Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-07-01
THE REAL QUESTIONS ~ ISSUE.

The Democrats appear to think that In
General Hancock they have
stolen march upon their opponents, and
they parade the fact that their candidate
is a Union General with as much exulta-
ton as if that circumstance had somehow
changed the historic relations OF their
party They would like to make the
campaign solely on General Hancock's
military record, and they are all prepared,
with suddenness which speaks i'll for the
sincerity of their convictions, to assume
reverence for his patriotic services which
every sober thinker knows to be alien to
their true sentiments. When General
Hancock was fighting to save the Union,
where were the Democrats who are now
sounding his praises SO loudly? Half of
them were in front of his guns, doing their
best to Illustrate his endeavors, and the
greater part of the remainder were strlv-
ing to demonstrate that the war was a
failure, and that the South never could be
conquered. General Hancock is the can
didate of the South especially. Do Re
publcans understand why? 1t is because
he was sent by Andrew johnson to super
sede General Sheridan in the command of
Texas and Louisiana after the rebellion
had collapsed, and because he so set HIM
self to help the Copperhead President
in multiplying the reconstruction laws,
that the Southern leaders took
to him wonderfully, and spoke
of him as ga Northern man with Southern
"ideas." While he was in command the
reconstruction laws were dead letters
throughout his military jurisdiction.
Sheridan had denounced the bulldozing
that was going on, and Sheridan was re-
moved for his inconvenient opposition to
the Johnsonian policy Hancock never
raised finger to prevent the systematic
iil-treatment Of the freedmen, and there
fore Hancock became the pet of the South
ern chivalry The South has had its eye
upon him ever since. 1t presented him in
1868, and this year it was the Southern
votes that forced him upon the Convention
at Cincinnati. Is that record of kind to
satisfy Republicans that the country would
be as safe under Hancock as under Gar
field? But even if no such state of facts
existed, the character of the support Han
cock is receiving must convince all earnest
men that his nomination is a mere blind.
The struggle upon which we are now
entering cannot be narrowed to mere
question of preference between two
individuals. The question at issue
is not simply which of two men
shall be elected President it is,
which of two parties shall be
intrusted with the control of the Govern
ment. And in examining the situation
from this point of view we are entitled to
assume that the solid support given to
Hancock by the South implies a belief on
the part OF that section that he would not
be an obstacle to the designs it has never
ceased to harbor. What those designs are
Democratic Congress has already made
clear enough. They include the undoing
of all the legislation had to sustain and
consolidate the results of the war against
the rebellion. The Democrats have pre-
maturely concluded that what they call
the bloody shirt IS eliminated by the
nomination of Hancock. They will find
that they have reekoned without their
host. The discussions of the campaign
will sweep by General Hancock, and will
fasten upon the nullifers and secessionists
who seek to conceal themselves behind
him. The nature of the Democratic policy
will prevent the bloody shirt from being
discarded, for the question whether the
fruits of the war shall be permanent or
destroyed remains the one vital problem
of the time.