eet, a soldier second to no living corps
commander of the rebel army, calls it "a peace offering," and
advises the South in good faith to organize under it. Unrepentant
rebels and unconverted Peace Democrats oppose it, just as they
opposed the measures which destroyed slavery and saved the nation.

Opposition to whatever the Nation approves seems to be the policy
of the representative men of the Peace Democracy. Defeat and
failure comprise their whole political history. In laboring to
overthrow reconstruction they are probably destined to further
defeat and further failure. I know not how it may be in other
States, but if I am not greatly mistaken as to the mind of the
loyal people of Ohio, they mean to trust power in the hands of no
man who, during the awful struggle for the Nation's life, proved
unfaithful to the cause of liberty and of Union. They will continue
to exclude from the administration of the government those who
prominently opposed the war, until every question arising out of
the rebellion relating to the integrity of the Nation and to human
rights shall have been firmly settled on the basis of impartial
justice.

They mean that the State of Ohio, in this great progress, "whose
leading object is to elevate the condition of men, to lift
artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of
laudable pursuits for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a
fair chance in the race of life," shall tread no step backward.

Penetrated and sustained by a conviction that in this contest the
Union party of Ohio is doing battle for the right, I enter upon my
part of the labors of the canvass with undoubting confidence that
the goodness of the cause will supply the weakness of its
advocates, and command in the result that triumphant success which
I believe it deserves.

_Speech of_ GENERAL R. B. HAYES, _delivered at Sidney, Ohio, Wednesday,
September 4, 1867._

_Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens:_

It was very plain at the beginning of the pending canvass in Ohio
that the leading speakers of the peace party of the State were
desirous to persuade the people that at this election they were to
pass upon different issues from those which have been considered
in former elections. They undertook at the beginning, generally, to
dis