Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1877-03-17

United States and any foreign govern
ment. 1t will certainly be my disposition
and my hope to aid in their settlement in
the same peaceful and honorable way, thus
securing to our country the great bless
ings of peace and mutual good offices
with all nations of the world
Fellow citizens, we have reached the
close of a political contest marked by
the excitement which usually attends the
contests between great political parties,
whose members espouse and advocate
with earnest faith their respective
creeds. Circumstances were perhaps
in no respect extraordinary save in the
closeness and the consequent uncer-
tainty of the result. For the first time
in the history of the country it has been
deemed best, in view Of the peculiar
circumstances of the case, that the OBJ
jections and questions in dispute with
reference to the counting of the electO-
raj votes should be referred to the de-
cision of a tribunal appointed for this
purpose. that tribunal established by
law for the sole purpose; its members all
of them men of long established reputa-
ton for integrity and intelligence and
with the exception of those who
are members Of the supreme ju-
dietary, chosen equally from both
political parties. Its deliberations,
enlightened by the research and the
arguments of able counsel. was entitled
to the fullest confidence Of the American
people. It's decisions have been patient
" waited for and accepted as legally con-
elusive by the general judgment of the
public. For the present, opinion will
widely vary as to the wisdom'of the sever
al conclusions announced by the tribunal.
This is to be anticipated in every in
stance where matters of dispute are made
the SUBJECT of arbitration under the
forms of law. The human judgment is
never unerring and is rarely regarded as
otherwise than wrong by the unsuccess-
full party in the contest. The fact that
two great political parties have in this
way settled dispute, in regard to which
good men differ as to the law no less than
as to the proper course to be pursued in
solving the question in controversy, il
an occasion for general rejoicing. Upon
one point there is entire unanimitv in
public sentiment-that the conflict
ing claims to the presidency must be
amicably and peacefully adjusted, and
that when so adjusted the general acqui.
essence of the nation ought surely to
follow. 1t has been reserved for a gov
eminent of the people where the right of
suffrage is universal, to give to the world
the first example in the history of great
nation in the midst of a struggle Of op-
posing power hushing its party tumults,
to yield the issue Of the contest to ad-
iustment according to the forms of law,
looking for tine guidance of that divine
hand by which the destinies of nations
and individuals are shaped.
/ call upon you, senator's, representa-
tives, judges, fellow-citizens, here and
everywhere, to unite with me in An earn
est effort to secure to our country the
blessings not only of material prosperity,
but of justice, peace and union, union
depending not upon the constraint of
force, but upon the loving devotion of
a free people; that all things may be
so ordered and settled upon the best
and surest foundations, and purity may
be established among us for all gener-
atoms.