Hayes very highly. He was made Brigadier-
General on the recommendation of Sheridan, and brevetted Major-
General for gallant and distinguished services. He wrote,
after the Presidential election, to John Sherman, as follows:
"You feel, I am sure, as I do about this whole business. A
fair election would have given us about forty electoral votes
at the South, at least that many; but we must not allow our
friends to defeat one outrage by another. There must be
nothing curved on our part. Let Mr. Tilden have the place
by violence, intimidation and fraud rather than undertake
to prevent it by means that will not bear the severest scrutiny."

He upheld the good faith of the nation in his veto of the
bill to authorize the coinage of the silver dollar of 412-1/2
grains, and to restore its legal tender character in 1879; and
in his veto of the bill violating our treaty with China. He
grew steadily in public favor with all parties, and with all
parts of the country, as his Administration went on. Under
his Administration the resumption of specie payments was accomplished;
and, in spite of the great difficulties caused by the factional
opposition in his own party, he handed down his office to
a Republican successor.

The weakness and folly of the charge against the decision
of the Electoral Commission, that it was unconstitutional
or fraudulent, and the fact that the American people were
never impressed by these charges, is shown by the fact that
General Garfield, one of the majority who gave that decision,
was elected to succeed President Hayes, and that six of the
eight members of that majority, now dead, maintained, every
one them, throughout their honored and useful lives, the respect
and affection of their countrymen, without distinction of
party. Certainly there can be found among the great men of
that great generation no more pure and brilliant lights than
Samuel F. Miller, William Strong, Joseph P. Bradley, Frederick
T. Frelinghuysen, Oliver P. Morton and James A. Garfield.
There are two survivors of that majority, Mr. Edmunds and
myself. Neither has found that the respect in which his countrymen
held him has been diminished by that decision.

President Hayes has been accused of abandoning the reconstruction
policy of his party. It has also been said that he showed
a want of courage in failing to support the Republican State
Governments in Louisiana and South Carolina; that if the votes
of those States w