The material development of that section of the
country has been arrested by the social and political revolution
through which it has passed, and now needs and deserves the
considerate care of the National Government within the just limits
prescribed by the Constitution and wise public economy.
But at the basis of all prosperity, for that as well as for every
other part of the country, lies the improvement of the
intellectual and moral condition of the people. Universal suffrage
should rest upon universal education. To this end, liberal and
permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools
by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by
legitimate aid from national authority.
Let me assure my countrymen of the Southern States that it is my
earnest desire to regard and promote their truest interest--the
interests of the white and of the colored people both and
equally--and to put forth my best efforts in behalf of a civil
policy which will forever wipe out in our political affairs the
color line and the distinction between North and South, to the end
that we may have not merely a united North or a united South, but
a united country.
I ask the attention of the public to the paramount necessity of
reform in our civil service--a reform not merely as to certain
abuses and practices of so-called official patronage which have
come to have the sanction of usage in the several Departments of
our Government, but a change in the system of appointment itself;
a reform that shall be thorough, radical, and complete; a return
to the principles and practices of the founders of the Government.
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