The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-07-08
1T YET RANXIES.
The Outrage of 1875 by Which Fraud
Triumphed-General Hancock's Manly,
Patriotic, Statesmanlike Attitude.

Patriotic, Statesmanlike Attitude.
At a recent meeting of the Military
Service Institution, held to honor the
memory of Winfield Scott Hancock,
there were read or spoken a great
many interesting letters and addresses
from persons of weight and eminence
in civil and military life. But none of
these tributes bears such impressive
and enduring witness to the virtues of
the dead, or establishes so strong a
title to the national respect and graft
tude, as letter sent by Hancock him
self to General Sherman in December,
1876. Here the writer sets forth, mod
estly but firmly, his conception of the
duty of the army, and especially of Of
ficers intrusted with hi h command,
in the event of grave connections
being excited by failure of the Sem
ate and House of Representatives to
agree in declaring the result of the
Presidential election. In Hancock the
country lost soldier who was first of
all patriot, soldier who would have
let no fiction of Difference to military
orders supersede his fundamental oath
to obey the constitution. and who, in
such a conflict of technical and real
obligations, would have stood forth a
bulwark, and not a betrayer, of our
liberties.
What were the rights and duties of
the House of Representatives in the
event of the Senate's refusing to con-
cur in pronouncing Mr.. Tilden the
choice of majority for President, is
now plain enough to ali men of sound
brains and honest hearts. By General
Hancock they were recognized with
unerring eXactitude in December,
1876, and in his letter TO Sherman they
are incidentally defined with rare SIM
plicity and cogency. eff, he writes.
1.-THE Senate and House, on the occa-
sion of the count, do not unite IN de-
claring some person legally elected by
the people, there is a lawful machinery
already provided to meet the contin-
gency and to decide the question
peacefully. 1t has not been recently
used, no occasion presenting, but our
forefathers provided it. 1t has been
exercised, and has been recognized as
lawful on every hand. That machinery
would probably elect Mr.. Tilden
Pres dent and Mr.. Wheeler Vice-Presi-
dent"
General Hancock proceeds to make
more unmistakable, his meaning,
which is that, should the House of Rep
resentatives, as he plainly thinks it
ought to do, pronounce it irrecOncila-
BILE with its conscience to bestow on
Mr.. Hayes the electoral votes of the
three States of South Carolina, Florida
and Louisiana, or the votes of any one
of them, then there would be no cleo
ton by the people, no candidate hay
ing a majority of the Electoral College,
and the right to choose a President
would by the constitution devolve upon
the House. 'Some tribunal" says Han
cock, 'must decide whether the people
have duly elected President pre-
sumo, of course, that it is the joint af-
firmatiye action of the Senate and
House, or why are they present to wit
ness the count, if not to see that it is
fair and just? If failure to agree
arises between the two bodies, there can
be no lawful affirmative decision that
the people have elected President,
and the House must then proceed to
act, not the Senate. The Senate elects
Vice-Presidents, not Presidents.
No wonder that Secretary Bayard,
who had read these imperishable words,
should have commented upon them in
a letter read before the Military Service
Institution in terms that reflect honor
at once upon Hancock and himself. 81
take leave here to say" writes Mr..
Bayard. that no wiser, ADLER or more
patriotic deliverance, no Sounder con-
ception of constitutional duty and
function, or solution based more SOL
idly upon law and justice, can be found
in the history of that period than is
in the letter of General Ian
cock to General Sherman"
But there is something else deduc-
IDLE from the frank and pregnant text
his conception of the powers and obi
cations of the House of Representatives
in the crisis then at hand there were
for him. as being an officer in high
certain practical corollaries
of the utmost gravity and moment
From these Hancock did not finch.
Whom was he, Hancock, to obey in the
event of the nonagrcement of the Sem
ate and House, and a consequent mis-
carriage of the election by the people?
From whom was he to take orders on
March 4, 1877, providing the House of
Representatives had not yet discharged
its function of naming an occupant
for the Presidential Office? He bluntly
tells General Sherman that in his judg-
ment General Grants term of Office
would cease with the expiration of
March 8, and it followed that not for
an hour afterward would Hancock have
taken orders from Grant in the ca
pacity of President and Commander-in-
Chief. He did not doubt that General
Sherman's authority, such as it was.
would continue, and he acknowledged
that the President of the Senate would
be on March 1.-The legitimate person
to exercise Presidential authority for
the time being. until the appearance of
a lawful President"
These admissions are qualified by
the firm notification that neither in the
President of the Senate nor the Gen
eral of the army would Hancock recog-
nize right of influencing in any de-
gree by military measures the selection
of President, and that any orders
directed to that end would
be construed and treated by him (Han-
cock) in the light of reason and of con-
science. Should" he says, "tbe
authorities be invoked, it is
necessary in such great crises for the
superior officers of the army, and es-
pecially for those near the head of it,
10 dare to determine for themselves
what is lawful and what is not lawful
lndar our SvStam ~