The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1852-08-03

sevrice is an inquiry tha. may be usefully at
tended to on a future day.
Gen. Scott as Distinguished as a Civilian as he
is as Soldier.
The Hon. JOHN @. SPENCER, presided at
the great Wing Ratification Meeting at Alba
ny, and addressed the audience upon the sub
ject of Gen. ScoTT's qualities as a civilian and
statesman. From this ablo and interesting
speech, wo present our readers the following
extract: Buffalo Commercial.
Of his unsurpassed military exploits, have
nothing TO say. The world is full of his re-
nown; his only competitor in that field, the
Duke of Wellington, has but anticipated the
Judgment of history. l do not underrate
them, or their valuo to the country but 9TH
ers will speak of them. and wish to devote
nv share of your time to another subject.
wish to meet the objection that military men
are no, fitted for the highest civil employments,
and that there is danger to our institutions in
elevatng 10 the Chief Magistracv man whose
lie has been employed in giving command,
enforcing discipline and maintaining obedi-
ence. Although it might be- an estoPpel, as it
is termed, to those who make this objection, to
remind them of their support of Gen. Andrew
Jackson,-the success with which, as they
maintain, he administered the government for
eight years and to remind them OF their late
candidate, General Cass, and of their present
candidate, General Pierce, both of whom were
distinctly presented as having great military
reputation yet as closing the mouth of an
adversary is not necessarily conclusive to 9TH
ers or to ourselves, propose TO examine this
point more at large.
The fitness of a military man for civil en-
ployments, depends upon two circumstances: /:
first the natural constitution of bis mind and
feelings and second, whether his military
habits have been so mingled with and tempered
by, social and civil duties, by extended and
various intercourse with his fellow cilizens, and
by public employments, requiring the talents,
learning and adroitness of statesman, as to
have oblitcra;ed all the stern and repugnant
features of the soldier
AS to the first, is there a man who has ever
seen Gen. Scott who has not marked the leg
ible handwriting of bcnefccnt Creator in
his noble person and countenance beaming
with philanthropy and individual kindness p
Who ever heard from him a rude remark Of
personal offence, or even in his anger, an cpl
thet unbecomlng gentleman His way and
manners arc so gentle and kind as to be al
most feminine, and have heard foreigners
express their emazement that man so Injured
to scenes of blood and carnage, should be rs
simple, rs natural and as affection ate as
child. Butcher and Haynau would probably
disown him as a soldier of their mould.
And who does not know how this gentleness
and sympathy with his race. have been exhibit
ted constantly daily, hourly, by Gen. Scott,
when in the field. in the camp, on the march,
or in barracks The sick, the disabled tho
wounded tho dying, among the troops he has
commanded, were ever peculiar objects of his
assiduous care. There is not hamlet in our
country but contains living witnesses of this
remarkable trait, or witnesses who have receiv-
ed and repeat the testimony of their dead fa-
theirs and brothers. Pardon me for alluding
to personal instance, when, visiting brother
i'm 1914 who bad been shot in the battle of
Niagara, and who was dying within the British
lines. The recollection of the sympathy and
the assistance of Gen. Scott on that. and on
another occasion still more trying, swells my
heart with emotions that would break it, if thoy
could not find utterance, when speaking of the
constitution of that mans nature. Who has
not heard of his unjustfiabe exposure of his
own life among the troops when the cholera
swept them off there by hundreds in the Black
Hawk War? Ask those who served undcr
him in tho pesteniial climate of Mexico,
whether he has a heart open as melting char
ity to the sufferings of his fellow-men, and q
readiness and ability to relieve them, equalled
only by the affection of brother.
No, fellow citizens, the hardships and habits
of military life. instead of indurating his heart,
have but touched him with feeling of tho
infirmities of our race, and have taught him
the great duty of man in initiating the exam
pie of his Saviour. Such man will bring in
to the administration of the government, nei-
ther reserve, pride, arrogance, or stubbornness.
The second circumstance which determines
the qualifications of n military man for civil
employment, is whether he has already ac-
quired the learning, experience, and tact as a
statesman. Tho military life in this country
which has been blessed with peace for at least
sxty-fivc of the nearly seventy years that
have passed since our independence was
achieved, is not like that of the European off
Ger who has spent his life in long and bloody
wars, or secluded in garrison and forts Gen.
Scott, probably more than any other of onr
great generals, has, from the nature of bis en-
ployment, maintained for the greater part of
his life an extended and various intercourse
with his fellow citizens in every part of our
Republic and with men of all trades business
and professions he has been in constant CON-
munion. Tho frankncss and republican sim
plicity of his intercourse with men, is the re-
suit of this extended acquaintance with their
habits, views and feelings Strip him of his
uniform and all other military trappings, and
stranger would scarcely suspect him of being
soldier. He is not citizon of the world,
but he is omphatically citizen of the whole
republic. He has resided in every quarter of
il, has cultivated the intercourse of families
and of domestic life, so that wherever he has
lived, he is as much, or more, loved as neigh
Dor, than admired as a soldier.
No military man in this country has been
called so often TO the discharge Of civil duties
Of the greatest difficulty aud delicacy, and of
the utmost Importance and indeed few civil
ians have encountered so many perplexing
and sometimes repugnant occasions of public
service.
Justice TO him, and duty TO a rejecting
community anxious to cast their votes WORTH
ly, demands brief synopsis of some of these
services. t li rlt tft ~