Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-08-25
GARFIELD'S FRIEND ON HAN
COCK,


attributing to me the authorship o
the orders and letters issued by Gen
Hancock while he commanded in Lou
isiana and Texas. My denial by tele
graph was intended TO cover the whole
ground. neither wrote those papers
or suggested a word OF them ! had
no prerognition of his views on The
subject to which they relate and heard
nothing from him about II until be had
taken the public into his confidence
Indeed, my personal acquaintance with
him was then very slight, and our re.
lations not at all intimate. The opinion
that / would offer OF he would require
my aid in producing such an order as
his No. 40 is absurd. His determine.
tion to stand by the Constitution and
the laws needed no expression but
what he could give it better than any
man alive. 1t was not an essay on
rights ofman that was wanted at that
critical time. The spoken act of a
patriot soldier in high command alone
could save civil liberty from the de.
struction with which it was threatened.
That was what Hancock did, and ii
was the timeliest life that the great
cause ever got from any hand except
that Of Washington.
| hope my admiration of the order
in question and the gratitude | have
felt to him for issuing il can be reason
ably accounted for without supposing
that | framed or had any share in
framing it. The belief was general
among the friends OF constitutional
liberty, and expressed by many others
as strongly as by me, that General
Hancock had done much, and done 1t
bravely, to rescue the Nation and save
It alive, first from secessionists, and at.
terwards from the more dangerous and
more unprincipaled oligarchy into
whose hands it fell after the war AT
the date of his service in Louisiana the
beau ideal of "strong government"
was in full operation at Washington,
conducted by men who claimed to be
absolute masters Of the country. State
rights, and as necessary consequence,
individual liberty, were violently trod-
den down, and the Constitution which
should have made us free was habitu.
ally over.ridden and insulted. What
those men called "the government"
was not only wondrous strong, but cor.
rupt beyond all example in modern
| times. Between its force and its fraud
the people were powerless, and their
despair was aggravated by an indefna-
bic dread that the whole army might
at any moment be used to sink the
Nation into still further degradation,
if below that lowest depth of lower
deep could be reached. II was in these
circumstances that Hancock spoke out
| those wOrus OI truth anu sODerness
which re.assured the friends OF free
government and inspired them with
new hopes. All who were near enough
TO watch the current of that unequaled
contest between abolitionism and law
can remember how the enemies Of the
Constitution were startled and scared
when they found that the most bril-
liant General Of the Union had officially
declared himself opposed TO then
Savage policy" They could not GO
upon him, nor send upon him, nor in
any manner destroy him, for not only
was the law of the land on his side, but
the army was found to be full of sym
pathy with its coHspicuously gallant
and faithful leader. So they were fair
to content themselves with harmless
sneers and petty prosecutions. But
they remove him from the place where
his devotion to the Constitution was
specially interfering with their schemes
to subvert it. When they made uI
their minds to strangle the liberties o.
a State, disperse legal Legislature by
brute force, to inaugurate for Gov
ernor a shameless adventurer known &c
have been defeated at the polls,o to pit
the people down with bayonets while
they were plundered by alien thieves
who claimed to be their representa-
tives and officers, somebody else wa:
employed to do the infamous work
Still more carefully did they avoid biz
presence when the whole Nation wat
to be swindled at Presidential elec
ton. 1t was for such reasons that the
heart Of the country warmed to Gen
Hancock as its predestined deliverer.
1t has often happened that the best
things OF the greatest men are attrib
uted TO Others who are wholly inca
pablo of them. The opinion was in
dustriously propagated and accepted
by a great many as true that Hamilton
wrote the farewell address Of Wash
ington, but the evidence is conclusive
which shows that every word Of thai
immortal production came from Wash
ington himself and Hamilton coulC
not have written il any more than hC
could have made the world. Some o
Jaokson's most characteristic papers
bearing the full impress Of his owl
mind, were habitually credited TO per
sons of far interior ability. When il
was charged against Jefferson that ht
wrote Bogans speech, he solemnly de
clared that he was unequal to such {
composition. ! am not affecting mod
esty when | claim credenco Of my
present denial for q similar reason.
could not have written Hancock's No
40--not because | pretend TO be duml
or altogether unskilled in the use o
the English words, but because if / haC
undertaken to write it the chances ar,
ninety.nine in a hundred that my argu
mentation would have marred III
majestic simplicity and greatly dimin
ished its power When public man
especially a military man, meets /
grave responsibility, saying no mort
nor less than Just the thing he ought
but saying that with uneqivocal clear
ness you may be sure he is the inter
prefer of his own thoughts. AT any
rate, the attempt is unjust to bastardizt
No. 40 by assigning to it an origin
totally different from the true one.
Why should my opinion be asked OIL
volunteered ON General Hancock as {
civilian2 Anybody else who has
watched his life is as good a judge as
and there are thousands who know
him much better. But since the ques
tion is propounded | will answer, sub
ject TO fair correction, that he has il
him the highest and best qualities of {
Republican ruler. think his fidelity
to sound principles, coupled with hil
sound judgment, will entitle him Il
rank with the great Presidents o
former times. | do not compare hin
with Washington, for tho grandeur o
that character is and will remain for
ever unapproachable but ! do say tha