the money of the people is 

 sought for and can only be gained by the resumption 

 of specie payments. The rich, the speculative, the 

 operating, the money-dealing clauses, may not always 

 feel the mischiefs of, or may find casual profits in, 

 a variable currency; but the misfortunes of such a 

 currency to those who are paid salaries or wages are 

 inevitable and remediless. 



Closely connected with this general subject of 

 the resumption of specie payments is one or subor- 

 dinate, but still of grave, importance ; I mean the 

 readjustment of our coinage system by the renewal 

 of the silver dollar as an element in our specie 

 currency, endowed by legislation with the quality 

 of legal tender to a greater or leas extent. 



As there is no doubt of the power of Congress 

 under tho Constitution " to coin money and reg- 

 ulate the value thereof," and as this power covers 

 the whole range of authority applicable to the mcUl, 

 the rated value, and the legal-tender quality which 

 shall be adopted for tho coinage, tho considerations 

 which should induce or discourage a particular 

 measuro connected with the coinajro belong clearly 

 to the province of legislative discretion and of puhlio 

 expediency. Without intruding upon this province 

 of legislation in the leant, I have yet thought the 

 subject of such critical importance, in the actual 

 condition of our affairs, AS to proocnt an oooMiMl 

 the exercise of the duty imposo<l by the Constitution 

 on the President of recommending to the <v.ni<l 

 ation of Congress "such measures as ho shall judge 

 necessary and expedient." 



Holding the opinion, as I do, that neither the In- 

 terests of the government nor of the people of tb 



