Second, I have the authority of President
Garfield for saying that Mr. Blaine had come to the same
conclusion. The Monday morning after the electoral count
had been completed and the result declared, Blaine had a long
talk with Garfield, which Garfield reported to me. He told
him that he had made up his mind, if he had been elected,
to offer the office of Secretary of State to Mr. Evarts,
or, if anything prevented that, to Judge Hoar. He further
said that he thought it was time to discontinue maintaining
Republican State Governments in office by the National power
and that the people of the Southern States must settle their
State elections for themselves. Mr. Blaine by his disappointment
in the formation of President Hayes's Cabinet was induced
to make an attack on him which seems inconsistent with this
declaration. But Mr. Blaine soon abandoned this ground,
and, so far as I now remember, never afterward advocated interference
with the control of the Southern States by National authority.
It seems to me that President Hayes did only what his duty
under the Constitution peremptorily demanded of him.
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