Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-10-06
Hanraster fntelhge1lcer.
WEpNEsDAY EVENING. OCT. 8, 1880.
Grant on Hancock.


Grant on Hancock.
Grant is being SO thrown into the fore
part of the Republican battle as to afford
color to the suspicion that after the In
diana election he will take Garfield's
place as the candidate. After con-
spicuous silence in the campaign and
after he had lately expressed great conf
dence in the reconstructed state of South
ern feeling, suddenly Grant faces about,
takes the stump and raises the bloody
shirt. And now we are supplied in addi-
tion with a dish of personal abuse of
Hancock which'a political divine named
Fowler is made the medium of serving
up to the public. He seems to have
done the job bunglingly, because his re-
port of his interview with Grant at his
home in Galena a couple of weeks ago is
scarcely out before Grant hastens to say
that it is full of mistakes. Its tenor
manifestly, however, was in depreciation
of Hancock who he declares was " very
fair corps commander, but was never
thought of for any great place." Grant
furthermore pronounces that Hancock
was a good soldier up to 1864, when he
became ''crazy to be president through
the vote he got then in the Democratic
national convention. /" He is ambitious,
vain and weak says Grant; who then
went on to give Fowler the inside his
tory of HancOck's order No. 40, which
Fowler gives us, but Grant now says
I" he did not get hold Of the points, cor
rectly. In which we sympathize with
Fowler, because the point of Grant s
story is hard to see. 1t should be re-
ferred back to its author for revision. 1t
seems to he an insinuation that Presi-
dent Johnson and General Hancock were
engaged i'm an effort to reappoint a gov
ernOr whom Sheridan had removed, the
aim being to swindle the state out of
four millions of levee bonds; Reverdy
johnson being paid quarter of mil
lion to help along the Swindle, which
Grants obstinate virtue alone stopped.
Now, surely, in view of Grants fire.
quently exhibited easy virtue towards
like jobs, and the established reputation
of Andrew johnson for stern opposition
to them-tO say nothing of the fair char
acter of Reverdy johnson and General
Hancok for honesty-this will be a very
tough tale for the people to swallow, and
they will hardly do it Oh the present in
ducement.
And then is it not conspicuous
case of the pot calling the ket'
tie black for Grant to charge that
Hancock is "crazy to be president 20 A
more conspicuous instance of craziness
in that direction has never been pre-
Sented that Grant himself has shown in
seeking Il third term, alone of the presi'
dents, and against protest of the
people that WAS strong enough to over
throw him in the house of his friends. lie
may well be said to be crazy to be presi'
dent. To Hancock, as to every other citizen
of the country but Grant, tile presidency
may be an honorable object of ambi'
tion. Grant alone is dishonored in seek
ing it; and yet he dares to upbraid
another for desiring it. Audacity could
no farther go. 1t surely does not lie iI
Grants mouth to charge upon HancOck
ambition rs Il crime; or vanity as an
Offense; or weakness, in the sense Of
partisanship, as uniting him for the
presidency. OF vanity, ambition an(
that sort of weakness, Grant himself j:
a shining example. What would he MOI
do for his party? When did he evel
fail it 1t is this which made him strong
with it. He was acceptable to its leaders
as its earnest and s,rvile tool. His in
dependence never was 4 stumbling blocl
to them. No man could lave been Z
binder or more Inscriptions party ser
want.