Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1880-06-30
General Hancock as a Candidate.

The Democratic National Conven-
ton last week nominated General
Hancock, of Pennsylvania, for Presi
dent The General has command of
the Division of the Atlantic, with
headquarters on Governors Island,
near New York. Congratulations
were showered on him in numbers
Immediately after he WAS nominated.
The first body of men to call on him
was composed of officers at head
quarters. The General arose and
made a speech. He said, Il will
shake hands with you, gentlemen.
That was all he said. If Repubh-
cans were to do as Democrats did
when Grant was q candidate, they
would call him a thick headed mill
tary man, not even able to make q
speech of three sentences. They
would measure his ability by the
amount of talk he can get of. But
the great Republican party never has
been a party of ''mud-slingers," and
they do not now propose to engage
in the business. Their mission is not
to belittle manhood their mission is
to elevate manhood, and having de-
stroyed slavery to elevate manhood
generally, it would be forgetting
their own high and lofty mission
were they to stoop to abuse single
man, such as the nominee of the
Democratic party.
General Hancock was q good sol
der and an able general, and when
he drew his sword in favor of Ma
tional Life, he did Just what it was
expected he would do, when he was
educated at the public expense at
West Point. He won his great fame
at Gettysburg, as against tie con-
federate General Lee, but Gettys-
burg was not fought for Hancock; it
was not fought for Lee; it was for
and against slavery. Hancock WAS
for freedom and Lee was for slavery,
and if neither Of them had been
there it would have been all the same.
The fight was not for a man hero it
was for principle. Viewed in that
light, Hancock and Lee were no more
than others. They performed their
part on one side or the other. and
that is all. Lee is dead, and the
Rebel cause has lost his valuable SER
vice. Hancock has been nominated
by the party that opposed him at
Gettysburg and called him Lin
coin hireling' The party that was
against him at Gettysburg have
gained one man by nominating him !;
they have gained Hancock, but they
have not gained one slot or little" of
principle, nor has the principle of
free government lost, except to the
extent of one man. A man has
changed sides, and that is all. The
loss of a man does not affect a prin-
ciple. Andrew Curtin left the ranks
of the party against slavery Horace
Greeley, for the bauble of Presi-
dental nomination, left the party of
freedom, and Republicanism did not
suffer. The Free North loved both
Curtin and Greeley, and it almost
broke its heart to see them go, but
when they became the standard
bearers of the old champions of
slavery, that had deluged the land in
blood and gave millions of debt as
an inheritance to freemen to pay, the
North bads them good-by. Han
cock was a good, and an able general,
but when he became the standard
bearer of the chieftains of the Lost
Cause who rule the Democratic party,
he stepped beyond the lines OF the
free party, and they now bid hna
good by If he was right in 1863,
at Gettysburg, he is wrong now, for
the principles of the contending
parties have not been changed There
were thousands of Democratic sol
diers in the army of the North, but
they did not fight for Hancock or
any other general they were not
soldiers of fortune, but they were
soldiers against disunion and slavery,
and now when a fayorite general has
been beguiled into becoming the
leader or standard bearer of the old
party of disunion and slavery they
will no more follow him than did the
Republicans follow such distinguish
ed civilians as Curtin and Greeley
when they walked over into the same
camp whence Hancock has gone.