Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-07-09
WHAT STANDS BEHIND HANCOCK.

| Just been condemning military nominations
as dangerous and unrepublican. They
forgot that Hancock possessed no political
record of kind to do them the slightest
service They forgot that whoever under.
took to represent them must bear the
burden of their past history, and could not
make vicarious atonement for them. At
first they imagined that they had done
very shrewd thing in making this nomina'
tion, and all over the country they went
about calling attention to the fact that
they had live Union General at the head
of their ticket. Their enthusiasm has al
ready been damped by the -blooded re-
hinder that the contest is not between
Garfield and Hancock, but between Repub-
licauism and Democracy. This is fact
which cannot be obscured. and which rem
ders the Democratic strategy useless. The
question for the people to determine is,
which of the two historic parties shall
be intrusted with the control of the Gov
ernment That question cannot be de-
cided after the antique fashion by a single
combat between the candidates, nor will a
personal campaign help to produce intelli-
gent conclusions upon it. 1t is matter
which involves dispassionate examine
ton of the records of the two parties, and
their respective claims to confidence. And
there is no other rational way of regarding
the contest Garfield is in every respect
representative statesman. He and his
party stand together. The history of the
one is the history of the other. They can
therefore be examined together. But
when we come to Hancock it at once APP
pears that this rule does not work with
him. He has no sympathetic connection
with the Democracy. His career has been
wholly military. 1t is therefore necessary
to put him aside, and to analyze the record
of that which stands behind him, namely
the Democratic party. 1t is that organi-
cation which is on trial in this campaign.
Hancock's nomination has no significance
beyond that of political subterfuge.
1t indicates the belief of the Conven-
ton that the only way to make a
strong nomination was to select a
man in no way affiliated with the
national Democracy, but that was not a
kind of confession calculated to strengthen
public confidence in the party. Hancock
does not represent the Democracy. All
he represents is the position the Democrats
wish to be thought to have assumed, for
the special purposes of this campaign. In
selecting him they in fact repeated the
Greeley trick. with variation. The Gree
ley campaign should have convinced them
that this sort OF dodge never pays in the
end, but the Bourbons never learn by ex-
perience, and SO they thought it worth
while to play the old game again. 1t is
amusing to sec the utter innocence of in
consistency which they are now exhibiting,
moreover. They do not perceive that they
have repudiated all their distinctive ideas
in making this ticket. No doubt the rea-
son of this apparent obtuseness is that
they are not conscious of having abandoned
any of their old doctrines, and this is the
real state of the case. But what they do
not realize is that when men and parties
play parts they ought to attempt to make
them look like nature. In this case the
artifciality of the pretended change of
heart is too patent to deceive anybody.
The first look at the exhibition is no
doubt slightly bewildering. When the ass
first donned the lions hide, and ran among
the sheep, they were alarmed, but it was
not long before the familiar strident voice
of the creature betrayed its identity In
the same way the disguise of loyalty and
patriotism assumed by the Democracy was
calculated to mislead people for the mo-
ment, but the reality could not be con-
cealed long, and the Democratic donkey
soon stood confessed behind the Union
General. It has been the fatal mistake of
| the Democrats ever since the war to mag
inc that shams are as good as realities.
That party has repeatedly advertised its
lack of principles, its contempt for probity
its stolid incapacity to appreciate moral re-
quirements, by masquerading in borrowed
clothes 1t does not see now that Hancock's
nomination has stultiied it; that the very
points in his career which it parades as
demonstrating his fitness render him an
absolutely grotesque and impossible Demo-
cratic candidate With faith in make
believes which no amount Of disillusioniz-
ing can destroy, it proceeds to trample
upon its former positions, and to out. Herod
Herod in protesting reverence for those
| loyal measures which it has as party con-
temned and reviled during the past twenty
years And though its indiscreet leaders
have not tact enough to refrain from min
Cling with this ridiculous adulation the
broadcast reassertion of Copperhead prin-
ciples, they seem to think that ali this
mountebank work win go down with
the people. Why they should continue in
such a delusion it is hard to say,
for certainly they have had frequent
proof of the popular shrewdncss in the
past. But, nevertheless, they go on, pre-
tending to be delighted with Hancock's
war record, expatiating upon his services
to the Union they sought to destroy, re-
ioicing over his defeat of their Confeder-
ate friends, and at the same time reiterating
their States rights and other Bourbon doc
trines with a perfectly comical uncon-
sciousness of the absurdity of their posi-
ton. As the campaign proceeds they
may realize the mess they have got into by
their desperate fondness for disguises, but
whether they find it out or not, the people
will, and all their posturing and contor-
tons will avail nothing to conceal the
identity of the familiar Democratic animal
which stands behind Hancock.
TIE CEILE-PERUvIAN WAR
1t is stated that our Government has at
last made a feeble motion towards offering
its services as a mutual friend in the war