The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-08-05
Hancock's statesmanship.

Whatever has been said about Gen.
eral Grant, he has never been accused
of vindictiveness or severity toward the
rebels whom he conquered in arms.
His terms of peace to Lee and his le
gions were generous in substance and
form, and he successfully withstood the
passion and vindictiveness of Andrew
johnson, who wished to exercise an
unmilitary vengeance upon them, at
the risk of his commission as General of
the army. For this magnanimity and
firmness he received the hearty praise
of the Southern people. But when
they, encouraged by the passion and
obstinacy of johnson, when he had
veered around to the opposite point
under the influence of his native preju-
dice, commenced their career Of vio-
lence against the negroes, and attempt
ed to retain their authority over the
subject race which they had lost in
more manly fight. by night raids, hang
ings and whippings, and all the mystery
and cruelty Of the ku Klux orgauiza-
tion, then he declared as firmly and
strongly against lawlessness and vio-
lence as he did for magnanimity and
generosity at the surrender of the
Southern armies. 1t was but o little
more than two years after the surrender
of Appomattox when the massacre at
New Orleans took place, and General
Sheridan, in command of the depart
ment of Louisiana and Texas, wrote
these words to General Grant:
"The condition of the freedmen and
Union men in remote parts of Texas is
truly horrible. The Government is de-
nounced, freedmen are shot and Union
men are prosecuted if they have the
temerity to express their opinions.
This condition exists in the northern
counties of Louisiana to an alarming ex-
tent"
General Sheridan is not a politician.
nor has he ever been suspected of aim
ing at civil office. His honesty is un-
questioned as his frankness, nor was he
by affiliation or nature inimical to the
South. He was a soldier who was just
ly indignant at the outrages and terror
ism committed upon the negroes and
the white Union men of the South,
whose devotion to the cause of freedom
caused them more sacrifices and suffer-
ings than their brethren at the North,
and who, at the close of the war, found
themselves unprotected by the Govern
ment and turned over to the mercy of
their bitterest enemies. What that
mercy was is told in the volumes of
testimony taken before the KuKlux In
vestigating Committee, which reveals 3
record of horrors and cruelties unpar-
alleled in any civilized country of mod
ern times. Acting upon the informa-
tion furnished by General Sheridan,
General Grant urged upon President
johnson to declare martial law in Tex
as and Louisiana in order to enforce
the laws and give comparative security
to all classes of citizens. His recon-
mendation was rejected. General Sher-
idan was removed and General Ham
cock appointed to the command.
General Hancock, by political affilia-
tions, belonged to the Democrats, and
shared that sentiment which in the reg
ular army, before the war, made the
Southern aristocratic caste socially pre-
dominant. He deferred to the ex-rebel
sentiment at once, and his sympathies
were entirely with the naughty, fash
ionable and aristocratic class, as against
the Union men, who were lower in the
social scale, and the negroes. On as
suming command, he proclaimed the
supremacy of the civil over the military
authorities, and the ex-rebels took him
at his word. The outrages against
Unionists and negroes increased in
number and virulence. Not only did
General Hancock make no attempt to
stop them, but he even stopped to use the
military power, contrary to his procla-
nation, in removing Union officers of
the city government of New Orleans,
who had ordered an election contrary
to the wishes of the Democratic party,
and against his sovereign will and
pleasure. The law disfranchising rebel
soldiers was revoked by an order
issued Just before an election. in which
General Hancock declared his dissent
from the construction of the Reconstruc-
ton act, and authorized the registrars
to put their own Interpretation upon it.
Lawlessness and violence accompanied
his rule in Louisiana, until finally he
was relieved at his own request, for the
more comfortable and less troublesome
task of dealing with hostile Indians in
the department of Dakota But he had
earned the gratitude of the South and
of the Democratic party, and in due
time he has received his reward in the
nomination for the Presidency.
There is no question that the weak
ness and passion of Andrew johnson
encouraged the Southern people to defy
the National authority and to undertake
to reverse the results of the war by Q
| system of internecine turbulence and
violence, which they would not other
wise have attempted, and which, in the
end, made the Reconstruction act more
severe, debarred them longer from the
right of franchise, and intensified the
i'll feeling, bad government and genera
11fk
effects behind in fatally checking immi
grafton and settled prosperity. and, a:
its latest result, has produced the exo-
dus. When they were defeated they
recognized the results of the war as In
evitable, but they were soon encour.
aged by the conduct of the Administers
ton to attempt to resume their rule,
and rose higher in their demands every
day. They inaugurated system oi
violence and oppression which com
PEELED General Grant and others, who
had treated them with magnanimity,
and had faith in their good sense and
honor to reverse their opinions
The same spirit which dictated
kind treatment and respect to gallant
opponents when they laid down theil
arms, revolted just as strongly wher
they abused and oppressed their UnioI
neighbors and subject freedmen. denied
political rights to all but themselves
and maintained a reign of terror by
midnight assassinations and outrages
General Grant and General Sheridan
would have been less than men and a
devoid of sense of duty as citizens a
of soldiers, if they had not urged re
straint upon violence by the only power
capable of exercising it, and desired t.
maintain the substance of the civil law
rather than permit their destruc
ton and mockery. 1t would have beer
wiser and better for the South in tht
end, and half the evils of reconstruc
ton would have been unnecessary, i
their course had been followed for ,
few years after the war. But it wa
not, and long and tedious battle hal
to be fought in Congress. and extreme
measures adopted as the alternative o
leaving the Union population of tn
South under the heels of the ex-rebe
sentiment. Andrew johnson was tn