"WASHINGTON, _March 12th, 1877_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--I expected to get over to New York and have
a chat with you last week, and hence did not write you. Moreover,
I was not in a frame of mind to write, and am not yet. We have
been wronged out of the fruits of the last Presidential election.
You were clearly and fairly elected by the people, and Hayes has
been counted in. This is hard to bear patiently, and the mass of
our party feel deeply aggrieved--indeed, they are so disappointed
and irritated that a great many of them are disposed to find fault
with what was done, and to believe that something more successful
could have been devised. Notwithstanding my disappointment at the
decisions of the commission, I am of the opinion that from the
standpoint we judged and voted when we supported the bill creating
the commission, we acted patriotically and wisely--unless the two
Houses came to some arrangement as to 'counting' the electoral
votes; it looked then as though they would disagree and come to a
dead-lock; and the result would have been that the Senate would,
under some form of proceeding, have declared Hayes and Wheeler
elected; the House would have declared there was no election
by electoral votes, and would have elected you President, and
opponents were in possession and would have sustained Hayes and
Wheeler, and civil war would probably have been the result. This
would have entailed great evils on the mass of the people, and
might have destroyed the government it was intended to preserve.
My judgment was and is that what seemed then a reasonably fair
tribunal to decide the question involved, was better than the risk
of evil to our people and our system of government. Civil war is
the last remedy of a people for political wrongs, and should not be
inaugurated till every peaceful remedy has failed. But I will write
no more on this subject; when we meet, I shall want to talk the
matter over fully.
"I think we shall get away from here the last of this week or early
next. The new administration will try to win popular favor and turn
attention from the title by which it came to power by good conduct.
I believe it means to reform some of the graver abuses which marked
the administration under General Grant. I hope it will succeed in
doing so. The country needs peace, and to end self-government at the
South, and honesty and economy everywhere. I am not very sanguine,
but I hope for the best.
"Very truly yours,
"FRANCIS KERNAN."