Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-10-27
CLEARFIELD PA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27 1880

Commissioner by borrowing none,
on levee bonds, wbcn the bonds woult
not bring but small part Of their face
were deirauding the State, So he re
moved them by military order, Il
was an unnecessary arbitrary proceed
ing, whether the reason given for il
was true or false. The reconstruction
act had given the military commander
of the departments the option TO rule
by means of military commissions OF
to use the methods known to the civil
law. Gen. Grant and Gen. Sheridan
acting in the interests of Radical
Congress, chose the former method
Gen. Hancock who believed the suprem,
acy of the civil law in time of peace,
chose, when appointed to succeed Sheri.
dan, the latter means, and on taking
command issued his celebrated Order
No. 40. In it he simply, in substance
said to the people of tlp. two States
that, although they had once been IN
rebellion, although the States were not
represented in Congress, yet, so long
as they preserved the peace, abstained
from violence, and obey ed the laws
passed by Congress, they should have
and were entitled to have all the right
guaranteed to them by the common
law, the writ of hdJedS corpus, liberty
Of speech, the right TO decide the many
civil questions that arise between men
by their own civil tribunals. His
predecessor had, by military order, in
stituted test for a man to become 4
juror, which was unknown TO the com.
mon or any other law. Gen. Hancock
revoked the order. In other words.
Gen. Hancock told the people of these
States to go on, obey the laws of Con.
gress and in their internal affairs to
govern themselves just as the people
who have inherited the great privi-
leges derived from our English fore,
fathers have right to do 50 long as
they are not undergoing any penalty
for crime The Southern people were
not undergoing penalty for crime, and
they had full right 10 all that General
Hancock rendered them in Order No.
40, No people but one just emerged
from bloody and disastrous war in
which they had got the worst of it,
would have submitted to rule by arbi.
trary military order, and Gen. Han
cock changed the methods and offered
the people their rights Murder, which
had been teariully rife, stopped as by
unanimous consent. Crime grew less,
and the people started off on the path
of reconstruction on common sense
principles. The interference of Grant
IN Gen. Hancock's procedures, Grant
having been given even greater power
than the President, changed all this,
and paved the way to even a greater
CRIME than tampering with the hber.
ties Of a conquered people-thc crime of
stealing the Presidency itself, which
was the legitimate fruit of the contin-
uance Of government by the bayonet
in the South. And this is the inner
history and spirit of the celebrated
Order No. 40, and not the one-sided
account of one OF the closing incidents
of Gen Hancock's Louisiana career as
narrated by Gen. Grant TO the Rev.
Mr.. Fowler.
According TO the'intorviewer, Gen.
Grant ended bis extraordinary talk by
that he would have accept
ed the third term nomination for three
reasons; 1st, his esteem for the char
acter Of the men who rendered it to
him; I'd, his beieft that he could have
broken up solid South; 3D. his be.
lief that he could have caused the en-.
actment of certain laws regarding
commerce with people who use free
labor, discriminating against those
who use slave labor. 1t is enough to
say regarding these astounding utter
ances that they would justify, if any.
thing, the election of General Grant to
the Presidency for life.