Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1867-12-25
GU FIREMAN.
4 Second Washington!

control of rebels, in Major General Winfiel
Smith Hancock. has seen fit to eulogize hin
self and General Hancock. and snub Gener;
Grant. and offer gratuitous insult to Cor
gress. by sending to that body the followin
. communication in writing
Gentlemen Of the Senate and House o
Representatives.
An official copy Of the order issued b
Major General Winfield s Hancock, com
mander of the Fifth Military District. date
at his headquarters in New Orleans, La.
on the 29th Of November, has reached me
through the regular channels of the depart
Inent, and herewith communicate it to Con
gross, for such action as may seem to b.
proper in view Of all the circumstances.
Ii Will he preceived that General Hancock
announces that he will make the law TIL,
rule of his conduct that he will uphold tn,
courts and the civil authorities in the per
formance Of their proper duties, and that he
viii use his military power only TO preserve
the peace and enforce the law lie declares
very explicitly that the sacred right of trial
by Jury. and the privilege of the writ Of ha-
beas corpus. shall not be crushed out and
troddcn under foot He goes further and
in one comprehensive sentence asserts that
the principles Of American liberty are still
the inheritance of the people, and ever
should be
When a great soldier. with unrestricted
power in his hands to Cypress his fellow-men,
voluntarily forgoes the chance of gratifying
his selflove and his ambition and devotcs
himself 70 the duty of building up the lib
ertv and strengthening the laws Of his coun-
try. he presents an example of the highest
public virtue that human nature Is capable
of producing
&
D. First in war, first in peace. and first in the
hearts of his countrv.:en, il founded ON
the great fact that. in all his iIlustrious ca
reer, he scrupulOusIv abstained from viola
ting the legal and constitutional rights Of
his iellow-cit.Zens. When he surrendered
his commission TO Congress the president Of
that body spoke his highest praise, in saving
that he had regarded the rights Of the civil
authorities through all dangers and diasters.
Whenever power above the law invited his
acceptance, he calmly put the temptation
aside
BY such magnanimous acts of forbcarance
he won the universal admiration of man
kind, and left name which had no rival in
the history of the world. I am far from
saying that General Hancock is the only Off
Ger Of the American Army who is infiu-
enced by the example of Washingt0n
Doubtless thousands of them are faithfully
devoted To the principles for which the men
of the revolution laid down their lives but
the distinguished honor belongs to him Of
being the first officer in high command,
south of the Potomac. since the close of the
civil war, who has given utterance to these
noble sentiments in the form of a military
order
! respectfully suggest to Congress that
some public recognition of General Han
cocks patriotic conduct is due, if not to
him, to the friends Of law and Istice
throughout the country. OF such an act as
his, at such a time. it is but fit that the dig
nifty should be indicated and the virtue pro
clsImed. SO that its virtue. as an example
may not be lost to the nation
ANDREW JOHNSON.
General Hancock is praised, apparently,
in this laudatOrv communication. but really.
President Johnson says :. Behold what
citizen lam" General Hancock
looks at things through Andrew Johnson
eyes, therefore great is General Hancock :
A. Johnson believes in obeying the laws. and
General Hancock believes IN obeying the /
laws, therefore the General . presents ex-
ample Of the highest public virtue that hui
man nature is capable Of producing
But if Gen Hancock is great. how much /
greater Is 4. johnson If we are to glorify /
the planet that shines by reflected light, who I
~ worthy to sing the praises and pronounce
the eulogy of the central sun, whose efful- /.
gence is only family reproduced in the lu-
minary at New Orleans? If Hancock is a |
second Washington is mt it evident that y (
johnson is second TO no patriot whose name
illustrates the annals OF the nation? Everett
IS dead, but Is there not some silver-tongued
orator, who is equal to the task of writing
lecture which shall set forth the virtue and
forbearance and self-abnegation and patriot
ISM and wisdom and incorruptibility and
disposition and love of liberty
of this . Moses" who sits in Washington
Such lecture would g draw and the fund
realized from its delivery TO the white audi
ences of the country, especially to the rebels
at the South. would 20 some ways towards
furnishing money for the expenses of the
next presidential campaign. Is there not
some poet of NIiltonic grandeur of genius,
who, seeing the point : of this message,
and its cunning praise of its author, will
catch the inspiration, and, tuning his Tyre
to the lOftiest strains, chant in melodiOus
numbers the fame of this god who is dis !
for . abstaining from violating
the legal and constitutional rights of his |
fellow citizens Of the white persuasion ?
IF there be such poet, let him come forth, /
for now is his time
Lest our readers. however, should fail to
see the full significance of this message, it is |
proper 10 state that Gen. Hancock has dis
himself principally, not in alb
staining from the use of the military power,
but in using it, and his own authority, to
deprive the colorcd people of his district of
the protection which the reconstruction acts
were intended to give them 1t was because
the civil governments and laws and consti-
tutions of the Southern states denied pro-
lection to the colored people of the South,
that it became necessary for Congress to
enact that those governments were illegal,
and should remain provisional only, while
the military should be the supreme power
in those states, and should particularly take
care that the people without respect of color
were protected in all the rights of American
President johnson vetoed this
aw because he said that it was unconsti- ,
utional in that it made the civil superior to
he military power, and Congress passed it
'ver his veto because they thought it was
lot unconstitutional in that respect, and
vas needed for the security of the rights of
he recently emancipated race. That law
mist stand and be obeyed as the law of the