Year: 1877

tegrated.


To the Editor of the y !. York Tribune:


During my recent visit to Great Britain
/ was frequently asked in different parts
of the kingdom what was my opinion
first, of the character of President HAYES
and, secondly. of his Southern policy
To these inquiries my answ srs we're, uni
formly:


l. That had never met Mr. HAYES,
and, consequently, had m personal &C
quaint g. with him; but, in regard to
the puIiiy and uprightness OF his charac.
ter. ] entertained not "A doubt Indred
no attempt to stain 1T was made even by
his fercest opponents during the Presi-
dental campaign-an exemption from
partisan calumny rarely vouchsafed 70
any candidate for n high official station,
however incorruptible This was better
testimony than the laudations Of his
warm personal friends and admirers All
who knew him concurred in represent
ing him as a most amiable, modest and
exemplary man in his daily life, of abso-
lutte integrity and high patriotic aims.


2. That | was led to regard his eleva-
ton to the Presidency, as against his
Democratic competitor, as an event of





by the popular vote, legitimately cast,
than by the Electoral Commission. For,
in accepting his nomination by the Ma
tional Republican Convention at Cincin-
natl, in his inaugural address at Wash
ington, and when privately interviewed
by colored deputations and others. after
his election, he emphatically recognized
the duty of the Government to guard
the rights and interests of both races
carefully and equally, while aiming to
restore tranquility and order where dis
affection still raised its snaky crest, thus
making the loyal men of the country
hopeful and jubilant, especially the
whole body of Southern freedmen, but
for whose suffrages Mr.. Hayes could not
have reached the Presidential station.
But. though crediting him with good in
tentions.


g. That, as to his Southern policy,
was constrained to regard it as totally at
variance with all his fair.spoken words
and pledges, deplorable betrayal of a
most sacred trust, discount upon in
flexible loyalty, and bounty upon rebel
lious usurpation, giving the sheep into
the custody of the wolves, on the insane
assumption that the latter would lose all
their taste for blood provided all shep-
herdly watchfulness was withdrawn,
making consolidated South" wherein
the virtual disfranchisement of every
colored citizen would be ruthlessly en-
forced, and every white Republican be
driven to the wall, and at the next Pres
idential election surrendering the Ma
tional Government into the hands of
those who still ostentatiously glory in
their rebellious uprising to destroy it.
further added that | considered Presi-
dent Hayes to have lost his head, being
the victim Of an amiable credulity and
hsllucination whereby all power of moral
vision and patriotic discrimination ap-
peared to have been lost, and, though by
no means intending it, that he was SOW
ing dragons teeth in the supposed inter-
est of peace and good will, to spring up
in due time in armed resistance unto
blood. Nevertheless, l did not despair of
the Republic, for this sudden and un-
looked for revulsiou could be only for a
time, when "the sober second thought"
of the people would come to the rescue
and make final end of all such attempts
to placate that which must be crushed
out of existence to the permanent tri-
umph of the cause of liberty and equal
rights throughout all the land.


Since the return home / have been
watching all the signs of the
times, to see wherein my discernment
may have failed me, and whether my
grave apprehensions as to impending
evil may not be dismissed as wholly
imaginary. So far from seeing any cause
to alter my judgment as to what has
been, or is likely to be, done under this
Administration, as pertaining to the
South, am more deeply convinced than
ever, il possible, that we are betrayed
into the hands of the Philistines; that
the President, however "amiable" and
"well intentioned,' has not those quail
ties essential to meeting a crisis like the
present; and that when he talks of his
policy. it means this, and only this
absolute surrender to the unrepentant,
merciless and haughtily defiant spirit of
rebeldom-to the exclusion of the Gen
eral Government from any chance of con-
stitutional interference in any part of
the South for the protection of those
whose rights of citizenship are cloyen
down by bloody process, and who may
venture to approach the polls only at the
peril of their lives. See how he stands
condemned out of his own mouth. This
is what he declared, before the country
and the world, in his inaugural address


L uaJ mOfal ODllEallOn rests upon
the National Government to employ its
constitutional power and influence to es
tablish 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
admitted"


How did President Hayes proceed to
carry out the solemn moral obligation
thus publicly and officially recognized by
him2 In what way did he seek to pro-
tect the freedmen of the South in their
rights against their numerous assailants?
The case was made up in South Carolina
and Louisiana. President Grant met it
by sending an insignificant but sufficient
number of troops to each of those States,
to prevent the wanton massacre of color
ed citizens, and enable them to partici-
pate in the pending election without
danger of being shot down or driven
from the polls at sight. These merely
symbolized the presence of the Federal
authority, without any parade, and in
the discreetest manner possible Politi-
oolly hax ora ,,op-,o,t;aan awI