As for the possibility of disputes with foreign powers, he embraced arbitration as Grant had with Great Britain in the 1871 Treaty of Washington. In addition to the disputed election and the South, Hayes addressed the problem of the depressed economy by returning to the gold standard. He therefore did not ask for railroad subsidies but did call for federal aid for education, observing that "universal suffrage should rest upon universal education." Hayes emphasized that the schoolhouse, not the railroad station, was the key to political stability and to economic prosperity in the South and elsewhere. Above all, that meant that southern states must obey the Reconstruction amendments guaranteeing civil and voting rights. Hayes wanted the South to have "wise, honest, and peaceful local self-government" but insisted that the interests of blacks and whites be guarded equally.
is an occasion for general rejoicing.” Above all, Hayes wished to heal the wounds left by the Civil War: "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." According to the new President, “The fact that two great political parties have in this way settled a dispute in regard to which good men differ as to the facts and the law. Hayes’s inaugural address tried to calm the nation and make clear his main policy concerns. Delivered on March 5-since March 4 was a Sunday-Rutherford B.