The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-08-14
THE HANCOCK VETERANS.
An Address to Old hoidiers adopted by
Their National Executive Committee.

An Address to Old kOidiers adopted by
Their National Executive Committee.
(From the New York World)
The executive committee Of the National AS
ISOLATION of Hancock veterans at its meeting
yesterday afternoon at the Westminster hotel
added to its members Gen. James McQuade,
making him vice-presldent. The committee
then agreed upon the following address
"Veterans Of the Union:
Nearly twenty years have passed since a
bloody civil war began in which you took part
IN order to preserve the integrity of the Union
and maintain the supremacy Of the federal
laws. After four years of alternate defeat and
victory actual fighting ceased, but peace never
theless did not follow. The dominant pollti-
cal party, assuming the merit of success
achived by your tolls and your courage, by
victors and the vanquished, attempted to make
your deeds the foundation Of their own per-
manent power. In the South this was done
by the harrassing course OF the carpet baggers,
by the lnQuisitIons of prOvOstmarshals, and
by means of United States Soldiers, who were
used to lntimidate citizens at the polls and to
lock the doors of legislatures against legally
elected representatives Of the people In the
North 1t was done by persistent misreprescn-
tatlons of the acts and attitude OF the Southern
people, by the surveillance OF supervisors OF
elections, and by the arbitrary authority OF
marshals, who dragged orderly and innocent
men from the polls to prisons to prevent this
free exercise Of the elective franchise, and by
blatant charges of disloyalty against the one
legged and 0ne.armed soldiers who had dared
to assert that in the war for the Union they
had not fought for four years to strike the
shackles from the slave and weld them into
manacles for freemen. A reaction from this
condition of things was inevitable among a
people who inherited liberty, and the eyes Of
the North and the South have at length been
opened The North has proposed to settle the
sectional feeling which the dominant political
party has VIGOROUSLY and selfishly kept alive,
of taking as candidate for president one of our
own generals-a man whose loyalty to the
Union has been shown IN four years OF march
and battle, and in shedding his blood amid the
clash of crossing bayonets; whose capacity as
a ruler has been shown in his orders and In the
administration of complicated civil duties.
When invested with vast and arbitrary power
he refused to be the tool Of tyranny, and to use
1t against people who were crushed; man,
in short, whose moderation Is known unto all
men, The South, likewise to show that 1t &C
cepts all the legitimate results OF the war and
desires that true fraternal feeling be reestab-
lished, has asked us as with single voice TO
give them as president the sturdiest fighter
among our Union RentIuIS--u HAL ou "u'Sc
Justice you can rely and who places the right
OF frcemcn abave the exercise of despotic mill
tary power.
I'm this crisis of the nation Providence has
given us the man VINO combines in himself al
these requirements. Gen. Winfield Scott Han
cock, candidate for the presidency, is the man
for the hour. Under his lead let all Union
veterans again touch elbows and the blood.
less battle won, true liberty and true peace will
be ours once more. Let those boast of patriot
Ism who have revealed In power and the spoils
Of Office for twenty years, vet never heard the
sound of hostile bullet on the battle field; but
do you, whose tolls and wounds best prove
your love Of the republic, put the seal TO your
aUors by placing your gallant and skilliul
leader in the executive chair Of the nation 80
that the bones Of your comrades who died foI
liberty, unity aud peace, may not In vain
/ Written the battle fields Of the country. To do
this, ignore the lines Of party, and let the blue
and the gray forever fade from our sight n col
ors Of opposing forces. Our own loved ban
ner gives us oil the coiors We need, and ovci
i US may the