Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Governor Rutherford B. Hayes to William Henry Smith, October 27, 1868

Private and Confidential.
COLUMBUS, October 27, 1868.

MY DEAR S——: —The Chronicle contains an unlucky little sentence. Of course it is not to be corrected or alluded to, but the governor neither can nor ought "to prevent breaches of the peace." Yet there are people who expect it, and that makes the sentence unlucky. If there was an insurrection or mob which the civil authorities could not control, I could call out the military (if there was any?) but it is the business of the civil authorities to take care of "breaches of the peace." The governor has no civil authority. I write merely out of abundant caution.

Sincerely,
R. B. HAYES.
WILLIAM HENRY SMITH,
        Cincinnati.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 55

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