American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1880-08-21

The Executive Committee of the Ma
tional Association of Hancock Veterans
recently met in New York and agreed
upon the following address:
| Veterans of the Union:
Nearly twenty years have passed since a
| bloody civil war began in which you took part
IN order to preserve the integrity of the Union
| and maintain the supremacy of the Federal
| laws. After four years of alternate defeat and
nevertheless did not follow. The dominant
P political party, assuming the merit of
| courage, by keeping alive sectional bit
terness between the victors and the van
| pushed, attempted to mako your deeds
the foundation of their own perm anent power.
In the 1uth this was done by the harrassng
lions of Provost Marshais, and by means Of
United states soldiers, who were used to in
tlmldate citizens mt the polls and to lock the
doors OF legislation against legally elected rep
sentatives of the people. In the North it was
done by persist ent misrepresentation of the
the s"rveiianee Of Supervisors Of El Elections,
and by the arbitrary authority of Marshals,
the polls to prisons to prevent this free exer-
else of the elective franchise, and by blatant
end OF ns9yay against the o1eegxed
to assert that in the for the Union they
had not fought for four years to strike the
shackles from the slave and weld them into
manacles for freemcn. A reaction from this
condition of things was inevitable among a
people who inherited liberty, and the eyes of
the North and the South have at length been
opened. The North has proposed to settle the
party has VIGOROUSLY and sefishly kept alive.
by taking as candidate for President one of
our own Generals-a man whose loyalty to
the Union has been shown in four years of
march and battle, and in shedding his blood
amid the clash of crossing bayonets; whose
capacity as a ruler has been shown in his
ders and in the administration of complicated
civil duties When invested with vast and
tyranny, and to use it against a people who
were crushed; man. in short, whose mod
Grafton is known unto all men,. Tho South,
likewise, to show that it accepts all the lcgit-
innate results of the war and desires that true
fraternal feeling be re-established, has asked
us as with single voice. to give them as
President the sturdest fighter among our
Union Generals-a man on whose Justice they
can rely and who places the right of freemen
above the exercise of despotic military
power
these requirements. General Winfield Scott
Hancock, our candidate for the Presidency, is
the man for the hour. Under his lead let all
Union veterans again touch elbows and the
bloodless battle won, true liberty and true
of patriotism who have reveled in power and
the spoils of Office for twenty years, yet never
tleieId; but do you, whose tolls and wounds
best prove your love of the Republic, put the
seal to your a9ors by placing your gallant and
Nation, that the bones of your comrades
who died for liberty, unity and peace may not
in vain whiten the battle-ficlds of the country.
To do this, ignore the lines of party. and let
the blue and the gray forever fade from our
eight rs colors of opposing forces. Our own
owed banner gives us all the cOlOrs we need,
md over us hereafter may the
Flag of feedum and union wave;
Peace and order and beauty draw
Round its symbols of right and law,
And ever the stars above look down
Onthe Stars below in our banners crown
And we shall then know that the stars which
represents the States of the Union, like the
stars of the heavenly constellation, will be for
ever and inseparably united. although each
shines with its own light. Comrades, let our
music be of the Union and step the
charge and with us shall rest, at last, the
victory.
WIN. F. SMITH, Chairman.
James McQuade, Duncan s. Walker, NJ. T. |
Francis Darr, George NJ. Sauer, T. |
Kilby Smith, st. Clair A. Mulholland, p. NJ.
Haverty, G. G. Wheeler, Finley Anderson,
Executive Committee.