The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-02-10
pEArH or eEK. HANcouls


The South will to-day unite with tie
North in sincerely mourning the death
OF one OF the bravest soldiers Of the
Republic and one OF lis ablest com
manders-Gen. Hancock. No man
more thoroughly exemplifed the
highest qualities Of patriotism. When
civil war was precipitsted upon the
country he took bis place promptly
upon the side of the North, and
shesthed his sword only at the close
of the contest. While it wsged he
knew only his duty, aud was never
for an iuttant turned from it, or di-
Verted from his purpose to d all that
within him lay to secure and assure
the perpetuiSy of the Federal Gov
eminent. He had no revilings, no
words of hate for those who were or
posed to him. War meant fighting,
and from the fret to the last of the
dreadful contest he was to be found
wherever the hardest knocks were to
be given or received. With the re-
turn of peace he believed in the
restrictions of faw as essential
to order, and he furnished
an example OF eubordination
of the military to the civil
authority that, at a critical jnncture
in the affairs OF the country, was
serviceable as well-timed rebuke to
the rapscious brutality that, boo!ed
and spurred, ha1 been rough-riding
through the South, eager for the inn
possible indictment aud convic-
ton of twelve millions of peo-
pie. The order in which he
announced his plans and purposes
as military commander of Louisiana
must ever remsin precious memorial
of his rectitude and courage. II was
the glorious fame that lighted up the
darkness OF the South and brought
hope to hearts despondent and
despairing, that there "was life
in the old land yet" and
that sectional hate and animosity
had not wholly destroyed the love of
liberty in men. No other Federal
commander had the pluck or nerve
thus to declare for the rightI of the
citizens of the Republic. Most of
them were the too supple tools of
usurping aud despotic power to take
any other view than that the South
had forfeited all rights by civil war,
and her soil should be plowed ss
that Of Poland's had been, by the
RUTHLESS invader in might" 1t was
something more than mere order;
it had the ring of the i'm.
mortal Declaration signed 10y an
other Hancock, whose bold jg-
nature looks to us even at this day IS
the very incarnation Of the spirit of
'76. 1t staggered the horde forever to
be infamous in the history Of the En-
glish-speakiDg people who subordi-
na,ed the peace and welfAre OF the
country % their saroNtt vlew ci-eas
nifty and Late, and it awakened the
whole country to realization
OF the dangers that through military
satraps mer aced the life Of the States
and threatened the most direful form
OF Capitalization. To President John
son, then st juggling with this horde
in defense of a frequently vio-
lated constitution, this order was
as the strength of an army,
and he was prompt to appreciate
it and sustain the brave soldier, "the
superb Hancock, NJ in his manly and pa
triotic vindiCation OF that constitut on
and Of the rights of the people. In
times Of peace, he said, the civil law
must be supreme. And this in the
face Of the rUffianly and brutsliZing
system Of reconstruction that in
defiance Of that constitution and
all the rights of the States was
being enforced by the Republican
Congress. "Superb" in battle, the
very type of the ideal soldier, manly
in his beauty OF form and person and
gallant to rashness in his zeal aud
self,sacrifioe, Hancock never was so
superb a5 on the dag when that order
was promulgated and a despair
ing people we're reawakened
to a sense OF their almost loss of liber-
ty. When the future historian shall
come TO treat OF those, the saddest
days in the life OF the republic, he will
dwell upon this incident as one worthy
to be embslmed in golden words,
and he will enshrine the name of the
soldier who.wss always first in battle
as first among all his compatriots to
assert the asCendancy and potency
in times Of peace of the fundamental
law, whose guarantees are the safe
guards Of every citizen OF the Union.
Green forever be the turf above his
head, and immortal be his name as
That OF one who loved his fellow men
and found his duty in subordination
10 the law.
THE MOB Is LONDON.
wv D. Il ~