SENATOR FRANCIS KERNAN TO TILDEN
"Washington, March 12th, 1877.
"My dear Sir,—I expected to get over to New York and have a chat with you last week, and hence did not write you. Moreover, I was not in a frame of mind to write, and am not yet. We have been wronged out of the fruits of the last Presidential election. You were clearly and fairly elected by the people, and Hayes has been counted in. This is hard to bear patiently, and the mass of our party feel deeply aggrieved—indeed, they are so disappointed and irritated that a great many of them are disposed to find fault with what was done, and to believe that something more successful could have been devised. Notwithstanding my disappointment at the decisions of the commission, I am of the opinion that from the standpoint we judged and voted when we supported the bill creating the commission, we acted patriotically and wisely—unless the two Houses came to some arrangement as to 'counting' the electoral votes; it looked then as though they would disagree and come to a dead-lock; and the result would have been that the Senate would, under some form of proceeding, have declared Hayes and Wheeler elected; the House would have declared there was no election by electoral votes, and would have elected you President, and opponents were in possession and would have sustained Hayes and Wheeler, and civil war would probably have been the result. This would have entailed great evils on the mass of the people, and might have destroyed the government it was intended to preserve. My judgment was and is that what seemed then a reasonably fair tribunal to decide the question involved, was better than the risk of evil to our people and our system of government. Civil war is the last remedy of a people for political wrongs, and should not be inaugurated till every peaceful remedy has failed. But I will write no more on this subject; when we meet, I shall want to talk the matter over fully.
"I think we shall get away from here the last of this week or early next. The new administration will try to win popular favor and turn attention from the title by which it came to power by good conduct. I believe it means to reform some of the graver abuses which marked the administration under General Grant. I hope it will succeed in doing so. The country needs peace, and to end self-government at the South, and honesty and economy everywhere. I am not very sanguine, but I hope for the best.
"Very truly yours,
"Francis Kernan."