sy with Great
Britain, which it seemed almost impossible peaceably to settle. Now
we are at peace with all nations; the American government is
everywhere abroad held in the highest honor; and an example of
submitting National disputes to the decision of a court of
arbitration has been set, which is of incalculable value to the
world.

* * * * *

Four years ago, and for a considerable period since, the public
peace has been broken or threatened in a majority of the late slave
States, by bands of lawless men, oath bound, disguised, and armed,
who, by terror, by scourging, and by assassination, undertook to
deprive unoffending citizens, both white and colored, of their most
cherished rights, for no reason except a difference of political
sentiment. Now these organizations have, it is claimed by their
political associates, disbanded. Large numbers of citizens in those
States, heretofore hostile to the recent amendments to the
constitution, and to the equal rights of colored people, declare
themselves satisfied with those amendments, and ready to maintain
the constitutional rights of colored citizens. Notwithstanding the
predictions of our adversaries, that to confer political rights
upon colored people would lead to a war of races, white people and
colored people are now voting side by side in all of the old slave
States, and their elections are quite as free from violence and
disorder as they were when whites alone were the voters. In a word,
peace prevails in the South to an extent which, under the
circumstances, the ablest statesmen among our adversaries three
years ago pronounced impossible. The watchword of the Republican
party four years ago was "Let us have peace." A survey of every
field where the public peace was then imperiled, of our affairs
with foreign nations, with the Indians, and in the South, shows
that the pledge implied in that famous watchword has been
substantially made good, and that, if the people continue to stand
by the government, the peace we now enjoy will be continued and
enduring.

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.

There are several questions relating to the present and the future
which merit the attention of the people. Among the most interesting
of these is the question of civil servi