Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-07-08
u YET RANkLEs


Service Institution, held 20 honor the
memory Of Winfield Scott Hancock,
there were read or spoken = grcas
many interesting letters and addresses
from persons of weight and eminenns
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 q
| 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
/ >stly but firmly, his conception of the
| duty of the army, and especially of of
| Gcers intrusted with high command.
in the event OF grave, eemmotions
| 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, q soldier who would have
/ let no fiction of Difference TO military
orders supersede his fundamental oath
/ to obey the constitution. and who, in
such q conflict of technical and real
obligations, would have stood forth a
| bulwark, and not hetrayer, of our
| liberties.
What were the rights and duties of
| the House of Representatives in the
| event of the Senate's refusing to con-
eur in pronouncing Mr.. Tilden the
choice of q majority for President, is
| now plain enough to all 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. IF" he writes,
.'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. It has been
exercised, and has been recognized as
lawful on every hand. That machinery
would probably elect Mr. Tilden
President 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
Err. Hayes the electoral votes of the
three States of South Carolina, Florida
and Louisiana, or the votes of any ono
of them, then there would be no cleo
ton by the people, no candidate hav-
ing a majority of the Electoral College.
and the right to choose President
would but f,a onp sfi n r1y,<,x,
| the House. s.Some tribunal, says Han
| cock, 'must decide whether the people
| have duly elected President pre-
sumo, Of course, that it Is the joint af-
| firmative 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 a 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 inperishable words,
should have commented upon them in
| letter read before the Military Service
| Institution in terms that reflect honor
| at once upon Hancock and himself. 'tI
| take leave here to say" writes Mr..
| Bayard. ''that no wiser, ADLER or more
patriotic deIiveranee, 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
contained in the letter of General Han
cock to General Sherman"
But there is something else deduc-
ible from the frank and pregnant text
of Hancock's communication. From
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
command. certain practical corollaries
of the utmost gravity and moment.
From these Hancock did not finch.
Whom was he, Hancock, to obey in tine
event of the nonagreement of the Sem
ate and House. and 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 vet discharged
its function of naming an occupant
for the Presidential office? He bluntly
tells General Sherman that in his iudg-
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 IS 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
lawful President.
These admissions are qualified by
the firm notification that neither IN the
President OF the Senate nor the Gem
eraI of the army would Hancock reeog-
nize right of influencing in any de-
gree by military measures the selection
of a President, and that any orders
apparently directed to that end would
be construed and treated by him Han
cocke In the light of reason and of con-
science. s.Should," he says, 1.-THE
military 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.
TO dare to determine for themselves
what is lawful and what is not lawful
under our system.
Would that words so righteous and
courageous as those of Hancock could
have wakened echoes in the hearts of
the pusillanimeus majority of the
House of Representatives We should
not then have seen the sacrifice of a
paramount and vital constitutional
right to the bugbear of coercion by the