alth and peace and abundant
harvests, and with encouraging prospects of an early return of general
prosperity.

To complete and make permanent the pacification of the country
continues to be, and until it is fully accomplished must remain, the
most important of all our national interests. The earnest purpose of
good citizens generally to unite their efforts in this endeavor is
evident. It found decided expression in the resolutions announced in
1876 by the national conventions of the leading political parties of
the country. There was a widespread apprehension that the momentous
results in our progress as a nation marked by the recent amendments
to the Constitution were in imminent jeopardy; that the good
understanding which prompted their adoption, in the interest of a
loyal devotion to the general welfare, might prove a barren truce, and
that the two sections of the country, once engaged in civil strife,
might be again almost as widely severed and disunited as they were
when arrayed in arms against each other.

The course to be pursued, which, in my judgment, seemed wisest in
the presence of this emergency, was plainly indicated in my inaugural
address. It pointed to the time, which all our people desire to see,
when a genuine love of our whole country and of all that concerns
its true welfare shall supplant the destructive forces of the mutual
animosity of races and of sectional hostility. Opinions have differed
widely as to the measures best calculated to secure this great end.
This was to be expected. The measures adopted by the Administration
have been subjected to severe and varied criticism. Any course
whatever which might have been entered upon would certainly have
encountered distrust and opposition. These measures were, in my
judgment, such as were most in harmony with the Constitution and
with the genius of our people, and best adapted, under all the
circumstances, to attain the end in view. Beneficent results, already
apparent, prove that these endeavors are not to be regarded as a
mere experiment, and should sustain and encourage us in our efforts.
Already, in the brief period which has elapsed, the immediate
effectiveness, no less than the justice, of the course pursued is
demonstrated, and I have an abiding faith that time will furnish
its ample vindication in the minds of the great majority of my
fellow-citizens. The discontinuance of the use of the Army for the
purpose of upholding local governments