Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-09-03
ed to General Hancock as lis pre-

destined dellyerer.
1t has often happened that the
best things of the greatest men are
attributed to others who are wholly
incapable of them. The opinion
was industriously propagated and &C.
cepted by great many as true that
Hamilton wrote the farewell address
of Washington, but the evidence is
con elusive which shows that every
word of that immortal production
came from Washington himself; and
Hamilton could not have written it
any more than he could have made a
world. Some of Jaekson's most
characteristic papers, bearing the
full impress of his own mind, were
habitually credited to persons of far
inferior ability. When it was
charged against jefferson that he
wrote Losan's speech, he solemnly
declared that he was unequal to such
a composition. I am not affecting
modesty when I claim credence OF
my present denial for a similar rea-
son. I could not have written Han
cocks No. 4O-not because l pretend
to be dumb oy altogether unskilled
i'll the use of English words, but be-
cause if L had undertaken TO write
it the chances are ninety-nine to q
hundred that my augmentation
would have marred it's majestic SIM
plicity and greatly diminished its
power. When q public man, espec-
tally military men, meets grave
responsibility, saying no more nor
less than just the thing he ought,
but says that with unequivocal clear
ness, you may be sure he is the in
terpreter of his own thoughts. At
any rate, the attempt is unjust to
bastardize No. 40 by assigning to it
an origin totally different from the
true one.
Why should my opinion be asked
or volunteered on Gen. Hancock as
civilian? Anybody else who has
watched his life is as good a judge
as L; there are thousands who know
him much better. But since the
questioning is propounded l will
answer, subject TO fair correction,
that he has in him the highest and
best qualities of Republican ruler.
l think his fidelity to sound princi-
pies coupled with his sound Judgment
will entitle him to rank we'll with the
great Presidents of former times. l
do not compare him with Washing
ton, for the grandeur of that charac-
ter is and will remain forever unap-
proachable, but I do say that WASH
ington, if placed in his situation,
would have acted precisely as he
did. His patriotism has not the i'm
pulsive ardor of Jackson's, but his
fidelity to the truth, his love of JUS
tico and his scorn Of wrong, are
quite as unmistakable. He is not a
doctrinaire like Jefferson, for his
busy life has left him no time to
study the abstract philosophy of pol
itics, but his practical good sense
knows the right intuitively, and al
ways catches the nearest way to do
it. If he be elected, the ability of
his administration will inspire uni
versal respect, and his moderation
and magnanimity will conciliate even
his enemies. l have the fullest faith
that he will not only keep his oath
to preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution, but will SO carry out
its provisions that the great object of
its trainers as expressed in the pre-
amble will be fully accomplished
" To form more perfect Union, to
establish justice, to insure domestic
tranquility, to provide for the COM
mon defense, to promote the general
welfare and to secure the blessing of
liberty to ourselves and prosterity."
j. S. BLACK.