The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-07-22
Rultttra1.
THE HOUR AND THE MAN,
ONE OF THE SPEECHES THAT STIR
THE BLOOD AND CONVINCE
THE REASON.
Roger A. Pryor, a Hard-Flghtlng Elk Confederate,
on HancOCk's Nomination.

lean people, we are going to win this
fight and by the bl ssing of the same
gracious Providence and the help of the
same people, We are going, this time to
realize the results of our victory, TAP.
plause
And, why should we not win this fght2
Why should not the people Of the United
States elect Hancock President Of the
United StatesP
Nobody impugns the purity of his per-
sonal character; nobody doubts his parti'
otism; nobody challenges his splendid
service to his country in the hour Of need;
nobody denies the possession Of that
faculty of sober and sagacious judgment
which best qualities for the grave duties
of magistracy.
But they say he is a soldier, and the
implied argument is that a soldier is not
competent to the exigencies Of civil ad,
ministration.
From whom does this objection come?
From the self.same party that transferred
the chief of the army to the head of the
State that made President of a man
wholly unused and inapt in the arts and
e~mployments Of civil life a man who
knew no more Of the philosophy of Re-
publicanism tbau of the German meta.
physician a man Of whose AdmiDistra.
ton the first act was to appoint as Score.
tary of the Treasury a person whom an
memorial and familiar statute expressly
incapacitated for the Office; a man inlshort,
whose notions of civil government were
picked up in the barracks, and whose
methods of civil administration were
modelled after the processes of a court.
martial-this man the Republican party
promoted to the Presidency not once
only, but twice; and nothing but the
portent of the popular indignation frigh-
tened them from their deliberate pur.
pose to retain him In power for another
term.
But no matter whence the argument
came, if it be intrinsically valid. Now,
the fac. cannot be denied that Hancock
is a soldier that he is a s~oldier-and a
gallant soldier, tools blazoned upon the
brightest pages of the American annals;
that he is a eoldier-and a triumphant
soldier, tools attested by the most en-
during and resounding memorial of the
nations g%ratitude-a resolution ofthanks
for his services passed by the unanimous
vote of both Houses of Congress, and
hallowel by the approving hand of the
immortal Lincoln. From the day when
his y Dung sword flashed like a meteor
over the %ensanguined fields of Mexico
to the fatal hour when his resistless
proWess inflicted the final blow to the
falling fortunes of tie Confederacy-
from CherubusCO to Spottsylvania-Han-
cocks life has been an unchequered ca,
reer of %unconquered and ~unconquerable
valor. II, then, to be a soldier units one
for the Office of President, Hancock, it
it must be owned, is distinguished by a
prominence of disqualif%ca cation and the
sturdiest Democrat must concede that,
in this particular, at least, Garfield is ex-
exempt from the disability which at
taches to our candidate. Laughter and
applause
But what sane man said-what sane
man ever sai3-that the mere fact of be.
ing a soldier incapacitated for civil trust?
Service as a soldier, it is obvious, devel.
ops ard disciplines a man in many rs
sential faculties-in quickness of appre-
hension, in correctness of judgment, in
presence of mind, in courage and forti.
tude of spirit. Hence, the most eminent
stalesment of history were soldiers as
well and, in our annals, Washington
not only achieved our independence by
arms, but organized our Government by
policy while Jackson was as skillful in
rescutng the country from the Corrup.
tons of a colossal corporation as he was
valiant in delivering it from the presence
of an invading foe. No; the objection
that may be urged against the military
man as a civil ruler, is not merely that
he is a military man-but that he is a
soldier and nothing more that he is ig.
norant of the principles and methods of
civil administration, and that, by the
temper of his mind aud the habits of his
education, he subordinated the rule of
law to the sway of the sword. Now,
from this charge of inoivism Hancock,
of all men, is the most exempt: for his
solicitude for the supremacy of the civil
over the military, and his mastery of the
principles of free government, are attest
ed by conduct as memorable as his mar.
tial achievements. You will reCollect
that when the Republican part, ascend
ant il all the departments of government,
had relegated the Southern States to a
condition of ~subjugation, and modelling
after the military policy Of Cromwell,
parceled them out in military districts
which Major Generate were set to rule
with %pro-Consular power, you will re-
member that in one of the satrapies Han
cock was assigned the command. He
was invested with absolute, arbitrary and
irresponsible power, and that power he
was urged to exert for the oppression and
spoliation of his recent enemies-ene-
mics who had pierced his body with
their bullets. The dominant party in
the country, his superiors at Washing
ton, all bounded him on to the employ
ment Of that power for the extinction of
the last vestige of liberty in the PROSTATE
South. The opportunity was inviting,
the reward tempting; but, proof against
the solicitations Of Interest, deaf to the
voice of ambition, nobly superior to the
promptings Of resentment, Hancock rec
objected his allegiance to the Constitu.