The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-08-12

Civil Liberty saved by the
Louisiana Orders.

is under date of July Is, to the edit
or of the New York World:
SIR-A cable dispatch reached mt
at London, whence answerediit more
briefly perhaps than you expected.
but l thought intelligibly enough
Your later dispatch, which came tt
me here yesterday, l now reply to by
mail.
| inferred from interrOgatory that
some evil-disposed persons had 5eer
attributing to me the authorship Of
the orders and letters issued by Gen,
Hancock while he commanded in
Louisiana and Texas. My denial by
telegraph was intended to cover the
whole ground. l neither wrote those
papers nor suggested a word of them.
l had no precognition of his views on
the subject to which they relate, and
heard nothing from him about it until
he had taken the public into his conf.
dence. Indeed my personal acqualn'
tance with him was then very slight,
and our relations not at all intimate
The opinion that | would offer or he
would require my aid in producing
such an order as his No. 40 is absurd.
His determination to stand by the
constitution and the laws needed nC
expression but what he could give it
better than any man alive. 1t was
not an argument, not IN exposition OF
the law, not an essay on the rights OF
man that was wanted at that critical
time. The spoken act If Il patriot sol.
dier in high command alone could
save civil liberty from the destruction
with which it was threatened. That
was what Hancock did, and it was
the timeliest lift, tnat the great cause
had 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 it can he reason
ably accounted tor without supposing
that l framed or had any share in
framing it. The belief was general
among the friends of constitutional
liberty, and expressed by many orh>
ers as strongly as by ME, that Gen.
Hancock had done much and done it
bravely to rescue the nation and save
it alive, first from secessiOnist and af-
tcrwards from the more dangerous
and more unprincipled oligarchy into
whose hands it fell after the war. At
the date of his service i'll Louisiana
the beau ideal Of Il Strong govern
ment" was in full operation at Wash
ington. conducted by men who claim
ed to be absolute masters of the coun-
try. State rights, and, as necessary
consequence, individual liberty, were
violently trodden down, and the con-
stitution which should have made us
free was habitualIy over-ridden and in
suited. What those men called "the
government was not only wOnirOus
strong, but corrupt beyond all example
in modern times. Between its force
and its fraud the people were power
less, and their despair was aggravated
by an indefnable dread that the whole
army might at any moment be used
to sink the nation INTO still further
degradation, if below that lowest
depth a lower deep could he reached.
Ii was in these circumstances that
Hancock spoke out those words of
truth and soberness which reassured
the friends offree government and in
inspired them with new hopes. All
who were near enough to watch the
current of that unequal contest be-
tween absOlutism and law can remem-
ber how the enemies of the cOnstitu-
ton were startled and scared when
they found that the most brilliant
general of the Union had officially de-
clared himself opposed to their say
age policy" They could not go up
on 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 conspicuously gallant
and faithful leader. So they were
fain to content themselves with harm
less sneers and petty prosecutions.
But they removed him from the place
where his devotion to the constitution
was specially interfering with their
schemes to subvert it. When they
made up their minds to strangle the
liberties of a state, to disperse legal
legislature by brute force, to inaugu>
rate for governor a shameless adven-
turer known to have been defeatei | at
the polls, or to pin people down with
bayOnets while they were plundered
by alien thieves who claimed to be
thier representatives and officers, some
body else was employed to do the IN
famous work. Still more carefully
did they avoid his presence when the
whole nation was to be swindled at Il
presidential election. 1t was for such
reasons that the heart of the country
warmed to Gen. Hancock as its pre-
destined deliverer.
1t has often happened that the best
things of the greatest men are attrib-
uted to others who are wholly incapa>
BILE of them. The opinion was indus
triously propagated and accepted by
a great many as true that Hamilton
wrote the farewell address of Wash.
ingt0n, but the evidence is conclusive
which shows that every word of that
production came from Wash
ington himself; and Hamilton could