The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1880-08-19

Congratulates the Democratic Party
and the Country upon the Nom
ination Of Gen. Hancock.

W dtkC ally
and the Country upon the Nom
ination Of Gen. Hancock.
Who Saved Civil Liberty by a
spoken Act.''
NEW YORK, Aug. 1.-The World. We,
terday, published the following letter
from Jere s. Black, indorsing Ham
cocks nomination:
PARIS, July IS. 1880.
To the Editor of the World:
SIR-A cable dispatch reached
me at London, whence l answered il
more briefly, perhaps, than you ex-
pected, but | thought intelligibly
enough. Your later dispatch, which
came to me here yesterday, I now
reply to by mail. I inferred from
your interrogatory that some evil
disposed persons had been attribu-
ting to me the authorship of the or
ders and letters issued by Gen
Hancock while he commanded in
Louisiana and Texas. My denia
by telegraph was intended to cover
the whole ground. / neither wrot,
those papersnor suggested a wore
of them; | had no precognition o
his views on the subject to which
they relate, and heard nothing from
him about it until he had taken tn,
public into his confidence. Indeed
my personal acquaintance with hin
was then very slight, and our rela-
tions not all intimate. The opinion
that l would offer or he would re
quire my aid in producing such al
order as his No. 40.is absurd. Hi,
determination to stand by the con
stitution and the laws needed no ex.
preston but what he could give il
better than any man alive. 1t wa:
not an argument, not an eXpositier
on the law, not an essay on the
rights of man that was wanted a
that critical time. The spoken act
of a patriot soldier in high com
mand alone could save civil liberty
from the destruction with which il
was threatened. That was wha'
Hancock did, and it was the timeli
est lift that the great cause ever 90
from any hand except that of Wash
ington. | hope my admiration o
the order in question and the graft
tude | have felt to him for issuing i
can be reasonably accounted TO
without supposing that | framed o.
had any share in framing it. Tn,
belief was general among the friend.
of constitutional liberty, and ex
pressed by many others as strongly
as by me, that Hancock had don,
much, and done it bravely, to rescue
the nation, and save it alive, frs.
from secessionists, and afterwart
from the more dangerous and more
unprincipled ~oligarchy into whose
hands it fell after the wal. At the
date of his service in Louisiana, the
beau ideal of "strong government
was in fnll operation at Washing
ton, conducted by men who claim
ed to be absolute managers of the
country.
State rights. and as a necessary
consequence, individual liberty
were violently trodden down and the
constitution, which should have
made us free, was habituallly over
ridden and insulted. What those
men called "the government was
not only w~ondrously strong, but cor
rupt beyond all example in modern
times. Between it's force and its
fraud the people were %powerless
and their despair was aggravated
by an indefinsble dread that the
whole army might be at any mo-
ment be used to sink the nation in
to still further degradation, if below
that lowest depths a lower deeI
could be reached. 1t "a in these
| Circumstances that Hancock spoke
| out those words of truth and sober
ness which treasured the friends
of free government, and inspired
them with new hopes. All who
were near enough to watch the cur
rent of that unequaled contest be.
tween absolutism and law can re.
member how the enemies Of the
constitution were startled and
scared when they found that the
most brilliant general of the Union
officially declared himself opposed
to their savage policy" They
could not go upon him, nor send up
on, nor in any way destroy him, fol-
not only the law Of the land was
on his side, but the army was bound
to be full of sympathy with its
conspicuously gallant and faith
full leader. So they were fain to
content themselves with harmless
%sneers and petty prosecutions
But they removed him from the
place where his devotion to the con
stitution was especially Interfering
with their schemes to subvert it
When they made up their minds t.
strange the liberties of a State, t.
dispense a legal legislature by brut'
force, to inaugurate as Governs
q shameless adventurer known tt
have been defeated at the polls, o
to pin the people down with bavon
cts while they were plundered b,
alien thieves who claimed to b,
their representatives and officers
somebody else was employed to dc
the infamous work. Still more care
fully did they avoid his presenc,
when the whole nation was to bt
swindled at a Presidential election
1t was for such reasons that the
heart of the coutry warmed to Gen
Hancock as its predestined deliv
erer. 1t has often happened that
the best things Of the greatest mel
are attributed to orders who ar,
wholly incapable of them. TIL,
opinion was industriously propaga-
ted and accepted by a great man,
as true that Hamilton wrote the
farewell address of Washington
bnt the evidence is conclusive
which shows that every word o
that immortal production came
from Washington himself; and
Hamilton could no more have writ
ten it than he could have made g
world. Some of Jackson's acharac.
teristic papers, bearing the full i'm.
press of his own mind, were habitu.
ally credited to persons of far infe-
rior ability. When it was charged
to Jefferson he wrote Logan's
speech, he solemnly declared that
he was unequal to snch a compost
| ton. ta4