Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-04-01
GEN. HANCOCK TO GOV. PEASE.

Some time in January last acting Gov
Pease, of Texas, addressed communi-
cation to Gen. Hancock, asking that GER
tain persons accused of crime, in the
western part of the State, might be tried
by military commission. Gen. Hancock
refused to comply with the request, and
acting Governor Pease replied in letter
arraigning the commanders policy, de-
claring Texas to be still at war with the
federal government, stismatizing her
people as " disloyal," and charging them
witha settled feeling of opposition to the
government, and to the acts of Congress.
He affirmed, moreover, that in conse-
quence of the attitude assumed by Gen.
Hancock, the administration of justice
had become greatly relaxed; that Grim
inals could not be punished by the or
dinary tribunals; and that nothing but
military force, directed by the will of an
arbitrary and irresponsible commander,
could maintain order and assure protec-
ton to life and property. The Crescent,
at that time, exposed the falsity of the
facts and the fallacy of the arguments
contained in acting Gov. Pease's letter.
We have now before US the reply of
Major General Hancock, which we re-
publish in this mornings Crescent, and
to which the especial attention of the
public is directed. 1t is a document
worthy of true statesman, and is the
logical sequence of those principles
which were eHounced by the General
when he took command of this district,
and upon which, as far as practicable,
his administration was conducted. In tho
midst of what appears to be the general
decadence of true ideas of liberty and
law, it is gratifying to find that liberty
is still the object, and law still the guide,
of an officer who might, if he had chosen,
have been faithless to both, and who
could have ingratiated himself with a
powerful and dominant party by emu
lating the example of his predecessors,
in the exercise of arbitrary and despot-
ical powers.
If there is, in this admirable letter,
one part, more than another, which COM
mends itself to the reader, it is that in
which the writer rebukes his correspond
ent for invoking the Intervention of the
military authorities, to punish whole
people, on account of their political
opinions. The references to Lord Chat
hams denunciations of the English gov
ernment, during the war of the revolu-
ton, and to the acrim onious assaults of
the opposition on the administrations OF
Adams, Jefferson and Jackson, are pc
culiarly happy. General Hancock has
not learned the lesson in vain, that mems
political opinions are no proper measure
Of their worth as citizens, and no test OF
their natural or constitutional rights.
The Radical doctrine of loyalty" as
expressive Of approval of Radical policy,
and sympathy with Radical schemes, is
to him, not only repulsive, but incom-
prehensible. he knows that proscrip-
ton of one party by another, for the
sake of maintaining supremacy, or OF
gratifying revenge, is a system which
must end in the subversion of free insti-
tutions, if not abandoned before the
public mind becomes inflamed by pas
sion and corrupted by heresy.
But any analysis of this document IS
superfuous. 1t should be read atten-
lively by all, and should be widely circu-,
lated as triumphant vlndicatlon oil
those principles on which General Han.
cock conducted his administration, and
as a conclusive refutation of Radical
falsehoods.
HEADQUARTERS FIFTH military DISTRICT,
NEW ORLEANS. La, March 9, leoS.
To His Excellency L. NJ. Pease. Governor Of
Texas:
SIR: Your communication Of the 18th
January last was received in due course
of mail (the 9th january, but not until
it had been widely circulated by the
newspaper press. To such letter
written and published for manifest pur-
poses-it has been my iptention to reply
as soon as leisure from more important
business would permit
Your statement that the act Of Con-
gress to provide for the more efficient
government Of the rebel States, declares
that whatever government existed in
Texas was PROVISIONAL; that peace and
order should be enforced; that Texas
should be part Of the fifth military dis
trict, and subject TO military power that
the President should appoint an officer
70 command in said district, and detail
force TO protect the rights Of personal
proDerfy, empress instruction and
violence. and punish offenders, either By
military commission. or through the
action Of local civil tribunals, as in bis
iudrrrent might seem best, viii not Be
disputed. One need only read the sctto
perceive Il contains such provisions
Bat how al this is supposed TO have