Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-07-10


them was ready to swear to any
thing. The great difference be- !
tween the two was that Buchanan
tried to escape payment of his obli- /
cation, and had to be held to it +:
while every year that has passed
since Hancoek's great work at Get
tysburg on the ID of July, 1868, has
added to the value Of his services,
and has so added to the readiness
of the people Of Philadelphia to rec
ognize them.
The veterans of his old army
corps, and of the Pennsylvania Re-
serves, democrats and republicans,
officers and men, regard Hancock
with the same admiration that the
Old Guard felt for Murat. They
were alike in personal beauty and
splendid horsemanship, only Han
cock WAS more cultivated, polite,
and scholarly. How the greater
chiefs regarded him, let the general
of all the armies of the republic an
swer. Last Thursday, June. 24th,
1880, General Sherman said to one
Of the newspaper reporters of. WASH
ington: ST YOU Will sit down and
write the best thing that can be put
in language about General Hancock
as an officer and gentleman will
sign it without hesitation"
General Hancock was one of the
favorites Of Abraham Lincoln.
Even the saturnine and exacting
Stanton was his friend. To me
Hancock was more than attractive.
had known his blood, his BROTH
ers, his associates, his comrades in
arms, and whenever / had a party at
my rooms on Capitol hill, he was
there If he was in Washington he
and such men as Sickles, Rawlings,
George H. Thomas, Senator Chase,
Mr.. Seward, Judge Holt, Sumner,
Ben Wade, General Butler, General
Meade, General Reynolds, and the
whole galaxy of patriots. We did
not think of politics in those days.
We were, to use the blazing watch
word OF Douglas in 1861, "we were
all patriots;" and if Hancock was
liked a little better than others, it
was because while he fought like a
lion for the old flag, he never de-
MED that he was democrat. | be-
lieVe he and Grant have had diff
ference in military matters, but a
! little incident of rather recent oc-
currence will show how Hancock
feels in regard to his old command
er. We were acting as pall-bearers
at the funeral of poor Scott Stuart,
who died in London in the winter
Of 1878, and was buried in Philadel-
phia a few weeks after. AS we
were riding to the grave one of the
company broke out in very angry
denunciatiOn of General Grant, and
according to a habit never to allow
an absent friend to be assaulted in
my presence, warmly and prompt
4 ly defended the ex-president l
cannot give General HancOck's
I words, but he was courteous and
1 dignified in seconding my opinions,
and in expressing his regret that the
I scene had taken place in his pres
ence | was also in Washington
during Mrs. Surratt's trial and exc
/ cution as a participant in the muir
der of Abraham Lincoln, and can
/ bear personal testimony to the
I manly bearing of General Han
| cock, who was the military officer
! in command of the national capital
in 1860. The attempt to arouse
Catholic hostility 10 him because he
] carried out the orders of the govern
ment, President Andrew Johnson,
and Secretary of War Stanton, is
one of the worst exhibitions of par
ty defamation, and disgraces all
who are engaged in it. He did not
hesitate to express his repugnance
at the fearful duty forced upon him.
Nobody in Washington had any
doubt about his sentiments fifteen
years ago. Hence when Judge
Clampitt, now of Chicago, Mrs. Sur
rats leading counsel in 1865, comes
forth, as he docs in Don Piatt's
Washington Capital, and states as
follows, he does what is equally
well known to myself:
Hancock, A" continued Judge
Clampitt, chad no more to do with
these details or matters than you
had. When Judge Wylie, with
Roman majesty of character, issued
almost at the peril of his life, the
writ of hd6eds corpus in the case of
Mrs. Surratt, President johnson
and Secretary Stanton decided to
suspend the writ, and the execu-
ton followed.
ave had hopes to the last of re-
prieve and pardon for Mrs. Sur
ratt, and / waited at the arsenal,
hoping against hope. Gen. Ham
cock rode down, and approaching
him asked, Are there any hopes"
He shook his head slowly and
mOurnfully, and, with "A sort of
gasping catch in his speech, said Il
am afraid not. No; there is not
"He then walked off a bit-he
had dismounted-and gave some
orders to his Orderlies, and walked
about for q moment or two. Re-
turning, he said to me.
81 have been i'm many battle,
and have seen death and mixed
with it i'm disaster and in victory.
I've been in n living hell of fire,
and shell, and grape-shOt, and, by
God I'd sooner be there ten thOus-
and times over than to give the Or
der this day for the execution of
that poor woman. But / am sol
der, sworn to obey, and obey l
must
"This is the true and genuine his
tory Of all that Hancock had in
common with the affair. He was
commanding, and as commander
and CONSERVATION of the national cap
ital, was compellantly obedient to
the orders Of the court which SEN
fenced the cOnspiFatOrs and the So
called cOnspiratOr TO death. lie had
no voice i'm the matter, and could
have no action save "a the agent to
see that the letter of the law was
carried out in an order of alphabetic
certainty"
Calumny Of any kind on General
Hancock is a bad crutch to help the
ambition of weak men. 1t is the
last resort Of imbecile partisanship,
and will have no more effect than
If it were employed to scandalize
the dead President Johnsohn or the
dead Secretary Stanton. 1t is like
the attempt to say that his nOmina-
ton is his surrender to the south he
conquered, which would be like
saying that when q great soldier re-
ceives the highest hOnOrs from
those he had taken prisoners in bat
tie, he has become their prisoner in !
turn. Considering that we republic /
cans have been trying to get the
south to support our candidates for
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