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. They neither expected nor
desired from public officers any partisan service. They meant that
public officers should owe their whole service to the Government and to
the people. They meant that the officer should be secure in his tenure
as long as his personal character remained untarnished and the
performance of his duties satisfactory. They held that appointments to