Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1868-01-08
A Scathing Letter to Gen. Hancock.

Hon. j. r. g. Pitkin, haa written most
scathing letter to General Hancock, relative
to his administration of affairs since assum-
ing command of the Fifth Military District.
The Ostensible purpose of the letter is to re-
quest that the recent appointment of the
writer, as Secretary of State, contained in
the suspended order of Gen Mower, may
not be confirmed. We subjoin few of the
more pointed paragraphs:
When that appointment was announced
by our local prints no one could have been
more surprised than myself [ had sought
nothing at the hands of that worthy officer,
and regard for the political friends. whose
opinions [ hold dear, will certainly dissuade
me tromfever obtruding upon his successor
Had the former. been continued in command
L am persuaded that his appointees would
have cordially and materially assisted him
In the labor of reconstruction, and | am
equally certain that not one of them would
have consented to be miserable stewards of
al apostate President. There are rebels, nu-
merous and abject enough for this service,
buzzing like wasps about your headquarters
and stinging loyal reputations-''d dogs easily
won to fawn on any man." The officer who
suffers them, and installs them in public
place, accepts desperate risk.
Speaking of other matters Mr. Pitkin re-
marks that every official indiscretion is a
danger for which the best field credit does
not compensate, and adds:
Ii is when soldier confesses in his initial
order, that the military should defer to
civil authority, which is forthwith recon.
United to rebel hands, either that lie has
suddenly ceased to aspire to high national
ends or that his patient waiting since 1861
for chance to surrender to the enemy is at
least consistent, has not changed its front,
has not forborne its old heresies. That
cannot capitulate with you suffices as a rea-
son why my name should no longer be en-
tertained at headquarters with reference to
bureau of this State Your advent, sir,
has lent renewed cheer to one class of our
people-it is a class which, by its practice
upon one Convention, can fondly dream a
grim murder of another now in session in
this city-whieh has already besought our
public trusts for its Ntonroes and Aells anew,
which impatiently seeks to render loyalty
again discredit and peril, and which may
reasonably confide its schemes to him, whose
enviable distinction it is to be not only one
of the five district commanders that can
discover more force in a mad whIm OF a
President than in a solemn decree of Con-
gress.
The writer then refers to the statement
of General Hancock, that he had been in
formed that the administration of criminal
justice in the courts had been clogged, if not
entirely frustrated, by negro jurors; and
after remarking that lit is easy to deter
mine whence this information comes to the
General, adds:
Men, who have just dotted their rebel uni
forms, and as proticients in partisan shames,
have been virtually promoted to your civil
staff men, the final chapter of whose biog-
raphy will be, in too many cases, an indict-
ment; men to whom the insulted color may
cast back the odium of having defeated the
ends of justice. A dozen hands from which,
sir, you c1nnot wash the red smear of rebel
lion may shoot erect to juror oath as
they once did to a citizen 5. The fidelity of
their observance of the latter VOW is, per
haps, the best reason for your espousal OF
the arbitrary jealousy of the jury box.
When, sir, not one of your local misadvis
ers shall longer crouch at your heels in Sc
curity from his dues, and when better au
thority than yours shall have declared as
soon it will, that temple of justice can
question no color except that of crime, you
will discover that the black juror will Meth
er ''frustrate nor clog the administration OF
Justice, and especially of what some in this
community may we'll complain of not hav-
ing yet received criminal justice.
The subject of the Residential aspirations
of Gen. Hancock are alluded to, and these
remarks are made:
But some one must soon thrust his feet
into the President shoes, and your evident
Nn,nrol 20 H. loI hyy
a Democratic nomination excites less sohcl-
tude for the nation than for yourself. 10
the American people, however, belongs the
uniform upon your back, and cannot be-
lieve they contemplated that it was to be
used through this district simply for the
purpose of political canvass, with its pock-
cts distended with the summaries of John
sonian speeches, collated in advance at the
White House, and issued here as general
orders"
Mr.. Pitkin concludes his letter in these
emphatic words
Our present convention has two impera-
tive duties to perform-frst, to rend with
its two hands, white and black, each of your
adverse orders to tatters, to decree every To-
cal post vacant, and to cancel every distlnc-
ton of race; and second, to place those
hands austerily upon our commanders shout
ders and face to face with him, with the
frmness of just defence, with honor tor
his stars, aud in all charity of spirit, distinct
ly to admonish him that the mistaken pur-
pose of his embassy,if unfortunate for Lou
| isiana, is tenfold more so for himself
A man in Kokomo, Indiana, while boring
for water. struck vein of gas in his own Gel
lar. This he has tubed and so confined that
he uses it to light his house.