ongress to an
alarming extent.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, STATE OF OHIO, }
COLUMBUS, _March 4, 1876._ }

_My Dear General:_

I have your note of 2d. I am kept busy with callers,
correspondence, and the routine details of the office, and have not
therefore tried to keep abreast of the currents of opinion on any
of the issues. My notion is that the true contest is to be between
inflation and a sound currency. The Democrats are again drifting
all to the wrong side. We need not divide on details, on methods,
or time when.

The previous question will again be irredeemable paper as a
permanent policy, or a policy which seeks a return to coin. My
opinion is decidedly against yielding a hair's breadth.

We can't be on the inflation side of the question. We must keep our
face, our front, firmly in the other direction. "No steps
backward," must be something more than unmeaning platform words.
"The drift of sentiment among our friends in Ohio," which you
inquire about, will depend on the conduct of our leading men. It is
for them to see that the right sentiment is steadily upheld. We are
in a condition such that firmness and adherence to principle are of
peculiar value just now. I would "consent" to no backward steps. To
yield or compromise is weakness, and will destroy us. If a better
resumption measure can be substituted for the present one, that may
do. But keep cool. We can better afford to be beaten in Congress
than to back out.

Sincerely,
R. B. HAYES.

Here is high courage and lofty political morality. The letter proclaims
the grand truth that the only inquiry worthy of a statesman is, not what
the tendency of public opinion is, but what ought it to be?

To a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention he wrote, under date of April
6:

"Having done absolutely nothing to make myself the candidate of
Ohio, I feel very little responsibility for future results. When
the State Convention was called it seemed probable that if I
encouraged my friends to organize for the purpose, every district
would elect my decided supporters. But to make such an effort in my
own behalf, to use Payne's phrase on repudiation, 'I abhorred.'"

The Republican State Convention, which met March 29, had passed, by a
unanimous vote, and with boundless enthusiasm, the following r