Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-09-08
BLAmE1 Ess CANDIDATE.

Gen. Hancock has now been in the field as
the Democratic candidate for President of
the United States for seventy days, and less
than two months remain before the election
at which he will be chosen to that high effice.
Almost as soon as the wires had flashed the
intelligence of his selection to bear the
standard of the Democracy in the contest,
the opponents of that party set about trying
to find some flaw in his record as soldier,
some error in his private life, or some mis-
take in civil administration. They have thus
far labored without success, and are on the
verge of despair lest the campaign ends ere
they find some means to blacken the char
acter of the next President of the republic.
1t has been amusing to note the frantic
endeavors of the partisan press to fix some
stigma upon the name of Hancock. He has
been accused of fomenting mutiny in the
army on the occasion of McClellan's remov-
Potomac. This accusation was disproved by
official testimony almost as soon as it was
made. Then he was charged with lending
his name to float bogus oil COMPANY, but
the records of the company showed that he
was the principal and nearly the sole loser
in the transaction, and that line of attack
was at once abandoned. Then it was alleged
that at the time of the electoral contest he
man announcing his determination to obey
the orders of President Tilden after mid
night on the Sd of March, 1877. The cor
respondence was published, and it was found
that his views had been requested by Gen.
Sherman and that he had written a calm,
dispassionate, constitutional argument, in
sisting that the military power had no right
to interfere in the settlement
of the questions in controversy. His
arguments were so convincing, and based
upon such unassailable grounds that many
of the Republican papers that had clamored
so earnestly for the correspondence refused
to give it a place in their columns. This &C.
cusation has gone by the board. He was
! also accused of having taken sides with the
partment of the Southwest in 1868. The
publication of his official orders of that
reriod has shown that he took the high
ground that the military had no right to in
terfere with the civil government except in
! case of armed instruction and resistance to
| the processes of the courts, and that he
based his conduct on the explicit commands
of the constitution as interpreted by Con-
gress and the highest courts of the land.
This position is the one long held by the
Democratic party, and needed no defense.
The opposition press has ceased to harp
! upon ii for the very obvious reason that
they find a vast majority of the people in
| full accord with the sentiments Gen. Han
cock SO aptly expressed eighteen years ago.
He has been accused of cruelty to his SOL
diers by few irresponsible persons and
papers, but all of those who served under
him unite in condem ming the charge as in
famously false. The fact that nine enths
of the brave soldiers who were with him
during the campaign of the army of the
Potomac are now enlisted in his cause is q
sufficient denial to the allegation of cruelty.
Gen. Hancock has been proved to be a
candidate without b!emish. His popu-
larity is increasing with every day. Re
pubicans who have never in their lives
voted the Democratic ticket are declaring
by thousands that they will vote for Han
cock in November and do all in their power
to induce their neighbors to do likewise.
| There is every indication that his majority
on the popular vote will be greater
than that of any other President ever elected
in this country, while his electoral vote will
be sufficiently large to prevent any attempt
to cont ,st the validity Of his election. There
will be nc electoral commission to decide
whether be or Mr. Garfield is the .rightful
President, but he will take his seat in the
executive chair as the choice of five million
fres electors, who have long been wearied OF
the corruption and mismanagemsnt that
have characterized the Republican admins
trations of the past.