nomination for the Presidency will be the standard of my conduct in
the path before me, charged, as I now am, with the grave and difficult
task of carrying them out in the practical administration of the
Government so far as depends, under the Constitution and laws, on the
Chief Executive of the nation.

The permanent pacification of the country upon such principles and
by such measures as will secure the complete protection of all its
citizens in the free enjoyment of all their constitutional rights is
now the one subject in our public affairs which all thoughtful and
patriotic citizens regard as of supreme importance.

Many of the calamitous effects of the tremendous revolution which
has passed over the Southern States still remain. The immeasurable
benefits which will surely follow, sooner or later, the hearty and
generous acceptance of the legitimate results of that revolution have
not yet been realized. Difficult and embarrassing questions meet us
at the threshold of this subject. The people of those States are
still impoverished, and the inestimable blessing of wise, honest,
and peaceful local self-government is not fully enjoyed. Whatever
difference of opinion may exist as to the cause of this condition of
things, the fact is clear that in the progress of events the time has
come when such government is the imperative necessity required by all
the varied interests, public and private, of those States. But it must
not be forgotten that only a local government which recognizes and
maintains inviolate the rights of all is a true self-government.

With respect to the two distinct races whose peculiar relations to
each other have brought upon us the deplorable complications and
perplexities which exist in those States, it must be a government