The daily gazette., 1880-08-10
Washington Letter.

TWO REMARKABLE LETTERs-RE-
PUBLICANs INVOKE EPIsTOLARY
DYNAMuTE-MR. GARFIELD NOR
ALLY oBLIQUE, BUT A GREAT
MAN.
from our regular correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 1880.
1t is not too much to say that the
appearance of General Hancock's
letter of acceptance, followed by the
publication of his remarkable letter
to General Sherman, has produced
a feeling of depression, almost Of
despair, among the thousands of
office holders here, whose bread and
butter depend upon his defeat. Re-
publicans had begun to recover from
the shock of what all admitted was
a singularly strong and wise nomi-
nation. Their splendid organization,
if not proof against defeat, was, at
least, proof against complete rout
in the beginning of the campaign.
Their boundless resources, used
effectively, had stimulated the most
faint hearted, if not with confidence,
at least with hope. An improved
action was beginning to be felt in
the re-lubricated machine. But to
have their own guns captured and
turned against them would have
been too much for the steadfast
discipline and most splendid morale.
The chieftest danger to Demo-
cratic success now, is that the party
will trust too much to the invulnera-
bility of their leader. General
Hancock's unimpeachable record in
war and in peace, his undoubted
ability, which makes him, even in a
private letter discussing national
affairs in most critical period, talk
with the direct simplicity of a soldier
and the profound insight of a states
man, has silenced the argument that
he was a military man merely, and
untitled to measure and weigh the
great questions that modern civiliza-
ton propounds to executive states
manship. That argument was futile
against Grant, even after he had
justified it by the most deplorable
presidential term in our history, and
those who have been using it with
insane iteration against Hancock
were the very persons whom neither
the theory nor the practice could
convince in two terms of Grant, but
who endeavored to give him third
term.
That General Garfield is morally
oblique the Credit Mobilier and De
Golyer episodes, but especially the
Electoral Commission history, show
1 have been taken to task for deny
ing, in a former letter, that he was
man of great intellect. We Judge
intellects by comparison. 1 have
seen and heard the Republican can
didate in various situations during
the last seven years. l have also
had an opportunity to compare him
with other men who have achieved
greatness, so called, like Thurman;
or been born great, like Don Cam
eron; or have had greatness forced
upon them, like Acklen, Spencer,
and Patterson, of the Solid South.
Compared with the latter three l
think Garfield is great man, but as
compared with Thurman, Gladstone,
and Gambetta he is like the COM
bined littleness of Acklen, Spencer,
and Patterson. But my assertion
proves nothing. Well, as Carlyle
said of a great novelist: "Those to
whom he is great may, with all inno-
cence, think him So" His ablest
apologist, the New York Nation,
was open in its contempt Of the
weakness of his letter of acceptance.
No one has ever supposed that the
fraudulent Executive was great
man, and yet his letter of acceptance
was a phalanx of principles, an
array of splendid promises, and a
much more effective document than
anything Garfield has uttered or is
capable of uttering.