the President that there was
another matter about which I desired to have a short talk with him, that
was the recent election in Mississippi. After calling his attention to
the sanguinary struggle through which we had passed, and the great
disadvantages under which we labored, I reminded him of the fact that
the Governor, when he saw that he could not put down without the
assistance of the National Administration what was practically an
insurrection against the State Government, made application for
assistance in the manner and form prescribed by the Constitution, with
the confident belief that it would be forthcoming. But in this we were,
for some reason, seriously disappointed and sadly surprised. The reason
for this action, or rather non-action, was still an unexplained mystery
to us. For my own satisfaction and information I should be pleased to
have the President enlighten me on the subject.

The President said that he was glad I had asked him the question, and
that he would take pleasure in giving me a frank reply. He said he had
sent Governor Ames' requisition to the War Department with his approval
and with instructions to have the necessary assistance furnished without
delay. He had also given instructions to the Attorney-General to use
the marshals and the machinery of the Federal judiciary as far as
possible in cooeperation with the War Department in an effort to maintain
order and to bring about a condition which would insure a peaceable and
fair election. But before the orders were put into execution a committee
of prominent Republicans from Ohio had called on him. (Ohio was then an
October State,--that is, her elections took place in October instead of
November.) An important election was then pending in that State. This
committee, the President stated, protested against having the
requisition of Governor Ames honored. The committee, the President said,
informed him in a most emphatic way that if the requisition of Governor
Ames were honored, the Democrats would not only carry Mississippi,--a
State which would be lost to the Republicans in any event,--but that
Democratic success in Ohio would be an assured fact. If the requisition
were not honored it would make no change in the result in Mississippi,
but that Ohio would be saved to the Republicans. The President assured
me that it was with great reluctance that he yielded,--against his own
judgment and sense of official duty,--to the arguments of this
comm