I shall not be surprised if Colonel [John Charles] fremont receives less than one hundred electoral votes. But, after all, the good cause has made a great progress. Antislavery sentiment has been created and the people have been educated to a large extent. I did hope that this election would put an end to angry discussion upon this exciting topic by placing the general Government in the right position in regard to it and thereby securing to antislavery effort a foothold among those who have the evil in their midst. But further work is to be done and my sense of duty determines me to keep on in the path I have chosen ... to do what I can ... to aid in forming a public opinion on this subject which will “mitigate and finally eradicate the evil.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)