a condition which would insure a peaceable and fair election.  But before the orders were put into execution a committee of prominent Republicans from Ohio had called on him. (Ohio was then an October State,—­that is, her elections took place in October instead of November.) An important election was then pending in that State.  This committee, the President stated, protested against having the requisition of Governor Ames honored.  The committee, the President said, informed him in a most emphatic way that if the requisition of Governor Ames were honored, the Democrats would not only carry Mississippi,—­a State which would be lost to the Republicans in any event,—­but that Democratic success in Ohio would be an assured fact.  If the requisition were not honored it would make no change in the result in Mississippi, but that Ohio would be saved to the Republicans.  The President assured me that it was with great reluctance that he yielded,—­against his own judgment and sense of official duty,—­to the arguments of this committee, and directed the withdrawal of the orders which had been given the Secretary of War and the Attorney-General in that matter.

This statement, I confess, surprised me very much.

“Can it be possible,” I asked, “that there is such a prevailing sentiment in any State in the North, East or West as renders it necessary for a Republican President to virtually give his sanction to what is equivalent to a suspension of the Constitution and laws of the land to insure Republican success in such a State?  I cannot believe this to be true, the opinion of the Republican committee from Ohio to the contrary notwithstanding.  What surprises me more, Mr. President, is that you yielded and granted this remarkable request.  That is not like you.  It is the first time I have ever known you to show the white feather.  Instead of granting the request of that committee, you should have rebuked the men,—­told them that it is your duty as chief magistrate of the country to enforce the Constitution and laws of the land, and to protect American citizens in the exercise and enjoyment of their rights, let the consequences be what they may; and that if by doing this Ohio should be lost to the Republicans it ought to be lost.  In other words, no victory is worth having if it is to be brought about upon such conditions as those,—­if it is to be purchased at such a fearful cost as was paid in this case.”

“Yes,” said the President, “I admit that you are right.  I should not have yielded.  I believed at the time that I was making a grave mistake.  But as presented, it was duty on one side, and party obligation on the other.  Between the two I hesitated, but finally yielded to what was believed to be party obligation.  If a mistake was made, it was one of the head and not of the heart.  That my heart was right and my intentions good, no one who knows me will question.  If I had believed that any effort on my part would have saved Mississippi I would have made it, even if I had been convinced that it would have resulted in the loss of Ohio to the Republicans.  But I was satisfied then, as I am now, that Mississippi could not have been saved to the party in any event and I wanted to avoid the responsibility of the loss of Ohio, in addition.  This was the turning-point in the case.