funeral, and appropriate honors should be paid to the memory of the
deceased statesman by the whole nation.

R.B. HAYES.




FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.

DECEMBER 3, 1877.

_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:_

With devout gratitude to the bountiful Giver of All Good, I
congratulate you that at the beginning of your first regular session
you find our country blessed with health 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