Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-07-03
HANCOCK.
The soldier-statesmnn.

The SOldier-StaIesman.
.F'There ~ say the republicans,
"yOu have nominated a soldier after
all your protests against military
rule and Grant and Grantism; you
are trying to elect a man who has
never been in politics ut all, against
one of the first statesmen of the day,
a man who has no claim for notice
except his military record against
one whose services in the army,
great as they are, are far transcribed
by his splendid record in congress"
That IL the cry against the demo-
cratic nomination of Gen. Hancock
raised by men who are at their wits
end for a decent plea to meet the
people with next November. We
undertake to show that there is only
one truth in all that fanfarrOnade,
and that is the statement that Han
cock is a soldier. He is indeed a
soldier, and a great one, the peer of
any man who fought in the same
army with him. He is the man
who made victory possible FOX
Meade at Gettysburg; he demon
strated the stupidity of Burnside's
dispositions at Fredericksburg by
his fruitless assault on Marye's
heights, an achievment only paral-
leled either as a blunder on the part
of those who ordered it or an eX-
plot of matchless valor OH that of
those who executed it, by the charge
of the six hundred at Balaclava.
He it was who steadily served his
country in three wars, and, though
more than once disabled by his
wounds, his active participation in
the battles of Sharpsburg, North |
Anna, Cole HarbOr and before Pc
tersburg prove that his courage and
devotion never faItered from the |
day he graduated at West Point till
the day of AppOmattOX.
But if this alone were his record,
Hancock would never have been
the nominee of the democratic con-
VentiOu at Cincinnati. 1t was not |
till the war was over that he OBJ
tanned the opportunity of showing |
abilities as statesman which far |
transcribed even his brilliant career
as 81 military man.
As military commander of the |
middle department, including Lou
isiana, Texas and Missouri, General
Hancock proved himself not only a
great statesman but the only man
then in the employment OF the fed
eral government who took states
manlike grasp of the situation.
Gov. Pease, the civil governor APP
pointed by the federal government,
had called upon him for number
of military commissions to take the
place of the state authorities in his
His letter in reply to
Gov. Pease is a specimen of states
which standsalon in those
dreary days of fraud and plumber
and oppression.
Pease's position had been that
and Texas were in IA state
of war, and that no local govern
ment existed or ought to exist there,
but that the will of the military
and his subalterns
ought to take the place of all law in
the department. Hancock denies
the state of war Git was two years
after the war had ended) ard says
that the department was in 4 state
IF profound peace. 1t was not an
evidence of war, he maintained,
hat the people were Outspoken in
certain reconstruction
avs as unconstitutional the presi-
lent had declared them uncOnstitu- {
iOnal, and one of them had been
declared so even by the supreme ,
,ourt, it was always the case that in /
healthy political communities free I
peaking structures on the legisla- I
ion of the day are current. On this !
natter of freedom of speech he be- j
Omes eloquent. He says: i
IL is time now, mt the end of almost two
ears from the close of the war, we should
egin 20 recOllect what manner OF people
W are 10 tolerate again free, popular dis 4
uSsion, and extend some fOrbearance and =
To opposing views. The max
ms that in all intellectual contest truth is
Mighty, and must prevail, and that error is v
armleSs when reason is left free to combat
!, are not only sound but SalutaEy. II is a >
DOR compliment to the merits of such a :
auSe, that its advocates would silence oppO- Z
tion by force; and generally those only L
tho are in the wrong will resort to this I'M -
anerous means. i am confident you will a
OF commit your serious judgment to the
rOpOsitiOn that any amount of discussion G