Let me assure my countrymen of the Southern States that it is my earnest desire to regard and promote their truest interest — the interests of the wh… - Rutherford B. Hayes

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Let me assure my countrymen of the Southern States that it is my earnest desire to regard and promote their truest interest — the interests of the white and of the colored people both and equally — and to put forth my best efforts in behalf of a civil policy which will forever wipe out in our political affairs the color line and the distinction between North and South, to the end that we may have not merely a united North or a united South, but a united country.