"I have also been censured for assenting to the completion of the count in accordance with the provisions of the law which I helped to frame, and which received my cordial approval and my vote. As an honorable man, I do not see that any other course was open to me, but if honor had permitted otherwise, my judgment is that it was the wisest course for the country, as well as for the Democratic party, to proceed in accordance with the law to the orderly completion of the count, although we knew that it would result in the installation of Hayes into an office to which he had no honest right, except such as might be deprived from the unjust decisions of a tribunal which we had helped to create. My reasons for this conclusion are as follows: If the count had been defeated, and the bill to provide for a vacancy in the office of President had become a law, a new election would have taken place in November next: meanwhile the office of President would have been filled by a Republican chosen by the Senate. The whole power of the administration would therefore be under the control of the Republican managers. In order to succeed they must hold on to South Carolina and Louisiana, which would necessarily involve sustaining by force the usurping governments of Chamberlain and Packard, with all their unlawful excrescences in the way of unscrupulous returning boards. The patience of the people of these two unhappy States is utterly exhausted. They would break out in open rebellion against a government thus forced on them, and continued in power by the armed forces of the United States. Civil war would result. The Federal government would re-enforce itself with all the troops at its command; the other Southern States would naturally rush to the aid of their suffering sister States; the safety of the colored as well as the white population would be endangered; and a call would be made for volunteers and militia from the Northern States to suppress the rebellion, and thus the flames of civil war would be lighted all over the Union, in the midst of which a free election would be impossible, and a military despotism take the place of civil government. This generation would pass away before the country would recover from the disastrous consequences of such a fratricidal strife. "In comparison with the evils of anarchy, or of a government of force, which alone could prevent anarchy, four years of usurpation--but usurpation in accordance with the forms of law--seemed to me by far the lesser evil. Besides, we have not yet tested the judgment of the people as to the great outrage upon all justice and right which has been perpetrated. There is no reason to suppose that it will be sanctioned by the popular voice, but if it should be we could not hope to save them from usurpation and despotism by force used against the judgment of a majority of the people.