The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-07-28
Hancock and English.
The Incidents which Gave Them Their
Political Standing.
IN. Y. Christian Union I

marlZe mere, at the request OF the editors OF
the Christian Union, the salient points in the
career of General Hancock, and in that of Mr.
English so far as related to civil and political
affairs. The only notable test of General Han
cocks temper and ability in civil administra-
ton was furnished during his brief command
of military district No. 5, comprising the states
of Louisiana and Texas, under the orders of
President Andrew johnson. His tenure of
this office lasted but four months, or from No
vember 90, 1867, to March 26, 1863 He as
sumed command at New Orleans with the
promulgation of the General Order No. 40"
/. "The general commanding is gratifed to
learn that peace and quiet reign in this depart
ment. 1t will be his purpose to preserve this
condition of things. AS means to this great
end he regards the maintenance OF the civil
authorities in the execution of the law as the
most efficient under existing circumstances
In war it is indispensable to repel force by
force and overthrow and destroy opposition to
lawful authority. But when insurrectionary
force has been overthrown and peace estab-
lished, and the civil authorities are ready and
willing to perform their duties the militagy
power should cease to lead and the civil ad-
ministration resume its natural and rightful
dominion Solemnly impressed with these
views, the general announces that the great
principles Of American liberty are still the
lawful inheritance of this people and ever
should be. The right of trial by jury, the
habeas corpus, the liberty of the press, the
freedom OF speech, the natural rights of per-
sons and the rights OF property must be pre-
served. Free institutions, while they are es-
sential to the prosperity and happiness of the
% 20 slways sss Sa tSsndga the stssngsss TSse
| committed in this district must be referred to
| the consideration and Judgment of the regular
civil tribunals and those tribunals will be sup
| ported in their lawful jurisdiction. While the
general thus indicates his purpose to respect
the ihartiac Of the manila ha Uia al To nm
derstand that armed insurrection or forcible
resistance to the law will be instantly sup
pressed by arms
"By command of
"MAJoR-GENERAL w. S. HANCOCK"
The utterance Of these obvious truths is to be
taken in conjunction with the political circum-
stances of the period. The war of the rebel
lion had been closed but eighteen months Not
a black man in Louisiana or Texas, had yet
been admitted to the right of suffrage. The
fourteenth amendment to the Constitution had
been but few months before (February, 1860
rejected unanimously by both branches of the
Louisiana legislature, as well as b Y Texas.
Neither Louisiana nor Texas had representa-
tive in either house of Congress. That body
held the lately emancipated States to solid
political guarantees that the emancipation of
the blacks, effected by the thirteenth amend
ment to the Constitution, should be made a
reality and not sham. As yet, neither Louis
lana nor Texas, which constituted General
AAoiiSoth . COHllllduu, usQ gwen ally 6NIu6uCe
OF willingness to come into the Union except
upon their own terms. e., a reservation of
the state right to tiX the status of citizenship,
and full denial to the freedmen of all parti-
cipation in the right of free government.
1t was to community occupying this posi-
ton that Hancock's famous orders No. 40 were
proclaimed. They left the selection of all ju-
ries to try colored men and Union white men
in the sole hands of the rebels. They relegated
the sole power to make laws for Louisiana to a
rQhpi laOJclatura wi oh rl,, hale
the population Of the State had been carefully
excluded. They proposed toImaintain and en-
force the execution of those laws by the mill
tary power of she United States. 1t is mat
ter OF history that these orders were greeted
with one general acclaim from all those who
ssympathized with the rebellion and who made
lt-from all the champions of state rights and
white rule" and from all the opponents of
human equality everywhere. 1t is equally mat
ter of history that the friends of freedom and
the Union, who hated secession and all its
brood OF oppression, hung their heads at the
general orders" of Andrew Johnson's major
general, or denounced in and out of Congress
the policy which went to rehabilitate the reb-
els, and to make the South too hot to hold
Union men. ..a
We do not call in question the generals sim
cerity under the most trying circumstances, or
his performance of his duty inlcivil administra-
tion as he understood his duty. But let US not
make the mistake of interpreting the principle
of General Hancocks s order under the light of
the changed circumstances of to-day The Wig
orous legislation of Congress in the reconstruc-
tion act puts new phase upon the political
situation in the South. Making the ratifica-
ton of the fourteenth amendment (Which
guaranteed the civil rights of the freedmen)
condition precedent to the admission of the
Southern States to representation in Congress,
the summer of 1868 saw this amendment rati-
fed by the Louisiana Legislature, whereupon
Congress ct once admitted her Senators and
Representatives, and the military rule was
Withdrawn in July, 1868. But all this was
after General Hancocks transfer to New
York.
OF Mr.. English, of Indiana, General Han
cocks colleague upon the Presidential ticket,
the country knows little, and that little is con-
nected with an exciting political issue of the
years Immediately preceding the war. After
the attempt (abundantly authenticated by Off
cial documents) of Mr.. Buchanan's administra.
tion to fasten slavery upon Kansas had been
nearly two years in progress, Mr. English, in
1858, brought in his substitute, which was in
tended to unite opposing views and get the
State in under the Lecompton Tor pro-slavery)
constitution. This English bill'' offered to
the people of Kansas great bountieS out of the
public lands if they voted for present admis-
sion, and relegated them to an indefinite date
in the future, when they should have 93, 900
| population Tor enough for a member of Con-
gress), if they voted against it. "The present
admission" meant under the constitution
which fastened slavery upon the Territory, for
there was no other before Congress. The at
tempt to admit Kansas directly under the Le-
compton constitution, without any reference
to the people whatever, was a naked usurpa-
tion without rag of legality to cover it; it was
not even pretended that a majority of the Kan
sas people were for it, and hence it was not to
be submitted to them. The English bill had
a suspicion of fig leaf-very thin-of popular
sovereignty attached. Bnt it was so manifest
| ly un-democratic that Stephen A. Douglas
| (who was so very impartial politician that he
did not care whether slavery was voted up or
voted DOWN denounced it on the floor of the
Senate as unfair and juggle. And at a later
day he put on re ,ord his opinion concerning
the English bill in the following emphatic
TERMS
The English bill provided that an election
should be held in Kansas for or against the ac-
ceptance of certain land grants which were
made in the bill for the purposes OF education
and internal improvements; and if at such
election majority of the votes cast should be
in favor of the acceptance of such land grants,
such vote should be deemed a ratification OF
the Lecompton constitution, and evidence
desire to come into the Union under it; but il
a majority of the votes should be cast against
the land grants, the people of Kansas should
remain in territorial condition until 1t should
contain 93.420 inhabitants. The people re-
iected the land grants by majority of eight to
one and subsequently rejected the Lecompton