The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1880-09-01
PewelrS Tribute To Hancock.

The following tribute to Gen. Ham
cock was paid by James Ebert Powell,
of Kansas City, the eloquent young
rival of Bob IngersOll, in his brilliant
lecture ON The Solid South now being
delivered i'm Colorado under the auspices
of the American Literary Bureau Of
New York:
al cannot close this illusion to the
era of reconstruction in the South, Ia
dies and gentlemen, without Offering a
tribute to that man, who, tried by the
true test of greatness, has proven HIM
self Peer-whose young sword flashed
like meteor over the bloody fields of
Mexico, and flung its CLEANS across the
deepening twilight of Spotsylvania and
Gettysburg--whose splendid energies
and Spartan proves have ever been
dedicated to the cause of individual
Justice and national hOnor-whose gal
lantry il emblazoned upon the brightest
pages of American history, but whose
glory as warrior is eclipsed by the
grandeur of the civilian-wh0 was no
less hero beneath the olive branch Of
peace, than when leading the charge
under the red banner of war-whO
never feared to draw his sword ut the
call of his country, or to lay il, sheathed,
upon the shrine of constitutional gov
eminent, when the dust of conflict had
drifted away-who crystalized his views
and moulded his measures with that
royal compassion which yielded to "a
conquered and impoverished foe that
inviolable inheritance of civil liberty
who il one of the grandest men i'm the
land, recognized by the brillIancy of his
individual lustre, and not rejecting the
borrowed rays of other luminaries-tO
that defender of the Union, the cham
pion of the Constitution, that sovereign
of soldiers, that pioneer of peace, that
prince of patriots, General Winfield
Scott Hancock, the exponent of great
virtue, of tried courage, of lofty wis
dom, of broad intelligence, of earnest
patriotism, of noble aspiration and of
true manhood.
He is IA soldier, not alone of manner
or of rank, but of merit and of mind
he is soldier, who distinguished HIM
self i'm the defense of liberty, and the
vanquishment of despotism-he is n
soldier, who lifted himself above the
ignorance and prejudice of the day, and
planted the royal banner of pardon and
love upon the battlements of sectional
ism and strife-he is soldier, not by
the power of fear, but by the force of
splendid superiority; he is "a soldier up
on whose bosom radiates the star Of
honor, and to whose memory will be
issued the highest patent of nobility.
When, at the foot of Bunker hill, in
the shadow of that royal shaft, which
stands monumental emblem of heroic
valOr, whose remembrance is conse-
Grated i'm the hearts of fifty million pa
triOts. beneath the rays of the stars and
the light of centuries, the goddess of
historic unity and liberty, the guardian
of our national faith shall call the roll
of the grand arm of heroes, there will
be no more gallant-nO more glorious
response, than that which swells from
the heart and the record of Winfield 5.
Hancock.
He believed that when the Southern
chieftain surrendered his sword to the
Northern conqueror beneath the histOr-
ic tree at AppOmattOx, the Southern
sun went down, and with its setting
were buried the passion and pain of
war-that the blue and the gray should
clasp hands forever, and the Northern
sigh meet the Southern sorrow above
the same graves, garlanded with the
same flowers, gathered by the sans
hands, cOnsecrated by the same regrete
and bedewed with the same tears.
He has recently been nominated by
IA great political body for the highest Of
flee in the gift of the people of America
and, though / come tonight as the adj
vOcate of no factiOn-the champion of no
party-as lover of my country, must
say that, if the star which nov rises
above General HancOck's destiny, casts
its meridian beams upon him in the
White House, they will fall upon an ex-
ecutive, from whose hands the sceptre
OF Justice will not drop in helpless inn
pOtence, but one who will continue to
battle for union and liberty, while truth,
courage and fidelity to principle shall
find u home i'm the hearts and hopes of
men. He will not ,be politician for
the sake of manhood and a patriot for
the sake of his country. He is a man,
the cornerstone of whose character is
integrity. He is a man whose virtues
are not negative or obstructive, but
positive and aggressive. He Is a man
with a strong mind, pure heart and n
ready hand. He is a man who will set
his face against any system for political
loseness, and link honor and valor to
sympathy of the people. He is man
whose favor no spOils of Office can buy,
whose voice no mOcking fiattery can
silence-he is "A man upon whose es-
cutcheOn rests no stain or semblance OF
dishOnOr-he il u man who will bind
together the fragments of our dismem-