[22] This remark was confirmed to me by a very competent authority. In June of 1877 Mr. James G. Blaine was one of the Inspectors of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He spent an afternoon with me at my residence in the immediate neighborhood, and the action of the Electoral Tribunal, among other things, became naturally enough a topic of conversation. He said, with some emphasis, "I was surprised at the time that the Democrats consented to the Electoral Tribunal," and added in substance--I cannot pretend to recall his exact words--that if they had remained firm it could not have succeeded. "I am glad to learn by Mr. Marble's _exposé_ that you gave no assent to the arbitration, but took your stand upon the true legal and constitutional ground. And in this expression I believe a great many of your friends concur. When the decision was made, by a tribunal appointed by law, it was too late to revolt. Concurrence was then the only manly course. Sincerely yours, "ARPHAXED LOOMIS." TILDEN TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE LOUISVILLE INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION "NEW YORK, _Aug. 25, '78_. "GENTLEMEN,--It would give me the greatest pleasure if I were able to attend the exposition to which you do me the honor to invite me. "I am not a stranger to the excellence of the agricultural industries of Kentucky. I have derived from them the favorite horses which I have used for out-of-door exercise, and should be delighted to see the best specimens of the Kentucky stock in the beautiful region where they were nurtured. "Two months ago I returned from a brief visit of rest and recreation to the British Isles. I brought with me a vivid impression of the yet unappreciated value of the cereal products of the Mississippi Valley. I felt thankful that we have a sun in our heavens which, in the season of agricultural growth, pours down daily floods of light and warmth, making the earth prolific, giving abundance and variety of fruits, assuring the wheat crop, yielding cotton in its zone, and ripening corn everywhere, even to the verge of the farthest north. Take, for instance, the single product of Indian corn which forms one of the staples of Kentucky. It is the most natural and spontaneous of our cereal products. It ought to give in our country an annual yield of 1,500,000 bushels, or three times the whole wheat crop. It is little inferior to wheat in nutrition, and costs less than one-half on the seaboard and much less than one-half on the farm. It can be cooked by those who consent to learn how, into many delicious forms of human food. It is the most valuable sustenance of animal life. It ought to become the basis of an immense traffic with the British Isles, where the scantiness and economy of food strikes the American traveller, with the contrast to the immense abundance and wasteful consumption of our own people.