peaceful and honorable way, thus
securing to our country the great blessings of peace and mutual good
offices with all the nations of the world.

Fellow-citizens, we have reached the close of a political contest marked
by the excitement which usually attends the contests between great
political parties whose members espouse and advocate with earnest faith
their respective creeds. The circumstances were, perhaps, in no respect
extraordinary save in the closeness and the consequent uncertainty of
the result.

For the first time in the history of the country it has been deemed
best, in view of the peculiar circumstances of the case, that the
objections and questions in dispute with reference to the counting of
the electoral votes should be referred to the decision of a tribunal
appointed for this purpose.

That tribunal--established by law for this sole purpose; its members,
all of them, men of long-established reputation for integrity and
intelligence, and, with the exception of those who are also members of
the supreme judiciary, chosen equally from both political parties; its
deliberations enlightened by the research and the arguments of able
counsel--was entitled to the fullest confidence of the American people.
Its decisions have been patiently waited for, and accepted as legally
conclusive by the general judgment of the public. For the present,
opinion will widely vary as to the wisdom of the several conclusions
announced by that tribunal. This is to be anticipated in every instance
where matters of dispute are made the subject of arbitration under the
forms of law. Human judgment is never unerring, and is rarely regarded
as otherwise than wrong by the unsuccessful party in the contest.

The fact that two great political parties have in this way settled a
dispute in regard to which good men differ as to the facts and the law
no less than as to the proper course to be pursued in solving the
question in controversy is an occasion for general rejoicing.

Upon one point there is entire unanimity in public sentiment--that
conflicting claims to the Presidency must be amicably and peaceably
adjusted, and that when so adjusted the general acquiescence of the
nation ought surely to follow.

It has been reserved for a government of the people, where the right of
suffrage is universal, to give to the world the first example in history
of a great nation, in the midst of the struggle of opposing parties for
power, hushing