If elected, I shall approve every appropriate measure to accomplish
the desired end, and shall oppose any step backward.

The resolution with respect to the public school system is one
which should receive the hearty support of the American people.
Agitation upon this subject is to be apprehended, until, by
constitutional amendment, the schools are placed beyond all danger
of sectarian control or interference. The Republican party is
pledged to secure such an amendment.

The resolution of the convention on the subject of the permanent
pacification of the country, and the complete protection of all its
citizens in the free enjoyment of all their constitutional rights,
is timely and of great importance. The condition of the Southern
States attracts the attention and commands the sympathy of the
people of the whole Union. In their progressive recovery from the
effects of the war, their first necessity is an intelligent and
honest administration of government, which will protect all classes
of citizens in all their political and private rights. What the
South most needs is peace, and peace depends upon the supremacy of
law. There can be no enduring peace if the constitutional rights of
any portion of the people are habitually disregarded. A division of
political parties, resting merely upon distinctions of race, or
upon sectional lines, is always unfortunate, and may be
disastrous. The welfare of the South, alike with that of every
other part of the country, depends upon the attractions it can
offer to labor, to immigration, and to capital. But laborers will
not go, and capital will not be ventured, where the constitution
and the laws are set at defiance, and distraction, apprehension,
and alarm, take the place of peace-loving and law-abiding social
life. All parts of the constitution are sacred, and must be
sacredly observed--the parts that are new no less than the parts
that are old. The moral and material prosperity of the Southern
States can be most effectively advanced by a hearty and generous
recognition of the rights of all by all--a recognition without
reserve or exception.

With such a recognition fully accorded, it will be practicable to
promote, by the influence of all legitimate agencies of the general
government, the efforts