The Committee
had a second meeting, when I read to them the following address,
which I had prepared and which I still have in my possession:
"Our sense of the presence of a great public danger makes
it our duty to address you. We are satisfied that the leaders
of the Democratic Party meditate an attack on the President's
possession of his office, the results of which must be the
destruction of the reviving industries of the country, civil
confusion and war. There has been difference of opinion whether
the count of the electoral vote, which under the Constitution
determines the President's title, must be made by the two
Houses of Congress, or by the President of the Senate in their
presence. In the count of electoral votes, which resulted
in the declaration of the election of President Hayes, both
methods concurred, the action of the two Houses being in accordance
with a law regulating their proceedings, enacted in the last
Congress to meet the case by large majorities of both branches.
The title of President Hayes, therefore, not only rests upon
the strongest possible Constitutional sanction, but the honor
of both the great parties in the country is solemnly pledged
to maintain it.
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