The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-10-28
"FOR HE. HIMSELF. HATH SAID

IT.0
Gen. Daniel f. Sickles has received the
Democratic nomination for Congress in
the 10th New York District, and in his
speech of acceptance announced his sup
port of the Democratic National ticket.
He intimates that his endorsement of
the assertion of Bourke Cochran, at the
Chicago Convention, that there were 25,-
600 Democratic soldiers in New York who
would not vote for Cleveland, was made
under stress of great excitement and was
not intended as an expression of his own
purpose.
Gen. Sickles does not explain or at
tempt to explain, however, how it was
that at the reunion of the Third Corps in
Washington, more than three months
later, he emphasized his Chicago opinion,
by saying that the veterans would not
vote for man, who not only sent anoth-
er to do his duty for him, but wrote and
spoke with covert contempt of the men
who did their duty in person and suffered
impairment of health and mutilation of
body in doing it, as against the man who
risked his life for the Union, and has ever
since espOused the cause of the honest
soldier. Nor does he deny that when the
correctness of the report of his speech to
the surviving members of his old Corps
was called in question, he wrote to Gen.
Coils of Pennsylvania, The men heard
it and meant it"
1t looks as though his sudden CONVEX
sion was due entirely to the great ex-
element incident to Congressional
nomination. The splendid services of
Gen. Sickles to the country command
the gratitude of every loyal man, and it
&c h,g 81 rbt nd Nri,yilnpra 70 crnaly and
vote and labor for the success of the
party and the candidates that commend
themselves to his approval. But the
Cleveland whose candidacy he supports
to-day,is the same Cleveland whose nom
nation he opposed in June and for whom
he asserted in September his comrades
of the Union Army would not vote.
Nor Cleveland nor Gen. Sickles can
change the facts. The badge of loyal
service to the Republic in the day of
trial belongs upon the breast of the
hero OF Gettysburg, but it is not within
his power to transfer it to that of Grover
Cleveland. The covert contempt for the
men who did their duty in prison, found
expression from the pen of President
Cleveland and are part of the record
that no courage and loyalty on the part
of others can efface. His undeserved,
undignified and all unmanly references
to the infirmities and injuries of the vet
Grams, who, at least, attempted to serve
their country, while he himself only
bought substitute, will not pass cur
rent as patriotic coin, though they be
gilded with the support of their author
by so brave and great a soldier as Gen.
Sickles.
1t is not Cleveland that has changed
in his opinion of the veterans. It's only
that in one short month Gen. Sickles him
self has changed. What he said to the
veterans of the Third Corps in the early
days of September, he says he meant, anC
what he said was true and is true anc
will be just as true though the man o.
whom he said it, was President of the
United States adOzen years, and although
a nomination for Congress from the lOtl
New York District, was in question for ;
no less period of time.-MeSSenger