pursued, which, without
unnecessary shock to business or trade, will ultimately equalize
the purchasing capacity of the coin and paper dollar."

Ex-Governor Hayes and I opened the state canvass in the county of
Lawrence on July 31, 1875, and took strong ground in favor of the
resumption act. At the beginning it appeared that the people were
not quite prepared for any measure looking to resumption, but as
the contest progressed and the subject was fully and boldly presented
by Mr. Hayes and myself, the tide of opinion ran in our favor and
Hayes was elected by a small majority. The ex-governor did not
evade the issue, but in every speech supported and urged the policy
of resumption as a matter of the highest interest.

In the approaching nomination for President, Governor Hayes was
frequently spoken of as a candidate to succeed General Grant, and
I also was mentioned in the same connection, but, feeling confident
that Mr. Hayes would be a stronger candidate than myself, and fully
determined not to stand in his way, on the 21st of January, 1876,
I wrote a letter to a personal friends, and the Member of the Senate
from the district in which I live, in which I urged the nomination
of Governor Hayes as the most available candidate in the approaching
presidential canvass. This letter no doubt contributed to his
strength and prevented any possibility of the division of the vote
of Ohio in the convention. The letter I give in full:

"Washington, D. C., January 21, 1876.
"Dear Sir:--Your letters of the 2nd and 10th inst. were duly
received, and I delayed answering the first sooner partly from
personal reasons, but mainly that I might fully consider the
questions raised by you as to the approaching presidential contest,
the importance of which cannot be overstated. The election of a
Democratic President means a restoration to full power in the
government of the worst elements of the rebel Confederacy.

"The southern states are to be organized, by violence and intimidation,
into a compact political power only needing a small fragment of
the northern states to give it absolute control where, by a majority
rule of the party, it will govern the country as it did in the time
of Pierce and Buchanan.

"If it should elect a President and both Houses of Congress, the
constitutional amendments would be disregarded, the freedmen would
be nominally citizens but really slaves; innumerable claims, swollen
by perjury, would be sadd