dge, promise, or bargain by which he would be bound
as chief magistrate of the country. To the contrary, he would have
openly and publicly declared:

"I am President, or I am not. That I am the legally elected President is
a recognized and undisputed fact, and, as such, I shall neither
recognize nor respect any pledge, promise or bargain which involves
dishonor on my part or acquiescence in the suspension, violation or
evasion of the Constitution or of any law made in pursuance thereof. As
President of the United States I have taken and subscribed to an oath by
which I am bound to uphold the Constitution of my country, and to see
that the laws are duly executed and enforced. That oath I am determined
to respect and honor. I shall not only do all in my power to see that
the Constitution and the laws of the land are obeyed and enforced,--both
in letter and in spirit,--but it is also my determination to see that
every American citizen is protected in the exercise and enjoyment of his
rights, as far as it may be in the power of the President to protect
him." Such a declaration, accompanied by an honest effort to carry the
same into effect, even if he had been unsuccessful, would have carried
the name of R.B. Hayes down in history as one of the greatest and most
brilliant statesmen our country had ever produced. But, he was not equal
to the occasion, and therefore failed to take advantage of such a golden
opportunity. On the contrary, he decided to live up to and carry out to
the very letter, every pledge, promise, agreement or bargain that had
been made in his behalf, which involved the dishonor of his own name and
the disgrace of his country. Packard, for Governor of Louisiana, and
Chamberlain, for Governor of South Carolina, were voted for at the same
time that the Hayes electors were voted for in their respective States.
Each of these candidates polled a much larger vote than that of the
Hayes electors. If, therefore, Mr. Hayes was legally or mortally
entitled to the electoral votes of those States, without which he could
not have been elected, those men were entitled to be recognized and
supported as Governor of their respective States. But it was a
well-known fact that without the support and backing of the National
Administration at that particular time, they could not maintain and
enforce their authority against the organization of the Democratic
party. The public announcement of the southern policy of the National
A