Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-08-11
JUDGE BLACK ON HANCOCK.
HANCoGK'S LOUISIANA ORDERS
THE "SPOKEN ACT" OF
A SOLDIER WHO
SAVED CIVIL
LIBERTY.
"if Washington Had Beenlin Hancock's
Place lie Would Have fone What
Hancock Did.
PARIS, Jalylstb, 1880.

at London, whence j answered il
more briefly perhaps than you ex
pected, but | thought intelligently
enough. Your later despatch which
came to me here yesterday, now re
/ ply to by mail
! inferred from voureftterfogatory
that some evil disposed persons had
been attributing to me the authorship
OF the orders and letters issued by
General Hancock while ho commando
in Louisiana and Texas My denlaI
by telegraph was intended to cover the
whole ground. | neither wrote those
papers nor suggested a word of them
| had no precogntion Of his views on
the subject to which they relate, and
heard nothing from him about il until
he had taken the public into his con.
iidence. Indeed, my personal acquaint.
ance with him was then very slight
and our relations not at all intimate
The opinion that ] would offer or be
would require my and in producing
an order as his No. 40 is absurd. His
determination to stand by the Consti.
tuition and the laws need no expression
but what he could give il better than
any man alive. IL was not an argu.
mont, not an exposition of the law,
not an essay on the rights of man that
was wanted at that critical time. The
spoken act OF a patriotic soldier in high
command alone could save civil liberty
from the destruction with which it was
threatened. That was what Hancock
did, and it was the timeliest lift that
the great cause ever got from any
hand except that of Washington.
| hope my admiration Of the order
in question and the gratitude have
felt to him for issuing it can be reason
ably accounted without supposing that
framed, or had any share in framing
it. The belief was general among the
friends Of constitutional liberty, and
expressed by many Others as strongly
rs by me, that General Hancock had
done much, and done it bravely, to
rescue the Nation and save it alive,
first from secessionists, and afterwards
from the more dangerous and more un-
principled obligarchy into whose hands
it fell after the war. At the date of
his service in Louisiana the beau ideal
Of "strong Government" was in full
operation at Washington, conducted
by men who claimed to be absolute
masters Of the country. State rights,
and, as necessary consequence, indi-
vidual liberty, were violently trodden
down, and the Constitution which
should have made us free was habitu-
ally over-ridden and insulted, What
those men called "the Government"
was not only wondrous strong, but
corrupt beyond all example in modern
times. Between its force and fraud
the people were powerless, and their
despair was aggravated by an indifina-
BILE dread that the whole army might
at any moment be used to sink the
Nation into still further degradation,
if below the lowest depth a lower
deep could be reached. 1t was in
these circumstances that Hancock
spoke out those words of truth and
soberness which reassurod the friends
of free government and inspired them
with new hope. All who were near
enough to watch the current of that
unequal contest between absoluteism
and law can remember how the enc.
mics OF the Constitution were startled
and scared when they found the most
brilliant Generrl of the Union officially
declared himself opposed to their
Savage policy" They could not 60
upon him, nor send upon him, nor in
manner destroy HIM, for not only was
the law of the land on his side, but the
army was found to be iull of sympathy
withits conspicuously gallant and faith
ful leader. So they were fain TO content
themselves with harmless sneers and
petty prosecutions But they removed
him from the place where his devotion
TO the Constitution was specially in.
terfering with their schemes to subvert
it. When they made up their minds
to strangle the liberties of State,
to disperse a legal Legislature by brute
force, TO inaugurate for Governor
shameless adventurer, known to have
been defeated at at the polls, or to pin
the people down with bayonets while
they were plundered by alien thieves
who claimed to be their representa-.
tives and officers, somebody else was
employed 10 do the infamous work.
Still moro carefully did they avoid his
presence when tho whole Nation was
to be swindled at Presidential elec.
tion. II was for such reasons that the
heart Of the country warmed to Gen.
eral Hancock as its predestined de-
liverer.
II has often happened that the best
things OF the greatest men are attribu-
ted to others who are wholly incapa.
bic of them. The opinion was indus.
triously y propagated and accepted as
true that Hamilton wrote the Fare
well Address of Washington, but the
evidence is conclusive which shows
that every word of that immortal pro.
duction came from Washington him.
self; and Hamilton could not have
written il any more than he could
have made q world. Some Of Jack
sons most characteristic papers, bear.
ing the full impress of his own mind,
were habltually credited to persons Of
far inferior ability. When il was
charged against Jefferson that ho
wrote Logan's speech, he solemnly de-
clared that he was unequal to such o
composition. am not affecting
modesty when l claim credenoe of my
present denial for q similar reason. /
could not have written Hancook's No.
4O--not because | pretend to be dumb
OF altogether unskilled in the use of
English words, but because If / had
undertaken to write il the chances are
ninety-nine in q hundred that my
augmentation would have marred its
majestic simplicity and greatly dimin.
ished its power When a public man,
especially q military man, meets
grave responsibility, saying no more
nor less than the thing he ought, but
saying il with unequivocal clearness,
you may be sure he is the interpreter
of his own thoughts. At any rate,
the attempt Is unjust to bastardize No.
40 by assigning TO II an origin totally
different from the true one.
Why should my opinion be asked or
volunteered on General Hancock as
civilian2 Anybody else who has
,ratohal IL. l,to ,a "a mod n Ill. -.