The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-08-14
VOL. III.
ii hANCoCK'S LETTER CoNTR sTEn
WITH GARFIELD'S.


Ills letter contrasts favorably with
dehefal Garfield's in the frankness and
lhclslVeness of its utterances. IT.
betrays none of the studied arts of fine
politician, unless the art is SO masterlv
's ehtlrely to conceal itself; for the
brave soldier of Gettysburg could not
nave spoken with more directness and
emphasis from the field that made
ms name immortal, in defense of the
true principles of free institutions. No
voter, North or South, can mistake the
pollcy that will control his admins
tration on the vital issues SETTLED hy
The war, when his letter shall have
been read. 1t is free from evasion
and double dealing. 1t proclaims
mat The Thirteenth, Fourteenth and
Fifteenth amendments to the national
Constitution care inviolablen and he
recalls the country from the perils of
both Capitalization and disintegration
by declaring that "this Union, COM
pflslng general government with
general powers, and State govern
mentS with State powers for PURPOSES
local TO the States, is policy the
foundation of which was laid in the
profoundest wisdom" His tribute to
the right of the people to exercise their
own sovereignty, was called for by the
emphatic expression in the Democrat
ic platform against the exceptional
electoral crime of 1876, and the chief
tain who has been trained to the
sword wisely confessed that "the bayo-
net is not fit instrument for collect
ing the votes of freemen."
General Hancock's brief but pointed
discussion of the public policy that !
most directly affects our great but
long languishing material interests,
is replete with philosophy and
craftsmanship. The declaration that
public office is trust, not bounty ,,
bestowed upon the holder" is not as c
elaborate as George William Curtis '
would make it to express his views !
# civil service reform but it has the s
merit of telling the truth in the blunt a
way that gives the air of sincerity $
nd when he next reminds the country l
hat civil service reform must first be
Established by the people in filing the
lectiVe Offices" he admonishes the
lends of better civil service how to
trike the only deadly blow that can
e directed against the present evil. n
he tens of thousands of intelligent II
oters who have been panied at Gar n
eld's practical surrender of civil ser ~ =,
Ice reform by his invitation to politi-
al traders to control his appointments, y
ill gratefully welcome the conspicu- II
US absence of all such studied trim st
ling or cowardly qualifications in al
eneral Hancock's Interpretation of W
he civil service of the nation. If ce
lere are Democrats sulking in their in
nts awaiting his surrender of the
prerOgatives relating to I'll
1pOintments they have notice that VI VI
lie battle is to be fought without RI
em. His appeal for sectional tram di
lility for equal and exact justice to OF
| classes in every cline; for the d. d.
of our varied and pro- f,,
essive material interests, and his ce
lemn pledge for the faithful eXecu- SIX
N of the laws lin all parts of the th' th
untry alike" defy criticism by their
anliness. There are no clap-trap si2
offers of speculative enterprises no lis III;
t of the way promise to Louisiana mr.
d Mississippi or any other locality 90
: special Improvements; but there he
broad, patriotic assurance of liG
arty cooperation for the advance yl
mt of fraternity, industry, COM hit
erce and trade. on
letters of acceptance, pei
e party platforms, have almost i'm
lsed to command any large measure oct
public confidence but it is so for Oc
. reason that, as rule, they have loS HG
Ell written to bolster some weak vo
rty line, OF to enlist some doubtful in pla
est in the party cause. The letter iou
General Garfield is painfully weak lin n1
its appeals to local and Fictitious if !
erests and in its qualification of its thu
1t expressions but General Han me
ks letter is so broad and national ~ 'I,
every paragraph that il can be roc
only by distrust of the dal
dier's hitherto unbrOken faith. eas