Fellow-citizens, we have reached the close of a political contest
marked by the excitement which usually attends the contests between
great political parties whose members espouse and advocate with
earnest faith their respective creeds. The circumstances were,
perhaps, in no respect extraordinary save in the closeness and the
consequent uncertainty of the result.

For the first time in the history of the country it has been deemed
best, in view of the peculiar circumstances of the case, that the
objections and questions in dispute with reference to the counting of
the electoral votes should be referred to the decision of a tribunal
appointed for this purpose.

That tribunal--established by law for this sole purpose; its members,
all of them, men of long-established reputation for integrity and
intelligence, and, with the exception of those who are also members of
the supreme judiciary, chosen equally from both political parties; its
deliberations enlightened by the research and the arguments of able
counsel--was entitled to the fullest confidence of the American
people. Its decisions have been patiently waited for, and accepted
as legally conclusive by the general judgment of the public. For the
present, opinion will widely vary as to the wisdom of the several
conclusions announced by that tribunal. This is to be anticipated
in every instance where matters of dispute are made the subject of
arbitration under the forms of law. Human judgment is never unerring,
and is rarely regarded as otherwise than wrong by the unsuccessful
party in the contest.

The fact that two great political parties have in this way settled a