WASH

 
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CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT
FUND GIVEN IN I89I BY
HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE

 
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3 1924 084 679 905
 

WINFIELD Scott HANCOCK,

Mavor-GENERAL U.S. A
LIFE

AND MILITARY CAREER

OF

WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK.

\
This Work comprises his Early Life, Education and remarkable Military

 

 

 

 

 

Career, which has made him Senior Major General of the Armies
of the United States, and the ‘choice of the Democracy of
the Nation for the high Office of President. It
also contains a succinct Biographical

Sketch of

Hon. WM. H. HNGLISH.

The whole very carefully prepared from the most authentic and official records

By Hon. JOHN W. FORNEY,

Forty years a journalist,

ILLUSTRATED.

 

PUBLISHED BY
J. C. McCURDY & CO.,

PHILADELPHIA, CINCINNATI, CHIcago AND St. Louis.

ke fl _
A707 82Y

CopyRIGHTED, 1880.

 
Duke. The affair cries haste.
First Senator. You must away to-night.

Othello. With all my heart.
The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down. I do agnize
A natural and prompt alacrity
I find in hardness; and do undertake
These present wars against the Ottomites.

: — Othello.
PROLOGUE.

——_e——_.

MAKE no apology for this book. It has already had the dou-
ble advertisement of praise from friends and abuse from foes,
and if that does not secure it a fair clientage, no explanation

of mine will, My chief motive is to help once more to put an
American into the Presidency who will honestly lead the American
people away from quarrels into comradeship and confidence. Such
a man is the soldier Hancock.

Believe me, I have no other aspiration in writing his life. I
do not want any of his offices. Never having been a candidate
before any administration of the general government for place, I
have simply, in order to maintain my independence, resigned most
valuable positions voluntarily tendered to me by other Presidents.
I can safely make this statement; and as for money, I have never
learned to steal it from the Government, though I dearly love to
earn a fair living by honest industry in my own chosen profession.

The little organs and placemen of a party just ushered into being
one year after I myself co-operated with it to put down human
slavery, are now as much disturbed by my refusal to follow that
party into the very sectionalism I have always despised, and are as
angry as so many disturbed mice in a rich cheese because they say
that I have left the ring Republicans. As I never belonged to
these rings, I cannot therefore be accused of leaving them. In one
thing I am consistent at least, and that is in sincere love of my

7
8 PROLOGUE.

country; and I will join any side or drop any side, if by so doing I
can get the American people to be good to each other, to be grate-
ful to those who have served them, to put the best men into office,
to help our youth to be honest and manly, and have pluck enough
to drive out of positions of trust a set of mercenaries as utterly
disqualified for public responsibility as any men that ever lived. I
think it is high time for our country to realize that the parrot poli-
ticians, running up and down the land, shrieking Republicanism
and abusing honest people because they will not bow to such tem-
porary fantococcini,* are mere impostors, and no more genuine in
their professions than a set of play actors trying to show that they
are real kings, when they are simply paste, spangles and feathers.
General Hancock seems to me to be the constable to clear out
these intruders. At all events, let us give the bold soldier a full
chance. I believe in him thoroughly, and have always believed in
him. I knew him as boy and man, in peace and war, and his
father’s associates in Montgomery County were the friends of my
youth. I do not condemn him because he was born in my
State, for I have a Scotchman’s love of home; and I would not
shoot him because he continues a Democrat, when I know that
without Democrats we should have been beaten in the civil war.
This is the general scope of the volume now committed to the
public. It has been quick work; and when J recollect that one
distinguished American has been toiling nearly twenty years on
the life of Voltaire, that another started on the biography of Gen-
eral Grant twelve years ago, and has only printed one volume, and
that another ten years ago advertised an elaborate memoir of Thad-
deus Stevens, and has not yet issued a single page of it; if this
campaign life of Winfield 8. Hancock, the Democratic candidate
for President of the United States, is a little defective, I cannot be
blamed. Very sincerely,
3 J. W. Fornry.
' *Fantococcini, Exhibitio:< and dramatic representations, in which
puppets are substituted for hws: performers.— Worcester.
‘LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
FRONTISPIECE— Winfield Scott Hancock.
Maternal Home essccsssssecssaveavecsics sscsteisecsccsaccscccsen 19
Ancestral Home..........sccceee:seeecesteeeeee seman denusesk eas 98
Road between Yorktown and Williamsburg.................. 67
Malvern, Hille seses 02 sous venee ctsscassvaces’ sosacrscbaispeanvaris 75
Defenses on Culp’s Hill..... Gunn ddnsindasue ade esagpanaesneaediys 79
Ruins of Chancellorsville..............sccceessseveuscceeesoseses 79
Antietam Battle-Ground. \.......0c..cccecesssusen sosseeeeceeees 87
General George G. Meade............seseeceeseecsecsessenenees 97
General Robert E. Lee. ......:.:ssesssesssensnnenesees seceivtawas 97
Gettysburg i covseesscs ctmreassnt sas. seapavs cotscace vec oaseieues 115
Battle-Field of the Seven Pines............. sejdeabiensnsauanns 319
Battle of Seven Pines and Fair Oaks A cisclloasd geste aaudaueouuk ~ 319
Hospital at Fair Oaks........00cee:eeeee- caved pas teaual eakeows 323
Bridge over the Chickahominy...........scssscesesssue seeeees 323
Phillips’ Pines is WS bc pncosats dana udene caso 333
Fredericksburg on the morning of the 12th... steeeee B33
Battle of Fredericksburg...........0ssssssccesssstesseeeneeseees 345
Waiting for Tickets.of Admission to National Convention. 367
Battle-field of Antietam.........-..ssccceceee abiapraisnianeoniness A419
General Hancock receiving Congratulations at Head-
QUATEOTE eccss ees esive nie cnaersutes eres senate uetesteelelilenta 425
Official Notification.....1.. .cssssssessesesseseeessssssesersecees 431
Hon. W. H. English..........ccccccccee cesseseeeeceeneeeereees 481

9
CONTENTS.

 

CHAPTER I.

BIOGRAPHY.

HIS BOYHOOD AND YOUTH—HIS NATIVE COUNTY —THE
MUHLENBERGS— MADE A CADET AT THE MILITARY
ACADEMY—IS MADE LIEUTENANT IN THE ARMY—

AFTER THE MEXICAN WAR HE IS ORDERED TO CALI-
FORNIA—HIS FIRM SPEECH FOR THE UNION—RETURNS
TO WASHINGTON AND ENTERS THE ARMY AGAINST
THE CONFEDERATES—MEETS MR. LINCOLN—TO A WAVE. 17-57

CHAPTER II,

THE WAR.

HOW THE SOUTH SUFFERED FOR AN IDEA—HANCOCK WAS
SUPERB THAT DAY—HANCOCK’S APPEARANCE IN. BAT-
TLE—PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEATH GRAPPLE... . 58-86

CHAPTER III.

HANCOCK’S GENIUS FOR SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY.

THE LOST OPPORTUNITY OF THE LOST CAUSE—BATTILE OF
GETTYSBURG—DEATH OF GEN. REYNOLDS—HANCOCK’S
OWN STORY OF GETTYSBURG BEFORE THE COMMITTEE
ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR—CONFEDERATE ACCOUNT. 89-128

11
12 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV
CEMETERY HILL.

HISTORIC JUDGMENT UPON HANCOCK AND GETTYSBURG—
HANCOCK TO THE RESCUE—SOUTHERN VIEW OF THE
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG—LETTER FROM A UNION OFFI-
CER OF A MARYLAND REGIMENT DESCRIMING MEADE,
HANCOCK AND SLOCUM—THE GENERAL A'lT HIS HOME
In 1863—HANCOCK IN PHILADELPHIA AFTER THE BAT-
TLE—THE CIVIC CELEBRATION—A PATRIOTIC COINCI-
DENCE—EDWIN FORREST ON GRANT AND HANCOCK —
THE IDIOT BOY... - eee ee ee ee ee ee ~~ 129-160

r

CHAPTER V.

EDWARD EVERETT AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN

PLEADING FOR RECONCILIATION WITH THE SOUTH ON THE
BATTLE-FIELD OF GETTYSBURG SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO
—EVERETT’S ORATION—HANCOCK CARRIES THE FLAG
OF RE-UNION—ORDERED TO WASHINGTON—THE GENE-

RAL’S RECEPTION AT INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADEL-
PHIA—REFLECTIONS ON THE BATTLE-FIELD OF GET-
TYSBURG—DR. DRAPER SHOWS HOW GETTYSBURG
SAVED THE COUNTRY TO FREEDOM—WATERLOO AND
GETTYSBURG «21 es eee ee ee ee ew ew ee © 161-198

CHAPTER VI.

IN THE CAMPAIGN WITH GRANT.

GRAPHIC PICTURE OF THE BATTLES OF THE WILDERNESS—
CURIOUS INCIDENT — GEN. HANCOCK’S HEADQUARTERS
ESTABLISHED AT WASHINGTON. . . . ... 4. + ss 199-219

CHAPTER VII.

CAN A GREAT SOLDIER BE A GOOD RULER?

DOES HANCOCK POSSESS GIFTS OF ADMINISTRATION ?—GEN.
HANCOCK AT GOVERNOR’S ISLAND IN 1880—GENERAL
HANCOCK AS A MILITARY GOVERNOR IN TIME OF PEACE
—GENERAL HANCOCK’S CELEBRATED LETTER TO GOVER-

NOR PEASE OF TEXAS—IS HE HONEST?. ...... . 220-251
CONTENTS. 13

CHAPTER VIII.

A WORD TO LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS REPUBLICANS,

HANCOCK AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF THE NORTH—
THE REPUBLICANS OF THE SOUTH— THE GREELEY
REPUBLICANS OF 1872—THE COLORED MEN OF THE
UNITED STATES—-THE EDUCATION OF THE WAR, AND
THE BENEVOLENCE OF, PEACE—GEORGE WASHINGTON
AND THE REBELS OF PENNSYLVANIA—PRESIDENT LIN-
COLN, ROGER A. PRYOR, AND GEN. HANCOCK ... . . 252-285

CHAPTER IX.

THE CONQUERED CONFEDERATES.

THE CLOSE OF THE WAR IN THE SOUTHWEST—NATIONAL
UNION FOR THE PEACE AND PROSPERITY OF THE
NATION, AND FOR AN ENDLESS POSTERITY—PRESENT
POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE SOUTH—CONCILIATION IS
VICTORY, AND ALL SUBSTANTIAL INTERESTS ARE FOR
CONCILIATION—THE CLERGY AND CONCILIATION—THE
BALLOT AND THE PARDON—FIFTY YEARS OF HISTORY

we TEACHING BY EXAMPLE—THE DOCTRINE OF TRUE
NATIONALITY «1 eee we ee ee we ee ee we 286-818

CHAPTER X.

INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF A GREAT SOLDIER'S
CAREER.

GEN. HANCOCK’S CONSIDERATION FOR THE HONOR OF HIS
OFFICERS—THE WOUND RECEIVED BY GEN. HANCOCK
AT GETTYSBURG, AND ITS EFFECTS—GEN. HANCOCK AT
THE BATTLE OF “WHITE OAK SWAMP”—COL. H. BOYD
WKEEN, 8lsT PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS—COL. ED-
WARD E. CROSS, 5TH N. H. VOLS.—GEN. MEADE’S ESTI-
MATE OF GEN. HANCOCK—FAREWELL TO HANCOCK—
FAREWELL TO MAJOR-GENERAL HANCOCK—CHARLIE’S
CHOICE OF HORSES—THE N. C. LIZARD—-GEN. ALEX.
HAYS OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, AT THE BATTLE
OF GETTYSBURG—GEN. HANCOCK AT GETTYSBURG—
14

CONTENTS.

ANECDOTE OF GEN. HANCOCK—GEN. HANCOCK AT THE
BATTLE OF CHERUBUSCO—HORSE SHOT UNDER HIM AT
CHANCELLORSVILLE—ASSAULT ON MARYE'S HEIGHTS,
Dec. 13, 1862—THE BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG IN 1862
—GOING UP TO CHANCELLORSVILLE—AT FREDERICKS-
BURG Garay Rl BRR eB A el we

CHAPTER .XI.

MRS. SURRATT.

GEN. HANCOCK’S POSITION—THE RESPONSIBILITY —CHARGES

DENIED—THE HABEAS CORPUS—THE APPLICATION FOR
PARDON—GEN. HANCOCK NOT RESPONSIBLE—DICTATES
OF PARTY. ©. 2. 6 6 6 eee ee oe eo ee ee es

CHAPTER XII.

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION.

DOUGHERTY’S GREAT SPEECH NOMINATING HANCOCK —

ORATION OF MAJOR DANIEL—THE LETTERS OF ACCEPT-
ANCE—GEN. HANCOCK’S LETTER-—LETTER OF ACCEPT-
ANCE OF HON. WM. H. ENGLISH—GEN. HANCOCK FOUR
YEARS AGO—HIS LETTERS TO GEN. SHERMAN ON. THE
PRESIDENTIAL COMPLICATION OF 1876— HANCOCK’S
REVERENCE OF CIVIL LAW...) ee ee ee eee

CHAPTER XIII.

THE LIVING STATESMEN OF THE PAST.

GEN. GARFIELD’S PRIVATE CHARACTER—GEN. HANCOCK AS

A CIVIL MAGISTRATE—GEN. HANCOCK AT WASHINGTON
In 1867—GEN. HANCOCK AT ANTIETAM—A FALSE MAG-
NANIMITY—ROSECRANS ON HANCOCK—GEN. HANCOCK
RECEIVING THE NEWS OF HIS NOMINATION—HANCOCK
AND ENGLISH FORMALLY NOTIFIED OF THEIR NOMINA-
TION—NEARLY THREE MILLION SOLDIERS— NUMBER
FURNISHED BY EACH STATE AND TERRITORY DURING
THE WAR—SECOND ARMY CORPS—MILITARY RECORD
OF GEN. HANCOCK. . - 2 2 eo ee ee ew eee

311-351

352-365

366-404

405-446
CONTENTS. 15

CHAPTER XIV.

THE LADIES OF THE WHITE HOUSE.

MES. MARTHA WASHINGTON—MRS, JOHN ADAMS— MRS.
THOMAS JEFFERSON—MRS. JAMES MADISON — MRS.
JAMES MONROE—MRS. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS—MRS. AN-
DREW JACKSON—MRS. MARTIN VAN BUREN—MB8. WIL-
LIAM HENRY HARRISON—MRS. JOHN TYLER—MRS. JAS.
K. POLK—MRBS. ZACHARY TAYLOR—MRS. MILLARD FILL-
MORE—MRBS. FRANKLIN PIERCE—MISS HARRIET LANE
—MRS. MARY TODD LINCOLN—MRS. ANDREW JOHNSON,
—MRS. ULYSSES 8. GRANT—MRS. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES 447-479

CHAPTER XV.

HON. WM. H. ENGLISH.

ANCESTRY—A MODEL BUSINESS ‘MAN—A LOVER OF BOOKS—
A CONSISTENT DEMOCRAT—IN FAVOR OF ALLOWING THE
PEOPLE TO VOTE ON SLAVERY——THE CANDIDATES CON-
TRASTED ©. 1 ee ee tt ee ee ee te we + 483-496

CHAPTER XVI.

CONCLUSION.

THE LESSON OF HALF A CENTURY . ~~. 2 2 1 ee ee © 497-502
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK.

 

CHAPTER I.
BIOGRAPHY.

HIS BOYHOOD AND YOUTH.

'F\HERE are some maxims that grow more pre-
cious with age .because they seem to apply
more forcibly every day to the ordinary trans-

actions of life.. One of these is that of the ancient

philosopher who declared that most history was
false except in its dates and names, and that much
fiction was true except in its dates and names.

The life of Wiriztp Scorr Hancock is an ex-

perience that sometimes reads like romance and

reality combined. It is a succession of lessons to
young and to old, and we can read none of it with-
out feeling that Hancock was raised among good
people and by careful parents, who had instilled
their own domestic methods into his early train-
ing. The impression his experience makes upon

me revives another saying of the great Roman
2. 17
18 , LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

freedman, Terence, who, more than two thousand
years ago, wrote, “I am a man and have an inter-
est in everything that concerns humanity.”

The ancestral homestead of General Hancock,
on the maternal side, stands in Montgomery Co.,
Pa., half a mile east of Lansdale and about twenty
miles northwest of Philadelphia. The old portion
of the house was erected in 1728, and the new

portion in 1764. In this house the mother of
General Hancock resided at the time of her mar-
riage to the General’s father. The county in
which this historic homestead stands was named
after General Montgomery, who fell at Quebec,
and whose monument stands in St. Paul’s Church-
yard, New York. At the time of his marriage,
Mr. Benjamin Franklin Hancock—father of Gene-
ral Hancock—was living in what was afterwards
the birth-place of General Hancock,- some three
miles east of Lansdale. It stands about half a
mile east of the Square, and it is a solid, well-pre-
served building, of fine appearance.

When young Hancock was a year old; his father
removed from this old mansion to a house of less
pretensions, somewhat nearer to Montgomery

| Square, where he resided and taught school under
the same roof. The school-house residence is still
standing, but greatly altered in appearance. Two
years later, young Hancock’s father removed to
Norristown, and there taught school and practiced
law till he died, at the age of sixty-seven years.
 

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WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 21

The ancestors of General Hancock, on both
sides, belonged to families of revolutionary fame,
and were engaged in all the wars, from the French
and Indian, before the Revolution, down to the
war of 1812.

The father of General Hancock married against
the will of his guardian, who was a Quaker, and
joined the Baptists, to whom his wife belonged,
and became a deacon in the Baptist church at
Norristown. He was a constitutional man and a
Democrat, but not a politician, and never sought
or held any political office. When his son, the
present General Hancock,.at the age of sixteen,
went to West Point, the Quakers attempted to in-
duce the sister of his father’s guardian, Miss Polly °
Roberts, to cut off young Winfield in her will, as
the profession of a soldier, educated as a man of
war, was not to be encouraged. She remained
steadfast, however, until General Hancock had
graduated and gone to Mexico and become engaged
with the enemy, and, as she supposed, had “killed
people.” Then the “Friends” said it was impos-
sible she could bestow a legacy upon a person who
was killing men by wholesale, and this prevailed.
Winfield was cut off in the will. But, as she sus-
pected that the “Friends” wanted her money, she
provided for the younger brother in place of Win-
field.

In this old homestead his grandfather died, at
84, and was buried in the churchyard at Mont-
22 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

gomery Square, and his father before him died in:
the same house. This very house was attacked by
Indians and bravely defended by the women.
Nature cast Hancock in a mould of rare come-
liness. He seems to have been physically fashioned
for a soldier. Now in his fifty-seventh year (born
February 14, 1824) he stands six feet two inches,
nearly as tall and as broad as the gigantic hero of
Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane, Winfield Scott, after
whom he was named; and he resembles in speech
and bearing that impressive and courtly soldier,
who died at West Point, where Hancock was edu-
cated, on the 29th day of May, 1866, in the
eightieth year of his age. Doubtless Hancock’s
father and mother, Benjamin Franklin and Eliza-
beth Hancock, were largely influenced by the fasci-
nating incidents of the brilliant hero, who was still
suffering from the wounds..he had received in re-
pelling the second British invasion of our northern
frontier—then bearing the golden honors of Con-
gress, after declining the generous proffers of high
political office from the administration of President
Monroe. All unconscious of the future military
renown of their son, they called him Winfield
Scott. His twin brother, Hillary Hancock, a mem-
ber of the Minnesota Bar, is living much respected
in the beautiful city of Minneapolis, Minnesota ;
his youngest brother, John Hancock, who was also
in the army of the Potomac with the General, is
now living in Washington City, D. C., an officer
‘AVSLSSWOH WHLSSONY S,HOOONVH TWHaNAS)

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WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 25

of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. These
three boys were the only children.

The father, Benjamin F. Hancock, a respected
member of the bar, died at Norristown, in his six-

ty-eighth year, on the first of February, 1867, and |

his mother, at an advanced age, died in the same
‘town, two years ago. They were always worthy
members of the Baptist churches of Norristown
and Bridgeport.

The rapid growth of our country is one of the
strongest arguments in favor of republican insti-
tutions, and the essential changes of government
at different periods, not only diffuse official prizes.
among: the masses, but also make them better
acquainted with each other. Peculiar exigencies
alone, maintained one party in power, consecu-
tively, for more than a quarter of a century.
Alternation in administration, and not mere rota-
tion in office, is the salt that savors and saves at
once. The distribution of public trusts among the
people, not the wretched plan of removing subordi-
nates at the command of every machine despot, is
after all the highest conservatism. West Point and
the Naval School are the real colleges of free
government. Their acolytes come from all ranks
of society, and from all parties and sections;
and while they are thoroughly educated, the
course of instruction stimulates gentility, emula-
tion, and manly comradeship; and above all, .
pride of country. The modern magicians, steam
26 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

and electricity, add to this individual and gen-
eral knowledge; and at the end of every de-
cade the citizens have a better knowledge of each
other, as well as of the vicinities in which they
were respectively born and lived. A boy raised in
one place, trained to duty in the army and the
navy at another, sent abroad by government
into: distant sections and seas, becomes, not
simply a student of men and manners, but a cos-
mopolitan,.a citizen of the world.

General Hancock was one of the cadets, who.
have made their native places as renowned as
themselves, and there are many who would like to
know something of his birthplace, as they study.
the interesting story of his life. Montgomery
county, Pennsylvania, so called after General
Richard Montgomery, the Irish-American Gene-
ral, killed at Queenstown, in 1775, only nine
years before that county was taken from the
‘larger district of Philadelphia, is one of many
.. places that preserve the memory of that true-
hearted martyr of the cause of human liberty. .
More than any other people, ours cultivate the
habit of calling their sons, their shires, their towns,
their counties and their states, after the great men
who have figured conspicuously in science, litera-.
ture, and arms. So that while the subject of our
sketch bears the proud name of one of the greatest
soldiers of the second generation of our civil ex-
_ istence, the district in which he first saw the light
WINFIELD. SCOTT HANCOCK. ai.

of life, bears that of another eminent hero of the
_ generation which began two years after the Dec-
laration. of Independence. I count over sixty
Montgomerys in the maps and gazeteers, North
and South, to designate towns, villages, counties,
and states in this country, a fact which proves
that gratitude for bravery is indigenous in the
American heart, and springs eternal in the Ameri-
can bosom.

HIS NATIVE COUNTY.

‘ Montgomery County, where Hancock was born, -
is one of the loveliest: in the State. Nothing
could be sweeter in spring and summer, and
‘ bolder and more picturesque in winter, than the
valley of the Schuylkill river. That useful and
historic stream forms the south-western boundary ;
for some distance passing through broad cultivated
fields, with substantial stone houses and villas:
here and there:an elegant country-seat; then
sweeps past bold bluffs of rock, almost denying. a
passage to the railroad, and then rushes by bright
and busy manufacturing towns, its own waters
helping to drive the machinery. There are other
streams applied to other practical purposes. The
mineral wealth, limestone, and marble, supply
valuable material to the markets of Philadelphia,
New. Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Iron ore
is mined in large quantities; copper in limited
amount, has been found in one part of the coun-
28 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

ty, while its agriculture and manufacturing re-
sources add to the power of the county. The
cash value of the land is estimated at over fifty-
one millions of dollars, and the farm products in
one year, are estimated to be worth about ten
millions, while its many woolen, cotton, and iron
mills are famous all over the country. The able

editor of the Norristown Herald, my friend, Morgan.

R. Wills, Esq., has printed an excellent picture of
the history and resources of this interesting region.
_ Hancock’s native county is rich in Revolu-
tionary memories and materials—in facts and
legends: it is sacred ground—Valley Forge, a spot
made memorable by the great encampment of
Washington’s army, in 1777, where they suffered
incredible horrors during that terrible winter, is
only six miles from Norristown, where Hancock
was born. In that gloomy crisis in our American
affairs, Washington himself wrote: “There was
little less than a famine in camp. Part of the
army had been a week without any kind of flesh,
and the rest three or four days; yet naked and
starving as they were, we cannot enough admire
the incomparable patience and fidelity of the sol-
diery, that they had not ere this been excited to
mutiny and dissension.” Within a few years
Valley Forge has become the property of the peo-
ple, purchased, furnished and decorated by the
leading citizens of Pennsylvania.

What is now Montgomery county, Pennsylva-
id

WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 29

nia, was originally settled by Welsh and Swedes,

and in:the upper part by Germans. Subsequently
came the Quakers, the Welsh and Swedes, and
now their descendants are found all over the dis-
trict, which is itself composed of eleven boroughs,

' thirty townships, fifty-four election districts, with
.a population of about ninety thousand souls. .

When I think of the men of Montgomery
County, Pennsylvania, they seem to pass before
the mirror of my memory like the familiars of my
youth. I knew many of them, including the de-

scendants of the old families, just as to-day I can

mentally hold converse with the leading minds of
both parties in all the States and Territories of
this Great Republican Empire. I hold in my hand
an admirable book just out, prepared and edited
by a citizen of Norristown, M. Auge, “ Lives of the
Eminent Dead and Biographical Notices of Promi-
nent Living Citizens of Montgomery County, Penn-
sylvania,” and with this for.my torch and teacher
I light up the past and linger upon the present
with all the pleasure of the spectator ponder-
ing in a great picture gallery. These were the
men who went before and.walked at the side of
General Hancock’s ancestors. Every county has
its own record, and such is the fortunate condition
of our people under republican institutions, aided

‘by scientific discoveries and modern inventions

and a thousand adaptabilities, the results of our
admirable system of universal education, that the
30 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

record of one county has become interesting to all
others; and he who reads the annals of a northern
or southern state or district, frequently recognizes
unforgotten names and events. Here we have
David R. Porter and Francis R. Shunk, Demo-
cratic Governors of Pennsylvania from 1838 to
1841 and from 1844 to 1848, both natives of Mont--
gomery County. Here I find excellent sketches
of Jonathan Roberts, John B. Sterigere, Jacob
S. Yost, Benjamin Markley Boyer, Joshua Evans,
Cadwalader Evans, Joseph Fornance, Jacob
Fry, Jr., James Boyd, George Bullock, Peter F.
Rothermel, J. F. Hartranft, the Corson families,
the Woods families, Samuel Allen, David Crouse,
Owen Jones, Charles Cutler, Daniel O. Hitner, E.
F. Acker and John Friedley;, a long catalogue
of men, most of them dead, some living, members
of all professions, every one of them known beyond
the borders of Pennsylvania as men of mark in
their day and time. The great picture of the
Battle of Gettysburg, now at Memorial Hall, oppo-
site the Permanent Exhibition Building, Fairmount
Park, Philadelphia, was painted by the Rothermel,
whose name I have just written.

But it is not. only in art and arms, in the learn-
ing of the Bar, in the inspiration of the Pulpit, and
in the great historic deeds of the past that this -
single county of Pennsylvania is rich. There are
manufacturing centres where skilled labor has won
some of its proudest triumphs. Conshohocken, the
WINFIELD. SCOTT HANCOCK. 31.

great iron manufacturing centre, a few years ago
a comparative village, now with a population of
six thousand, with an annual product of from
three to four millions of dollars—this and other
great centres show how rapidly, in connection with
mental development, the material growth of a
great county increases with years. Montgomery
, County was also the home and almost the birth-
place of David Rittenhouse, the astronomer and
philosopher; where Charles Thompson, the great
‘secretary of the first revolutionary congress, had
his residence—in Lower Merion Township, Mont-
gomery County—and where he died in 1824, in
the ninety-seventh year of his age. Here too lived’
Richard Penn Smith, well beloved and remem-
bered in Philadelphia and elsewhere for his genius
and genial nature.

THE MUHLENBERGS.

But no names awaken a deeper and more per-
manent interest than the Muhlenbergs. How often
I have dwelt upon the interesting and attractive
story of these wonderful. men!—these fighting

” priests, profound scholars, and natural leaders.
Long ago, in my youthful days, these romantic
lives came to me, as fascinating as the absorb-
ing pages of Robinson Crusoe or the - Arabian
Nights, or Riley’s Narratives among the Arabs, or
the pious legend of John Bunyan. ‘Henry Melchior
Muhlenberg, the founder of the family, was a
32 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Gottingen student, born in Hanover, Germany,
who landed in this country in 1742, and founded
a Lutheran Congregation at Trappe and New Ha-
nover, Montgomery County, marrying the daughter
of Conrad Weiser, the celebrated Indian inter-
preter. And here were born to him the three
noted children, Peter, Frederick Augustus and
Henry Ernest, all distinguished clergymen. One

of his daughters was the mother of Governor John
- Andrew Schultz. His sons born at Trappe were
educated in Germany. They were a wild set,
these early Muhlenbergs, brave, original, im-
perious, all of them Democrats, fighting and
preaching for patriotic ideas when they were young
and defending them when they were old. Peter,
preacher as he was, had a congregation at Wood-
stock, Shenandoah County, Va. In January, 1776,
he :pronounced a sermon on the “duties men owe
to:their country.” He preached, adding “There is
a time for all things, a time to preach and a time
to fight, and now is the time to fight.’ Then he
descended from the pulpit and took off his gown,
which covered a colonel’s uniform, read his com-
mission, ordered: the drummers to beat for recruits,
and within a ‘few days recruited three hundred
men from his own churches, enlisted for the re-
volutionary war. It was not long until he had a
full regiment mustered into the service. He fought
in Georgia and South Carolina, at the battles of
Brandywine and Germantown, at Valley Forge, in
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOOK. a9

the battle of Monmouth and at the capture of
‘Stony Point. He was at the taking of Yorktown
in 1781. Then he came back, not to the church
but to the Trappe in Montgomery County. He ~
was chosen as.a member of Congress, member of
the State Legislature, serving several years in each,
and was finally United States Senator. In 1803
he was Collector of the Port of Philadelphia, made
so by Thomas Jefferson, which he held until 1807,
when he died at the age of sixty-two. The Av-
rora, the Democratic organ of Philadelphia, said.
“Tn private. life just, in domestic life affectionate
and sincere, his body lies beside his father’s at the
Trappe Church.” It is this great man’s statue that
Pennsylvania, by Act of Congress, has selected to:
place in the Hall of the Old Representatives. at:
Washington, side by side with that of Robert Ful-
ton, the great engineer and inventor, born in Lan-:
caster County, very near Montgomery—the sculp-
tor of Muhlenberg being Blanche Nevin of Phila-
delphia, and that of Fulton being Edward Roberts
of the same city. : ’

The second son, Frederick Augustus Muhlen-.
- berg, was not less brilliant and distinguished than
Peter. Educated at the University of Halle,
Germany, he returned, and established: a church
in New York, but soon entered politics, also re-
turning to Trappe, Montgomery. county. He was
in the State Assembly in 1779, one of the Judges
of the county, then Register and Recorder, then
34. | LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Representative. in Congress, and afterwards the
great Speaker of the House of Representatives of
the. United States.

The other brother, the Rev. Henry Ernest
Muhlenberg, was born in Trappe, Montgomery
_county, November, 1753. He was ordained, and
acted as assistant pastor of a Lutheran church of
Philadelphia,—and a patriot,‘ a man of science,
a Jinguist. He removed to Lancaster, where he
remained at the head of a Lutheran church for
thirty-five years. The third generation of Muh-
lenbergs I knew and honored: Henry A. Muhlen-
berg of Reading, Dr. Frederick Augustus of
Lancaster, and the eminent scholar of the same
name, one of the professors in the University
of Pennsylvania,—the first two gone, the last:sur-
viving,—filled high positions in public, and have
always been eminent for their virtues.

MADE A CADET AT THE MILITARY ACADEMY.

It was among such scenes and men, many of
the latter known to himself, and those not known
to him, frequently spoken of by his father, that
young Hancock approached manhood. A proud
father and fond mother saw their three boys
growing in grace and strength. In 1840, Win-
field was just sixteen years old. It is not flattery
to say that he was a handsome boy, if you may
judge by the picturesque soldier now before the
country, as the candidate of the great party,
. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 35

for the highest gift of: over forty-eight millions of
moe: The member of Congress from the
district, in that year, was Joseph Fornance, a
‘Democrat like Hancock’s father, who had, at
that time, considerable influence in Washington.
‘7A mild, yet conscientious lawyer, he wielded
a large influence in society-and at the bar. It
fell to his lot, under the law of the ‘government,
to select a cadet to West Point. For some.years
Winfield had become quite a soldier boy. among
his school-fellows. He was a lad of spirit and
natural elegance of manner, vigilant at Sunday-
‘school, (his father was a Sunday-school teacher,)
and a leader among his mates. His parents were
sincere Christians; morning and evening they had
their family prayers. Winfield acquired a sort of
chivalry, and more than once assumed the cham-
pionship of weaker and younger boys.. The lads _
of the village organized a volunteer “soldier com-
pany,” and Winfield was unanimously elected
captain, when he was only twelve years old, and
to this date it is remembered in Norristown,
how well the drills, parades, inspections, reviews,
battles, and camps of these little men were con-
ducted under the command of their graceful
boyish. ‘chief. He had learned at home that obe-
dience was not only ‘a virtue, but a duty. He,
and his brother Hillary, worshipped their mother.
I wish I could say that the influence of home in
these latter’ days is as controlling as it was fifty
30 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

years ago, and I hope there are still hamlets and
country-sides where the simple, gracious, indul-
gent, yet courageous ministrations of a dear
mother are as frequent and effective as they were
in 1835 and 1840. Is it because women are less
amiable or emulous to excel in piety and devotion,
or because their children are more eager to rush
all unprovided and unarmed and inexperienced,
into the wild and terrible attractions and dangers
of life?: Assuredly, admiration for the. sex is
not dead among men, and ambition to excel no
longer a passion. Yet without pausing to decide
the problem, it is useful and certainly pleasant to
recur to that gentle household in Norristown, of
which the presiding divinity was the sweet mother
of the Hancock boys. Her authority was the law.
And so in the discipline of his little soldiers,
whenever an offence had to be punished, the case
was referred, by Winfield,to the mother of the
culprit, and'she, as the supreme court of the occa-
sion, generally cured the delinquent.

It: was perhaps these early American inclinings
that attracted a friend of Mr. Fornance, the
member of Congress from the district, to Winfield.
But there is a curious incident connected with his
selection to West Point, that may be related here:
Appointments to the’ Mititary Academy, like
those to the Naval Academy, have always been
attractive to American youth. Some years ago a
practice had grown up under which members of
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 37

Congress were not themselves indifferent to temp- .
tation, and even to bribes, when they came to dis-
tribute this peculiar patronage. A few exposures,
however, seemed to have put an end to the
wretched business, and now our Congressional
statesmen have adopted the better practice of
opening a,competition to these great national
Academies, by which the best pupils in our com-
mon schools may be examined whenever .a cadet
to West Point or Annapolis must bé appointed.
In this way there is little danger of corrup-
tion or inferiority. Forty years ago a Phil-
_ adelphian came to Norristown with his: son, in-
tending to make a residence preparatory to his
application for the waiting cadetship. His move-
ments soon became known to an old friend of
mine, long since dead, who had himself been in
Congress and had special reason to distrust the Phil-
adelphian. This reason was his knowledge of a
transaction in which the latter was a principal.
My old friend had sold this man a valuable horse
under the plain condition that the noble animal
should be treated well and only put to light work.
In his day and time my friend had. been the lead-
er of the Democratic party of Montgomery County,
and many a night he had heen carried through
the townships by this faithful steed, arousing the
unterrified, or attending to his own heavy law
business. He loved his old horse; he trusted his
Philadelphia acquaintance. But what was his
38 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

amazement, on visiting the city some time sub-—
sequent -to the sale, to’ find his favorite trotter
hitched to a heavy loaded dray, and an angry dri-

ver lashing him with brutal ferocity. The poor

animal had been sold by the man who had pro-.
mised to be kind to him. It did not take long for

the original owner to buy back his favorite horse

ata high price. But he did not forget the bad

faith of the Philadelphian, and when he found the

latter. had changed his residence to get his son

into West Point, he at once resolved to see if he

could not checkmate him. Joseph Fornance was

the sitting member. The other veteran politician

lost no time in letting him know the horse story,

and the scheme to obtain his recommendation of
the other boy. The next day after his interview

with the member of Congress, my friend consulted

Winfield’s father and mother, telling them that he

thought he could secure his selection as-a cadet to

West Point. They were much surprised, but needed

little persuasion, especially reinforced by the earnest

appeals of their son to consent to the suggestion.

Thus giving the boy to his country to begin a

career, which progressed so favorably and ended so

brilliantly. My devoted friend died in 1852, leav-

ing an ample fortune; and his first executor was

Winfield’s father, Benjamin Franklin Hancock.

~ And now we find young Winfield Scott Han-
cock an entered cadet at West Point. Forty
years have produced a magical change in man-
‘ WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 389

_ kind. The Military Academy has had a tre-
mendous experience since the Montgomery boy
crossed its threshold. Of his comrades, those
who preceded him, and those who followed,
many are gone and forgotten; yet there is eter-
nal youth and life in the liberty many of them
' perished to preserve. Cotemporaneous with him at
the Academy, were many cadets who afterwards
became distinguished. Among others were Horatio
G. Wright, A: W. Whipple, Nathaniel Lyon, Schuy-
ler Hamilton, John F. Reynolds, Don Carlos Buell,
Alfred Sully, John Newton, W. S: Rosencrans,
John Pope, Abner Doubleday, N. J. T.: Dana,
George Sykes, Lafayette McLaws, James Long-
street, W. B. Franklin, C. C. Augur, Ulysses S:
Grant, Rufus Ingalls, W. F. Smith, Fitz John Por:
ter, John P. Hatch, Gordon Granger, George B.
McClellan, J. L. Reno; D. N. Couch, T. F: Jackson,
and George Stoneman. Kstablished by ‘the wise
prevision of Washington, West Point is a school
that has proved its value to our institutions
in many fields of science and of strife. .The
novitiate of Winfield was crowned by the respect-
ability:of his examination, and the average ex-
cellence of his standing in the graduating'class.

IS MADE LIEUTENANT IN THE ARMY.

The studies and service at West Point: cover four
years of time, and on the 30th day of June, 1844,
He graduated. He was’first designated as a Brevet
40 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

second Lieutenant in the 6th United States In-
fantry, July 1, in the same year, and on the 18th
of June, 1846, he secured his commission as full
second lieutenant in the same regiment. He was
then 22 years of age. ,

In 1846 no man or woman in this country
had any conception where the next thirty years
would carry our country; and when young Lieu-
tenant Hancock was sent into the Red River of
the South, in the wonderful region of the Washita,
there was every chance that he would fall a vic-
tim to the yellow fever, or perish under the toma-
hawk of the savage. The annexation of Texas
had been assured by the bravery of Sam Houston
and his associates, and afterward by solemn treaty
with the United States; but the mighty empire
could not be successfully and solidly sealed to the
great Republic, without the war with Mexico in
184748. So the young soldier had not long to
wait before he was summonéd from his remote
western post’ to join the American army under
Gen. Scott, which had just entered Vera Cruz,
and was already co-operating with the army of
the Centre under General Taylor. It was after
the bloody victory over Santa Anna at Buena
Vista; and the whole nation watched the issue
of the grand movements between the Gulf and the
city of Mexico with palpitating hearts. Who that
lived in those days can ever forget the excitement
with which “one victory trod upon another's
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 4]

heels, so fast they followed?” Our small army—
small, when we compare it with the vast hosts
that fourteen years later rushed to uphold and
defend the Flag—was then united against the
foreign foe. North and South, Hast and West,
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, and Caleb Cushing
of Massachusetts, Franklin Pierce of New Hamp-
shire and John A. Quitman of Mississippi, Robert
Patterson of Pennsylvania and Thomas Hamer
of Ohio, Garland of Virginia and Geary of Penn-
sylvania, fought side by side in patriotic emula-
tion. Our boy-lieutenant fought at Churubusco,
Molino del Rey (thé king’s mills) and the hill of
Chapultepec, and with such gallantry that he was
breveted on the field, and honored by the thanks
of his native state, expressed to himself and. his
associates by the legislature of Pennsylvania.
This first step in the life of the new soldier was
part of a career to which the Democratic party of
the United States can always look with honor.
The war with Mexico was denounced by the
Whigs as unjust and unconstitutional, and _ yet,
judged by the harvest, was most important in, its
influence upon our destinies. It secured Texas to
the United States, forced the acquisition of Cali-
fornia, and rounded our mighty domain by an
ocean-barrier in the far west, and made the occu-

pation of the Pacific coast and the construction of — ~

the continental railroad across the Rocky Moun-
tains inevitable measures of national defence
42 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

against all enemies, external and ‘internal. The
Mexican war was only the beginning, the prepa-
ration of a dazzling as well as dangerous expe-
rience. Hancock could not read his own future.
The capture of the City of Mexico was followed
_ by the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo.

AFTER THE MEXICAN WAR HE IS ORDERED TO
CALIFORNIA.

On the 17th of September, 1848, and the close
of the war, more brevets crowned his impetuous
bravery; and still associated with the gallant 6th
Infantry; he was stationed at Fort Crawford, Prairie
du Chien, Wisconsin, where he remained till 1849.
The ancient hunting grounds of six powerful tribes
of Indians, afterward a territory, and finally a
State, with a population of a million and a half,
Wisconsin is one of those republics, which has
grown up since Gen. Hancock entered the army.
In 1840, when he became a cadet, it had but
31,000 souls; in the same year Minnesota was not
yet even organized into a territory, and in 1880
the whole state had a population of but 6,077,
now over a million; in 1840, Michigan had 2192,-
267 people, now over a million anda half. In
1840, Illinois had 476,183; in 1880, three mil-
lions. In 1840, Iowa had 43,112 people; in 1880,
a million and a half. ¢

The rapid development of the empire of the West
carefully studied by Hancock during his six years
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 43

residence at Jefferson. Barrack, twelve miles from
the city of St. Louis, on the Mississippi river, was
made interesting by his marriage on the 24th of
January, 1850, with Miss Almira Russell, daughter
of Samuel Russell, a prominent St. Louis mer-
chant. They have had two children, a son and a
daughter; the former, a married man of thirty,
has been staying at Governor’s Island, with his
wife and two children. The only daughter of
the household died some years ago, and the loss is
still felt by the General and his wife.

After his service at Fort Jefferson, Gen, Han-
cock, now Captain Hancock, was stationed at Fort
Myers, near San Augustine, Florida. This was in
1856; he remained there till November of the
year, when he was ordered to the United States
territory of Utah, part of the command of Gen.
Harney, on his expedition to Kansas and the re-
gions beyond. From Utah he was transferred to
‘Benecia; California, and after that to Los Angelos,
in what is called Lower California, and es
there till 1861.

It will be seen that since his station at Prairie
du Chien, Gen. Hancock resided in the South, in
Missouri, in Florida, at Salt Lake City, had wit-
nessed the early struggle between slavery and free-
dom in Kansas, had crossed the Rocky Mountains
ten years before the Pacific railroad was completed,
and landed on the shores of that California, which
he aided to acquire in 1847-48, by his services in
44 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

the Mexican war. He had therefore in the course
of eleven years passed from the extreme Southern
shore of our Atlantic possessions and pitched his
tent almost on the Northern verge of the Pacific.
Here we have a varied experience. It.is the vul-
gar practice of some of the party people to say that
Gen. Hancock is not a statesman; that he has
seen no civil service, and that he hasbeen sup-
ported by the Government.

These are the scandals of men who claim to be
Republicans, per se- the organs of a party made
_ by the citizen soldiers of a great country; the
echoes of partizans enriched by the opportunities
for the plunder of the war: and worse than all the
politicians, twice saved from defeat by a regular
soldier, General Grant. There is not a volunteer
soldier, not a living veteran, not an intelligent
American in any part of the country that will not
turn from this treatment of General Hancock with
loathing. Even the partisan will not deny that this
life in different latitudes and among different peo-
ples, with varied habits, was in itself a liberal ed-
ucation; and perhaps if General Hancock did not
acquire the art of sentence making, and the talent
of receiving his pay as a member of Congress, and
also heavy fees for pushing jobs through his com-
mittee, he may, nevertheless, be as fit as Jackson,
Harrison, Taylor or Grant, to conduct the Presi-
dency. Certain it is, his party will: not be called
upon to defend him against the unanswerable and‘
WINFIELD SCOTT HANOOCK. 45

unanswered charge of being paid twice for his

public services ; once his legal salary and again an
illegal fee for serving contractors for public work,

to be paid out of the National Treasury. Another
critic says General Hancock is “in no proper
sense a. citizen of Pennsylvania; he is not in sym-
pathy with their interests, he is not in any way
identified with her prosperity, and he never has
been.” His duty called him from home, and from
1844 to 1865 he really had no home; his absence
was to fight for his country, sometimes the Mex-
icans, sometimes the Indians, and finally the
Confederates; his life in constant danger all
those times, and three times wounded, once al-
most to his death. Yet this history and this ser-
vice are perverted, not only to show that he’ has
lost his citizenship by his self-sacrifice, but by So
doing he has proved that he has no interest i in his

native state.

To reach Benecia, California, at one time the capi-
tal of the Golden State, standing on a commanding
eminence, at the junction of the Strait with
the bays of San Pablo and Suisun, Captain Han-
cock crossed a large portion of our North American
Continent. Here he gathered much knowledge of
the difficulties subsequently encountered, when the
Great Pacific Railroad was begun, examined the
climate, mineral treasures, mountains, rivers and
inland seas of that wild and interesting region, en-
during with his command much suffering, and was
46 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

particularly interested in the extraordinary ap-
pearance of the country around Benecia.

Tn a few months he was transferred to the old
Spanish town of Los Angelos, or: the town of the
Angels. Here he was stationed for two years in
his responsible position in the quartermaster
general’s department of the United States. And
here may be said to have begun that part of nie
career, and that part of the career of his country,’
which introduced our great civil war.

HIS FIRM SPEECH FUR THE UNION.

In 1872 I had the pleasure, in company with
Col.. Thomas A. Scott and a large party, to visit .
this exquisite coast range of mountains, San Diego
with, its beautiful bay, Santa Barbara and Los
Angelos, and I found that Gen. Hancock had
left behind a memory in which he was cherished,
by something more than friendship by the people |
of all parties. How different from the high moun-
tains around Benecia, with its jagged sides,
blackened by fissures. and caverns where the.
spent volcanic action of countless ages has left its
deep lines on the rifted chasms! Los Angelos re-
minded me of the most delightful climate of Italy.
In addition to the hospitality of the people, the
eloquence of the men and the beauty of the women,
there was something in the atmosphere of the
plains, cooled by the breezes from the mountains,
which resembled the wonderful transparent, whole-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 47

some perfumed temperature of the country around
Nice, Heyeres, and Cannes in Southern France.
Like the volcanic soil of Italy, the natural produc-
tion of Los Angelos includes a variety of different
seeds and fruits, potatoes and oranges, corn and figs,
wheat and lemons, pears and pomegranates, me-
lons and dates, tobacco and grapes, sugar-cane and

’ apples. And to complete the comparison, you see

hills still white with dissolving snow, while the de-
clivities around you are variegated with enchanting
flowers. Here, to Southern California, as well, in-
deed, all along the coast, reaching San Francisco it-
self, and even Sacramento and San Jose, vast
hordes of people, north and south, were attracted;
chiefly by the wonderful stories of the exceeding
salubrity and beauty of California. They floated
in after the acquisition of that great empire
under the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, February
2, 1848, and when, in the same year, Gen. John
A. Sutier announced that gold had been discovered
on his lands, on the American River, by James
W. Marshall, a laboring man, that thrilling news
spread widely, and the immense emigration of
1849 came,—a resistless exodus from all parts
of our country. Gen. John A. Sutter, although
born in Switzerland, February 15, 1803, spent the
last years of his life in Litiz, Lancaster County,
only a few hours ride from the native place of Gen.
Hancock, and died on the 18th of June,' 1880, in
the city of Washington, and was buried at Litiz.

!
48 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

This American migration to California was from
the North, the South, the New England States
and the Middle States, made up of people with all
their prejudices and their interests keenly alive.
These multitudes were conscious of the fact that
that splendid out-post of our new domain was the
rich prize of the American conquest of the Mexi-
ean arms. Although paid. for out of the National
Treasury, it was a cheap outlay, considering the
magnanimity that prompted the government, and
the incalculable consequences of the purchase,
morally, socially, politically and financially. ‘Of
this migration the best remembered were, David C.
Broderick, William M. Gwin, Gen. Stoneman,
W. C. Ralston, Miles Sweeny, Leland Stanford,
Peter Donahue, Milton §. Latham, George W.
Barton, Edward C. Baker, Calhoun Benham,
Joseph C. McKibbin, Gen. Banning, Joe Hooker,
Gen. John C: Fremont, Rodman M. Price, Carlisle
Patterson, Collin M. Boyd, Gen. H. Gates Gibson,
Paul C, Upham, Admiral Dupont, Gen. Nagley,
A. D. Stevenson, Ulysses S. Grant, Philip Kearney,
Edward C. Beale, Com. Stockton, Bayard Taylor,
Alexander Wells; and the list could be elaborately
extended, although the reader will notice that a
minority only are left alive.

The men around Los Angelos, where Gen. Han-
‘cock resided for two years before the war, were
bold, original and daring characters, the democrats
generally with southern sympathies, and the Re-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 49

publicans in 1858 and 1859, comparatively few.
In 1876, the survivors visited Philadelphia to
celebrate the Centennial; and their great com-
memoration on Saturday, September 9th, of that
year, in the Pacific Coast Centennial Hall, was an
occasion never to he forgotten by those lis were
present.

At Los Angelos, Captain Hancock Mine the
_ news of the incipient demonstrations against the
Unien in 1860, and it was at this critical moment
that he displayed, alike his patriotism, his magna-
nimity and his toleration. Abraham Lincoln had
been elected president of the United States in
November, and it was about Christmas time when
Hancock heard the fact. . He had never taken
part in the divisions of the democratic party, but
he saw that these divisions could only end’ one
way, and that was the defeat of the old organiza-
tion to which his fathers had been attached.
Enough for him that it was a constitutional election
and that the. republican candidate was fairly
chosen. Born a Democrat himself, and never
denying his attachment to that great party, he
threw himself boldly into all the discussions of the
hour; and while maintaining strict guard over his
own temper, stood firm and fast to the old flag
in the midst of the tempest of passion and fanati-.
cism.

On the 4th of July, 1861, he made an aides
at the first union meeting in Tos Angelos, Califor-
50 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

nia. It must be recollected when this speech was
pronounced that the whole of that part of the state
was over-run with secession sympathisers: When
it was delivered he had heard of the preparations
for rebellion; but from the North he had no distinct
information that the dissolution of these states had
been really contemplated. There was no telegraph
wire at that time between the east and west,
absolutely no communication except across the
plains and around by the Isthmus of Panama to
San Francisco. This magnificent utterance was
the simple enthusiasm of his heart at the moment.

He spoke as follows:

We have met to commemorate that day of all among Americans, the
most hallowed and cherished of the national’ memories of a life-time—
the 4th of July, 1776,—that day when the reign of tyrants in the colo-
nies of America ceased, and the reign of reason, of fraternity, and of
equal political rights began.

Who on this continent does not know of the great event which tran-
spired on that day—the anniversary of which we are met here to cele-
brate—that event so interesting to all Americans—the declaration of
our ‘national independence, and who among us would wish to see the
day approach when that occasion should ccase to be commemorated ?.
I will not believe that any can be found so destitute of patriotic pride
as not to feel in his veins a thrilling current when the deeds of his
ancestors in the battle of the Revolution are mentioned. ;

Can any one hear the great events of that contest related without
wishing that his ancestors had been personally engaged in them?

Who of us can forget the names of Lexington, of Monmouth, of Bran-
dywine and Yorktown, and who can regret tira he is a descendant of
those who fought there for the liberties we now enjoy? And what flag
is it that we now look to as the banner that carried us through the great
contest, and was’ honored by the gallant deeds of its defenders? The
star-spangled banner of America, then embracing thirteen pale stars,
representing that number of oppressed colonies; now, thirty-four
nEaE planets, representing that number of great states. To be sure,
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 51

clouds intervene between us and eleven of that number, but we will
trust that those clouds may soon be dispelled and that those great stars
in the southern constellation may shine forth again with even greater
splendor than before.;

Let us believe, at Teast let us trust, that our brothers there do not wish
to separate themselves permanently from the common memories which
have so leng bound us together, but that. when reason returns and re
sumes her sway they will prefer the brighter page. of history which our
mutual deeds have inscribed upon the tablets of time, to that of ‘the un-
certain future of a new confederation which, a to them may prove
illusory and unsatisfactory.

Let them return to us. We will welcome them as brothers who. have
been estranged, but have come back. We have an interest in the battle-
fields of the Revolution in those States, not second to their own. Our
forefathers fought there side by side with theirs. Can they, ‘if they
would, throw aside their rights to the memories of the great fields on
onr soil on which ‘their ancestors won renown? No, they cannot! God
forbid that they should desire it. To those who, regardless of these
sacred _memories, insist on sundering this union of States, let us who
only wish our birth-rights preserved to us, and whose desire it is to be
still citizens of the great country that gave us birth, and to live under
that flag which has gained for us the glory we boast of, say this day to
‘those among us who feel aggrieved: Your rights we will respect; your
wrongs we will assist you to redress; but the government resulting
from the union of these states is a priceless heritage that we intend to
preserve and defend to the last extremity.

. Hancock did not long.remain in California after
this noble speech. He at once solicited employ-
ment in the Union army, and reported for duty in
Washington, in September of 1861, when he was
thirty-eight years of age. His politics are found in
a letter to a friend in Pennsylvania after the out-
break of the rebellion, and these are his exact
words: “ My politics are of a practical kind; the
integrity of my country, the supremacy of the
Federal government, and an honorable peace, or
none at all.’
-

52 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Unlike other officers of the regular army, who
fled their posts, Hancock stood firm. One in whom
T trust as I would trust few men, writes me as fol-
lows from San Francisco under date of July 5, 1880.
“God bless you for your dispatch to Dougherty,
and your support of Hancock; I am, like you, a
Republican of the Lincoln, Douglass and Broderick
stripe.” And he continued:

“Well do I remember young Captain Hancock, in the old Spanish ‘
town of Los Angelos, in Lower California, when the news of the Re-
bellion crossed the continent in 1861. Poor Broderick had been shot
by Terry in a duel, in the September of 1859, and we were cut off from
nearly all intercourse with our homes in the North. Hancock, as you
know at that time, was in the United States Quartermaster’s Depart-
ment, under that good old soldier, General Casey. He did not stop to
count the cost to himself. He is really a very good speaker, and he
had to deal with a very peculiar people. The emigrants in that part
of California, many of them from the seceded and disaffected South,
were very ,uneasy. They sympathized with secession, their hearta
were with the South, and if Hancock had not been a real patriot, if he
had not been reared among good people in Pennsylvania, all that was
needed for him was to encourage them by his coldness, or drive them
to violence by ‘his sympathy. In this far distant stronghold at that
time, he upheld the flag of his country, the integrity of the Union, and
the rights of man.’

RETURNS TO WASHINGTON AND ENTERS THE ARMY
. AGAINST THE CONFEDERATES; MEETS MR. LINCOLN.
He first offered his services to Governor Curtin,
of Pennsylvania, but before an arrangement could
be consummated he was recalled to duty in. the
regular army, and immediately assigned to the.

»post of chief Quartermaster on the staff of General

Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumpter, who
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 53

~had been placed in command of the Union forces
in his native State of Kentucky. While prepar-
ing to comply with this order President Lincoln,
on the 23d of September, 1861, commissioned
him as Brigadier General.

I remember the day of his appointmen as
Brigadier General, on the formal recommendation
of General McClellan, and his assignment to the
division of the Army of the Potomac, commanded
by Baldy Smith, lying across the chain bridge
near Lewinsville. His first general command
consisted of four splendid regiments; one from
New York, one from Pennsylvania, one from the
backwoods of Maine, and one from Wisconsin.

It is, indeed, interesting to know that his
very first command included troops from widely
different States, and this distribution marked his
whole career; thus making a constituency as
wide as the country itself. During the early
period of his service in the regular army, inclu-

_ ding his participation in the Mexican war, his life
on the frontier, and his final relations with the
quartermaster’s department in Lower California,
he had made himself thoroughly familiar with the
officers and men representing the old Southern
States—and now his military constituency was
distributed through New England, through the
west, New York, and his own native common-
wealth of Pennsylvania—and as you follow his
life, down to the close of the rebellion, down to
54 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

peace between Grant and Lee, it may be said that
there is hardly a county, and certainly not a State
in the Union, in which General Hancock may not
count military intimates and cultivated friends.
After General Hancock assumed this command,
an event took place in the City of Washington, so
sad, so touching, and at the time so tragic, that I
feel like recalling it here. General Edward D.
Baker, while Senator in Congress from California,
was killed on the 21st of October, 1861, in the
battle of Ball’s Bluff,.and as he, like poor Broder-
ick who died two years before in a duel with
Judge Terry, was the friend of General Hancock,
I recall some of the words spoken by Baker, on
August Ist, 1861, in the Senate, two months before
he died. It was after Baker’s death that General
Hancock, looking upon the dead, before and
around him, used these words: “Soldiers, these
are terrible gaps that I see before me in your
ranks. They remind me and you of our dead in
the field of battle, of our wounded comrades in
the hospitals, of kindred and friends weeping at
home for those who filled the vacant places that
once knew them, but shall know them no more
forever. .Are you willing again to peril your
lives for the liberty of your country? “Would
you go with me to the field to-morrow? Would
you go to-day? Would you go this moment?”
There was the pause of an instant, and then a
unanimous shout from the thousands of the line.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 55

_ Only a few weeks before, Baker, in the Senate
of the United States, in reply to Breckenridge,
spoke as follows: “ This threat about money and
men amounts to nothing. Some of the States
which have been named in that connection, I
know well. I know, as my friend from Illinois
will bear me witness, his own State very well.
I am sure that no temporary defeat, no momenta-
ry disaster, will swerve that State, either from its
allegiance to the Union, or from its determination
to preserve it. It is not with us a question of
money or of blood, it is a question involving con-
siderations higher than these.”

At that time I was Secretary of the Senate of
the United States, and at intervals the Union
Generals came in to confer with their Representa-
tives, their Senators and their friends. General
Hancock was always a favorite and conspicuous
figure and a well beloved friend. I know the fer-
vent admiration he excited among the statesmen,
as I knew the deep trust and respect entertained
for him by his soldiers. He saw Mr. Lincoln
frequently, and was always a favorite at the
White House, never mingled in political cabals,
never had what was called a party, and had no
more idea at that time of being a candidate for
President of the United States than of being placed.
in command of the Confederates. He was a partic-
ular favorite of Pennsylvania troops, and his tastes
were all military. A most attractive man, in the
56 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

society at the capital, he was a universal favorite.
Nearly all the other Generals had their cliques and
their champions, but this dashing soldier seemed
to have no other ambition than to support the
Union, to obey the orders of his chief and to see
after the comforts of his men.

Of all those who figured in that tremen-
dous drama, most are gone. Sherman, and
McDowell, and a few more are left, somewhat
advanced in life. Many were killed in battle;
many have died in the hospital; many have been
retired; and like the myriads they led in victory
and defeat, the great majority sleep their last
sleep. Hancock survives, among the last of the
old army of the Potomac, and in a few years, he
will have passed his grand climacteric.

Many were the incidents crowded into that
part of his career. Society in Washington during
the war, especially while the great hosts on oppo-
sing sides were watching each other, was'a strange
medley—so different from the men and women
who clustered to the capital in the former days
of peace, and who have followed the close of
the war. There were long months of inac-
tion, during which the chiefs were called to the
capital, either for consultation or relaxation, and
it was during those days that I had the pleasure
of meeting the great soldiers and statesmen who
figured in the decisive events in and around the
capital,
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 57

One evening before the death of General Baker,
at one of the parties in my quarters on Capitol Hill,
General Hancock himself being among my visitors
and guests, I induced the accomplished Senator
from California to read for me the beautiful verses
written by him some years before; and if the
reader can recall the life of the handsome Senator
and his untimely fate, he may conceive the im-
pression which these beautiful lines made upon the
company :

“TO A WAVE.”

“Dost thou seek a star, with thy swelling breast,
Oh! wave that leavest thy mother’s breast?
Dost thou leap from the prisoned depths below,
Tn scorn of their calm and constant flow?

Or art thou seeking some distant land,
To die in murmurs upon the strand ?

' Hast thou tales to tell of the pearl-lit deep, .
Where the wave-whelmed mariner rocks in sleep?
Canst thou speak of navies that sunk in pride, -
‘Ere the roll of their thunder in echo died ?

What trophies, what banners are floating free
In the shadowy depths of that silent sea?

It were vain to ask, as thou rollest afar,

Of banner, or mariner, ship, or star;

It were vain to seek in thy stormy face

Some tale of the sorrowful past to trace.

Thou art swelling high, thou art flashing free;
How vain are the questions we ask of thee.

I, too, am a wave on a stormy sea;

I, too, am a wanderer driven like thee ;

I, too, am seeking a distant land

To be lost and gone ere I reach the strand.

For the land I seek is a waveless shore,

And they who once reach it shall wander no more,
i

58 ' LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

CHAPTER II.

THE WAR.

INFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK’S father was
in the best sense of the word an honest,
upright lawyer, and much of the General’s
easy specch and pleasing address grew from his
home tuition. “The boy is father to the man:” and
the aptitudes that come from such association are
always felt for good or evil. Receptive in a large
degree, no word dropped from the lawyer was lost
in the waiting ears of his eager boy; and when
Benjamin F. Hancock described the romantic
career of these travelling, and preaching, and.
fighting Muhlenbergs, he found greedy listeners in
his three sons. To this day they are the unfor-
gotten memories of the Trappe, where their family
settled, and several of their posterity lived, loved, -
and died. David Rittenhouse was another. house-
hold idol, and his memoirs filled a large space in
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 59

‘ the family annals. These were followed by the
story of the honorable life of Francis R. Shunk,
the German Governor of Pennsylvania, and his
cotemporaries. Such characters, all of them na-
tional and renowned, including the gossip of the
veterans of two wars, rapidly formed a broad and
' general philosophy in the mind of the young cadet.
Here we discover why in after life General Han-
cock fought for the Union without hatred for the
South, and why he remained to the end a member
of the Democratic party. It was his constant
presence in the army that kept him out of party
politics at home, and it was his recollection of the
lessons of home that made him ready at any time
to die for the Union. Grant became a Republican
in 1868 because he was forced into civil life. Had
he remained in the army he would have been as
judicial in his relations to party as Sherman or
George H. Thomas; and it is history that when
General Grant was first approached to accept the
Presidency, the only fear of the Republicans was
that the Democrats would get him first. Twelve
years ago the most popular and available men to
the Republican politicians were the Democrats who
had co-operated with the Republicans. ‘That was
only four years after the Rebellion was crushed,
and they were fearful that they had no man but
Grant to save them. Now when peace and oblivion
to gratitude have come, the same Republican po-
liticians throw Grant over-board, and falsely insist
60 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

that Hancock will ruin the country, because he
remains a Democrat, exactly what Grant was be-
fore he consented to run for the same office in
1867. In that year when I wrote out the record
of General Grant on politics, the Republican lead-
ers were ready to take him on any platform ‘if
only he would save the Presidency for them. The
year after that, 1868, they feared that Andrew
Johnson had so utterly demoralized their party,
that nobody could save it but Grant. They were
literally begging at his feet for his consent. He
was indifferent to the place, and so content with his
position at the head of the army, that it was only
when he saw they had no other place to go that he
yielded to their importunities. They had none of
the fear about his Democracy they now express
about the Democracy of Hancock. His soldier re-
cord was all the platform they wanted. His old
Democracy would please the Democrats of the
North, and his magnanimity to Lee at Appomattox
in 1865, would please the South. That was all
they asked in 1868. Now everything is forgotten,
including his services to:them in 1872 when he de-
feated Greeley for them, and they fly into a passion
because the Democrats have done what they did,
take a Union soldier on his Union record alone.
And in this the Confederates give the very best
guarantee of Democratic fidelity to that Union,
and to all the resulting obligations in the Con-
stitution of the United States.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 61

Nothing in the history of our civil war is more
interesting than the supposed opinions of the
officers of the regular army. General McClel-
lan had to suffer from the suspicion industriously
encouraged by his adversaries, that he was a
Democrat, and although his father, a celebrated
doctor, George B. McClellan of Philadelphia, was
an active old line whig, and in 1844 one of the
idolaters of Henry Clay, yet the circumstance that
his son had been educated at West Point led a
large number of the extreme anti-slavery politi-
cians at Washington, to class him among the
Democrats; and it was a fashionable thing at that
time, to insist that every regular was either
doubtful or disloyal. However unjust this suspi-
cion, it was much encouraged by the withdrawal
from the service, on the plea of State Rights, of
men like Robert E. Lee, Joe Johnson, Longstreet,
Stonewall Jackson, John B. Magruder, and many
more, all, or most of them, West Point men. At
the same time it opened the door to the admis-
sion of much other material, men who tried -to
compensate for their inferior military experience
by their somewhat noisy political professions. Gen-
eral McClellan soon found himself among a nest
of hornets, and it is simple justice to say, that
many of his misfortunes, alike as a soldier and a
statesman, resulted from the ‘political intrigues
and misrepresentations by which he was sur-
rounded. I resided at Washington during all the |
62 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

years of the war, and for ten years after the war,
and there is no recollection of my life so full of
compensation, as the fact that I never yielded to
any of the intrigues or combinations against any
of the soldiers of the republic. The exception to
the rule—I mean the exception to the rule of
political Generals,—was Winfield Scott Hancock.

HOW THE SOUTH SUFFERED FOR AN IDEA.

General Hancock was appointed Brigadier Gen-.
eral by President Lincoln on the recommendation
of Gen. McClellan, on the 23d of September, 1861.
He was in*the young prime of life, and he was
needed in Washington. There is a baleful theory
much insisted upon now, and for the first time,
that Winfield 8. Hancock, because he was a Demo-
crat, deserved no credit for standing by the Union,
and because also his State had declared for the
Union, and there is a malign intimation in the
party mind to-day to forget brilliant and unselfish
service, in the consideration of -this hateful and
most discreditable suspicion. I cannot conceive
anything more galling and insulting than. this
aspersion to the brave soldiers, Republicans and
Democrats, who fought for the Union. For the
men of the South who were carried away by
the doctrine of State Rights, I have always had
the largest indulgence. They were educated in a
school, all the more fascinating because it had many
devotees in the Free States. I, myself, can well re-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 63

member when to believe in the sovereignty of the

State was so fara Democratic doctrine, that it only

needed the attempt to apply it to the sanction of

human slavery, to prove its hideous enormity. In-

deed, until General Jackson, in 1830, under the
influence of that innate patriotism which belonged .
to his character, declared that love of the Union

was a supreme duty, and that state pride, how-

ever worthy, was subordinate to the higher obedi-

ence to the love of country, the Democratic mind

had never been fairly brought face to face with

this dangerous truism.

“State Rights” to use the great words of Daniel
Webster, in his reply to Hayne in 1830, in the
Senate of the United States, referring to unkind
feelings between the two sections, “are the growth,
unnatural to such soils, of false principles, since-
sown ; they are weeds, the seeds of which, the same
great arm of Washington never scattered.” And
yet it was this delusive doctrine that carried away
thany of the bravest and best men of the South;
that filled hundreds and thousands of graves, that
prolonged the war, and that is to-day the cause of
so much humiliation and suffering all through that
section. Because it was honestly helieved, because
it was bred in the bone and in the blood of these
southern statesmen and soldiers, shall we there-—
fore consign them to utter and irretrievable dam-
nation? This is the spirit of something more than

‘intolerance; it is the spirit that would condemn a
64 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

fellow-creature for believing in a different religion:
it is the spirit that has filled the prisons of all the
ages, that has supplied victims for the faggots and
the scaffolds of the past, and that from the time of
the great Sufferer for mankind, has always stimu-
lated the tyrant and the bigot.

Gen. Hancock was happy in the gentle educa-
tion of home, happy in a love of country un-
poisoned by dangerous theories.

I could name many instances of brave men who
went forth to suffer and to die for the doctrine of
State Rights, and knowing myself how I was
rescued from their influence—perhaps because I
was born under the same institutions that saved
Gen. Hancock from them—I can make all allow-
ance for my fellow-citizens in the South. Let me
mention one case :

When the war broke out, a gallant soldier
serving in the far frontier, a citizen of the State of
Maryland, carried away by this state allegiance,
seeing the progress of the strife, for the moment
forgot that he had been educated at West Point,
and reared under our free institutions, impulsively
wrote to his brother in Maryland, enclosing a let-
ter to the Secretary of War, resigning his commis-
sion in the army. He thought Maryland had gone
out. That brother happened to be a violent seces-

sionist, and without thinking that his kinsman had
a large family depending upon him and that he
had acted without thought, he hurried to Wash-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 65

ington and deposited the resignation with the
Secretary of War. The next day after this hasty
letter was sent by the absent officer, “ considera-
tion came to whip the offending Adam out of him,”
and he wrote another letter recalling the first,
which arrived too late, but fell into the hands of
his excellent wife, who immediately rushed to the
capital and called upon me, ~I was then secretary
of the senate. I knew the gallant soldier who had
been misled by this delusive doctrine, and together
with his wife, called upon Mr. Lincoln, and-asked
the restoration: of the officer. That great man
always receptive and forgiving, and indulgent,
seeing the case through the clear eyes of his honest
nature, placed himself at once in the position of
the impulsive soldier, and said, “I can do little,
because his place has been filled, but this I will do:
I will nominate him for a lower grade, and you
must see that the Senate confirms him.” It was a
long struggle, and for two long days and nights in
midsummer the confirmation of this officer was
doubtful. There was very little mercy then for
such mistakes. Many of the Southern officers had
gone over to the Confederacy. Some were foolish
enough to accompany their resignation with bitter
abuse of the government, and even in my official
household I found men, still my friends, who
would not take the oath of allegiance, and rather
‘than take it, fled at midnight into the hostile lines.
But actuated by that spirit which has always
66. LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

animated me, I labored for the confirmation of my '
friend, and with the aid of Ben. Wade and
Charles Sumner, secured it. I cannot, of course,
reveal what took place in the executive session of
the United States Senate, but I remember that
when I came back to my rooms on Capitol Hill
and found there the family and children and.
relatives of the, mistaken soldier, I was rewarded
for my exertions by their abundant gratitude.
‘And to complete this pleasant incident, the re-
stored officer is now on the retired list, one of the
most distinguished soldiers in the regular service.
When Charles Sumner startled the country by
his bold declaratiqn in favor of the destruction of
all battle flags and mottoes, intended to perpet-
uate the memories of the civil war, hé proved he
had not read history in vain. And I can well |
remember the impression that magnificent mag-
nanimity excited among all thoughtful men. It
is in view of such a fact, that I recoil from
an elaborate recapitulation of the events of the
campaigns, in which Gen. Hancock distinguished
himself. Nearly all our histories have been writ-
ten in such periods of passion, and still so abound in
invective, that I am tempted to a more philosoph-
ical review; and indeed it is hardly possible in
* such a biography as this, to go over the tragic:
events of the past, so recent, without renewing
unprofitable and tormenting memories. And there
are still so many disputes between the con-
“OYUNASWNVITIIM GNVY NMOLYYOA NESMLAG avoy

 
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 69

federates themselves, as to their part in the great
drama, and so many controversies and court-mar-
tials between the Union officers and men, that I
refrain from any full and technical description of
battles, which may only revive ‘disputes, and
encourage animosities.

Gen. Haneouk was promoted on November 30th,
1863, a Major in the regular army, for his meri-
torious conduct in Yorktown, Virginia, having
previously shown conspicuous gallantry in other
brisk engagements.

HANCOCK WAS SUPERB THAT DAY,

Iremember the battle of Williamsburgh as if
it were yesterday. It was an initial fight and an
initial victory, preceding the marvelous alterna-
tion of defeat and triumph, a sort of unconscious
vestibule of the long conflict that lay in the
future. It was here that Hancock made that
brilliant charge that must forever associate his
name with peerless valor.

In the battle of Williamsburgh, the enemy had
massed a strong force on his front and had made
several chasms in his nearest ranks. Riding to
the centre and quietly passing the words “fix
bayonets,” he paused at the chosen point, waved
his hat, and gave the memorable order to his
soldiers, “gentlemen, charge.” The brilliancy with
which that courteous order was obeyed can never
be forgotten. The enemy was swept before it
70 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

like chaff before the whirlwind. Officers, men,
horses, and artillery, were borne back in confusion
and dismay, rendering the rout of the foe one of the.
most signal ever witnessed on the field in any war.
The enemy was flanked on their left and rolled |
over the earth like a parchment scroll. This
striking movement was made on a stormy night in
a drenching rain. Morning rose with a bright
and bracing air, but the enemy had fled. Count
De Paris, one of the sons of King Louis Philippe,
who has written a splendid history of our civil
war, witnessed that brilliant achievement. The
leader on the opposite side was Gen. Longstreet,
who had been a lieutenant with Hancock in some
‘of the several fights in Mexico; and another con-
federate commander was Early, who also had been
his fellow-officer in that same war. This brilliant
success of Hancock was gained with the loss of not
more than 20 killed and wounded, but the falling
back of the enemy gave to the Union Army a
thousand wounded and three hundred uninjured
_Yebel prisoners; seventy-one large guns were cap-
tured, many tents, and a great amount of ammuni-
tion.

The relations between President Lincoln and
General Hancock were always friendly, and na-
‘turally so. Lincoln’s chief sentiment was an all-
pervading desire to bring the Southern States back
into the Union; and although Hancock never
talked politics, the fact that he was known to be a
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 71

Democrat made him particularly acceptable to the

great President. Hancock was very young at the

time he was placed in his command on the Penin-

sula, but his manly support of the government in

California made him a very interesting person to

Mr. Lincoln, and while other more prominent:
generals were involved in political discussions, this

young soldier was content to listen to what his

elders had to say. It is well, at this time, to re-.
call these interesting facts, not only for the sake

of history, but to show that the policy of con-

ciliation was the guiding star of Abraham Lin- -
coln’s whole administration. He never concealed

it, and if he were living to-day, he would be pre-.
cisely in the line with such advanced magnanimous

statesmen as insist that the time for extreme mea-

sures has long since passed away, and that nothing

is necessary to restore the South to full companion-

ship and confidence with the North, but to fall

back upon the deathless example of the martyred.
President. It is strange how his moderate course

has won upon the consciences of men; it is in-

teresting how all merely radical measures have

fallen into disuse.

Men of Mr. Lincoln’s first cabinet, like Seward,
Chase and Wells, however at the beginning of
the war they may have favored extreme mea-
sures, soon came to take more comprehensive and
rational grounds, and although most of these men
are dead, yet together with their contemporaries,
72 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Sumner, Fenton, Greeley, Trumbull, the three
Blairs, the father, Francis P., and his sons, Mont-
gomery and Frank, and Eli Thayer, one after ano-
ther, they finally agreed that there could be no last-
ing peace between the South and the North unless
we made allowances for the peculiarities of society,
the terrible accidents of carpet-bag rule, and the es-
sential unpreparedness of the suddenly manumitted
colored race; and precisely as these influences
operated upon Republicans, such as I have named,
precisely as they swiftly served to modify Northern
sentiment, so in time they controlled and changed,
alike the thoughts and actions of reflecting men in
the South. There is, therefore, as much dif
ference between the two great political parties in
the United States to-day as there was between
these same two great parties and the organizations
from which they sprung twenty years before the
beginning of the rebellion. Nobody believes in the
savage remedies and revenges and retaliations that
were so popular during the civil war, or if there
is such a conviction, it is confined to the mere
tricksters of party, who still hope to fan the dying
embers of hate into a flame for the purpose of
plunder, and the greed of power.

If the men who down to the last insisted upon
the merciless punishment of the South were among
us to-day, they would be startled by the changed
conditions of society, by the great influences which
make peace, not only the order of the day, but the
’ WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 73

surest method to promote -and to perpetuate
national prosperity. The South so fully yields
to the justice, to the inviolability of the abolition
of human slavery, to the necessity and the irre-
pealability of the new amendments to the national
constitution, and to the fact that universal suffrage
could not be resisted, as a part of the bargain to
secure universal amnesty, that there is no man
bold enough to undertake to disturb these sacred
covenants at this hour. In fact the country to-day
stands precisely where Abraham Lincoln desired
to place it, and if he could have fashioned the sub-
sequent policy of administration, or if he could
have commanded the settlements upon which we
are all now resting, in ‘advance of his death, they
could not be more in accordance with his example.

Gen. Hancock, as an early disciple of Abraham
Lincoln, as one whom he frequently consulted,
regarding him rather as a young protege than as
one of the politicians and statesmen at the other
end of the capital, is therefore the candidate who,
more effectually than any other, embodies the
policy of peace, justice, generosity and forgiveness,
so wonderfully illustrated in the life and death of
our martyred Chief Magistrate.

HANCOCK’S APPEARANCE IN BATTLE.

Tn all these struggles, in 1861 and 1862, General
Hancock had necessarily to win his conspicuous
position by complete subordination, and by con-
74 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

tinuous, and arduous and active service. When
General McClellan used the phrase describing
his bearing at Williamsburg, “Hancock was
superb,” he gave the keynote to many subse-
quent compliments and commendations; and _per-
haps his picturesque appearance induced the
country to adopt a word, which that splendid orator,
my friend Mr.- Dougherty, employed with such
effect at Cincinnati, when he nominated Hancock
for the Presidency on the 24th of June, 1880. His
erect and commanding carriage and his classic
personality make him not only an object of in-
terest to the stranger, but. had much to do with
his signal influence over his troops. He always
remained mounted on the battle-field, and no
one who ever saw him on such occasions could
forget his knightly figure and chivalric bearing, as
he rode along the lines encouraging his men to
stand fast and give no ground.

Before the resistless sortie at Williamsburg, Han-
cock was comparatively an unknown subordinate, —
but after that, his name was heard from Maine to -
California. Marshal Macdonald, at Wagram, did
not do a more wonderful thing, than when Han-
cock dashed forward on his horse, with head bared,
swinging his hat and shouting to his men, “ For-
ward! Forward! For God’s sake, forward!” On
came the shouting, firing, confident Confederates.
It seemed madness to attempt to stop them. But not
a second intervened when his own brigade saw
‘STTIH NHAATVIA

 
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 77

Hancock blazing before them; then they followed
with a thundering shout that drowned the crack-
ling musketry, and with lowered bayonets, moving
along with the line, as perfect as though the men
were on parade, drove the enemy, won the fight,
and settled the destinies of the day. And it is
casting no reflection on other Generals to say that
four out of five of them would not have crossed
that ravine with such a force as Hancock had
with him to meet the fierce impetuosity of the
enemy.

It must not be forgotten that this was the initial
period of our civil conflict, and that many of the
soldiers who were most censured, among others
General McClellan, fell before the criticism of the
war, and before the over-anxiety of the people to
hasten the overthrow of the Confederates. Gene-
ral Hancock expected these difficulties, perhaps
on account of his extreme youth, but this gave
him facilities for trial and for selfexamination ;
and thus while McClellan and others were suffer-
ing from their somewhat sudden pre-eminence,
Tlancock was, so to speak, unconsciously schooling
himself for a great destiny. It is the experience
of all humanity, that men must grow into great-
ness like trees into stature. His subsequent.
conspicuous services at Golding’s Farm, Garnett’s
Hill, White Oak Swamp, and other engagements,
during the seven days fight, closed with the
victory of Malvern Hill.
78 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

The manner of Hancock in battle has been
frequently described. He was always among
his men, riding up and down his line of battle,
encouraging them by voice and by example,
sharing their danger and exposing himself more
than themselves. He was always at the critical
point at the right moment of time. The soldiers
knew they were fighting under his eye, the eye of
one who never knew fear himself and would toler-
ate it in no one else. On the 28th of June, 1862,
at Garnett’s Hill, Hancock was again heavily en-
gaged, as he was at Savage Station on the 29th,
and at White Oak Swamp on July 30th, of the
same year. In this latter engagement his brigade
sustained, without flinching until ordered to fall
back, the fire of sixty pieces of artillery, from a
position on the other side of a ravine. The
enemy could not be attacked, and no reply,
except by two or three of the Union batteries,
could be made to their tremendous bombardment.
General Hancock’s brigade held their position
throughout the day, repelling the infantry attacks
of the enemy successfully until the immense
wagon trains of our retreating army were out of
‘the way,

Gen. McClellan, the President and Congress, for
these distinguished services, promoted Hancock
to the rank of Major-General of volunteers, and
‘brevetted him as major, lieutenant-colonel and col-
onel in the regular army, and the words of these
 

RUINS OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.

   

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DEFENSES ON CuLP’S HILL.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 81

honors were for “gallant and meritorious conduct
in the Peninsula Campaign.”

After this, the campaign against Richmond was
temporarily abandoned and the army of the
Potomac transferred from Harrison’s Landing to
the north. Hancock took part in the campaign in
the ensuing August and September, having been
moved to Centreville to the support of Pope. He
commanded his brigade at South Mountain, when
McClellan was restored to the command of the
army of the Potomac. He was eminently distin-
guished in the victory of Antietam, and was placed
in control of the first division of the second army
corps, when the gallant Richardson fell mortally
wounded. After the retreat of Lee across the
Potomac, Hancock led the advance from Harper’s
Ferry to Charleston, striking the enemy’s line, and
driving him with sharp fighting. He moved with
his division back to Fredericksburg, and on De-
cember 13th took part in the desperate assault on
Mayre’s Heights. In this terrible encounter he
seemed to bear a charmed life; he came out of it
slightly wounded, but with his uniform perforated
with the enemy’s bullets. When Gen. Hooker
made his calamitous attempt on Lee’s lines at
Chancellorville, in May, 1863, Gen. Hancock had
some hard work to do. His division was unmoved
amid the ruin that followed the rout of the eleventh
corps; he was among the last ta leave the field,
retiring in splendid condition, and forming the
82 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER .OF

rear guard.of the defeated army. Hancock’s
division repelled every attack of the enemy, and
often were opposed to many times their number.
As usual he would ride among his men, holding
them by his presence. He received no wound, hav-
ing however his horse shot under him. A short time
after he was put in command of the second corps, .
in.which for nine months he had been a division
commander. Great was the rejoicing of all the
officers and privates when this tribute was paid to
him by the government; and it came in time,
occurring on the retirement of Gen. Couch on the
10th of June.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEATH GRAPPLE.

Now both sides were preparing for. the death
grapple. Lee was starting on his long threatened
invasion of the North, and the race between two
of. the grandest armies of the world began for
Washington and perhaps Philadelphia. At no pe-
riod of our history were so many points threatened
at once by an invading army. Forty millions of
people. stood by. like spectators on surrounding
ramparts, watching the unparalleled conflict about
to occur in the unrivaled amphitheatre, the lovely
valleys of Adams County, Pa. It was not.yet
known where: the tragic duel would take place,
but the combatants and the audience, the armed
thousands, and the unarmed millions, the native
and the foreigner, soon saw that whoever won the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 83

mastery at Gettysburg would have the control of
the proud future. At first the solicitude was pain-
ful in Baltimore and in Washington. But soon
these vast opposing columns, began to converge
to a point on the main road through Cumberland
valley, which crosses the Susquehanna at Columbia,
runs along the valleys of Lancaster, and again
through the magnificent rolling country of Chester
County. The objective point began to appear, and
Philadelphia, the second great capital of our coun-
try, was the prize for which the Confederates were
aiming; and it would require all the skill and re-
sources of the Union army to rescue it from such a
fate. The change in the command of the Union
army, by which Hooker was superseded by Meade,
added to the joy of the enemy, as an indication
of weakness and uncertainty in the administra-
tion.

Before this act in the. great drama of our civil
war opened, J was.in Washington, and had varied
occasions to meet and confer with President. Lin-
coln, Mr. Seward and Secretary Chase. There
was no doubt in their minds that the success of
the confederates at Gettysburg, would be the fall
of Washington, the surrender of Baltimore, their
occupation of Philadelphia, and possibly the loss
of the great city of New York. All these men were
thoughtful .and conservative; indeed the weight
of their responsibilities made them moderate.
There was no room in their hearts for revenge or
84 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF ~

for rhetoric. The peril of the country was never
more portentous; the government itself hung sus-
pended upon the events of a few days; and if in
that hour, while Grant was environing Vicksburg,
Porter with his fleets hanging on the Southern
coast, New Orleans having just surrendered to our
arms, the flag of the confederacy had risen over
the flag of the Union at Gettysburg, the sun of the
American Republic would in all probability have
gone down forever. These were hopeful men also.
I had seen Mr. Lincoln, when our hosts were fall-
ing around him like leaves in October, when despair —
had settled upon our councils, and the confederates
were rejoicing at the prospects of our national
overthrow, and I never saw him give way. He
rested so supremely upon the justice of our cause,
that even in the midnight of :general despair, he
saw the star of hope, and never let go his hold
upon the returning reason of the South. But on
that day, a week before the great contest took
place at Gettysburg, while there was confidence
and’ courage, and a supreme reliance upon God
Almighty, there was the evident conviction that
the decisive hour had come.

What, if at that time, somebody had suggested to
Lincoln that he could not trust his great Generals,
because they had been reared in the Democratic
church? Bear in mind that Meade, and Rey-
nolds, and Sickles, and Crawford, and Hancock
were all Democrats, so far as politics had entered
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. - 85

into their patriotism. They had-been reared as
Democrats; Meade was a Southern man, with the
best feelings of home towards the South; John
Reynolds, the father of John F, Reynolds, had been
the editor of the old Democratic organ, The Lan-.
caster Journal, when James Buchanan left the
Federal party and joined the Jackson party, fifty
years before. General Hancock never concealed
his political faith, and General Sickles had been
the Democratic Representative in Congress of New
York, for years. It is true, that was not the hour
to think of the politics of our fighting men, but
had that thought been suggested, it would have
dislocated and demoralized the army, and the Con- —
federates would have triumphed; but it never was
breathed to Mr. Lincoln. The men who talk of
Hancock’s democracy as a crime to-day, were un-
known in 1863.

If this was the sentiment in time of war, of .
highest and truest statesmanship, why shall we

not make it the sentiment in time of peace, when \

in addition to the forgiveness of our own people,
we are called upon to unite our republic?

I wrote these words from Washington to the
Philadelphia Press, over my own name at that time,
. June 2d, 1863, “ This is the Republic’s hour of anx-'
iety. The war has moved and shifted over moun-
tains and rivers, until now it is converged upon the
borders of a free state. It is a matter of general
information that Robert E, Lee and his followers
86 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

have set forth on the task of invading Pennsylva- -
nia, and they are now in northern Maryland, and
the field of Antietam is at this time, in all proba.
bility, the bivouac of the Confederate army. Their
advance guard is in Pennsylvania, and the beautiful
valley of the Cumberland is now channeled and
torn with the heel of an invading army. I do not
care to read events as a mathematician, or an en-
gineer, and therefore, I must say that the time
has come when the people of the North must rise
up from maps and books, and look at these events
as grievous dangers. For the present, our hope is
in the valor of the army of the Potomac, and the
volunteers in and around Harrisburg. I believe
they will be able to stay this tide and turn it
back; but if they fail—and men as numerous and
as brave have failed before—Philadelphia and
New York will afford an easy and magnificent
booty.”

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WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 89

CHAPTER III.
HANCOCK’S GENIUS FOR SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY.

T will be perceived that Hancock had to fight
his way to fame. Older officers were in command
when he came, burning to win the laurel, and even
the brilliant success he had already achieved, his
individual courage and unprompted inspiration were
not always visible through the conflicts of others ;
and therefore, not having much patronage at court,
so to speak, and never electioneering among the
busy partisans of the capital, he was impelled to
that isolated policy which made what he did so
marked and so original that it could not escape
notice, and rapidly won the admiration of the
impartial public, and all judicial observers.

The invasion of Pennsylvania was the idea of
General Robert E. Lee himself, the confederate’
chief; and Hancock’s part in repelling it, after his
brave record in McClellan’s army, was one of those
opportunities which never come to any but brave
and bold men. He was still subordinate, but the
death of General John F. Reynolds, on the first
90 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

day of the battle of Gettysburg, gave Hancock
one supreme command, and enabled him to decide
the fortunes of a desperate struggle.

Here let me for a moment dwell upon the new
argument of the enemies of General Hancock, the
partisans who insist that Hancock deserves none
of the high consideration claimed for him, because

he did nothing more than his duty, and because |.

also General Garfield did the same! It is the
evil practice of these times, that men at one
interval, spontaneous in awarding unspeakable
honors to those who serve them, soon fall from
this generous tone and begin the work of depre-
ciation and contrast. Hence it is, that whereas
the whole body of the people of Pennsylvania un-
conditignally awarded to General Hancock the
praise of having saved the stricken field on the 3d
of July, 1863, since his name has been associated
with the presidency, they not only boast of their
desire to forget that he ever fought for the govern-
ment at all, or if he did that the only effect of his
behavior was to lose his citizenship in his native
state, but finally that he did nothing but his duty.
and that others had done better or as well. These
men seem to forget that opportunity, after all an
incalculable advantage, is nothing unless instantly
improved, unless genius sees the vital point and
knows exactly where to strike. Fortunately for
Hancock, to use General Grant’s very last remark
in reference to him, he was not only a gallant
WINFIELD SCOTT: HANCOCK. 91

fighter but he made few mistakes and encountered
rare defeats: ‘“ He was a man who never faltered
in the performance. of his duty, and seldom, if
ever, made a blunder.” ,

- History shows that Hancock always improved
his opportunity, in what seemed to be the fatal
hour. He always struck when the enemy seemed
about to win. Mark his decisive and prompt action,
when he quietly directed his men to “fix bayonets”

and as swiftly rushed them forward as the enemy
were shouting what they supposed their resist-
less cry of triumph, and mark again other op-
portune moments on other historic fields. He
- had-to win his spurs very slowly. He was rarely
the favorite of party or administration. He
preserved his subordination to his superiors, and
maintained the kindliest relations to his men.
He had little else to help him but his own
courage, his experience, patriotism, and the steady
friendship of Abraham Lincoln.

' Many opportunities are presented to public men,
soidiers and statesmen, and often neglected.
Henry Clay was the victim of lost opportunities;
if he had been nominated for President in 1840,
he would have won the day. Daniel Webster
was another victim of lost opportunities; if he
had identified himself bravely with the Democratic
party in 1830, when for a moment he stood by
Andrew Jackson, on the proclamation against
92. LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF |

nullification, he would probably have been the
democratic president, and elected instead of
Martin Van Buren, in 1836. Daniel §. Dickin-
son would have been nominated as the democratic
candidate in 1852, in place of Franklin Pierce,
had he not, at the critical moment, magnani-
mously declined the honor tendered to him.
William H. Seward would have been nominated
as the republican candidate for president in
1860, but for his quarrel with Horace Greeley.
James Buchanan himself, could have saved the
country from the terrible catastrophe of civil war,
if, in 1858, he had bravely repudiated the Lecomp-
ton fraud, and trusted himself to the support of
the proud and chivalric men of the South. Hun-
dreds of similar instances. could be found in
history. Hancock seemed to have the intuitive
gift of appearing at the right moment, or striking
at the crisis, and of being called for when every
one else seemed to have failed or fallen. It re-
mains for unjust and malignant politicians, them-
selves, at the time he rendered the vital and the
saving service to his country, clamorous to be first
to approve and applaud, now to show how bad,
busy, and brutal they can be! forgetting not only
their selfish justice to him in July of 1863, but
trying to show that the people were as ungrateful
as themselves. How utterly illogical such malig-
nity! These men not only forgot the most conspic-
uous bravery, and the most unspeakable unselfish-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 93

_ ness, but they possess that dangerous art’ given to
small minds, the art of finding the most trifling ex-
cuses for the most appalling treachery. In one
breath they swept away the whole of Grant’s re-
cord, on the foolish pretext that he wanted to be
chosen President for a third term. And in satisfy-
ing themselves with this pretext, they really secure
a large degree of party sympathy, and at the same
time carry their own malignity so far, as before
the close of the contest in Chicago, in 1880, to’
induce many people, the same now who clamor
against Hancock, to believe that Grant had done
nothing more for his country than any other man
could have done!

The great dramatic pire ane Shakspeare,
while illustrating the vice of ingratitude, refers, in’
better phrase than I can use, to the ease: with
which, when a man desires to do a mean‘and un-
manly thing, he can provide himself with a phil-
osophy to justify his guilt. Reasons for wrong are
as plenty in his path as blackberries. ~

THE LOST OPPORTUNITY OF THE LOST CAUSE.

But no men engaged -in-a great movement ever
lost so many opportunities as the’ authors and
leaders’ of the Lost Cause. Tracing their emo-
tions in the light of their successes and defeats,
there is something inexpressibly sad in the over-
- throw of the great expectations with which they
entered upon their stupendous attempt: to sever the
94: LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

American Republic. The period for bitterness and
recrimination has passed, let us hope forever, but
there is still left a valuable philosophy in their ex-
ample, valuable alike to us and them. It jis no
part of my province, in recalling the story of one of
the great actors on the Union side, and indeed it
wonld be impossible to do it in so short a space of
time, if it were my province, to recapitulate all the
vast advantages that destiny placed in the hands
of the Confederates, and which fate took away,
from them. They had many rare auxiliaries, enthu-
siastic. troops, scientific leaders, brave and reck-.
less, prudent and sagacious leaders, many of them.
whose lives had been spent in their own state legis-
latures and in the Congress of the United States,.
many men of large wealth and culture. And while.
they fought on their own soil, with an accurate
topographical knowledge of all the byways, and
passes, and hills, and roads, and mountains,’ yet.
from the first what they won was only temporarily,
won; what they occupied was briefly held, and at
last for every step forward they were forced to

take two backward. It was the lost cause from.
the beginning, a summer of bright hopes, a winter
of exhausted opportunities.

A library could be filled with all that has been,
written about Gettysburg, and to this day there i is.
much more contest in Confederate circles in regard
to the motives, mistakes, and achievements of the
leading men than there is in the North; and,
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 95

naturally very many estrangements and enmities
have been the result among men, who began by
fighting in a common cause, and closed by quarrel-
ing in an uncommon way. In fact there is always
difficulty in describing a battle. Those who min-
gle in the fray are too much occupied in taking
other persons’ lives and saving their own, to gather,
much less retain the evidences of the general
action, while the mere observer, be he never so vigi-
lant and careful, can at the best comprehend only
a part of a great scheme of strife; and it is me-
morable that those most competent to judge are in
nearly every case most silent. The true soldier
never boasts, and hates to be tantalized by talk,
recoiling as much from the gossip of others as he
shudders at the effort to make himself a gossip.
Grant is almost costive in his military conversa-
tions; and Meade, a wonderful colloquist, became
almost saturnine when called upon to speak of
himself.

The incident related of Wellington, who indig-
nantly refused to touch a snuf-box made for him
from Napoleon’s arm-chair, unless it might be con-
sidered that he displayed the trophies of Waterloo,
is altogether characteristic of his class. If therefore
T commit some mistakes natural to such a confusion
of tongues, and to such a medley of claims and to
such a, catalogue of quarrels, I will be no worse off
than those who have longer time to weigh their
standard stories of the war.
96 ‘LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

As William Swinton expresses it in his brilliant
“Twelve Decisive Battles of the War,” “ Gettys-
burg is itself the real high water mark of the re-
bellion. For not only was the invasion in a geo-
graphical sense the most forward and salient leap
of the Confederate army, but it was upon that
field that the star of the Confederacy, reaching the
zenith, turned by swift and headlong plunges to-
ward the nadir of outer darkness and collapse.”

The Confederates were in the highest spirits be-
fore they determined to advance their standard
upon the soil of Pennsylvania. Fredericksburg
and Chancellorsville are simply synonymous of.
Union disaster and gloom. ‘My God! my God!
when will this terrible slaughter cease, was the
exclamation of Abraham Lincoln when the details
of the terrible slaughter of Hooker, in 1863, were
brought to him. And it is natural to conceive
how, as ane side was disappointed and almost des-
pairing, the other should be exhilarated beyond
expression at such a time. The Confederate ma-
noeuvres, preparatory to the advance upon Pennsyl-
vania, were silent and nearly successful. So rapid
and masterly had been this forward and skillful
detour, that the brave General Hooker, though
eminently sagacious in many of his vigilant opera-
tions against the advancing enemy, disappointed at
the refusal of the Government to allow him to
evacuate Harper’s Ferry, requested to be relieved
from the command of the army. And on the
 

GEN, GEORGE G. MEADE.

 

. LEE.

Gen. RoBert E
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCGCK. 99,

night of the 27th of June, General George Gordon
Meade was awakened from sleep in his tent, near
Frederick, Maryland, by the message from Wash-
ington appointing him to the command vacated by
Hooker. This fine soldier never had full justice
done to him by the Republican leaders, or the
bureaucracy at Washington; never until the
black mantle of death was covered over him,
when, as is too often the case, criticism and doubt
. were lost in the sorrow and sympathy that gene-
rally come too late for the brave man who falls
for his country. There is hardly a soldier of the
Republic, with a few exceptions, who has not had
to pass the same ordeal. Censorship, busy with
the reputation of the heroes of great perils, doing .
its bad work at a distance, rarely stops save at
the portals of the grave.

I remember an anecdote that Meade himself re-
lated to me while he was in.command of the army
of the Potomac. He had a visitation from quite
a caucus of the blood and thunder politicians from
Washington at his head-quarters; men who had
been industrious in circulating the story that he
was not loyal, because he had sympathized with
the South in olden times, and because in later
days he had not rushed forward to denounce the
South when the war broke out. These _poli-
ticians came upon him suddenly, and after sub-
jecting him to such queries as were rather common
in what is called ‘the Committee on the Conduct
100 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

of the War,’ one of them. pointed to the distant
Confederate lines, which could be studied with a
field-glass and reached by modern cannon at a long
range. There was silence on both sides, save now
and then a dropping shot from the picket lines,
and a rapid movement of some deploying column.
‘You are very quiet to-day, General,’ was the re-
mark of one of the politicians. ‘Yes,’ he replied,
‘we are quiet, but wary; still, but vigilant. We
are both apparently sleeping, but we have one eye
open upon each other.” ‘Why, then, do you not
wake them up?’ was the answer. ‘ Well, gentle-
men, was Meade’s reply, ‘if you desire it, you shall
be accommodated.’ And accordingly he' gave the
word, opened upon the enemy with some of his
largest guns, and instantly came an angry reply.
The bevy of politicians watched the curving shells
as they coursed along the sky with doubtful inter-
est, until one seemed about to descend upon the
very spot where they stood, when the noisiest of
the party broke for an adjoining thicket, and hid
himself behind a tree. Most of them, indeed, dis-
appeared, excepting gallant old Ben Wade, who
quietly awaited the explosion and did not move
from the side of General Meade. ge. ee

If you will return to the reports and letters of
the Confederate Generals who have written since
the battle of Gettysburg you will discover that
there was almost as much mystery about: the
movements of the Union: forces as there was in
" WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOOR. 101

regard to the evolutions of the Confederates. Both _
sides, before they got. face to face in the hills and

valleys around Gettysburg, were, so to speak, feel- |

ing for each other, and both sides finally discovered
that destiny had fixed the spot of conflict for
them, rather than that me had selected it for
themselves.

To quote Swinton again: “ Mark now the curi-
ous conjunction of events that was bringing the
two hostile masses, though quite ignorant of each
other's movements, toward each other, till. unex-
pectedly they found themselves grappling in dead-
ly wrestle, in an obscure hamlet of western Penn-
sylvania! Meade thought the Confederates were
pressing northward to the Susquehanna, where he
knew of the presence of Ewell’s corps at York and
Carlisle; Lee thought the Union army was march-
ing westward from Frederick.”

All the writers on both sides, strangers, oe
and English, all the officers; Confederate and
Union, however they may have differed on other
points, were unanimous on one,—the Southern suc-
cess at Gettysburg was the capture of Washiugton
City, the possession of Philadelphia, the spoliation
of the districts between the Susquehanna and the
Schuylkill, and the fact.that had the Confederates
triumphed the Union was at an end. ‘In making
this assertion I am as safe and accurate as if I
were to declare that as I write these words Inde-
pendence Hall is within. the sound of my voice,
102 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

and the grave of Benjamin Franklin within -five’
minutes walk of my studio. Residing alternately
near Washington City, the Union capital, and the
city of Philadelphia, during all these months, and
particularly while Washington was threatened, and
Philadelphia, from the Ist to the 4th of July, in a
state of universal solicitude, if not terror, I am
perhaps a good witness of what seemed to impress
all other minds. I am as good a witness also
against the new assumption that we are not in-
debted to General Hancock, fully honored by the
unanimous tributes of his own associates in arms,
and by the concessions of the men he defeated on
the 3d day of July, for having done the work
which filled the hearts even of the Republican
office-holders of Philadelphia with what at first
was a very honest sort of gratitude.

I have elsewhere described the solicitude and —
terror of Philadelphia from the 1st of July, 1863,
to the morning of our national anniversary, Satur-
day, the 4th of July, 1863. It was a subject for ©
the pencil of as great a painter of multitudes as
Louis David, the Frenchman, or William Powell

Frith, the Englishman. Never was a vast popu-
' lace, plunged into such a depth of despair, sud-
denly elevated to such a height of joy; never
such transition from the wildest grief to the wild- ,
. est gratitude. And when these masses, feeling that
they had been rescued from unspeakable horrors,
moved as by a common impulse, marched down
‘\ WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 103

Chestnut street to Independence Hall, shouting
and praying and thanking God for their deliver-
ance, as from the belfry of that sacred edifice came
the joyful music of the band, answered on the next
Sabbath by public thanksgiving and prayer in all
our churches, the spectacle resembled the stories
we read of other great cities rescued from fire, fa-
mine, plague, or the invading foe.

These are the words I wrote in grateful echo of
this public sentiment on the Tuesday following,
June 7, 1863:

“Meanwhile the Army of the Potomac, suddenly placed under the
command of. General Meade, whom we are proud to claim as a fellow-cit-
izen, hastened northward, and fell upon the rash and audacious enemy.
‘We know the result. Neither our children, nor our children's children,
to the remotest generation, shall ever forget it, or fail to remember it with a
thrill of gratitude and honest pride. The rebels were assailed with unex-
ampled fury, and the gallant General Reynolds, « Pennsylvania sol-
dier, laid down his life. The struggle raged for several days, the losses
on both sides were fearful, and still the result seemed doubtful. If we
should fail, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, perhaps New York,
would be doomed. In this crisis of the nation’s fate it was Pennsylvania
that came to the reseue. IT WAS GENERAL HANCOCK, A PENN-
SYLVANIAN, WHO SO NOBLY BORE THE BRUNT OF THE
BATTLE ON CEMETERY HILL.”

What others have said on the same subject
will be found in succeeding chapters. General
Hancock had figured with so much honor in the
battle of Chancellorsville, that immediately after
that engagement, in the first week of May, 1863,
President Lincoln, as commander-in-chief, assigned
him tothe command of, his favorite second corps
in the army of the United. States, each member of
104 LIFE. AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

which wore the badge the trefoil, or three-leaved,
clover, a peculiar plant called by some “the
none-such,” indicative of rare honor and choice
ornament in the architecture of the i of
fame.

The battle of Gettysburg opened on the morning
of Wednesday, the Ist of July. The Union
cavalry, under the gallant General Buford, took
position on the hitherside of Willoughby Run,
about two miles west of Gettysburg. His line was
drawn up across the Chambersburg road, and as
Gen. A.. P. Hill; with two divisions of his Confed-
erate corps, approached Gettysburg by the same
‘road, the two forces found themselves, about nine
in the morning on that day, precipitated into
action. Gen. John F. Reynolds, who had bi-
vouacked the night before four miles off, was on
his way to Gettysburg, whither indeed that
officer, with the leading division of his corps under
Wadsworth, was moving according to prescribed
orders, though with little thought of battle in his,
- mind. Iquote from Swinton. “By skilful deploy-
ments, Buford held in check: the van of the Con-
federate force, which as yet consisted only of
Teth’s division, till Reynolds’ with Wadsworth’s
division, arrived at 10 o'clock.” Determined to
bring matters.to an immediate issue, Reynolds,
with animated words, gave the regiment on the
skirt of the woods,-the command to charge,’ but
scarcely was this begun, when, struck by a bullet,
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. uns

he fell mortally wounded, dying ere he could he
- removed from the eld.

“ General Reynolds now rode forward to inspect the field and ascer-
tain the most favorable line for the disposal of his troops. One or two.
members of his staff were with him. The enemy at that instant poured
in a cruel musketry fire upon the group of officers; a bullet struck
General Reynolds in the neck, wounding him mortally. Crying out,
with a voice that thrilled the hearts of his soldiers: ‘ Forward ! for
God’s sake forward!’ he turned for an instant, beheld the order
obeyed by a line of shouting infantry, and, falling into the arms of
Captain Wilcox, his aid, who rode beside him, his life went out with
the words, ‘Good God, Wilcox, I am killed!”’—N. Y. World:

The news of his death, and the defeat of the
first day reached us in Philadelphia early on the
morning of the 2d, adding to the popular gloom,
and aggravated by ten thousand rumors the intelli-
gence of the Confederate victory. The death of
Reynolds and his magnificent dash upon the enemy,
and the retreat and rout of the Union troops, were
all precipitated at an unexpected moment, and
came so rapidly as to induce the belief that the
enemy would advance, without stop or hindrance,
to Philadelphia, his proclaimed destination.

Immediately on the fall of the lamented. Rey-
nolds, Gen. Meade ordered Gen. Hancock to pro-
ceed to the scene of contest to assume.command,
to examine the ground, and if it should be found
suitable for battle, the rest of the army should be
ordered up. Riding forward in all haste, Hancock
arrived on the field at half-past three. “I found,”
said.. Hancock, “that, practically, the fight was
106 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF —

over for that day. The rear of our column, with
the enemy in pursuit, was then coming through
the town of Gettysburg. Gen. Howard was on
Cemetery Hill, and there had evidently been an
‘attempt on his part to stop and form some troops
there.” The magnetism of Hancock was instantly
felt, “his personal appearance there,” says Warren,
“doing a great deal toward restoring order.”
Fortunately the Confederate commander lost
another opportunity here.. Had he followed up
his advantage after the death of Gen. Reynolds,.
nothing could have stopped the realization of his.
hopes. But Gen. Lee himself writes: “It was
ascertained from the prisoners that we: had been »
engaged with two corps of the army formerly com-
manded by Gen. Hooker, and that the remainder ©
of that army, under Gen, Meade, was approaching
Gettysburg. Without information as to its prox-
imity, the strong position which the enemy had
assumed could not be attacked without danger,
exposing the four divisions present, already weak-
ened and exhausted by a long and bloody struggle;
to overwhelming numbers of fresh troops. General
Ewell was therefore instructed to carry the hill
occupied by the enemy, if he found it practicable,
but to avoid a general engagement until the arrival
ot the other divisions, which were ordered to hasten
forward. In the meantime the enemy occupied
the point which General Ewell designed to seize
(Culp’s Hill), but in what force could not be ascer-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. | 107

tained, owing to the darkness. Under these —
circumstances, it was decided not to attack till the
arrival of Longstreet.”

The Confederates had moved with so much
celerity and silence, that nothing could exceed
their consternation when they found, after this
first day’s fight, that they had been checkmated ;
and it is reported that they exclaimed: “The army
of the Potomac! the army of the Potomac!” as if
they felt that here was another, and among the
last of their greatest opportunities gone. It is a
curious fact that the lines of Longstreet, under
Hood, McLaws, Picket, Garnett and Anderson, di-
rectly in front of Hancock’s command, were led by
Generals, with nearly all of whom I was personally
acquainted. Barksdale, another Southern man
that I met in Washington, one of the most active
in that service, was also in the advance. Cemetery
Hill—now so appropriately occupied as the site of
the great National Cemetery of our Union heroes—
was on his right flank, beyond which was the rebel
corps of Ewell, under Early and Rhodes. In the
rear was a body of Southern cavalry, commanded by
the energetic Generals Wade Hampton, W. H. F.
Lee, and Gen. Jenkins, flanked by several batteries
of the enemy. ‘ Walker’s brigade—formerly Stone-
wall Jackson’s—extended, as the battle advanced,
close to the rear, in front of the 12th Union Corps,
under Slocum, aided ‘by Geary, Wadsworth and
Steinwehr. Sedgwick, with the Sixth Corps, was
108 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

on Hancock’s immediate left and rear, and Dou~
bleday’s Division on the right. ©

When, after the death of Gen. Reynolds, Gen.
Hancock arrived, the latter was in command of
the entire field, and when early, on the morning
of the 2d of July, General Meade came on the
ground, he recognized and approved the disposi-
tion made by Generals Hancock and Howard. The
whole Union army was at once concentrated at
Gettysburg. By seven o'clock in the morning of
that day, the Second Corps, Hancock’s immediate
command, was posted at the front. The distance
between him and the Confederates, at this moment,
was a little over a mile. The clangor of trumpets,
the roll of drums, the tramp of armed men march-
ing and counter-marching, on both sides, could be
distinctly heard in the opposing camps. The great
battle was at hand.

During the previous afternoon of the first of
July, Gen. Meade received from Gen. Hancock
such report of the nature of the ground in the
neighborhood of Gettysburg, as determined him
to make a stand there, and therefore, as I have
said, he ordered all the corps forward, with the
exception of the 6th Corps, which, having a march
of thirty-six miles to make, could not arrive till
after mid-day. But the 2d of July was not decisive.
Certainly the Confederates had not won and had
not improved upon the success of the day pre-
vious.: They had, indeed, driven the accomplished
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 109

Sickles from his. advanced: position, and. he- had
fallen terribly wounded, the peerless Gen. Birney,
having taken command of his corps. But when
evening fell, it seemed to: be universally admitted
that the next day, Friday, the 3d of July, would
decide whether the Confederacy should rule the
country, or whether the old flag should continue
to float over a united people. Such was the ver-
dict of all observers and. actors.

The number engaged on the Confederate side, at
this critical moment, is variously estimated.. And
here again we encounter endless controversy and
dispute from different quarters. The Confeder-
ates, themselves, deny that they had more than
seventy thousand, while the judgment of all the,
Union experts declaring that, “They numbered,
when the invasion commenced,—they did not
number quite so many when it ended,—an effec-
tive force of 90,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, over
4,000 artillery, —an aggregate of 105,000 men, of
all arms.’

It was after mid-day of July 3d, 1863, before any
serious movement was made on either side. At
this hour, following a silence more awful than the
thunders of battle, the Confederate. commander
directed 120 guns to fire against the corps of Han-
cock. Lee had vainly imagined this to be his
most favored point otf attack. Dashing from be-
hind the woods of Seminary Ridge, the flower of
that part ot the enemy’s force swept onward ta,
110 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

the very muzzles of Hancock’s guns. His well-.
tried corps, aided by the 1st Corps and Stannard’s

Vermont Brigade, met the shock with all their

wonted coolness and’ courage, and hurled the foe

back in confusion.

Having just returned from the battle- field of
Gettysburg, a more particular account of the pre-
sent condition of which will be found further on
in this volume, I copy as the most reliable and
less technical description of the scene that took
place at this moment, from the graceful pen of
William Swinton, in “The Twelve Decisive Bat-
tles of the War,” referring, at the same time, to
letters and tributes of the same great actors in that
crowning victory in subsequent pages. And here,
says Swinton :

“T cannot resist the opportunity of transcribing from the manuscript
report of General Hancock, the concise, yet vivid language, in which
he describes the great scene that followed—a scene in which he formed
so distinguished a figure.”

The general plan of Lee for the operations of the 3d of July, re-
mained unchanged ; but there were some important modifications of
details. Longstreet had, during the night before, been reinforced by
the division ‘of Picket, and it was proposed to make this the centre
and main substance of the assaulting column. Instead of directing the
attack against the extreme left of the Union line, posted on the rocky
summit of Little Round Top, as had been done the day before, Long-
street determined to hurl his masses against the left centre on Cemetery
Ridge, holding the two divisions of Hood and McLaws, simply to
cover the right flank of the advancing lines. To add weight to Pick-
ett's storming force, it was strengthened on its left by Heth’s division
of Hill’s corps, and two brigades (those of Lane and Scale) of Pender’a
‘ WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 111

division of the same corps, and on the rear of the right flank by Wil.
cox’s brigade of Anderson’s division, also of Hill’s corps. Such was
the force prepared for the assault, and it numbered about eighteen
thousand men.

In co-operation with this main attack upon the left centre of the |
Union line, it was also proposed that Ewell should renew his efforts
, against the extreme right; and as that part of his force that had the

previous evening gained a lodgment within the breast-works on Culp’s .

Hill maintained its foothold during the night, much was hoped from a
vigorous effort at this point. Ewell therefore reinforced Johnston’s
division, which had gained lodgment on Culp’s Hill, with three addi-
"tional brigades. But early in the morning General Meade, having ‘in
the night returned the Twelfth Corps to its original position on the
right, ordered an assault for the purpose of expelling the intrusive force.
This, after a severe struggle, that continued from before dawn till near
noon, was at length accomplished; and as Longstreet was very much
delayed in forming his dispositions, it came about that when at one
o’clock he was prepared to move forward, he was compelled to do so
alone. :
Yet, before the infantry attack should be begun, the Confederate com-
mander resolved to try the effect of a heavy artillery fire, He therefore
caused one hundred and fifty-five guns to be placed in.position along
the fronts held by Longstreet and Hill, and from this massive enginery
there opened, at 1 Pp. um. a prodigious bombardment that was continued
for near three hours. The fire was vigorously replied to by eighty
guns placed on Cemetery Hill and the crest of Cemetery Ridge, under
direction of General Hunt, the chief of artillery. As a spectacle, this,
the greatest artillery combat that ever occurred on the continent, was
magnifieent beyond description, and realized all that. is grandiose in the
circumstance of war. But in regard to the accomplishment of the pur-
pose intended by Lee—to-wit, to sweep opposition from the hill slope—/.
its effect was inconsiderable. Some damage was done the artillery ma-
terial, but the troops had excellent cover and suffered but little. Gen-
eral Lee has indeed noticed in his report that the fire of the Union bat-
teries slackened towards the close; but: this was because the chief of
112: LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

artillery, wishing to reserve his ammunition for the infantry advance,
imposed economy on the batteries.

Out of the smoke-veiled front of Seminary Ridge, at three o’clock of
the afternoon, emerged, in magnificent array, thé double battle-line of
the Confederates. Not impetuously, at the run or double quick, as has
been represented in the overcolored descriptions in which the famous
charges have been so often painted, but with a disciplined steadiness—
a quality noticed by all who saw this advance as its characteristic
feature. The ground to be overpassed by the Confederates in order to
attain the Cemetery Ridge where the Union batile array was drawn,
was a, perfectly open plain of cultivated fields above a mile in width,
and as it sloped gradually up to the crest of Cemetery Ridge, it formed
a natural glacis, and gave the defenders a fair field for the fire of artil-.
lery and musketry. It will, in fact, be difficult for one who shall sur-
vey the ground to conclude otherwise than that the enterprise of the
Confederates was hopeless.

Almost from the start, the assanlting Tines came under the fire of the
Union batteries, and then was seen the effect of the wasteful use of am-
munition on the part of the Confederates during the preliminary bom-
bardment, and on the other hand the good result of the imposed
economy on the part of the Union artillerists.

Scarcely had the Confederates moved from their own lines, than the
fire with which they were greeted began to tell on the integrity of their
formation. Heth’s supporting division, on the left of Pickett, indeed,
began to waver at the time it was leaving its own lines, and while cross-
ing a low stone wall behind which they had lain, some already showed
such trepidation that they were jeered by the reserves that lay behind.
Then as they became exposed to the fire of artillery from Cemetery Hill,
the brigade on the left flank hesitated and went back, and from that
flank there was such a continual wearing away that, by the time the
assaulting mass had advanced over half the width of the plain, Heth’s
division had broken and disappeared. There wasa like result on
Pickejt’s right, where the supporting brigade failed to keep up; so that
t came about that, for the real storming: column, there was left but
Pickett’s division alone. His right experienced the same fire from
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 113

Round Top that had ‘stayed the progress of the supporting brigade on’
that flank, but this did not cause the division to pause, it only caused it to
double in somewhat towards its left. This brought the point of attack a
little off from where it was intended, and directly in face of the two re-
duced and incomplete divisions of Hancock’s corps.

Now let us describe, in Hancock’s own words,
from his manuscript-report, the scene in which he
formed so distinguished a figure:

The column pressed on, coming within musketry range without re-
ceiving immediately our fire, our men evincing a striking disposition to
withhold it until it could be delivered with deadly effect. Two regi-
ments of Stannard’s Brigade, first corps, which had been posted in a
little grove in front of and at a considerable angle with the main line,
first opened with an oblique fire upon the right of the enemy’s column,

-which had the effect to make the troops on that flank double in a little

towards their left. They still pressed on, however, without halting to-
return the fire. The rifled guns of our artillery having fired away all
their cannister, were now withdrawn to await the issue of the struggle
between the opposing infantry. Arrived at between two and three
hundred yards, the troops of the enemy were met by a destructive fire
from the divisions of Gibbons and Hays, which they promptly returned,
and the fight at once became fierce and general.. In front of Hays’s
division it was not of very long duration; mowed down by cannister
from Woodruff’s Battery, and by the fire from two regiments judicious-
ly posted by General Hays in his extreme front and right, and the fire
of different lines in the rear, the enemy broke in disorder, leaving fif-
teen colors and nearly two thousand prisoners in the hands of this divi-
sion. Those of the enemy’s troops who did not fall into disorder in front
of this division were moved to the right, and reinforced the line attack-
ing Gibbons’ division. The right of the attacking force having been

' repulsed by Hall’s and Harrow’s Brigades, of the latter division, assisted

by the fire of the Vermont regiments already referred to, doubled to its
left and algo reinforced the centre, and thus the attack was in the fullest’.
114 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

strength opposite the brigade of General Webb. This brigade was dis-
posed in two lines—two regiments. The 69th and 71st Pennsylvania,.
were behind a low stone-wall and slight breastwork hastily constructed
by them, the remainder of the brigade being behind the crest, some
sixty paces to the rear, and so disposed as to fire over the heads of those
in front. When the enemy’s line had nearly reached the stone-wall, led
by General Armistead, the most of that part of Webb’s brigade posted
here abandoned their position, but, unfortunately, did not retreat en-
tirely. They were immediately, by the personal bravery of General
Webb and his officers, formed behind the crest before referred to, which
was occupied by the remnant of that brigade.

“ Emboldened by seeing this indication of weakness, the enemy pushed
forward more pertinaciously, numbers of them crossing over the breast-
work abandoned by the troops. The fight here became very close and
deadly. The enemy’s battle-flags were soon seen waving on the stone-
wall. Passing at this time, Colonel Devereux commanding the Nine-
teenth Massachusetts, anxious to be in the right place, applied to me
for permission to move his regiment to the right and to the front where
the line had been broken. I granted it, and his regiment and Colonel
Mallon’s, Forty-second New York, on his right, proceeded there at
énce. But the enemy, having left Colonel Hall’s front, as described
before, this officer promptly moved his command by the right flank to
still further reinforce the position of General Webb, and was imme-
diately followed by Harrow’s Brigade. The movement was executed, but
not without confusion, owing to many men leaving their ranks to fire at
the enemy from the breastworks. The situation was now very peculiar.
The men of all the brigades had in some measure lost their regimental
organization, but individually they were firm. The ambition of individ-
ual commanders to promptly cover the point penetrated by the enemy,
the smoke of the battle and the intensity of the close engagement caused
this confusion. The point, however, was covered. In regular formation,
our line would have stood four ranks deep. The colors of the different
regiments were now advanced, waving in defiance of the long line of
battle-flags presented by the enemy. The men pressed firmly after them
under their energetic commanders and the example of their officers, and
 

   

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GETTYSBURG.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 117

after a few moments desperate fighting the enemy were repulsed, throw-
ing down their arms and finding safety in flight, or throwing themselves
on the ground to escape our fire. The battle-flags were ours and the
victory was won. Gibbons’ division secured twelve stand of colors, and
prisoners enough to swell the number captured by the corps to about
four thousand five hundred.”

HAN COCK’S OWN STORY OF GETTYSBURG BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON THE CON DUCT OF THE WAR,
WASHINGTON, MARCH 22p, 1864.
TESTIMONY OF MAJOR-GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK.
(Thursday, July 2d, 1863.)

I soon received an order, dated 1.10 p. m., directing me to proceed to
the front, and in the event of the death of General Reynolds, or his
inability to command, to assume the command of all the troops there,
consisting. of the Ist, 3d, and 11th Corps. (Order appended marked
A.) Istarted a little before half past one, turning over the command
of my corps to General Gibbons, under Genera] Meade’s directions.
General Gibbons was not the next in rank in that corps; but he was
the one General Meade directed should assume the command, as he
considered him the most suitable person for it.

Several such incidents occurred during that battle. General Meade,
prior to the battle, showed me or told me of a letter he had received
from the Secretary of War on this subject. The Government recogni-
zing the difficulty of the situation, believing that a battle was immi-
nent, and might occur in one, two, or three days, and not knowing the
views of General Meade in relation to his commanders, the Secretary
of War wrote him a note, authorizing him to make any changes in his
army that he pleased, and that he would be sustained by the President
‘and himeelf, That did not make it legal, because it was contrary to
the law to place a junior officer over a senior. Atthe same time it was
one of those emergencies in which General Meade was authorized, as
before stated, to exercise that power. I was not the senior of either
General Howard, of the 11th Corps, or General Sickles, of the 3d Corps.
My commission bore date on the same day with theirs; by my prior
“118 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

commission they both ranked me. Of course it was not a very agreea-
able office for me to fill, to go and take command of my seniors. How-
ever, I did not feel much embarrassment about it, because I was an
older soldier'than either of them. But I knew that legally it was not
proper, and that if they chose to resist it it might become a very trou-
blesome matter for the time being. Whether or not General Meade,
when he gave me the order, knew about this relative rank, I do not
know. I say this because I have since understood that he did not.
When I spoke to him about it before departing, however, he remarked
in substance that he was obliged to use such persons as he felt disposed
to use; that in this case he sent me because he had explained his views
to me, and had not explained them to the others; that I knew his
-plans and ideas, and could better accord with him in my operations
than anybody else. I went to Gettysburg, arriving on the ground not
later than half past three o'clock. I found that, practically, the fight
wasthen over. The rear of.our column, with the enemy in pursuit was
then coming through the town of Gettysburg. General Howard was on
Cemetery Hill, and there had evidently been an attempt on his part to
stop and form some of his troops there ; what troops he had formed there
Ido not know. I understood afterwards, and accepted it as the fact,
that he had formed one division there prior to this time. I told Gene-
ral Howard I had orders to take command in the front. I did not
show him the orders, because he did not demand it. He acquiesced.

I exercised the command until evening when General Slocum arrived,
about 6 or7 o'clock. His troops were in the neighborhood, for they
-apparently had been summoned up before I arrived, by General Howard
possibly, as well as the 3d Corps. When General Slocum arrived, he
being my senior, and not included in this order to me, I turned the
command over to him. In fact I was instructed verbally by General
Butterfield, Chief of Staff, before I left for the front, that I was to do so.

When I arrived and took command I extended the lines. I sent
General Wadsworth to the right to take posession of Culp’s Hill with
his division, I directed General Geary, whose division belonged to the
12th Corps ( its commander, General Slocum, not having then arrived),
to take possession of the high ground towards Round Top. I made.such
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOOK. 119

disposition as I thought wise and proper. The enemy evidently believing
that we were reinforced, or that our whole army was there, discontinued
their great efforts, and the battle for that day was virtually over. There
was firing of artillery and skirmishing all along the front, but that was
the end of that day’s battle. By verbal instructions, and in the order
which I had received from General Meade, I was directed to report,
after having arrived on the ground, whether it would be necessary or
wise to continue to fight the battle at Gettysburg, or whether it was
possible for the fight to be had on the ground General Meade had
selected. About 4 o’clock p.m., I sent word by Major Mitchell, aide-
de-camp to General Meade, that I would hold the ground until dark,
meaning to allow him time to decide the matter for himself. As soon
as I had gotten matters arranged to my satisfaction, and saw that the
troops were ‘being formed again, and I felt secure; I wrote a note to
General Meade, and informed him of my views of the ground at
Gettysburg. I told him that the only advantage which I thought it
‘had wis that it could be readily turned by way of Emmetisburg, and.
that the roads were clear for any movement he might make. I had
ordered all the trains back, as I came up, to clear the rvads.

General Meade had directed my corps, the 2d Corps, to march up
towards Gettysburg, under the command of General Gibbons. When
‘J found that the enemy had ceased their operations, I directed General
Gibbons to halt his corps-two or three miles behind Gettysburg, in
order to protect our rear from any flank movement of the enemy. Then
“my operations in the front being closed, I turned the command over
to General Slocum, and immediately started to report to General .
Meade in detail what I had done, in order to express my views clearly
to him, and to see what he was disposed todo. I rode back, and found
General Meade about 9 o’clock. ~He told me he had received my mes-
sages and note, and had decided upon the representations I had made,
and the existence of known facts of the case, to fight at Gettysburg,
‘and had ordered all the corps to the front. That was the end of
operations for that day.

‘On the third day, in the morning, the enemy and General Slocum
were a good deal engaged. About one or two o’clock in the afternoon,
120 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

the enemy commenced a terrific cannonade, from probably one hun-
dred and twenty pieces of artillery, on the front of the line connecting
Cemetery Hill with Round Top, the left centre commanded by me.
That line consisted of the 1st, 2d, and 3d Corps, of which I had the
general command., I commanded that whole front. General Gibbons
commanded the 2d Corps in my absence, General Newton the Ist Corps,
and General Birney the 3d. That cannonade continued for probably
an hour and a half. The enemy then made an assault at the end of
that time. It was a very formidable assault, and made, I should judge,
with about 18,000 infantry. When the columns of the enemy appeared,
it looked as if they were going to attack the centre of our line; but,
after marching straight out a little distance, they seemed to incline a
little to our left, as if their object was to march through my command,
and seize Cemetery Hill, which I have no doubt was their intention.
They attacked with wonderful spirit—nothing could have been more
spirited. The shock of the assault fell upon the 2d and 3d divisions of
the 2d Corps, assisted by a small brigade of Vermont troops, together
with the artillery of our line, which fired from Round Top to Cemetery
Hill at the enemy all the way as they advanced whenever they had the
,opportunity. Those were the troops that really met the assault. No
doubt there were other troops that fired a little, but those were the
troops that really withstood the shock of the assault, and repulsed it.
The attack of the enemy was met by about six small brigades of our
, troops, and was finally repulsed after « terrific contest at very close
-quarters, in which our troops took about thirty or forty colors and some
4000 to 5000 prisoners, with great loss to the enemy in: killed and
wounded. The repulse was a most signal one, and that decided the
sbattle, and was practically the end of the fight. I was wounded at the
close of the assault, and that ended my operations with the army for
_ that campaign. I did not follow it in its future movements.

That practically ended the fighting of the batile of Gettysburg. There
was no serious fighting there after that, save on the left, in an advance
by a small command of the Pennsylvania Reserves, made very soon
afterwards and based upon our success. J may say one thing here: I
think it was probably an unfortunate thing that I was wounded at the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 121

time I was, and equally unfortunate that General Gibbons was also
wounded, because the absence of a prominent commander, who knew
the circumstances thoroughly at such a moment as that, was a great
disadvantage. I think that our lines should have advanced immedi-
ately, and I believe we should have won a great victory. I was very confi-
dent that the advance would be mage. General Meade told me before
the fight that if the enemy attacked me he intended to put the 5th and
Gth Corps on the enemy’s flank; therefore, when I was wounded and
lying down in my ambulance and about leaving the field, I dictated a
note to General Meade, and told him if he would put in the 5th and 6th
Corps I believed he would win a great victory. Iasked him afterwards
when I returned to the army what he had done in the premises. He
said he had ordered the movement, but the troops were slow in collect-
ing, and moved 0 slowly that nothing was done before night, except
that some of the Pennsylvania Reserves went out and met Hood’s divi-
sion, it was understood, of the enemy, and actually overthrew it, assisted,
no doubt, in some measure, by their knowledge of their failure in the
assault, There were only two divisions of the enemy on our extreme
left, opposite Round Top, and there was a gap in their line of one mile
that their assault had left, and I believe if our whole line had advanced
with spirit it is not unlikely that we would have taken all their artil-
lery at that point. I think that was a fault; that we should have
pushed the enemy there, for we do not often catch them in that position ;
and the rule is, and it is natural, that when you repulse or defeat an
enemy you should pursue him; and I believe it is a rare thing that
one party beats another and does not pursue him: and I think that on
that occasion it only required an order and prompt execution.

Thave no doubt the enemy regarded the success oftheir assault as
certain, so much so that they were willing to expend all their ammuni-
tion. They did not suppose that any troops could live under that can-
nonade ; but they met troops that had been so accustomed to artillery fire
that it did not have the effect on them that they expected. It was a most
terrific and appalling cannonade,—one possibly hardly ever paralleled.

Question.—Was there ever, in any battle of which you have read,
more artillery brought into action than in that battle?
122 LIFE AND. PUBLIC CAREER OF

Answer.—I doubt whether there has ever been more concentrated
upon an equal space and opening at one time. I think there has been
more artillery engaged in many battles, but do not believe there has’
been more upon both sides concentrated on an equal space.

Question.— You did not follow the army from there?

Answer.—No, sir ; I left the field the moment the fight was over.

Question.—When did you join the army again?

Answer.—I did not join it again until sometime’ in December, when
active operations had ceased. I was then ordered by the Secretary of
War into the States from whence the regiments of my corps came to fill
them up by recruitment, and I am now on my return to the army.

Question.—But, with equal numbers, you could not hesitate to attack
the enemy anywhere under equal circumstances?

Answer.—No, sir, I would not. In fact there is no finer army, if as
fine, in existence in the world than the Army of the Potomac. The
troops will do anything if they are only.ordered. If they have not made
this or that attack it is because their commanders did not order them to

make it.
Heapquagtrers ARMY OF THE PoTroMac,

July Ist, 1863, 1:10 P. mt.
-ComMANDING OFFIcER, 2d Corrs (GENERAL Hancock):

The Major-General commanding has just been informed that General
Reynolds has been killed or badly wounded. He directs that you turn
over the command of your Corps to General Gibbons; that you proceed
to the front, and by virtue of this order, in case of the truth: of General
Reynolds’ death, you assume the command of the corps there assembled,
viz: the 11th, Ist, and 3d, at Emmettsburg. If you think the ground

‘and position there a better one to fight a battle under existing circum-
stances, you will so advise the General, and he will order all the troops
up. You know the General’s views, and General Warren, who is fully
aware of them, has gone out to see General Reynolds.

Laver, 1:15 p. m.—Reynolds has possession of Gettysburg, and the
enemy are reported as falling back from in front of Gettysburg. Hold
your column ready to move. '

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

D. Burrerrierp,
Major-General and Chief of Staff.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 123

A CONFEDERATE ACCOUNT. -.

Major Goldsborough of the Ist Maia Regi-
ment writes of Hancock’s great victory :

“O God! what a fire'greeted us, and the death-shriek rends the air on
every side! at this moment I felt a violent shock, and found myself
' instantly stretched upon the ground. In the excitement I felt not the
pain, and, resting upon my elhow, anxiously watched that struggling
column. Column, did I say? A column no longer, but the torn and
scattered fragments of one. But flesh and blood could not live in such
a fire; and a handful of survivors of what had‘been a little more than

_twelve hours before the pride and boast of the army sought to reach the
cover of the woods.” ‘

“T saw General Willcox,” writes an English officer, ‘‘ come up to
Gendral Lee, and explain, almost crying, the state of his Brigade.” Gen-
eral Lee immediately shook hands with him and said cheerfully, “ Never
mind, General, all this has been my fault. It is I that have lost this
fight, arid you must help me out of it the best way you can.”

“The enemy leaped over the wall, opened firé along the whole line,
and dashed forward, running at fine speed as they approached the in-
trenchments on the hill. When the head of the column came within
point-blank range, suddenly, the seventy guns which Lee supposed he
had silenced, but which had saved their ammunition and their strength
opened with all the fury and death-dealing ardor of a well trained ar-
tillery ; straight from front to rear, diagonally from right to left, and
from left to right, the double charge of grape and canister, the shrapnel
spherical case, swept and tore in fearful havoc through the columns.
But the infuriated enemy rushed on even to the cannon’s mouth Pick-
ett’s division carried the intrenchment in the centre, and fora moment the
hostile colors waved over Hancock’s line. But almost instantly his
Infantry drove back the enemy who had already forced the Artillery-
men from their guns."—J, BR. oes History of. the Pennsylvania Re-
serve Corps.
424 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Now follows the judgment of a Republican
soldier, Brigadier General J. W. Hofmann, who
commanded the Fifty-Sixth Pennsylvania Regi-
ment in the battle of Gettysburg. In a very inter-
esting paper read by him before the Historical So-
ciety of Pennsylvania, March 8, 1880, he spoke of
General Hancock as follows, after describing the
progress of the battle up to a certain. point.
General Hofmann is one of those quiet, unobtru-
sive men who recall the best specimens of. the old
school soldier.

*It became evident, as we moved up the slope, that we were ap-
proaching « point where the topographical features of the locality
would, in some measure, compensate for the absent corps. But where
each individual brigade or regimental commander should reform his
command, whether upon the right or upon the left, seemed to be a
difficult subject to decide, the orders received were constantly conflict- -
ing. Under these circumstances, we moved up the slope, and at the
crest met a group of mounted officers, among them, one whose qualities
were such as eminently fitted him for the critical hour. He saw before
him a commingled mass of troops. Troops of the army whose fortunes
he had shared from its birth. He knew that the discipline that had
been instilled by him who had organized them into an army—that
grand, undaunted, indestructible Army of the Potomac—was still
within them. Directing this division to reform upon the right, that
one upon the left, it was but a short time, and he had wrought order.
from chaos. This accomplished, he directed the occupation of Culp’s
Hill. The hill was soon occupied, but not a moment too soon.

The Seventh Indiana of our brigade, detached in the morning for
special duty, as I have stated, and not engaged in conflicts with the
enemy, rejoined us as we were reforming in the cemetery, and being a
compact organization, it was sent at once to form a line on Culp’s Hill.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 125

Major Grover, its commanding officer, established a line from the pin-:
nacle down to the foot of the eastern slope, and on his way back to his
centre, encountered and captured a scout of the enemy, who had crossed
the hill before the line was established, and was on his way back when
captured, with the report that the hill was not occupied by our troops.
Grover’s line of pickets was soon reinforced into a line of battle, which,
on the following evening, successfully repulsed the desperate assault
made by the enemy to capture the Hill.

It has always seemed to me that the merit for restoring order, and
the foresight in directing the occupation of Culp’s Hill, have failed to
be fully appreciated by those who have written upon the subject. With-
out Culp’s Hill in our possession, we could never have left our line on
Cemetery Ridge on the second and third day of the battle.

That line on Culp’s Hill became the high water line of the tidal
wave of the rebellion, that far North had human slavery again carried
her shackles, and from that line it ebbed back, back to Appomattox. °

Mr. President, and members of the Historical Society, whose special
province it isto collate and make record of all that concerns the history
of our great State, the events that transpire within her borders, the
deeds of her sons, I desire to place myself upon record with you as
saying, that the officer to whom I have alluded, as having rendered
such inestimable service on that memorable evening, is a son of Penn-
sylvyania. His name is WINFIELD Scorr Hancock.”

It was at the very moment of this brilliant
achievement that General Hancock was wounded.
He was laid bleeding on the grass, surrounded
by anxious groups of officers and men. “Shall
we not carry you to the rear, General?” in-
quired Colonel Vesey, who was near him. “ No,’
I thank you, Colonel,” said Hancock, in the midst
of his pain,‘ calmly adding: “Attend to your
commands, gentlemen, I will take care of myself.”
In connection with a preceding charge on Hancock’s :
126 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER. OF

corps occurred the death of the Confederate Gene-
ral Barksdale.

I have said I knew him well. I can see him
now ; his pale face, dark brown hair; the impas-
sioned orator with extreme Southern views, yet
full of that peculiar chivalry which belongs to the-
‘best classes of the South. He and his brother Eth-
elbert, whatever may be said of their politics, have
always been honorable, high-minded men.

On the afternoon of Friday, July 3rd, the storm
of the battle was over. The retreat of the enemy
began immediately after his defeat. He literally
stood, not upon the order of going, but went—and-
that so rapidly, that he left nearly eight thousand
prisoners, and sick and wounded, in our hands.
The aggregate loss of Lee was thirty-seven thou-
sand men, among whom were seven Generals killed
in the battle, and six wounded. He lost in priso-
ners, including the wounded, thirteen thousand
six hundred and twenty-one. Of trophies, there
were three guns, forty-one colors, and of small
arms, twenty-four thousand nine hundred: and
seventy eight.

During the severest part.of this great battle,
there was a time when the troops in command of
the gallant General Birney, since dead, were in
imminent peril; and a large force of the enemy,
sweeping furiously down from the contiguous hills,
had nearly environed him in their deadly embrace.
General Hancock, perceiving the danger from his
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 127:

centre, placed: himself at the head of a picked di-
vision, and dashed rapidly forward to the scene.
His gallant approach was noticed by all, and those
who were nearest to him among the participants of
the sanguinary struggle, felt sure that some im-
portant and brilliant movement was in hand. Ap-.
proaching the disordered lines, he said: “Gen. Bir-
ney, you are nearly surrounded by the enemy.” “I
‘know it, General Hancock,” replied Birney ; “I am
doing my best against a superior force.” “I have
brought you these reinforcements,” continued Han-
cock, pointing his hand toward the rapidly coming.
troops. “You will place them at your discretion,
General Birney; General Willard, in immediate
command, will fight the men.” The balls of the
infuriate enemy, who had been bitterly disap-
pointed at the reception given him by the lines of
Hancock, were flying through the air like a driving
storm of hail. Gen. Hancock coolly maintained.
his seat on horseback, and. watched, for a few mo-
ments, the dispositions made of the reinforcements
he had so opportunely brought. Then he turned
the head of his horse towards another part of the
hotly contested field. At that moment a ball passed ”
near him and struck directly in the forehead of Gen.
Willard, who fell dead at his feet. The look of Han-
cock at that. instant is indescribable. He gazed si-.
lently on his fallen and gallant companion in arms,
and glanced his searching eye to note its effects on
the men. Every man was at his post, fighting
128 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

bravely still, as the new commander stepped for-.
ward to the vacant place.

As the two Generals, Hancock and Birney, rode_
rapidly along, reviewing the lines, giving orders
and words of encouragement, the brave fellows
who lay wounded in their path would raise them-
selves up from the crimson grass, and answer with
cheers: “General, we're driving them! hurrah!”
Regardless of their own sufferings, they rejoiced
thus in the triumph of our country, some of them
amid the very agonies of death. “It was more
than we could bear,” said General Birney, relating
the scene, as he remembered how his own tears, and
those of Hancock, fell among those dying heroes.

“What gem hath aropped and sparkles o’er his chain?
The tear most sacred shed for others’ pain;
That starts at once, bright, pure, from pity’s mine,
Already polished by the Hand Divine.”

It is no wonder to us, when we become familiar
with such incidents as these in the career of Gen.
Hancock, that he should be so dear to the hearts
of his men. Where the roar of battle was the
loudest, he was sure to be present, if in his power
to be. Where his gallant soldiers fell the fastest,
he was always certain to be near. The humblest
man in the ranks never passed unnoticed. His
manly, commanding presence acted like a charm
wherever seen, and his well-chosen words passed
like an electric force from rank to rank.” *

' * Part of this chapter i is cen from the admirable little book, “ Win-
field, The Lawyer’ 's Son,” written by’ Mr. Peniicen, fifteen years ago.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 129

CHAPTER IV.
CEMETERY HILL.

EMETERY HILL has become consecrated ground. Two of
the marble statues ornamenting the pedestal personify War '
and History. War, symbolized by a soldier resting from the

conflict, narrates to History the story of the struggle, and the deeds of
the martyr-heroes who fell in that famous battle.

The historian of the future who essays to tell the tale of Giekizainins
undertakes an onerous task, a high responsibility, a sacred trust. Above
all things, justice and truth should dwell in his mind and heart. Then,
Se pen as it were in the crimson tide, the sunshine of heaven
lighting his page, giving ‘honor to whom honor is due,’ doing even
justice to the splendid valor alike of friend and foe, he may tell the
world how the rains descended in streams of fire, and the floods came in
billows of rebellion, and the'winds blew in blasts of fraternal execration,
and beat upon the fabric of the Federal Union, and that it fell not, for,
resting on the rights and liberties of the people, it was founded upon a
rock.” WinFIELD 8S. Hancocg.

HISTORIC JUDGMENT UPON HANCOCK AND GETTYSBURG.

When I come to this part of my subject I am
appalled at the superabundance of material. It is
not only the quality but the quantity of comment

and commendation that makes the task of selec-
8
=

130 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

tion fairly hereulean. I discard that marvellous
repository, the “Letters of the Private Soldiers,”
not because they are not the best, but simply be-
cause to choose would be invidious. And for the
same reason I must pass over the multitudinous
material furnished by the daily newspapers. There-
fore I venture to present from more carefully stud-
ied descriptions something which may serve to fix
the great facts more firmly in the American mind
and to do justice to the accomplished soldier now
before the American people for the highest office in
their gift.

First I give a passage from the graphic recital of
_ the stirring deeds of an eventful day, from the pen
of that fine soldier, General St. Clair A. Mulhol-
land, a participant in the battle, in the Philadel-
phia Times, February 14, 1880:

HANCOCK TO THE RESCUE.

“However, all was not yet lost. Meade had again thought of Han-
cock, and as yesterday he sent him to stop the rout of the First and
Eleventh Corps, so to-day he orders him to assume command on the left.
Once more he is in the fight, A half hour of daylight yet remains;
but it is long enough to enable him to rally some of our scattered troops;
face them once more to the frent, gather reinforcements, drive back the
enemy, and restore our broken lines. At Waterloo, Wellington peti-
tioned God for “night or Blucher.” At Gettysburg, on this evening,
we had no Blucher to pray for. Our whole force was up; but, while
omitting the last part of the great Englishman's prayer, we had every
reason to adopt the first portion. As the fight was closing. upon the
left of our army, Ewell was striking a terrific and successful blow on .
the right. As we re-formed our division on the Taneytown road, and
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 131

after the rough handling we had received, had some difficulty in get-

ting things in shape, we heard, away to the right and rear, the yells of
the Louisiana Tigers as they rushed over our works at Culp’s Hill.

This was the most anxious hour of all in the great battle. We had

been driven on the left, and on the right the rebs had effected a lodg- ,
ment in our works, one of our strongest positions, and were, in fact, in

our rear, without any adequate force to oppose them. Another hour of
daylight, and unless some miracle had intervened, we would most likely

have left Gettysburg without waiting to bid the inhabitants good eve-

ning. But, fortunately for us, there was no Joshua around Lee’s head-

quarters, so the sun went down on almanac time, utterly regardless of
the little troubles that we were trying to settle. Darkness fell upon

the scene, and prevented the Johnnies from taking further advantage

of their success, giving us a chance to repair our disasters, Few of us

slept during this night. Our division went back, and was put in posi-

tion on Cemetery Ridge by General Hancock, who all the night long

labored to strengthen this line. The men gathered rocks and fence-

rails, and used them to erect a light breastwork.”

THE THIRD OF JULY.

“At this tumultuous moment we witnessed a deed of heroism such as.
we are apt to attribute only to knights of the olden time. Hancock,
mounted and accompanied by his staff, Major Mitchell, Captain Harry
Bingham, Captain Isaac Parker and Captain E. P. Bronson, with the
corps flag flying in the hands of a brave Irishman, Private James Wells,
of the Sixth New York Cavalry, started at the right of his line, where
it joins the Taneytown road, and slowly rode along the terrible crest to
the extreme left of his position, while shot and shell roared and crashed
around him, and every moment tore great gaps in the ranks at his side,

“Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode, and well.”

It was a gallant deed, and withal not a reckless exposure of life; for
the presence and ‘calm demeanor of the commander as he passed through
the lines of his men, set them an example which an hour later bore
good fruit, '
132 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

*“ At this moment silence reigned along our whole line. With arms at
w ‘right shoulder shift, the division of Longstreet’s corps moved for-
ward with a precision that was wonderfully beautiful. It is now our
turn, and the lines that a few moments before seemed 650 still, now
teemed with animation. Eighty of our guns open their brazen mouths;
solid shot and shell are sent on their errand of destruction in quick
succession. We see them fall in countless numbers among the advan-
cing troops. -The accuracy of our fire could not be excelled; the mis-
siles strike right in the ranks, tearing and rending them in every direc-
tion. The ground over which they have passed is strewn with dead
and wounded. But on they come. The gaps in the ranks are closed
as soon as made. They have three-quarters of a mile to pass exposed
to our fire, and half the distance is nearly passed. Our gunners now
load with cannister, and the effect is appalling; but still they march on,
Their gallantry is past all praise—it is sublime. Now they are within
a hundred yards. Our infantry rise up and pour round after round
into these heroic troops.

THE GALLANT MEN OF THE SOUTH.

“ At Waterloo the Old Guard recoiled before a less severe fire. But
there was no recoil in these men of the South—they marched right on
as though they courted death. They concentrate in great numbers and
strike on the most advanced part of our line. The crash of the mus-
ketry. and the cheers of the men blend together. The Philadelphia
brigade occupy this point. They are fighting on their own ground and
for their own State, and in the bloody hand-to-hand engagement which
ensues, the Confederates, though fighting with desperate valor, find it
impossible to dislodge them—they are rooted to the ground. Seeing
how utterly hopeless further effort would be, and knowing the impossi-
bility of reaching their lines, should they attempt a retreat, large num-
bers of the rebels lay down their arms, and the battle is won. To the
left of the Philadelphia brigade we did not get to such close quarters.
Seeing the utter annihilation of Pickett’s troops, the division of Wilcox
and others on their right went to pieces almost before they got: within
musket-range. A few here and there ran away, and tried to regain
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 133

their lines; but many laid down their arms, and came in as prisoners.
At the most critical moment Hancock fell, among his men, on the line
of Stannard’s Vermont brigade, desperately wounded; but he continued
to direct the fight until victory was assured, and then he sent Major
Mitchell to announce the glad tidings to the commander of the army.
Said he: ‘Tell General Meade that the troops under my command
have repulsed the assault of the enemy, who are now flying in all
directions in my front.’ ‘Say to General Hancock,’ said Meade, in
reply, ‘I regret exceedingly that he is wounded, and I thank him for
the country and myself for the setvice he has rendered to-day.” Truly,
the country may thank General Hancock, as Congress afterwards ‘did,
for his great service on that field.”

“Five thousand prisoners were sent to the rear, and we gathered up
thirty-three regimental standards in front of the Second Corps. The
remaining hours of daylight during this day were occupied in caring
for the wounded, looking over the field and talking over the incidents
of the fight. Many noble officers and men were lost on both sides, and in’
the camp hospital they died in hundreds during the afternoon and
night. The Rebel General, Armistead, died in this way. As he was
carried off to the rear he was met by Captain Harry Bingham, ‘of Han-
cock’s staff, who, getting off his horse, asked him if he could do any-
thing for him. Armistead replied to take his watch and spurs to
General Hancock, that they might be sent to his relatives. His wishes
were complied with, General Hancock sending them to his relatives at
the first opportunity. Armistead was a brave soldier with a chivalric
presence, and came forward in front of his brigade waving his sword.
He was shot through the body and fell inside of our line. “Some of
the wounded rebels showed considerable animosity towards our ‘men.
One of them who lay mortally wounded in front of the Sixty-ninth
Pennsylvania, sullenly refused to be taken to the hospital, saying that
he wanted to die right there oy the field where he fell. The scene
after Longstreet’s charge was indescribable. In front of the Philadel-
phia brigade the dead lay in great heaps, Dismounted guns, ruins of
exploded caissons, dead and mutilated men and horses, were piled up

together in every direction.
134 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

SCENES ON THE BATTLE-FIELD.

“The Colonel of one of Pickett’s regiments lay dead, his arms
clasping the body of his brother, who was Major of his regiment; they
were remarkably handsome men and greatly resembled each other.
Out on the field where Longstreet’s corps had passed thousands of
wounded were laying. We had no means of reaching these poor fel-
lows, and many of them lay there between the lines until the morning
of the fifth, On the fourth we lay quietly all day, awaiting the
next event. The enemy could be seen moving about on Seminary
Ridge. Welcome supplies came up and were issued. All hands felt
cheerful, but a degree of uncertainty as to whether the battle was over
or whether the rebels were getting ready for some new movement pre-
vented us from celebrating the national anniversary in a proper manner,
Once in a while the sharp-shooters would try their skill on some of our
people to let us know they were still there. The stench from the dead
became intolerable, and we tried to escape it by digging up the ground
and burying our faces in the fresh earth. On the morning of the fifth
we found the enemy had gone, and then what a scene! I think the
fact was first discovered by the troops on Culp’s Hill, and what a cheer
wentup! A cheer that swelled into a roar and was taken up by the
boys on Cemetery Hill, rolled along the crest to Round Top and then
back again. Cheers from the Philadelphia Brigade, that stood a living
wall, against which the hosts beat in vain. Cheers for Meade, the
soldier, “without fear or reproach,’ who here began, with a great
victory, his illustrious career as commander of the Army of the Poto-
mac, Cheers for Hancock, who had stemmed the tide of defeat on the
first day and selected the ground on which this glorious victory was
achieved, who, on the second day, had again stopped the tide of Rebel
victory and restored our shattered lines, and on the third day had met
and repulsed the final assault, on which Lee’s all was staked, and won
the battle that was really the death-blow to the rebellion.

“ And then we gathered up with tender care and consigned to earth
our noble dead.

When will their glory fade?
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 1385

“Tadeed they have not died in vain. The good they have accomplished
will last forever. History will record in glowing words theix heroic
deeds and glorious death.”

FROM THE “MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA,” BY SAMUEL
P. BATES, CONTRIBUTED BY COL. JOHN P. NICHOLSON,

“When General Meade relieved General Hooker in command of the
Army of the Potomac, and commenced the movement into Pennsylvania
in pursuit of Lee, he kept the Second Corps on the centre of the line of
march; and when on the morning of the Ist of July he found that the
left wing of his army had struck the enemy, and Reynolds had fallen,
reposing great confidence in Hancock, he sent him upon the field to
assume supreme command. Upon his arrival he found affairs in great
extremity. The First and Eleventh Corps had alone been pitted against
a full half of the rebel army, and broken and bleeding were retreating
through the town to Cemetery Hill, where the well-planted artillery of
Steinwehr formed the nucleus for rallying,and where he saw ata glance
was a favorable point for making a stand. It was with a thrill of glad-
ness that the weary and begrimed soldiers hailed the face of the good
chief. Howard, the leader of the Eleventh Corps, who had been in
command, was already there. Hancock made known his instructions
that he had orders to assume command from General Meade. General
Howard replied, ‘ All right, Hancock, go ahead.’ +
"  Fancock had an excellent military eye. He could take in at a glance,
the advantages and defects of a great battle-field. he character and
composition of the army, too, were perfectly familiar to him. His first
care was to secure immediate safety, and to preserve it until darkness
should come, when he could retire to a new position, if necessary ; for
as yet General Meade had not decided where he would fight. Hancock
was instructed before leaving head-quarters to look for good positions
ashe rode up. He was pleased with the Gettysburg ground, and so
notified Meade, though he detected its inherent weakness in its liability
to be turned upon on the left. His dispositions were wisely made. The
resolute Wadsworth was sent to Culp’s Hill to cover the little ravine
186 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

that makes up in rear of Cemetery Hill, and there also he posted the
artillery of Stevens. To the indomitable Geary was given the vulnera-
ble ground stretching towards Round Top. The Eleventh Corps was
disposed upon the crest of Cemetery Ridge. Along the open ground on
the left flank he placed the watchful Buford, and in rear of all, as a
reserve, the dauntless Doubleday, with the remnants of the First Corps,
grim veterans who had all day long received unmoved a baptism of fire,
“When the troops had been posted and all seemed secure, he turned
over the command to Slocum, about 7 P.m., who had now arrived,
and who also ranked him, and returned to head-quarters. His action
was approved, and his dispositions were carried out in every particu-
lar by Meade when he came upon! the field. On the afternoon of the
following day, when the tornado of battle burst upon the army, and -
Sickles was wounded and his gallant Third Corps crushed, Meade called
for Hancock, and: put him in command of that corps also, in addition to
the Second Corps and other troops he was commanding, and by vigo-
rous and careful efforts he succeeded in bringing into form and order
the Third Corps. On the evening of this very eventful day, when
the Louisiana Tigers made their furious charge upon Cemetery
Hill, without waiting for orders—knowing that peril was imminent
~—he sent Carroll’s brigade to the rescue, which, advancing upon the
run, came in time to repel the assault. In speaking of this event after-
wards, Hancock said that he felt in his bones that there was urgent
need of help. On the third day of the battle the grand charge of
Longstreet fell full upon Hancock’s corps; and gallantly was it met and
its massed columns swept away as flax by fire. In the midst of this
terrific onset, and when the whole heavens were wrapt in flame, while
dashing over the ground unheeding danger, he was struck and severely
wounded, falling from his horse on his line of battle. He was laid in
an ambulance, but refused to leave the field until he saw the enemy beaten
and victory perching upon his standards. Nor was the bleeding hero
yet content. ‘When I-was wounded,’ he says, ‘and lying down in
my ambulance and about leaving the field, I dictated a note to General
Meade, and told him if he would put in the Fifth and Sixth Corps, I
believed he would win a great victory’ By a joint resolution of Con-

 
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 137

gress, he received the thanks of that body for ‘his gallant, meritorious,
and conspicuous services in that great and decisive victory.’”

A SOUTHERN VIEW OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.
From the Southern Review, of April, 1869.

“Gettysburg marks the period of a most formidable irruption made
by Southern arms into the Northern territory. In weight of artillery,
and number of men actually engaged, it probably exceeded any battle
of the war. On its issue hung, perhaps, the fate, for the time, of one
or more of the large Northern cities. The very date of its occurrence,
on the eve of the Fourth of July, has added to the impression it has
made. It has seemed to many, the turning point of a contest of which
the remainder was but a tremendous death-struggle.

“The Federal line was broken, the guns captured and the troops hold-
ing them put to flight, and his forces right and left promptly scattered,
This day would have added another to the list of the disasters of the
Army of the Potomac, but Hancock ezerted himself with great skill and
courage to stay the precedence of defeat. The troops on both sides were hurled
ou Picketi’s flanks; others were brought up on his front. Then after
a short but terrible struggle, in which all his brigade commanders and .
nearly all his regimental commanders went down, and Pickett, leaving
more than half his division dead, wounded or prisoners, was driven
back to the Confederate lines. The brigades on his right moved up
after his repulse to attack, but did not reach the works before they were
forced to retire.

“Had General Lee succeeded in his bold dash against the Federal
army, and driven it, with the loss of its immense artillery, from Semi-
nary Ridge, the advantage thus gained would have been most important
to the Confederacy. It would open Pennsylvania to him for the time,
would possibly have given him Baltimore, would have caused the re-
call of General Grant, and the abandonment of the successful union
campaign in the Southwest, and might ‘possibly, though not probably,
have strengthened the peace party in the North sufficiently to have
seriously embarrassed the Lincoln administration. It was the prospect
138 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

of these gains that reconciled General Lee to deliver battle when he
found it imminent; these were all processes which trembled in the bal-
ance for three days, and which would have been his, had he at any time
during that period been able to secure a combined and simultaneous
attack on the Federal position.”

Their terrible repulse on the afternoon of the
third of July, when General Hancock hurled
back their impetuous columns, was the real oppor-
tunity for the surrender, which was postponed until
April, 1865. The Confederates were flying towards
the Potomac, at Williamsport, and a sad, sad,
Fourth of July it was for them. While they were
pushing forward their wagons, filled with wounded
and prisoners, their leaders looked back, fearing
pursuit, and expecting every minute to be struck,
as they staggered on. The whole North was filled
with delight. General Hancock’s passage home-
ward was a triumphal ovation, although he was
. suffering terribly from his wounds. In the mean-
while, the Confederate leaders were doing their best
to-rally and compose their demoralized troops.
Longstreet and Lee were busy in comforting the
flying and in healing the hurts of the wounded.
Of the conduct of the latter officer, an eye-witness
wrote :

“ If Longstreet’s behaviour was admirable, that of General Lee was
perfectly sublime. Hewas engaged in rallying and encouraging the
broken troops, and was riding about, a little in front of the wood, quite
alone—hié staff being engaged in a similar manner farther to the rear.
His face, which is always placid and cheerful, did not show signs of the
slightest disappointment, care, or annoyance; and he was addressing to
WINFIELD. SCOTT HANCOCK. 139

every soldier he met a few words of encouragement, such as ‘all this
will come out right in the end; we will talk it over afterwards; but
meanwhile all good men must rally; we want all good and true men
just now, etc.’ He spoke to all the wounded men that passed him, and
the slightly wounded he exhorted ‘to bind up their hurts and take a
musket’ in this emergency. Very few failed to answer his appeal, and
1 saw many badly wounded men take off their hats and cheer him.
He said to nre, ‘This has been a sad day for us, Colonel—a sad day;
but we can’t always expect to gain victories.’” ~

“This was the last offensive sally attempted by Lee. He was himself
thoroughly convinced of the hopelessness of the undertaking, and the
fire of his troops was quenched in blood. ‘'Thé gevere loss sustained
by the army, and the reduction of its ammunition,’ ‘he mildly says,
* rendered another attempt to dislodge the enemy inadvisable.’

Swinton says:

“The defeat of the Army of the Potomac, and the retention .of a eis
ing long enough on loyal soil to so work upon the North, that under
the combined pressure of its own fears, the uprising of reactionary
elements at home, and perhaps the influence of the powers abroad, it
might be disposed to sue for peace. He had ample means for the con-
duct of the enterprise, which was of itself not extravagant, and it is
rare that any military operation presents greater assurance of success
than Lee had of attaining his end of conquering a peace on Northern
soil.

“This being so, we can rise at once to the height of the appreciation.
of the triumph at Gettysburg—a victory which, if we consider the tre-
mendous issue which it involved, calls forth sentiments akin to the
trembling joy with which Cromwell returned thanks to heaven for the
‘crowning mercy’ of Worcester. It was the crisis of the war—the -sal-
vation of the North,

“ But the results of Gettysburg were not confined to the eastern thea-
tre of operations: its eftect was powerfully felt throughout all the West,
where, in consequence of the absorption of force for the invasion of
Pennsylvania, a succession of severe disasters befell the Confederate
“

140 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER ‘OF

-At the time the campaign was initiated the Ariny of the Mis-

sissippi was shut up in Vicksburg, and the Army of the Tennessee’

confronted the force of Rosecrans in daily expectation of attack, and
itself too weak to maintain its ground.

“And thus the battle-summer rose to its climax in the clash and
clamor of Titanic war, which, spending its fury on the soil of Pennsyl-
sylvania, was echoed back from the borders of the Mississippi and the
Alpine heights of the Cumberland Mountains.”

Now these words are not the words of a, politi-
cian, but the sober judgment of a careful and
candid historian, accepted as such by both sides;
in his clear and cogent way, always ready to do
justice to an enemy, even at the expense of the
cause he was known to sustain.

The truth is, if General Hancock, instead of
having been a member of the Democratic party,
had been as pronounced a Republican, this year
would have found him a Republican instead of a
Democratic candidate, and then all the charges
made against him would have been buried deep in
the ocean. What he did for Pennsylvania, what
he did for the nation, so freely admitted after the
Gettysburg victory, would have been claimed by
the party leaders as one of the proudest military
achievements in the world; and because this is

_ the fact, so many thousands of Republicans turn

away with shame from the practice which has
now become the rule among republican leaders; ;
the particular effort of the ring-leaders of the Re-
publican party is to dwarf, dim and deny all these
unparalleled services to the country, because the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 141

man who wrought them is a member of the great
Democratic party. .

A soldier, writing to the Buffalo Courier, a few
days ago, uses these words :

“The Sixty-fourth New York Volunteers, to which regiment the
writer of this article belonged during the war, was one of the regiments
which made up the famous First Division, Second Army Corps, Army
of the Potomac. General E.V. Sumner was the first commander of
the division, and Gen. “Dick” Richardson the second.

“Our regiment first saw General Winfield 8. Hancock on the battle-
field of Antietam, September 17th, 1862. It was during the height of
this sanguinary and bloody conflict, as near as Lean recollect, about
two o’clock, P. M., with the undulating field and sunken road literally
covered with dead and wounded, with shells bursting and bullets shriek-
ing over the heads of our r men, lying flat upon their faces in line of
battle, that General Hancock assumed command of the First Division,
in place of General Richardson, wounded, and appeared upon the field
in our front, riding along without aide or orderly, alone—surely a fine
place for a dress-parade soldier.

“We had thereafter, during the remainder of the service in the war,
daily opportunities to observe the Democratic nominee for the presi-
dency. We canremember General Hancock in camp and on the march,
and in battle. We can remember the reconnoisance of the First Diyi-
sion from Harpers Ferry out to Halltown and Charlestown, under
Hancock, driving the enemy before it, We can remember him on the
march down the Loudon Valley, driving the enemy out of Snicker's
Gap and holding it.

“The battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 18th, 1862, and
Hancock’s division bore the brunt of the battle, charging the enemy
upon Mayre’s Heights, held by three or four entrenched lines of battle.
Hancock himself rode up the broad glacis upon his splendid, charger at
the head of his division, and seemed the embodiment of: heroism.
Dead soldiers wearing the red trefoil were buried near the enemy’s
second line of breastworks, showing how far they had advanced. We
42 LIFE AND PUBLIC-CAREER OF \

can remember Hancock at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness,
Spottsylvania, Coal Harbor, and Petersburg, There is not a soldier of
the Old Second Army Corps who has a record to be proud of, but
is proud of General Hancock. The regiment to which I belonged,—
and there is none with a more glorious record—which was composed of
men from Cattaraugus and Erie Counties, will not refuse to support
their old commander now.”

. The same writer, commenting upon the attacks
of the Republican office-holders upon Hancock
now, adds: “They know it was Hancock’s corps
that saved the Army of the Potomac in the Wil-
derness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and Peters-
burg, and the living heroes of the old second army
corps, know it was Hancock’s corps at Gettysburg
that saved Washington, Baltimore and Philadel-
phia.”

The brutal and ‘tlogieal course of the Repub-
lican leaders of the present day is killing Mr.
Garfield. While they assail Hancock, while they
deny that he is a citizen of Pennsylvania, while
they attempt to connect him with all manner of
scandal, each slander in turn refuted, and insist:
that it is only the volunteer general, and not the’
regular, that deserves honor and promotion, (for-
getting all the time when they were Whigs they
nominated Gen. Scott for the Presidency, and when
they were Know-Nothings they nominated Zachary
Taylor for the Presidency, both regulars;) yet now
let a Confederate general become a Republican, like
Moseby, or Longstreet, or Key, the present Post.
master General, all at once the very men who cover
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 143

such a soldier as Hancock with their libels, in-
stantly forget what is called the rebel record’ of
those they welcome from the Southern ranks into
the Republican party. ‘‘No matter,” says this
private soldier, in the Buffalo Courier, “how dark
a man’s record may have been, no matter how
many Union s@ldiers he murdered in cold blood,
during the war, no matter how much of a rebel he
was, then considered, no: matter if he had been
captured by the old army corps, he would have had
a drum court-martial and been hung, but if only
he would swear allegiance to the Republican party,
then he is a hero fit for any trust.”

I could fill. pages with such testimonials as these
to General Hancock—pages from the very Repub-
lican papers that are now traducing him, because
he is a member of the Democratic Party—pages
from the very Republican politicians who were
literally ready to fall down and worship him-in
1863, after the battle of Gettysburg. My gifted
friend, George G. Gross, Esq., of Reading, Penn-
sylvanth, who wrote so graphic a picture of the
battle of Gettysburg in my old paper, the Press,
November 27, 1865, wrote as follows:

“The story told in Blackwood by Colonel Freemantle, of the British
army, who was present, may help to explain why so few of the Confed-
erates were hit. Reynolds was killed, and two, Hancock and Sickles,
wounded. Colonel Freemantle says: ‘Carried away by excitement, I
rushed up to Longstreet, who was sitting on a fence, quietly whittling a
stick, whilst watching the charge, and said to General Longstreet : “Tg
144 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

not this splendid? I would not have missed it for the world.” “The,
devil you would not!” replied Longstreet, “why, don’t you see we are
getting licked like hell?” ’ ” :

Speaking of the bombardment which preceded
the Confederate charge, General Hancock says:
“Tt was the most terrific cannonading I ever wit-
nessed, and the most prolonged.” *

A Confederate eye-witness, describing it, says:
“T have never yet heard such a tremendous artil-
lery-fire. The very earth shook under our feet;
the hills seemed to rock like drunken men. Fora
half an hour this tremendous fire was heard.
During this time the crash of falling timber and
the rocks flying through the air, the swish of balls
and shells and the fierce neighing of the wounded
artillery-horses, made a picture terrible, grand and
sublime.”

LETTER FROM A UNION OFFICER OF A MARYLAND REGI-

MENT DESCRIBING MEADE, HANCOCK AND SLOCUM.
Cou. J. W. Forney. cas os ees a
My Dear Sir :—The statement which I made to you yesterday, and
which you requested me to put in writing, was : General Meade having
been assigned to the command of the Army of the Potomac whilst on
. the march to meet, wherever found, the great army with its great com-
mander, that had invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania, and was on its
march to any and all points which its powers might enable it to reach,
there was much anxious expectation in respect to his power to handle,
to best advantage, so large an army, and on which so much depended,
amongst both officers and men of his command. Here let me remind
you that the Union Army was composed in large part of Volunteer
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. -145

citizens, officers and men, who were there in pursuit of their, own
supreme affair, the preservation of their’ own Constitutional Govern-
ment; and that the minds otf those men were in intense activity. They
were absorbed in other ideas than disposing of the spoils of a politjcal
canvas. Whilst resolved to obey, without comment, whatever orders
might be issued, they were naturally anxious to feel assured that siich
orders would be dictated by the highest attainable prudence, skill and
wisdom.

When it came to be understood that General Hancock had reached
the front on Cemetery Hill, and had fully approved, and in fact selected
the position to be occupied, and that General Meade showed himself to
be so really great that, instead of arrogating any thing, he called in con-
sultation his Lieutenants Hancock, and Slocum, and divided the im-
mediate command of the army between them, giving the left wing to
Hancock, and the right to Slocum, reserving to himself the supervision
of both; and that his orders would be the products of the carefully
matured judgment of himself and them, the anxiety and speculation
mentioned were instantly replaced by an assurance, felt by every man,
that there would be no mistakes in the orders we might receive—that
each order would be fully considered, and aimed at one end only, the
effective discharge of the duty before us—would offer in sacrifice no life
unless demanded by that duty. I think that no such body of men as
that which constituted the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg wgs, per-
haps, ever filled with amore quietly fixed determination to do and
execute all orders than was that Army, and that its peculiar morale was
the inspiration of the assurance mentioned.

If the operations of the army in the series of struggles occurring in
that campaign be studied, the presence of the universal assurance which
I have attempted to describe will, I think, be apparent—its efficiency
in reaching the result will be equally apparent—and the perfect con-
cord between Meade, Hancock and Slocum will be clearly seen to be

‘the true bottom source of that assurance. :

You will not misunderstand meas intending to intimate that Gen-
eral Meade abdicated, in the least degree, any one of the duties or
responsibilities of his place of supreme command. I mean to say: that
146 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

he was large enough, was grand enough, to avail, without stint or
grudge, of the knowledge and skill of Hancock and Slocum,. and of
himself, as it was then understood in the army. I mean to say that
without Meade and Hancock and Slocum, there could be no assurance
that the result at Gettysburg would have been attained. And pardon
me for adding my belief that, were the power vouchsafed to his body
in its honored grave, Meade’s dust would move with indignant scorn at
any attempt by any man to draw a line of distinction between the hon-
ors justly due to himself, to Hancock, and to Slocum, for the issues of
Gettysburg, and that each of the other two, yet: spared to bless their
country, and to be safe pillars of its defense against assault, from what-
ever quarter, would with like scorn repel any effort to draw.such line.
Each was a hero—all three compounded made up the hero of Gettysburg.

Now don’t forget that I have written this because you insisted. I
was but a Colonel commanding a regiment of Lockwood’s Maryland
Brigade, attached to the 12th corps. It may seem presumptuous in me
to have said so much. But it is, every word, the truth, and will be
verified by the conscience of every fairly intelligent man who partici-
pated in the Gettysburg campaign.

This is the first occasion on which I have put my pen to paper, on
any subject connected with that campaign, since I wrote, at the request
of my commanding officer, my official report, on July 4th, 1863. May
this be my apology, if in this letter I may seem to have spoken with
greater distinctness and openness than may be becoming in so modest
an actor in, comparatively, so humble a sphere.

With great respect and regard,
I am yours truly,
: Wm. P. Mavuspy.

Major Veale of the gallant Second Division,
Twelfth Army Corps, commanded by Gen. John
W. Geary in the battle of Gettysburg, a modest
soldier who served with equal distinction under
Sherman and Grant sends me the following in-
teresting incident:
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 147

“The: first day of the battle of Gettysburg, at between 84 and 4
o'clock, Pp. M., while the second division 12th Army Corps, commanded
by Gen. John W. Geary was halted at the “Two Taverns,” orders
were received by General Geary to leave one brigade of, his troops at
the Two Taverns, and advance with his first and third brigades to the
point. Genetal Geary requested me to ride with him in advance of
thetroops to the point. We rode rapidly, and upon arriving at Cemetry
Hill found General Hancock standing in about the centre of the road.
At this time, about four o’clock, P. m., the First Corps, (General Rey-
nolds having been killed) and the Eleventh Corps were upon the field
and partly in line. The Third Corps was off on the Emmettsburg road.
General Geary dismounted upon arriving on the field and saluted Gen-
eral Hancock. I sat upon my horse close'to them and heard the fol-
lowing conversation: General Hancock said, “Geary, where are your
troops?” Geary replied, ‘Two brigades are on the road advancing.”
Hancock said ‘Do you see this knoll on the Jeft, (meaning Little
Round Top). That knoll is 2 commanding position, and we must take
possession of it, aud then a line can be formed here and a battle fought.
If we fail to fight here, we will be compelled to fall back about seven
miles. In the absence of Slocum, I shall order you to place your troops
on that knoll.” General Geary said to me, “Veale, ride back and
order General Greeneto double-quick his troops diagonally across the
fields and take possession of the knoll.” - I rode to General Green and
gave the orders. He took possession of the knoll just in time.. That
night the Third Corps under General Rickles relieved us, al we re-
moved to the extreme right of the line. Then General Hancock’s
knowledge, skill and courage took in at a glance all the conditions of
the field, and established the line at Gettysburg, which enabled us to
fight the pivotal battle which saved the country.”

THE GENERAL AT HIS HOME IN 1863.

But the Union victory at Gettysburg on the 3d
of July, 1863, while it saved the country from a
Confederate invasion, carried gloom and grief o
148 _ LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

many households. The Confederate losses were
terrible, and many gallant men from the North
were sent to their last home. At first the wound
of General Hancock was believed to be fatal. He
had had many miraculous escapes. He never
spared himself, while more than careful of the —
lives of his men, and it is remarkable that with
' his conspicuous action and striking figure, he was
not earlier struck down.

Borne to Norristown, near his native place, hav-
ing been followed all the way by the blessings and
cheers of a grateful people, he had such a welcome
as can never be forgotten. His position in the
railway-car, where he was placed at length on a
stretcher laid over the backs of the seats, drew to
his side many sympathizing friends, who gathered
to testify their warm admiration and praise. Ar-
rived at the station, he was met by a detachment
of the veteran guards, who tenderly placed him
on their shoulders, bearing him through the streets.
The inhabitants along the route, as may be well
supposed, were deeply moved by the sight. Not
knowing the extent of his wounds, and seeing him
thus: prostrate in the hands .ot soldiers marching
with steady steps on the side-walk, they watched
the scene with peculiar interest,

Twenty-three years before, he had left his
father’s house a stripling, and since then served in
every section of the republic, passing through
many dangers: and now in the thirty-ninth year
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 149

of his age, he came back to his parents and his
friends one of the most envied and honored citi-
' gens of the republic he had so often risked his life -
to save, and though severely injured in a con-
flict that came as near losing the life. of the Re-
public as his own, still happy in the supreme
sepse of duty done. |

In turning over the newspapers of the day, it is
gratifying to find the universality of the honors
paid to him. There was but one sentiment in all
parties: he had done the great work; he had
received the unprompted and stupendous com-
_ pliment of his illustrious Commander-in-chief,
General Meade. His companions-in-arms, from
his equals in rank to the privates in the great
army, hailed him with admiration and love; and
his government, alike of the State and the nation,
recognized the signal efficiency of his prompt and
glorious valor. At that time nobody remembered
his politics; nobody thought of him save as a pa-
triotic soldier.

After many weeks of repose, his active and. dis-
interested mind yearned for the scenes he had left,
and his ardent nature panted to participate in the
still progressing struggle. But his wound was of
such a nature as to compel the utmost care, and
he could only write to his friends and his wife and
children at St. Louis by means of an amanuensis.
He was wounded on the 3d of July, 1863, and a
year after, July 4, 1864, his. townsmen, at the
150 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

instigation of several of his schoolmates, under the
direction principally of B. C. Chain, Esq., of Nor-
ristown, a service of gold and silver plate was pre-
pared and presented to him. There were nine
pieces elaborately embossed, bearing the following
inscription :
TO
MAJOR GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK,
FROM
CITIZENS OF HIS BIRTH-PLACE,
NORRISTOWN,
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA,

JULY 4th, :
1864.

e

The cost of this testimonial was $1600, but the
value to the recipient cannot be computed in silver ©
or in gold. It is a pleasant reminder of the days
spent as a boy in Norristown, and a proof more
‘precious than jewels that the companions of his
youth had not forgotten him, nor the manly part
he took in those early scenes. He had always
been a leader among them, and this appropriate
memorial was a new assurance that. they held him
worthy to be a commander of a great army of
patriots as they now believe he has earned the
higher honors of presiding over the nation it-
self.

Previous to these evidences of affection from his
own people, he made a visit to New York, and
stopped at the Fifth Avenue Hotel there, where he
immediately began to make certain military
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 151,

t

arrangements on September 15, 1863, in order that
he might hasten his return to the battle-field.
The receptions that greeted him in his native
county, in Philadelphia and other places, were fol-
lowed up in the great metropolis; and his greet-
ing at West Point by his comrades-in-arms, was
altogether remarkable. All of his fellow cadets
were gone, some of the professors had gone, but
the scenes of other days came fréshly back upon
him, and he lived again in the haunts and studies
of his young manhood.

Now he proceed to the home of his father-in-
law, “Longwood,” near St. Louis, Missouri, where
his wife and children anxiously awaited him.
‘Under date of October 12, 1863, he writes to his
own father at Norristown :

“T threw aside my crutches a few days after my arrival, and now
walk with a cane. I am improving, but do not yet walk without a lit-
tle ‘roll? My wound is still unhealed, though the doctors say it is
closing rapidly. I find some uneasiness in sitting long on a chair, and
cannot yet ride. The bone appears to be injured, and may give me
trouble for a long time. I hope, however, I may be well enough in
two weeks to join my Corps.

“Tam busy in trimming up the forest trees in the lawn of ‘ Long-
wood,’ which covers nearly eleven acres. I know it is not the best
time; but still it will do. ‘

«Allie and the children send their best love toyou and mother.

“Please give my best love to mother, and I remain, as ever,

“Your affectionate son,

WINFIELD 8. Hancock.”
“To B. F. Hancock, Esq., Norristown, Pa.” Ht
152 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

HANCOCK IN PHILADELPHIA AFTER THE BATTLE.

Before General Hancock passed on to Norris-
town, after the battle, he was compelled to stay
over in Philadelphia for rest, and while here the
city was ringing with the double victory of Vicks-
burg and Gettysburg. He got here just as the news |
of Grant’s thrilling capture of the Southern strong- |
‘ hold became known, and he was besieged with the
shouts of victory, but the shattered soldier was in
a poor condition for company. My other friend,
General Daniel E. Sickles, had just about that |
time come to Washington, where I met him, while \
life was hanging by a thread, the 10th of July,
1863. The Press spoke of these two heroes as
follows : .

“Major-General Winfield S. Hancock, commanding the 2d Army
Corps of the Potomac, has arrived in this city, and is quartered at the
La Pierre House. TheGeneral was wounded in the recent fight, while,
like 4he lamented Reynolds gallantly defending the soil of his native
state. Genernal Hancock has been in all the battles of the Army of
the. Potomac, and is a brave and fearless officer, and has won for him-
self the admiration of all our old veterans. Generals Hancock and
Sickles were both wounded about the same time, but it was through
their united energy and determination that the rebels in their frightful
charge were repulsed, and the victory of that day secured to our arms.”

On the same day The Press had the following
from my correspondent at Gettysburg :

July 3, 1863.—At 2 o'clock, P. M., Friday, Longstreet’s whole corps
adyanced from the rebel centre. The enemy’s forces wore hurled upon,
our position by columns in mass, and also in lines of battle. Our centre
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK.’ 153

was held by General Hancock, with the noble old 2d Army Corps aided
by a portion of the lst Corps. The rebels opened a terrific artillery
bombardment to demoralize our men, and then moved their forces with
great impetuosity upon our position. Hancock received the attack with
great firmness, and, after a furious battle lasting until five o’clock, the
enemy were driven from the ‘field, Longstreet’s corps being almost
annihilated. .

“The battle was a most magnificent spectacle. It was fought on an
open plain just south of Gettysburg, with. not a troe to interrupt the
view. The courage of our men was perfectly sublime. At5 P.M,
what was left of the enemy retreated in utter confusion, leaving dozens
of flags, and General Hancock estimated at least five thousand killed
and wounded on the field.”

“The battle was fought by General Hancock with splendid valor.
He won imperishable honor, and General Meade thanked him in the
name of the army and the country. He was wounded in the thigh, but
remained on the field.”

How striking the contrast between this out-
pouring of the popular heart and the howl of the
ring office-hoJders to-day! In 1863 there was not
a Republican, scholar, mechanic, or merchant,
that did not hold and proclaim these views and
proudly class Hancock as his fellow-citizen. Now
read also from The Press what the people did while
Hancock was lying, as was supposed, at death’s
door :

THE CIVIC CELEBRATION.

THE CHESTNUT STREET THEATRE.

No where was the Anniversary of our National Independence more
appropriately or more spiritedly observed than at the new Chestnut
Street Theatre, which was crowded in the evening. The stage was bril-
liantly decked with American flags, and our National Anthems, “ Hail
Columbia,” “Yankee Doodle” and the “Star Spangled Banner,” were
154 LIFE AND. PUBLIC CAREER OF

played by the Orchestra, with thrilling effect, the audience applauding :
repeatedly. Upon the rising of the curtain, Mrs. Bowers, personating
the Goddess of Liberty, stepped forward with a handsome silk flag in
hand and repeated Drake’s immortal address to the American flag. At
almost every couplet she was interrupted with the wildest bursts of en-
thusiasm, and when she pronounced the closing stanza:
“Flag of the free hearts’ hope and home,
By angel hands to valor given,
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,
_And all thy hues were born in Heaven!
For ever float that standard sheet;
Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With freedom’s soil beneath our feet
And freedom’s banner streaming o’er us,”
the cheering was almost deafening. When she had concluded, the “Star
Spangled Banner” was sung by the entire company, the solo being by
Mrs, Charles Henri, Mrs. J. L. Barrett and Mr. J. L. Barrett. The
“ Peep O'Day,” the great Irish sensation drama—a legitimate sensation
—followed. As the period is the Rebellion of ’98, many of the passages
have an appropriate bearing on our owri times, and Father O’Leary was
loudly applauded when he expressed the hope that all the Confederates
would imitate the example of the Peep O’Day boys, and lay down -
their arms.

THE SPIRIT OF 76 AND THE FIRST PRAYER IN CONGRESS.

As we stood in Independence Square yesterday, and listened to the
echoing peals of the State-House bell, the following beautiful poem—
perhaps we might call it prophecy—from the pen of a well- known citizen,
recurred to our mind, and, amid the new associations of the hallowed
place seemed invested with new meaning and beauty. It was sent us for
publication by Mrs, B. J. Leedom :

No self was there when the solemn prayer
Arose from the patriot band ;

Who stood in the night for God and the right
Of freedom throughout the land,

When the old bell toll’d on the simmer air
The spirit of Justice heard:the prayer,
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 155

Fervent yet low werg the words that flew |
From heart to heart that day,

And hand grasped hand as the patriot band
Prepared them for the fray,

And the old bell toll’d so loud and clear,

Our lives for our country we know no fear.

From mountain and dell, at the sound of that bell
Came the hardy children of toil;

From valley and glen sprang the sturdy old men
And the youth left the plough in the soil.

When the old bell rung, o’er the mountains afar

The children of peace became veterans in war..

Firm as a rock, they meet the shock
Of England’s serried band,
And back from the coast they scattered the host
Of the foeman from out the land,
And the old bell rang through the summer or trees,
As the “Star Spangled Banner” was flung to the breeze.

The tones that fell from that liberty bell
Shall sweep over land and sea,
Till the sceptre and crown shall tumble’ down,
And the nations all are free,
And the old bell spirit shall ring through the world
Till the banner of ‘Christ be alone unfurled.

A PATRIOTIC COINCIDENCE. EDWIN FORREST ON
GRANT AND HANCOCK.

While our people were in the midst of felicitations
over their release from the horrors incidental to a
successful invasion, I made a visit with my intimate
companion of many a year, Edwin Forrest, to the
Cathedral, on 18th Street, near Race, Philadelphia,
both of us having been invited to the hospitalities of
Archbishop Wood, by my old friend, Father McCo- .
156 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

nomy, of Lancaster, since ,deceased, and sev--

eral members of the church. They gave us a
hearty welcome. Forrest was never more delight-
ful. He literally kept the table in a roar. His full
mind seemed to run over with reminiscences of
his altogether charming and eventful life. Like
the rest of the company, he was in high glee over
the success of General Hancock at Gettysburg,
taking opportunity to speak of his: admiration of
the gallant soldier; for Forrest, while an ardent
patriot, was also a very ardent Democrat, and he

was proud because so much glory and honor had-

been achieved by his friend, General Hancock.
He repeated some of his finest recitations, among
them that wonderful production, “The Idiot
Boy,” and seemed to be especially pleased at his
capacity to make others pleased. _One of the
clerical gentlemen was so much carried away by
the Idiot Boy, that he took down a copy of the
poem itself. And not only to present it.to the

readers of this, hurried history, do I give it here, -

but because it marks the particular, coincidence
which I often referred to in after days, and which
dear Forrest loved to talk about:

THE IDIOT BOY.

“Tt had pleased God to form poor Ned
A thing of idiot mind,
Yet, to the poor unreasoning boy,
God had not been unkind.

:
e

WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. -157

* Old Sarah loved her helpless child,

Whom helplessness made dear ;
And he was everything to her,
Who knew no hope or fear.

“She knew his wants, she understood
Each half-articulate call,
For he was everything to her,
And she to him was all.

“ And so for many a year they lived,
Nor knew a wish beside ;
But age at last on Sarah came,
And she fell sick—and died.

“He tried in vain to waken her,
He called her o’er and o'er;
They told him she was dead!
* The words to.him no import bore.

“They closed her eyes and shrouded her,
While he stood wondering by,
And when they bore her to the grave,
He followed silently.

«They laid her in the narrow house,
They sung the funeral stave;
And when the fun’ral train dispersed,
He lingered by that grave.

“ The rabble boys that used to jeer
Whene’er they saw poor Ned, *
Now stood and watched him by the grave,
' And not a word they said.

“They came and went and came again,
Till night at last came on;
Yet still he lingered by the grave,
Till every one had gone.
158 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

“ And when he found himself alone,
He swift removed the clay ;
Then raised the coffin up in haste,
And bore it awift away.
“He bore it to his mother’s cot,
‘ And laid it on the floor,
And with the eagerness of joy
He barred the cottage docr.

“Then out he took his mother’s corpse,
And placed it on a chair; _
And soon he heaped the hearth,
And made the kindling fire with care,

“ He had put his mother in her chair,
And in its wonted place,
And then he blew the fire, which shdne,
Reflected in her face.

“ And, pausing now, her hand would feel,
And then her face behold:

‘** Why, mother do you look so pale,
And why are you so cold ?”

“Tt had pleased God from the poor wretch
His only friend to call;
Yet God was kind to him, and soon
In death restored him all”

After Forrest had delighted our little company,
we said good-by to the agreeable hosts, and quietly
walked in the dark over to Chestnut street, when
he said to me, “ What is the matter with the town,
it seems to be unusually light? Isit a fire? Or
is it a jubilee?” It was the 6th of July, 1863—
when he answered his own quéstion—“ Great
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 159

heavens! I think Vicksburg has fallen.” And so
it proved to be. In the midst of our rejoicing over
the victory at Gettysburg, won chiefly by General »
Hancock, a Pennsylvanian, here came the intelli- |
gence that on the same anniversary of Ameri-
can independence, another friend of Forrest, Gen-
eral Ulysses S. Grant, had captured that great point
on the Mississippi River, and so. forever re-opened
that pathway to the sea.

What a jolly night it was! what a supplement
and sequel to the unparalleled Saturday and Sun-
day before, when the masses of all parties rose,
full of gratitude for the victory of Gettysburg.
And now, as if God Himself had - directed the
similarity, while our sacred flag was floating in
triumph over the Confederates at one point, a
victory almost as essential was achieved under
the same banner at another. 3

How eloquent Forrest was that evening! a
full of praise of Grant! how the democratic poli-
tics of my dramatic friend broke out! “Here
we have two of the grandest achievements in
history; two of the most decisive victories for
liberty; two events that will close out this hateful
war and finally bring peace and brotherhood to,
this distracted nation, and won by two democrats!
What have you-got to say to that, my black re-
publican friend?” He was so delighted with the
night, that I never saw him in finer spirits. The
world never produced a more interesting man, and

11
160 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

I think he had no equal on any stage, American or
European. Poor Forrest! He has gone to his long
home, and we ne’er shall look upon his like again.
It was indeed a remarkable coincidence. The
news came by a despatch from acting. Rear Ad-
miral Porter, dated Flag-ship “Black Hawk,”
July 4th, 1863, as follows: “I have the honor to ~
inform you that Vicksburg has surrendered to the
United States forces on this 4th of July.”

In the evening of the. 5th, President Lineoln
made a great speech from the Executive Mansion
in the city of Washington, in which he. spoke of
the magnificent courage of the troops at Gettys-
burg, who fought so rapidly, that their victories
might be called “one great battle!” Stanton suc-
ceeded in a speech in which he referred in high
eulogy to the recent deeds of the Army of the Po-
tomac at Gettysburg. Gen. Halleck, Senators Wli-
son, Wilkinson, Lane, of Kansas; Representatives
Washburn and Arnold also made speeches. Mr.
Seward in reply remarked that “No nation could
be saved without sacrifices; that if he could not
save the country, he was here at the expense ‘of
all he held dear, he wished to be buried in its -
ruins.’
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK, 161

CHAPTER V.
EDWARD EVERETT AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN

PLEADING FOR RECONCILIATION WITH THE SOUTH ON THE BATTLE-
FIELD OF GETTYSBURG SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO.

T will be seventeen years on the 19th of next
November since I stood at the side of Edward.
Everett and Abraham Lincoln, at the dedication
of the Gettysburg Cemetery, and heard those two
historic men, a singular contrast to each other, the
one the rugged, simple, honest, unsectional Presi-
dent of the United States, the other the polished,
conservative, yet glowing and classic orator of
Massachusetts, speaking above the graves of the
martyrs who fell at Gettysburg on the Ist, 2d and
3d of July previous, in the hearing of living
thousands before and around them. Among those
on the stand were Secretary of State Seward, the
Ministers of France and Italy, the French Admi-
ral, Governor Curtin, who had just been re-elected
by a tremendous majority, members of Con-

gress and many representatives of the army and
10
162 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

the navy. “One of the most impressive features
of the solemnity,” says Mr. David Wills, of Get-
tysburg, (whose unwearied labors in the organiza-
tion and completion of this Campo Santo on Ceme-
tery Hill ought never to be forgotten) “in the pro-
cession and.on the grounds was a delegation of
about fifty wounded soldiers of the Army of the
Potomac from the York hospital. These men had
been wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, and
were present with the delegation:to pay this just
tribute to the remains of their fallen comrades.
During the exercises their blanched cheeks were
frequently suffused with tears.”

Mr. Lincoln’s benediction—I will not call it a
speech—is almost as familiar as the Lord’s prayer,
and the oration of Mr. Everett, grand and won-
derful as it was thrilled the world; yet Mr. Eve-
rett said to Mr. Lincoln, at the close of this
unrivalled address, “Ah! Mr. Lincoln, I would
gladly give all my forty pages for your twenty
lines.”

Of Mr. Everett’s masterful discourse I wrote from
Washington on the 25th of November, 1863, as
follows:

“What I wish to hint this morning is, that the friends of the Union
should preserve and promulgate the truths he has set forth. Principles
and maxims which are the offspring of eternal truth, can never be im-
' proved upon. There 1s nothing more exact, and severe, and unde-
viating than the right. But there are many ways to illustrate and
defend the richt; many ways to make plain nrincivle loak brighter to
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 163

the common mind; many ways to strengthen and enforce the un,
changing maxims of good government and good men. 2

And yet, seventeen years ago Abraham Lincoln
and Edward Everett both pleaded for peace on the
battle-field still ridged with the graves of the mar-
tyrs, and both predicted the reconciliation of the
sections. Edward Everett himself, spoke | these
wonderful words :

. EVERETT’S ORATION.

No man can deplore more than I do, the miseries of every kind una-
voidably incident to war. Who could stand in this spot and call to
mind the scenes of the first day of July with any other feelings.? A sad
foreboding of what would ensue if war should break out between North
and South, has haunted me through life, and led me, perhaps too - ‘long,
to tread in the path of hopeless compromise, in the fond endeavor to con-
ciliate those who were pre-determined not to be conciliated. But it ig
not true, as it is pretended by the Rebels and their sympathizers, that
the war has been carried on by the United States without entire regard
to those temperaments which are enjoined by the law of nations, by
our modern civilization, and by the spirit of Christianity. It would
be quite easy to point out, in the recent military history of the leading
European powers, acts of violence and cruelty, in the prosecution of
their wars, to which no parallel can be found among us.

Tn fact, when we consider the peculiar bitterness with which civil
wars are almost -invariably waged, we may justly boast of the manner
in which the United States have carried on the contest. It is of
course impossible to prevent the lawless acts of stragglers and deserters,
or the occasional unwarrantable proceedings of subordinates on distant
stations; but I do not believe there is, in all history, the record of a
civil war of such gigantic dimensions where so little has veen done in
the spirit of vindictiveness as in this war, by the Government and com-
manders of the United States. ~

No, my friends, that gracious Providence which oyerrules all things

ge
164 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

)

for the best, “from seeming evil still educing good,” has so constituted
our natures, that the violent excitement of the passions in one direction
is generally followed by a reaction in the opposite direction, and the
sooner for the violence. If it were not so—if injuries inflicted and
retaliated of necessity led to new retaliations, with forever accumulating
compound interest of revenge, then the world, thousands of years ago,
would have been turned into an earthly hell, and the nations of the
earth would have been resolved into clans of furies and demons, each
forever warring with his neighbor. But it is not so; all history teaches
a different lesson. The wars of the Roses in England lasted an entire
generation, from the battle of St. Albans in 1455, to that of Bosworth
Field, in 1485. Speaking of the former, Hume says: “This was the first
blood spilt in that fatal quarrel, which was not finished in less than a
eourse of thirty years; which was signalized by twelve pitched battles ;
which opened a scene of extraordinary fierceness and cruelty, is com-

_ puted to have cost the lives of eighty princes of the blood, and almost
entirely annihilated the ancient nobility of England. The strong attach-
ments which at that time men of the same kindred bore to each other,
and the vindictive spirit which was considered a point of honor, ren-
dered the great families implacable in their resentments and widened
every moment the breach between the parties.” Such was the state of
things in England, under which an entire generation grew up; ‘but
when Henry VII, in whom the titles of the two houses were united,
went up to London after the battle of Bosworth Field, to mount the
throne, he was everywhere received with joyous acclamations, “as
one ordained and sent from heaven to put an end to the dissensions”
which had s0 long afflicted the country.

The great Rebellion in England of the seventeenth century, after long
and angry premonitions, may be said to have begun with the calling
of the Long Parliament in 1640, and to have ended with the return of
Charles II, in 1650 ,—_twenty years of discord, conflict and civil war, of
confiscation, plunder, havoc; a proud hereditary peerage trampled i in
the dust, a national church overturned, its clergy beggared, its most
eminent prelate put to death, a military despotism established on the

‘ yuins of a monarchy which had subsisted seven hundred years, and the
v

WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 165

legitimate sovereign brought to the block; the great families which ad-
hered to the king proscribed, impoverished, ruined ; prisoners of war—
a fate worse than starvation in Libby—sold to slavery in the West In-
dies; in a word, everything that can embitter and madden contending
factions. Such was the state of things for twenty years, and yet, by no
gentle transition, but suddenly, and “when the restoration of affairs
appeared most hopeless,” the son of the beheaded sovereign was brought
back to his father’s blood-stained throne, with such « inexpressible and
universal joy,” as led the merry monarch to exclaim, “He doubted it
had been his own fault he had been absent so long, for he saw nobody
who did not protest he had ever wished for his return.” ‘In this
wonderful manner,” says Clarendon, ‘‘and with this incredible expedi-
tion did God put an end toarebellion that had raged near twenty
years, and had been carried on with all the horrid circumstances of
murder, devastation, and parricide, that fire and sword, in the hands of
the most wicked men in the world” [it is a royalist that: is speaking, |
“could be the instruments of, almost to the desolation of two kings
doms, and the exceeding defacing and deforming of thethird..... By
these remarkable steps did the merciful hand of God, in this short space
of time, not only bind up and heal all those wounds, but even made the
scar as undiscernible as, in respect of the deepness, was possible, which
was a glorious addition to the deliverance.

In Germany, the wars of the Reformation of Charles V., in the six-
teenth century; the Thirty Years’ War in the seventeenth century ;
the Seven Years’ War in the eighteenth century, not to speak of other
less celebrated contests, entailed upon that country all the miseries of
intestine strife for more than three centuries. At the close of the last-
named war—which was the shortest of all, and waged in a most civi-
lized age—* an officer,” says Archenholz, “rode through seven villages
in Hesse, and found in them but one human being.” More than three
hundred principalities, comprehended in the Empire, fermented with
fierce passions of proud and petty states; at the commencement of this
period, the castles of robber counts frowned upon every hill-top; a
dreadful secret tribunal, whose seat no one knew, whose power none
could escape, froze the hearts of men with terror throughout the land
166 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

religious hatred mingled its bitter poison in the seething cauldron of
provincial animosity: but of all these dreadful enmitjes between the
states of Germany, scarcely the memory remains. There are controver-
sies in that country at the present day, but they grow mainly out of
rivalry of the two leading powers. There is no country in the world.
in which the sentiment of national brotherhood is stronger.

In Italy, on the breaking up of the Roman Empire, society might be
said to be resolved into its original elements—into hostile atoms, whose
‘only movement was that of mutual repulsion. Ruthless barbarians had
destroyed the old organizations, and covered the land with a merciless
feudalism. As the new civilization sprang up, under the wing of the
Church, the noble families and the walled towns, fell madly into the
conflict with each other; the secular feud of Pope and Emperor
scourged the land, province against province, city against city, street
against street, waged remorseless war with each other from father to
gon, till Dante was able to fill his imaginary hell with the real demons
of Italian history.. So ferocious had the factions become that the great

. poet-exile himself, the glory of his native city and of his native lan-
guage, was, by a decree of the municipality, condemned to be burned
alive if found in the city of Florence. But these deadly feuds and
hatreds yielded to political influences, as the hostile cities were grouped
into states under stable governments; the lingering traditions of the
ancient animosities gradually died away, and now Tuscan and Lom-
bard, Sardinian and Neapolitan, as if to shame the degenerate sons of
America, are joining in one cry for a united Italy.

In: France, not to go back to the civil wars of the League in the
sixteenth century, and of the Fronde, in the seventeenth; not to speak
of the dreadful scenes throughout the kingdom, which followed the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes; we have, in the great revolution
which commenced at the close of the last century, seen the blood-
hounds of civil strife let loose as rarely before in the history of the
world. The Reign of Terror, established at Paris, stretched its bloody
Briarean arms to every city and village in the land, and if the most dead-
ly feuds that ever divided a people, had the power to cause permanent
alienation and hatred, this surely was the occasion. But far otherwise
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 167

the fact. In seven years from the fall of Robespierre, the strong arm.
of the youthful conqueror brought order out of this chaos of crime and
woe. Jacobins whose hands were scarcely cleaned. from the best blood
of France met the returning emigrants, whose estates they had confis-
cated, and whose kindred they had dragged to the guillotine, in the
Imperial antechambers ; and when, after another turn of the wheel of
fortune, Louis XVIII. was restored to his throne, he took the regicide
Fouché, who had voted for his brother’s death, to his cabinet and
confidence.

And now, friends, fellow-citizens of Gettysburg and Pennsylvania,
and you from remoter States, let me again, as we part, invoke your be-
nediction on these honored graves. You feel, though the occasion is
mournful that it is good to be here. You feel that it is greatly auspi-
cious for the cause of the country that the men of the East and the men
of the West, the men of nineteen sister States, stood side by side on
the perilous ridges of the battle. We now feel it a new bond of union,
that they shall lie side by side, till a clarion, louder than that which
marshals them to combat, shall awake their slumbers. God bless the
Union,—it is dearer to us for the blood of brave men which has been
shed in its defense. The spots on which they stood and fell, these plea-
sant heights, the fertile plain beneath them, the thriving village whose
streets so lately rang with the strange din of war, the fields beyond the
ridge, where the noble Reynolds held the advancing foe at bay, and
while he gave up his own life, assured by his forethought and self-sacri-
fice, the triumph of the two succeeding days, the little streams which
wind through the hills, on whose banks in after times the wondering
plowman will turn up with the rude weapons of savage warfare, the
fearful missiles of modern artillery; Seminary Ridge, the Peach Orch-
ard, Cemetery, Culp, and Wolf Hill, Roundtop, Little Roundtop, humble
names, henceforward dear and farnous,—no lapse of time, no distance
of space, shall cause you to be forgotten. “The whole earth,” said
Pericles, as he stood over the remains of his fellow-citizens who had
fallen in the first year of the Peloponnesian war, “the whole earth is a
sepulchre of illustrious men.’ All time, he might have added, is the
millennium of their glory.- Surely I would do no injustice to the other
168. LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

noble achievements of the war, which have reflected such honor on
both arms of the service, and have entitled the armies and the navy of
the United States, their officers and men, to the warmest thanks and the
richest rewards which a grateful people can pay. But they, I am sure,
will join us in saying, as we bid farewell to the dust of these martyr-
heroes, that wheresoever throughout the civilized world the accounts of
this great warfare are read, and down to the latest period of recorded
time in the glorious annals of our common country there will be no
brighter page than that which relates to the Battle of Gettysburg.”

Seventeen years have elapsed since this splen-
did prophecy was made, and so far as most of
the Republican partisans in the United States
are concerned, there is still no peace. The South is
still distrusted by these politicians; commerce,
industry, trade, manufactures and the religious
bodies of all denominations, and the masses of our
people, all hunger for peace and friendship and
reconciliation. Only place-seekers ahd placemen
protest. against the universal petition and prayer.

Both these remarkable men have passed away ;
Abraham Lincoln on the 14th of April, 1865,
even while he was pledging the nation to for-
giveness of the misguided men who had taken up
arms against it, and Edward Everett January
15th, 1865, a little less than three months pre-
vious.

It will be recollected that only three days
before Lincoln’s assassination, when he spoke from
the portals of the White House, while the old flag
was wreathed in victory, the heart of the great
people palpitating with relief from civil war, he
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 169

had nothing to say for the South but kindness,
even punctuating his very last public address by
humorously remarking that, “We have captured
the Confederacy; and ‘Dixie’ must be played with
Yankee Doodle and the Star-Spangled Banner.”

It is a simple question whether, as against ‘all
these memories of the past and all these hopes of
the present; whether, when everything is demand-
ing oblivion to painful recollections, that the des-
perate party managers for their own sake should
be permitted to stand in the way? How wonder-
fully Mr. Everett’s prophecies have been fulfilled !
How in dissipating faction, calumny, and all man-
ner of human weakness ; how, above all, in despite
of the plots and counterplots of the politicians,
the great cause of civilization continues to grow.

Washington Irving tells us that “from the grave
the flowers of charity eternally spring.” And if this
be true of one grave, how much more true should
it be of a million graves? Besides, in our coun-
try more than any other, with its latitudes and
moving masses, with its varied productions and
populations, with its changing skies and changing
opinions, there is a perennial and eternal motive
for the oblivion of national prejudices. What Mr.
Everett said nearly seventeen years ago, like the
seed blown along the breezes to all quarters of the
world, has ever since been growing and producing
and multiplying.
170 LIFE AND. PUBLIC CAREER.OF

HANCOCK CARRIES THE FLAG OF RE-UN ION.

Both of these great men were statesmen ; both
old line Henry Clay Whigs; never radical, never
unreasonable, always forgiving. -Everett’s cosmo-
politan education, his diplomatic experience, his
gentle character, made him judicial and philoso-
phic. Lincoln, born in Hardin County, Ken-
tucky, reared in Illinois, trained to border life,
simple, ‘honest, and too full of humor to be a fierce
partisan, was the very best type of a tolerant and
patient philanthropist. If Lincoln and Everett were
alive to-day they would be precisely where Horace
Greeley, Andrew G. Curtin, and Charles Sum-
ner stood in 1872; they would be for Hancock,
because while Bantock carried the flag of the
Union at*Gettysburg, he now carries the flag of
re-union. Lincoln and Everett would ask « Haw.
long, O Lord, how long is this unfriendly sectional
feud to be protracted?” This was the lesson of their
too gentle and forgiving lives; and in the exqui-
site chapter you have just read from the Gettys-
burg oration (by the great speaker who pronounced
his celebrated discourse on Washington over one
hyndred times, in order that the ladies of both
sections might purchase the home and grave of the
father of his country) he propounded and. illus-
trated those unrivalled teachings which, first
taught by our Saviour on the Mount, will continue
to grow among men and to guide and control civil-
ization through countless ages. I grant that the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 171

Southern authors of our civil war, ag they now all
admit themselves, assumed a terrible responsibil-
ity. But as you read the experience of other na-
tions, does not the question come quick to your
lips, What possible good can accrue to any party
in this country by prolonging a sectional conflict ?

Modern history repeats the ancient story so mag-
nificently recalled by the splendid rhetorician, Ed-
ward Everett. France has just completed the full
amnesty of the returning communists; and when,
during Louis Napoleon’s reign, he pardoned some
prisoners who had organized a conspiracy for which
they were’ banished the empire, one of his courtiers
wanted to know if he did not think the exercise
of such clemency was dangerous? His reply,
even from the lips of a man who perjured himself
afterwards and plunged his country into an unne-
cessary war with Germany, returns now as a star
to light our own way in the path of complete for-
_giveness of our own offenders “If my Govern:
ment,” said the Emperor, “cannot afford to let these
men free, my Government does not deserve to
live.”

But in this case the election of General Han-
cock is a new sacrament of the great act of the
amnesty, well prefigured by Edward Everett on
the sacred soil of Gettysburg, and afterwards de-
manded, in the Senate Chamber of the United
States, by that greater Senator from Massachusetts,
Charles Sumner. It isnot even humanity that we.
172 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

should continue to encourage what is popularly
called a solid South; and there is but one way to
dissolve that same solid South, and that is to show
the spirit manifested by Louis Napoleon to the
men who offended him twenty years ago. You
must trust those you forgive, or there can be no
confidence. What true American is afraid to trust
the South? Have we, within the last ten years,
as ‘Republicans, earned so supreme a title to the
possession of this Government and to the confi-
dence of this people, that we should insist upon
the perpetual possession of national power? Are
we authorized to proscribe? Are our prerogatives
so God-like? I think not. And is it true wisdom
to maintain a bitter, acrid, angry population on our
flanks after forgiving them, after restoring them to
all their franchises, only to gratify the worst
elements of the North? For it cannot be denied
that in a great degree the Republican leadership
has fallen into the hands of men who have not only
forgotten great Republican ideas, but have
turned the Republican party into a mere machine
for personal profit or personal punishment. Our
civil war has been the energetic educator of both
sides; the war has been an evangelist; the war has
been a revolutionist; the war has been a school-
master to whites and to blacks; and if to-morrow
General Hancock were inaugurated President of
the United States, no matter how anxious some of
the Confederate politicians might be to restore
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 173

certain ancient abuses, the very education of the
war would not only restrain, but admonish and
over-awe them.

Suppose the tables had been turned? Suppose’
slavery had been fastened upon us at the North,
feeding us, enriching us, spoiling us? I think we
should have contended quite as lustily and as
bravely as the South did to retain so useful and
gratuitous a contributor. Thus in the long run, —
before we conclude to maintain the crusade against
another people, our own blood and brawn, let us
quietly put on the shoes of these offenders our-
selves, and try how we would act in their circum-
stances.

Seventeen years are long enough to keep: any
people in a political purgatory, long enough to
hold any people in a party quarantine, long
enough to fetter in the prison-house of sectiorial-:
ism eight millions of our own brothers. What
does the modern partizan fear whenever an at-
tempt is made by the Southern people to enter
into a share of the government, which we our-
selves voluntarily promised them, when in ex-
change for universal suffrage, we proffered them
universal amnesty? What do these men of the
“North who incidentally hold the purse-strings, the
money of our municipalities and States, and who
hold them, as well for their own purposes of parti-
zan plunder, as for their other purposes of politi- —
cal punishment, what do they fear? Not that the

\
174 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Democratic party, under its new inspiration, not
that the Democratic party. with Hancock, who
carried the flag of the Union to victory at Gettys-
burg, would ravage and ruin that same Union
when he carries the flag of re-union: not that.
The fear of the modern partizans who have now
‘control of the Republican’ party is, that General
Hancock, as President of the United States, may
be too wise, may be too modest, may be too
national—the fear that he will preserve the great
franchises and guarantees secured in the settle-
ment that succeeded the peace of Appomattox be-
tween Lee and Grant. This outcry against Han-
cock because he remains a Democrat, as half a
million of veterans remain who fought in the late
war, springs only from the misapprehension that
our great national soldier may be so prudent and
so careful that his party may be kept in power
as long as the Republican party itself. And if
this be so, who will not thank God for it; if by
such a compromise we can dissolve the solid South
and consolidate the whole Union into one, who.
will not rejoice ? ;

ORDERED TO WASHINGTON.

On the 15th of December, 1863, Hancock was
again ordered to Washington. His Gettysburg.
wound was not .yet healed, but he obeyed the ©
order with alacrity, and immediately reported.
himself for duty at the War Department.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 175

It was during this period that he was talked of
in influential circles for the command of the Army
of the Potomac. There is no impropriety in stat-
ing that it was at one time seriously contemplated
to place him in this position. He, however, did
not seek it; neither did his friends seek it for him..
On the contrary, he disclaimed all such desire;
and the most active of his immediate counsellors
were strenuous in their efforts to dissuade him
from accepting the command. On all becoming
oceasions he expressed the opinion that General
Meade was the man for the post; and that if he
were continued in active command and properly
supported by the authorities and the country, he.
would win great victories. » Passing results have
shown the wisdom as well as the magnanimity of
General Hancock in this matter. He well knew
by experience the obstacles in the way to success
with that army, at that peculiar juncture; and,
therefore, as we have said, he did not seek the ap-
pointment, neither did he desire his friends to seek:
it for him. There is good reason for stating, how-
ever, that if Gen. Meade had made a request to be
relieved, General Hancock would have relieved
him.

He was soon detailed to the responsible: work of
increasing the ranks of the army, by his personal
presence and exertions. Authority was given him
to augment his corps to fifty thousand effective
men. His headquarters were established at Har-
176 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

risburg, the capital of his native State, and he im-
mediately proceeded to the work among his fellow
Pennsylvanians. His language and measures on
the occasion were well chosen, and to the point,
his object being to recruit in all the States repre-
sented in the Second Corps.

Addressing the people of Pennsylvania, from
his - headquarters, at Harrisburg, under date of
January 15, 1864, he says:

“T have come among you as a, Pennsylvanian, for the purpose of en-
deavoring to aid you in stimulating enlistments. This is a matter of
interest to all of the citizens of the State. I earnestly call upon you all
to assist, by the exertion of all the influence in your power, in this im-
portant matter.

“To adequately reinforce our armies in the field is to insure that the
war will not reach your homes. It will be the meams of bringing it to
a speedy and haypy conclusion. It will save the lives of many of our
brave soldiers, who would otherwise be lost by the prolongation of the
war, and in indecisive battles.

“Tt is only necessary to destroy the rebel armies now in the field, to
insure a speedy and permanent peace. Let us all act with that fact in
view.

‘Let it not be said that Pennsylvania, which has already given so
many of her sons to this righteous cause, shall now, at the eleventh
hour, be behind her sister States in furnishing her quota of the men
deemed necessary to end this rebellion. Let it not be that those Penn-
sylvania regiments, now so depleted, that have won for themselves so
much honor in the field, shall pass out of existence, for want of patriot-
ism in the people.

WinrFievp 8S. Hancock,

Major General U.S. Volunteers.”
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 177

His success in recruiting was -equal to the ex-
pectations formed. Subsequent events have well
attested the efficiency of his measures. Facilities
for carrying out his patriotic design were offered
him in the cities of New York, Albany, Boston,
and other places.

At Philadelphia, in the ensuing month of Feb-
ruary, public demonstrations of respect awaited
him. The city government passed a series of re-
solutions, introduced by one of. his former play-
mates at Norristown, then a member of the coun-
cils, John W. Everman, Hsq., of which we here
present a copy:

OF THE,

SELECT AND COMMON |
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA.

WELCOME
TO

MAJOR GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK.

. Resolved, By the Select and Common Councils of the

CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, |

That the rHanxs of the Citizens of Philadelphia are eminently due,
and are hereby tendered to

MAJOR GENERAL HANCOCK,

for his brilliant services in the cause of the Unron, during the present
unholy Rebellion against the authority of the GovERNMENT AND
PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.

Resolved, That the use of INDEPENDENCE Hatt be granted to Major
General Hancock, for the reception of his friends, and in order to:
afford the Citizens of Philadelphia an opportunity to testify their per-

1 :
178 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

.sonal regard for him, and their appreciation of his gallantry and

patriotism.

Resolved, That the Mayor of Philadelphia and the Presidents of
Councils be requested to carry these resolutions into effect, and that the
Clerks of Councils be requested to furnish a copy of the same to Gen-

eral HANCOCK.
ALEXAND’E J. HARPER,
President of the Common Council.
[CITY SEAL.] JAMES Lynp,
President of the Select Council.

Attest: Wm. F. SMALL,
Clerk of Common Council.
Approved February 18th, 1864.
ALEX. HENRY,
_,Mayor.

The reception of the General and his friends
followed soon after, in Independence Hall. The
papers of the day describe the scene as one of the
most imposing that ever occurred within the walls
of the sacred old temple of American liberty.

On the ensuing 22d of February, the anniver-
sary of the birthday of Washington, General Han-
cock reviewed the volunteer troops of Philadelphia
and vicinity. The parade passed off in the most
spirited manner. The appearance of the General
on the field, surrounded by a brilliant staff, pass-
ing along the line with the troops arranged as if in
battle array, was full of excitement, and called
forth the loud plaudits of the immense throng of
citizens who witnessed the display.

‘At the close of the review an incident of a per-
sonal character occurred, which we narrate here,
as in keeping with the man and the scope of our
book.
- WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 179

The General had dismounted, at the close of the
day, and was about passing up the steps of the La
Pierre House, surrounded by the officers who es-
corted him, when his eye caught that of one of his
teachers in Norristown, Mr. E. Roberts, who was
standing, with his daughter, near the entrance to
the hotel. The General paused, and extending his
hand to the two friends of his early years, ex-
pressed his pleasure at meeting them, and intro-
duced them +o the gentlemen present. It was a
singular but agreeable meeting between the old
teacher and the now distinguished scholar.

“Call and see me at the hotel, Mr. Roberts,
when I am more at leisure,” said the General.
“ When I am a little stronger from the effects of
my wound, I will return the call.” At the ap-
pointed time, the teacher and scholar met again.
As Mr. Roberts entered the private room of the
General, at the La Pierre, he was lying on his
couch, suffering from the fatigue to which the
review of the previous day had subjected his
wounded limb. But he rose at once to pay the
respect due from a good scholar to a good teacher.
“Do not rise, General Hancock,” said Mr. Roberts;
“T feel, sir, that you are laying me under too
much obligation by doing so.” “No, Mr. Roberts,”
the General replied, “I shall always feel, sir, that
J.am under obligations to you.” “It is sufficient

honor for. me, General, to have had you for a
scholar.” “No, sir. I feel that my teachers have
180 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

all honored me. Beside, sir, you are much the
older man of the two; and my parents always
taught me to reverence grey hairs.” “I did not
have grey hairs when you first knew me, Gen-
eral.” True, sir. Our mutual obligations were
formed when we were both younger than now.
But I cannot omit to use my anatomy now, even
if it is impaired. Let me be ever so old, I can
never forget my school-teachers. I feel that my
experience in life has proved this to be true: as
is the teacher, so is the school-boy; as is the
school-boy, so is the man.” Other parties calling
in, this interesting interview was closed. But not
long after the General took his son Russell with
him, and called.on his old teacher. “This gentle-
man, my son,” said the General, “is one of the
teachers of your father, when, like you, he was a
boy. Remember always to respect the teacher of
your youth; and, should you live to become a
man, you will never regret it.”

Tuesday, July 12,1880, I had a visit from this
Mr. Roberts, the same venerable teacher of Gen.
Hancock, still living at 1516 Willington St., Phila-
delphia, in his eighty-fourth year. He laid before
me, in his own clear handwriting, the following
simple memoir of the General, and accompanied it
with the declaration that he had always been a
consistent Republican, but that he would cheerfully
vote for his affectionate pupil and his constant
friend:
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 181

a

“The recollections of the boyhood of General Winfield 8, Hancock
‘while for seven years my pupil in the Norristown Academy, remind
me of some of the early traits of his character, subsequently so fully
developed in the man. One of these traits was devotedness to his mother.
This was manifested in his solicitude to lighten the burden of her do-
mestic cares: One circumstance will. illustrate this trait, as. well-as
that which so distinguished the General.

One mornitg, while engaged in the performance of his filial duties, a
rude boy, passing by, taunted him. This aroused that spirit,,so con-
spicuously exhibited at Williamsburg, Fredericksburg and Antietam,
at Gettysburg and Spottsylvania, Rushing out with a household-
implement in his hand, and head bared, he pursued the offender for a
long distance through the principal street in the village—as it then was
—thoroughly chastising him for the insult. I think he never after
had occasion to resent a like indignity.

Another of these early recollections was a. Fourth of July celebration,
in which the Sunday-schools connected with the Presbyterian, Episco-
pal and Baptist Churches participated. The place was a pleasant grove
in the vicinity. Being requested by the pastor of the Presbyterian
Church to name some of the boys of the Academy to participate in the
exercises of reading and declamation, I selected Winfield S. Hancock.
to read the Declaration of Independence. He performed his part in a
‘very creditable manner.

On meeting him after an interval of more than twenty-five years,
during which we had not met, he spoke of this as among the ‘recollec-
tions of his boyhood, notwithstanding the terrible scenes through which’
he had so recently passed at Gettysburg: : :

Among the cherished recollections of the boy Winfield are some of'a
more personal character, being connected with the burials of my little,
boy and girl. On both occasiong he acted as pall-bearer.

OF those boys who thus officiated, the General and his twin- brother
are the only survivors, E. Roserts, a

It is this spirit of the man that stamps the
name of Hancock with peculiar honor. He was
182 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

always the same among his soldiers. An officer of’
the staff of another distinguished General, in al-
luding to this attribute of Hancock’s character,
says of him: “The attachment that he manifests.
for his brave soldiers is remarkable. While he.
despises a coward, if the humblest man in the
‘ranks should be the first to enter Richmond as a
conqueror, General Hancock would be among the
first to do him honor.”

Passing from ‘Philadelphia to New York, he was
received in the latter city with much distinction..
The Governor’s room, in the City Hall, was placed
at his disposal, for the reception of his friends, and
every measure adopted that could be of aid to him
in procuring recruits for his corps. A large number
of his troops were from the Empire State. They
were so much attached to his person, and their ac-
quaintances at home so participated in the feeling
of attachment, that when he presented himself to
the people he was claimed by them as a New
Yorker. This impression became so common, for
a time, that one of the publishers of that city an-
nounced a volume on his life as a New York Gen-
eral.

Passing to Albany, the capital of the State of |
New York, the Legislature paid him an official
tribute of respect for his distinguished services to
the country.

: The same honors were bestowed upon him in
Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, where the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 183

general court invited him to their representative
chamber, and where the merchants and other citi-
zens waited upon him at the City Exchange. His
agreeable manners, added to his well-known cour-
age and skill in battle, created the most favorable
impressions wherever he went on his tour of duty
through New England. Patriotic applause greeted
him at every point, and a considerable number of
fighting recruits flocked to his standard.

REFLECTIONS ON THE BATTLE—FIELD OF GETTYSBURG.

The present condition of the battle-field of
Gettysburg, like the present condition of the great
theatres of war in other countries, confirms and
emphasizes the idea of Landseer’s touching pic-
ture of Peace. The dismantled artillery deeply
embedded in the rich soil, covered with the debris
of time, and the innocent lamb quietly feeding
upon the sweet herbage growing in the silent
cannon’s mouth, is beautifully typified. The scene
itself is so tranquil, the Soldier’s Cemetery, such an
exquisite Campo Santo, and the artistic mau-
soleum of the dead who fell that the nation might
live, so eloquent, that I am disposed to hope the
day will come when the surviving veterans on
both sides, and the survivors’ sons,—those who

' fought on the first, second and third days of July,

1863, the citizen soldiery from the North and the
South, and the reconciled people of all the States,
including every race and condition of man,—shall
184 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

meet here on some future occasion to carry ct.
the idea of Col. Duncan K. McRea, of North.
Carolina, who led the Fifth North Carolina Regi-
ment at Williamsburg, and who was defeated by
General Winfield S. Hancock. Gettysburg would
then become indeed the Mecca of American Re-
conciliation.

A few days ago, anxious once more to visit the
lovely valley in which I stood on the 19th of
November, 1863, and heard Edward Everett pro-
nounce the unrivaled oration from which I have
copied, followed by Abraham Lincoln, in that
memorable utterance which reads like a poem and
prayer rather than the deliverance of a great:
statesman, I took the cars and found myself in
Gettysburg, after a restful ride in the silent and
odorous twilight only occasionally found in our
country in midsummer. Art, opulence and grati-
tude, have come to reinforce nature in the great
work of the decoration of the massive sepulchre,
keeping fresh and green the holy memories of the
martyred dead. To Governor Andrew G. Curtin
the credit must be awarded, of providipg for the
proper interment of our fallen heroes. He en-
trusted the plan to David Willis, of Gettysburg.
Acting under the instruction of the Governor, this.
accomplished gentleman purchased a lot of some
seventeen acres on Cemetery Hill, joining the
village Cemetery on the North and West, where
the centre of the Union line rested, and where
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 185

the guns of Steinwehr and the men of the
Eleventh Corps fought. The eighteen States,.
whose troops gained the battle, joined in this en-
- terprise. The title to the ground was vested in
the State of Pennsylvania, in trust for all the
States having dead buried there, and a corporate
body was created consisting of one from each
State, to serve without pay, to whom the care of
the Cemetery was confided, the expense to be.
‘borne in proportion to the representation in Con-
gress.

The design for a monument by J. J. Batterson,
of Hartford, Conn., . was adopted by the commis-
sioners, after the examination of a large number
submitted. This monument is very impressive;
and in this particular season of the year, amid
the richness of nature, the fields shaven of the
harvest just gathered, the trees and foliage yet
untouched by the coming autumn, the sweet peace
of the valley, the comfort of the surrounding
farms, the prosperity and safety of Gettysburg
- itself, with all its interesting lessons, make the —
cemetery aud the monument the most interesting

“objects of the vicinage.

The whole rendering of the design of the monu-
ment is intended to be purely historical, telling
its own story, with such simplicity as to be readily
comprehended. The superstructure is sixty feet
high, and consists of a massive pedestal twenty-_
five feet square at the base, crowned with a co-
186 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

lossal statue representing the genius of liberty.

Standing upon a three-quarter globe, she raises
with her right hand the victor’s wreath of laurel,

while at the left she gathers up the folds of our
national flag, under which the victory was won.
Projecting from the angles of the pedestal are
four buttresses, supporting an equal number of
allegorical statues, representing respectively war,

‘history, peace, and plenty. War is personified
by a statue of the American soldier, who, resting
from the conflict, relates to history the story of
the battle which the monument commemorates.
History, in listening attitude, records with stylus
and tablet the achievements of the field, and the
names of the honored dead. Peace. is symbolized -
by a statue of the American mechanic, character-
ized by appropriate accessories. Plenty is repre-
sented by a female figure, with a sheaf of wheat
and the fruits of the earth, typifying peace and
abundance as the soldier's crowning triumph.
The panels of the main die between the statues
are to have inscribed upon them such inscriptions
as may hereafter be determined. The main die
of the pedestal is octagonal-in form, paneled upon
each face, The cornice and plinth above are also
octagonal, and are heavily moulded. Upon this
plinth ‘rests an octagonal moulded base bearing
upon its face, in high relief, the national arms.
The upper die and cap are circular in form, the
die being encircled by stars equal: in number with
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. ‘ 187

the states whose sons contributed their lives as the
price of the victory won at Gettysburg.”

The Soldiers’ National Cemetery, now in charge
of the officials of the Government of the United
States, near Gettysburg, is the most perfect modern
mausoleum I ever saw. The ground was originally
purchased at ‘a cost of $197,000 by the State of
Pennsylvania, and to-day, in admirable condition,
is the most interesting object in Pennsylvania
after Independence Hall, Philadelphia. The
statue of Gen. John F. Reynolds is a striking
work of -art, like the central monument itself,
with the four figures of “War,” “History,”
“Peace,” and “ Plenty,” executed by Randolph
Rogers, at Rome, at the cost of $30,000. The
whole shaft is crowned with a colossal symbol of
victory ;—a fine combination, surrounded as it is
on the plateau where it stands by the graves
of known and unknown Union soldiers, and over-
looking a landscape of unrivaled loveliness.

All the graves of the martyred dead are divided,
by States, each sad contribution marked with the
name and age of the dead warrior; in addition
to these are nine hundred “ unknown.” Of those
known there are from Maine, 104; Michigan, 171;
New York, 867; Pennsylvania, 534; Massachusetts,
150; Ohio, 131; Indiana, 80; Maryland, 22; Min-
nesota, ‘52; Kentucky, 22; Wisconsin, 78; New
Jersey, 78; Vermont, 61; New Hampshire, 49;
Rhode Island, 12; Delaware, 15; West Virginia,
188 . 4 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

11; Illinois, 6, the graves of the regular soldiers,
138. There are few or no Southern graves left,
all having been taken home by an organization, of
which Mrs. Gen. Robert. E. Lee, of Virginia, was:
President.

The work of laying out the grounds, and suita-
bly adorning them, was performed by that emi-
nent landscape gardener, the late William Saun-
ders. It is unnecessary to say that his commis-
sion was executed with his best taste. Then a
contract was entered into with F. W. Biesecker,
to disinter the dead and to re-inter their remains
in their last resting-place. The work began on
the 27th of October, 1863,.and was completed on
the 18th of March following. The whole number
buried was 3512. The entire re-interment was
' effected by Samuel Weaver, who executed his
trust with great care. Hundreds had been un-
buried and translated to their own homes in the
North, West and South. Many of the bodies in
unmarked graves were identified in various ways.
Sometimes by letters, by papers, receipts, certifi-
cates, diaries, memorandum books, photographs,.
marks on the clothing, belts or cartridge boxes, by:
which means the names. of many supposed to be
forgotten soldiers were rescued. Money and other.
valuables, were found, which, when the residences
of the friends were known, were sent to them.
Words would fail to describe the grateful. relief. .
this work has brought to many a household! A
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK: 189

father, a brother, or son that had been lost or
killed, supposed to be forgotten, suddenly in the
progress of the search his remains were found,
- deposited in a coffin with care and buried on the
battle-field where he fell, the Soldiers’ National
Cemetery.

In another part of this volume are copious ex-
tracts from Mr. Everett’s masterly oration, and I
now add, in reference to the monument, that it
was formally dedicated the 1st of July, 1869, when
General Meade, himself, made an -address, Gover-
nor O. P. Morton, of Indiana, an oration, and Bay-
ard Taylor contributed an ode. These three men,
the model soldier, the accomplished statesman, and
the peerless poet, all sleep their last sleep. Gene-.
ral Meade died in Philadelphia on the 6th of No-
vember, 1872; Senator Morton: died on the lst
of November, 1877; Bayard Taylor on the 19th
of December, 1878. This triumvirate of buried
genius and trusted patriotism were called from
among those by whom they were so loved and dis-
tinguished when all too young. Meade was fifty-
six, Morton fifty-four, and Bayard Taylor fifty-
three; and yet their lives were full of noble deeds.
As we remember the consecrated dead let us not
forget those who did not fall in battle, but lived
long enough to show their more unselfish devo-
tion to their country. Bayard Taylor survived
to. pronounce that exquisite ode on the 4th of
July, 1876, atthe Centennial, in Independence
190 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Square, but nothing that.ever fell from his pen or
was glorified by the noble music of his tongue,
ever surpassed his requiem at the dedication of
the monument at Gettysburg, on the Ist. of J uly,
1869.

“This they have done for us who slumber here, -
Awake, alive, though now se dumbly sleeping ;
Spreading the board, but tasting not its cheer,
Sowing but never reaping ;—
Building, but never sitting in the shade
Of the strong mansion they have made ;—
Speaking their words of life with mighty tongue,
But hearing not the echo million-voiced,
Of Brothers who rejoiced,
From all our river-vales and mountains flung!
So take them, heroes of the songful past !
Open your ranks, let every shining troop
Its phantom banners droop,
To hail earth’s ndblest martyrs, and her last!
Take them, O God! our brave,
. The glad fulfillers of Thy dread decree; - es
Who grasped the sword for peace, and smote to rave,
And, dying here for freedom, died for Thee !”

On Tuesday, July 12, 1880, I traced other parts
of the conflict of the three early July days, and
was pointed out the house to which the brave
General John F. Reynolds was carried after he
was mortally wounded on the first of July. - All
along the way were small tablets with the names
of some of the fallen, while the ground fought
over by Major General Wylie S. Crawford and his
corps, where General Barksdale was killed, and
Sickles wounded, has since been purchased by
General Crawford, including the granite quarry
' WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 191

known as “The Devil’s Glen,” a mysterious mass
of colossal boulders that seem to have been
hurled in.some terrible long gone convulsion of
nature,as if by the angry gods in battle with
Olympian Jove, a massive cluster of unsolved gi-
gantic masonry, more traditional than the ghastly
temple of the Druids of Stonehenge, England.
What a study is Emmetsburg road, which divi-
ded that part of the field directly in front of the
stone wall behind which were grouped the columns
and cannons of the waiting Union soldiers, on the
historic 8d of July! Istood in the road, and in
memory saw it all! The charging Confederates
advancing with silent and solid step, line after
line, flinging themselves across the barrier from
which they were hurled in massesof dead. and dying
by the Union batteries. I saw Hancock and his
staff riding in proud and dazzling platoon between
these terrible adversaries, and as I brought back
in mind that unequaled conflict, I forgot the beau-
tiful country around me, and only remembered my
young friend, Col. William McMichael’s magnifi-
cently spoken photograph of that dreadful and
decisive: afternoon. He spoke on the evening
of the 20th of December, 1870, just after Roth-
ermel’s great picture of the Battle of Gettysburg
had been unveiled at the Academy of Music, in
the city of Philadelphia, and of the thousands of
men and women who listened to this splendid ap-
peal; I could have wished that they had been pre-
192. LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

sent to hear it read in the Emmetsburg road when
I visited Gettysburg on the 24th of July, 1880.

It is 12 o'clock, July 3d, and to-morrow will be the anniversary of our
independence. What tidings of joy or of sorrow shall its bells proclaim
to the people. Gird your loins, ye yeomen of our legions, for it is honor
and liberty, and a nation for which you are contending! Twelve
o’clock, and the heart of nature seems almost to cease its beating in the
intensity of dread expectation, while the effulgent sun, looking down at
high meridian, seems as of old to stand’ still in its course, as though
shrinking appalled from the fearful slaughter it shall witness. The
pause of carnage, the brink of fate, for as the great orb bends slowly to-
ward the western horizon and marks the single hour upon the dial, a
signal gun breaks the solemn stillness,

And then from the line of the enemy, all along those hills, where his
masses lie waiting, there bursts forth a tempest of flame and smoke
and terrific cannonading, such as this continent never before witnessed ;
nor seems to slacken its thundering death hail, until, from the sulphur-
ous canopy, a part of the rebel front is seen advancing. Now for the
tug of war! Now for the death-grip of the battle! For yonder come
Pickett’s men, who swear by the Lone Star they never have been beaten,
and never will be, and on their either flank warriors of a score of fights.

Eighteen thousand tested veterans, wrought into a Titanic war bolt—
shaft of adamant, edges of steel—hurled forth to crush our centre, with

ponderous onslaught. As they start, down rides Hancock along our
line, superb that day in the beauty of his valor. “Here they come!”
he cries out cheerily. ‘Here they come, in three lines of battle!
Steady, men, steady!” “All right, General! we are ready! We hold
this line, or die on it!” But now, as they develop in the fields and move
forward, our artillery rains destruction. It rakes them with shot, it
rends them with shell, until on right and left they falter and stagger.
Their flanks are crumbling, but their centre keeps firm. Oh! stay them,
Pickett. Your men of iron, they seem too brave to kill! But on they
come, and on, and on, till we see their faces and hear their yells. These
are not men; they are furies, maddened with treason, frenzied with
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 193

hate. Now, fire! comrades, fire! Up and at them! Fight,men, fight
for your wives and your children, and your homes, They sweep on us
like demons—are at the guns, are on the wall! hand to hand, steel to
steel, knife to knife—valor of patriots, rage’ of devils. Now, Cushing,
give them your canister! Now, Woodruff, tear them with your grape!
Hall to the rescue! 72d down on them like tigers!. Flank them,
Stannard! Crush them, Gibbon! Mash them, Webb!. They reel,
they waver, their colors are going! They break, they break! They
retreat, they retreat! The charge is repulsed; the battle is won. All
honor to our heroes who survive; all reverence for those who have
fallen ; all praise to their gallant leader; and all thanks unto: God who
gave us the victory |”

DR. DRAPER, THE GREAT HISTORIAN, SHOWS HOW
GETTYSBURG SAVED THE. CONTINENT TO FREEDOM.
Civil War in America ~Draper, Vol. iit:, p. 147.

The cannonade lulled. A thrill of generous admiration ran down
the national line as the Confederate columns of attack, at 3-P. M., with .
a front more than a mile in extent, emerged from-the woods on Semi-
nary Ridge, and descended their slope of the valley. They were pre-
ceded by a line of skirmishers of double or triple the usual strength;
next a line of battle for the charge; then another, equally strong, in
reserve. They had additional lines, or wings, to prevent the main
force being flanked. On the right, as they marched, was Pickett’s
division; on the left, two or three hundred yards in the rear, was Heth’s,
commanded by Pettigrew. In strength they were about 18,000 men.
In Pickett’s. charge, Kemper led the right, Garnett the left, with: Arnmis-
tead in support. The distance to be passed was more than half a mile,
and the ground sloping up-to the National position.

In aw few moments the question. was to be settled whether Slavery or Free-
dom should be.master of this. continent.

“Why don’t the guns support them?’ was. anxiously asked on the
Confederate side, and with. intense cuziosity on the National. “TI had
intended it”’ subsequently said Lee, “ but. the protracted cannonade had

‘12

‘
194 | LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

nearly exhausted the ammunition. _ This fact was unknown to me when
the assault took place.”

Not only was Lee not informed of the exhaustion of his ammu-
nition—he did not know of Ewell’s dislodgement from the foot of Culp’s
Hill.

Unprotected, but unflinching, Pickett’s column came over the valley,
slippery with the last night’s rain. They were veteran Virginians, and
moved silently, without those yells of defiance that characterize the
troops from the Gulf. Almost a hundred guns, from Cemetery Hill to
the Round Tops, quiveringly awaited the word. It was given, and they
tore vast gaps in the advancing ranks. Fredericksburg had already
shown what an awful thing it is to pass through the hail of rifled mus-
ketry and the cannonade of modern artillery.

The charge was first directed toward Doubleday’s lines, but the fire
from Round Top made the assaulting array bend towards its left, and.
brought the attack more on Hancock’s position. .Two regiments of
Stannard’s brigade, who were in a grove in front of Hancock’s left, at
an.angle with the main line, gave to the charging force an appalling
flanking fire, while it was subjected to the artillery in front. This
caused it:to bear still more to the left, and brought the weight of the
attack.ypon Webb. When the column had come within 300 yards it
recived the fire of the divisions of Hays and Gibbons. That fire it re-
turned. In front of Hays it broke, and he took 15 colors and 2,000
prisoners. Theright of that portion of the enemy before Gibbons was
at the same time.checked. It doubled in towards its left, thus reinforc-
ing the centre and throwing the point of contact in full forceon Webb's
brigade. The Virginians were now in the very focus of the fire.

Webb's brigade-wasrposted in two lines, two of its regiments being be-
hind a stone wall, and .breast-work, the third behind the crest, sixty
paces in the rear, so disposed as to be able to fire over those in front.
As the smoke enveloped the-attacking mass, the last glimpses that, were
caught showed that it was veeling and breaking into fragments; but,
though its organization was Jost, the Virginians individually rushed for=
ward, COming out of the cloud that enclosed them, headed by Armistead,
they touched at last the stone wall, The two regiments holding the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 195

wall fell back to the regiment in the rear; ‘then they were re-
formed by the personal efforts of Webb and his officers. Encouraged
by this apparent retreat, the Virginians planted their battle-flags on the
wall, and pushed dver the breast-works. A desperate hand to hand con-
flict now ensued: the clothes of the men were actually burned by the pow-
der of the exploding cartridges; the national cannoneers were clubbed
and bayoneted at their guns. Reinforcements were coming to Webb from
all sides. Men and officers were all fighting together. The assailants
were literally crushed. Of fifteen field officers, but one was unhurt ; of
the three brigade commanders, Garnett was killed, Armistead mor tally:
wounded and left on the field, and Kemper carried away to die. Com-
panies and regiments threw down their arms, rushing forward to be
taken prisoners out of the horrible fire. Gibbons’ division took 12
colors and 2500 prisoners. The wreck of the mass fled back toward
Seminary Ridge, diminished every. instant by the remorseless cannonade
that was still directed upon it.

Such was the fate of the grand assault by the right Confederate
column, That on their left, under Pettigrew, was by no means so
resolutely made. Pickett’s men were, for the most part, veteran Vir-
ginians ; Pettigrew’s, new recruits, Almost as soon as the latter
advanced they began to waver, but when they came toward the enfila-
ding fire of the National guns they hesitated. Perceiving that their
enemy was moving round them strong flanking bodies, they were panic-
stricken; their lines dissolved, they were huddled into knots. They
fled in confusion to the rear, with the loss of hundreds taken prisoners.
All but one of their field officers had been killed or wounded; they fell
under command of a majer. Pettigrew’s brigade had mustered 2800
strong on the morning of the Ist of July; at roll-call on the 4th only
835 answered to their names.

The battle of Gettysburg was now substantially over. Nevertheless,
Wilcox, who had not advanced in support of Pickett, as had been origi-
nally intended, made a demonstration of moving forward, as if to renew
the assault, but retarned in confusion.

‘The National loss at Gettysburg was 23,210, of whom 2834 were -
killed, 18,733 wounded, 6643 missing. The Confederate loss reached
 

196 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

the awful aggregate of 36,000, of whom 5000 were killed, 23,000 wounded.
“ All this has been my fault,” said Lee to Wilcox; “ it is I who have lost
this battle.” The dream of the passage of the Susquehanna was at an
end; there was nothing now for the Confederates but a retreat to the

Rappahannock. Freedom was master on the continent.

WATERLOO AND GETTYSBURG.

The Battle of Waterloo was fought nine miles
south-east of the City of Brussels, in the province
of Belgium, June 18, 1815, between the allied army
commanded by the Duke of Wellington and the
French army under Napoleon; and by the defeat
of the French, the whole destiny of Europe was
changed. France reverted to the Bourbons under
Louis XVIII, and the other governments set up, or
changed, or held in terror, the people were at once |
restored to their old rulers, and relieved from fear
and surveillance. Napoleon himself was seized
and sent to die on the rocks of St. Helena, his pro-
perty confiscated, his favorite Generals shot, and
his family banished. Had the battle of Gettysburg
been decided against the Union cause, the change
would have been as complete and thorough. With
the occupation of Philadelphia and Washington
City, the Capitol of the National Government
would have become the Confederate Capitol, Penn-
.sylvania a Confederate State; Baltimore a Con-
federate sea-port; New York a Confederate metro-
polis; slavery would have been certainly restored, ‘
the national debt repudiated and the Confederate
Constitution adopted. The recognition of the Con-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. —— 197

federacy by all the foreign powers would have been
followed by the downfall of free institutions all
over the world. This is no fancy sketch. There
is not a statesman, North or South, that has
not either hoped or feared such a catastrophe to the
American Union, and that has not spoken or writ-
ten this hope or fear, as I have in this volume.
That the rescue of the American Union at Gettys-
burg has proved a benefaction to both sections;
to the old masters and to the new freedmen; to
the property of the South, the power of the West,
the commerce of New York, and the manufactures
of Pennsylvania; to all those who fought to save,
and to all those who fought to slay the Republic,
are facts as well established. Do we ever think
how near we came to lose these greatest of human
blessings? Had Hancock fallen on the 5d as Rey-
nolds fell on the 1st of July, 1863, that fate
might have been ours. There were brave men
left; there were Generals just as experienced ;
there were courage, and self-sacrifice, and patriot-
ism. That is freely admitted. But the fear
was universal, and the admission was univer-
sal, that these mighty elements could not be
organized again, and in reviving the fact I only
repeat the apprehensions of tens of thousands of
men common as the air in 1863, As inevitably
as , the fate of Napoleon changed the map of
Europe sixty-five years ago, equally sure would
have been the translation of liberty to despotism
198 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

had the Confederates carried Gettysburg in 1863.
But how wonderful are the ways of Providence!
The victories of the flag of the Union on that
field have been made still more victorious by the
triumphant logic of the succeeding peace.

Both houses of the American Congress unani-
mously adopted a joint resolution, on the 21st of
April, 1866 (both houses being Republican by
large majorities), which joint resolution reads as
follows :—

“The gratitude of the American people and the thanks of their repre-
‘sentatives in Congress are hereby tendered to Major General Winfield
S. Hancock for his gallant, meritorious and conspicuous share in that
great and decisive victory, Gettysburg.”
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 199

- CHAPTER VI.

IN THE CAMPAIGN WITH GRANT.

N the 18th of March, 1864, the General, while

actively ‘engaged in recruiting, writes. to his
’ ‘father from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: “I have
just received an order from the Secretary of War,
to report without. delay to him for instructions,
prior to rejoining my command in the field. I
have but time to notify you of the fact.”

Rarely has such an experience occurred in the
life of any soldier: General Hancock had already
filled out a continuous service sufficient to make
any other man famous. His record in the Mexi-
can war, his service in the West and on the Paci-
fic coast, his unparalleled daring in the decisive
Battle of Gettysburg, wouldseem to have earned
for him, not alone the gratitude of his country,
but that rest and retirement which belong to the
faithful soldier.

I was in Washington during the year of 1864,
and can certify to the fact that notwithstanding
the great Battle of Gettysburg and its transcen-
200 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

dent result, the struggle for the republic was not
yet over. Politics came in to prolong the conflict;
. and as the experience of all the nations has shown,
every civil war is delayed by ambitious men.
President Lincoln, in consideration of his distin-
guished services, appointed General Grant Lieu-
tenant General of the Armies of the United States,
on the Ist of March, 1864, and then began that
tremendous movement which, a little more than a
year after, culminated in the collapse of the Con-
federacy. On the 8th of March General Grant
arrived in Washington to take possession of the
Army of the Potomac, and I was present at Wil-
lard’s Hotel when General Hancock came to pay
his respects to his new leader.

The movements for the coming Presidential
election were earnest and active, made the more
so because Mr. Lincoln had quite an opposition in
his own party. It will be recollected that Hon.
Winter Davis, of Maryland, Hon. Benj. F. Wade,
of Ohio, and Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Chase,
with many more, were dissatisfied with the moder-
ate course of the President. Meeting General
Hancock frequently at my rooms, I can certify to
the gentle manner in which he bore himself, and
his severe avoidance of all participation in the po-
litical intrigues of the hour.

There were some remarkable events at that
time. On Wednesday evening, the 8th of April,
George Thompson, the celebrated English Aboli-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 201

tionist, made a speech in favor of American Eman-
cipation, and during his great effort, he noticed a
resolution which had been offered in the House,
charging him with having said, in England, that
the dissolution of the American Union was the
object to be kept steadily in view. The venerable
English Abolitionist, Mr. Thompson, not. only de-
nied it, but after he had done so a note was sent
to him signed by Mr. Morris, who had offered the
resolution, stating that the authority upon which
he had offered it was a letter, which he ascertained
afterwards had been forged. Among those who
heard this great effort were the venerable Thadde-
us Stevens, Joseph Holt of Kentucky, and Rever-
dy Johnson, of Maryland, the latter of whom, the
very day before, had made that unanswerable
speech in favor of the Union, in the Senate of the
United States, which deserved to be placed among
the best utterances of a significant era, when hun- —
dreds of thousands of men of all parties . clustered
around the flag of the Union. Never before did I
hear a more magnificent vindication of the princi-
ple of true liberty. I wrote in “ Occasional” as
follows: “God bless Reverdy Johnson for these
great words. What Democrat, what old line
Whig, what American citizen will not take them
to his heart, and store them like priceless jewels
in the casket of his memory !”

‘At the same time, the Democrats of the House
of Representatives in caucus assembled, on motion
202 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

of Hon. 8. S. Cox, of New York, openly de-
nounced the attempt of Hon. A. A. Long, the
Democratic representative from the Cincinnati
district, to place them in opposition to the Union.

‘In the November following, General George

B. McClellan was defeated as the Democratic
candidate for President by Abraham Lincoln. The
curious anomaly was presented, while the platform
upon which he stood declared for peace with the
Confederates, the General declared for war.
' During the summer of 1864, Washington City
itself was threatened, and would have been cap- .
tured but for the opportune arrival of General
Wright’s Sixth Corps,

A curious incident happened just at this time.
When Early determined to advance with his corps
of 8000 infantry and 24 pieces of artillery upon
the city of Washington, Breckinridge and Ransom
having command of the cavalry, and Early, him-
self, at the head of about 12,000 men, they reached
Staunton on the 27th of June, of that year, and
got before Washington early in July, and would -
undoubtedly have made a successful assault upon.
the Capital but for the arrival of Wright’s Sixth
Corps.. Sharing in the general solicitude I was
standing at the door of my residence on Capitol
Hill when Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward drove up,
the President remarking in a jocular way that if
I would walk down to Four-and-a-half Street, I
should see the advance of the great column going
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 203

out to meet the Confederates, then assembled near
the residence of Francis P. Blair at Silver Spring,
a few miles from the city. I did so, and witnessed
the arrival of that remarkable reinforcement, the
enthusiasm of the men, the j joy of the officers, and
the great relief of the population of Washington
city Mr. Lincoln was cool and composed, a Mr.
Seward unusually philosophical and calm. Gen.
Karly claims to have effected some important re-
sults by this diversion upon the National. Capital,
and in a paper written by A. L. Long, Chief of
Artillery, Second Corps, Army Northern Virginia,
I find that while Early was very much criticised
for not having captured Washington City in July
of 1864, he seemed quite compensated for the great
fright he had oceasioned the President and his
Cabinet, and the people. Ican certify that he was
right in this claim; and when I met Mr. Breckin-
ridge in Paris, in 1867, he laughingly assured me
that.if he had got into the Capital, he would have
come direct to my quarters and breakfasted with
me as in the days when we were good Democrats
together. I replied that it would have been the
first time I could not say that he would have
been very welcome under my roof-tree.

On the previous 3d of May, General Grant and
the army marched from Culpepper Court-house,
Va., General Hancock leading the advance. This
post of honor had been awarded to him by General
Grant, not only because of his splendid conduct at
204 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

- Gettysburg and in the preceding conflicts under
Hooker, but because Grant had special confidence
in Hancock’s good sense, experience and -courage.
His first battle under Grant took place in the Wil-
derness on the 5th of May of that year.

With the ranks of the Second Corps well re-
cruited during his absence in the North and his
command increased by the addition of the gallant
old Third, making in all upwards of 30,000 men,
Hancock became a most conspicuous figure in
the wonderful ‘battles of the Wilderness. Those
bloody engagements commenced on the second. an-
niversary of the day at Williamsburg, where he.
won the first renown. Hancock displayed his old
tactics. He made a countercharge at the crisis of
the fight, threw himself among his troops, sword
in hand, and exposed himself like a private
soldier.

On the 10th he made an assault on the enemy’s .
line at Alsop’s House, near Spottsylvania. On the
12th, in immediate command of his old Second
Corps, he accomplished a splendid feat. At the
head of his corps he made the assault at daylight,
favored by a dense fog. The position was carried
with a rush. Five thousand prisoners, twenty
pieces of artillery, thirty stands of colors and
several thousand muskets, were the fruits of the
victory. It was after this fine demonstration that
Hancock telegraphed to Lieutenant General Grant:
“I have captured from thirty to forty guns, I
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 205

have finished up Johnson, and am now going into
Early.”

On the 18th, General Hancock again assaulted
the enemy near Spottsylvania. On the 19th he
repelled an attack in force by Ewell’s corps, Ewell

_ losing several hundred men, and being driven by

Hancock across the Ny River in great disorder.

On the 23d and 24th of May, he engaged the
enemy on the North Anna; and fought again at
Tolopotomy on the 29th, 30th and 31st, in a bloody
engagement. AtCoal Harbor, on June 3d, he was
again engaged ; and took an important part in the
operations before the enemy’s works at that place,
up to June 13th. The army then crossed the
James on the 15th and 17th of June, and it was
actively engaged in the assaults on the enemy’s
works before Petersburg.

It is impossible to give full details of these suc-
cessive engagements, or to describe the privations

of his men during their long marches, their con-

stant fighting, the perils of the bivouac, the hor-
rors of the hospitals, the dangers of the picket
lines, their incessant deeds of daring, and ceaseless
personal dangers. .

On the evening of the 17th of June, 1862,
Hancock’s iron constitution broke down from the
effects of his Gettysburg wound, and he was
compelled to turn over the command of his corps,
though he did not leave the field, suffering intense
pain, forced to occupy an ambulance during that
206 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

long march, yet he fearlessly mounted ‘his horse
when his troops came in contact with the enemy.
His wound was in the upper part. of the thigh; it
had fractured and splintered the upper part of the
femur, and once it was thought his life could not
be saved. But his splendid constitution pulled
him through, and his entire recovery would have
been ensured had he not been impatient to go into
the battle again, the penalty for which was a
forced brief retirement from his command.

On the 27th of June, however, he again partici-
pated in the operations before Petersburg, until
July 26th, 1864, when he crossed to the north side
of the James River with his corps and a division of
cavalry, and assaulted the enemy’s line at Deep
Bottom, capturing the outer works, two hundred
prisoners, several stands of colors and four pieces
of artillery.

On the next 12th of August, he was made
Brigadier General in the regular army, and on the
same day, while at the head of his old Second Corps,
the tenth corps and a division of cavalry, he
assaulted the enemy’s line, carried part of the
enemy’s works, captured three hundred prisoners,
three stands of colors, and four howitzers. On the
25th of August, he fought the battle of Ream’s
Station, with two divisions of his own corps and a
division of cavalry against greatly superior forces..
Here another horse was shot under him. On the

22d of October, with the same forces, he was en-. »
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 207

gaged at Boynton Road, inflicting a heavy loss in
killed and wounded on the enemy, driving them
from the field and capturing one thousand prisoners
and two stands of colors.

GRAPHIC PICTURE OF THE. BATTLES OF THE WILDER-
NESS,

[From Draper’s Civil War, Vol. III. p. 375.] .

On the morning of the 7th reconnoissances showed that the Confede-
rates had fallen behind their intrenched lines, with pickets to the front,
covering a part of the battle-field. From this Grant inferred that Lee
was satisfied of hisinability to maintain the contest in the open field,
and that he would wait an attack behind his works. Grant therefore
determined to put his whole force between Lee and Richmond, and
gave orders for a movement by Lee’s right flank. On the night of the
7th the march for Spottsylvania Court-house commenced. Warren
and Hancock marched by the Brock Road; ; Sedgwick and Burnside, with
the trains, by a detour eastward by Chancelioreville, and then southward.
Lee discovered the movement, and, it so happened, reached Spottsyl-
vania first. Anderson, who commanded Longstreet’s corps, ‘after the
disabling of that officer, had received orders to march next.morning,
but was driven by the flames out of the burning woods, and kept on all
night, moving by a road parallel to that on which Warren was march-
ing to Spottsylvania. Not meeting with the obstructions that Warren
encountered, he reached Spottsylvania first. Now, ; learning of Warren’s
approach, he drew up his men across the road on which Warren was
coming. The-country was undulating, and dotted here and there with
thick groves of pine for the distanee of a mile from the point where
the wilderness terminates.

As Grant’s rear-guard was firing its last gun in the Wilderness, its
advance had thus reached Lee's troops three miles in front of Spottsyl-
wania,

Tt was not until four hours after the expected time that Warren's
column emerged into ‘the open clearing, and saw the court-house on its
208 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

wooded ridge. He had been delayed by barricades; at once he en-
deayored to force his way, and succeeded for the time, after a desperate
struggle, in driving back the Confederates, with severe loss on both
sides. The First Michigan, 200 strong, came out of the conflict with
only twenty-three men. The day was intensely hot, and many suffered

from sun-stroke.
On the 9th, Sheridan, with his cavalry, started on a movement

agains’ Lee’s lines of communication with Richmoné.

The 9th, 10th and 11th were spent in maneeuvring and fighting. The
sharp-shooters up in the trees were busy picking off officers. It was on
the first of these days that Sedgwick, commanding the Sixth Corps,
was killed. He was superintending the placing of a battery where the
men were exposed to a pretty sharp fire. ‘Pooh !” said he, “ they |
could not hit an elephant at that distance.’ At that moment he was -
struck by arifle-shot in the face, and instantly fell dead. The com-
mand of the Sixth Corps devolved upon Wright.

On Tuesday morning, the 10th, Grant occupied substantially the
same position as on the previous day. His line stretched about six miles
on the north bank of the Po, in the form of a crescent, the wings
being thrown forward. The Second Corps, across the Potomac, held
aline on the right nearly parallel to the road from Shady Grove
Church to the Court-house; the Fifth held the centre, on the east
side of the Po; the Sixth held the left, facing toward the Cour-
house; farther on the left was the Ninth; in front was a dense forest.
Lee held Spottsylvania and the region north of the Court-house. His
left rested on Glady Run, bending northward, and sheltered by
strong works made previously in anticipation; his right curved ina
similar direction, and rested on the Ny River ; his centre, thrown forward
w little from the right and left centres, was posted on commanding ;
ground. His position was well supported by breast-works; along the
centre was the forest and underbrush lining a marsh partially drained
by the Run. The conflict opened in the morning by a terrific fire of
artillery, which lasted all the forenoon. An attack was then made by
the Fifth Corps, and by Gibbon’s and Birney’s divisions of the Second,
on Lee’s centre. Grant’s losses were very severe in the repeated charges
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 209

by which the enemy was driven from his rifle-pits. In the meantime

the enemy had attacked and turned Barlow’s division of the Second
Corps on the right, but it was finally extricated without great loss.

Although the woods took fire and.added to the difficulties, the withdrawal

was effected in good order, but many of the wounded had to be left be-
hind to perish in the flames.

So far the operations of the day had resulted in no substantial ad-
vantage to the national arms. A weak point had, however, been dis-
covered in front of the 6th Corps, and a column of twelve picked
regiments, under Colonel Upton, was formed for the purpose of assault-
ing it. So suddenly and well was the attack made, at 5 o’clock, that
Upton, who led it himself, broke the Confederate line, captured several
guns and nearly 1,000 prisoners. The works gained, he turned at once
right and left along the intrenchments, driving back the troops holding
them. It was, however, found impossible to support him effectively,
and he was compelled to fall back with the prisoners he had taken.
Grant’s losses during the day were supposed to exceed 10,000; Lee’s
were believed to be equally severe. At 8 o'clock on the following
morning, Grant sent to the War Department the following dispatch:

“We have now ended the sixth day of very hard fighting. The.
result to this time is much in our favor. Our losses have been heavy,
as well as those of the enemy. I think the loss of the enemy must be
greater. We have taken over 5,000 prisoners in battle, while he has
taken from us but few except stragglers. I propose to fight it out on
this line if it takes all summer.”

On Wednesday (11th) the position of the two armies remained nearly
the same. There was some skirmishing, but toward noon it lulled
away. Rain began to fall, for the first time since the army had moved,
in the afternoon. It was determined that on the next morning an
attack should be directed toward Lee’s right, where his lines made a
salient. Soon after midnight, in the darkness and storm, Hancock’s
corps drew out from its intrenchments, and, passing in the rear of the |

’ 6th, went into position 1200 yards in front of the works it was to storm.

At the dawn of the 12th, covered by a dense fog, Hancock’s columns |

. emerged from the woods, and without firing a shot, marched in ‘quick time

13
210 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

against the enemy. When nearly half-way toward the hostile line, they
gave a cheer, and, taking the double-quick, pushed forward to the abatis,
tore it away, and got across the intrenchments. They surrounded an
entire ‘division of the enemy, capturing three thousand prisoners, among
them two generals. So complete was the surprise that the officers were |
taken at their breakfast, and Hancock sent a dispatch, in pencil to Grant:
‘I have captured from 30 to 40 guns. I finished up Johnston, and am
now going into Early? It was Johnston’s division of Ewell’s corps
that had been struck. Hancock now pushed forward in the hope of
cutting Lee’s army in two. But he was checked by a fire from an
anterior line of works half a mile beyond the line he had carried. To
this Ewell retreated, Hill re-enforcing him from the right, Anderson
from the left, and Hancock was forced back to the position he had first
earried. Wright's corps was hurried to Hancock’s help, and Burnside
and Warren were directed to attack along their fronts. The battle now
became general all along the line, Lee made five furious assaults in
quick succession, with the intention of dislodging Hancock and Wright ;
but, though his men succeeded in planting their flags, in some instances,
in the very midst of the National troops, they were repulsed-each time.
Ultimately Hancock got off twenty of the captured guns, and kept firm
possession of the salient. But Lee held a line only a few paces beyond,
so that his position was as secure as ever.

. “The fighting of this day was as severe as any during the war. It
is to be doubted if musketry firing was ever kept up so incessantly as it
was by the contending troops near the captured salient. The whole
forest, within range, was blighted by it. One tree, eighteen inches in
diameter, was actually cut in two by the leaden bullets which struck it.
The loss on each side was not less than ten thousand men,

“From dawn to dusk, the roar of the guns was ceaseless; a tempest of
shell shrieked through the forest, and plowed the field. When night
came, the angle of those works where the fire had been hottest, and from
which the enemy had been finally driven, had a spectacle for whoever
cared to look that would never have enticed his gaze again. Men, in
hundreds, killed and wounded, together, were piled in hideous heaps;
some bodies, that had lain for hours under the concentric fire of the
’ WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 211 -

battle, being perforated with wounds. The writhing of the wounded, .
beneath the dead, moved these masses at times; at times, a lifted arm,
or a quivering limb, told of an agony not quenched by the Lethe of
death around. Bitter fruit, this; a dear price, it seemed, to pay for the
,eapture of a salient angle of an enemy’s intrenched work, even though
that enemy’s loss was terrible.” .

“The Life of General Grant,” published by T. B.
Peterson & Bros., of Philadelphia, in 1872, hasa «
brilliant sketch of the grand campaign which began
in May of 1864 and did not end until the Union
Army had captured Richmond, the capital of the
Southern Confederacy: Major General Hancock,
commanding the advance with his famous Second
Corps, broke ground on the morning of the 3d, and
on the 5th of May took the initiative on the left
by grappling Longstreet near Wilderness Tavern.
On Friday, General Grant’s historian, referring to
Hancock, says: “This magnificent soldier, backed
by his magnificent corps, had terrible work before
him. Pressed by the forces of Longstreet, he
struggled hard, fiercely and long to hold his own,
was twice driven back to his breastworks, and once
the. enemy ventured to plant their colors within
his field works. Such fighting as Hancock did
that day had probably never been seen before.”

The first day, at Spottsylvania Court House,
being Tuesday, Hancock having through Monday
night swung his front around, early the next morn-
ing he took position about one and a half..miles in
advance of his former position, driving the enemy
212 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

before him and making a good use of his artillery
and infantry fire. The second day, at Spottsylva-
nia, Wednesday, the 11th, and Thursday, the 12th,
were destined to witness the most complete tri-
umphs that were yet vouchsafed to our arms on
that line. Lieutenant General Grant had ordered
General Hancock, in whose gallantry, heroism and
ability he had unbounded confidence, to move
during the night quietly towards the line of in-
trenchment held by Ewell’s Corps in his front.
Slowly and surely his men crept forward, and the
dawn of day found them close upon the sleeping
and unsuspecting enemy. At the proper moment
the order was given to charge, when, with a yell
the devoted band of heroes sprang forward, and ere.
the enemy were aware of the proximity of their
opponents, Hancock’s men rushed over the intrench-
ments, using the butt end of the muskets on the
devoted heads of the Confederates. The result of
this battle was, between thirty and forty pieces of
artillery were taken, with their commander, Gene-
ral E, Johnson. Atnine o’clock the next morning,
in addition to the brilliant night above mentioned,
the whole line of Hancock’s Corps advanced, and
although the enemy contested every point with.
great determination, still Hancock advanced, and
in face of such desperate resistance, that every
foot of soil gained was a triumphant success.

On the 14th of May General Grant sent dis-
patches to the War Department stating that “ the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 213

advance of Hancock yesterday developed that the’
enemy had fallen back four miles, where they re-
mained in position.” The day before, the 13th,
General Meade addressed the Army of the Potomac,
in which General Hancock had performed prodigies
of valor, as follows:

* HeAD-QUARTERS ARMY OF THE Potomac, May 18, 1864.

| « Soldiers :—The moment has arrived when your Commanding Gene-

ral feels authorized to address you in terms of congratulation. For
eight days and nights, almost without intermission, in rain and sunshine,
you have been gallantly fighting a desperate foe in positions naturally
strong and rendered doubly so by intrenchments. You have compelled
him to abandon his fortifications on the Rapidan, to retire and attempt
to stop your army progress, and now he has abandoned the last in-
trenched position, so tenaciously held, suffering a loss in all of eighteen
guns, twenty-two colors, and eight thousand prisoners, including two
general officers. Your heroic deeds and noble endurance of fatigue
and privations will ever be memorable. Let us return thanks to God-
for His mercy thus shown us and ask earnestly for its continuation.”

Meanwhile, with General Meade at the head of
the Army of the Potomac and Lieutenant General
Grant in command of the whole army, his great
mind taking in charge the whole campaign of bat-
tle, extending from Virginia to the farthest South,
General Hancock was pressing forward with his
advance, making with General Burnside a heavy
concer ced attack on the enemy’s right wing, on Fri-
day, the 13th of May, which covered Spottsylvania
Court House on the north and covered also the road
running through that town. The success of Gene-
ral Hancock in driving the enemy from the two
214 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

lines of breastworks and making valuable captures —
has already been noted.

This was the great month of battle, beginning
on the 3d of May, 1864, when the Rapidan was
crossed without serious popoation leaving Grant
and Meade with their generals masters of the
Peninsula, without having uncovered Washington
for asingle hour. Finally, on the night of the 12th
of June, General Grant withdrew his forces from
Lee’s front at Cold Harbor and Gaines’ Mill:
General W. F. Smith, with the 18th Corps,
marched to the White House, embarked on trans-
ports, and went down to Pamunkey and York
rivers, and up the James. The 6th and 9th Corps,
under Wright and Burnside, crossed the Chickaho-
miny at Jones’ Bridge, while Hancock’s 2d and
Warren’s 5th Corps erosued at Long Bridge, whence
they marched to the James river, crossing at
Powhatan Point. The great movement was car-
ried out without a single failure, and without notice
to the enemy, who woke up on the morning of the
13th of June to find the army which menaced them
the previous night had disappeared and was
already beyond the hope of successful pursuit.

In July of 1864 the enemy, finding it impossible
to shake. the last stronghold with which Gra \t had
grappled the throat of the conflict at Richmond,
resolved to try another plan, the invasion of Mary-
land, thereby threatening Washington, trusting in
this -to induce Grant to withdraw his army from
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 215

the James to the defence of the national capital ;.
but in vain. Breckinridge was defeated before the.
walls of Washington by a hasty retreat into Vir-
ginia, leaving five hundred of his men killed and
wounded under the guns of Fort Fisher. .

And now I turn to another life of Grant, written
by that accomplished soldier and scholar, Capt.
Henry Coppee, still connected with the great Uni-
versity at Bethlehem, Pa, a graduate of West
Point, a hero in the Mexican war and an instructor
at the Military Academy until 1855. His military
biography of General Grant leaves out the great
drama of Gettysburg, but nevertheless contains
several striking and manly tributes to Winfield S.
Hancock, after the whole army had been organized
under the new Lieut. General Grant, Hancock
being placed at the head of his old 2d Corps by
Gen. Meade, still the chief of the Army of the
Potomac, preparatory to a great march upon Rich-
mond. Coppee says of Hancock—“He was an
officer of infantry, who had risen with great
rapidity; and who, in bearing, personal appear-
ance, splendid gallantry, and influence over his
troops, fully deserves the epithet which he re-
ceived at Williamsburg—‘ Hancock the superb.’”

Again speaking of Hancock in the Battle of the
‘Wilderness, he says:

“ But the principal fighting, as was anticipated, is in front of Hancock.
Attacking at 5 o’clock precisely, with the divisions under Birney and
Getty, and with Wadsworth, also, on Hill’s flank,, he drives .Heth
216 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

and Wilcox, of Hill’s corps, (on the 6th of May, 1864) a mile and a half
to the rear, and within a hundred and fifty yards of Lee’s Head-quarters,
He takes possession of their rifle pits, many prisoners, and five stands
of colors. The skill and valor of Hancock, the firmness of Gibbons, and
the distinguished gallantry of Colonel Carroll, commanding the 3d bri-
gade of Gibbons’ division, dashed Lee’s hope of piercing our left, which,
for a moment, it was feared he might do.”

The fight on the 6th of May substantially ter-
minated what has become famous in history as
the Battle of the Wilderness, for on the next day,
the 7th, Hancock’s advance found Lee withdrawn
from his immediate front, and pushing forward,
discovered him in a new line, strongly intrenched,
near Parker’s Store, and connecting with his in-
trenched line on the turnpike.

On the 9th of May, while Lieutenant General
Grant was fighting forward, Meade leading the
Army of the Potomac, and Hancock with his
splendid 2d Corps driving ahead with all his un-
paralleled gallantry, Abraham Lincoln issued from .
the Executive Mansion the following: .

Executive Mansron, Wasuineton, May 9, 1864.
To the Friends of Union and Liberty :—Enough is known of the army
operations within the last five days to claim our special gratitude to God.
While what remains undone demands our most sincere prayers to, and
reliance upon, Him (without whom all human effort is vain) I recom-
mend that all patriots, at their homes, in their places of public worship
and wherever they may be, unite in common thanksgiving and prayer

_ to Almighty God. AxsrauAm LINCOLN.

And three days after Professor Coppee writes of
Hancock: “The morning of Thursday, the 12th
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 217 ©

of June, dawned, enveloped in an auspicious fog
of great denseness. The orders were given in
silence. The Second Corps (under Hancock) was
formed in two lines. Barlow with the 1st Division
in two lines, occupied the centre, and Birney, with
the 3d Division, was on his right; the 2d and 4th,
under Gibbons and Mott, formed the second line.
The point of attack was a salient angle of earth-
works, held by Johnson’s division, Ewell’s corps.
Silently and unseen, the corps moved upon the
unsuspecting enemy. They passed over the rug-
ged and quite exposed space, the enthusiasm grow-
ing at every step, until, with a terrible charge, and
a storm of cheers, they reached the enemy’s works,
scaled them in front and flank, surprising the cele-
brated “Stonewall” Brigade of Johnson at their
breakfast, surrounding them, and capturing almost.
the entire division, with its commander, Gen. Ed-
ward Johnson; two brigades of other troops, with
their commander, Brigadier General George H.

Stewart; and thirty guns. The number of prison-

ers taken was between three and four thousand.
It was the most decided success yet achieved during
the campaign. When Hancock heard that these
Generals were taken, he directed that they should
be brought to him. Offering his hand to Johnson,
that officer was so affected as to shed tears, declar-
ing that he would have preferred death to captiv-
ity. He then extended his hand to Stewart, whom
he had known before, saying: .““How are you,
218 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Stewart?” But the Confederate, with great haugh-
tiness, replied, ‘Iam General Stewart, of the Con-
federate Army; and, under present circumstances,
I decline to take your hand.” Hancock's cool and
dignified reply was: “And under any other cir-
cumstances, General, I should not have offered it.”
It was after this magnificent feat of arms that Gen.
Meade issued the order of the thirteenth of May,
elsewhere printed.

If I did not know of the historic heroism of our
troops in that great conflict, I should regard this
thrilling sketch of the service of General Hancock
as the wild invention of a novel writer. _But there
were many other deeds of daring wrought by other
men, and nothing but the fact that I am now de-
scribing one character in an unparalleled drama,
must be my excuse for confining the volume to
Hancock’s achievements. , These, themselves, were,
however, so peculiar’as to call forth praise from all
sides; and if I had the room I could fill pages with
the commendations of his unpausing valor from
friend and foe.

On Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1864, how-
ever, General Hancock was detached from the
Army of the Petomac and again-ordered to Wash

ington.

There were so many veterans in the country un-
employed, whose term of service had expired, that
Government determined to call them into the field
again. These tried soldiers, having been once
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 219 .

honorably discharged, hesitated to re-enter the
service in regiments recruited since their own en-
listments, and hence President Lincoln sought the
chief of the illustrious Generals of the army as the
best to win them back. That chief was General
Hancock. There was soon a tremendous response,
and General Hancock was placed in his new com-
mand, his headquarters were first established at
Washington and afterwards at Winchester, Va.
The division embracing the department of West
Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington, and_his
entire forces ineluding the army.of the Shenandoah,
amounting to nearly one hundred thousand men of
all arms.

With this vast force General Hancock was under
orders to be ready to move at short notice, either
on Lynchburg, to operate with the Army of the
Potomac, or to take transport to the southern coast
to co-operate with General Sherman. But the
sudden breaking of Lee’s lines at Petersburg and
the surrender at Appomattox happily closed this
part of the campaign. The crowning event of
that’ period was yet to amaze this country and
the whole world. That event was the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln,
220 LIFE AND-PUBLIC CAREER. OF

CHAPTER VII

CAN A GREAT SOLDIER BE A GOOD RULER?

Y reading of history does not lead me to sane-
tion the recent declaration of Mr. Carl Schurz,
in his admirable speech, in Indiana, that the

professional soldier is unfit for civil administration.
Julius Cesar was no less renowned for the reforma-
tion which he effected in the civil administration
and laws of Rome than for his military achieve-
ments. The civil code of Napoleon is as enduring:
a monument to his fame as the field of Austerlitz.
I have just been reading the angry- prophecies of
Henry Clay, 1816-1818, after General Jackson’s
brilliant military services in the second war
against Great Britain, and contrasting them with
his splendid record in favor of the Union forty-
eight years ago. Washington himself was a
professional soldier, having held the commission of
Colonel in the Virginia forces as early as 1755, and |
almost continuously engaged in the profession of
arms from that period until the close of the revolu-
tionary war in 1783. Grant, measured by the

results of his eight years in the Presidential chair, —
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 221

was eminently successful in civil administration.

The rigid economy, and the severe methods of

administration, and the exact system incident to

the profession of arms, render it an admirable '
training-school for the executive head of the civil

department of the government.

Hancock as president will not be called upon to
frame a code of laws, but to execute the statutes;
and the argument that he is unfitted to perform |
the executive duties of his civil administration
because he has heretofore been engaged in execu-
ting a purely military code, which is itself com-
posed chiefly of Acts of Congress, certainly.can
‘have no force with a reflecting mind. As
president, he will be the chief magistrate of the
republic, in which the citizen possesses all the
liberty consistent with the safety of the govern-
ment; and the government is vested with all the
power consistent with the liberty of the citizen.
Hancock will recognize and maintain both unfal-
teringly.

History attests that the wounds of civil war are
best healed by the great and triumphant soldiers
who have acted in them. Generat Garfield, in his
letter of acceptance, intimates that the South is in
a quasi state of rebellion. Indeed, he implies that
Democracy is rebellion, full-fledged, waiting for a
fine day tofly. If this be true, then the days ofthe
Union are numbered, for the Democratic Party, in
1876, as shown by statistics universally admitted
222 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

to be true, polled 280,000 more votes than were _
polled for the Republican candidate, and, according >
to this exhibit, the majority of the American
people are, hostile to the American Union—but
happily it is not true. I would rather have the
certificate of General U. S. Grant to attest my
loyalty than that of any other living man; andhe ©
recently declared in his speech at New Orleans,
and at Cairo, Hl., that “the flag of the Union is
everywhere honored sincerely throughout the
Southern States:” and he added, “the Past has
gone forever; henceforth the Blue and the Gray
will march on, shoulder to shoulder.” ,

This sentiment was worthy of the illustrious
soldier who interposed the shield of his own honor
to protect the lives of his defeated and prostrate
countrymen against a sanguinary policy at Wasb-
ington: It was a recognition of this spirit of
national reconciliation, symbolized by recent utter-
ances of General Grant, that led an artillery
company at Buford, S. C., in December last, com-
posed chiefly of survivors of the garrison of Fort
Sumter, all of them Democrats, to fire a salute of
one hundred guns in honor of Grant’s arrival at
that ancient and historic town. General Garfield
would, however, unmuffle the war-drums again, and
unfurl the standards of civi] strife, or at least keep
alive the passions that sprung from internecine war,
while Hancock’s chief ambition is to see American
citizens gathered together fraternally once more
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 223

under the.shelter of the common mansion of the
Union which he did so much to preserve.

DOES HANCOCK POSSESS GIFTS OF ADMINISTRATION ?

The distinction: between an executive officer and
an officer of administration is sometimes difficult
todefine. We call the departments at Washington
executive departments, and we call the President
the executive, yet he is also entitled, the. head of
the administration, and the Constitution divides the
different departments into executive, judicial and
legislative. Popularly considered the head of the
administration is very much like the head of an
army; but it happens that a good General who
ean direct his forces, anticipate a battle, and check
his enemy, is not always an adept in civil admin-
istration.

And now you find the skilful politician baffled
at every other point, defeated in his anxiety to find
some salient defect in General Hancock’s armor,
humiliated even in his attempts to invent a conve-
nient calumny, falling back, at last, upon the
comfortable assumption that General Hancock
knows nothing of civil administration; that his
experience has been purely military; and that, of
course, he knows nothing about the public men of
the country.

If you will turn a page over and read the chapter
in which I describe General Hancock at Governor's:
Island, and, with that in your mind, will consider
224 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF'

how many different communities and interests and
people Hancock has been for ten years constantly
associating with, you may réalize that the division
he superintends is in itself many times larger than
the entire country over which Washington, or
Jefferson, or Andrew Jackson presided, and’ that
this immense territory in time of peace exacts
not only the most delicate superintendence, but

such’ a familiarity with every variety of thought.. .

and production, and many other relations of society.
and of parties, as would irresistibly inform and
educate any man if he were not already well-
trained and well-balanced.

One of our public speakers compares General
Hancock with General Washington; and _ those
who have seen the exactness of the book-keeping
and the journal of the first President of the United
States, the minuteness with which he kept his own
accounts, and the care with which he regulated his
business with the government, will, as they study
the almost punctilious methods of General Han-
cock, recognize the justice of at least a part of this
‘parallel. All sides admit and applaud the impetu- .
ous valor of General Hancock, his almost reckless
disregard of his own life in battle, his singular
composure on horseback in the smoke and fire and
leaden rain of a fatal conflict; and yet those who
have known him nearest and best freely unite in
the opinion that he is also one of the most cautious
and careful of business men, directing and control-
f

WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 225

‘ling his own .affairs with-remarkable ability. He
has a singular eye for detail, and a keen sense of
‘the imperious obligations he owes to his govern-
ment. Manners enter largely into administration.
The gift of kindness to inferiors is so rare among
. leading public men absorbed in heavy duties, that to
watch the affection of those connected with General
Haneock, as well in the field as in private life, in
camp. and in his own bureau, proves that he is a
charming companion and benevolent superior. No-
thing has impressed me more in this last examina-
tion of his habits than the high admiration for his
character and capacity by men who are still
attached to the Republican Party and have known
the Democratic candidate for president. Could
anything be more explicit in this connection than
the words of General W. T.. Sherman, his own
immediate commander-in-chief, the general of the
American armies?
_ “Tf you will sit down and write the best thing
that can be put in language about General Han-
cock, as an officer and a gentleman, I will sign it
without hesitation.”

We are told that order is heaven’s first law, and
those who have seen General Hancock at the head
of a great army, like those who have met him at

‘ the head of his vast division, managing it from the
little island where he has his home now, will un-
‘derstand what weight to attach to this tribute. |

It is therefore admitted that General Hancock is
14
226 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

not only a soldier and a gentleman, that he not
only makes a good administrative as well as execu-
tive officer, but it now turns out that he knows
how to manage his own affairs as well, and that he
does not belong to that class who grow old without
taking care of their own estates. Here again he
resembles General Washington, who, besides
‘leaving the example of an unparalleled civil and
military success, bequeathed to posterity a vade
mecum of domestic regularity and business correct-
ness. Surely these are the unconscious and un-
written, but nevertheless positive pledges of high
administrative gifts. And when we add to them
the sterling fact that he is also an honest and in-
corruptible man, we need no further guarantees of
his fitness for the highest office in the gift of the
American people. But what after all is this fresh
demand for statesmanship in the Presidency? I
can well understand why a statesman, after the

model of Jefferson and Madison and Monroe,

might be hungered for in the Presidential office at
present. But modern politics seems to have lost
that high ideal, and the accepted statesman of the
hour is one trained to the artifices of Washington
life, to the intrigues of local politics, to associations
with questionable favorites, to confidential com-
mittals to reckless combinations, and to that dread-
ful practice, which, in the hard school of the costly
luxuries of the Capital and to the guilty expenses,
too often captures and kills impecunious politicians.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 927

‘Well, General Hancock is not such a man. Here,
“at least, he falls short of party expectation. But

T cannot believe that because he has not become

indurated by such practices, he is not therefore the

better qualified for the best position in the gift of

the American people.

There is no better judge of General Hancock
than the men who served with him on his staff
during the civil war, and one of these is General
F. A. Walker, the fearless and fastidious Superin-
tendent of the Census Bureau, at Washington, a Re-
publican scholar, who bore such a relation to Gen.
Hancock, as authorized him to pay such a compli-
ment to his Chief as can only come from his heart.
General Walker is my type of the civil service;
he is one of the few independent officials at Wash-
ington. He filled the bill, not only of gentleman-
like deportment during the war, but of cool courage,
precisely as now he fills the bill in his deportment
at the National Capital, of entire self-reliance and in-
nate courtésy. Both these traits make him regard-
less of mere party dictation; hence he wins the
respect of friend and: foe.

This is what General Walker says of General
Hancock, under date of July 12, 1880.

e

“He was an ideal commander. His presence in the camp or along
the line was like an impulse which every soldier felt. It seemed to
travel through the army like a great wave. It is needless to say that
he was everywhere beloved and admired. It was impossible for it to be
otherwise when one saw the force of his character and his enthusiasm
228 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

and energy. As a military genius he wasa tactician of great skill
cand adroitness, as well as an executor of energy and power. It is sel-
dom that you find these qualities in one man, for it is generally. con-
sidered as incompatible that asagacity which was almost cunning should
be combined with dash and industry. General Hancock possessed both ,
to a high degree. Then he had all the instincts of a staff officer in re-
gard to keeping up the discipline and the condition of ‘his command.
He might have been the Inspector General, for the care he exercised.
Then he had a perfect passion for what is known in the army as ‘ Pa-
pers.’ I remember this froma very lively experience. Oftentimes
when J had worked twelve or fourteen hours during the day, and was
nearly ready to drop, he would send for me, and for two hours longer
would keep me in his tent, going over a great mass of correspondenca
and ordets. He had a love for all the details of the camp and of the
march, and a capacity to receive and understand them. He was im-
mensely particular, and a man who, generally speaking, paid apparent-
ly an unnecessary attention to nice points. Orders and letters must be

* written with the greatest punctilio and care, whether under a tree, in
the rain, or in headquarters, He would do work that any other Gene-
ral would leave to his Adjutant, giving a great deal of his time and.
personal attention to questions relating to regulations, to breaches of
discipline, and to the various reports, even though of a routine nature.
When in battle he never issued commands from the rear, but was on
the field in person.. Even after he had given an order he would him-
self see that it was carried out. This was not always the pleasantest
position for a subordinate officer; but, looking back now, I can see that
Hancock’s almost invariable success was due to his incessant wakeful-
ness and vigilance. He knew what he wanted, and that a single word
+misunderstood might cause disaster to his troops or make him lose a
victory. He was not willing to run any risks.”

GENERAL HANCCCK. AT GOVERNOR’S ISLAND IN 1880.

While at Governor’s Island a few days ago, I
was much impressed by the unusual order, the
i WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 229

system and refined taste, prevailing in:the grounds
around the headquarters of General Hancock. He
occupies’a comfortable mansion with his family.
It lies just below the Battery, and is surrounded
by the East River, and the North River, the main
channel passing to the ocean and the bay. Gover-
nor’s Island covers an area of sixty-five acres, and
belongs to the United States. The present beauty
of the Island, as. well. as the prevailing neatness
and comfort, is owing to the active personal super-
vision of General Hancock, and shows that his
attention to the trees.on the estate of his father-
in-law near St. Louis, has always been applied to
the military posts he has’ periodically occupied:
He takes great delight in arboriculture, and many of
the trees of Governor’s Island were planted by him.
They prove the zeal with which he has directed
and kept them in perfect.order himself. His officers
said that his knowledge of trees is almost intuitive.
Another little incident deservés mention. The
yellow fever broke out on the island some twelve.
years ago, and there were twenty-six or more fatal
cases, among them that. of Chaplain Davidson.
The quarantine station was not then so far down as
it is now. A mattress having been thrown over-
board from one ot the vessels, it: landed on the is-
land, which spread the infection, having been
picked up by some of the soldiers. But since the
General has been in command,.all refuse’ matter
stranding on the shores is at once properly disposed
230 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF
d
of. The health and purity of this fine government

establishment make it one of the most attractive
objects to residents and strangers. Under the Gen-
eral’s administration water-pipes have been laid.
under Buttermilk Channel from Brooklyn, so that’
there isan abundant supply of‘water. Water-plugs
are seen placed at intervals on the island conve-
nient for use. One gathers a fair idea of the
habits of men by precisely such incidents as these.
Few persons seem to understand the magnitude .
of the district or military Division of the Atlantic
over which the General presides. It extends from
Duluth, Min., embracing all the lake States, and.
all the north-eastern and Eastern States to the At-
lantic, down to Texas. It includes the New Eng-
land States, the States of New York, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West’
Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana,
District of Columbia, North Carolina, South Caro-
lina, Georgia Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missis-
sippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. This.
Division is divided into two Departments—the De-
partment of the East and the Department of the
South. He is in constant personal or written in-
tercourse with this vast domain.
There is quite a military colony at Governor’s
Island; the population about five hundred. The
General's staff consists of General Fry, Adjutant
General; General McKeever, Assistant-Adjutant-
A
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 231

General ; Gen. Clarke, Chief Commissioner .of Sub-
sistence; General Perry, Chief Quartermaster; Gen.
Cuyler, Medical Director ; Gen. Davis, Inspector-
General; Gen. Arnold, Acting Assistant-Inspector-
General; Col. Larned, Chief Paymaster; Maj. Gard-.
ner, Judge Advocate. His Aides are Col. Mitchell,
Capt. Wharton and Capt. Ward. Gen. Thomas
L. Crittenden, Superintendent of the general re-
eruiting service, also resides here. The troops in
the garrison are commanded by Capt. Thos. Ward
of the Ist artillery. There.is a little chapel on.
the Island supported by Trinity Parish, where
Chaplain Goodwin officiates. The officers and their
families live in eighteen buildings outside the fort.
The old New York arsenal is located on the upper
end of the island commanded by Col. Baylor, of
the Ordnance Department.

HANCOCK AS A MILITARY GOVERNOR IN TIME OF PEACE.

The civil record of General Hancock during his
administration in Louisiana and Texas is gratefully
recalled with just pleasure by the people of the
South, and in this.calmer hour, when there should
be a hearty union in the restoration of the kindly
feeling between the sections, some reference to
that record will also be useful and interesting in
the North. Hancock assumed command of his
department in the following characteristic docu-
ment, which I reprint, asking my readers carefully
to study it, in the full belief that there is not a
single principle asserted, or promise made, that is
not in full accordance with republican ideas:
2382 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

HEADQUARTERS FIFTH MILITARY DISTRICT,

a ay ORDERS. } New Orueans, La., November 29, 1867.

I. In eee with general orders No. 81, Headquarters of the
Army, Adjutant General’s Office, Washington, D. C., August 27th,
1876, Major- General W. 8. Hancock hereby assumes command of. the
Fifth Military District and of the Department composed of the States.
of Louisiana and Texas. : ,

II. The General Commanding’ is gratified to learn that peace and
quiet reign in this Department. It will be his purpose to preserve this
condition of things. As a means to this great end he regards the main-
tenance of the civil authorities in the faithful execution of the laws as
the most efficient under existing circumstances.

In war it is indispensable to repel force by force, and overthrow and
destroy opposition to lawful authority. But when insurrectionary force
has been overthrown and peace established, and the civil authorities are | ;
_ready and willing to perform their duties, the military power should
cease to lead, and the civil administration resume its natural and right-
ful dominion. Solemnly impressed with these views, the General an-
‘nounces that the great principles of American liberty are still the lawful’
inheritance of this people, and ever should be. The right of trial by
jury, the habeas corpus, the liberty of the press, the freedom of speech,
the natural rights of persons, and the rights of property must be pre-
served.

Free institutions, while they are essential to the prosperity and hap- .
piness of the people, always furnish the strongest: inducements to peace
and order. Crimes and offences committed in this district must be re-
ferred to the consideration and judgment of. the regular civil tribunals,
and those tribunals will be supported in their lawful jurisdiction.

* Should there be violations of existing laws which are not inquired
‘into: by the civil magistrates, or should failure in the administration of
justice by the courts be complained of, the cases will be reported to these
headquarters, when such orders will be made as may be deemed neces-
sary.

While the General thus indicates his purpose to respect the liberties
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 233

of the people, he wishes all to understand that armed insurrection
or forcible resistance to the law will be instantly suppressed by arms.

By command of Masor-GENERAL W. 8S. Hancock.
[Official.]

It is not necessary to repeat the thought that
these ideas are a part of the law of all civilizations;
but it may serve a present purpose to state that,
even now, some of the mere parrots of past enmi-
ties, unable to challenge this great assurance to a
conquered people, are trying to array General
Phil. Sheridan, the soldier whom Hancock super-
seded in Texas and Louisiana in 1867, among the
adversaries of the Democratic Candidate for Presi-
dent. This attempt was made in the presence of.
General Garfield, on Wednesday, August 4, 1880;
by a New York politician, as General Garfield was
on his way to New York City. It created no sen-
sation, because, a few days before, General Sheri-
dan spoke of Hancock as follows: “I am not in
politics; but General Hancock is a great and good.
man. The Democrats have not made any mistake
this time.”

Since November 29, 1867, not the South alone,
but all the world has undergone a tremendous
change for the better. And of all the thousands
who will give to this order of General Hancock
their hearty approval to-day, at least hundreds
thirteen years ago, rejected its plain and unan-
swerable guarantees as so many evidences of sym-
pathy with the disloyal South. Such has’ been
234 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

the transformation of millionsof men. Never was
there a plainer or more universal truth. You have
only to turn over to that chapter in which I speak
of the condition of the South to find my assertion |
proved. The radicals that came in with Abraham
Lincoln, breathing vengeance upon the South, in
nearly every instance died conservatives: Horace
Greeley kept standing at the head of the Tribune,
the fierce motto,““On to Richmond,” and yet Horace
Greeley died as the Southern candidate for President
of the United States, his heart full of love and
peace for his Southern brothers. Salmon P. Chase,
an original republican, publicly gave in his adhesion
to Democratic ideas before he passed over. The
radieal Charles Sumner, Senator in Congress from
Massachusetts, went to his long home anxious to
the last to prove his fidelity to the undying maxim,
“Universal amnesty and universal suffrage.”
Henry Wilson, the dead Vice-President, was a most
tolerant philosopher. Henry J. Raymond, the Re-
publican editor of the New York Times, prema
turely called hence June 18th, 1860, first having
finished an admirable life of Abraham Lincoln
with a history of his administration, was like Mr.
Seward, an original republican, a consistent pro-"
testant against severe measures towards the South.
These and many other striking metamorphoses. of
public men and public sentiment, found in every
city in the Union and every community, will now
understand the justice of Hancock’s order No. 40.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 285:

That order explains why his soldier's mind in:
1867 and 1868, was prepared for the best treat-
ment of the Southern people of the Gulf States.
Let us also particularly remember that when Gov-
ernor Pease of Texas, took violent issue through
the newspapers with the administration of General
Hancock, the Governor simply gave utterance to
the radical sentiment at that time. He did not
know that it was rapidly changing.
I do not know if Governor Pease is still living.
"He was born in Connecticut and emigrated to Texas
in 1855; was a law partner of Gen. Sam Houston,
Governor of Texas from 1853 to 1857, and was in
1857 re-elected to the same office, remaining therein
until 1870. He believed in extreme measures.
General Hancock did not. And when Governor.
Pease printed his criticisms upon General Hancock,
the General replied in a letter, dated March 9,
1868, which is so important that I give the whole
of it here, making the same comment upon it that.
I applied to General Order No. 40, namely that is
a paper of rare ability, moderation and good sense,
alike applicable to every community North and
South. If the principles herein asserted are ap-
plied to General Hancock’s administration in the:
event of his election to the Presidency, he will
need nothing more to secure for himself and his
posterity the gratitude of the American people.

There are pages in this letter of very great elo-
quence, but the moderation of the whole will be
236: LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

most attractive to the philosophic student. It can-
not be said'that the author of such a state paper
is not qualified to discharge the duties of the Presi-
dent of the United States. The grand republican.
arraignment of General Hancock, is, that he is a
simple soldier, not equipped for civil administration,
‘put I question if the military proclamation of An-
drew Jackson, in 1832, against John C. Calhoun’s
nullification scheme, contains a purer system of real
republican government. than. is summarized in
General Hancock’s letter to Governor Pease. And
yet the general reader need not be told that Gene-
ral Jackson, himself a soldier, was everywhere de-
nounced by the Whigs of that time as having pro-
cured a celebrated lawyer to prepare for him a pro-
nunciamento which aroused the country from Maine
to Georgia, and called from the. great expounder
of the constitution himself, Daniel Webster, a tri-
bute of unforgotten eloquence to the soldier Presi-
dent. of the United States.

GENERAL HANCOCK’S CELEBRATED LETTER TO
GOVERNOR PEASE OF TEXAS.

HEADQuaRTens Firra Minrrary DisrRicr, .
New Orleans, La., March 9, 1868.

To His Excellency, E. M. Pease, Governor of Texas: :
Sim:—Your communication of the 17th J anuary last, was received
in due course of mail, (the 27th January,) but not until it had been
widely circulated by the newspaper press. To such a letter—written ,
and published for manifest purposes—it has been my intention to re-

ply as soon as ieisure from more important business would permit.
Your statement that the act of Congress “to provide for the more
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 237

efficient government of the rebel States,” declares that whatever gov-
ernment existed in Texas was provisional ; that peace and order should
be enforced ; that Texas should be part of the Fifth Military District,
and subject to military power; that the President should appoint an
officer 'to command in said district, and detail a force to protect the
rights of person and property, suppress insurrection and violence, and
punish offenders, either by military commission, or.through the action
of local civil tribunals, as in his judgment might seem best, will not
be disputed. One need only read the act to perceive it contains such
provisions. But how allthis is supposed to have made it.my duty to
order the military commission requested, you have entirely failed to
show. The power to do a thing if shown, and the propriety of doing
it, are often very different matters. You observe you are at a loss to
understand how a government, without representation in Congress, or
a militia force, and subject to military power, can. be said to be in the
full exercise of all its proper powers. You do not reflect that this
government, created or permitted by Congress, has all the powers
which the act intends, and may fully exercise them accordingly. If
you think it ought to have more powers, should be allowed to send
members to Congress, wield « militia force, and possess -yet other
powers, your complaint is. not to be preferred against me, but against
Congress, who made it what. it is. 7

As respects the issue between us, any question as to what Congress
ought to have done has no pertinence. You admit the act of Congress
authorizes me to try an offender by military commission, or allow the
local civil tribunals to try, as I shall deem best; and you cannot deny
the act expressly recognizes such local civil tribunals as legal authori-
ties for the purpose specified. When you contend there are no legal
Jocal tribunals for any purpose in Texas, you must either deny the
plain reading of the act of Congress or the power of Congress to pass
the act.

You next remark that you dissent from my declaration, “ that the -
country (Texas) is in a state of profound peace,” and proceed to state
the grounds of your dissent. They appear to me not a little extraor-
dinary. I quote your words: “It is true there no longer exists here
938 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

(Texas) any organized resistance to the authority of the United
States.” “But a large majority of the white population who partici-
cipated in the late rebellion, are embittered against the Government,
and yield to it an unwilling obedience.” Nevertheless, you concede
they do yield it obedience. You proceed:

“None of this class have any affection for the Government, and very
few any respect for it, They regard the legislation of Congress on
the subject of reconstruction as unconstitutional and hostile to their
interests, and consider the government now existing here under au-
thority of the United States as an usurpation on their rights. They
look on the emancipation of their late slaves and the disfranchise-
ment of a portion of their own class, as an act of insult and oppres-
sion.”

And this is all you have to present for proof that war and not peace
prevails in Texas; and hence it becomes my duty—so you suppose—
to set aside the local civil tribunals, and enforce the penal code against
citizens by means of military commissions.

My dear sir, 1 am not a lawyer, nor has it been my business, as it
may have been yours, to study the philosophy of statecraft and poli-
tics. But I may lay claim, after an experience of more than half a
lifetime, to some poor knowledge of men and some appreciation of
what is necessary to social order and happiness. And for the future
of our common country, I could devoutly wish that no great number
of our people have yet fallen in with the views you appear to enter-
tain. Woe be to us whenever it shall come to pass that the power of
the magistrate—civil or military—is permitted to deal with the mere
opinions or feelings of the people.

I have been accustomed to believe that sentiments of respect or dis-
respect, and feelings of affection, love or hatred, so long as not de-
veloped into acts in violation of law, were matters wholly beyond the
punitory power of human tribunals.

I will maintain that the entire freedom of thought and speech, how-
ever acrimoniously indulged, is consistent with the noblest aspirations
of man, and the happiest condition of his race.

_ Whena boy I remeniber to have read a speech of Lord Chatham,
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 239

delivered in Parliament, It was during our Revolutionary war, and

related to the policy of employing the savages on the side of Britain.
‘You may be more familiar with the speech than I am. If I am not
greatly. mistaken, his lordship denounced the British Government—-
his government—in terms of unmeasured bitterness. He character-
ized its policy as revolting to every sentimertt of humanity and re-
ligion; proclaimed it covered with disgrace, and vented his eternal
abhorrence of it and its measures. It may, I think, be safely asserted
that a majority of the British nation concurred in the views of Lord
Chatham. But who ever supposed that profound peace was not exist-
ing in that, kingdom, or that government had any authority to question
the absolute right of the opposition to express their objections to the
propriety of the king’s measures in any words, or to any extent they
pleased? It would be difficult to show that the opponents of the
Government in the days of the elder Adams, or Jefferson, or Jackson,
exhibited for it either “affection” or “respect.” You are conversant
with the history of our past parties and political struggles touching
legislation on alienage, sedition, the embargo, national banks, our wars,
with England and Mexico, and cannot be ignorant of the fact, that
for one party to assert that a law or system of legislation is unconsti-
tutional, oppressive and usurpative, is not a new thing in the United
States. That the people of Texas consider acts of Congress unconsti-
tutional, oppressive, or insulting to them, is of no consequence to the
matter in hand. The President of the United States has announced
his opinion that these acts of Congress are unconstitutional. The Su-
preme Court, as you are aware, not long ago decided unanimously that
a certain military commission was unconstitutional. Our,*people
everywhere, in every State, without reference to the side they took
during the rebellion, differ as to the constitutionality of these acts of
Congress. How the matier really is, neither you nor I may dogmati-
cally affirm.

If you deem them constitutional laws and beneficial to the ccuntry,
you not only have the right to publish your opinions, but it might be
your bounden duty as a citizen todo so, Not less is it the privilege
and duty of any and every citizen, wherever residing, to publish his
240 LIFE AND PUBLIC. CAREER OF

opinion’ freely and fearlessly on this and every question which he
thinks concerns his interest. This is merely in accordance with the
principles of our free government; and neither you nor I would wish
to live under any other. It is time now, atthe end of almost two
years from the close of the war, we should begin to recollect what
manner of people we are; to tolerate again free, popular discussion, and
extend some forbearance and consideration to opposing views. The
maxims, that in all intellectual contests truth is mighty and must pre-
vail, and that error is harmless when reason is left free to combat it, are
not only sound, but salutary. It is a poor compliment, to the merit of
such a cause, that its advocates would silence opposition by force; and
generally those only who are in the wrong will resort to this ungene-
rous means, I am confident you will not commit your serious judgment
to the proposition that any amount of discussion, or any sort of opinions,
however unwise in your judgment, or any assertion or feeling, however
resentful or bitter, not resulting in « breach of law, can furnish
justification for your denial that profound peace exists in Texas. You
might as well deny that profound peace exists in New York, Penn-
sylvania, Maryland, California, Ohio and Kentucky, where a majority
of the people differ with a minority on these questions; or that pro-
found peace exists in the House of Representatives, or the Senate, at
Washington, or in the Supreme Court, where all these questions have
been repeatedly discussed, and parties respectfully and patiently heard.
You next complain that in parts of the State (Texas). it is difficult to
enforce the criminal laws; that sheriffs fail to arrest; that grand jurors
will not always indict; that in some cases the military acting in aid
of the’ civil authorities have not been able to execute the process of the
courts; that petit jurors have acquitted persons adjudged guilty by
you; and that other persons charged with offences have broke jail and
fled from prosecution. I know not how these things are; but admit-
ting your representations literally true, if for such reasons I should set
aside the local civil tribunals and order a military commission, there
is no place in the United States where it might not be done with equal
propriety. There is not a State in the Union—North or South—
where the like facts are not continually happening. Perfection is not
f

WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOOK. QAI

to be predicated of man or his’ works. No one can reasonably expect
certain and absolute justice in human transactions; and if military
power is to be set in motion, on the principles for which you would
seem to contend, I fear that a ‘civil government, regulated by laws,
could have no abiding place beneath the circuit of the sun. Tt is |
rather more than hinted in your letter, that there is no local State“
government in Texas, and no local laws outside of the acts of Congress,
which I ought to respect; arid that I should undertake to protect the.
rights of persons and property in my own, way and in an arbitrary
manner. If such be your meaning, I am compelled to differ with’you.
After the abolition of slavery, (an event which I hope no one now re-
grets,) the laws of Louisiana and Texas existing prior to the rebellion,
and not in conflict with the acts of Congress, comprised a vast system
of jurisprudence, both civil'and criminal. It required not volumes
only, but libraries to contain them. They laid down principles’ and
precedents for ascertaining the rights and adjusting the controversies
of men, in every conceivable case. They were the creations of great
and good and learned men, who had labored, in ‘their day, for their ,
kind, and gone down tothe grave long before our recent troubles,
leaving their works an inestimable legacy tothe human race. These
laws, as Iam informed, connected the civilization of past and present
ages, and testified of the justice, wisdom, humanity and patriotism of
more than one nation, through whose records they descended to the
present people of these States. I am satisfied, from representations of
persons competent to judge, they are as perfect a system of ‘laws as
may be found elsewhere, and better suited than any other to the con-
dition of this people, for by them they have long been governed.
Why should it be supposed Congress has abolished these laws? Why
should any one wish to abolish them? They have committed no -
treason, nor are hostile to the United States, nor countenance crime,
nor favor injustice. On them, as on a foundation of rock, reposes
almost the entire superstructure of social order in these two States.
Annul this code of local laws, and there would be no longer any rights,
either of person or property here. ‘Abolish the local civil tribunals
made to execute them, and you would virtually annul the laws, except

16
242. LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

in reference to the very few cases cognizable in the federal courts.
Let us for a moment suppose the whole local civil cade annulled, and
that I am left, as commander of the Fifth Military District, the sole
fountain of law and justice. This is the position in which you would
place me. : ;

I am now to protect all rights and redress all wrongs. How is it
possible for. me to do it? Innumerable questions arise, of which I
am not only ignorant, but to the solution of which a military court is
entirely unfitted. One would establish a will, another a deed; or.the
question is one of succession, or partnership, or descent, or trust; a
suit of ejectment or claim to chattels; or the application may relate to
robbery, theft, arson, or murder. How am [I to take the first step in
any such matter? If I turn to the acts of Congress I find nothing
on the subject. I dare not open the authors on the local code, for it
hag ceased to exist,

And you tell me that in this perplexing condition I am to furnish
.by. dint of my own hasty and crude judgment, the legislation de-
manded by the vast and manifold interests of the people! I repeat,
sir, that you, and not Congress, are responsible for the monstrous sug-
-gestion that there are no local laws or institutions here to be respected
by me, outside the acts of Congress. I say unhesitatingly, if it were
‘possible that Congress should pass an act abolishing the local codes
for Louisiana and Texas—which I do not believe—and it should fall
‘to my lot to supply their places with something of my own, I do
not see how I could do better than follow the laws in force here
-prior to the rebellion, excepting whatever thercin shall relate to
slavery. :

Power may destroy the forms, but not the principles of justice ; these
will live in spite even of the sword. History tells us that the Roman
pandects were lost for a long period among the rubbish that war and
revolution had heaped upon them, but at length were dug out of the
ruins—again to be regarded as a precious treasure.

You are pleased to state that “since the publication of (my) gene-
ral orders No. 40, there has been a perceptible increase of crime and
manifestations of hostile fecling toward the Government and its sup-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. ‘243

»porters,” and add that itis “an unpleasant duty to give such a recital
of the condition of the country.”

You will permit me to say that I deem it impossible the first of these
statements can be true, and that I do very greatly doubt the correctners
of the second. General order, No. 40 was issued at New Orleans, Nov-
ember 29, 1867, and your letter was dated January 17,1868. Allowing
time for order No. 40 to reach Texas and become generally known,
some additional time must have elapsed before its effect would be mani-

-fested, and yet a further time must transpire before you would be able
- to collect the evidence of what you term “ the condition of the country ;””
and yet, after all this, you would have to make the necessary investiga-
tions to ascertain if order No. 40 or something else was the cause. The
‘time, therefore, remaining to enable you, before the 17th of January,
1868, to reach a satisfactory conclusion on so delicate and nice a ques-
tion must have been very short. How you proceeded, whether you in-
vestigated yourself or through third persons, and if so, who they were,
what their competency and fairness, on what evidence you rested your
conclusion, or whether you ascertained these facts at all, are points upon
which your letter so discreetly omits all mention, that I may well: be
be excused for not relying implicitly upon it; nor is my difficulty dimin-
ished by the fact that in another part of your letter you state that ever
since the close of the war a very large portion of the people have had
no affection for the Government, but bitterness of feeling only.. Had
the duty of publishing and circulating through the country long before
it reached me, your statement that the action of the District Commander
was increasing crime and hostile feelings against the Government, been
less painful to your sensibilities, it might possibly have occurred to you
to furnish something on the subject in addition to your bare . assertion.

But what was order No. 40, and how could it have the effect you
attribute to it? It sets forth that “the great principles of American
liberty are still the inheritance of this people and ever should be, that

the right of trial by jury, the habeas corpus; the liberty of the press, the _

freedom of speech, and the natural rights of persons and property must
be preserved.” ‘Will you question the truth of these declarations?
, Which one of these great principles of’ liberty are you ready to deny
244 LIFE AND PUBLIO CAREER OF

and repudiate 2? Whoever does so avows himself the enemy of human
liberty and the advocate of despotism. Was there any intimation in
general order: No. 40~ that any crimes or breaches of law would be.
conntenanced ? You know that there was not. On the contrary, you
know perfectly well that while “ the consideration of crime and offences
committed.in the Fifth Military District was referred to the judgment
of the regular civil tribunals,” a pledge was given in order No. 40, which
all understood, that these tribunals would be supported in their lawful
jurisdiction, and that “ forcible resistance to law would be instantly
suppressed by arms.” -You will not affirm that this pledge has ever
been forfeited. There has not been a moment since I have been in
command of the Fifth District, when the whole military force in my
hands has not been ready to support the civil authorities of Texas in
the execution of the laws. AndI am unwilling to believe they would
refuse to call for aid if they needed it.

There are some considerations which, it seems to me, should cause
you to hesitate before indulging in wholesale censures against the civil.
authorities of Texas. You are yourself the chief of these authorities,
not elected by the people, but created by the military. Not long after®
you had thus come into office, all the judges of the Supreme Court of
Texas—five in number—were removed from office, and new appoint-
ments made; twelve of the seventeen district judges were removed,
and others appointed. County officers, more or less, in seventy-five
out of one hundred and twenty-eight counties, were removed, and
others appointed in their places. It is fair to conclude that the execu-
tive and judicial civil functionaries in Texas arethe persons whom you
desire to fill the offices. It is proper to mention, also, that none but
registered citizens, and only those who could take the test oath, have
been allowed to serve as jurors during your administration. Now, it
is against this local government, created by military power prior to
my coming here, and so composed of your personal and political friends,
that you have preferred the most grievous complaints. It is of them
that you have asserted they will not do their duty ; they will not maintain
justice ; will not arrest offenders ; will not punish crimes ; and that out of
one hundred homicides committed in the last,twelve months, not over ten
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOOK. 245

arrests have been made; and by means of such gross disregard of duty,
you declare that neither property nor life is safe in Texas.

Certainly you could have said nothing more to the discredit of the
officials who are now in office. If the facts be as you allege, a mystery
is presented for which I can imagine no explanation, Why is it that
your political friends, backed up and sustained by the whole military
power of the United States in this district, should be unwilling to
enforce the laws against that part of the population lately in rebellion,
and whom you represent as the offenders? In all the history of these
troubles, I have never seen or heard before of such a fact. I repeat, if
the fact be so, it iga profound mystery, utterly surpassing my compre-
hension. Iam constrained to declare that I believe you are in very
great error as to facts, On careful examination at the proper source, I.
find that at the date of your letter four cases only of homicides had
been reported to these headquarters as having occurred since Novem-
ber 29, 1867, the date of order No. 40, and these cases were ordered to be
tried or investigated as soon as the-reports were received. However,
the fact of the one hundred homicides may still be correct, as stated by
you.

The Freedman’s Bureau in Texas reported one hundred and. sixty ;
how many of these were by Indians and Mexicans, and how the, re-
mainder were classified, is not known, nor is it known whether these
data are accurate. ,

The report of the commanding officer of the District of Texas shows
that since I assumed command no applications have been made to him
by you for the arrest of criminals in the State of Texas.

To this date eighteen cases of homicides have been reported to me as
having occurred since November 29, 1867; although special instructions
had been given to report such cases as they occur. Of these, five were
committed by Indians, one by a Mexican, one by an insane man, three
by colored men, two of women by their husbands, and of the remainder
rome by parties unknown—all of which could be scarcely attributable
to order No. 40. If the reports received since the issuing of order No.
40 are correct, they exhibit no increase of homicides in my time, if you
are oorrect that one hundred had occurred in the past twelve months.
246 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

That there has not been a perfect administration of justice in Texag'
I am not prepared to deny.

That thtre has been no such wanton disregard of duty on the part of
officials as you allege, I am well satisfied A very little while ago you
regarded the present officials in Texas the only ones who could be
safely trusted with power. Now you pronounce them worthless, and
would cast them aside. ‘

I have found little else in your letter but indications of temper lashed
into excitement by causes which I deem mostly imaginary; a great con-'
fidence in the accuracy of your own opinions, and an intolerance of the
opinions of others; a desire to punish the thoughts and feelings of those
who differ from you, and an impatience which magnifies the short-
comings of officials who are perhaps as earnest and conscientious in the
discharge of their duties as yourself, and a most unsound conclusion that’
while any persons are to be found wanting in affection or respect for |
government or yielding it obedience from motives which you do not
approve, war and not peace, is the status, and all such persons are the
proper subjects for military penal jurisdiction.

If I have written anything to disabuse your mind of so grave an error,
I shall be gratified.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. 8. HANCOCK,
Major-General Commanding.

Following this fine letter to Governor Pease
came several other special orders, one sustaining
the jurisdiction of the civil courts over the rights’
of private property, another securing the purity of
elections and to prevent military interference at
the polls; another on the stay of civil processes ;
another on the trial of offenses against the law of
the state; another on elections from the people,
and another on the removals from office without.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANOOOK. 247

judicial investigation and determination, one dis-
claiming judicial functions in civil cases, &c.

IS HE HONEST?

There can be no questions of greater importance
asked in referénce to a Presidential candidate than
those which relate to his personal integrity. The
first test Thomas Jefferson applied-to every appli-
cant for office was, “Is he honest?” Jefferson is
also credited with the maxim that the whole art of
government consists in the art of being honest. A
very large proportion of the injury inflicted upon.
mankind by the mismanagement of public affairs
can be directly traced to the venality, rapacity and
dishonesty of kings, chiefs, prime ministers,
heads of departments, and national, state or city
officials or legislatures. We cannot doubt the cor-
rectness of Jefferson’s doctrines. A dishonest ruler
can never be a safe or good ruler, no matter how
richly he may be endowed with special talent.

Dishonesty among men in high places has brought
powerful nations into a most pitiable position by
the peculation of funds appropriated for the sup-
port of their armies and navies, and this has added
so enormously to the burdens of our taxation that
hundreds of millions of people are, in consequence,
enduring numberless privations. The extent to
which public debts and appropriations have been
increased, simply by official villainy, exceeds belief. »
It was: said. of. the men of humble origin and lim-
248 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

ited experience in conducting governments, who
came into power in England with Oliver Cromwell,
that in the face of incredible difficulties and limited
resources, they did infinitely more in the perform-
ance of vast governmental duties because they
were honest merchants, common soldiers. and me-
chanics, than any well trained diplomats and,
courtiers. Cromwell and his associates labored for
the public good, while the royal favorites had no
incentive but to enrich themselves by corruption,
This lesson has been sadly repeated on our own
soil. We have seen states and cities robbed so
mercilessly by rascally officials, that all their in-
habitants groaned under the burden of taxation,
and it was only by the complete or partial restora-
tion of honest rule that a vestige of good govern-
ment was retained and substantial prosperity par-
‘tially restored. No governmentis rich or powerful
enough permanently to endure thieves in its legis-
lative assemblies and its executive’ departments.
They never fail to make fearful additions to-the
public burdens, and thus to take from many tax-
payers the money needed for self-support. In the
end they totally wreck the most powerful king-
doms, empires and republics. We have had a suf-
ficient number of practical illustrations in our own
country, of the mischiefs that flow from the pres-
ence of jobbers in various branches of our govern-
ment, to make clear the doctrine of Jefferson that, °
it.is necessary to keep such men out of office. Jef:

ray
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 249.

ferson displayed his characteristic and prophetic
sagacity when he uttered the valuable warning
that we should sedulously inquire in reference to
every candidate for important position,—Is he hon-
est? The man in reference to whom an affirmative
reply to this question cannot be clearly given does
not deserve and should never receive the support
of any patriotic citizen. A nominee for President,
the highest and most powerful station in the gift
of the people, should be not only pure, but above
suspicion. In all matters that have a bearing upon
his relations to public affairs, every act of his, bears
directly upon the integrity of all those under him.
This truth is so universally recognized that in all
_ former campaigns, in the midst of torrents of abuse,
heaped upon our candidates for office, I do not re-
collect one in which it has ever been charged that |
the Presidential nominee of any important party
has betrayed his trust before his election, or has
used his personal influence afterward, to enrich
himself. Whatever may be said for or against for-
mer occupants of the White House, it is conceded
‘that they were untainted, incorruptible, and above
all, innocent of the hideous crime of selling them-
selves or their officers for power or influence. '

In fact, down to this day the line of American
Presidents, from Washington to Hayes, has been
made up of upright, conscientious and simple- .
minded men. And this may be said, with infinite.
‘truth, alike of the statesmen who filled that office
250 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER.OF

in the first generation, beginning with Jefferson and
closing with Jackson, and of the second genera-
tion, beginning with Harrison and closing with
Grant. The poverty to which some of these Pres-
idents have been reduced by their honest public
services, affords a painful and convincing truth of
their incorruptibility. Lincoln, Andrew Jackson
and Ulysses S. Grant, all retired from office poor.
Lincoln owed his first election and his re-election
largely to the fact that everybody believed him to
be “Honest Old Abe.” In the doubtful contest of
1876, when the necessity of reforming public.
abuses was a paramount issue, the personal integ-.
rity of Rutherford B. Hayes secured to him the
support of thousands. And many would have cast
their ballots for Samuel J. Tilden on’ account of his
active participation in the movements by which
the great reforms had been instituted in the City
and State of New York, if they had not been pri-
marily convinced of the undoubted integrity of
his Republican rival. In the struggle of 1880, the
question again looms up, whether the government
shall be honestly administered? This issue can
never be ignored. The very first and highest duty
of every voter is to institute searching inquiries in
reference to the integrity of all Presidential candi-
dates. ‘

General Winfield Scott Hancock has an unblem-
ished record. I know of no candidate for the
Presidential office that has lived a purer, clearer,
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 251:

more unsuspected and spotless life. Busy calum-
niators have sought and failed to find a single
blemish upon his name. Even. the charges in-
vented against him have been abandoned by their
authors, or rejected by his political adversaries.
One of the most effective cartoons ever printed,
represents a horde of hostile Republican writers
searching in vain through his bureaus, boots, cloth- -
ing, and private apartments for a peg on which to
hang a single plausible falsehood. ;
Hancock is as honest as he is brave. Up to this
moment he has not encountered a single personal
adversary among the members of his own party ;
in fact he never had an organization to force his
nomination at Cincinnati. This unusual circim-
stance dées not spring from want of character, for
no citizen ever had clearer views of public duty..
Not the dimmest blot on his escutcheon has ever
been discovered.
252 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

CHAPTER VIII.
A WORD TO LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS REPUBLICANS.

TRIKE from the column of the present Republi-
can party the hundreds and thousands of De-
mocrats who joined with the Republicans, attracted
by the moderate and conciliatory course of Abraham
Lincoln, and the dying injunction of Stephen A.
Douglas, and there would not be enough left of the
organization around General Garfield to command
the electoral vote of a single Northern State. In
a word, the purpose to which the modern Republi-
cans now devote themselves, is hatred of the South,
malignity that Mr. Lincoln scorned from his soul,
and a partisan assault upon a brave soldier of the
Republic, because he was born and remained a
Democrat, a calumny that would have aroused the
utmost indignation of Stephen A. Douglas. How
what citizen, who cherishes either of these illustri-
ous names, or remembers the sad fate of Abra-
ham Lincoln, and the illustrious career of Stephen
A. Douglas, can remain with a party, who regard
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 258

‘General Hancock as unworthy because he is a

Democrat, surpasses belief.

General Hancock, at the time that Mr. Lincoln
was murdered, was stationed at Winchester, in
command of the Middle Military Division and
Army of the Shenandoah. He was unutterably
shocked at the atrocity of that dreadful deed, as
indeed were all the people of the District among
whom he was then temporarily located; for to him,
as [have said, Abraham Lincoln was something
more than a friend. The kind, quaint President
always had a warm side for patriotic Democrats like
Douglas and Hancock. After he was elected in.
1860 by a division of the Democratic party, Mr:
Lincoln wrote me a letter, very much to my sur-
prise, in which he spoke of my support of Douglas,

_his successful competitor for Senator of the United

States in Illinois, in 1858, and wanted to know if
he could do anything to serve me. I wrote back,
deeply impressed by his unexpected compliment.
Remembering as I did to his dying day, the

‘simple and kindly nature of Horace Greeley, I ven-

tured to mention Mr. Greeley as a fitting member
of his cabinet, stating at the same time that Mr.
Greeley had written to Mr. Buchanan nearly four
years before, in February of 1857, recommending
me to that favorite son of Pennsylvania as a mem-
ber of Ais cabinet. By return of mail. had a let-
ter from Mr. Lincoln, announcing that my request
had been received, but that he hhad already selected
1264 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER: OF

if

yhis New York member of the cabinet, meaning of

course Mr. Seward. After Lincoln became Presi- —
dent, and after Judge Douglas had himself declared .
in favor of prosecuting the war in maintenance of
the Union, it is well known but for the untimely
death of the great Illinois Senator in June 3, 1861, —
;President Lincoln would have sought the first oc-

-casion to give him some distinguished position in eas

connection with the Union Army.
When Stonewall Jackson was accidentally killed
.by his own men on. the 10th of May, 1863; in the

early part of the war, I wrote a strong editorial for

_my Washington paper, The Daily Chronicle, speak-
ing of the high qualities of that incomparable Con-
federate soldier, and Mr. Lincoln wrote me a letter,
thanking me for my unprompted justice to a gallant
enemy. Another incident may be related in proof
of: Mr. Lincoln’s generous appreciation of men
who had been his political opponents. In July of
1861, when the called session of Congress met in
Washington, a secret and. successful movement
induced the Republican caucus to: elect another
‘man in my place as Clerk of the House. But the
next day. President Lincoln, mortified at what he
‘believed to be a most impolitic movement, called
‘upon me with Schuyler Colfax, still living at South
.Bend, Ind., and told me that he had himself,
.personally called'upon a number of United States
Senators, and that I would the following morning
be elected Secretary of the United States Senate,.
' WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 255

which was accordingly done. I held the place
for about.six years, but, valuable as it was, I then
resigned it to vindicate my entire independence of
the new masters of “the. machine.”

» All through this broad land. patriotic Democrats,
North and South, always found in President Lin-
coln, not only a forgiving: and generous, but a
singularly magnanimous friend. Ihave related at
another place how he pardoned Roger A. Pryor,
and I might write many chapters reciting other in-
stances of equal interest. To Republicans who
have. watched -the course of this extradrdinary
man, it.is unnecessary to say where he would be
found this day. He longed to make peace with the
‘South far in advance even of emancipation.
‘Perhaps he may have carried this motive too far ;
perhaps the fact of his having been born in Ken-
tucky affected him; perhaps also his Southern
connections had something to do with it; but when
I recollect. how he loved Hancock, how much he
was affected by the splendor of Hancock’s oppor-
tune bravery on the 3d of July, 1863, and how
rejoiced he was whenever a Southern man fought
or spoke for the Union, I have no more doubt that
‘he would be found for General Hancock in the
present contest than I have where Charles-‘Sumner
would be found, or Salmon P. Chase, or Stephen
A. Douglas. The golden current that ran through
-Abraham- Lincoln’s whole character was coneilia-
:tion. There was hardly a day that I was not con-
256 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

strained to call upon him asking the exercise of
this heavenly quality, and I can name no one case
in which my appeals were refused. The Douglas
‘and Lincoln Republicans, to whom I now address
myself, have only to search their own hearts to
answer the question, whether any single one of the
leaders of the present Republican party imitates,
either by word or deed, these magnificent attri-
butes of the martyred President of the United
States ?

» In Pennsylvania the whole organization of the
Republican party is an iron ring rule; a ring in no
one case, aided by a single man in whom Abraham
Lincoln had the slightest confidence, and in nearly
all cases, engineered by partisans that neither
knew him nor were known by him. In New
York, if the Republican leadership has more ability
than here, it is none the less a selfish and personal
combination. Elsewhere patronage, like:the policy
of the Republican party, is conducted and managed
by a lot of pro-consuls, senatorial satraps, who own
and distribute the offices of the general ‘govern-
ment to their special friends, and in many cases to
their relatives.

What is needed now is a man in the Presiden-
“tial office with hands as clean and heart: as pure
as those of Abraham Lincoln. Such a man is
Winfield S. Hancock, the incorruptible soldier and
‘the faithful citizen, and-such is the man that the
‘old Democracy who becanie Republicans under the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 257

example of Lincoln and Douglas, can rally to in all
of the States of the Union, North and South.

HANCOCK AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF THE NORTH.

* The present movement of the Republican advo-
ates of General Garfield is entirely against Gen.
Hancock as a Democrat. That is his only sin in
their eyes ; because of that all his unequalled record
as a soldier, and all his services in saving the State
in 1863 (according to the Republican admissions
of that day), go for nothing. Let me examine this
new and monstrous assumption. I will not answer
it by saying that where the present Republican
leaders are not the notorious advocates of rings
and jobs, they are mainly old Native Americans
and Know-Nothings: that could be easily proved.
But I will answer it by asking, what will become
of the Republican party if the most brilliant ser-
vices in war and peace are to be rebuked and re-
jected because those who rendered these services
have been: and still are Democrats? Apply this
rule to the present Republican party, and you at
once prepare to drop out of your national column
at least six of the free States, north and west.
Make, as you are making, Hancock’s only sin, the
fact that he was born and stays a Democrat, and
you lose in a short space of time Maine, New
Hampshire, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Observe that all these States became Republican

because of the innate hostility of the Northern
16
258 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Democrats to the extension of slavery; that, and
the attack upon the flag, drove almost a million of
Democrats into the Republican ranks, and without
_ them the present Republican party would have
become a mere corporal’s guard, made up of office-
holders, office-seekers, and bloody-shirt politicians.
The question of slavery is out of the way forever.
Even the slave-masters are at last rejoiced that the
old man of the sea is off their shoulders. Then,
what else is left? Only the cry of hate of the
South. Now men get tired of feeding on hate,
especially when, as in this case, it is proved that
the only effect of eternally hating the South is to
eternally help Northern speculators in office, and
fill the pockets of certain candidates with the
bribes of the Credit Mobilier or the fees of the
De Golyer lawyers. But there is another view
of the future. Make it a sin for a gallant sol-
dier to be a Democrat, all his education having
been in that school, and what becomes of his
other Democratic companions-in-arms? Do. the
present leaders of the Republican party think for
a moment that Americans would. submit to such
insolence? The mere hint of such a theory will
deplete their ranks as if the plague had struck
them. Are other thinking politicians stupid
enough to hope that when all these Democrats
consented to co-operate with the old Whigs and
Know-Nothings during the war, they therefore
bound themselves to submit to an ignorant and
i we te

WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 259

inferior rule for ever? The assault on General.
Hancock means precisely this. Let us see how
it has worked already. The machinery of the
Republican party, from Maine to Maryland, is
almost exclusively in the hands of office-seeking
or office-holding partisans. Look around you
in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio,
Illinois and Indiana, and is it not so? Of course,
your paid politicians of to-day will say that men’s
feelings cannot be roused by dead issues, but the
pride of a party, like the amour propre of a man,
never dies, and is soon made healthy and alive;
and when a prejudice is made into a creed it is ul-
timately resented. On the other hand, friendship
survives. To be again on good terms with the
South is not only wisdom but the best Democracy.
It is also the best of sense; it is commercial, reli-
gious, and manly sense. The Democrats do not
offer a serpent or a sword. Their candidate is'a
soldier, it is true, but he is also a forgiving, gener-
ous and sincere statesman. If he hates anything,
it is sectional hatred; and if he loves anything, it
is patriotic co-operation and oblivion to the evil
past.

THE REPUBLICANS OF THE SOUTH.

Colonel George Williamson, of Louisiana, an in-
timate personal friend of mine, for several years
past co-operating with the Republican party, late
Republican Minister to Central Africa, writes a
26.0 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

public letter declining the Republican nomination
for Congress in the Shreveport district, aud de-
clares his intention to support Hancock. He says,
“ Hancock represents the magnanimity and honor
and military and civil elements of the North. And
General Garfield, on the contrary, represents that
political element of the North that lives upon hate
of the South and glories in Northern sectional-
ism, while it denounces and yet fosters Southern
sectionalism.” Colonel Williamson is one of the-
most accomplished and eloquent men I have ever
known. He acted with the Republican party
eight years ago, and gave it great power in north-.
ern Louisiana, and when Colonel Scott visited that
region to secure support for the Texas and Pacific
railroad in 1872, one of the most effective auxili-
aries was this accomplished gentleman. A Re-
publican in the Southern country will not find it
easy to resist the influence of such a nomination
as that of General Hancock. Even a carpet-bagger
will find his interest in supporting the patriotic
side, but a gentleman like Colonel Williamson,
born in the South, yet heartily sympathizing with
the progressive spirit of the North, and full of
anxiety to invite emigration, alike to Louisiana
and Texas, (Shreveport is directly on the border
of the latter), will find little to attract him in the
cause of a candidate like General Garfield, whose
only capital in trade is, that Hancock is a Demo-
crat, and that the South is still not to be trusted. ;
he
‘WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 261

THE GREELEY REPUBLICANS OF 1872.

It is so late in the day to resume the waving of
the red flag of sectional discontent, that I think
all sensible people regard the experiment pretty
much as they would regard the experiment of
awakening hostility to an Irishman, because he
was not born in the United States. It has become
so ridiculous as to be despised even by the hungry
office-seeker. Now, the men who did so much to
nominate General Garfield as the Republican can-
didate for President at Chicago, were generally
the Greeley men of 1872. This was a large and
influential contingent of the Republican party.
It included Mr. Whitelaw Reid, my old friend,
General John Cochrane, Carl Schurz, Senator
Fenton, of New York, G. A. Grow, Murat Hal-
sted, and very many other eminent Republicans,
most of them now, as I have said, for General
Garfield, and all the unforgiving opponents of
Grant.

While one of the motives for these excellent
persons falling off from the Republican. Party
in 1872, was their dislike of General Grant, the ©
chief point they made upon the country, the point
with which they captured the South, was the as-
sertion that the South was already reconstructed ;
there was no opposition to the national law there,
and that if we desired to prove ourselves a mag-
nanimous people, then was the time to elect Mr.
Greeley and to bring the South back in love and
262 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

brotherhood to the national fireside. I was so
much captivated by that idea myself, that if I had
not acknowledged a superior obligation to General
Grant; if I had not believed that he was entitled
to the lasting gratitude of this whole people, of
both sections, notwithstanding the fact that he
had made blunders of administration, from which
Washington himself was not saved, I should have
gladly voted for Horace Greeley. Nothing in the
character of that incomparable editor and unselfish
patriot, attracted me more than the enthusiastic
courage with which he gave up all his prejudices
for the sake of his country, and cut loose from the
corrupt jobbers of his own party.

But now, eight years after, the whole current is
changed, and these gentlemen are as busy waving
the bloody flag as if they were working to earn
high wages by their industry. Now the South is
to be hunted, hooted and harrowed by all manner
of scandals. A special outrage is to be invented
évery day, Failing to find any spots in the sunny
character of Gen. Hancock, they turn out to find
fresh ‘fault with the South, which they worshiped
with almost heathen idolatry in 1872. There
would be no topic for their speeches, if the present
Republican leaders could not indulge in denuucia-
tion of Gen, Hancock because he is a Democrat,
and in denunciations of the South, as a section still
to be distrusted, although they were ready to re-
ceive it with open arms eight years ago.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 263

THE COLORED MEN OF THE UNITED STATES.

‘It has been my good fortune to sustain the
‘most intimate relations with the colored men of
the United States for more than twenty years.
There never has been an occasion when I have not.
been their staunch and stalwart friend. This one
fact at least they will remember, and I must add
that in the long run they have been considerate,
kind and indulgent. But no class on the American
soil owes less to the present leaders of the Republi-
can party, and none have been treated worse by
them. The men most forward in securing their
‘freedom, Sumner, Greeley and Eli Thayer, all lived
to co-operate with the Democratic party, and to-
day there is no portion of the American people
more interested in peace and reconciliation with
the South.

Two classes have suffered from the carpet-bag:
gers, the colored and the white men of the late in-
_ gurrectionary states, and nothing in modern civili-
zation has been such a curse to a great people as
the horde of reckless men from the North, poured
down upon the South at the close of the war.
They had neither’ morals, manners, nor mercy.
Who is there to-day that does not’ say reconstruc-
tion has been retarded ten years by the adven-
turers who plundered North and South Carolina,
Virginia, Louisiana and Alabama? The enormi-
ties of these men turned even strong radicals: into

#
264 —« LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

sympathizers with the South after the war. It is
possible such evils may have been provided as a
punishment to the revolting states, but if this was
so, these evils produced a counter current in the
North and served to arouse profound commisera-
tion for the plundered South.

Meanwhile the Republican party, in the old
Free States, fell into the hands, not of the Union
soldiery, but of crafty and mercenary men, who,
avoiding the dangers of the battle-field, filled their
pockets from the plethoric treasury of the United
States during the Rebellion. These men, in
their careful provision for themselves, deliberately
proceeded to put themselves into office every-
where in the great municipalities, taking especial
pains to exclude the highly cultivated men of the
Republican party, and to-give no chance for the
new element, the colored voters, who stood cap in
hand, at the door, waiting to be recognized. I
think it could be established that if the ring-
leaders of the Republican party, wherever they
have control, could be turned out of the places
they occupy, and these places could be filled. by
the intelligent colored men in the same communi-
ties, the. latter would prove to be the better custo-
dians of the public interest.

_My good friend, George T. Downing, now at
Albany, N. Y., for a long time resident in Wash-
ington, one of the most intelligent men of his
race, wrote a few days ago a letter to a conven-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. £65

tion of colored men at Trenton, N. J., in which
he made this declaration: “There was no special
fealty due from his people to the Republican party.
Necessity had been a potent element to induce the
Republican party to do what it had done.” Then
he cited the election by the Democrats, of. J. C.
Matthews, a colored man, to the Common Councils
of Albany, N. Y., and his own selection as orator
on Independence day in that city, and also the
choice of a negro by the Democratic Mayor of '‘Bos-
ton to read the Declaration of Independence on
the same day.

I have another colored friend, an equally sen-
sible man, Thomas Chester, a very prominent
lawyer in New Orleans, who shares these senti-
ments with George T. Downing. It is the mani-
fest destiny of the colored race that they should
rely on neither of the great parties. In their case
undoubtedly, fair and frank division of their votes
is the wisest policy. Why should they become
the “ Hewers of wood and drawers of water” to
any single organization? They vote as free citi-
zens, and are free to choose, proving every day that
their real political power, is a weapon which they.
can use with great effect to command the respect
of both parties. The man under God to whom
they owed most, was Abraham Lincoln, when he
signed the Proclamation of Emancipation, which
made them all free, January 1, 1863. And if he
were living to-day, he would with me plead for re-
266 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

conciliation between the sections and for the fullest
recognition of: my colored friends.

The great soldier of the first generation in this
century, Andrew Jackson, hailed, as among his
most loyal and reliable coadjutors, the free colored
men who helped him to repel the assault upon
New Orleans, and I cannot doubt that Winfield S.
Hancock will bear in mind this illustrious’ exam-
ple. Their Emancipation has conquered a thou-
sand obstacles; it has made them the masters of
their own future, and it will eventually command
for them the respect of the Southern people,
among whom the most of them were born.

Gen. Hancock, whose course of life is in accord |
with this great example, is now a candidate of the
party that embodies peace to all the sections. It
is said, that he is also “the candidate of the men
that he conquered.” Could there be a higher
proof of his own magnanimity than that the men
he took prisoners should now be his followers?
What nation has ever failed to forgive its erring
children? England, with the houses of York and
Lancaster, and France, with her two Communes,
are feeble copies of the splendid pardon extended
by America to her Confederates. Nothing in
ancient or modern times parallels that startling
generosity. Abraham Lincoln forgave them
even while fighting against fate and freedom;
for the reason that they were our own. Finally,
when universal amnesty was added to universal
WINFIELD SCOTT. HANCOOK: 267

suffrage, there could be no partial pardon and no
divided equality. You cannot give a conditional
liberty; you cannot proffer a part of human love.
It is all in both cases. Hence we twain are bound
into one. The egg of colored slavery is broken,
never to be restored. The chains of white dis-
qualification are melted, never to be reforged.
Gettysburg preserved for us the entire and: perfect
chrysalis of free government; and for the Confede-
rates, we have only to repeat: if they have sinned,
they have suffered. _ Grievously have they sinned,
fearfully have they suffered. They are still our
brethren, still God’s children; and as He freely
forgives, what blasphemy for us to refuse?

THE EDUCATION OF THE WAR AND THE BENEVOLENCE
OF PEACE.

The census is a rare magician, and it has come
just in time to show the people of the Southern
country that when they were beaten in their at-
tempt to overthrow the Union they were saved
a world of misery. It is unnecessary to revive
the argument of an independent -South, or the
. vision of a great sectional Republic based upon the
institution of slavery. Enough to thank God for
the present. I think even Jefferson Davis, in his
cozy retreat at Beauvoir, Mississippi, or my old
friend, R. M. T. Hunter,.in his quiet -home at
Lloyd’s, in Virginia, or if he were living, the inde
fatigable J. B. De Bow, of the old Southern Re-
268 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

view, would be quite content to see that the South
have gained more by their loss than they would
have gained by their victory, had General Lee
won the day at Gettysburg.

_ And here comes the census, not so much to
throw light upon old theories or to rebuke old
predictions, as to illuminate the pathway to the
great future that awaits all sections of this
country, and none more than the South. The
following wonderful summary tells part of the
story:

[From the Baltimore American.]
Werpnespay, Juty 21, 1880.

Mr. Robert P. Porter, the political economist and statistician, has re-
cently contributed from a tour of the Southern states a series of letters
to the Bradstreets that have grouped in a small space an admirable pre-
sentation of the great industrial and commercial facilities of that section.
One conspicuous value of Mr. Porter’s writings is that he is never
excited; he sets down the facts carefully gathered, and permits hia
readers to form their deductions from them, and his letters are always
reliable as compared with those of correspondents who allow themselves
to be swept off their balance by intense sympathy with their subject.
He aims to show us what progress the South has made since the war,
and also what rich possibilities for her people lie in the womb of the fu-
ture. When Virginia has 58 per cent. of unimproved land, West Vir-
ginia over 69 per cent., Tennessee 65 per cent. and North Carolina 75
per cent., a8 is the case in those states, it is easy enough to see that what
is needed for their further development, and the same thing is true of all
Southern states, is the influx of labor and capital. How shall they be
obtained? Well, immigration with money in its hand is tolerably sure
to march into a country whose resources of wealth have been so far de-
veloped by the previously resident population as to prove their vastness.

 
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 269

and that there is very much more money to be made out of them.
Georgia has hundreds of thousands of acres of good soil for sale at 50
cents an acre, and the financial condition of the state is so sound that its
loans are quoted at 12 per cent. above par. The rich and comparatively
unknown valleys that lie between the Blue Ridge and thé lateral ranges
of Virginia and North Carolina, carry gold, iron, copper and coal below
the ground, while the surface land can hardly be excelled for grazing
purposes, and the hill sides are clothed with’valuable timber. Tennessee
has received within the last two years 7000 immigrants, who have not
come as paupers, but as purchasers of homes. Arkansas has probably
taken not less than 10,000 of the same class during that time, and Texas
is likely to show by this census a population of fully 2,000,000. Stock-
raising in Texas affords a magnificent field for enterprise and capital.
The aggregate of Texas cattle is unknown to the best informed operator,
but Gen. Walker, Supt. of the Census, is making special effort to discover
the particulars in regard to this vast interest. No Southern interest,
however, is attracting more attention than the endeavor to distribute
cotton manufacturing through the cotton belt itself. The four million
bales of cotton produced in the South last year run 12,500,000 spindles,
which require nearly one thousand millions of dollars in buildings,
machinery and working capital, and employ about 800,000 hands. Be-
sides this total, the 700,000 spindles in the Southern states are compara-
tively few, and the proportion of cotton which they annually consume
ig only a drop in the bucket. But we have heretofore shown the in-
crease of profit in manufacturing where the cotton is grown, and it has
been estimated by Mr. Porter that if the whole product was milled
there it would save to the planter $50,000,000 yearly in transportation.
There is plenty of iron in the Southern states, and it can be manufactured
there as cheaply as in the North. The business has been taken up to
some extent, and one expert has given the opinion that Tennessee may
become another Pennsylvania if it will. By employing its laboring
population in manufacturing enterprises, the South will not only return
within its own borders the money of which it is now depleted, but it will
have products to sell to other countries, and the more it has to sell, the
zmore miles of railroads will be built, and the more certain and remu-
270 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

nerative will be the home markets of its farmers, and the greater will be
the ability of all its people to possess themselves of luxuries and com-
forts drawn from every quarter of the globe. In Louisiana sugar culture
is having a boom. In 1865, the state produced but 5000 tons, this year.
it has marketed 172,924 hogsheads of sugar and 274;440 barrels of
molasses, for. which nearly $19,000,000 was realized. Yet there is stil]
much sugar land that is not cultivated. Forty-one mills for extracting
oil from cotton seed are being worked in the cotton belt, and there is:
much money in this industry.

We have not space to follow Mr. Parker through all the details o
Southern progress and possibilities that he submits, but enough has been:
quoted. to enforce the conviction that the day is breaking in that section.
Its. people are going to work in earnest, and in the new life that they
are entering upon there must necessarily be an abolition of those
political and social intolerances which have been their curse. Busy
men have not time to brood over old sores, nurse dead issues, and foster
political hatreds.

‘Last September I addressed the people of
Kansas at Lawrence City, on the Twenty-fourth.
Anniversary of the settlement of that wonderful
town, and there ventured, long before any of the
paid politicians could question my anxiety to re-
store peace between the sections, to appeal to the
Southern people as follows:

Ah, gentlemen of the South, the great Jefferson would have builded
better. Had he been here, he would never have allowed John C. Cal-
houn’s ideas to indoctrinate the South ; and if he had failed to stop the
poison, he would have demanded, at the close of the civil war, and in
the face of the generosity proffered to the South by the North, “ both
hands full,” that his people should not be held back in the new race
for empire, He would point them to the gigantic growth of the North
under free institutions and the abolition of human slavery, and he
would have proclaimed from this part of his: Lovisiana purchase, ‘that
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. QL

Kansas was the last and most prodigious. product and ‘proof of the
justice and beneficence of his. prophetic labors. He would say, in
words of solemn warning, that whether the Southern Democratic
leaders desired it or not, the fiat had gone forth, and they could no
more resist the current than Canute could arrest the sea; and then he -
would talk to the long-deluded masses of the South, and implore them.”
to seize the golden opportunities all around them, and to act for them-
selves and by themselves, without the reckless pilots that had led them
into the storm, and had neither purpose nor capacity to lead them out,
Such would be the master’s voice were he alive to speak out. Let
me, his humble follower and interpreter, add that there is still time
“to recover arms.” The South is full of wealth, genius, eloquence,
and invention. The mighty elements that helped to make and fire the
Revolution are’not dead. Harness these elements to progress; inspire
them with Jeffersonian liberty; and before the nineteenth century-
_ closes its doors, the old Southern States will be abreast of the new
Western republics, and the next silver wedding of Kansas will find
Texas divided into four empires, each as grand and potential as Kansas
is at present, and from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, an athletic
liberty as strong as that of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania to-day.

It is astonishing how much farther hard old-time
truth goes than ordinary figures of speech, and the
tables teaching the philosophy of the census are
far more convincing than any rhetoric. Several
disenchantments appear. First,the old slaveshave
worked better in freedom than in slavery. Next,
the.old slave-owners have got richer in freedom
than they did in slavery; next, the increase in the
railroads of the South has been almost. as rapid as
the growth of railroads in the West; next, the pop-.
ulation has been astonishingly augmented i in many
quarters; next, popular education is spreading.
272 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

wider and staying more steadily; and I may add
that Southern journalism, judging by the newspa-
pers that have come to me within the last year,
exhibits an enterprise and originality that may
well make Northern newspapers prepare for a
rare Southern rivalship.

Looking into the same mirror, I find that since
the lifting away from the heart of the South of
the terrible stone of slavery, there is as much
change for the better as there was in the North in |
the days of its highest prosperity and improve-
ment; society has improved in the condition of the
poor whites; there is an immense advance in the
condition of the blacks; and greatest of all, we
have the improvement that results from free inter-
communication. Now there are no barriers be-
tween the States; nowno traveler is judged by his
politics in the South; and now even the carpet-
bagger, if he behaves himself, can win respect in
the extremest Southern communities. Such is
briefly a part of the education of our civil war.

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE REBELS OF PENNSYL-
VANIA.

It is not difficult to judge how George Washing-
ton would have treated the Confederates, had our
civil war occurred during his life. There is a
chapter in his life that meets this question. Ihave
often believed that Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Seward, Ho-
race Greeley, and Mr. Sumner, who, under the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 273

weight of their vast responsibilities, at last all forgot
that they ever were partisans, and closed their lives:
at peace with all their people, had not only read
in their reflecting moments, the solemn teachings
of history as set forth in the splendid rhetoric of
Edward Everett at Gettysburg, on the 19th of
November, 1863, but that they had especially con-
sidered the example of General Washington him-
self, when he disposed of the celebrated Whisky
Rebellion in Pennsylvania in 1794. His mode of
treating the rebels of that period would have made
it very certain, that earnest, and honest, and di-
vinely loyal as he was, he would not have imitated
the modern Republican partisans, either by wav-
ing the bloody flag in eighteen hundred and sixty-
three, or insisting that it should still be the banner
of his magnanimous party in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and eighty.

And at the present time, when the people of
Pennsylvania are loudly called upon by men, most
of whom were invisible in war and invincible in
peace, to punish the people of the South, seventeen
years after Abraham Lincoln, the martyred Presi-
dent of the United States, had freely forgiven
them, and fourteen years after the Congress of the
United States had amnestied and clothed them with
all their political rights, it may be useful to open
that page of history which shows exactly what
Washington did to the forefathers of the good
people of certain counties in western Pennsylva-

17.
274 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

nia, chiefly Westmoreland, Allegheny, Fayette,
Washington, and Bedford, eighty-six years ago,

Their rebellion arose from opposition to the gov-
ernment tax of fourpence on each gallon of whisky,
which had been imposed by Congress as a war tax,
or rather, to pay the expenses of the Revolution,
In these western counties the inhabitants were
engaged in the manfacture and sale of whisky, and
they resisted the tax not only by their votes and
their voices, but to the death. It was for a time
as bitter and almost as bloody as the previous war
with the English, or the earlier wars with the
Indians, The State was excited to its borders,
and the whole country was seriously alarmed.
The United States Marshal was obliged to flee for '
his life, and the house of John Neville, where he
had been harbored, was burned, and a number
were killed. There was no security for life, and
an open defiance of law, in fact one wide reign of
terror.

What did the government do at that time? Re-
membering that the offenders were our own citi-
zens, that the law which they complained of had
borne hardly upon them, that some of the officials
were tyrannical, and that the proceeds of their
whisky manufacture, was in fact at that time, the
chief means of livelihood in all that section—mark
how singularly these causes of the great rebellion
in Pennsylvania eighty-six years ago, resembled
the alleged excuses for the greater rebellion which
WINFIELD s008r HANCOCK. 275

began in 1ge1—cahembaring these things, the
government did all it could to conciliate the inci-
ters of the rebellion: Washington taking the
lead.
I quote from the last history of Pennsylvania,
written by William Mason, Cornell: “The laws
were modified, proclamations were issued and an
amnesty offered to all, uselessly.” Here again is
the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, here is the source
from which he took the mercy, the magnanimity,
the toleration, which he showed from the time he
took the Presidential office; which he breathed, as
I heard him pronounce his first inaugural address,
at the side of James Buchanan, on the 4th of
March, 1861; which he repeated inevery subsequent
public paper; which, with his last breath, like that
Greater One who cried, “Father, forgive them,
they know not what they do,” he proclaimed from
the portals of the White House on the 11th of
April, 1865. It seems as if he had observed the
very methods and manner of George Washington
in 1794. The stubbornness of the South between
1860 and 18685, like the stubbornness of the rebels
in western Pennsylvania in 1794, did not incense
-George Washington any more than the contumacy
of the South incensed Abraham Lincoln. Like
Washington, Lincoln put himself in the very shoes
of the men who were violating the law and taking
the lives of their neighbors and friends.
Let me still further quote from our historian:
276 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF:

“President Washington asked the co-operation of
the governments of the neighboring States to quell
the disturbance.” Precisely as Abraham Lincoln
did to quell the disturbance seventy years after.
“And inthe autumn of that year (1794) 12,000
men from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland
and Virginia advanced upon the insurgents by way
of Bedford and Cumberland.” How like the
joint selection of the battle-field of Gettysburg,
whereon to decide our other civil war! Again
‘says the historian, “General Lee, of Virginia, took
the command. Under. him was the Governor of
Pennsylvania. This force soon caused them to
succumb.”

How remarkable again the coincidence, that the
father of Robert E. Lee should have come forward,
under the orders of another Virginian, George
Washington by name, and that the combined
troops of four of the old revolutionary States
should settle the original rebellion near the very
battle-field where Robert E. Lee himself was over-
whelmed by a citizen of Pennsylvania, when he,
Lee,. undertook to imitate the Pennsylvania rebels
of 1794. General Henry Lee, who put down the
Pennsylvania rebellion, was: called ‘Lighthorse
Harry,” and lived to March, 1818. He pronounced,
by'order of Congress, the great, eulogy on George
Washington after his death in 1799, and was the
author of the sentence referring to the first Presi-
dent and the savior of his country: “First in war,
' WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 277

first in peace, and first in the hearts of his coun-
trymen.” Whatever may be said about the fatal
theory which led his great son, Robert Edmund
Lee, to lead the Confederate forces, none can doubt
that he was sincerely and religiously captivated by
the States Rights dogma, nor can any one doubt
that he deserved the affection and confidence of the
people of the South, as he finally secured the re-
spect of the people of the North. And there is
little question that his son, who died at Lexington,
Va., October 12th, 1870, retreated with his shat-
‘tered columns from Gettysburg and crossed the
Potomac at Williamsport, Md., into his native
State, Virginia, more than once reflected that
almost on that very spot his father, the friend and
companion of Washington, had suppressed a Penn-
sylvania rebellion against the same government,
seventy years before.

But see how the historian concludes this mar-
vellous similitude between our rebellion in Penn-
sylvania and the rebellion of 1861 and 1866:
“‘Some of the leaders who were found, were taken
to Philadelphia for trial. No blood was shed, and
thus happily ended the whisky rebellion.” The Re-
publican partisans in the counties made addition-
ally famous by this local revolt against the general
government, are now calling upon the people of
Allegheny,.and Westmoreland, and Somerset, and
Bedford, and Washington, and Fayette, and Greene,
and Armstrong, and Butler, and Cumberland,. and
278 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Franklin, and Fulton, to join in November next
in the punishment of the great soldier of Pennsyl-
vania who saved them from an invasion only sur-
passed by the insurrection of their own fathers!
They will tell you, in their anxiety to make votes
for Mr. Garfield, and in their eagerness to efface from
his tainted record the dark blots placed upon his
character by a Republican Congress and a Republi-
can constituency, fastened there by the New York
Tribune and other Journals, that in 1872 de-
nounced General Garfield, as the very prince: of
congressional jobbers—they will tell you that Gen-
eral Hancock deserves no more credit than the

man they will call the “traitor Lee.” Perhaps, _
then, while in the midst of one of these rhapsodies, - 4

some old Republican who wants to vote for Han-
cock, like my friend, Senator Edward Cowan of
Greensburg, will read them the curious chapter
which I have spread before you, not alone to show
that the father of Robert E. Lee put down the
whisky insurrection begun by their fathers, but
that under the advice of Washington their ances-
tors were forgiven after having been first persuaded
and argued with and almost promised rewards for
their violation of law.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN, ROGER A. PRYOR, AND GENERAL
HANCOCK,

Abraham Lincoln began early to treat the mis-
' guided authors of our civil war with mercy. His
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 279

very first utterance at his inauguration, March 4,
1861, closed with these immortal words: “I am
loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends.
We must not be enemies; though passion may have
strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from
every battle-field and patriot grave, and every
living heart and hearthstone all over this free land,
will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when
again touched, as purely they will be, by a better
angels of our nature.”

And to show that he never forgot anybody,
when he spoke at the great Philadelphia Sanitary
Fair, June 16, 1864, he made this prediction, amid
successive cheers for: Grant, and Meade, and Han-
cock :

“Grant is this evening, with General Meade and
General Hancock, and the brave officers and sol-
diers with him, in a position from which he will
never be dislodged until Richmond is taken. »And
I have but one single proposition to put now, and

_ perhaps I can best put it in the form of an interro-
gation: if I shall discover that General Grant and
the noble officers and men under him can be
greatly facilitated in their work by the sudden
pouring forth of men and assistance, will you give
them tome? Are you ready to march? (cries of ~
‘yes,’) then I say stand ready, for I am watching
for the chance.”

Another. singular incident of his retentive mem-
‘280 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

ory and his characteristic mercy, is recalled:to me
by the current cry of Republican partisans, that
the Southern people are never to be forgiven or
trusted, and that the American people must retain
the government in the hands of politicians who
have proved themselves to be utterly unworthy of it.
You see how he remembered General Hancock at
the Sanitary Fair at Philadelphia, and how he
classed him with Grant and Meade, nearly a year
after the battle of Gettysburg, and you will not fail
to contrast the tenacity of his regard for the young
hero who decided the great struggle on the 3d of
July, 1863, with the persistent abuse of that hero
because he happens to be the candidate of a large
portion of our citizens for President of the United
States. Iam also reminded by Mr. Lincoln’s im-
mortal example, of an incident brought back to me
- in all its freshness by a speech spoken a few days
ago, by General Roger A. Pryor, an ex-confederate,
now living in Brooklyn, New York. Taken in
connection with Mr. Lincoln’s conscientious
mercy to the misguided men of the South, and his
habit of never forgetting a favor, what I am about
to relate serves to illustrate both these attributes.
If it proves anything in reference to myself, it
proves that, while it is universally known that I
never had a thought after the outbreak of the re-
bellion but that of punishment for the authors of
that rebellion, yet when the civil strife was ended,
Tnever had a thought that was not animated by
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 281

an intense desire to bring all the confederate
masses back to the family hearthstone.

Late in February of 1865, while Grant was ad-
vancing upon Richmond, my old friend, Washing-
ton McLean, of the Cincinnati Inquirer, came rush-
ing into my rooms on Capitol Hill, full of excite-
ment. He is still living, one of the most ardent
and whole-hearted men I ever knew. He said,
“T want you to do me a favor, and I know you
will. Your old friend and mine,. Roger A. Pryor,
of. Virginia, taken prisoner some days ago, is now
confined in Fort Lafayette near New York, and-I
want you to go with me to see President Lincoln
to secure his release, so that I may send word to .
‘his distressed family.” The rapidity of this ex-
traordinary request almost took my breath, but
before I had time to expostulate, McLean hurried
me into a carriage waiting at the door and drove
rapidly towards the White House. Then I said
to him, “ Do you know what you are doing? You
are asking me to go to the President to demand
the release of a violent Confederate, who is said to
be the first man who fired from Charleston harbor
upon our flag on Fort Sumter, and who was per-
haps the most resolute of all the enemies ‘of the
government.” “Yes,” he replied, “and your old
associate on the organ of the Democratic party of
the nation in Washington, when. we were all
Democrats together, and as you know, one of the
best men alive, with all his extreme Southern
282 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

opinions.” By this time we had reached the
President’s, and hurried up stairs to his room front-
ing the Potomac, which I found, as usual, crowded
with people. But Mr. Lincoln was always more
than kind to me, and we soon obtained an audi-
ence.

First joking with McLean because he was so
earnest a Democratic editor, Mr. Lincoln then
listened to my appeal for General Pryor. I still
see his expression and the humorous sparkle of his
eye asI told my story. Then pausing he said, “I
have a kindly recollection of Roger A. Pryor. He
is the man who, when a company of Pennsylvania
_ volunteers were taken prisoners at Petersburg,
. Virginia, (Pryor then lived at Petersburg), found
them almost starving on the streets and took them
home, and gave them, not only a hearty breakfast,
but literally swept his house clean to make them
comfortable, and I think I have here a little mem-
orandum to that effect signed by these Pennsyl- |
vania boys.” And so turning around, he took
from his pigeon-hole a paper testifying to this fact,
and also urging that General Pryor’s kindness
should never be forgotten by the American Govern-
ment.

This proves the fidelity of Abraham Lincoln’s
gratitude and good memory. He then gave me a
card to the commandant of Fort Lafayette in New
York harbor, Colonel Burke, asking him to release
the Confederate General Pryor, who would report
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOOK- 283:

to his friend Col. Forney on Capitol Hill. And
McLean rushed off to New York by the next train,
returning to Washington the subsequent evening
with Roger A. Pryor on his arm, who came to my
house on Capitol Hill and remained with me as
my guest for more than a month, even down to
the fall of Richmond.

There was a great deal of opposition to this pe- .

culiar pardon of the President, in some quarters,
coming from the men who then, as now, tried to
show their patriotism by proclaiming their unfor-
giveness and hatred of the South. But the Presi-
dent stood firm to the last, and General Pryor re-
mained with me until he found it convenient to
return to his home. At parting, he showed much
emotion, and declared that while he never would
forget all. the kindness that had been shown to
him, I would live to see the day when he would
prove that he would labor as hard to re-unite the
country and restore kindly relations in the North
and South as he had fought hard to separate them.

Nobly has Pryor kept his faith. The last-evidence

of it is the speech that I hold in my hand, uttered

a few days ago, early in July, 1880, from which I
take this remarkable extract :

‘“‘ Hancock was not the preference of the Southern people for Presi-
dent. Their choice—unanimous and’ enthusiastic—was Bayard, of
- Delaware. How, then, came the Southern delegates to proffer Han-
cock as the candidate of the Democracy? I will tell you, and mark
well the significance of the fact: Since the close of the war the Repub-
284 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

‘lican party in the ‘North, for purposes of party aggrandizement, have
persisted contrary to fact, contrary to truth, in representing the South-
ern people as enemies still of the Union, and as cherishing yet the ex-
ploded dogma of secession as a tenet of the States Rights creed. In vain
have the Southern people endeavored to vindicate their patriotism by
protestation and acts of loyal devotion to the Union. Hitherto, in
every election, it has sufficed for the defeat of the Democracy that the
‘bloody shirt’? was waved by stalwart arms, and fabricated ‘outrages’
propagated by Republican papers. So, at Cincinnati, the Southera
delegates said:

‘You may impute to us hostility to the Union, but we will refute the
calumnious accusation by setting as sentinel over the Union the vigilant
and unconquerable hero of the Union. You may impute to us the mis-
chievous heresy of State sovereignty, involving the right of secession.
Now, we will disprove the charge by nominating for the Presidency
a man educated by the General Government, and taught the supremacy
of the’ Nation as the first and fundamental rule of political faith; a man
who helds his commission from the Federal Government ; who gets his
subsistence from the Federal Government, for whom no career is open
but in the service of the Federal Government, who knew no other ob-
" ject of fealty than the Federal 'flag—a man, in short, whose every interest
hinds him to the support of the Union by the most intimate and indis-
putable ties’ ‘You say we are still unreconciled to the North, and
that in our hearts still burns the secret flame of sectional animosity ;
then, to repel the reproach, we take to our bosoms the man from whom
we sustained the severest blows in our Confederate struggle—the man
who arrested our retreat at Williamsburg; who checked our pursuit at
Fraser’s Farm ; who hurled our assaulting columns from the heights of
Gettysburg; who drenched the soil of the South with the best blood of
the South; the man who smote our Jll-starred Confederacy to the
ground.’” :

I repeat the question, How long is this bloody
shirt to be waved; how long are the millions of
Southern people to be distrusted; how long shall
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 285 |

the corrupt politicians in the North be kept in
power by this fiendish hatred of your own brothers?
As I said before, Mr. Lincoln began to forgive the
Southern people in the midst of their sins, and
even as he died, -he died with Christ-like pardon |.
for them on his lips, and when he had passed
away, the Republican party of the United States,
when it was led by statesmen and inspired by
patriots, incorporated into the Constitution those
great practical guarantees, not only that the slave
should be free, not only that the freedman should
vote, but that the so-called rebels should be for-
given, their property restored to them and their
right to vote in all our. elections secured; in other
words, universal suffrage with universal amnesty.
And now when the South gives the pledge, in the
words of Roger A. Pryor himself, a forgiven man
by the President of the United States, that pledge
made in the person of the soldier who by the ad-
mission of the Republican leaders themselves
saved the Republic in the extremest peril, the
Southern people are still to be hounded on by the
declaration that the South shall never be trusted ;
it is not surprising that the great body of the
humane people of the United States. should rise
against this savage exhibition of party malevolence, |
and, worse than that, unpatriotic contempt for the’
great example of Lincoln and the solemn covenant
of the Constitution of the United States!
286 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

CHAPTER IX.

THE CONQUERED CONFEDERATES,

HIS is the moment when every kind word
spoken. and every good action done by the peo-
ple of the North and South respectively should

be cherished. Already a new civil war, so far as the
revival of sectional animosities is concerned, has
been determined upon by the Republican leaders,
and if there is a moderate and thoughtful patriot
in these United States to-day, he should be roused
to reprobation of the inhuman spectacle. It is clear
that every other question will be subordinated by
the violent men who still hold possession of the Re-
publican party in order that they may keep them-
selves in office. Not the least surprising feature
of this conspiracy to re-light the fires of hatred
between the States is the a¢tivity in it of many of
the organizers of. the movement to make Horace
Greeley President in 1872.

The platform of these men eight years ago was
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 287

that the South had suffered enough and had been
punished enough, and ought to be brought back
into the Union. Mr. Greeley, himself, directly
after the peace of 1865, became the voluntary in-
strument of fraternal relations. The dogmatic,
passionate and apparently proscriptive founder of
the New York Tribune,—the man who did more
than any other man in the nation to arouse the
malignities of the war—gradually, in the face of
the overthrow of the conflict, mollified all his
extreme views, and when Jefferson Davis was im-
prisoned in Fortress Monroe, Horace Greeley
startled the nation by proffering himself as the
leading bail of Jefferson Davis in May, 1867.

Thousands of Republicans supported him in
1872 as the candidate of the party of which Mr.
Davis was in fact the Southern chief, and hundreds
of Republican ] leaders were as extreme in their de-
mands for Southern forgiveness and rehabilitation
as Greeley himself, Now the New York Tribune
and most of these men are on the other side.
True, they all had personal hostilities against Gen-
eral Grant in 1872, as they had in 1880, but the
keynote of the contest of 1872 was Southern for-
giveness. Their movement was held forth to the
North as the best, manifestation of Christian char-
ity, and there is no page of political history, at
once more instructive and curious, than the man-
ner in which hundreds of Republican ‘leaders, to
make votes for Horace Greeley, pledged themselves
288 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

to perpetual allegiance to the South. Those who
were as soft and gentle as cooing doves when
they spoke of our Southern countrymen are as
violent as wild animals to-day.

In 1872 it was a Republican soldier that they
hunted down in their preference for Horace Greeley.
It was to destroy a Republican soldier that they
joined the Democratic party. Now this very Dem-
ocratic party becomes to them a terror, and the
Democratic soldier who carries the flag of the
Union is proclaimed the instrument and symbol of
anew rebellion, the chief of a movement pledged
to overthrow all the covenants of peace!

It would be inconceivable if the American peo-
ple, North and South, who witnessed this extra-
ordinary scene, should not resent the actors in it
with indignation and dignity in November next,
Long before Mr. Greeley unfurled the white flag
of reconciliation, Abraham Lincoln, even two days
before his death, made known to the world his sin-
cere desire to pardon and bring back our offend-
ing brethren. And in the same month, not much
more than a week after, General Grant, so far from
being inflamed by a spirit of revenge over the fate
of the martyred President, carried into legal effect
the great act of forgiveness, by making a magnani-
mous treaty with Robert E. Lee, the Confederate
Commander-in-chief. Now, seventeen years after
Gettysburg, fifteen years since Lincoln’s death and
' Grant's treaty with Lee, eight years since thou-
, ‘WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 289,

sands of Republicans voted for Horace Greeley as
the Democratic candidate for President on the
basis of eternal reconciliation, we have the great
Republican party formed.in battle array, not only
under what is vulgarly called “the bloody flag,”
but stimulated by more than one hundred thou-
sand office-holders into a new war of sections, to
‘force an Ohio politician, blackened all over with
charges upon his public and private character by
his own party, into the Presidency.

These unaccountable changes of sentiment, by a
party which claims to have put down the war,
and to have forgiven the authors of the war,
and to have crystalized into the Constitution the
two great guarantees, universal amnesty and uni-
versal suffrage, isin morals as much a violation of
faith as in law repudiation of a private or public
debt would be a crime.

THE CLOSE OF THE WAR IN THE SOUTHWEST.

A very interesting incident, showing how this
spirit of conciliation and magnanimity pervaded
the very air after the close of the war in
1865, is related in a contribution made by Lieu-
tenant-General Richard Taylor, son of President
Zachary Taylor, printed in the Philadelphia
Times, before his death, in April, 1879. He was in
command of a Confederate detachment when in:
telligence of Lee’s surrender reached him. Gen-

eral Canby, who afterwards lost his life in an
18
290 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Indian ambuscade in the Rocky Mountains, com-
manded the Union armies in the Southwest, and
had advanced up the eastern shore of Mobile Bay
and invested Spanish Fort and Blakely, two im-
portant Confederate works in that quarter. Gen-
eral Richard Taylor, the Confederate commander,
had known Canby before, and the Union Admiral,
James Palmer, both old friends of mine. A truce
of two days was declared, to await intelligence
from the North in regard to the collapse of the
Confederacy. Now hear what Taylor said of this
affair:

‘We then joined the throng of officers, and_although every one pre-
sent felt a deep conviction that the last hour of the sad struggle ap-
proached, no allusion was made to it. Subjects awakening memories of
the past, when all were sons of a loved, united country, were, as by the
natural selection of good breeding, chosen. A bountiful luncheon was
soon spread, and 1 was invited to partake of pate, champagne frappe,
and other ‘delights’ which to me had long been as lost arts. As we
took our seats.at table, a military band in attendance commenced play-
ing ‘TIail Columbia.’ Excusing himself, General Canby walked to the
door. The music ceased for a moment, and then the strain of ‘Dixey’
was heard. Old Froissart records no gentler act of ‘ courtesie’ Warmly
thanking General Canby for his delicate consideration, I asked for
‘Hail Columbia,’ and proposed we should unite in the hope that our
Columbia would soon be, once more, a happy land. This and other
kindred sentiments were duly honored in ‘frappe, and after much
‘pleasant intercourse, the party separated.”

This interesting incident occurred in the May
of 1865, more than fifteen years ago. General
Canby, whose friendship I had the honor to share
during his splendid life, treated the Confederates
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. - 291

not only like a soldier, but like his fellow country- —
men. He remembered what Mr. Lincoln had said
in 1863 at Gettysburg, what he had said three
days before he was assassinated, what General
Grant had pledged himself to in his April treaty
with. General Lee, and inspired by these examples,
observe how he treated the people of Alabama and
Mississippi at that time in a most deplorable con-
dition. Writes General Taylor: “The waste of
war had stripped-large areas of the necessaries of
life. In view of this, I suggested to General Canby -
that his troops, sent to the interior, should be
limited to the number required for the preservation
of order, and be stationed at points where supplies
were more abundant. That trade would soon be
established between soldiers and people, furnishing
the latter with currency—of which they were
destitute—and friendly relations promoted. These
suggestions were adopted, and a day or two there-
after, at Meridian, a note was received from
General Canby, inclosing copies of orders to Gen-
erals Granger and Steele, commanding army corps,
by which it appeared these officers were directed
to call on me for and conform to advice relative to
movements of their troops. Strange, indeed, must
such confidence appear to statesmen of the ‘ bloody
shirt’ persuasion. In.due time, Federal-staff
officers reached my camp. The men were paroled
and sent home, public property was turned over
and receipted for, and this as orderly and quietly
292 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

as in the time of peace between officers of the same
service.

What, in the meanwhile, have the South-
ern people done that the whole North shall now
turn upon them as if they were so many savages ?
In these days of universal brotherhood, when every
part of our country is prosperous, a new gospel is
preached, chiefly by partisans, who, to use the
words of General Taylor, “never were within the
sound of a gun” during the civil. -war. They de-
clare that our countrymen of the South are not
yet fit to be admitted into their share of the Gov-
ernment. Every American citizen will answer
this question for himself, and none more emphati-
cally than the Union men who fought against
General Taylor and his soldiers. He concludes :

“What years of discord, bitterness, injustice and loss would not our
country have been spared, had the wounds of war been healed “by first
intention’ under the tender ministrations of the hands that fought the
battles! But the task was allotted to ambitious partisans, most of

whom had not heard the sound of a gun. As of old; the lion and the
bear fight openly and sturdily—the stealthy fox carries off the prize.”

NATIONAL UNION FOR THE PEACE AND PROSPERITY OF
THE NATION, AND FOR AN ENDLESS POSTERITY:

During the war for the preservation of the Union,
men of all parties in the North came together to
support the Government. In the South men ot
all parties came together to subvert the Govern-
ment. The latter failed after fierce effort. The
first act of the rescued Government was to forgive
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 293

every offender and to enfranchise every native alien.

To the slave it gave liberty; to the Confederate is

gave pardon. Nothing strengthened our nation so

much abroad as this double revelation, or rather

the humanity of the liberty and the magnanimity |
of the forgiveness. Nothing startled the foreign |
tyrant or lifted up the foreign serf like this God-
like spectacle. Following Washington’s great ex-
ample, Mr. Lincoln preached pardon during all his
life, and preached pardon at his death. He did
not grant the ballot with as much readiness as he
pardoned the Confederate; but when he gave the
one and forgave the other, he did what he knew
would stand through all time. Had he not dane
both, we should now be living in the midst of a
ceaseless civil conflict, conducted on the one hand
by warlike, ingenious and desperate whites, and
harassed on the other by keeping in slavery four
millions of blacks full of equal. distrust and
greater hatred of our miscalled Republic. And
now that both sides are benefited by the general
rescue and the universal reconciliation which came
from all the best qualities of our nature, alike in
arms and arbitration, alike in the conflict of. the
field and the Congress: of the country, we must
permanently unite for peace.

Let all parties unite for peace. As. the Demo-
crats flew to the Republican standard in the hour
of the country’s trial, now let Republicans fly to
the Democratic standard in the hour of the coun-
294 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

try’s conciliation. How much more ennobling the
inspiration of the last invocation than the stimu-
lant of the first! How much more compensation in
a great people gathering around their own fire-side,
forgiving their own family quarrels, and simply
remembering that they are kindred and friends,
than to contend and threaten in conventions and
Congress, to spread disaffection through the press,
and to assail motives and invent calumnies! The
text of the hour that is sure to be preached with
most effect, to be listened to with most attention,
is that at the head of this page: National union for
the sake of peace, for the sake of prosperity, and
for the sake of an endless posterity.

PRESENT POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE SOUTH.

While this volume.was going to press, I was
called upon by my long absent friend, Thomas J.
Mackey, at present Judge of the Sixth Circuit of
South Carolina, who has voted the Republican
ticket since the candidacy of Fremont in 1856, and
for most of the Republican candidates from that day
to this, and is now openly in the field for General
’ Winfield S. Hancock. After my congratulations at
meeting him and his son, Mr. Beckford Mackey,
in reply to my question as to the present political
condition of the South, he spoke as follows:

The campaign has begun in South Carolina, or
rather I should say it is continuing, for since 1876,
when the state was redeemed from long misgovern-
. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 295

ment, under the benign leadership of Wade
Hampton, an organized effort has been continually
made to assimilate the colored man to the Demo-
eracy by a just and equal administration of the
laws, and by commending the government of the
state to him through a system of low taxes and a .
faithful execution of all public trust. “To-day
throughout the thirty-four thousand square miles

"". of territory embraced within the limits of the state,

the law is keeping watch, a silent and sleepless
sentinel, over the person of the humblest negro.
The colored population of South Carolina constitute
as orderly and honest a body of laborers as exists
in any quarter of the globe, and in proportion to
numbers commit fewer crimes than any other in-
dustrial class of which I am informed.

The nomination of General Hancock has been
followed by a very striking expansion of sentiment
in my state on the part of the whites. It has
furled the Confederate banner forever within the
limits of South Carolina.

As an evidence of this, I note the fact that a
few weeks ago the inhabitants of the county of
Newbury assembled to dedicate a monument to
the Confederate dead who fell in organizations sent
from that county. The monument consisted of a
tall marble shaft on which the names of some
twenty-eight hundred dead Confederate soldiers
were inscribed. There were at least ten thousand
ex-Confederates from various parts of the state
296 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

present at the dedication, and when the ceremonies
closed, the vast assemblage made the welkin ring
with hurrahs for Hancock—the great Union soldier
before the deadly fire of whose invincible corps
“many of those whom our citizenship had assembled
to honor fell in battle. Those hurrahs came from
the heart, for every people is sincere at the graves
of their dead. There were at least fifty United
States flags encircling the monument during the -
dedication.

As another evidence of this expansion, I note
the fact that the Fourth of July was celebrated
universally by the white people in South Carolina
in the present year, for the first, time since the
year 1860, by the ringing of bells and the firing of
cannon. All classes, ages, sexes and races partici-
pating, white and colored intermingling and par-
taking together of a sort of national sacrament ad-
ministered by one who had shed his blood upon
the altar of the Union, and might well preside as
a high priest at the office of national reconciliation.
It is in view of this sentiment of returning devo-
tion to the Union specially inspired by General
Hancock’s nomination, that I welcome his candi-
dacy. As an ex-Confederate soldier who served
four years at the front in obedience to the false
political theory of my State, and as an earnest
Republican, I regard. the nomination of General
Hancock as the most benign incident that has
occurred since the war, as I know his election will
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. . 297

be effectual in restoring the concord to American
citizens by binding them together in a common
devotion to the Union.

As a further illustration of the change which
that nomination has effected, I refer to the fact
that since the war South Carolinians generally
were in the habit of referring to the United States
troops stationed in the State as “ Yankee soldiers,”
or “Federals.” But a few weeks since, while I
was standing in a group of ex-Confederates at Co-
lumbia, a detachment of United States soldiers
passed, and, an ex-Confederate remarked, “ There
go some of our soldiers.”

It is a mistake to suppose that the colored peo-
ple of South Carolina follow the race line any
longer in their political classification. The colored
man, like the great body of the hand-workers of -
the world, does not control his conduct by abstract
propositions. Like the greyhound, he runs by
sight, and is influenced in his judgment of parties
by visible results. The Republican administra-
tion of Governor Chamberlain was overthrown in
1876, not by the Democratic party proper, but by
the union of good and true men of all parties and
races who sought reform in the administration of
the government. Governor Chamberlain was a
man of splendid intellect and unsurpassed culture,
and in my judgment an unsullied and honorable
chief magistrate. But all of his efforts directed
on his part to effect reform in the administration
298 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

of the State were paralyzed by the baser element
of the Republican party. And hence the com-
bined movement to overthrow the power of that
political organization in South Carolina. The
Democracy prepared for the union of the better
elements of the Republican party by adopting a
platform, inspired by Wade Hampton, which is
distinctively Republican, its first article being as
follows: “We accept in perfect good faith the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amend-
ments to the Constitution of the United States,
accepting and standing upon them, we turn from
the settled and final past to the great living
and momentous issues of the present and the
future.”

‘Under the benign leadership of Hampton, that
platform and: principle have been translated. into’
action in the practical government of the State. —
There are six hundred and fifteen more school-
houses for colored people in South Carolina than
there were in 1876, while the taxes have been re-
duced. seventy per cent., and the colored agricul-
tural laborers who received but seven dollars per
month and rations in 1876, now get from twelve
to fourteen dollars per month with much better
rations. :

South Carolina to-day presents Hampton, the
fearless defender of the adjudicated title of Kel-
loge, the Republican Senator from Louisiana, the
man who reported the bill at the recent session of
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. ‘999

Congress appropriating fifty thousand dollars to the
execution of a map of Gettysburg, showing the
position of every command on that memorable
field, the symbol of her loyalty and the standard
of her civilization. The North stands to-day on
the mountain ranges of civilization: we of the
South have long been in the valleys, but we are
climbing up, and the stalwart arm of Hancock will
aid in lifting our people to a higher plane.

CONCILIATION IS VICTORY, AND ALL SUBSTANTIAL
INTERESTS ARE FOR CONCILIATION.

‘The prediction of Jay Gould to Mr. Thomas
Cornell, of Delaware Co., N. Y., that Hancock and
English will certainly be elected, in November, is
not the prophecy of an over-sanguine nolitician,
but the result of the careful reflection of a cool and
sagacious man of business.

Mr. Gould controls a continual line of Continen-
tal railway, and a vast’ Atlantic cable; and apart
from all other considerations he reads the future
with a commercial eye, and sees how utterly im-
possible it is to establish an imaginary line between
two sections, and between the respective States

of ‘a great people, bound together by all other
interests, practical, domestic, religious, and so-
cial. .

During the war the North was’ united to save
the country, the’ South was united to divide the
country, but now North and South:see their true
300 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER. OF

interests in honest harmony, They can no more
be kept asunder than two old friends, bitterly
parted, and after all brought together by the re-
newal of their original and undying ties.

' Jay Gould is worth millions of money, and
- thousands are dependent upon him; people who
own his investments, people who work in his various
enterprises, people who are connected with the de-
velopment of our outlying territories, and many
other co-relative institutions and interests. It re-
quires no inspiration to anticipate where all other
men equally practical, will be found before the
close of this controversy. What motive, for in-
stance, can a great city like Philadelphia have for
the encouragement of useless sectional alienations?
What municipal advantages can come to us of
Philadelphia by prolonging the calamitous rule
under which this municipality has suffered for the
last: fifteen or twenty years?

On the other hand, apart from such local rea-
sons, why should not Philadelphia invite back to
her great colleges and to her great merchants that
Southern patronage which she enjoyed before the.
Civil War? Why should Philadelphia alone, of
the great cities of the North, allow herself to.
be controlled by trading politicians? New York,
Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, and St. Louis, are all
under cosmopolitan influences, And there is no.
reason why Philadelphia should not revert to her
imperial” Posen before duty and inclination con-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 301

strained her ta resort to those extreme measures
which converted that old Whig city into a Repub-
lican stronghold. There is not a merchant or
manufacturer in Philadelphia who is not more or
less directly concerned in the restoration of con-
fidence and friendship between the North and
South.

How, in view of such a philosophy as this, how
contemptible appear the small passions of the
small politicians, of the small localities! It is
such facts as these that will decide the vigorous
men of the North to withhold their contributions
, to the present managers of the Republican
party.

The financial institutions of the United States.
are primarily for conciliation. Up to within a.
few years they were led to believe that they must
pay large bounties to maintain a certain political
party, because the other party was charged with
hostility to the present financial management of
the government. But these far-seeing men now
understand that when every other branch of
business, when science, and religion, and great in-
dustries, and tremendous railroad corporations, are
united’ in believing that the true business of
the future can best be controlled by conciliatory
measures, they, themselves, will hesitate before
allowing their money to be used to promote the
interests of sectional politicians. And the place-
men ‘themselves, taxed to death by the organiza-
802 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

tions of the party to which they belong, encouraged
by the civil service promise of President Hayes,
will learn at least consideration from the incoming
power by frankly refusing to make contributions
to a beaten party.

Finally, conciliation is the fashion, Twenty
years ago, what is called loyalty was the fashion
in the North, but to-day peace and friendship are
the great elements of universal acceptance. And
peace and friendship with our own people in dif
ferent States are the true harbingers of future
prosperity. It will be perceived that in this pre-
sentation of the case, I leave entirely out of the
question the military element, the men who fought
down the Civil War at Gettysburg, and afterwards
aided General Grant to finish it at Richmond.

THE CLERGY AND CONCILIATION.

There is a Baptist clergyman in Philadelphia,
an original Democrat, who preached forty years
ago in Richmond, Virginia. He was born in Ver-
mont in 1810, and like thousands of his school
became a Republican when the civil war broke
out. His wonderful eloquence and disinterested
example did incalculable service to the Republican
party. This interesting man recognizes General
Hancock as the great political missionary of
conciliation, and, Republican as he is, regards
peace between the sections as the very highest
evangelism. He sees the union of. the churches,
. | WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 303

the union of the schools, the union of the rail-
roads, the union of great boards of trade, the
union of transportation companies, and express
companies, as the resistless mission that must com-
pel the union of pulpits and the union of schools.

His beautiful temple in the city of Philadelphia,
the Free Baptist Church, on Broad street, near
Brown, is crowded every Sabbath and several
evenings during the week; and his last sermon’on
the Divine Democracy is a general elucidation of
his present position. The text is from chapter
twenty of St. Matthew, verses 26, 27, 28, and 30,
viz: “ Whoever will be great among you let him
be your minister. And whoever will be chief
among, you let him be your servant. Even as the
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to
minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
And so they departed from Jericho, a great multi-
tude following him.”

The individual example of Dr. Magoon, apart
from his: courageous connection with the present
movement for the reconciliation of the sections, is
worth relating. He is now alone in the world,
with the exception of the widow of his son, and
‘her child. Originally, a Vermont bricklayer, he
recalls his rough beginning by the first brick which
he laid, placed before him, on his table, as an ink-
stand, which he uses when he writes his sermons.
His active and frugal life leaves him, at seventy
‘years of age, in fine health, with a competency.
304 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

His large collection of water-colors, painted by the
famous artist Richards, of Germantown, Philadel-
phia, is among the finest of its kind in the world,
mostly marine pieces. His theological library,
including volumes in several languages, and his
miscellaneous library, have all been distributed,
the art treasures to General Di Cesnola’s Great
Art Gallery in Central Park, New York; his theo-
logical library to Cardinal McCloskey, of New
York, who, although a Catholic, is the personal
friend of the Protestant priest; and his other col-
lections to his Alma Mater, the College of Roches-
ter, N. Y.; while $5000 is given to found a schol-
arship at Vassar, of which he is a trustee.

This. distribution was made in obedience to the
request of his accomplished son, Frank, who died,
in 1879, at an early age, and who asked his father
to make disposition of his property before he him- |
self was called away; in other words, to adminis-:
ter on his own estate.

No man could have been more earnest, during
the war, in favor of freedom, than Dr. Magoon;
and none is more earnest in promoting the kindest
feelings between the people of the North and
South. It is here that his influence will be most
effective. Nothing, during the war, was more
natural than ardor in’ the pulpit, North and South;
yet it must be admitted that nothing excited so
much ill-feeling. The clergy, on both sides, were
often. violent and vituperative. Here history
‘WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 805

repeated itself, because this violence and vitupera-
tion became contagious, frequently converting
heretofore fraternal congregations into political
conclaves. But now, that the real disturbers of
public opinion, the political managers, North and
South, not only themselves called a halt, but from
Jefferson Davis, on the one side, to the Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher, on the other, recoil, with
something like regret from their extreme: utter-
ances ten and fifteen years ago, it would be a
painful phenomenon if our religious teachers did
not also unite in a happy oblivion to the bitter
past.

Hence, such men as the Rev. Dr. Magoon are
found in every commmunity. It seems more
difficult, however, for some who should be the
apostles of peace to preach methods of forgive-
ness.

The injuries of the war in the South still stir
the blood of many of the theologians, precisely as
the savage memories of slavery irritate the reli-
gious leaders of the North; and it happens that,
on more than one occasion, when the statesman
sees the light of truth, and finds that, in order to
judge for the country, he must take into considera-
tion the interests, as well as the prejudices, of
others, we sometimes realize that many clergymen
still nurse their wrath to keep it warm. But
when trade, commerce, finance, art and science,

and the other agencies of an improving civilization,
19
806 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

combine against those who delight in scattering the
seeds of discontent among the people, very few of.
those followers of the forgiving Christ, who, to the
last, pleaded even for his executioners, will find
congregations to listen to them.

THE BALLOT AND THE PARDON.

There is a magnificent and boundless future de-
pending upon thee election of General Hancock to the
Presidency. Even if this fact were not clear, the ex-
periment itself would be worth trying. To satisfy
the sections is to my mind the first essential.

‘When Judge Mackey, of South Carolina, relates
that the 4th of July, 1880,-was celebrated for the
first time in the South in twenty years, and that
General Hancock’s nomination was the moving
cause, he states a profound and significant fact.
Alternation of administration is the highest phi-
losophy in any free government, particularly in
the United States. To leave fifteen states in a
condition of alienation and distrust for more than
fifteen years after they had been enfranchised
by a great government, is a fearful trial in such a
country as ours, and none but madmen would
think of it. And yet that is just what the
Republicans now intend.

What madness to keep the whole South like a
running sore in the side of the nation! The -busi-
ness men of the country want to feel the Southern
people in the channels of trade and commerce, and
WINFIELD SCOTT HANOOOK. 307

all other interests are equally concerned ‘in their
return. After the’ prosperous reign of Queen
Elizabeth, in Great Britain, came twenty years of
civil war, and with that civil war, inconceivable
misery. We have had our share of depression
since our twenty years of civil war, and it will be
our own fault if we do not elect Hancock, and
better so for our people. When we get rid of
this greed of money as we have got rid of slavery,
the culture of the North and the culture of the
South, and the industry of the North and of the
South, will move together hand in‘ hand, and
sweeter manners and better laws will reign in all
the states.

There are two great instrumentalities working
to this happy sequel. The ballot to the freedmen,
and the pardon to the Confederate. These are the |
twin influences, springing from different motives,
and yet both irresistibly working to the same end.
When Mr. Sumner spoke of the ballot as the
colored man’s lawyer, physician, school-master, |
and clergyman, as the colored man’s soldier and
solace, and as the protector of his home and future,
he did not state an extravagance. He might at
the same time have added to the ballot the mag-
nanimous pardon extended to the Confederate
by the government. The ballot freshly enfran-
chised the freedman, the pardon freshly strength-
ened the Confederate. The ballot can no more be
withdrawn from the one than the pardon can be
308 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

withheld from the other, given at the same time in
one spirit of generosity and magnanimity. In
justice to the freedman and in clemency to the
Confederate, they will go together to the end
and contribute equally to the prosperity of the
South.

FIFTY YEARS OF HISTORY TEACHING BY EXAMPLE. |

A Presidential struggle in the United States is
a spectacle to the foreigner of original and momen-
tous magnitude, but no similar event has aroused
more novel issues and will live longer in history
than the present political agitation. Exactly fifty
years ago, General Jackson had been two years
President, and was preparing for another term,
which was also crowned with victory, in the midst
of unparalleled excitement.
. The next great agitation was twenty years after,
when the compromise measures aroused the whole
people and led to the formation of what is called the
Republican party in 1856. That party obtained the
administration, four years later, by another divi-
sion of the old Democracy, and held the National
. power from 1860 to the present time. Thus it
will be seen that the Democrats were about half
these fifty years in power. And now more than
twenty years since the exclusion of the Democrats,
the. American people seem disposed to try them
again, and judging by the accessions from the Re-
publicans, the chances are clearly in favor of the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 809

election of the Democratic candidate, General Han-
cock.

The campaign has hardly opened, but already

the manifestations of distrust of the present Repub- -

lican party are so numerous as to presage a revolu-
tion like that which swept Jackson into the Presi-
dency in 1828, General W. H. Harrison into the
Presidency in 1840, General Zachary Taylor into the
Presidency in 1848, Lincoln into the Presidency in
1860, and Grant in 1868 and 1872. These five
elections were largely the result of popular discon-
tent. Jackson was triumphant because the people
of all parties were convinced that John Quincy
Adams had been elected, during the previous year,
1824, by the House of Representatives, to the Presi-
dency wrongfully, and because also Jackson was a
great military favorite. Harrison was elected
because the people were dissatisfied with Martin
Van Buren, the heir of “Old Hickory,” as Gen-
eral Jackson was called. Taylor—Zachary Taylor
—was elected by a division of the Democratic
party on the slavery question, the Wilmot proviso
figuring largely in the disruption. And Abraham
Lincoln was elected in 1860 by another Democratic
division, more serious, because slavery had finally

resolved upon a partition of the Union. Grant .

came in begause the popular heart thrilled to his
bravery in the. field, and his great magnaminity
to the conquered South. The Old Democracy
are getting together as rapidly as they separated
310 LIFE AND PUBLIC: CAREER OF

twenty years before. Conciliation has taken the
place of coercion, patriotism has pushed mere
party aside, the North is hungering to take the
South back into its arms, and the South is plead-
ing to come to the National fireside, under the
administration of the Union soldier who helped to
conquer the Confederacy.

‘History in all these fifty years shows how
faithful the American people have been to two
ideas: gratitude to those who have served them
in the battle-field, and tenacious fidelity to freedom.
Jackson, Harrison, Taylor, and Grant were four
_ soldiers who had served with great distinction,
representing different parties, coming into the
Presidency with the help of other parties; and
although Lincoln was no soldier but a simple Re-
publican, his honest patriotism literally created
and absolutely crystalized the most powerful party
of his generation.

Now comes Hancock, another soldier and
~ another Democrat like Jackson, with equal claims
to national consideration. Jackson drove back
the British army and saved New Orleans and the
whole Louisiana, purchase, together with the com-
mand of the Mississippi, on the field of Chalmette,
January 8th, 1815. Hancock saved his native
state from successful invasion in 1868, by this act
also delivering the whole North including our
commercial metropolis, New York, and our poli-
tical metropolis, Washington, from Confederate
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 311

invasion. Such is fifty years of -history teaching
by example.

The individual dihaeatinas of. this’ theory are
as startling as they are numerous. They. prove
that every useful political revolution in this coun-
try has been consummated by the concerted action
of patriotic men of all parties. Neither Jackson,
Harrison, Taylor, nor Grant, could have’ been
made President without a combination. between
-men of different organizations. They were not
elected by any one party, although nominated by
certain distinctive organizations. Hancock is, the .
candidate of the Democratic party, but his success
will be assured by contributions from many other
quarters. There is not a county in the Union,
North or South, in which this assertion is not
daily established. And although mere partisans
who gather under the flag of the mere party
candidate, General Garfield, are claiming accessions
to their columns, the assumption is too ridiculous
for belief.

In the South, the colored men who would: have
been solid for Grant, are daily inclining to Hancock
in view of his declarations in favor of maintaining
the Constitutional guarantees since the war. In
the North, the immense percentage of Democratic
volunteers in the Northern army is increased by :
recruits from the Republican veterans, and the
returning tide, composed of Democrats who were
diverted from the old organization in 1860 by
312 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Lincoln and Judge Douglas, is constantly adding
to the Democratic organization. But stronger
than all, more effective than all individual accre-
tions, is the one great principle of Conciliation.
Loyalty to the flag and fidelity to the Union were
the elements that organized and made irresistible
the Union Party from 1860 to 1865. Now, the
war being over, the Constitution amended by the
abolition of slavery, and the forgiveness of the do-
mestic enemy, peace and prosperity being restored,
Conciliation is as natural and necessary to the
American people as the preservation of their in-
stitutions was twenty years ago.

THE DOCTRINE OF TRUE NATIONALITY.

That common-sense philosopher, James Parton,
enunciates in a very interesting paper contributed
to the Magazine of American History for August,
1879, on “The Traditional and Real Washington,’
a plain principle from which I quote because I think
it touches, as it settles all disputes in reference to
National Allegiance and State Sovereignty. Like
General Hancock’s Order No. 40, and his thought-
ful reply to Governor Pease of Texas, this axiomatic
presentation of acommon-sense truth, isthe platform
cf all genuine Americans. Since our Civil War
and the overthrow of slavery, and the abandon-
ment of State Sovereignty, in the sense that it
preceded the higher obligation to the Constitu-
tion of the United States, I think there are few,
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 313:

of any party, who will question the striking illus-.
tration of Mr. Parton.

“Jefferson, trained from youth in republican ideas, believed that
men could govern themselves, as well on the great scale as on the small.
Hamilton, as we know, not merely did not hold this opinion, but had
little patience with it; he held it in contempt, as an evidence of
provincial narrowness or fanaticism. Jefferson, a native of Virginia,
descended from a Jefferson who was a member of the first legislative
body that ever sat on the Western Continent, a Virginian of the Virgi-
nians, was opposed, by patriotic instinct, to every measure which made
Virginia seem anything less than sovereign. Hamilton, not a native
of the country, was devoid of sympathy with the pride of New: Yorkers
in New York, and with the pride of Virginians in Virginia. He would
have willingly-seen State government abolished, and State lines
obliterated. No man unassisted by feeling would have ‘been equal to
the invention of the federal system. But Jefferson was assisted by his
feelings, and he took naturally to the doctrine of strict’ construction.
The American system, as he conceived it, and as Madison expounded
it, was then, and is now, the one chance of the United States: a central
government, very simple, inexpensive, unimposing, and strictly confined
to the duties assigned it by theletter of the Constitution; leaving to the
States every other governmental function. Never was there anything
devised so excellent, so safe, so practicable. I see in it the solution, not
merely of our own political problems, but of those which perplex and
alarm Europe and parts.of Asia. No man can foresee how long the
struggle will last in the Old World, between dynasties and peoples,
between authority and freedom, between equality and privilege ; but if
the inhabitants of Christendom really have it in them to advance in
political knowledge and self-control, nothing is more certain than that
the American federal system—HE Pluribus Unum—as it existed in the
minds of Jefferson and Madison, modified by time, place and events, is
the system in which they will find peace and safety at last.”
314 LIFE AND ‘PUBLIC CAREER OF

CHAPTER X.

INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF A GREAT SOLDIER'S —
CAREER,

Y old friend, Stephen A. Douglas, was not as
practiced an “Anecdotarian,” if I nfay invent
a word, as Abraham Lincoln, who was the
model story-teller of his day and time, but he had
a fund of exquisite humor. Whenever he talked
about the Presidency he rarely failed to relate the‘
incident of the western candidate for office, whose
wife said to him, “Now, my dear, you are anxious
to be squire in our township, and I want you to
tell me honestly, whether you have ever done any-
thing in your life that you are afraid’ that the —
world should know ; because, my dear, a man who
‘wants to be squire of our town, will be cussed and
discussed, and if they found out anything bad you
will be sure to be disgraced.”

And so Douglas would add, “J am in the posi- ©
tion of a man resolved not to be astonished about
anything they say about me.” And then he would
tell with infinite humor, how, on one occasion a
friend of his was charged with horse stealing,
‘while he was running for the Legislature. “There,”
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 315

he said, “I am resolved to make a point,” and he
brought suit against his calumniator, and the worst
of it was that the man who charged him with
stealing a horse, proved it upon him! Ido not
think that General Hancock need to be ashamed
of any part of his record since he was an entered
cadet at the United States Military Academy, when
he was 16 years old.

GENERAL HANCOCK’S CONSIDERATION FOR THE HONOR OF HIS
OFFICERS.

 

Captain was a gallant officer of the 2d Delaware Regiment,
(4th Brigade), which was largely recruited in Philadelphia. He had
on several occasions been tested by General Hancock, and his Colonel,
(David Stryker), in trying exigencies and proved himself worthy of
their confidence.

On one occasion he had Fak returned to camp after days of picket duty
during heavy storms, worn-out and fatigued. But unfortunately just
before he had prepared himself for rest, an injudicious friend handed
him a copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer, which had come into camp
during his absence and pointed out to him a War Department statement
which had been telegraphed to the newspapers throughout the country,
through the Associated Press. It contained a long list of “Officers
absent without leave,” and among the most prominent of them stood the

name of “Capt. BY

 

‘The blow was a severe one, especially in his tired, worn-out condi-
tion. Publicly disgraced to his family and his friends! Posted at his
own home!

Naturally, a man of quick decision, the Captain forgot his fatigue,
drew his sword from its scabbard, and without saying a word to his com-
rades, walked direct to the Colonel’s tent.

The Colonel was at thetime busy writing or dictating to his ‘Adjutant,

“Colonel!” hoarsely shouted the indignant Captain. “There is my
sword,” he threw it upon the vacant tent-cot. “I fight no more
816 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

for my country, which has disgraced me. You can do what you please
with me—cashier me if you like,—but I perform no more duty.”

The amazement of the Colonel, who was a bosom friend, as well as a
superior officer, may be imagined, as the Captain ceapperrel as sud-
denly as he had made his dramatic entrée.’

Personal friendship conquered official pride, and within fifteen min-
utes the Colonel was at. the Captain’s tent and seated on a stool at his
bed-side.

“Come, William,” he said soothingly, as he took his brother officer’s
hand in his. “‘ There must be some grave error here. What is the cause
of all this demonstration—so unusual on your part and unworthy of -
you? Talkto me as a friend and brother.”

“‘Tt’s no use, Colonel. I had hoped to go through the war with you,
but my country has disgraced me at my home, and I can fight for it no
longer.” » :

And then the Captain's companions showed the Colonel the obnoxious
paragraph in the War Department order, and he grasped the subject of
the trouble at once.

“This will never do, Captain! T’ll ride over to General Hancock’s
headquarters at once, and I know he will never allow you to rest under
this stigma.”

In an hour or so the Colonel was back. “ General Hancock wishes to
gee you at once, Captain. He says there has been a grave mistake
‘somewhere, and he is determined to have it righted. He told me tosay
to you that he knew and remembered you well.”

“Ti’s no use, Colonel. Let me rest. The thing has beendone. My
family and friends are all ashamed of me. I cannot face them again.
My services are over.”

A day or two elapsed before the Captain had overcome his despond-
ency, and even then he was still reckless,

“You must go, Captain. The General has waited for you long
enough. The first thing you know you may make him angry, and hers
a guard sent after you,” was the Colonel’s clincher.

“ General Hancock, I’ve come to you against my will, but because of
my personal respect,” .
‘YINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 317°

“Sit down, Captain, and tell me'all about it,” was the hearty greeting
he received, with the General’s open hand.

It did not take long to tell.

“T want you to understand, Captain, that I consider the personal honor
of my officers and soldiers as sacred as my own!” exclaimed General
Hancock, as he grasped the whole subject. ‘ Especially those in whom
I know I can place trust.. Now, Captain, go back to your tent and leave
this whole matter to me. There has been some gross bungling some-
where, and I am going to find it out and haveit remedied. You need
do no duty; amuse yourself as you may; and I promise you that I,
if T do not set this whole thing right within one week, both to your satis-
faction and my own, I will give you an honorable discharge |”

It took four days to discover that not only Captain~ , but
twelve other officers had been the victims of the hasty and careless exe-

 

cution of War Department orders by an aide-de-camp. The Department
for information, knowing that a good many officers were then absent at
a time when they were all needed, had issued orders to have their names
collected quickly, and instead of through the usual formalities. So the
Aide having charge of the brigade comprising the regiment to which
the Captain belonged, had suddenly popped in on Colonel Stryker, a
couple of weeks before with the query,—

“Colonel, how many of your officers are out of camp to-day?” .

“ Well, let me see. There is Captain so and so, and Lieutenant such
and such, and Captain
turned the Colonel, little knowing the purpose of the information, and
that he was innocently disgracing his best friend by not classifying him
as ‘‘absent-on picket duty,” and a weary one at that.

 

, —he hasn’t got in yet,” and so on re-

But General Hancock righted him. The War Department promptly
issued an order of explanation and rectification, and made it as public
as it had the obnoxious one a fortnight before.

GENERAL HANCOCK’S HORSE SHOT UNDER HIM AT THE BATTLE
OF REAM’S STATION, VA., AUG. 25, 1864. |

At the battle of Ream’s Station, Va. Aug. 25, 1864, General Hancock
had his horse shot under him while engaged in pushing some of our
318 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

troops against the enemy, under a very hot musketry fire. The norse
received a very singular wound in its effects. It was shot through the
-neck ‘‘creased, as the hunters on the prairie would call it, that is,
the ball passed so close to the spinal cord as to paralyze the animal; it
fell instantly to the ground, as if dead. The General extricated himself,
and was about to mount another horse, when the wounded animal
commenced struggling, then rose to its feet, and, in a few moments,
was apparently well as ever. The General mounted it again, and rode it
the remainder of the day. It was a favorite with him, and he kept it
until 1868, when it met an accidental death.

Hunters on the western prairies are said to capture wild horses by
“creasing” them, that is, striking them with a rifle-ball so close to the
spinal cord as to temporarily paralyze them; and while in this stunned
condition, they are secured. Horses are said not to be permanently
injured by “ creasing,” but it requires good shooting to accomplish it.

THE WOUND RECEIVED BY GENERAL HANCOCK A™ GETTYSBURG,
AND ITS EFFECTS.

At Gettysburg, where General Hancock commanded the “left
centre” of the army, July 3, 1863, consisting of the Ist, 2d and 3d Army
Corps, he received a wound, which was supposed, at the time, to be
mortal. He was stricken, by a musket-ball, while on his line of battle,
just at the moment of the repulse of the enemy’s grand final assault.-
The ball passed through the front of his saddle, and carried into the
wound with it a large wrought nail from the saddle-tree. The bullet
and the nail entered near the groin, the ball passing through the thigh,
and ‘lodging near the socket of the thigh-bone, which it slightly
splintered. The General was assisted from his horse by the officers of
General Stannard’s staff, who were near him at the time. . He remained
upon the ground until the assaulting column had been driven entirely
from the field, giving orders to his troops. From the point at which he
lay, he could see the field of battle, by raising himself on his elbow; and
from that point he sent one of his aids to inform General Meade that we
had won a great victory. :

This weund so disabled General Hancock as to unfit him for field-
ee ee
a

   

I uNION
MM CONFEDERATE

BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES AND Fair Oaks.

 

_ BATTLE-FIELD OF THE SEVEN PINES.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 821

service, until the following December, when he returned to the Army
of the Potomac, and resumed command of the 2d Corps, to take part in
the campaign of 1864, The wonnd, however, had not healed, and gave
him great trouble and annoyance during the campaign ; and although
he continued with his command, he was obliged to travel in an ambu-
lance the greater portion of the time.

His habit, on the march, was to remain in his ambulance, at the head
of his column, until within. the vicinity of the enemy, when he
mounted his horse, and so remained until the fighting was over.

During the whole of the summer of 1864, he was duily attended by a
surgeon, on account of his wound, which, at that time, was much
irritated, and discharging more or less, all the time, small portions of the
‘bone, at times, passing from it.

While in front of the enemy’s works, at Petersburg, Va., in June,
1864, where the troops were constantly under fire, and the General was
obliged to be mounted nearly all the time, both day and night, his
wound became so inflamed and dangerous that he was compelled to
relinquish command of the Corps, for a few days. June 17th, after the
bloody fight of that day was over, he turned ‘over the command to his
next in rank. He did not, however, leave the field, but continued with
the troops, and again assumed command of the Corps June 27th, finding
himself much relieved from the discharge of quite a large piece of bone
from the wound. ,

He continued to suffer from his wound during all the remaining time
of the war, and, indeed, feels serious effects from it to this time—1870.

GENERAL HANCOCK AT THE BATTLE OF “WHITE OAK SWAMP,”
JUNE 30th, 1862.

On the evening of June 30th, 1862, after the battle of “ White Oak
Swamp,” on the Peninsula, had closed, General Franklin, commanding
the 6th Corps (and rear guard of the army), to which Hancock’s brigade
was attached, sent for General Hancock, and said to him, that his
(Franklin’s) orders seemed to require him to hold his position at
“White Oak Swamp,” until the following morning, but that he had
information which convinced him that a force of the enemy had inter-
322 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

posed between his force and Harrison’s Landing, the point on James
river to which the Army of the Potomac was then retreating. He had
taken the opinions of others of his commanders as to whether or not,
under the circumstances, he should hold on where he was until daylight,
or march then, and rejoin the other corps of the army by the next morning,
and he now wished the views of General Hancock on the same point.
General Hancock at once gave it as his opinion that he should march
then, antl not wait for daylight, stating as his reasons therefor, that if the
enemy had placed himself, on the road, between the 6th corps and the.

“James, he would be much better prepared to dispute his passage by

“morning than that night, when we would come upon him suddenly, and
most likely break through.

General Franklin concurred in this view of the matter, and the corps
was immediately put in motion, General Hancock taking command of
the advance, during the night-march, when it was momentarily thought
we would come in contact, with the enemy, on the road. ,

As it turned out, it was well this course was pursued, for had the 6th
corps remained alf night at “White Oak Swamp,” it could have only
joined the main army next day by a desperate struggle, for early the
next day the enemy were in great force on the road on which it marched
during the night.

COLONEL H. BOYD M’KEEN, 81st PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS.

One of the most distinguished young officers of the 2d Army Corps was
Colonel H. Boyd McKeen, 81st Pennsylvania volunteers. He was con-_
spicuous for daring courage in action, and had a mind and tempérament :
of that order which would have fitted him to have exercised high com-
mand, had he lived to attain sufficient rank. General Hancock had
tried him on many fields, trusted him to the fullest extent, and had
commended him, in his official reports, on many occasions.

When the General was about setting out on the “ Wilderness” cam-
paign of 1864, in command of the 2d Army Corps, he sent for Colonel
M’ Keen, then commanding his regiment, and said to him: “Colonel, I
am sorry that you have not more rank ; for if you had, I could give you
a brigade, at this time, and I should be pleased to do s0.” M’Keen
  
   

 

Tm, a ee
HOSPITAL AT FAIR OAKS

 

BRIDGE OVER THE CHICKAHOMINY.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 325

said, in reply: ‘I am obliged to you, General, for your kind intentions
towards me, of which I am well ndeioed 5 but I shall win a brigade
before this campaign is over.

Before the corps had been in the field a month, the General was
enabled to give M’Keen a‘brigade, owing to the large number of casu-
alties, in the different battles, among brigade commanders; and while
leading it, against the enemy’s works, in the terrible assault at Cold
Harbor, June 3d, 1864, he was killed, with his colors in his hands.
General Hancock felt his loss bitterly, and it was a severe one to the
army and the country, as he had probably no superior, of his grade, in
our whole service. /

Tears came into General Hancock’s eyes when his noble conduct and
death were announced to him.

COL. EDWARD E. OROSS, 5TH N. H. VOLS.

Another soldier of the Second Army Corps of marked ability and of
most intrepid courage was Col. Edward E. Cross, Fifth New Hamp-
shire Volunteers, ,

No man excelled in leading troops in desperate contests, and he
commanded a regiment unsurpassed for good conduct and stubborn,

‘dauntless valor. It would not break or give way. At “ Fredericks-
burg,” during the assault on ‘“‘Marye’s Heights,” it had five command-
ers killed or wounded. Col. Cross was the first to fall with a dangerous
wound, While at “ Gettysburg,” on the second day of the battle, it
lost just one-half of its numbers killed outright. °

General Hancock made many efforts to obtain Col. Cross’ promotion
to the rank of Brigadier General of Volunteers, for his conspicuous
bravery and services, but was not successful. The Colonel was not
right with his own State authorities politically, (and all such differ-
ences are natural at all times) and also in addition to his Democratic
views was not slow to give vent to his likes and dislikes ; talked too
plainly perhaps.

. Just before the action began at “ Gettysburg” General Hancock said
to him that he regretted “that thus far he had not been able to procure

his promotion, but that he ‘felt quite confident that battle would make him
20
326 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

a brigadier.” “No, General,” said Cross, this is my last fight; I shall’

be killed here.”’ And sure enough, the brave olf Colonel was shot
through the body in that day’s battle, and died within a few hours
thereafter. He had been severely wounded in different battles, at least

six or eight times previously.

GENERAL MEADE’S ESTIMATE OF GENERAL HANCOCK.

In a letter to an old associate and friend, dated December 15th,
1875, by General R. C. Drum, the writer uses this language: “.
In the latter part of 1869, after his recovery from a severe attack of ill-
ness, General Meade, in speaking of the various officers who had
served under him, while in command of the Army of the Potomac,
used the following : ‘N ° commanding General ever had a better Lieuten-
ant than Hancock. He was always faithful and reliable”

FAREWELL TO HANCOCK.
When General Hancock was ordered to other duties, the following
little ode was written by 2 member of the corps and sung at the time.
The writer was Sergeant L. Reynols.

FAREWELL TO MAJOR GENERAL HANCOCK,
On his taking leave of his gallant “ Old Second Army Corps.”
Arirn—“ Star Spangled Banner.”

“As with sorrow the lone, lone mother is parting
Her fond, favorite child, though a young, happy bride,
As grieves the true friend when his comrade is starting
For wealth, or for glory, o’er ocean’s dark tide— *
So, our heart now in sorrow, dark shadow oppressing,
For the hero who guides us to conquest no more;
So, each eye frames a tear, and each bosom a blessing,
For Hancock, the pride of the bold Second Corps.

“ We remember the perils from which your skill saved us—
How you felt for your troops as the sire for his son;

Hlow when foemen loud cheering with gallant pride braved us,
You led the fierce charge and the victory won.
’ WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 327

Though life’s pathway may lead thee to still brighter glory,
Forget not your comrades in battles of yore,

For pure is the record, and glorious the story,
Of Hancock, the pride of the bold Second Corps.

“Yarewell ! Oh, how painful to break our connection, ie
But duty compels it, and sadly we part;

But nothing can sever the bond of affection,
That binds to brave Hancock the true soldier’s heart.

As gold to the miser, as the bride to her lover,
Art thou to those friends who may see thee no more;

‘We'll think of thee, Hancock, we'll love thee forever,
Then remember, brave chieftain, thy bold Second Corps.”

This glorious Second Corps is remembered by
both armies. It is related of a Republican friend
of Hancock, who asked him after the war,—
“Well, General Hancock, how about the Second
Corps?” The General paused a moment, and laid
his hand on his friend’s shoulder—“They are at.
rest, most’of them are in heaven!”

For some of the preceding, as well as for the
following incidents and anecdotes, the writer is
indebted to personal friends and military associates
of General Hancock, and to other undoubted and
reliable sources.

CHARLIE’S CHOICB OF HORSES.
°

When General Hancock was on the “Peninsula,” in the Spring of
1862, commanding his brigade, he had a servant named “ Charles”
(colored) who was a good groom and kept the General’s horses in fine
condition, but it was not generally considered around headquarters
that “Charles” was at all fond of shooting.
328; LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

One morning we were about to go into action and “ Charles ” Ye
ported to the General to know which horse of his two (he had a fine
bay and a sorrel) he would ride that day. “I think I will ride the bay
to-day, Charles,” said the General. Charles stood awhile as if buried
in deep thought and then turing to the General said: “TI think you
better ride de sor’l, to-day Gineral, he’s de swijtest.” It was understood ”
by those who knew Charles that he gave this advice because he con-
sidered the best horse for a fight one that could get away the fastest.
Some supposed, however, that the bay was really the “ ewiftest ” and that
Charles wanted to ride it that day himself so that he could move
more rapidly in case of the enemy getting after him.

THE N. C. LIZARD.

General G. K. Warren commanded the Second Army Corps at Bris-
tow Station, October 14th, 1863, General Hancock then being absent
on account of disability from his Gettysburg wound.

The Confederates were beaten, and a number of prisoners were cap-
tured, most of them North Carolinians. One of them was brought to
where General Warren and his staff were, and the General compli-
mented the man on the gallant manner in which his brigade charged
our lines in column under a very hot fire. “Well,” said the man.
“that’s so, General, we done purty well, but for my part I was never in
a fight before, and when I see’d our fellows breakin’ I knowed the
thing was gone up, so I jest threw myself on the ground and laid closer
nor a lizard to a rail.”

ANECDOTE OF GENERAL ALEXANDER HAYS OF PITTSBURG,
PENNA,, AT THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.

One of the bravest apivite in our army, during the war, was General
Alexander Hays, of Pittsburg, Penna. He joined the Second Army
Corps with his division near Centreville, Va. On the march to “‘ Gettys-
burg,” and during that battle, his troops held the ground immediately
on the left of the Taneytown Road, on our front line of battle.

His skirmishers were deployed in the valley before him. A large
barn stood on the plain just beyond his skirmish line, which was held
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 829.

By the Confederate skirmishers in considerable force, and from which
they maintained a galling fire.

Seeing this condition of affairs, Hays mounted his horse and, with.
his staff following him, his division flag flying, rode directly to his
skirmishers, ordered them to advance at a run, himself leading the way

,to the barn, The Confederates in the building and on their skirmish:
line opened a hot fire, but Hays could not be stopped, and liy men,
catching his spirit, drove the Southern skirmishers back on either side
of the barn and captured all who were in the building. Hays sent his
prisoners to the rear, retired his skirmishers to their original line and
awaited further developments. The Confederate skirmishers were soon
reinforced, and advancing, took their former line, again occupying the
barn. Hays then repeated hie firss movement—rushed down to his
skirmishers, carried them forward as before, and again bagged all of.
the Southerners in the barn.

Very sharp musketry fire accompanying these movements, caused
some to suppose that a serious fight was going on. General Hancock,
who had been quietly watching the matter, now sent an aide to Hays to.
Bay to him that he might bring ona general engagement, (which was not
at that moment desired by General. Meade) by holding on to the barn,
within the enemy’s skirmish line, and that he would please, therefore,,
burn the building and retire his skirmishers to the line originally held
by them.

These were very unwelcome orders to. Hays, who was then in his
element, and delighted with the manner in which he had been bagging’
the enemy. Turning to the aide he said, “Major, please return to
General Hancock and say to him that that barn is my trap. I have caught
morethan one hundred and fifty in it this morning and ifhe will only allow ‘
me to withdraw my line so that they will come into it again, and then
let me take one more dash at it, I will willingly burn it as he directs.”
But the aide replied that General Hancock’s orders were peremptory,
and must be carried out at once. Seeing that there was no hope of the
orders being rescinded, Hays .reluctantly caused the barn to be set on
fire, and then slowly carried his skirmish line back to its first posi-
tion.
330 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

, The stone foundations of the old barn were still standing in 1867
(when the writer visited the field of Gettysburg) a prominent landmark
on the plain. This is but one of the many instanccs which could be
related of the conspicuous gallantry and dash of Hays. He was greatly
beloved of General Hancock, and indeed by all who knew him. He
was killed while under General Hancock’s command, leading his troops
at the Wilderness, May 6th, 1864.

GENERAL HANCOCK AT GETTYSBURG.

At Gettysburg, a regiment under General Hancock’s command, one
that had joined the Second Corps on the march to the field, and had not
yet been under a hot fire, was posted at an important point on the line
of battle.

Whenever the General passed by that regiment, as he did frequently,
while riding along the line, the men cheered him loudly, clamoring to
be led against the enemy. These demonstrations were repeated so fre-
quently that the General became impatient, coming as they did from
men who had not “smelled much powder,” and thinking to stop them
he drew up his horse beside the regiment and quietly said to them, that
all he required them to do was to maintain a firm line and hold their
ground in case they wereattacked. At this a dozen or more big-throated
fellows rushed out of the ranks toward the General and cried, “‘General,
we'll never leave this ground until you order us away.” “ That’s right,
my men,” said the General, “ That's right, your line is entirely safe now,
for Iwill never order you away.” This was a little more encouragement
than the new soldiers wanted. Their countenances fell and lengthened
visibly as they went back ‘to their places in the line. The cheering
stopped there and then. The old Second Corps men,,who witnessed
this scene, some of whom had followed the General on every bloody
field from Antietam to Gettysburg and knew how little he was given to
order men to quit a line of battle, had a grim laugh, as he rode off to
_ another part of the line.

ANECDOTE OF GENERAL HANCOCK.
When General Hancock was encamped with his brigade near Lewins-
ville, Virginia, in the Spring of 1861, before the Army of the Potomac
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 331

Me
‘

moved to. the Peninsula, certain officers of his command desired to know
whether he would accept as'a mark of esteem from the brigade, a silver
service. :

The General declined the gift, stating to those who had come to see
him on the subject, that he did not approve of such presentations, and,
at all events, it would be best to wait until the war was over, as, in the
meantime the officers and men concerned might change in their feelings
towards him. This ended the matter, as it was plainly perceived by
those engaged in it, that the General would not accept such a favor from
those under his command.

. ’
ANECDOTE OF GENERAL HANCOCK.

In September, 1861, soon after General Hancock had been assigned
acommand in Smith's division, Army of the Potomac, he was ordered
to proceed with several regiments to join in the general movement to
occupy Munson’s Hill on the south side of the Potomac, in front of
Washington. The march was to be made after night fall, and to ac-
complish it, he had to pass through a picket line of another command,
The pickets (owing to some neglect), were not informed of the matter,
and, mistaking General Hancock’s regiment for the enemy, opened fire
upon them, killing and wounding a number of men. This caused the
greatest confusion, and, (the troops being unused to fire), a general stam-

» pede seemed likely to occur. One volley from the pickets killed or
wounded five or six cavalry, orderlies of a mounted party with the Gen-
eral at the time, also killing or wounding some of their horses, but left
him unhurk in their midst. A number of faint hearts, taking advantage
of the night, started to the rear. The General specially noticed (it was
a moonlight night), two individuals making hasty strides in that direc-
tion. He halted them, asked them who they were, and where they
were going. They replied: that they were “officers ’’ and were not leaving
the field on account of being alarmed, but because they had not yet been
mustered into service, and they did not think it right for them to go into
action in that unprotected state. “Well,” said the-General, “if that is
yonr only trouble, I can relieve you. I am General Hancock, your com-
manding officer, I will muster you into service now. Hold up your

.
382 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

right hands.” They held up their hands and the General administered
the usual oath from memory. “Now,” said he, “ You are mustered in;
join your command and remain with it.” They started slowly towards
the front and continued in that direction as long as they were under the
General’s eye. But it is presumed that they went rearwards again as
soon as they passed beyond his observation. The General heard no
more of them until a few months later, when he received a letter from
an officer saying that himself and another officer, with thirty of his men,
could not draw their pay because there was no record of their having
‘been mustered into service—that he, General Hancock, had mustered
himself and the other referred to into service, and that he would be
obliged to the General for a certificate to that effect,

The General replied that he recollected distinctly of administering the
oath to two officers under the circumstances herein related. He did not
- now, nor then enw who they were, and had, never seen them or heard
- from them since that eventful night, but, the letter of the applicant
convinced him that he was one of the persons in question, for he was very
sure'that no one would have written for a certificate of muster made,
unless he was one of the officers concerned. Whether or not they re-
ceived their pay upon the presentation of the General’s letter, is not
known.

GENERAL HANCOCK (THEN LIEUTENANT HANCOCK) AT THE
BATTLE OF CHERUBUSCO, MEXICO.

At 'the battle of Cherubusco, Mexico, August 20, 1847, General Han-
cock (then Lieutenant Hancock) was struck on the leg below the knee
by a musket-ball. The contusion, however, was so slight, that he did
not report himself as wounded. (Report of Capt. Wm. Hoffman, com-
manding 6th Infantry in that action, dated Tacubaya, Mexico, August
23d, 1847, mentions Lieutenant Hancock for gallant conduct.)

GENERAL HANCOCK’S HORSE SHOT UNDER HIM AT CHANCEL-
LORSVILLE, VA.

At the battle of Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863, General Hancock, then
commanding 1st Division, 2d Corps, had his horse shot under him.
This occurred at the junction of the roads near the Chancellor House
   

PHILLIPS HOUSE ON FIRE.

 

FREDERICKSBURG ON THE MORNING OF THE I2TH. °
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 335

where the General had fixed his headquarters during the operations of
a part of the 2d and all of the 3d of May. A ball struck the horse,
wounding it very severely, and while it was being led away, after the
General had dismounted, a round shot struck it again in the side, kill-
ing it at once. The fire was very severe at that time and place, espe-
cially from the enemy’s batteries, which completely swept the open
space occupied by Genera] Hancock and his staff.

GENERAL HANCOCK AT FREDERICKSBURG. (ASSAULT ON MARYE’S
HEIGHTS, DEC. 18, 1862.)

During the assault on Marye’s. Heights, battle of Fredericksburg,
Dec. 13, 1862, and while General Hancock, on horseback, was leading
his Division (1st Division, 2d Army Corps), to the attack against the
famous stone wall, behind which the enemy’s troops were posted, a ball
cut through his vest, just grazing the skin of the abdomen, and passed
on through his coat on the right hand side.

That assault was one of the bloodiest affairs of the whole war. No
troops engaged behaved more handsomely or suffered more severely
than those of Hancock’s division. His official report shows that of
5,000 men and officers, taken into action on ‘that occasion, «2,013 ‘were
killed or wounded, and of these 156 were commissioned officers. As
above stated, General Hancock himself narrowly escaped death, and of.
five officers of his personal staff with him, three were wounded, and
four had their horses shot under them.

HANCOCK AT GETTYSBURG.

One of the traits which wedded Hancock’s men to him was his daunt-
less bravery, so natural to him, which always led him to that part of
his line of battle, where the fire was hottest. A never-to-be-forgotten
display of the chivalric nature of the man in this respect was made at
Gettysburg on the last day of that battle.

Lee preceded his final assault by the fire of 125 guns, directed wholly
on the line occupied by Hancock’s troops. ‘Tt was literally a storm of
shot and shell. The oldest soldiers there—those who had taken part
in the most desperate battles of the war—had witnessed nothing like it.
The men lay close to the earth and sought every inch of shelter their
336 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

light works afforded, while the shell burst over their heads, tore through
_their ranks, and filled the air with that awful rushing sound, which
causes the firmest hearts to quail as in the very presence of death.

In the most tumultuous moments of this fire, Hancock, mounted,
started at the right of his line of battle, and followed by his staff, his
corps flag flying in the hands of a brave Irishman of the 6th New York
cavalry—rode slowly along the terrible crest, to the left of his position,
while the shot and shell roared and crashed around him, and every
moment tore great gaps in the ranks at his side.

It was a gallant deed of heroic valor, such as a knight of olden time
might have performed, and withal, was not a reckless exposure of life,
without an object; for the noble presence and calm demeanor of the
commander as he passed through. his lines during that fiery crisis, en-
couraging his men, set an example before them, which an hour later
cropped out, and nerved the stout hearts to win the greatest and blood-
iest battle ever fought on American soil.

GENERAL HANCOCK AT THE GREAT SANITARY FAIR IN PHILA-
DELPHIA, 1864.

“On Mrs. Forney’s table near the south-western end of Union avenue,
appropriated to the Committee on Labor, Income, and Revenue, be-
neath many graceful folds of the national emblem, may be seen the
most exquisite and appropriately finished photographic album ever
made in any establishment in the world. It is from the manufactory of
Messrs. Altemus & Co. It is finished in the most costly style, and ts
designed for two hundred pictures. The album is about twelve inches
by sixteen inches in size, and royal purple in cover. The covers pre-
sent a series of embossed panel work, in the centre of which isthe National
shield, The edges of the work are handsomely done in gold with run-
ning vine, of oak and laurel, and patriotic designs.. The beautifully
chased clasps are inscribed with the following words: “ For Major-Gene-
ral Winfield Scott Hancock, 1864.'—The Press, June 20, 1874.

THE BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG IN 1862.
The following is the opening paragraph of an
editorial in the N. Y. Herald of May 24, 1862, re-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 337

ferring to the full report of the battle of Williams-
burg published in the’ Herald of the same date
written by Colonel Findley Anderson :

“The battle of Williamsburg must become historical. Of all our
battles it was the best contested and the hardest won. The opposing
forces engaged were very nearly equal. Infantry, cavalry, and artillery
did each its share of the work. The losses upon Both sides equalled
those of the Allies and the Russians at the terrible battle of Alma.
The whole contest demonstrated the superiority of American soldiers,
who are officers and privates at once, over the unintelligent troops of
other countries: The result proved the wisdom of McClellan’s long
discipline of his ‘army. The severity of the conflict; the fluctuating
fortunes of the day; the unrivalled bravery of our troops ; the desperate
valor of the rebels; the continual arrival of reinforcements upon both
sides; the daring charges; the determined and steady resistances; the
skillful manceuvres and evolutions, and the final irresistible dash ‘of
Hancock’s brigade, made up a narrative matchless in its thrilling in-
terest.

“The battle had now raged from early in the morning till near night.
By the superior intrepidity of our troops the vigorous attacks of the
enemy had been repulsed, and his last grand advance along the line
had been handsomely repelled by Gen. Kearney’s troops. The enemy
had tried to turn our left, and had failed, and the subsequent advances
gradually extended from left to right, The rain was still descending,
as it had been all day. Gen. Hancock’s brigade, which I have previ-
ously placed on our extreme right, remained in the position he took up
when he crossed the dam, and occupied some of the evacuated earth-
works earlier in the afternoon. Expected reinforcements not coming
up in time, it was deemed more proper that he should fall back from
his advanced position to the one he occupied at first, immediately after
crossing the dam. Being occasionally engaged with the enemy, how-
ever, in order to avoid the bad effect which a retrograde movement on
his part might cause, he held the position, keeping his skirmishers de-
-ployed in front.
338: LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

“ The fire near Fort Magruder, to the left, had now almost subsided, and’
Confederate troops were observed moving in different directions. A force’
of the enemy’s infantry filled a work which had remained unoccupied,
and a body of his cavalry assembled on the plateau, apparently with
a view of charging on the battery. .

“A vigorous attack on the right made General Hancock apprehen-
sive that his position might be turned, and he cut off from an opportu-
nity of retreating, if he should find it necessary, across thedam. His
brigade fell back in line of battle, followed by the Confederates, firing and
cheering as they came; and our artillery was also brought back piece by”
piece, the last gun firing a few rounds of canister at the advancing ene-
my. As soon as the artillery was safe, the Fifth Wisconsin regiment:
on the right, was ordered to retire in the same manner as the other, dis-
puting the ground as it retreated. Another line was being formed on
either side of the redoubt by our retiring regiments. The enemy was
pressing them so hard that when the Fifth Wisconsin had reached the’
second line, followed by the Fifth North Carolina shouting ‘Bull Run, '
Ball’s Bluff,” it waa immediately formed to the right and left of the
redoubt. :

The Confederates were now within some forty yards, and General Han-
cock ordered an immediate advance of. his entire line. This, it: will be
remembered, was composed of the principal portions of the Fifth Wis-
consin, Sixth and Seventh Maine, Thirty-third New York, and Forty-
ninth Pennsylvania regiments—in all about two thousand five hundred
men. These regiments went forward with alacrity, and, as they came.
close to the enemy, delivered a few volleys, Then General Hancock,
whose politeness is equal to his bravery, gave the command: “ Gentle-
men, charge!’ And his gallant soldiers, with tremendous cheers, dashed
down the slope. The enthusiastic spirit of the men seemed to be suffi-
cient to frighten the opposing force, which was said, by prisoners, to be
General Early’s brigade, and, with the exception of three resolute Confe-
derates who stood to recéive the bayonets, the line broke and the Confe~
derates ran. Pursuing them down the slope General Hancock’s command:
halted and fired ten or twelve volleys at.them, and also at another Confe-.
derate force which was observed advancing-to support the first. When the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 339

smoke cleared up the ground was thickly covered with dead -and dying
Confederates.

“The loss of the enemy at this time must have been tremendous.
The Fifth North Carolina regiment was almost annihilated. The
Twenty-fourth Virginia and other regiments lost many officers. Gene-
ral Early is said to have.been ‘wounded and several Colonels killed.
The prisoners we have captured say that before they went into the. action
General Hill made a brief address‘to the Confederate troops in which he
told them that we had better arms, that the conflict would be close, that
he knew they were equal.to the task,-and that they must walk in and
give us the cold steel. Then General Early asked them if they were
ready to take that battery, and they replied that they would try it.
They did try it, but instead of giving us the cold steel they themselves
fled at the sight of it.

“Towards the close of the engagement the Prince de Joinville rode
off and came back with General McClellan vho arrived with heavy
reinforcements, at the scene of action on the- right, just about the time
that General Hancock's command .made the final charge. He was
Joudly cheered as he passed, and his presence on the field created the
most unbounded enthusiasm among his devoted troops.

“ General Hancock’s loss in the: operations of the day, including
this charge, was nine killed, ninety-five wounded,. and thirty missing:
That was about the concluding act of. engagement; and when night
closed on the final scene, our troops all along the line soundly slept on
the field they had so bravely won.

“This battle was a series of charges on either side, from the left to.
the right of the line, from the commencement of. the action to its close ;
but as the ground was covered with felled timber it was difficult for
troops to manceuvre speedily in any place exeept on the right, where -
the advantage of position gave General Hancock an excellent opportu-
nity to charge. No soldiers ever fought with greater determination
than did the enemy’s and ours. | The repeated attempts to turn our
left were successively repulsed in the ‘most gallant manner, and histo-
ry does not furnish instances of greater individual valor than was diss.
played on that memorable field. Surely the ancient days of noble

chivalry have been revived.”
340 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

GOING UP TO CHANCELLORSVILLE.

THE PONTOON TRAIN.

“We had left our camps opposite Fredericksburg, and moved up
towards United States Ford, on our way, keeping some distance from
the river, as the movement was intended to be a secret one.

The night before reaching the Ford was a terrible one, it having com-
menced to rain soon after we went into bivouac that evening. It rained
in perfect torrents, and I was awakened out of my tent, at about twelve
o’clock at night, with the notice that I had to take command of a detail.

On arriving at brigade headquarters, where the detail had been
assembled, I was put in command of the same, and with but the direc-
tions, pointed out in the dark, “ Captain’s out on the road ; there you
will find an engineer-officer, and you will report to him.
| After stumbling along wet grass, and through ditches, I very luckily
struck the point where the engineer-officer was standing. He inquired
if “that was a detail?” (Our colonel having been on picket-duty, I
thought I would have the night to sleep.) I told him, “ Yes;” that L
was looking for an engineer-officer. He said he was the man. He then
inquired how many picks and shovels we wanted.’ I told him we had
not any. “Then,” said he, “ your detail won’t amount to much.” He
stood there, as if deliberating what todo, and finally concluded we would
have to go up the road to division headquarters?

We tramped up the muddy road for about three-quarters of a mile,
and came to where large camp-fires were burning, under some trees, just
off the road, around which were ranged a number of tents, in a semi-
circular shape. Here we halted. (I should have said that this was the
division headquarters for the night.) The engineer-officer then went
off hunting up the picks and shovels, and my men commenced to circle
round the fires.

Scarcely had this occurred, when General Hancock’s head emerged
from under the back cover of an ambulance wagon, and inquired,
“What troops are those moving?’ Some one answered, “ It is only a
detail, General.” Then he inquired, what detail it was? and as none
of us knew, at that time, what our duty was intended to be, our only
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOOK. 841

answer was, that it was only a detail, upon which the General asked,
who commanded it. I stepped forward to where the ambulance-
wagon was, and replied that I did. He then asked me, if we were
‘detailed to get the pontoon train up. I told him I had no instruc-
tions about what we were to do, but simply to report to an engineer-officer
on the road. “ Yes,” said he, “your detail is to get the pontoons out.
What are you doing up here?” Ireplied, “I believe we came up to
get shovels and picks; the engineer-officer ‘said we could do nothing
without them.” Said he, “That’s some of that d
work | Orderly,” said he, “call the adjutant here.”

In a few seconds the adjutant appeared, and the conversation Hancock
had with him, wasthis. He said, ‘What orders did you give in regard to
this detail? Here they are, without a shovel or a pick among them.”
The adjutant replied: “Well, I can’t help it. I gave the order just as
I got it from corps headquarters.” Hancock made a rather impatient
reply. Then turning to me, he said, ‘Captain, how many men have
you?” (I really did not know how many men I had, as I had not been
informed, by the adjutant of the brigade, at the time the detail was
turned over to me) But there was something in Hancock’s manner
that impressed me that it would not do to be ignorant on any subject,
just at that time, and I replied, “Two hundred and eighty.” He asked
“How many sergeants have you got?” Of course, I was also ignorant
on this point, but the impression of the necessity of not being ignorant
on any point being still very strong on me, you understand, I replied,
“Eighteen,” as that would be about the number necessary for that many
men. Then,tomy surprise, he asked, “How many corporals have you?”
“Treally forget now how many,” I replied; but, at last, I doubled, in my
mind, the number of sergeants, and replied, “Thirty-six,” upon which
Hancock triumphantly turned to his adjutant, and said, ‘‘There’s an
officer, but a Captain, who’s an example to you.” I came near bursting
out laughing at the ludicrousness of the thing.

He then, in stentorian tones, ordered some two or three of his staff
and some half-a-dozen orderlies, to start off in different directions through
the woods, and up and down the road, to hunt up and bring in the officer
commanding the tool-wagon; and at that dead hour of the night, raining

 

d adjutant’s
842 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

as it was, to bring it there: at once; and in less than fifteen “minutes, a
wagon of shovels and picks was brought there, and the same distributed
among the detail’I commanded.

While the men were receiving the picks and shovels, Hancock again
popped his head out from the back of the ambulance, and calling me to
him, said: “Captain, the pontoon-train is stalled some’ distance below
here; and I want you, with your detail, to-get them up in time, so that
the bridge can be laid by daylight, ready for the troops to cross ;”” mean-
ing the Rappahannock rivér at United States Ford. I replied “‘ Yes, sir,”
and turned away, and was about proceeding to get my detail'in order
for marching, down the road, where the pontoons were, when out came
the head. again from under the cover, and, in a sharper tone, called,
“Captain, do you understand? You are to get those pontoons up in time
to lay, the bridge, by daylight, in the morning.” “Yes, sir,” said I, “TI
* perfectly understand.” ‘Again the head withdrew into the wagon, and
again I turned towards the detail; but scarcely had I taken a step, when
the head popped out again, and in still sharper tones: ‘Captain, do
you understand perfectly ; you are to get those trains up, so that the
bridge can be laid by daylight;’’ continuing, “I will hold you person-
ally responsible to get that train up ;” then, “I shall take no excuse, that
‘train must come up: kill every mule in the train, but what you get it
up.”
he explained to me, that the movement of the whole army depended on
those bridges being laid by daylight.

The result of all this was that I left him with an idea that-if I did
not get those pontoons up that night, I had better make a blue streak
for the North without explaining how it was that I could not get them

Then, in softer tones, and with a considerable degree of anxiety,

up. He certainly left that impression on my mind. So we started on
down amid a drenching rain. A tramp of about three miles down the
xouddy road brought us to. where the head of the pontoon-train had
stopped. The head of the leading wagon of the train was down ina
gully, I should judge some forty or fifty feet deep. The rain of the
night had made what had ordinarily been a mere stream that one could
step across, swollen almost to a good-sized river. The head of this
pontoon was buried in this river, and the water was rushing clear over
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 343

the top of it, making a-noise like a cataract, and in the dense wood on
either.side the men belonging to the train had ‘camped for the night
and gone to sleep, no doubt fully impressed with the. impossibility of
getting any further that night with their train. The noise.of the talk-
ing and the splashing of my detail awakened up the officer command-
ing the pontoon-train, and.emerging from one side of the dark woods
he inquired what the troops were for. I replied that they were to get
the pontoon-train up, asking who was in command there. He replied
that he was. I stated to him-my order and that I was ready to go to
work. He replied that it was absolutely impossible to get the train up.
They had worked at it for hours before the stream had swollen to the
extent that it then was, but without being able to accomplish it, As
Hancock’s words were still ringing in my ears about holding me per-
sonally responsible for it; and that he would take no excuse, I told the
officer that I was going to try it at least. He answered then, “Oh,”
said he, “Captain, that’s all right; but it’s sheer impossibility to get the
train up, and you needn’t worry yourself about orders like that; Pll
explain it all to the General in the morning. I’ve got something good
to drink in the tent; just come in and make yourself comfortable for
the night. I’ve got a nice cot, and so you had better come in, and be

comfortable for the night. Let your men make themselves comfortable

for the night in the woods here, and when it is light eriough in the
morning for us to see what we are to do, we'll all turn to and get the
train up.” ;

I gave his request a moment’s thought, as it certainly was an inviting
thing to be able to secure a good night’s sleep out of the rain of that
night; but the peculiar tones of Hancock still ringing in my ears that
these pontoons were to be up in time for the bridge to be laid by day-
light, made me think it was better to make every effort first at getting.
the train up, before adopting the suggestion of this pontoon officer, 80
TL told him, “The General’s a very peculiar man. When he orders a-
thing done it has to be done, and he told me to kill every mule in your:
train but what I got the wagons up. Now, ‘PI have to kill some of
them anyhow before I'll dare give up the job of getting the train up.”
The officer replied in a good-natured tone, but 1 could see by his man-

21
344 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

ner that he supposed I was ignorant about the difficulties and could
only be convinced afiér an hour or two of fruitless effort. ‘ Well,” said
he, “you can come in and have the drink anyhow, and I’ll put the mules
and drivers at your service ;” upon which we repaired to his tent inthe
woods, a little to one side of the road, and there, drawing forth an am-
bulance keg containing whisky, he poured me out a glass, and helped
himself also to the commissary (that was our term for it), Therea
new idea came into my head, and I asked the officer if he could spare
me that keg of commissary ; that with it I was certain I could get that
pontoon-train up. He laughed and said, “‘ Yes,” that it was at my dis-
posal. I then went out on the road, and calling together some half
dozen of the men of my own particular regiment, who I knew would have
gone into the Confederate lines fora glass of whisky, yet who otherwise
were just the men for such an occasion as that night, I told them that
the pontoon-train had to come up if we had to kill every mule and
carry the boats piecemeal to the river; that I would start with them by
giving them a drink, and occasional ones as we progressed. The drink
being furnished, this half a dozen went to work with their axes, and in
a few moments saplings were cut, and in less time than it takes to tell,
numbers of them had stripped themselves stark naked, walked into the
flood of boiling waters, and shoving a number of the saplings through
the spokes of the wheels, lifted the head of this first boat sheer and
clean out of the water, and with the assistance of some six or seven
mule teams, doubled and trebled, slid the boat on its trucks (I say slid,
for the soil down there was @ compound of clay and sand, and in wet
weather came up to the hub) ~s:2 it reached the top of the hill. There.
a new difficulty presented itself—it was found impossible for the mules
to pull the wagons, and to overcome this we cut off the foliage of pine
trees, and filled the roadway some two feet thick with them, building
fires on each side of the road to light our operations. Having thus
succeeded in crossing a sufficient number of pontoons to lay the bridge,
we started with these along the road leading to the river, arrived there
in time, and the bridge was all laid by daylight in time for the troops
to cross. We then went back and assisted in bringing up the balance
of the train; and in person I was passing with the last wagon by Han-
 

  

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BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 847

_cock’s quarters, when the General emerged from his ambulance, and in
sharp tones inquired, “Have they got those pontoon-trains up yet?”
.and I stepped up to him and answered, ‘“ Yes, General, the bridge was
laid by daylight. This is only one of the reserve pontoon-wagons.” In
.a very courteous manner he said, ‘I thank you, Captain; you have
done a good night’s work.” His face was all smiles ; he was very much

pleased. Said he, “ Now, Captain, take your men and let them have a
good breakfast and a reasonable amount of sleep, and then you follow
on with them as quickly as possible.”

HANCOCK AT FREDERICKSBURG.

“We arrived at Falmouth in front of Fredericksburg on or about the
afternoon of the 17th of November, 1862. At that time General Lee
with his army was somewhere in the neighborhood of Culpepper Court
House, presumably watching all the different roads, down through
which the Union army might pass. At Fredericksburg there was but
a home guard with four pieces of artillery.

On our arrival near Falmouth, a rather laughable incident occurred.
It appeared that some of Sigel’s cavalry had made a raid into Fredericks-
burg the Sunday before, and, to guard against future operations of this
kind, the home guard had procured these pieces of artillery. At the same
time Lee had his scouts on our side of the river, who, coming down for
the purpose of ascertaining the movements of our army, on their road,
presented themselves opposite Fredericksburg. The home guard there,
supposing them to be another lot of Sigel’s cavalry, let drive into them
with the four pieces of artillery. They, in turn, supposing the Union
forces had got down before them, and were occupying Fredericksburg,
turzed tail and ran down the road on which we were advancing. The
result was that the whole party ran into our lines, and were captured.

At the commencement of this firing, General Sumner, who at that
time commanded the second corps, immediately detailed a portion of.
our brigade, in which our regiment was included, to act as skirmishers ;
and upon the word “forward” being given, we cautiously advanced
along the road and fields some hundred yards on each side of the road,
until we came to the base of the hills, the tops of which overlooked the
348 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

low ground of Fredericksburg opposite. The Confederate artillery-men,
supposing they had driven off Sigel’s cavalry-men, were leisurely hauling
their guns over the ploughed field, upon which the word being conveyed
to our reai, the battery of our brigade, commanded by Captain Pettit,
came dashing up the hill, and before the astonished Confederate artillery-
men on the other side could scarcely comprehend the situation, our battery
was raining shot and shell down on them ; and in a few seconds, un-
hitching their horses or cutting their harness, they abandoned these gung
and made for cover behind the houses on the northern extremity of
Fredericksburg. We made several requests to be allowed to go over
and secure these guns, but were refused permission on account of the
pontoons not having arrived.

For a few days the camp of our brigade was on the Falmouth bank
of the river. Scarcely a soul could be observed in the town of Fredericks-
burg or on the heights back of it. About the evening of the fifth day,
I noticed lights from camp fires on the hills that skirt the southern back
of the town. On the next evening I noticed the range of these fires ex-
tended; so on, night after night, in regular succession illumination of
their camp fires extended, until all the hill tops that skirt the back of
the city round, were one livid glare, denoting that the whole of Lee’s
army was confronting us.

In the daylight of these days we noticed that they soon began throw-
_ ing up breast-works, first on the tops of the hills that they occupied,

which, being completed, they descended down the slopes of the hill and
put Jong lines of breast-works there. Then the same at the base of the
hills; and lower works were thrown up in some places on the bare fields -
in their front. Then, boldly advancing, they commenced throwing up
lines of breast-works on the river margin. All the while we stayed thus
gazing at them and wondering what was to be the end of it; and it isa
positive fact that the day before we did cross the Rappahannock, one of
their pickets cried across the river in my hearing, “ Yanks, we got our
‘breast-works all finished now, and we’re ready for you at any time.”
The whole proceedings on our part did really look to me as though we
had really waited until they could finish their breast-works before we
should cross. (I give you this preface to the battle of Fredericksburg
s

WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 349

‘that an idea may be had of the difficulties we were likely to, and did
have, simply in the mere act of crossing.)

The crossing of the Rappahannock preparatory to the battle of Fred-
ericksburg was begun about three o’clock on the morning of December
13th. On the hills on our side artillery had been concentrated, bearing
upon the foot of a street midway the town on the line of the river; and
although there were discharges of shot and shell by complete batteries
at a time, and for hour’s duration, yet not a single boat could be laid,
Hundreds of men and officers on our side fell thick and fast as soon as
they debouched from the gully on our side, down which the roadway for
the pontoon-train had been made. The Confederate sharpshooters on the
opposite bank behind the breast-works that I have spoken of as having
been made apparently secure against our artillery, fired at any distance;
and until four o’clock in the afternoon it did look as though it was a matter
of sheer impossibility for the whole Army of the Potomac to cross against
a mere handful of Confederate skirmishers; until finally maddened,
some of our troops in charge of the pontoon-train shoved the boats into
the river, and, jumping in, boldly pushed across, plying their rifles as
they went. The landing of a few of these boats had more terror for the
enemy than the entire artillery of the Army of the Potomac. One Confed-
erate skirmisher could be seen springing up and hastily going to the rear
as fast as his legs would carry him, behind houses and through the yards.
Then could be seen squads scampering in a like manner to the rear.

In the meantime the success of these bold movements on our part
being apparent, others of our troops having charge of the pontoons, like-
wise pushed off and crossed the river, and in an hour’s time from the
commencement of this ferrying across the river we had the entire front,
both up and down the river, as far as the eye could see; and that after-
noon and night bridges were laid at three different crossings; large
bodies of troops were sent over, and occupied the first and second streets
of the town running parallel to the river. Thus was accomplished the~
crossing to Fredericksburg. ;

The following morning our division (the First Division of the Second
Corps, commanded by General Hancock), crossed early ; the major por-
tion of us were drawn up along a street fronting the river. From here
350 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

a number of details were made up for skirmisher’s duty up the streets
running right angles with the river. Other details were made to report
crossing preparatory to the movement. Considerable difficulty was ex-

‘perienced in routing the enemy from the houses fronting the streets run-

ning at right angles with the river, and it was not until that evening
that we could see that we had possession of the entire town on the bank,
the Confederate skirmishers retreating to their hills back of the town.

The next morning, or the second day after our crossing, our division
was moved up into the main street, running through the heart of the
town parallel with the river; the river in front of Fredericksburg, run-
ning as nearly as I can judge east and west. After some two hours and
a half rest, the officers of our division were called to General Hancock’s
head-quarters. There the intended movement against the enemy’s position
was explained to us, to wit: that the Second Division, I think it was,
would goin first on our front, and get as near the Confederate hill as possi-
ble and then lie down, when the First Division was to go through the
Second Division, and in turn get as near the enemy’s position as possible ;
and the Third Division was in like manner to follow and go through us.
The.watchword was given to us “ Scott,” after General Scott. As we
had considerable length of streets to go through before we reached the
fields back of Fredericksburg, and that stretched some distance in front
of the enemy’s position, the line was broken up into brigades, and these,
passing through the different streets, turned right and left on reaching
the rear of the town, and so joined on to one another. But this move-
ment of our troops was not allowed to be perfected except under a terri-
ble fire from the Confederate artillery, that seemed to have cannon particu-
larly planted to sweep the streets through which we pushed forward ; but
luckily for our own particular brigade their range seemed to be either
too high or too low.

In forming line, the second division having preceded us and gone a
considerable distance, we madearush forward over fences, around
brick-kilns, down gullies, through. ditches, but though out of breath,
we never stopped until. we had gained a rising ground, but within scarce-
ly a hundred yards from the foot of the hills on which the Confederate
artillery was posted. Here, my own particular observation, was some
WINFIELD Sscorr HANCOCK. 351

half a. dozen huge guns on the crest of the hill {uttnodiately 2 in front of me,
My orders to my own men were to direct their rifles at these guns; to
keep down their fire so that they would be able to assist the coming up
of the succeeding lines of our troops that were to follow us. This we
kept up for fully one hour. ‘In the meantime, some half a dozen lines
of our troops came up behind us, but instead of going through us, ac-
cording to the arrangement, they immediately came up the hill and
threw themselves on the ground behind us, until their numbers became
so great that there was acompact mass of soldiers behind our line, some
twenty-five or thirty feet in width, and plretshing right and left as far
as the eye could see.

To me the wonder of the assault’ was that there were’no generals to come
mand the troops. This remark, though, would not apply to Hancock’s
division, for we had gone farther towards the Confederate position than it
was expected we would be able to go. Having performed all that was asked:
of us to do and seeing that there was likely to be a movement of the
other troops, I laid down on my back and gazed on the events taking
place there, watching the swarms of wounded men staggering, hopping
and limping to the rear. :

While doing this Inoticed a commotion at the head of the: streets
from which we had emerged, and presently’there dashed’ out into the
broad open field, General Hancock, on horse back, surrounded by his
numerous staff, that made him a very conspicuous mark for all the artil-
lery on the enemys hills, and, in less time than we could count ten, you
could see the ground being ploughed by the cannon shot all arourid the
road. Some idea may be given this thing: when, immediately follow-
ing General Hancock’s emergence from the head of the street, some of
our artillery advanced and attempted replying to the cannon-ofthe enemy
on the hills, but the Confederates having a considerable down hill range,
forced the artillery of ours to leave after firing scarcely a round. Such
was the inspiration of the moment caused by Hancock’s gallantry that if
the command “ forward” had then been given to all the troops, I have
not the alightest idea but that all'positions of the Confederate line on
hills i in our front capable of being iam would have been’ taken.
352, LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

CHAPTER XI.

MRS. SURRATT.

VERY living American, North and South, likes
to describe his special sensation at the time of
the news of the murder of Abraham Lincoln,

at Washington, on the night of April 14th, 1865.
No individual event ever created such a shock
throughout the civilized world. The daily record
of the death of great men, of suicides, murders,
shipwrecks, steamboat explosions, and conflagra-
tions, hardly affects us: but the sudden killing of
the unpretending President of the United States
affected mankind at the same moment with a
matchless horror. I never met an American who
could not tell some story connected with that
tragedy, and some personal revelation of exactly
at what time and place he heard of it.

I heard: of it at Richmond, on Saturday, the
15th of April, 1865, where I had been sent by
Mr. Lincoln a few days before, with letters to the
General in command, directing me to go with him
and see the editors of:the city and induce them to
‘re-organize their newspapers, and to encourage
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 353.

them to support the restored authority of the
United States. Among my traveling companions
were the present Speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives of the United States, Hon. Samuel J.
Randall, the Hon. Emanuel B. Hart, of New
York, the late General George M. Lauman, of
Pennsylvania, and several others. After this
news we returned to Washington by the earliest
conveyance. On Sunday we reached the na-
tional capital to find Vice-president Andrew
Johnson, installed in the presidency, holding his
receptions at the Kirkwood House, while the dead
body of the martyr was lying in the Presidential
mansion, preparatory to that marvellous funeral,
extending through all the states between Wash-
‘ington, the national capital, and Springfield, the
capital of Illinois.

The idea, if not the apprehension of assassination
was more or less before the mind of Abraham Lin-
coln, from the day of his election, November, 1860,
to the day of his death, on the 14th of April, 1865.
He did not seem to fear death, but there was so much
written against him, and so much said todo him in-
jury, and there was such an ingenuity of invention
among those who did not know or did not like him,
that even acalmer philosopher than himself would
have been forced to pay some attention to a con-
sideration that was more or less forced before his
own and present in other minds. The reader
will perceive that from the time he left Illinois on
354 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

the way to Washington, on the 11th of February, .
1860, to his arrival at the National Capitol, the
ghost of murder seemed to track his steps, and yet
travelling with this ghost was the angel of forgive-
ness, as if sent as his holy sentinel.

At Indianapolis, he said “ The question is, shall
the Union and shall the liberties of this country be
preserved to the latest generation?” In the Indi-
anapolis State House, he said, at the same time,
‘What mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred
ona districtof country by its people by merely calling
it a State?’ At Cincinnati, “We mean to treat
you as nearly as we possibly can as Washington,
Jefferson and Madison treated you.” At Co-
lumbus, “It is a consoling circumstance that when
we look out there is really nothing that hurts any-
body.” At Steubenville, “If I adopt a wrong
policy, the opportunity for condemnation will occur
in four years time.” At Pittsburg, “As a rule, I.
think it better that Congress should originate, as
well as perfect, its measures, without external
bias.” At Buffalo, he expressed the hope that he
might be able “to relieve the country from the
present, or, as I should say, the threatened
difficulties.

At Albany, “ When the time comes I shall speak
for the good, both of the North and South of this
country, for the good of the one and the other,
and for all sections of the country.” At New
York, “I am sure I bring a heart devoted to the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 356.

work.” At Philadelphia he made the declaration
which seemed to presage’ his assassination: “This
is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of
Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the
people of this country, but I hope to the world for
all, future time, and if this country cannot be
saved without giving up that principle—I was
about to say—I would rather be assassinated: on
the spot than surrender it.” And on the very day
before he was assassinated this was his language,
after having received the news of the capture of
Richmond: “ Let us all join in doing the acts ne-
cessary to restore the proper practical relations
between the Southern states and the nation, and.
each forever after innocently indulging in his own
opinion, whether in doing the acts he brought the
states from without into the Union, or only gave
them proper assistance, they never having been
out of it.”

President Johnson, full of honest grief for a
death which opened his way to four years of dis-
turbed executive power, was also full of anger,
and if you will turn to his speeches, particularly
that to the Indiana Delegation, you will see how
sweeping this anger was, and how indiscriminate
his charges against the people of the South, who
mourned the loss of Lincoln as if he had been one
of themselves, as indeed he was. their best friend.
The story of the capture of Booth need not be
repeated, nor the fate of his confederates, nor the
356 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

attempt to kill Secretary Seward. What concerns
General: Hancock is the fact that when Mrs.
Surratt, convicted for being accessory to the
great crime, was executed, the General had been
recalled from Winchester, where, as I have said,
he was stationed with his great corps, waiting to
carry forward certain decisive operations rendered
unnecessary by the catastrophe to the Confederacy.
The officer who had immediate charge of Mrs.
Surratt was General John F. Hartranft, of Penn-
sylvania. The Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton,
who, like the President, was greatly excited
against the authors of the assassination, and in
accordance with the prevailing public opinion,
demanded their condign punishment. In most
all political excitements, as our own experience
has shown, a soldier is frequently called upon to
carry out unpleasant orders from his civil superiors.
General Grant himself has had more than one of
these dilemmas to meet, and when General Han-
cock was placed in command of the Washington
Department, he found himselfin the midst ofa wild
unreasoning phrenzy. Noone was more resolute,
more obdurate and unapproachable, than President
Johnson himself as his order directing-the execution
of Mrs. Surratt will show. General Hancock did
not hesitate to.express his great repugnance at
the unpleasant duty forced upon him. Hence
when Judge Clampitt, now of Chicago, Mrs.
Surratt’s leading counsel in 1865, visited Wash-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK.. 857

ington some weeks ago, and stated the following,
which was printed in Don Piatt’s Washington
Capital, he simply reveals what is equally well
known to myself:

“Hancock,” continued Judge Clampitt, “had no more to,do with
these details or matters than you had. When J udge Wylie, with a
Roman majesty of character, issued, almost at the peril of his life, the
writ of habeas corpus in the case of Mrs. Surratt, President Jolinson and
Secretary Stanton decided to suspend the writ, and the execution fol-
lowed.

“We had hopes to the last of a reprieve and a pardon for Mrs. Sur-
ratt, and I waited at the arsenal, hoping against hope. General Han-
cock rode down, and approaching him, I asked, ‘ Are there any hopes?”
He shook his head slowly and mournfully, and, with a sort of gasping
catch in his speech, said: ‘I am afraid not. No; there is not.’

“He then walked. off a bit—he had dismounted—and gave some
orders to his orderlies, and walked about for a moment or. two. Re-.
turning, he said to me:

“¢T have been in many a battle, and have seen death and mixed with
it in disaster and in victory. I’ve been in a living hell of fire, and
shell, and grape-shot; and,-——! I’d sooner be there ten thousand
times over than to give the order this day for the execution of that: poor
woman. But I am a soldier, sworn to obey, and obey I must.”

“This is the true and genuine history of all that Hancock had in
common with the affair. He was commanding, and as commander and
conservator of the National Capital, was compellantly obedient to the
orders of the Court, which sentenced the conspirators and the so-called
conspirator to death. He had no voice in the matter, and .could have
no action save as the agent to see that ‘the letter of the law was carried
out in an order of alphabetic certainty.”

The attempt to make General Hancock respon-
sible for the execution of Mrs. Surratt, is as infar.
1
s

358 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

mous as the effort.to make the Southern people
responsible for the murder of Mr. Lincoln. It
_ 1s worse than to condemn the officer who obeyed
General Washington’s order and officiated at the
death of Andre. Apart from all questions of
guilt in either case, the really innocent parties
were, of course, those who had nothing to do with
the punished offence. In the case of Mrs. Surrat,
Hancock obeyed his Chief, THe PRESIDENT; in the
case of Lincoln, the murderer was an infuriated
- lunatic; in the case of Andre, the officer present at
his execution obeyed George Washington.

The attempt to make General Hancock respon-
sible for the execution of Mrs. Surratt is so vile
that even the Republican papers, reckless as to all
other things, recoil from it as from a leprosy.
Her death was the decree of a party furore,
almost a delirium at the time. The multitude
wanted a sacrifice, a victim, a Paschal lamb. The
loss of Lincoln made the North mad and stunned
the South. It was not an act of decreed revenge.
The man shot was shot by a maniac even as that
man pleaded that that maniac might be restored
to reason, And many of the partisans-who really
made the frenzy under which Mrs. Surratt died
realize their mistake, and, like all such. natures,
they now reverse a sense of justice, after the lapse
of years, to coolly try to fix the crime, as they.
confess it, upon an innocent man! This, to use
a profane illustration, is like Pontius Pilate blaming

+
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 359

-the most innocent of the apostles for, the cruci-
- fixion !
A few more facts will serve to expose and blast
this monstrous wrong
Mr. John W. Clampitt, Mrs. Surratt’s attorney,
offers, in further vindication of General Hancock,
a paper published in the New York Herald of the
28th of July, 1880. Nothing could be more con-

clusive.
GENERAL HANCOCK’S POSITION.
It is true that the order of the President directing the execution of

the condemned parties was transmitted through the commandant of
the military post to Major General Hartranft, who had been designated
by the President in executive order, dated May 1, 1865, (as above
quoted), as aspecial provost marshal for the purposes of said trial and
attendance-upon said commission and the execution of its mandates. It
could not have been otherwise in feature and form, from the very nature
of the military organization of the government and its regulations and
rules of procedure. General Hancock was in command of a geographi-
cal military division, comprising several States, of which Washington
City, where his headquarters had been located by the President’s order,
was a part at the time Mrs. Surratt was sentenced to death. Being
chief in command of that military division the order of the President,
through the War Department, had inevitably to pass through him for
transmission to the officer specially designated by the same authority
(Ex. Order, May 1, 1865,) to execute the mandates of the commission
that condemned Mrs. Surratt to death.

It is a notable fact that Brevet Major General Hartranft, and not
Major General Hancock, gave the verbal order of execution, after first
reading, while standing on the platform beside the prisoners, the finding
of the military commission and the Presiderft’s order of approval.

HE RESPONSIBILITY.
I was an eye-witness to the exécution, and assert these facts as beyond

‘contradiction. In this General Hartranft performed his duty as the
360 LIFE AND EUBLIC CAREER OF

subordinate officer of the President, from whom he had derived the
powers as special provost marshal. The functions of General Hancock
were purely ministerial as the ‘commandant of the military post,” &c.,
and not judicial, and he took no part in the execution. The act, which
was performed in obedience to an order of the President, was not
Hancock’s act, but the act of his superior, having power to command.
The President’s order for the execution of Mrs. Surratt was not the
order of Hancock, but was the President’s order, and was made on the

_ responsibility of-the President. The responsibility of that order rested

with Andrew Johnson and his ill-advisers, and Andrew Johnson is in
his grave.
CHARGES DENIED.
As the counsel of Mrs. Surratt I can testify to my own knowledge

that he was deeply moved in her behalf and distressed on her account.
As to the point whether on the morning of the execution of Mrs. Sur-
ratt he refused her the privilege of having the spiritual consolation of
her religion by denying her the assistance of a priest; this charge I
know to be untrue, and it is effectually refuted by the testimony of the
Rev. J. A. Walter, her spiritual adviser, which nas come to my know-
ledge. This testimony is in the form of a letter addressed by Father
Walter to General Hancock, dated Wasnington, November 14, 1879,
which has been published, in which he completely refutes the charge.
I quote a portion of his letter as follows, to-wit :—

‘I am at a loss how to account for this malicious cport. I have always
believed you to be too much of » Christian and yentleman to suppose
for a moment that you would interfere with any one’s religious feelings,
much Jess in the case of this unfortunate lady for whom you showed
much sympathy. Duty which I owe to truth, and strict justice to you,
compel me to deny those false charges and exonerate you from ‘all
blame? ;

In corroboration of the foregoing explicit statement wf Rev. J. A.
Walter, I can add my own testimony establishing the fact of the pres-
ence of her spiritual advisers; as on the morning of the execution, and
just previous to that terrible event, when I came to bid her “‘Good-by,”
and pressed her hand in parting, it was in the presence of Fathers
| WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. - 361

Walter and Wiget, whose holy serenity seemed to fill her cell with a
heavenly light.
. ; THE HABEAS CORPUS.

As to the charge that General Hancock refused to obey the writ of
habeas corpus, sued out by me as the counsel of Mrs, Surratt, before
Judge Wylie, I know this to be wholly groundless. The records of the
Court show that on the morning of the execution,.upon proper applica-
tion, atthe early hour of two o’clock, Judge Wylie with characteristic
firmness issued the writ of habeas corpus, ordering the commandant of
the military district in which she was confined to produce the body of
Mrs. Surratt in his court at ten o’clock (the hour of execution having
been named in the order as between ten A. M. and two o'clock, P.M. of
the same day). This writ was by me handed to the Marshal of the
District of Columbia, at a very early hour in the morning. It is a fact
sustained by the records of the court, that General Hancock appeared
in obedience to that summons before His Honor Judge Wylie, accom-
panied by the Attorney General of the United States, who, as the repre-
sentative of the President, presented to Judge Wylié the following
return, which was an executive order suspending the writ of habeas

corpus, to wit:—

ExxcovrtrvE Orricz, July 7, 1865—11 o’clock, a. m.
To Major General W. 8. Hancock, Commanding, &c. :—

I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby declare
that the writ of habeas corpus has been heretofore suspended in such
cases as this, and I do hereby especially suspend this writ, and direct
that you proceed to execute the order heretofore given upon thé judg-
ment of the military commission, and you will give this order in return
to this writ. ANDREW JOHNSON,

President.

It is thus seen how false is the charge that General Hancock refused
to obey the writ issued by Judge Wylie. The very reverse is the truth.
‘Not only did he obey the writ so far as he was permitted to do so, thus
subordinating the military to the civil power of the government, butso
prompt and clear was the performance of his duty in the estimation of
the Court that Judge Wylie complimented him on his yeady obedience
362 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER QF

to the.civil authority, and.discharged him from the process because of
his own inability to enforce the order of the Court. Judge Wylie ac-
quiesced in the suspension of his writ by: the President and declined to
go any further. General Hancock’s appearance before the Judge
showed his respect for the civil process of the Court, and it became his
duty to present to the Judge the order of the President suspending the
writ and to know whether he would submit to or reject the suspension
of the writ. If Judge Wylie had said that he would consider the ques-
tion of validity of the order suspending the writ when Mrs. Surratt
was brought before him and directed her to be brought into court, Gen-
eral Hancock would doubtless have-produced the body. But the Judge,
complimenting the General for his respect for the civil authority, dis-
missed his proceedings here. There was not the slightest show of any
disposition on the part of General Hancock to resist the civil process of
the Court.. The charge, therefore, that he refused to obey the writ is.
without the slightest foundation in truth. No one can at this time re-
alize the extent of the popular frenzy and clamor for the execution of
the parties condemned ; and Judge Wylie showed great judicial integ-
rity in awarding the writ at all under the circumstances. Had the
order of the Court extended further, and Judge Wylie insisted upon.
the production before him of the body of Mrs. Surratt notwithstanding
the order of the President, General Hancock might then have been
chargeable with disobeying the process had he refused; but no such
farther order was made and General Hancock was dismissed by the
Court from the process. What else could he have done? While he
acted under the orders of the President he submitted to and showed due
respect for the-judicial authority.
THE APPLICATION FOR PARDON.

The question asked in newspaper discussions, Why General Hancock
was present at the Arsenal on the morning of the execution, is easily
answered. The application for a pardon for Mrs. Surratt was expected
to -be renewed that morning, and that on his own suggestion, and he
deemed it proper to be at a convenient place to afford his aid in case of
a pardon, . I was myself on the ground and deeply interested in all

that. occurred at that time, and I know the fact that General Hancock
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 363

afforded to Mrs. Surratt every kindness in his power, and was anxious
that she should be spared by a pardon, and he hoped for it up to the
very last. And when Miss Anna Surratt called upon him at his hotel
early on the morning of the execution, and asked him what she cotld
do to save the life of her mother, he replied, “that ‘there was but
one thing remaining for her to do, and. that.was to go to the President,
throw herself on her knees before him and beg for the life of her mother.”
She did not ask General Hancock to accompany her to the President,
nor could ithave been expected, as that would be improper in him.
And it was unnecessary, as her protector, Mr. Brophy, was with ler.
It has been stated that Miss Surratt thought his manner'cold. His lan-
guage to her certainly should convey any other idea. He waa at that
moment in a state of great perplexity. as to the disposition of the writ of
habeas corpus which had been served upon him and suspended: by the
President, and he had but little time to make answer and retirn the
same. To this fact may be ascribed his serious manner, taken for cold-
ness. The facts show that so deeply was General Hancock moved in
the matter that his feelings led him to believe it possible for the Presi-
dent to relent at the last moment; and should the President so act, that
the reprieve might not arrive too late, but be borne swiftly on its mis-
sion of mercy, General Hancock had couriers stationed at points from
the White House to the Arsenal, in order that if a pardon or respite
should be issued by the President at the last moment it should reach its
destination promptly and before the execution. This is the evidence of
General W. G. Mitchell, chief of General Hancock’s staff.’ This evi-
dence is corroborated by, the sworn testimony of Mr. John P. Brophy,
now at St. Louis College, New York, and at that time a resident of
Washington City. Mr. Brophy was a friend of the family, and after the
imprisonment of the mother he befriended the daughter Anna. On
the morning of the execution he met her at the Executive Mansion in
the hope of seeing the President, whither she had gone at the suggestion
of General Hancock to beg the life of her mother. Mr. Brophy, who
did all in his power to befriend the hapless girl. and aid the mother in
her sorrowful condition, and who is w gentleman of high. char-
acter, testifiés, under oath,as to the humanity displayed by General
864 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Hancock toward the unfortunate mother and daughter on the morning
of the execution. The following are extracts from his sworn statement :
“ On our way from the White House to the Arsenal I noticed mount-
ed soldiers at intervals along the route.” These were the couriers sta-
tioned by order of General Hancock to convey to him any notice of
reprieve from the President. At the Arsenal gate, he accompanied
. Anna Surratt to bid her mother farewell, met General Hancock, who
“spoke to Anna, and, in a voice of subdued sadness told her that he
‘feared there was no hope of Executive clemency. .He informed Mr.
Brophy that he had, however, stationed mounted menall along the line
to the White House, for the purpose of hastening thetidings should the
President at the last moment relent and grant a reprieve for Mrs.
Surratt. He also siated to Mr. Brophy that, should a reprieve be grant-
ed by the President, it might be directed to him as Commandant of the
Department, and he would be at the Arsenal till the last moment to
give effect to the same should it arrive.

Mr. Brophy further states that he is “impelled by a sense of duty to
add his testimony to other in vindication of one who has been most un-
justly assailed for alleged misconduct of which no brave man could
possibly be guilty. That he is not a, politician, but loves justice and .
feels that he has done an act of simple justice to as knightly a warrior
as ever ‘saluted with his spotless sword the sacred majesty of the law.’”

And now, my dear sir, I. believe I have covered all the points of your

"inquiry in as brief and candid a manner as the importance and gravity
of the subject demanded.

GENERAL HANCOCK NOT RESPONSIBLE.

There are many facts connected with the trial and execution which I
have omitted as not within the scope of our inquiry. This much, how-
ever, is fully established—that General Hancock was in no wise respon-
sible for the organization of the military commission that condemned
Mrs. Surratt to death; that her trial and execution rested entirely on
the will and determination of the President and his constitutional advi-
sers, and that General Hancock in all matters pertaining to the same
had no discretion or responsibility whatsoever, nor could he, from his
official position, have influenced or controlled them in the slightest de-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 365

gree. He never attended the sessions of the commission, but was busily
engaged in the diversified and extensive cares of the military command
which required his entire time and attention. As I attended the com- -
mission every day of the trial I know that he was never seen about the
rooms of the commission. General Hartranft attended on the commis-
sion daily, and this he did as special provost marshal, so as to be under
the immediate direction of the President and Secretary of War, instead
of the military commandant of the post.

DICTATES OF PARTY.

In conclusion permit a single reflection. The trial and execution
spoken of were demanded at the time by the whole Republican party.
The intensity of the public feeling and the infuriated demand for the
execution of the condemned parties cannot now be realized, and Presi-
dent Johnson, Secretary Stanton and Judge Advocate General Holt,
who had the entire control of the matter, were acting under the dictates
of that political party and simply carrying out its imperative demands.
How humiliating to the intellect of the country the reflection that the.
same political party that had the entire responsibility for the atrocious.
murder of that innocent woman should now, for mere political effect,
attempt falsely and most wrongfully fo injure a brave soldier, who so
often perilled his life to save the Union, by charging upon him miscon-
duct for having in some way participated in that act which that whole
party demanded and approved at the time!

Respectfully yours,
Jouy W. CLamprrr,
366 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF,

CHAPTER XII.

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION.

HE nomination of Gen. Hancock at the Cincin- -

nati Convention on the 23d of June, 1880, was
spontaneous, if not unexpected. It was in no one.
sense the result of organization. It had no estab-
lished bureau, literary or financial. It came from
two States, widely separated, from Vermont in the
far East, and South Carolina in the far South. It
is therefore the double harbinger of Union. It is
the union of sentiment and sections. It is the
union of Federal and Confederate, of the veteran
that fought for and the veteran that fought against
the old flag. It is the union of an ultra-Republican
with an ultra-Democratic community.

Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, on the 26th
of January, 1830, in the Senate of the United
States, in his reply to Robert Y. Hayne of South
Carolina, used these celebrated words, which apply
with singular fidelity to the two commonwealths
that started for Hancock. Paraphrase this splen-
 

WAITING FOR TICKETS OF ADMISSION.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 369:

did passage, substitute Vermont for Massachusetts,
and see how apposite they are to-day :

“Sir, let me recur to pleasant recollections. Let me indulge in
refreshing remembrances of the past. Let me remind you that in early
times no states cherished greater harmony, both of principle and feeling,
than Vermont and South Carolina. Would to God that harmony might
again return! Shoulder to shoulder they went through the Revolution ;
hand in hand they stood around the administration of Washington, and
felt his own great arm lean on them for support. The bones of. their
sons falling in the great struggle for independence now lie mingled with
the soil of every State from New England to Georgia, and there they
lie forever.”

DOUGHERTY’S GREAT SPEECH NOMINATING HANCOCK.

On the 23d of June, 1880, Daniel Dougherty
of Philadelphia, to whom a place in the Conven-
tion had been assigned by Mr. Spear, delegate from
one of the Pennsylvania counties, made the speech
nominating General Hancock, with which his
name will always be associated. Never was the
Democratic party more fully represented by its
ablest and strongest men than in the National
Convention at Cincinnati, in June, 1880. The
President of that great deliberation, John W.
Stevenson, of Kentucky, son of the well-known
Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, for six years
Speaker of the National House of Representatives,
afterwards American Minister to Great Britain,
recalled the dignity and force of his historic father,
and. the other men from the different States were
all chosen with an eye alike to individual strength
and national success.
370 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

- The appearance of Mr. Dougherty in a Demo-
cratic National Convention, the first time in more
than twenty years, revived to the hundreds who
had known him in past days, the young, impas-
sioned and irresistible orator, who in 1856 electri-
fied Pennsylvania by his fresh and captivating
eloquence in favor of James Buchanan, the Demo-
cratic candidate for President. Here he renewed
the friendships of ether days, and without apolo-
gizing for his patriotic course during the civil
war, met them like brethren, and they met
him with something more than admiration in
the warm affection springing from confidence in
his integrity and intellectual superiority. Like
many others in this convention, Dougherty had .
voted for, Lincoln and for Grant, and he represents
as he did when he severed his connection with the
Democratic party in 1858, a vast constituency.

He was born in Philadelphia, and has lived there
fifty-three years. He was the intimate friend of
most of the contemporaneous statesmen of his
time, and, apart from his eloquence as a popular
orator, his wit, his patriotism and personal indepen- _
. dence, made him a favorite in all circles. He has
grown into a profitable practice at his profession
of the law, and is one of the most honored men
in our country. Indeed, I know no more spot-
less and exemplary citizen. Certainly there never
was one whose public acts were less controlled by
private considerations. His sole ambition in pub-
- WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK: 371

lic life has been to sacrifice everything like party
to the preservation of the American Union, and to
that end he has labored with ceaseless energy.
‘It was that which induced him to join the friends
of Judge Douglas in 1860; it was that which
made him support Abraham Lincoln in 1864, that
which led him to support Grant in 1868, and again
in 1872. No effort was too great, no sacrifice too
costly, if by that he could serve his country; and
like thousands more he does not consign the whole
Democratic party to ignominy because of the
war, thus following the illustrious examples of
Abraham Lincoln and Charles Sumner ; thus, while
loving the Union and the Constitution with all his
natural fervor, he was among the first to urge the
return and the forgiveness of the Confederates. Nor
‘did he accept the republicans as the infallible physi-
cians to cure the nation’s ills. He had known too
many of the true-hearted men of the South in ‘bet-
ter days to place them forever out of the pale of his
sympathy, and he was too familiar with thousands
of the so-called Northern leaders not to feel that
many of them used the opportunities of civil war to
enrich themselves and to punish men who did not
‘ praise their companions. Time only served to add
to his sympathies for the misguided men of. the —
South and to increase his distrust of most of the
reckless Republican partisans of the. North. No
independent voter accustomed to the sad experi-
ence of the Republican party in Pennsylvania
‘372 ‘LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

within the last ten years, can fail to realize the
justice of this view of Dougherty’s character, and to
make it the pattern of his own.

He had seen the corruption in State Legislatures,
the terrorism in our great .cities under which the
worst men were put in office and the: best kept in
ptivate positions, the elections turned into open
frauds, and the public press forced to support no-
minations and measures which the editors detested,
but were driven to sustain under pain of poverty
and ostracism. Naturally he turned for relief to
his old party, the party he had known and loved
before the war. General Hancock was his friend,
had fought for his country, was acceptable to the
South, was a native son of Pennsylvania, and was
the man of all others to begin the work of recon-
ciliation. ,

Mr. Dougherty, inspired by this leading purpose
of his life, went to Cincinnati in 1880, as he had
gone to Cincinnati in 1856, to help a candidate
who, besides being his own neighbor, was, as he
believed, the very best instrument to promote
peace among all the people North and South.
James Buchanan disappointed Dougherty and a
vast community of Democrats of the same patriotic
school twenty-four years before. Winfield S. Han-
cock comes now with an unblemished character,
national views, an incomparable battle record,
to heal the wounds of war, to bring the people of all
parties and classes in our happy Union together
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 373

once more. These were the motives which inspired
Dougherty’s oration at Cincinnati on the 23d of
June. |

I quote from the eloquent pen of Alexander K.
McClure, in the “Philadelphia Times,” of the 24th
of that month:

The grand occasion of the day was when Dougherty surpassed him-
self in all the attributes of a popular orator in presenting General
Hancock. He received a royal welcome when he took the speaker's
platform, and he bore himself most gracefully during the ordeal. A
dead silence followed, and then Dougherty’s voice rang throughout the
vast hall clear as the notes of a silver bell. Without éxordium or any:
prefatory remarks, he at once grappled with his theme and touched the
heart of his audience. As an oratorical effort it captivated by its ele-
gance alike in matter and in manner, and as an impressive and powerful
appeal to a great body of representative men it will be remembered with
Ingersoll’s presentation of Blaine in 1876 and Conkling’s presentation of
Grant at Chicago. It differed as much from both of those exceptionally
great efforts as they differed from each other, but it had as distinctive
merits as can be claimed for them, and will stand in imperishable associ-
ation with them in our political literature. When he reached the climax
of his peroration and named Hancock the scene was indescribable. It
was the first time that any more than a regulation applause of the con-
vention had been invoked, and for nearly a quarter of an hour the dele-
gates and galleries displayed’ the wildcst enthusiasm. It proved that
the heart of the great audience was for Hancock, as the heart of the
Chicago assembly was for Blaine, and a master-hand had touched _ the
chords and drawn out the fullest tones. It was a revelation to the con-
vention, for it told for the first time how strong the Pennsylvania
Democratic soldier was in the. supreme tribunal of the national Demo-
cracy. Hancock was fortunate in the followers of his chief advocate.
Daniel, of Virginia, a one-legged Confederate soldier, who had con-
fronted Hancock on the field, seconded Hancock’s nomination in a speech
374 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF :

that ranked second only to Dougherty’s in brevity, eloquence and power,
and - Hubbard, of Texas, another Confederate warrior, followed in wa
handsome tribute to the gallant soldier he had met in the flame of battle.
These appeals bore rich and speedy fruit, as was proved in Hancock’s
leading vote on the ballot taken soon after.

“The convention was a school of eloquence. One might have
fancied himself in the grove of the Academy, listening to the rich and
lofty style of Plato mingled with the clear, solid sentences of Demos-
thenes. With a voice sweet as the Molion harp, and ye} powerful and
far reaching, Voorhees set forth the claims of Indiana’s favorite son.
McSweeny had a fitting theme for the exercise of his massive intellect
in the exalted character of that great and genial man, whom the State
of Ohio has lent to the Republic to be princeps senatus. The claims of
the eminent jurist from the Pacific coast, and of the other distinguished
gentleman named for the Presidency, were set forth in glowing and
eloquent terms.

“The name of Hancock had not yet been mentioned. There was a
. yearning in that. vast audience for some.one to.step forward and pro-
nounce his name ‘with all that it implied.” Our old friend, Daniel
Dougherty, proved equal to the grand occasion, His sentences flowed
clear and musical as the tones of a silyer trumpet. Dwelling in brief
terms on the patriotic career of Pennsylvania’s great son and soldier, he
touched with a master hand a chord that was uppermost in the hearts
of that vast assemblage. The effect was thrilling. Never were the
artistic graces of oratory displayed to better advantage or with more
powerful effect. Hancock’s nomination was the fitting response.

Dougherty was followed by Daniel of Virginia, Breckinridge of
Kentucky, Hubbard of Texas, and others, whose speeches were marked
by great oratorical power and polished culture,”

Now comes the genuine text of Daniel Dough-
erty’s speech, nominating General Hancock for the
Presidency, at Cincinnati, June 23d, 1880. There
have been some misprints, but this gives the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. - 375

exact words of a memorable utterance. Wonder-
ful is the gift of speech! It sways more than music,
because it is articulate inspiration. Mere harmony
is one thing, but intellectual harmony is like put-
ting words into the songs of the birds, or the sighs
of the sweet South breathing over a bank of violets.
Short speeches win most votes. The rhetoric of
conventions is a special study. We hear of quick
effusions at the bar, and the church; but the heart
of the people pours out in their quadrennial Presi-
dential conclaves; and in these vast love-feasts, where
men strive and contrive for the high seats in the
Republic, such marvellous appeals read like the
voices of the gods when men were supposed to —
speak from on high. Such was Joseph Holt’s
wonderful speech at Baltimore, when he saved
Richard M. Johnson from defeat for the renomina-
tion as the Democratic candidate for Vice-President.
I heard it as a boy. Holt is now an old man in
Washington, and when he spoke he was the greatest
orator in the Southwest, dividing the honors with
Sargent S. Prentiss, W. C. Preston, and Bascom,
the Methodist preacher. It was so resplendent
that it electrified Horace Greeley, and he embalmed
‘it in his New Yorker. What a flame of eloquence,
pure, fervid, bewildering! Then I heard James
Dobbin, of North Carolina, nominating Franklin
Pierce at Baltimore, another outburst of classic
beauty that swept the delegates like the chords of
a great organ. Alas, too, how different the: heart-
376 LIFE AND PUPLIC CAREER OF

broken plea of Rufus Choate before the Whigs in
the same year, 1852, for Daniel Webster. It was
like the young Raphael pleading for the old Angelo
before. a circle of withered cardinals. And
when General Scott got the Whig nomination
Choate voted for Pierce, and followed it by his sup-
port of Buchanan in 1856. I thought the day of
Convention oratory was over till Robert G. Ingersoll
set the Republicans on fire for Blaine at Cincinnati
in 1876, and Roscoe Conkling proved his sincere
devotion to Grant at Chicago in 1880, and
Dougherty made his magnificent: coup for Hancock
last June in Cincinnati. They are interesting
features and facts of history, and show that elo-
quence is not extinct in this country, and that
after all American politics have other and higher
uses for our youth than to be the burden-bearers
of ignorant machine-men, or mean sleuth-houndy
seeking and finding places for themselves:

“T present to the thoughtful consideration of the convention, the
name of one who, on the field of battle, was styled ‘the superb,’ yet
won still nobler renown as the Military Governor, whose first act, in
assuming command in Louisiana and Texas, was to salute the Constitu-
tion! by proclaiming amid the joyous greetings of an oppressed people
that'the military, save in actual war, shall be subservient to the civil
power. ‘

“The, plighted word of the soldier was proved in the deeds of the
statesman. of ‘

_ “I name one who, if nominated, will suppress every faction, and be
alike acceptable to the North and to the South. Whose nomination
will thrill the land from end to end, crush the last embers of sectional
.WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOOK. 3BT7

strife, and be hailed as the dawning of the longed-for day of perpetual
brotherhood.

“With him we can fling away our shields and wage aggressive war.

With him as our chieftain the bloody banner of the Republicans will

fall from their palsied grasp. We can appeal to the supreme tribunal

of the American people against the corruptions ofthe Republican

party and its untold violations of Constitutional liberty.

“Ohl my countrymen |! in this supreme. moment,—the destinies of
the Republic,—the imperilled liberties of the people, hang breathless
on your deliberations—pause | reflect ! beware | make no misstep !

“ “T nominate him who can carry every Southern State. Can carry
Pennsylvania, Indiana, Connecticut, New Jersey, and N ew York. The
soldier statesman with a record stainless ‘as his sword. I'nominate
Winfield Scott Hancock, of Pennsylvania. If elected he will take his
seat.”

. But there were other men in the Democratic
National Convention, in June of 1880, men as far
separated after the civil war, as any that served
in the previous Republican Convention at Chicago,
men as different from each other as the States from
which they came, men from both shores of the
ocean, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, men from
the borders of our inland seas North and South,
men from the White Mountains and the Rocky
Mountains, men from the Granite Hills and the
Southern cotton fields, types of all ideas and races.
Dougherty was among the best representative of
that school, which reared in the belief of a perfect
Democracy, recoiled from the slightest attempt to
imperil‘ the Constitution of the Union. Others
from New England reared to the habits and opin-
378 LIFE AND,PUBLIC CAREER OF

ions of John Langdon, of New: Hampshire, some
from California, full of a gigantic feature, delegates
of moderate ideas of the conservative Middle State _
of Pennsylvania, and of course from the South,
the natural politicians of the past, and still .
the leaders of what is left of the lost cause. Among.
these latter, let me mention the name of Major
John W. Daniel of Virginia, who made a speech
almost as characteristic as that of Mr. Dougherty,
when he seconded Dougherty’s nomination of Han-
cock for the Presidency. The aneestors of Daniel
were the best of the Constitutional school of his
name, among them Peter Vyvian Daniel, the famous-
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
I mention Major Daniel, because, like Roger A.
Pryor, he is one of the witnesses to prove that the
recent Confederate States are not only pledged, in
the language of the South Carolina Democrats, to
abide by the amendments of the National Constitu-
tion, but to promote the great work of conciliation
between the sections. At present many Republicans
stand ready to vote for Hancock, but hesitate before
the apparition raised by the ring politicians in the
North, that’in the event of his election, not only will
the Confederate debt be added to our own, not only
will the freedom of the slave be declared inopera-
tive, but that the Southern Rule will be enforced
over all the States in the Union. It is astonishing,
after so many years of discussion, how sensiblé
men have been affected by this puerile fear.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. | 379

’ A witness like Major Daniel, who spoke with
rare ability in the National Convention at Cincin-
nati, on the 23d of June last, deserves additional
confidence from the fact that, as long ago as June
27, 1877, he delivered a discourse before the liter-
ary societies of the University of Virginia on
“The Conquered Nations,” in which he laid down
the principle that by the overthrow of the South
in the civil war, not only were certain cherished
Southern ideas themselves overthrown, but that
a long and brighter future was open to the whole
country, and to the South especially, by the tri-
umph of resistless progress, and, in fact, by the
' collapse of the Confederacy. This speech of Major
Daniel was in itself so exhaustive and original
_ that I wish I could present it at greater length.

But the following passages will show exactly where
the South stands to-day, and where all the authori-
ties prove it will continue to stand through all
time. It is among the cruel malignities of the day
that in the face of all the proofs of forgiveness, in
the face of all the pledges of our laws and the
binding forces of our constitution, the Repub-
lican party of the North should be controlled by
men who insist that the South cannot be trusted,
and that the only way by which the North can be
maintained in the Government of the country is
by insisting that the South is unworthy of belief.
How intelligent men can allow this vulgar assertion“
to terrify them into the support of the very worst

oe
380 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

elements of Northern society is a marvel. Thou-
sands who have sworn over and over again they:
are determined to encourage national reconcilia-
tion, and have repeatedly advertised their con-
tempt for the selfish men in control of the
Republican party of the North, still allow them-
selves to be guided against General Hancock
and to be written down as the unforgiving adver-
saries of eight millions of our own countrymen.
In the oration of Major Daniel, on the 27th ot
June, 1877, after a retrospect of the march of con-
quest since the beginning of civilization, he con-
cludes as follows:

PHYSICAL INFLUENCES THAT CONQUERED THE SOUTH.

Pause we to inquire, What conquered the South? Physical Geo-
graphy had much to do with our defeat. Mountains, rivers, and oceans
are great philosophers, law-givers, and nation-builders. The configu-
ration of the continent in a large measure preserved the unity of the
American race. The Mississippi river flows from North to South—
a thousand miles long—through a Mesopotamian valley, capable of
sustaining the population of Europe. It is the natural outlet to the
ocean for the vast granaries and commerce of the teeming West. And
the Western yeoman, who cared not a straw for slavery, vowed that a
foreign State should not cut in twain this great artery—this inland sea
—of Western navigation. And his stalwart arm cleaved open its
channel through the barriers of Southern steel. The Mississippi river
is the reason that Daniel Voorhees, “ the tall sycamore of the Wabash,”
did not transplant himself with a forest of Indiana bayonets on the
southern banks of the Ohio and the Potomac.

OTHER INFLUENCES THAT CONQUERED THE SOUTH.
The superficial observer would say that the North conquered us be-
eause she had more men than we had; because she had the world at
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 381

large to recruit from, and a navy that swept the seas. This is all true.
These are the surface facts. But why was the North better armed,
equipped, and provisioned than we? Why did the world back the
North—not the South? Why were Lord Palmerston and Louis Na-
poleon, who hated, and were jealous of northern power, “ willing enough
to wound, and yet afraid to strike?” Why did Germany and Russia
give the North their quiet sympathy and co-operation?

It was because the North had cultivated the conquering ideas of the
world. It was because she had conquered the South before a gun was
fired. It was because she had shown herself our superior in finance, in
literature, in arts, commerce, and manufactures.

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was a stronger fortress of Northern power than
Fortress Monroe. The Northern spindles were harder to fight than
Northern bayonets. She coined the money of the country, and drained
the money of the South. She wrote, printed and bound the books that
made the literature of the country. She created the arts that adorned
our homes. She wove the bridal veil, furnished the house, clad the
inmates, compounded the medicines of the sick, shrouded our dead.

HOW THE SOUTH WAS TRIBUTARY TO THE NORTH BEFORE THE WAR.

Every Southern gentleman, every Southern lady wore the livery of
the North. The hat ofthe beau, the bonnet of the belle, the kid slip-
per of the ball-room, and the rough brogue of the cotton-field, the dress-
coat, the silk train, the calico wrapper, and the “ linsey-woolsey ”
gown—all these were Northern liveries which we wore. From the
‘crown of our heads to the sole us our feet we wore the bade of com-
mercial slaves, ‘

‘(OUR PHYSICAL INFERIORITY TO OUR CONQUERORS.

When we went to the field the Southern soldier carried an old-fa-
shioned musket or a sportsman’s shot-gun; and was shot down by re-
peating rifles before he got close enough to fire back with his shot-range
weapon. While our artillerists were trying to get near enough to loose
their inferior cannon, and were discharging shells which burst so close
to their own muzzies that they were often more terrible to friend than
1

382 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER. OF

to foe, the Northman sent whizzing from rifled steel those far-flying mes-
sengers of death which delivered the messages in our ranks almost be-
fore our enemy was seen, While our ports were hermetically sealed ;
our currency being carried to market in baskets for what might be
brought back in the hand; our people living on what Lazarus would
have despised ; the North was sweeping the seas and guarding our har-
bors with iron-clad monitors ; whose admonitions could only be rejected
to incur desolation and destruction; was upholding paper money to an
approximate equality with gold ; was affluent, opulent, and unstrained ;
and while we could not build a sixty-mile military railroad between
Danville and Lynchburg, the North was laying its iron rails across the
mighty stretch of the Western plains, climbing the Rocky Mountains,
-and connecting its splendid highway with the golden gates of the Pa-
cific. These are the facts; thus it is that we were conquered.

WHAT THE SOUTH LOST BY THE NORTHERN CONQUEST.

Vast and terrible were the losses of the South by the Northern con-
quest of her Confederacy. The wrath of the tremendous revolution
left no condition of her people at its close which the beginning found.

Four millions of slaves became freedmen; in them alone millions of
capital were annihilated, and that ever a dollar will compensate the loss
is only a lunatic’s dream. Besides this the land was devastated; mil-
lions of private property were destroyed and irreparably lost ; her labor
system was broken up; her rich beggared; her bravest and noblest
slain in battle; as President Davis said, “ the seed corn was ground up,”
and it seemed to her when the end came, that with her hopeful youth
committed to early graves “the year had lost its spring.” But what
is more, é

THE SOUTHERN CAUSE WAS IRRETRIEVABLY LOST.

France and Germany fight for Alsace and Lorraine, for the boundaries
of the Rhine. The war ends, but the land is there; the cause of war
remains; and one war begets another. But between North and South
the war eliminated, annihilated its cause. What was that cause? Sla-
very was the material bone of contention ; secession was the fiction of
law adopted in pleading for its defence. The war ended, but slavery.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 383

had departed forevermore, and by the arbitrament of battle secession
was buried with it ina common grave. It may suit the frenzy of de-
clamatory utterance to declare that “ our cause was not lost’””—xbut the
pretence is vanity of vanities! As well might man hope to solve the
problem of Nicodemus, to enter into his mother’s womb and be born
again; as well attempt to rehabilitate the dead “ whose holy dust was
scattered long ago ”—as to revive in any form that cause. If there be
any who fancy otherwise—I believe there are none—I would answer in
the language of Phocion to the pompous harangues of Leosthenes,
“Your speeches resemble cypress trees, which are indeed large and
lofty, but produce no fruit.” No, the cause is dead, dead--let it rest !

THE SPIRIT OF TRUE PATRIOTISM AND THE STATESMAN OF
THE HOUR.

There is nothing now to divide us; together we builded the Union,
together we made it a temple of liberty and grandeur; together we
fought at Yorktown, at Saratoga—on the fields of Mexico, and at Lun-
dy’s Lane our blood flowed in a common stream; and together now let
us blot out dissensions and endeavor to make reality of Plato’s dream:
“Could we create,” said he, “so close and tender, and cordial a relation
between the citizens of a State as to induce all to consider themselves
ag relatives—as fathers, brothers, and sisters—then this whole State
would constitute but a single family, be subjected to the most perfect
regulations, and become the happiest Republic that ever existed on the
earth.” This is the spirit of true patriotism, and he is the hero, and
the statesman of the hour, who carries it out.

THE LETTERS OF ACCEPTANCE.

All the American methods for the selection of
President of the United States are peculiar, and,
as experience has shown, almost providential. Our
national conventions are certainly the best conceiv
able ‘schemes for digesting public sentiment; but
they are still far from perfect,
384 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Clay and Webster were successively sacrificed
in the conventions of their party; but public
opinion corrected the wrong to them, by rebuking
their party rivals, and preferring their political
competitors.

Presidential letters of acceptance are still more
peculiar than our national conventions. They are
a literature essentially American. Like the fre-
quent messages of all our chief magistrates, State
and National, they preserve a continuous commu-
nication between the sovereign people and the
servants of the sovereign people.

In Great Britain, the monarch speaks a few cold
sentences, prepared by the ministry, at the opening
of Parliament, in the House of Lords; and that is
the end of all communication between the Queen
and the community she still continues to call her
“subjects.”

The Emperor of Germany delivers his dicta
through the severe lips of his iron chancellor, deci-
sions almost as costly and as scarce as if they
were divine revelations. ,

In other nations, the king is a simple conduit
for his cabinet; but, in the great republic, while
the party-platform is often that party’s guillotine,
a Delphic or cabalistic utterance is no longer |
tolerated. Frankness and courage are demanded
here, as they are exacted from the statement in
the Senate, or the orator on the hustings.

The Americans are an entirely abnormal people:

Save
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 885:

No other on earth have.so rapidly established the
great physiological fact, that, to mix the races, is
to produce the best. Scientists may argue that
single families are preserved by the transmission
of certain traits and gifts ; but the master truth
for the masses, in this age, is, that you improve the
~whole by quick adaptation and universal assimila-
tion. The present generation is distinguished by
the courage of its opinions and its thought, the
utility, as well as the novelty, of its inventions,
the voracity of its reading, and the general inde-
pendence of its party polities : and as long as these.
-habitudes prevail there is little danger of free
institutions.

The letter of General Hancock, the Democratic
candidate for President, was evidently written in.
the spirit of this estimate of the American people.
Less technical than the letter of Mr. English, but
equally emphatic, Gerieral Hancock appeals to the
reason of his vast constituency. He writes like a
genial philosopher. His style is clear to the oldest
and youngest voter. I remember, in my boy-
hood, a copy of the inaugural message of Simon
Snyder, the great Democratic Bovernpr of
Pennsylvania .from 1811 to 1817, printed.
on satin, hanging up in my grandfather’s room; and
‘how often I pondered upon that early platform ;
and now, if I desired to enshrine another letter, I
would take these words of General Hancock, and
the | last paragraph of Abraham Lincoln in ‘his
386 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

inaugural of 1861, and print them together in.
letters of gold. They deserve precisely such im-:
mortality.

Hancock kept his faith, and sealed it with his
blood at Gettysburg. Lincoln clasped his faith
close to his heart, like the prayer of the English
saint; and as his life ebbed out on the 14th of
April, 1865, he was almost repeating the syllables
of pardon to his Southern fellow-citizens.

In Hancock’s letter of acceptance, he writes:
“The war for the Union was successfully closed’
more than fifteen years ago. All classes of our
people must share alike in the blessings of the
Union, and are equally concerned in its perpetuity,
and in the proper administration of public affairs.
We are in a state of profound peace. Henceforth’
let it be our purpose to cultivate sentiments ot
friendship, and not of animosity, among our fellow-
citizens. Our material interests, varied and pro-
gressive, demand our constant and united efforts.”

Such is the judgment of the great soldier in
1880. And now read what Abraham Lincoln
said to the South before his administration, and
before the civil war: “We are: not enemies, but
friends. We must not be enemies. Though pas-
sion may have strained it must not break our bonds
of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretch-
ing from every battle-field and patriot grave to
every living heart and hearth-stone all over this
broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union,
'

WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOOK. 387

when again touched, as surely they will be, by the
better angels of our nature.” Such was Abraham
Lincoln’s platform nineteen years ago, and I place
it side by side with the significant pledge of Win-
field S. Hancock of July 31,1880. To this central
idea Abraham Lincoln constantly adhered. Let
General Hancock be as true to his central idea and
his election is as sure as his administration will be
successful.

Mr. English strikes another key. Naturally he
writes more like a politician than General Han-
cock, but there is one thought in his letter that
will strike every reflecting mind: his text prompted
by his experience -in Congress and by his individ-
ual wrestle with the world is that the control of
the Government by the Republican party deserves
to expire. Here Mr. English is the simple echo of
the popular heart. Certainly the Republican
leaders have presented no claim to prolonged occu-
pation of the public offices; judged by ‘their ad-
ministration in every State of the Union they have
failed. The great ideas which gave prestige and
power to the party organized under the influence
- of Abraham Lincoln and Seward, Sumner and
Greeley, have already been lost sight of. From
California to Maine there is a spirit of deep unrest
among the masses of the Republican party, that
justifies the declarations of Mr. English. If we
compare General Hancock with General Garfield,
the verdict for the Democratic candidate for Presi,
388 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER.OF

dent is made by General Garfield’s own constitu-
ents, by the Congress in which he has served, and
by the newspapers that now defend him: They all
utterly condemn Garfield. If we place Mr. English
and Mr. Arthur, the Republican candidate for the
Vice-President, side by side, we find that the strong-
est verdict against the latter comes from the Repub-
lican President of the United States, who removed
him from office for incompetency and favoritism.
The independent voter need not be told that when
a great party, organized for a great purpose, falls
from its original declaration, breaks faith with the
very men that created and saved it, turns upon its
own record as preached by Abrahani Lincoln, sub-
stitutes for his mercy and magnanimity cruelty
and coercion, and at the same time rejects the
great warnings and appeals of Greeley and of Sum-
ner, that party proves its incapacity to govern this
great country by its own confessions. It is hardly
necessary to add that the idea of Mr. English that
it has served out its time and that its lease of ade
ministration should. stop is illustrated and proved
by the damaging charges against its own candi-
dates for President and Vice-President, in the
Courts, in the Press, in Congress, and in the
country.
GENERAL HANCOCK’S LETTER.

GovERNOR’s I LAND,
New Yorx Ciry, July 29, 1880.
GmyTLEMEN: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of July 13, 1880, apprising me formally of my nomination to the
WINFIELD SCOTT.HANOOCK. 389

office of President of the United States by the National Democratic
Convention lately assembled in Cincinnati. I accept the nomination
with grateful appreciation of the confidence reposed in me.

The principles enunciated by the convention are those I have
cherished in the past and shall endeavor to maintain in the future.
The thirteeth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution
of the United States, embodying the results of the war for the Union,
are inviolable. If called to the Presidency I should deem it’ my duty
to resist with all of my power any attempt to impair or evade the full
force and effect of the Constitution, which, in every article, section and
amendment, is the supreme law of the land. :

THE UNION UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.

The Constitution forms the basis of the Government of the United
States. The powers granted by it to the legislative, executive and judicial
departments define and limit the authority of the general government.
Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor pro-
hibited by it to the States, belong to the States respectively or to the peo-
ple. The General and State governments, each acting in its own sphere
without trenching upon the lawful jurisdiction of the other, constitute

.the Union. This Union, comprising a general government with gene-
ral powers and State governments with State powers for purposes local
to the States, is a polity the foundations of which were laid in the pro-
foundest wisdom, This is the Union our fathers made, and which has
been so respected abroad and so beneficent at home. Tried by blood
and fire it stands to-day a model form of free popular government,-a
political system which, rightly administered, has been and will con-
tinue to be the admiration of the world. ‘May we not say, nearly in the
words of Washington. The unity of government which constitutes us one
people is justly dear to us? It is the main pillar in the edifice of our
real independence, the support of our peace, safety and prosperity and
of that liberty we so highly prize and intend at every hazard to pre-

serve. :
FRAUD MUST NOT SUBVERT POPULAR RIGHTS.

But no form of government, however carefully devised, no principles,
however sound, will protect the rights of the people unless adminis-
390 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

tration is faithful and efficient. It is a vital principle in our system
thatneither fraud nor force must be allowed to subvert’ the rights of
the people. When fraud, violence or incompetence controls, the noblest
constitutions and wisest laws are useless. The bayonet is not a fit instru-
ment for collecting the votes of freemen. It is only by a full vote, free
ballot and fair count thatthe people can rule in fact as required by the
theory of our government. Take this foundation away and the whole
structure falls.
PUBLIC OFFICE A TRUST.

Public office is a trust, not a bounty bestowed upon the holder. No
incompetent or dishonest persons should ever be entrusted with it, or, if
appointed, they should be promptly ejected. The basis of a substantial,
practical civil service reform must first be established by the people
in filling the elective offices. If they fix a high standard of qualifica-
tions for office and sternly reject the corrupt and incompetent, the re-
sult will be decisive in governing the action of the servants whom they
entrust with appointing power.

LET US HAVE PEACE.

The war for the Union was successfully closed more than fifteen years
ago. All classes of our people must share alike in the blessings of the
Union and are equally concerned in its perpetuity and in the proper
administration of public affairs, We are in a state of profound peace.
Henceforth let it be our purpose to cultivate sentiments of friendship
and not of animosity among our fellow-citizens. Our material interests,
varied and progressive, demand our constant and united efforts. A
sedulous and scrupulous care of the public credit, together with a wise
and economical management of our governmental expenditures, should
be maifitained in order that labor. may be ‘lightly burdened and that
all persons may be protected in their rights to the fruits of their own

industry.
THE WAY TO PROSPERITY.

The time has come to enjoy the substantial benefits of reconciliation.
As one people we have common interests. Let us encourage the harmony
and generous rivalry among our own industries which will revive our
languishing merchant marine, extend our commerce with foreign na-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOOK. 391

tions, assist our merchants, manufacturers and producers to develop our
vast natural resources and increase the prosperity and happiness of our
people.

If elected I shall, with the Divine favor, labor with what ability I
possess to discharge my duties with fidelity according to my convictions,
and shall take care to protect.and defend the Union and to see that the
laws be faithfully and-equally executed in all parts of the country alike.
I will assume the responsibility fully sensible of the fact that to ad-
minister rightly the functions of government isto discharge the most.
sacred duty that can devolve upon an American citizen.

I am, respectfully yours,
WinFieLp Scorr Hancock.

To the Honorable Joun W. Stevenson, President of the Convention ;
Honorable Joun P. Stock Ton, Chairman, and others of the Com-
mittee of the National Democratic Convention.

LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE FROM MR. ENGLISH.

WHY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY SHOULD GIVE WAY TO THE DEMO-
CRATS.

InDIANAPOLIS, July 30.—Hon. William H. English transmitted the’
following letter of acceptance of his nomination as candidate for Vice-
President to the committee of notification to-day. :

Invranaporis, Ind., July 30, 1880.
To Hon. Joun W. STEVENSON, President of the Convention; Hon.
Jouy P. Stockron, Chairman, and other members of the Commit-
tee of Notification : _ -

GENTLEMEN: I have now the honor to reply to your letter of the
13th instant, informing me that I was unanimously nominated for the
office of Vice-President of the United States by the late Democratic
National Convention which assembled at Cincinnati. As foreshadowed
in the verbal remarks made by me at the time of the delivery of your
letter, I have now to say that I accept the high trust with a realizing
sense of its responsibility, and am profoundly grateful for the honor
conferred. I accept the nomination upon the platform of principles:
892 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

adopted by the Convention; which I cordially. approve, and'I accept it:
quite as much because of my faith in the wisdom and patriotism of the
great statesman and soldier nominated on the same ticket for Presi-
dent of the United States. His eminent services to his country; his
fidelity to the Constitution, the Union and the laws; his clear percep-
tion of the correct principles of government as taught by Jefferson;
his scrupulous care to keep the military in strict subordination to the
civil authorities; his high regard to civil liberty, personal rights and
the right of property; his acknowledged ability in civil as well as mili-
tary affairs and his pure and blameless life all point to him as a man
worthy of the confidence of the people. Not only a brave soldier, a
‘great commander, a wise statesman and a pure patriot, but a prudent,
painstaking, practical man of unquestioned honesty, trusted often with
important public duties, faithful to every trust and in the full meridian
_ of ripe and vigorous manhood, he is, in my judgment, eminently fitted
for the highest office on earth—the Presidency of the United States.

A CHANGE DEMANDED.

_ Not only is he the right man for the place, but the time has come
when the best interests of the country require that the party which has
monopolized the executive department of the General Government for
the last twenty years should be retired. The continuance of that party
.in power four years longer would not be beneficial to the public nor in

accordance with the spirit of the republican institutions, Laws of en-
tail have not been favored in our system of government. The perpetu-
ation of property or place in one family or set of men has never been
encouraged in this country, and the great and good men who formed
our republican government and its traditions wisely limited the tenure
of office and in many ways showed their disapproval of long leases of
‘power. , Twenty years of continuous power is long enough, and has
‘already led to irregularities and corruptions which are not likely to be
properly exposed under the same party that perpetrated them.

FRAUD MUST NOT BE CONDONED.

. Besides it should not be forgotten that the four last years of power
held by that'party were procured by discreditable means and held in
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK: 393

defiance of the wishes of a majority of the people. It was a grievous
wrong to every voter and to our system of self-government which should
never be forgotten or forgiven. Many of the men now in office were
there because of corrupt.partisan services in thus defeating the fairly
and legally expressed will of the majority, and the Hypocrisy of the
professions of that party, in favor of civil service reform, was shown by
placing such men in office and turning the whole brood of Federal
office-holders loose to influence the elections,. The money of the people,
taken out of the public treasury, by these men, for services often poorly
performed, or not performed at all, is being used in vast sums, with the
knowledge and presumed sanction of the administration, to control the
elections ; and even the members of the Cabinet are strolling about the
country, making partisan speeches, instead of being at their departments
at Washington, discharging the public duties for which they are paid by
the people. But with all their cleverness and ability, a discriminating
public will, no doubt, read between the lines of their speeches, that
their paramount hope and aim is to keep themselves, or their satellites,
four years longer in office. That perpetuating the power of chronic
Federal office-holders four years longer will not benefit the millions
of men and women who hold no office, but earn their daily bread by
honest industry, is what the same discerning public will, no doubt, fully
understand, as they will, also, that it is because of their own industry
and economy, and God’s bountiful harvests, that the country is compara-
tively prosperous, and not because of anything done by these Federal
office-holders. The country is comparatively prosperous, not because of
them, but in spite of them.

THE PEOPLE AND THE OFFICE-HOLDERS.

The cittent is, in fact, between the people, endeavoring to regain the

_ political power which rightfully belongs to them, and to restore ,the
pure, simple, economical, constitutional government of our fathers, on

the one side, and a hundred thousand Federal office-holders, and their

backers, pampered with place and power, and determined to retain them

at all hazards, on the other. Hence the constant assumption of new and

dangerous powers, by the general government, under the rule of the
394 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Republican’ Party. The effort to build up what they call a strong
government; the interference with home rule and with the administra-
tion of justice in the courts of the several States; the interference with
the elections through the medium of paid partisan Federal office-holders
interested in keeping their party in power, and caring more for that
than fairness in the elections; in fact, the constant encroachments which
have been made, by that party, upon the clearly reserved rights of the
people, and the States, will, if not checked, subvert the liberties of the
people, and the government of limited powers, created by the fathers,
and end ina great consolidated central government, strong, indeed, for
evil, and the overthrow of republican institutions. The wise men who
framed our Constitution knew the evils of a strong government, and the
long continuance of political power, in the same hands. They knew
there was a tendency, in this direction, in all governments, and conse-
quent danger to republican institutions from that cause, and took pains

to guard against it, The machinery of a strong centralized general

government can be used to perpetuate the same set of men in power,
from term to term until it ceases to be a republic, or is such only in
name; and the tendency of that party, now in power, in that direction,
as shown in various ways besides the willingness recently manifested by
a large number of that party to elect a President an unlimited number
of terms, is quite apparent, and must satisfy thinking people that the
time has come when it will be safest and best for that party to be
retired.
IN FAVOR OF THE CONSTITUTION.

But in resisting the encroachments of the General Government upon
the reserved rights of ‘the people and the States, I wish to be distinctly
understood as favoriug the power exercised by the GeneralyGovernment
of the powers rightfully belonging to it and under the Constitution.
Encroachments upon the constitutional rights of the General Govern-
ment, or interference with the proper exercise of its powers, must be
carfully avoided. The union of the States under the Constitution must
be maintained, and it iswell known that this has always been the position
of both the candidates on the Democratic Presidential ticket. It is
acquiesced in everywhere, now, and finally and forever settled as one of
“WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 895

the results of the war. It is certain beyond all question that the legiti-
mate result of the war for the Union will not be overthrown or impaired.
should the Democratic ticket be elected.

i

WHAT THE DEMOCRATS WILL DO.

In that event proper protection will be given in every legitimate way
to every citizen, native or adopted, in every section of the republic, in
enjoyment ofall the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and its amend-
ments. A sound currency of honest money, of a value and purchasing °
power corresponding substantially with the standard recognized by the
commercial world and consisting of gold and silver and paper, converti-
ble into coin, will be maintained. The labor and manufacturing, com-
mercial and business interests ofthe country will be favored and encour-
aged in every legilimate way. The toiling millions of our people will
be protected from the destructive competition of the Chinese, and to that
end their immigration to our shores will be properly restricted.

~ The public credit will’be scrupulously maintained and strengthened

by rigid economy in public expenditures, and the liberties of the people
and the property of the people will be protected by a government of law
and order, administered strictly in the interests of all the people, and not
of corporations and privileged classes.

I do not doubt the discriminating justice of the people and their capa-
city for intelligent self-government, and therefore do not doubt the suc-
cess of the Democratic ticket. Its success would bury, beyond resur-
rection, the sectional jealousies and hatreds which have so long been the
chief stock in trade of pestiferous demagogues, and in no other way can
this be so effectually accomplished. It would restore harmony and good
feeling between all the sections and make us in fact, as well as in name,
one people. ;

The only rivalry then would-be in the race for the development of
material prosperity, the elevation of labor, the enlargement of human
rights, the promotion of education, morality, religion, ‘liberty, order
and all that would tend to make us the foremost nation of the earth
in the grand march of human progress, ,

I am, with great respect, very truly yours,

64 Witntam Il, Excusn. |
396 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

GENERAL HANCOCK FOUR YEARS AGO, HIS LETTER
TO GENERAL SHERMAN ON THE PRESIDENTIAL
COMPLICATION OF 1876.

There is another American peculiarity which
has had another equally peculiar illustration. Few
of our Presidents, if we believe what was said of
them, during the struggles preceding their admin-
istration, or while acting, wrote their own State.
papers. Washington was accused of submitting
most of his messages for revision, if not entirely,
to the eloquent Hamilton; and although nobody
questioned the ability of John Adams, and Jeffer-
son, and Madison, and Monroe, and John Quincy
Adams, to write their great State papers, yet
hundreds and thousands believe that General Jack-
son wasindebted to Livingston for his immortal
proclamation, that Harrison relied upon Daniel

Webster, that President Taylor spoke his thoughts — *,’,

through the clear mind of John M. Clayton, that
President Pierce was the willing echo of the opin-
ions of W. L. Marcy, his Secretary of State, that
James Buchanan was essentially aided by Lewis
Cass, that General Grant did not refuse the experi-
enced hand of Hamilton Fish, his Secretary of State,
and that Mr, Lincoln was largely guided by William
H.-‘Seward. And now the old practice is renewed,
and we have a charge that General Hancock is so
mere a soldier that he can hardly write a few sen-
tences of consecutive grammar, and that his suc-
xz

WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 897

cessful administration of the 5th Military District —
in 1867 and 1868, composed of the States of Lou-
isiana and Texas, is ascribed to the skill of the law-
yers of New Orleans. His letter of acceptance
printed elsewhere is only saved from the charge of
being the work of some vigorous instrument, by
the Republican verdict that it amounts to nothing!
Yet at this moment comes forth a letter by-Gen-
eral Hancock on the 28th of December, 1876,
covering a discussion on the Presidential imbroglio
.. of that period which dissipates all these assertions,
as the rising sun dissipates the mist of the early
morning. This letter is so genuine upon its face,
so honest and manly, that it seems to be rather the
colloquial communication of an accomplished
scholar and gentleman than a formal document writ-
ten with acold and careful pen. Nothingintheshort
political experience of General Hancock is more
amusing than the transparent attempt to do him
injury by discrediting his mental capacity to dis-
cuss certain government questions. Happily the
people themselves are sufficiently sensible and sa-
-gacious not to penetrate the motive for these con-
certed efforts to do injustice to a gallant soldier
and accomplished gentleman. At last it appears.
that failing in every effort to disparage his character
and to underrate his capacities, they now take
refuge in surprise at the ability of his spontaneous
letter to General Sherman in reference to the Presi-
dential complication four years ago, when he had
398 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

no selfish motive to speak an untruth, and no aspi-
ration beyond a sincere desire to do his duty to his
superior and to be faithfulto his oath under the
constitution. As a proper appendant to the two
letters of acceptance, the full text of General Han-
cock to General Sherman in regard to the threat-
ened difficulties after the Presidential election ot
November, 1876, is now printed. The party
papers eager to discover something to the injury
of General Hancock, deliberately invented the ac-
cusation that he intended to support Mr. Tilden’s
claim to the Presidency if Tilden attempted to
take the oath of office at Washington, on the 4th
of March, 1877. It was also charged that he had
written a letter to General W. T. Sherman, com-
‘manding the Army of the United States, to this ef-
fect. Hearing of these allegations General Han-
cock declared that anything he had ever written to
General Sherman might be given to the public.
Since then both parties have consented that his-
letters shall be made public, and the New York
World laid them before its readers, on Sunday, Au-
gust, lst, 1880. In reply toa reporter of the New
York Herald, General Hancock thus frankly ex-
plains his relation to the whole affair :

HANCOCK’S REVERENCE OF CIVIL LAW.

“T hardly remembered writing the letter,” he said, “until I saw a
‘reference to it in some of the newspapers. When I wrote it I had no
idea that it would ever be published. I was in a Western town on pri-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. “399

vate business, with no secretary or member of my staff with me. I
wrote it frankly and with no constraint,”

“ And stick by what you wrote? ”

“T never wrote anything I am afraid of having known and that I
would not stick to.”

“ And you desire this letter to be published ?”

“Tonly waited for the consent of General Sherman, and that having
been given there is no obstacle against its publication.”

Following is the full text of the letter:

CanonvDEter P. O., St. Lovrs, December 28, 1876.

My Dear Grnerau:—Your favor of the 4th inst. reached me in
New York on the 5th, the day before I left for the West. I intended
to reply to it before leaving, but cares incident to my departure inter-
fered. Then again, since my arrival here I have been so occupied. with
personal affairs of a business nature that I have deferred writing from day
to day until this moment, and now I find myself in debt to you another
letter in acknowledgment of your favor of the 17th, received a few days
since. I have concluded to leave here on the 29th, (to-morrow) after-
noon, so that I may be expected in New York on the 31st inst. It has
been cold and dreary since my arrival here. I have worked “like a
Turk,” (I presume that means hard work), in the country in making
fences, cutting down trees, repairing buildings, etc., ete, and am at
least able to say that St. Louis is the coldest placein the winter as it
is the hottest in summer of any that I have encountered in a tem-
perate zone. I have known St. Louis in December to have genial
weather throughout the month; this December has been frigid, and
the river has been frozen more solid than I have ever known it,

.When I heard the rumor that I was ordered to the Pacific coast I
thought it probably true, considering the past discussion on the subject.
The possibilities seemed to me to point that way. Had it been true, I
should, of course, have presented no complaint nor made resistance of
any kind. I would have gone quietly, if not prepared to go promptly.
I certainly would have been relieved from the responsibilities and anxie-
ties concerning Presidential matters, which may fall to those near the
400 ~—Ss« LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

throne or in‘authority within the next four months, as well as from other
incidents or matters which I could not control and the action concern-
ing which I might not approve. I was not exactly prepared to go to
‘the Pacific, however, and I therefore felt relieved when I received your
note informing me that there was no truth in the rumors, Then I did
not wish to appear to be escaping from responsibilities and possible dan-
gers which may cluster around military commanders in the East, espe-
cially in the critical period fast approaching. ‘‘All’s well that ends
well.”
The whole matter of the Presidency seems to me to be simple and to
admit of a peaceful solution. The machinery for stich a contingency
as threatens to ‘present itself has been all carefully prepared. It only
‘requires lubrication, owing to disuse. The army should have nothing
to do with the election or inauguration of Presidents. The people elect
the President. The Congress declares in ajoint session who he is, We of
the army have only to obey his mandates, and are protected in so doing
only so far as they may be lawful. Our commissions express that. I
like Jefferson’s way of inauguration ; it suits oursystem. He rode alone
on horseback to the Capitol (I fear it was the “Old Capitol”) tied his
‘horse to'a rail fence, entered and was duly sworn; then rode to the
Executive Mansion and took possession. He inangurated himself
simply by taking the oath of office. There is no other legal inaugura-
tion in our system. The people or politicians may institute parades in
‘honor of the event and public officials may add to the pageant by as-
sembling troops and banners, but all that only comes properly after the
inauguration—not before, and it is not a part of it. Our system does
not provide that one President should inaugurate another. There
might be danger in that, and it was studiously left out of the charter.
But you are placed in an exceptionally important position in connec-
tion with coming events. The Capitol ismy jurisdiction also, but I
am 4, subordinate and not on the spot, and if I were, so also would be
my superior in authority, for there is the station of the General-in-
Chief. On the principle that a regularly-elected President’s term of
office expires with the 3d of March (of which I have not the slightest
doubt) and which the laws bearing on the subject uniformly recognize,
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 401

-and in consideration of the possibility that the lawfully-elected’ Presi-
dent. may not appear until the 5th of March, a great deal of ‘responsi-
bility may necessarily fall upon you. You hold over. You will have
power and prestige to support you. The Secretary.of War, too, proba-
bly holds over; but if no President appears he may not be able to exer-
cise functions in the name of a President, for his proper acts are those of

-aknown superior—a lawful President.

‘You act on your own responsibility and by virtue of a commission
only restricted by the law. The Secretary of War is the mouthpiece of .
a President. You are not. If neither candidate has a constitutional
majority of the Electoral College, or the Senate and House on the oc-
casion of the count do not unite in declaring some person legally elected
by the people, there is a lawful machinery already provided to meet
that contingency and decide the question peacefully. It has not been
recently used, no occasion presenting itself, but our forefathers provided
it. It has been exercised and has been recognized and submitted to as
lawful on every hand.

That machinery would probably elect Mr. Tilden President and Mr.
Wheeler Vice-President. That would be right enough, for the law
“provides that in a failure to elect duly by the people the House shall
immediately elect the President and the Senate the Vice-President.
Some tribunal must decide whether the people have duly elected a Pre-
sident. I presume, of course, that it is in the joint affirmative action
of the Senate and House, or why are they present to witness the count
if not to see that it is fair and just? Ifa failure to agree arises between .
the two bodies there can be no lawful affirmative decision that the peo-
ple have elected a President, and the House must then proceed to act,
not the Senate. The Senate elects Vice-Presidents, not Presidents,
Doubtless, in case of a failure of the house to elect a President by the
4th of March, the President of the Senate (if there be one) would be the
legitimate person to exercise Presidential authority for the time being,
until the appearance of a lawful President, or for the time laid down
in the Constitution. Such courses would be peaceful and, I have a
firm belief, lawful.

I have no doubt Governor Hayes would make an excellent President.
402 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Thave met him, and know of him. .For a brief period he served under
my command; but as the matter stands, I can’t see any likelihood of
liis being duly declared elected by the people unless the Senate and
House come to be in accord as to that fact, and the House, of course,
would not otherwise elect him. What the people want is a peaceful
determination of this matter, as fair a determination as possible and a
Jawful one. No other determination could stand the test. The coun
try, if not plunged into revolution, would become poorer day by day,
business would languish, and our bonds would come home to finda
depreciated market. :

, I was not in favor of the military action in South Carolina recently;
and if General Ruger had telegraphed to me, or asked for advice,
I would have advised him not under any circumstances to allow himself
or his troops to determine who were the lawful members of a State
Legislature. I could not have given him better advice than to refer
him to the special message of the President in the case of Louisiana
some time before. ‘ But in South Carolina he had the question settled
by a decision of the Supreme Court of the State—the highest tribunal
which had acted on the question—so that his line of duty seemed even
to be clearer than in the action in the Louisiana case. If the Federal
Court had interfered and overruled the decision of the State Court,
there might have been a doubt certainly; but the Federal Court only
interfered to complicate, not to decide or overrule.

_ Anyhow, it is no business of the army to enter upon such questions;
and even if it might be so, in any event, if the civil authority is su-
preme, as the Constitution declares it to be, the South Carolina case was
one in which the army had a plain duty. Had General Ruger asked
me for advice, and if I had given it, I should, of course, have notified
you of my action immediately, so that it could have been promptly
overruled if it should have been deemed advisable by you or other
superior in authority. General Ruger did not ask for my advice, and
I inferred from that and other facts that he did not desire it, or,
being in direct communication with my military superiors at the seat
of government—who were nearer to him in time and distance than I
was—he deemed it unnecessary. As General Ruger had the ultimate
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOOK. 403

4

responsibility of action, and had really the greater danger to confront’in
the final action in the matter, I did not venture to embarrass him by
suggestions. He was a department commander and the lawful: head of
the military administration within the limits of the department; be-
sides, I knew that he had been called to Washington for consultation ,
before taking command, and was probably aware of the views of the
administration as to civil affairs in hiscommand. I knew that he
was in direct communication with my superiors’in authority in refer-
ence to the delicate subjects presented for his ‘consideration, or had ideas
of his own which he believed to be sufficiently in accord with the views
of our common superiors to enable him to act intelligently according
to his judgment and without suggestions from those not on the spot and
not as fully acquainted with the facts as himself. He desired, too, to
be free to act, as he had the eventual greater responsibility, and so the
matter was governed as between him and myself.

As I have been writing thus freely to you, I may still‘further
unbosom myself by stating that I have not thought it lawful or wise to
use Federal troops in such matters as have transpired east of the Missis-
sippi within the last few months, save so’ far as they may be brought
into action under the article of the Constitution which contemplates
meeting armed resistance or invasion of a State more powerful than the
State authorities can subdue by the ordinary processes, and then, only
when requested by the legislature, or, if it could not be convened in
season, by the governor; and when the president of the United States
intervenes in that manner it is a state of war—not peace. The army is
laboring under disadvantages, and has heen used unlawfully, at times,
inthe judgment of the people (in mine certainly), and we have lost a
great deal of the kindly feeling which the community at large once felt
for us.

It is time to stop and unload. Officers in command of troops often

- find it difficult to act wisely and safely when superiors, in authority,

have different views of the law from theirs, and when legislation has
sanctioned action seemingly in conflict with the fundamental law, and
they generally defer to the known judgment of their superiors. Yet the
superior officers of the army are so regarded in such great crises, and
404 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

are held to such responsibility, especially those near the head of
it, that it is necessary, on such momentous occasions, to dare to deter-
mine for themselves what is lawful, and whatis not lawful, under our
system if the military authorities should be invoked, as might possibly be
the casein such exceptional times and when:there existed such divergent
views as to the correct result, the army will suffer from its past action if
it has acted wrongfully. Our regular army has little hold upon the
affections of the people of to-day, and its superior officers should
certainly, as far as lies in their power, legally, and with righteous
intent, aim to defend the right, to us is the law and the institu-
tion they represent. It is a well-meaning institution, and it would
be well if it should have an opportunity to be recognized as a bulwark
in support of the rights of the people, and the Law.
I am truly yours,
Winrreip 8. Hancock.

To GrenrraL W. T. SHErman, Commanding Army of the United
States, Washington, D. C.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 405

CHAPTER XIII.

THE LIVING STATESMEN OF THE PAST.

HERE is nothing more depressing to the patri-
otic philosopher than the fact that a candidate,
like General Garfield, all the defects of whose
record are charged upon him by his own politi-
cal friends, should be so strenuously sustained by
the leaders of the Republican party, and at the
same time that these leaders should refuse to do
justice to the admitted excellencies of General.
Hancock, the Democratic candidate for President.
Dwelling upon this painful spectacle, the com-
parison between the old political leaders still left
upon the stage, and the new men who have taken
command of the administration party of the
country, becomes equally natural and necessary.
Before the civil war, long before the slavery
agitation cast its dark shadow upon our national
councils, the public men of the United States of
both parties were engaged in the work of true
statesmanship, and the old Whigs and Democrsts
of both sections mingled together, differing about
evanescent issues, but sincerely desirous to promote
2

406 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER-OF

national concord and prosperity. Now the states-
men of the South of both the old schools, Whigs
and Democrats, so far as the present Republican
party can do it, are pushed into insignificance.
Treated as aliens, and not only as aliens, but dis-
trusted by the present controllers of what ‘is
called the Republican party, in vain have the best
men of the South been forgiven by Mr. Lincoln
and Mr. Sumner. They are still misrepresented and
hated by Mr. Garfield and his sponsors. In vain
has the Constitution of the United States restored
them to their rights, even including Jefferson Davis,
the head of the Confederacy. The fact is patent
that so far as the Republican party is concerned,
no Southern statesman is welcome in the North.
None of his views are respected by the modern
leaders of that party, and the masses of the people
are allowed to derive no benefit from the wisdom
of Southern statesmen.

Twenty-five years ago there was nota Southern
State in which we could not find honest, able, and
patriotic men, anxious for the welfare of the whole
Union. They, or men like them, are still living, anx-
ious to show their pride of country, and warmly at-
tached to the Northern people in the great interests
of life. Hundreds of them are connected by mar-
riage in the North, and yet so far as the leaders of
the party now asking the votes of the North alone,
because they have almost abandoned any appeal to
the South, are concerned, these disinterested and
‘WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 407

‘most influential elements of Southern society and
culture, are no more considered or respected than if
they occupied a foreign territory. Who does not re-
call the days when Robert C. Winthrop of Boston
was glad to take by the hand A. H. H. Stuart of
Virginia? when Daniel §. Dickinson of New York,
was proud to be the associate of Thomas H. Ben-
ton of Missouri? when John Sargent of Pennsyl-
vania was glad to be regarded as the follower of his
great friend, Henry Clay of Kentucky; and when
the Democrats pointed with pleasure to George M.
Dallas in the North, and the Whigs to Sargent
Prentiss in the South, when John J. Crittenden
of Kentucky, and Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois,
even if they disagreed in politics, were personal
friends; but now, under the leaders of the Re-
publican party, the beginning and end of every
speech, like the beginning and end of every Re-
‘publican editorial, is to repudiate Southern associ-
ations and to reject Southern counsel.
The question now arises whether this condition
of things meets the approval of the merchants, the
producers and mechanics of the North and the
West, whether men of business are content to let
this system of ostracism under the present Repub-
lican leaders go on? That, after all, is the great
and substantial question, and it is precisely that
question which enters so largely into the solid
North. The party has become the Northern
Republican ring machine. There is nothing. |
408 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

left to-day for the Republican party, as at pre-
sent managed, but to assail the South. That
is the burden of every Republican editorial
and every Republican speech in Maine, in New
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and in the Pa-
_ cific States. Now if this country of ours is to be
perpetually administered by the men who have
General Garfield in charge, and if the South is to
be held up as a constant bugbear, and the North in
turn held: up to the South as a constant tyrant,
what becomes of the pardon of Mr. Lincoln?
What becomes of the guarantee of your laws?
What becomes of the covenant of your constitu-
tion? The answer to these questions must be
made by the non-partisan people, and not by those
who for the time being hold the offices of the Gen-
eral Government, and are simply trying to defeat
General Hancock that they may continue to hold
these offices, .
What merchant in New York or Philadelphia

does not desire to join hands with the merchant in" ”

New Orleans and Charleston? What distinguished

lawyer in the North is not eager once more to

enter into social and professional relations with the
distinguished lawyers of: the South? Other

national conventions, whether: religious, scientific,

legal, railroad, manufacturing and otherwise, come

together like combinations of brothers and friends.
But when the Democratic party, itself, takes the

‘initiative and presents a candidate for the Presi-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 409

dency, who, according to the Republican 1eaders
and newspapers themselves can never be repaid
for his services to the cause of the country, in
other words can never be repaid for having aided
to crush the rebellion, then and then alone, a
~ party Convention at Chicago professing to represent
the Republican party of the United States declares
“hands off” to that manly proposition for peace.

How different from the example of the great men
who seemed to have passed out of existence with
Abraham Lincoln, Charles Sumner, William H.
Seward, and the rest. We hear now of no proffers
of kindness and conciliation ‘from the leaders of the
Republican party, except from General Grant, and '
they defeated him at Chicago. Now to demand
conciliation, and -peace, forgiveness for the South,
on the part of the Republican party is a crime, an
unpardonable offence to be punished by expulsion
and by personal abuse of all men having the
courage to take such a stand.

The more this extraordinary condition of affairs
is presented to the common mind in the North, the
more certain will be the indignant repudiation of
those who make the ostracism. The day will come
and come soon, not only when the people of the
North and South will vote together, as they did
in former times, but that the leaders will take
counsel with each other and a true national sen-
timent be established and fortified under the influ-
ence of the best culture of all sections.
410 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

GENERAL GARFIELD’S PRIVATE CHARACTER.

In such a volume as this, when so many illogi-
cal advantages are assumed by the friends of
General Garfield, and when the stupendous attempt
is again made to revive the cruel animosities that
so long delayed practical reconstruction, when in-
deed nothing is so favorite a weapon in the hands
of the official partisans who seem to have General
Garfield’s interest most in charge, as the monstrous
assumption that a large section of this Union still
stands in a rebellious attitude, is still only worthy
of gyves and fetters, the strongest system of per-
sonal retaliation upon the private character of
the Democratic candidate for President might be
justified. If General Hancock were placed in
‘Mr. Garfield’s position, the whole republican press
would ring with comments upon the established
_ truth of his want of personal integrity. Nothing
but the fact that General Hancock stands beyond
reproach, nothing but the fact that his character is
too high and too pure to be even tarnished by the
breath of suspicion, prevents the most reckless ap-
peals and the most unbridled calumny.

So far as General Garfield is concerned, what-
ever bad record presents him to this great constitu-
ency, has been made up by his own party. There
has been no intimation against his character from
a Democratic source. Every allegation that ques-
tions his personal honesty or his official integrity,
comes from the Republican party, from the Repub-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCR: 411

lican press, from his own Republican constituents,
from the Republican courts of justice, from the
Republican committees of investigation, and from
the summaries made against him by Republican
statesmen.. Having been made up by such authori-
ties, I leave them to be: digested and disposed of
by the party among whom they originated, and by
the great grand jury of the American people in
November next.

HANCOCK AS A CIVIL MAGISTRATE.

When General Hancock was sent by President
Johnson to take command of the Fifth Military
Division, composed of the States of Louisiana and
Texas, in 1867, it was in the midst of the conflict
between the Executive, Congress, General Grant,
and the Republican party. The carpet-bag rule
had reached its worst point in North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Louisiana. President John-
son, Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, Mr. Welles,
Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Alexander W. Ran-
dall, Postmaster General, Mr. Browning, Secretary
of the Interior, and Mr. McCullough, Secretary of
the Treasury, were frequently in conflict with the
Republican leaders, and necessarily frequently in
concert with the Democratic leaders, and when the
President, to use the phrase of the day, “swung
around the circle,” it was amusing to see how the
office-holders and party parasites followed the Pres-

idential cortege. General Grant himself, with his
25 :
412. LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

J ‘
natural avoidance of politics, and his strong attach-
ment to his Republican friends, could not decline
the invitation to become a figure.in the Presiden-
tial tournament, and. he well remembers the
political harangues which generally punctuated

the progress of the Executive as he passed through
the great cities.

_.The policy of reconstruction, as advocated by

Andrew Johnson and supported by. the Democratic __

leaders, the determination of Mr: Johnson to re-
move Secretary Stanton from the war department,
the failure of the attempt to impeach Johnson. be-
fore the Senate of the United States, the issue of
veracity between General Grant and the President,
the certificates of the members of the cabinet sus-
taining Mr. Johnson and the reply of the Lieuten-
ant General, how speedily they succeeded each.
other and how soon they were forgotten! Now,
as I write when President Johnson is dead,
Mr. Seward is dead, and Thaddeus Stevens is:
dead, and Charles Sumner, and Postmaster-General
Randall, the excitement over all these questions
is as dead as these parties to them, we only:
remember Andrew Johnson to admit his personal
integrity and to deplore his personal enmities, and’
if we recall Mr. Seward, as we do, it is to admire.
his marvellous toleration precisely as we admire
the grim wit and noble traits of Thaddeus Stevens
of Pennsylvania.

It was about this time that. an een was
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 418.

made to quote General Grant in favor of President
Johnson’s policy,of reconstruction, and this at-
tempt induced the Lieutenant General to write.
_to the gentleman who made the attempt as
follows :

oy HEApQuARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,
“ Washington, D. C., September 15, 1866.
“T see from the papers that you have been making a speech, in which
you pledge me to a political party. I-am in receipt of a letter from
General Gresham of Indiana, in which he says that his opponent for
Congress had published an extract from a letter.received from'you, in
which you pledge me to the support of President Johnson, and opposed
to the election of any candidate who does not support his policy. You,
nor no man living is authorized to speak for me in political matters,
and I ask you to desist in the future, I want every man to vote according
to his own judgment without influence from me.
3 “Yours, &c. U.S. Grant.
‘To Brevet Brigadier-General W. 8. Hillyer, New York.”

This forgotten letter will excite a smile at the.
present time in view of the efforts making by the
politicians to induce General Grant to persuade
the Union soldiers of the country to vote against
General Winfield S. Hancock for President of the
United States. But in 1867 President Johnson:
determined to make a change in the military com-
manders of the five Southern Districts, and he was
particularly anxious to remove Major General
Philip H. Sheridan from. the Fifth District com-
posed of Louisiana and Texas, and accordingly is-
sued an order putting. General Hancock in com-
414. LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

mand of the Fifth District in place of General
Sheridan. It is unnecessary to renew the differ-
ence bétween General Grant and General Hancock,
relating as it did to affairs, no doubt long since
forgotten by General Grant, who, as I have said,
had considerable difficulty in his intercourse with
President Johnson. The real value that now at-
taches to General Hancock’s administration of the
Fifth Military District composed of the States of
Louisiana and Texas, is the great ability he dis-
played in the management of certain domestic
political questions coming within his jurisdiction
as chief of that department.. The compliments
paid to General Hancock since his nomination at
Cincinnati by both Grant and Sheridan show that
their admiration of a great soldier and a great man
is still as strong as that of General Sherman, the
General-in-Chief.
Here again time has done its wholesome work.
And I feel free to say that there is not a position
taken by General Hancock while in command ot
this same Fifth Military District, examined in the |
light of experience and subsequent events, that
will not to-day meet the approval of every intelli-
gent man in the United States. So rapidly has
the South rehabilitated itself, so successful have
the doctrines herein asserted by General Hancock
vindicated themselves, and so entirely have the.
political parties everywhere yielded to the logic of
events, that no man can read what General Han-

.
.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 415

cock wrote in 1868 without coming to the conclusion
that what he said and what he wrote then he can
proudly reaffirm and stand by to the end of his
life. There are certain co-relative facts which
command and demand recognition: Whites and
blacks everywhere in the Southern country, since
‘they have been rescued from the dangers and de-
moralization of the carpet-bagrule, have in possession
of their own franchises, fallen back upon the great
principle which, after all, must control in every
community —superior intelligence will master
natural inferiority—and while universal suffrage
wasas logical and as necessary, as universal amnesty
was religiously right, there is not an intelligent
colored man in the United States to-day that will
not admit that the class of ignorant blacks can no
more rule the destinies of the-South than a similar
class of ignorant whites can rule the destinies of
the North.

A fact like this, stubborn and conclusive as it is,
is too. constantly illustrated to need argument or
explanation. And hence, when General Hancock
was transferred to the Department of Louisiana
and Texas, he had no more to do than to obey the
orders of the Executive; than General Grant him-
self had to do when he accepted the invitation of
the President to become one of his party as
he swung around the circle in company with Mr.
Seward in his celebrated tour of 1863.. The two
cases are precisely alike, only it might have been
416 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

more agreeable to Gen. Hancock to obey the orders
of the Chief Magistrate of the United States than it
was to Gen. Grant, but the fact of obedience to their
constitutional chief was alike binding upon both.

ry
GENERAL HANCOCK AT WASHINGTON IN 1867.

Nothing in the career of General Hancock was
more interesting than his occasional residence in
the various towns and cities of the United States,
North and South. He seems to be remembered

‘favorably in all of them, and his universal
comradeship with the men, and his graceful associ-

ations with the ladies, were wonderfully emphasized _

by his experience in the war with Mexico, and his
conflict with the Confederates. This double con-
stituency lasted from 1844, when he passed out of
the Military Academy, until 1880, a long stretch
of time—even 36 years. In that interval he has
met with all phases of life, and is remembered by
constituencies as varied as the latitudes and races.
At fifty-seven years of age, Winfield S. Hancock is
still a young man, unspoiled by office, unpledged to
politicians, unembarrassed by pecuniary obligations,
and singularly independent and free to follow his
own course. A little scene that took place in
Washington City, September 24, 1867, just before
General Hancock was ordered off to New Orleans
to take command of the 5th ey District, de-
serves to be recalled.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 4] ?

_ An immense audience was assembled, and Gen. Hancock was intro-
duced by Hon. Amasa Cobb, of Wisconsin, then a republican niember
of Congress, and now a republican ‘judge of the Supreme Court of Ne-
braska. Gen. Cobb said:

“To me has been entrusted the pleasure and duty of appearing before
you in the capacity of an old friend and comrade of the distinguished

" General now before you, to introduce him to you on this occasion. Six
years ago I had the honor to be in command of a volunteer regiment in
the Army of the Potomac, and with three other regiments had the good
fortune to be placed under the command of the then newly appointed
Brigadier General Hancock. During the long and tedious winter of
1861 and 1862, we did duty in front of this capital, devoting the days to
discipline and the nights to watching and picket. We were volunteers.
The General was a regular army officer. All of you who passed through
similar experience will bear me witness that volunteers felt the rigors of
discipline when placed under such disciplinarians as that army was
commanded by, and its discipline and after efficiency was owing chiefly,
if not wholly, to this fact. The winter passed away, and the army
finally moyed, and in the course of the war they weré brought in front
of the enemy. Gen. Hancock’s first brigade succeeded in turning the
enemy’s left at Williamsburg, and afterwards he prevented the victori-
ous enemy from driving the lines of M’Clellan from the Chickahominy,
and later on it came up to save the day at Antietam, and now I esteem
it a great honor bestowed upon me and my old regiment to have the
opportunity of standing here by that great General's side, bearing testi-
mony to his kindness of heart, his gallantly as a soldier, and his true-
ness as 2 man.”

The speaker here turned to General Hancock
and said :—

“ Allow me to say that to your few field of duty the hearts of our old
brigade go with you, knowing that'wherever you may go the country
will have a brave and efficient.soldier, and that flag a gallant defender.”

Gen. Hancock was received with much applause,
and replied as follows:— fe :
418 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

“Crrizens oF WASHINGTON :—I thank you for this testimony of
your confidence in my ability to perform my duty in » new and differ-
ent sphere. Educated as a soldier in the military school of our country
and on the field of the Mexican War and the American Rebellion, I
need not assure you that my course as a district commander will be
characterized by the same strict soldierly obedience to the law there
taught me as a soldier. I know no other guide or higher duty. Mis-
representation and misconstruction arising from the passions of the hour,
and spread by those who do not know that devotion to duty has gov-
erned my actions in every. trying hour, may meet me, but I fear them
not. My highest desire will be to perform the duties of my new sphere,
not in the interest of parties or partisans, but for the benefit of my
country, the honor of my profession, and I trust also for the welfare of
the people committed to my care. I ask, then, citizens, that time may
be permitted to develop my actions. Judge me by the deeds. I may
perform, and conscious of my devotion to duty and my country, I shall
be satisfied with your verdict, and if a generous country shall approve
my actions in the future as it has in the past, my highest ambition will
have been achieved. As a soldier I am toadminister duties rather than
discuss them. If I can administer them to the satisfaction of the coun-
try, I shall indeed be happy in the consciousness of a duty performed.
Tam about to leave your city, the capital of our country—bearing the
proud name of Washington. As an American citizen, the rapid devel-
opment and increase of its wealth, beauty and prosperity, is a matter
in which I am deeply interested. But far beyond this, citizens of Wash-
ington, I rejoice with you that in the trying hour of the rebellion the
capital of the nation contributed as fully as any State in the Union to
the brave volunteer army which has demonstrated to the world the
strength and invincibility of a Republican form of government. I shall
carry with me the recollections of this occasion, and when I return may
I not hope that none who are here will regret their participation in the
honor you have done me to-night?”

HANCOCK AT ANTIETAM.

An old friend, living at Fort Wayne, Indiana,
who fought with Hancock at Antietam, and feels
a deep interest in his election to the Presidency,
sends me his experience in that decisive battle, in
the columns of the Sentinel of that city:
‘AVLAILLNY SO 0713isd-3 ILLVg

 
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. — 421

[From the Fort Wayne, Indiana, Sentinel.]

‘In a former communication I gave you Hancock at Fredericksburg
as he appeared to me. I will now attempt to write of him as he was at
Antietam. ; ar

The Antietam Creek runs about due south, and empties into the Po-
tomac River some eight miles above Harper’s Ferry. On the 16th of
September, 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee, in command of the Confederate
army, chose for his position of battle the irregular right-angle triangle,
which made the Potomac his,rear and the creek his front; his right
resting on the creek near the river, commanded by Gen. Longstreet, the
centre by Gen. Hill, and the left by Gen. Hood.

At about noon a heavy rebel column was formed for the purpose of
capturing battery A, 4th United States artillery, which had been doing
terrible execution in the Confederateranks. Gen. Hancock was ordered
up to support the battery and drive the enemy back, which he did by
rushing upon the Confederate advance with intrepid energy and with a
violence which was irresistible, and by a series of gallant charges; made
in the face of a most destructive Confederate fire, he drove them across
the open field and beyond the Dunker church, compelling them to seek
shelter under cover of the woods. At this moment, while directing one
of our batteries, the brave Gen. Richardson was killed by a cannon ball.
Gen. Hancock immediately took command of his division. The strug-
gle was now desperate on both sides, and each entertained no desire for
quarter, no wish to save or besaved. The enemy’s lines were re-formed
and drove Gen. Hooker’s entire right wing back across the open ground.
At short fange and in the open field with a spirit of desperation both
armies plied their deadly work, and in his extremity Hooker called on
Hancock to save his right flank. Gen. Hancock responded at the
double quick, and in pushing his way across the open ground was pun-
ished terribly. The opressing forces here were literally torn to pieces.

General Hancock, nothing daunted by his dreadful losses, was de
termined to hold his ground, and advancing to the front recklessly ex-
posed his person to the enemy’s bullets, which fell in showers around
him. Regardless of danger he carefully examined the ground in his
front, and finding a favorable site for a battery, he ordered forward our
422 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

regiment to take, and hold that spot, until he could, brig up the artil-
lery. Hancock had now pressed the Confederates back, and was holding
the ground around and beyond the Dunker church, but at this time Gen.
Lee forwarded two fresh divisions to his left, and with this re-inforce-
ment the Confederates again advanced, driving General Hancock back
some distance. Here the -fight was a perfect pandemonium, the sharp
rattle of musketry, the heavy booming of cannon, the earth fairly shak-
ing under the tread of two desperate armies, which crossed and recrossed
that blood-stained field five separate, times, The situation in which
Hancock was placed was exceedingly critical, and Gen, Franklin was
promptly ordered to his assistance. He hastened forward and Hancock,
again gave the order for an advance. In ‘the meantime Hancock had’
brought up all of his artillery, and concentrating his batteries he opened
a murderous fire upon the enemy’s lines,

He then fell heavily on Gen. Iiill’s extreme right, and firing him.
back, compelled Hill to call for more reinforcements. For two hours
the battle now raged. The rebels being again reinforced, a column
was formed, under cover of the woods, to capture Hancock’s batteries,
which were doing terrible destruction to the rebel lines. The column
started at arun to cross the open space and charge the guns, but the
heavy fire of the artillery, and the cool, steady volleys of our infantry
sent them reeling back to shelter, and covered the ground with their
dead and wounded. It was now Hancock’s time to charge, and with
the brigades of Gens. French, Meagher and Morris, he at their head,
raising himself in his saddle, swinging his sword high in air, he rushed
like an avalanche upon the retreating foe, driving them more than half
amile, Again and again did Gen. Hill attempt to recover his lost
ground, but in vain. Hancock had pushed the rebels to and. through
Sharpsburg, which he held as night spread her mantle of darkness over
the field of. death and put an end to one of the most sanguinary battles
the world has ever seen. Gen. Hooker now came-to inquire of Han-
cock whether he could hold his ground on the morrow. Hancock re-
plied, that “ with the help of God and cold iron he could hold it for a,
week.” On that small piece of ground, between Antietam and the
-Potomac, night found more ihan twenty thousand men dead or wound-
' WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. ' 423

ed, but Gen. Hancock master-of the situation on the right and-in pos-
session of the field. J. W. Y.

A FALSE MAGNANIMITY,

There is nothing in modern life so shame-
less as the false magnanimity of the ring managers
of the Republican party. They boast of their
forgiveness of the South; when they had nothing
to do with it but to object to it; and now that
they take credit for it, they insolently attempt to
fetter it with new conditions, They rally half a
million office-holders and office-seekers to a new”
' war upon the South, and try to cheat the South
out of the pardon offered by the laws and sancti-
fied by the Constitution, by declaring that the
people of the forgiven Sections must be disfran-
chised at the polls because they are still disloyal.

This is to turn pardon into persecution. Now
‘the glory of our country is that when we closed
‘the war we made the Southern people our full
‘equals by taking them back to our hearts’ and
homes. But now the ring Republicans, under
Garfield, are doing their wicked best to undo all the
clemency of the founders of the Republican party,
‘by showing that this clemency was only intended
as another slavery. Icall this a false magnanimity.
A better word would be to call it a bold malignity.
And the worst of it is, that in this bad work men
-are ready to take part, who, under other circum-
stances, would shrink from such a code of morals
424 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

as a complete abandonment of ordinary truth and
personal honor,

ROSECRANS ON HANCOCK.

No word has been spoken of Hancock by the
great soldiers of the Union but praise. He re.
ceived the highest honors from Lincoln and Meade
before they died; and from the living Grant, Sher-
man, Sheridan, McClellan, Baldy Smith, Franklin,
Walker (Superintendent of the Census), Phelps of
Vermont, Slocum, Dunn (Adjutant General),

. Stedman, Fitz John Porter, Irwin, Coulter, Mul-

holland,—from all these the commendation is of
the highest. The gallant William Starke Rose-
crans spoke of him at San Francisco, at a great
meeting, as follows:

At a great Democratic ratification meeting in San Francisco, June 25,
General Rosecrans, as Chairman, being introduced, said: “ Fellow-
citizens, to preside over an assemblage such as this, composed of men dis-
tinguished in all the professions, in commerce, in trade, in the arts—
men with patriotism and intelligence, whose purpose in meeting here is
so well understood, is certainly a very great honor, but superadded to
that honor is also the fact that they assembled here to perform a very
great and very solemn duty. They are to give the voice of this great
State and express the judgment on behalf of a very vast number of their
fellow-citizens upon the selections made in Cincinnati for the candidates
for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency to be voted for by the Demo-
cratic people. That adds to the interest, but neither of these would
suffice to have induced me to appear in public—not that I lack interest
in the Democracy. Few have made more sacrifices for those principles
than I have from the beginning of the war until this day. [Cheers.]
Nor would I have been here under any ordinary circumstances, al-
 

 

 

SSSA VIVID TEE TOIT SIT TE OT aa bod wut

ATED.
=

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wre

 

 

 

 

 

GEN. HANCOCK IN HIS PRIVATE OFFICE N. Y.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 427

though as a citizen of this republic nothing that concerns its fature is

. indifferent to me; but till now I have not seen a time when it appeared.

to me a great and solemn duty to stand out in favor of actual Demo-
cratic work. The Democratic convention at Cincinnati has proposed a
candidate for President of the United States, to whom, when a young
man, I taught civil and military engineering, and know him very well.
He is a clean man—[loud cheers]—a gallant and prudent commander,
and a brave and chivalrous officer. I think the nomination promises to
do things for the future which ought to make every patriotic man’s
heart leap for joy.’ [Loud cheers. ]

GENERAL HANCOCK RECEIVING THE NEWS OF HIS
NOMINATION.

I was looking out of my bay window, corner of
Seventh and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, on a
bright Saturday morning, June 19th, when a band
of music, sounding from the east, attracted my at-

' tention, and in a fewimoments the Americus Club,

a leading Democratic organization in that city, ap
peared on the sidewalk, and at the head of it my
old friend, Daniel Dougherty, Esq.

The beautiful day, the stalwart men, the cheer-
ing music; the shouting crowds, added somewhat
to my surprise, as it did to the evident satisfaction
of Dougherty, who kissed his hand as he passed on
his way to the Democratic National Convention at
Cincinnati, where, as I have elsewhere written, he
made for himself new fame by his great speech in
favor of Hancock.

I did not conceal my admiration for Mr.
Dougherty’s course, nor did I hesitate to express
428 - LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

the hope that General Hancock might be made the
standard-bearer of my old party for President of
the United States.

General Garfield was a relief from the crowd of
men who had hounded General Grant at Chicago.
I spoke of him as I felt in that spirit, until I saw
the blasting record as it was revealed. by his own
friends, most of which, up to that time, almost
entirely unknown tome...

On the 23d of June, 1880, General Hancock
was nominated at Cincinnati, and I can well
imagine his own emotions when the congratula-
tions upon that event were sent to him at Gover-
nor’s Island, excited by the unanimity with which’
his nomination was crowned, and glorified by the
splendors of the rhetoric of Dougherty and Daniel.

I sent the following congratulatory dispatch to
Mr.. Dougherty before General Hancock’s nomina-
tion,

PuILADELPHIA, Pa, June 24th.

To Danie. Dovecurrty, Member of Convention, Cincinnati: I
congratulate you, dear old friend, on your great speech in favor of ‘the
living hero of Gettysburg, the Murat of Pennsylvania. If nominated
at Cincinnati for President he would deliver this great Commonwealth
from the terrible curse that has polluted its fair fame, destroyed the |
hopes of its young men, and enriched its insolent politicians. It will
be a welcome to hundreds of thousands of Republicans who regard
Grant’s sacrifice at Chicago as the unspeakable ingratitude of the age,
and it will consolidate North and South in the holy bonds of fraternal
peace and prosperity. JI embrace you,

‘ Joun W. Forney. ©
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK..: 429

And when the nomination ‘came I congratulated
General Hancock, receiving from him in return a
quick and graceful reply.

The magnetism of the nomination, like the
magnetism of the man himself, flew like wild- «
fire over the country. It was hailed with delight
in Europe by all classes of our visiting countrymen.
A correspondent in Paris states that the delight of
the Northern and Southern men when: the news
of Hancock’s nomination arrived there, was some-
thing like the delight of the North when they
heard the war was over, and the surprise of the
South when they heard that General Grant: had
led the way for their forgiveness.

How it was received in Philadelphia until -the
ring politicians began to try'to convince our peo-
ple that General Hancock did nothing for them
at Gettysburg, on the 3d of July 1863, the world
knows. On that 23d of June, 1880, our Bankers
recollected that on the 3d of July, 1863, they were
packing up their treasures for New York, expect-
ing the arrival of the Confederate Army across the
Schuylkill. Our clergy recollected how they had
offered thanksgiving to God for the opportune ar-
rival of’ General Hancock on Cemetery Hill, and
even the politicians of the present hour remem-
bered their own joy over the rescue. The halt
in this storm over his nomination for the Presi-
dency was, however, a very short one. And
now, as I write, the boom which began with
430 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Dougherty marching along the streets on the 19th
of June is resounding all over the land.

Several weeks after, on Tuesday, July 14th, the
committee of the Cincinnati Convention notified
General Hancock and Mr. English of their nomi-
nations for President and Vice-President, and vis-
ited Governor’s Island to fulfil that duty. The
scene that took place then was in itself so pic-
turesque, that I regret I can only give space to the
follewing account taken from the New York World,
of Wednesday, July 14th.

HANCOCK AND ENGLISH FORMALLY NOTIFIED OF THEIR
NOMINATION.

The committee appointed by the Cincinnati Con-
vention to notify General Hancock and Mr. Eng-
lish of their nomination for President and Vice-
President of the United States visited Governor's
Island yesterday to fulfil that duty. The special
committee appointed for the purpose was led by
Senator John P. Stockton, its chairman, and had
in turn invited the members of the National Com-
mittee to go to Governor's Island with them. At
10 o’clock in the morning the sub-commitee on the
letters to the two candidates reported to the’ full
committee charged with their presentation, and after
official copies had been made, Secretary Bell called
the States in alphabetical order and the commit-
tee-men signed the letters. Wm. H. Green, of Ili-
nois, was absent and §. S. Marshall signed as his
 

“NOILVOISILON TWVIOISSAO

 

 
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 433

proxy. O.B.Hurdsigned for De Forest Sherman,
of Indiana, ex-Governor. John McEnery for John
Clegg, of Louisiana, and J. S. Morton for F. A.
Hafman, of Nebraska. With these exceptions the
letters were signed by the committee-men appoint-
ed at Cincinnati. Every State in the Union was
represented, and the letters, when signed, bore the
-names of many men of national reputation.

‘At 2 o'clock a number of coaches arrived, and the committee-men
were conyeyed to the foot of. West Twenty-third Street, where the Wm.
Fletcher lay with colors flying. The members of the National Com-
mittee came down from the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and said they had had,
a short harmonious meeting, and had unanimously and immediately
upon assembling chosen Senator W. II. Barnum, of Connecticut, Chair- -
man, and Mayor F. O. Prince, of Boston, Secretary. The party on the
Fletcher, as she left her pier at 12.45, included all the signing members
of the committee and the proxies named, and all of the members of the
National Committee. Among others were “Milton Sayler, of Ohio;
Senator Ransom, of North Carolina, and W. Armstrong, of Pennsyl-

_vania. Senator Wm. A. Wallace, of Pennsylvania, was not present,

‘ being busy in the city. In all there were about one hundred gentlemen
on the boat. At 1 o’clock a landing was made at the steamboat dock
on Governor's Island. The military post, which is free to the Visit of
any person, without pass or permit, was about its business as usual. The
sentries passed to and fro, and in the court-martial room the members
of the Warren Court of Inquiry were busy reading the record. .Gen-
eral Hancock was at home, but in great sorrow at the death of his favo-
rite grandchild, Winfield Scott Hancock, four months old, who had re-.
ceived that name the night before at the hands of the Rev. Dr. Thomp-
son, of Trinity Church. The child had died at 6 in the morning, and ,
General Hancock had watched with it most of the night.

‘The two committees went up the shelving pathway from the landing
and up the steps of the parapet landing to the green, headed by John |

°K
434 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

W. Stevenson, Chairman of the Convention, and John P. Stockton,
Chairman of the Special Committee. There were already a number of
visitors to the island sauntering about on the lawns under the trees, en-
joying the shade and the cool breeze. The ceremony was made as brief
ag possible. General Hancock met the delegation as it entered the
house with a “Good-morning, gentlemen,’ and led the way to the back
parlor. This apkrtment was soon filled, and standing before a dark book-
case at the east.end of the room, General Hancock listened to the for-
mal announcement of his nomination. Senator Stockton, who stood
beside Mr. Stevenson, said :

“General Hancock, I have the honor to introduce to you Mr. John
W. Stevenson, the Chairman of the Democratic National Convention
lately held at Cincinnati, and I have the further honor of presenting
to you the committee appointed by that body to wait upon you and
notify you of your nomination—your unanimous nomination—for the
highest office in the gift of the people. It is a source of great satisfac-
tion to the committee in making this announcement to you to say that
your nomination was not secured by the solicitations of personal or po-
litical friends, but was the spontaneous choice of that convention, actu-
ated by a patriotic duty. One of the ablest and wisest bodies of your
countrymen ever assembled have given you this nomination with per-
fect unanimity. And, General, since that convention we have been to
our homes, and we have seen our friends, we have seen the Democratic
masses, and the conservative people of this country, and with one
accord they ratify the action of that convention. So that we cannot but.
believe, as we do, that your election will be an acomplished fact. We
cannot doubt it, and we believe that after the election is over the great
principle of American liberty will still be the inheritance of the people.
and established forever. And now in the name of the National Demo-
cratic party, and by virtue of the power entrusted to this committee, as
its Chairman I have the honor to hand to its Secretary a communica-
tion in writing informing you officially of your nomination.”

As he finished speaking Senator Stockton handed to Mr. Bell, who
stood beside him, the original of the letter from the committee, and it
was read as follows: ,

“New Yorx, July 13, 1880.
“ Major-General W. S. Hancock,

“Sir: The National Convention of the Democratic party which as-
sembled at Cincinnati on the 23d of last month unanimously nominated’
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 435
‘you.as their candidate for President of the United States. We have
been directed to inform you of the nomination for this exalted trust,
and request your acceptance. In accordance with the uniform custom
of the Democratic party the Convention have announced their views
upon the important issues which are before the country in a series of
resolutions to which we invite your attention. These resolutions em-
body the general principles upon which the Democratic party demand
that the Government shall be conducted, and they also emphatically
condenin the maladministration of the Government by the party in
power, its crimes against the Constitution and especially against the
rights of the people to choose and install their President, which have
wrought so much injury and dishonor to our country. That which
chiefly inspired your nomination was the fact that you had conspicuous-
ly recognized and exemplified the yearning of the American people for
reconciliation and brotherhood under the shield of the Constitution,
with all its jealous care and guarantees for the rights of persons and of
States. Your nomination was not made alone because in the midst of
arms you illustrated the highest qualities of the soldier, but because,
when the war had ended, and when, in recognition of your courage and
fidelity you were placed in command of a part of the Union undergoing
the process of restoration, and while you werethus clothed with abso-
lute power, you used it not to subvert, but to sustain the civil laws and
the rights they were established to protect.: Your fidelity to those
principles, manifested in theimportant trusts heretofore confided to your
care gives proof that they will control your administration of the Na-
tional Government, and assures the country that our indissoluble Union
of indestructible States and the Constitution with its wise distribution of
power and regard for the boundaries of State and Federal authority will
not suffer in your hands; that you will maintain the subordination of the
military to the civil power, and will accomplish the purification*of the
public service; and especially that the Government which we love will be
. free from the reproach or stain of sectional agitation or malice in any
shape or form. Rejoicing in common with the masses of the American
people upon this bright promise for the future of our country, we wish
also to express to you personally the assurance of the general esteem and
confidence which have summoned you to this high duty and aid you

in its performance. ‘Your fellow-citizens. JoHN W. STEVENSON,

“President of the Convention.
“Nicholas M. Bell, Secretary.”

When the reading of the names of the committee-men also signed to
the letter was finished, General Hancork turned to the delegates who
436 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

were crowded into the parlor and about him in a compact group and
said:

“ Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Committee: I appreciate the
honor conferred upon me by the Democratic National Convention, lately
assembled in Cincinnati. I thank you for your courtesy in making
that honor known to me. As soon as the importance of the matter per-
mits, I will prepare and send to you a formal acceptance of my nomi-
nation to the office of President of the United States.

Then General Hancock stepped forward and began shaking hands
with the various members of the committee who were known to him,
and receiving introductions to others. After afew minutes he retired
into the front parlor, and many of the delegates sought the cool piazzas
at the front and rear of the house overlooking one the green and the
other the Buttermilk Channel. Presently Senator Stockton asked for
Mr. English, and that gentleman, who had been standing among the
delegation, took the place recently occupied by General Hancock.
General Stockton said to him:

Sir: The Cincinnati Convention, with a unanimity unparalleled,
decided upon its nominees, and appointed us as a committee to wait
upon you at such time and place as would be most agreeable to you, and
inform you in person and in writing of your nomination. We congrat-
ulate ourselves and the people on the opportunity of tendering to you
the nomination to the office. of Vice-President of the United States.
The official announcement of your nomination will be read to you by
the Secretary.”

Mr. Bell then read the following letter:

: zs “ New York, July 13, 1880.
Hon. Wiii1aMm H, EnGuise :
Dear Sir: By direction of the National, Democratic Convention,

which assembled at Cincinnati on June 22d last, it becomes our pleas.

ant duty to notify you that you unanimously were nominated by that
body for the office of Vice-President of the United States. Your larga
experience in the affairs of Government, your able discharge of the’
many trusts committed to your hands, your steadfast devotion to Demo-
cratic principles and the uprightners:of your private character gave
assurance to the Democracy. that you are worthy and well qualified to
perform the duties of that high position and commended you to them
for the nomination which they conferred. While your personal quali: -
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 437

ties and your public services well merited this honor, the action of the
Convention was no doubt designed not only-to vindicate their apprecia-
tion of yourself, but as well to testify their profound respect for the
Democracy of Indiana your native state, with whose manly struggles
you have been so long identified and in whose glorious achievements
you have shared. The Convention set forth. its views upon the leading
political issues which are now before the people in a series of resolu-
tions, a copy of which we have the honor to present to you and to
which your attention is respectfully requested. It is our earnest hope
that these views may meet with your approbation, and that you will
accept the nomination which is now tendered. With ‘sentiments of
high esteem, we are, respectfully yours,

“Joun W. Stevenson, President of Convention,
*‘Nrcnoias M. Bell, Secretary.”

This letter, like the letter to General Hancock, was accompanied by
an engrossed copy of the platform. of the Convention, arranged to fold .
with the letter into a red Russia case. Upon nenelving the packet; Mr.
English bowed and said::

“ Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: As a practical ee
ness-man, not much accustomed to indirection of action or circumlocu-
tion of speech, I will say briefly and in a few words that I accept the
high trust which you have tendered me, with feelings of profound
gratitude, and that I will at an early date formally and in writing make
the acceptance which I am informedsis usual on such occasions. In
doing this, I fully realize the great responsibility of the situation, thé
care, the turmoil, the anxiety, the misrepresentation, and the abuse
which are certain to follow, and I understand thoroughly that all the
resources and power of our political foes from all parts of the land will
he concentratedfagainst us in Indiana, my native State, where the first
grand battle—and probably the most important of all—is to be fought.
But there are great occasions where the discharge of high patriotic
duties are to be considered above all personal considerations, and I
shall not disregard the unanimous voice of the representatives of a ma-
jority of the American people, which you speak here to-day. (Applause.)
Iam profoundly grateful for the high honor which has been conferred
upon me, and I have an abiding faith that with the favor of God and
of the people we shall succeed in this conflict.” (Applause.)

Half an hour had been consumed in thus performing the duties im-
posed upon the committee by the Convention. The committee-men
‘438 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

and Mr. English bade adien to General Hancock, and at 2.15 the steam="
boat Fletcher and the Kiley, the regular ferry-boat, took them back to
the city. Many of them went at once to Manhattan Beach.

NEARLY THREE MILLION SOLDIERS.

George Jacob Holyoke, a recent English traveler,
refers in his subsequent letters to one hundred
thousand office-holders, each having at least nine de-
pendents to work to keep him where he is, a state-
ment nearer the truth than most foreigners attain
when writing about the United States—but a rough
text to arouse serious apprehension in many minds.
And yet, how far inferior this large army of place-
men and their adherents, is, when compared with
the 2,678,967 Americans who fought to maintain
the government between 1861. and 1865. Many
of this multitude have been called to their long
homes, but their survivors and their own posterity
are still the real defenders of the Republic. I give
the official figures in the statement which follows,
and direct attention, not only to the fact that Penn-
-sylvania put into the service, during our civil war,
over 366,000 of her citizens, while New York con-
tributed 467,047, to which the same rule may be
applied, to those who survive, and to the posterity
of those who have gone.

THE NUMBER FURNISHED BY EACH STATE AND TERRITORY DURING
THE WAR,

A statement has been issued by the War Depart-
ment giving the number of men furnished the.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK.‘ 439

Union Army’ by'each State and Territory and the
District of Columbia from April 15th, 1861, to the
close of the war. It.shows that the total number
of volunteers was 2,678,967, divided among the
different States and Territories as follows:

 
  
 
     
  
 

  

   
  
  
 
 
 
  

Maine,.........seceecees 72,114
New Hampshire,.... 36,629
Vermont,......... 35,262
Massachusetts,.. +. 152,048
Rhode Island,.. w+ 28,699
we 7,379

sig aiias Be lesa nls Sunaslviw estnainbio abusbaweae denncesanee de tendeeaveues 467,047

ar Siasstiteuds tac deisdisuaesisissetict enous ee BL O10

esau s letbie tv wenelaseweusdetnnendaacas cuxeeteceseeatsieaeesevea vay 366,107

sibdoiid Swen ove Sine faside badsisasdeneisains vadedsessdedeacsasveseeaedis 18,670

dagsguet tosiens 50,316

ianeaviette 382,068

cabecsees -- 16,872

shane eee -- 319,659

eoenstebanen eveee 197,147

TILin0is,......000 enssenenecerssscetene coseeeen es eeaaee suevavevdevescacensaeces 259,147
Michigan,..s...000 sescseove sesseans orsecene aaavesesateeseasceenaessecseccunes 89,372
Wisconsin, ......s00cescceossssceceecresrenssees sossesenn cocssenes recereone cease 96,424
Minnesota, .ccccceessessencecccecsesecsanonssesescececarscceeesensnsnensesceses 25,052
Towa,.sssccsosesecssese assssaccrecseesncasenccsacnccessassesonoase - 76,309
Missouri, ..010 cccesereee cecceeeanersereees qasolendsisuieauses tseseeaneenseasees 109,111
Kentucky,..ccccccssscstsnsessecsceeeneereoeee anenees sites we aceeee 79,025
Kan a8y icc sasice Vacvease cnsvoeesee sace:sesiees dusevesaees cutie extevenve 20,151
‘Tennessee,.. s+. cued beiaavadsiocevcce te beSesieaswesuseeeaeese ae enets tee 31,092
Arkansas,.cccrccece seseseree cece cones 8,289

North Carolina,
California,

 

 

Oregon,...-++
440 , LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OP

Colorado Territory,....+:sscssscsssscersesssesssesssssceescosssernsscee 4,908
Dakota Territory, .s.e-scscoccccssscncssesee cesses sesesssonsenssesesees seats 206°

  

New Mexico Territory, .scccscsssscescscnscesssnscceseeoen sarceseeaseaes 6,561
Alabama,....++ esse 2,57

Florida,...s+08- sabia seececeaenesbessweneense 1,290
Lowisiana,...crsoeecccesvcosssentcescerecscceseescsees seseseees v= 8,224
Mississippi,......+.se00. 4d seesovcnscerencesmscsconee sis davedave<eneevee i Scbebuas 545
Texas, .s-eecee sigvedinupaedsewecoseseabebenseses sidesnedneweoneee aasbeennneers 1,965
Indian Nation, ....c.c .ssssssssteeveseeseececnans seceenes aestbesvecneratease 35,030

Subjoined also is a statement showing how
many regiments of the 2nd Corps fought under
Hancock at Gettysburg, on the third of. July,
1863.

SECOND ARMY CORPS.

MAJ. GEN. WINFIELD S. HANCOCK.

After the death of Gen. Reynolds, Gen. Hancock was assigned to the
command of all the troops on the field of battle, relieving Gen. Howard,
who had succeeded Gen. Reynolds. Gen. Gibbon, of the Second Divi-
sion, assumed command of the corps. These assignments terminated on
the evening of July 1st. Similar changes in commanders occurred dur-
ing the battle of the 2d, when Gen. Hancock was put in command of
the Third Corps, in addition to that of his own.

FIRST DIVISION,

BRIG. GEN. JOHN C. CALDWELL.

 

 

First Brigade. ~~ Second Brigade.
(1) Col. E. E. Cross. | ol. Patrick Kelly.
(2) Col. H. B. McKeen.
a 28th Massachusetts.
5th New Hampshire. . 63d New York.
61st New York. 69th New York,
81st Pennsylvania. 88th New York.

148th Pennsylvania. 116th Pennsylvania.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. *

Third Brigade.

» (1) Brig. Gen. §. K. Zook.
(2) Lieut, Col. John Fraser,

 

52d New York.
57th New York.
66th New York.
140th Pennsylvania.

441°
Fourth Brigade.
Col. John R. Brooke.

 

27th Connecticut.
64th New York.
53d Pennsylvania.
145th Pennsylvania.
2d Delaware.

SECOND DIVISION.

(1) BRIG. GEN. JOHN GIBBON.
(2) BRIG. GEN. WM. HARROW.

First Brigade.
(1) Brig. Gen. Wm. Harrow.
(2) Col. Francis E, Heath.

 

19th Maine.

15th Massachusetts,
82d New York.

1st Minnesota.

Second Brigade.
Brig. Gen. A. S. Webb.

 

69th Pennsylvania.
71st Pennsylvania.

 

72d Pennsylvania.
106th Pennsylvania.

Third Brigade.
Col. N. J. Hall.

 

19th Massachusetts.

20th Massachusetts.

42d New York.
59th New York,
7th Michigan.

Unattached.
Andrew Sharpshooters.

THIRD DIVISION.

BRIG. GEN. ALEXANDER HAYS.

First Brigade.
Col. 8. 8. Carroll.

 

4th Ohio.

8th Ohio.

14th Indiana.
th Virginia.

Second Brigade.
(1) Col. Thomas A. Smyth.
(2) Lieut. Col. F. E. Pierce,

 

14th Connecticut. *
10th New York (battalion).
108th New York. aa 2
449 "LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

 

12th New Jersey. Artillery Brigade.
1st Delaware. Captain J. G. Hazard,
Third Brigade.
(1) Col. G. 8. Willard. A, Ist Rhode Island.
(2) Col. Eliakim Sherrill. B, Ist Rhode Island.

(3) Lieut. Col. James M. Bull.| 1, 1st United States.
— ' | A, 4th United States.

 

39th New York.

 

111th New York. Cavalry Squadron.
125th New York. Captain Riley Johnson.
126th New York. D and K 6th New York.

Of all this enormous mass of: the living, and
of the children of the dead, there is not one who
does not take an interest in the pending struggle
for the Presidency, and who, whatever political
party he belongs to, will not weigh with more or
less consideration the arguments addressed to his
reason and his prejudice—a far more efficient
grand jury than the placemen and their depend-
ents, because much more disinterested. ©

The question above all others that concerns
the soldier, after his own sense of honor and his
unforgetting love of his associates, is that which
relates to peace between the sections. A good
soldier does not cease to be a citizen when the war
is over. He rather remembers his early politics,
regardless only of local prejudices, and cherishing
with more fervor the broader views implanted by
his travels and his perils. Of these more than
two millions and a half, many of those who were
Democrats became’ Republicans before the civil
‘WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 443

war was over, and those who entered as Republi-
cans became tolerant, not only of those who differed
from them in their own army, but of those
*who were forced into the other or Southern army.
Hence these classes recoil; first, from the visible
attempt of the present Republican politicians to
renew strife between the sections: second, to put a
brand upon General Hancock because he is a Demo-
crat; and lastly, to suppose that every Republican
soldier is bound to vote to keep the Republican
politicians in office, who never had any higher
motive for public service than that of putting
public money into their pockets.

MILITARY RECORD OF WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK.

Cadet of the U. 8. Military Academy from July 1, 1840, to July 1,
1844, when he was graduated and promoted to the army as Brey. Sec-
ond Lieutenant, 6th Infantry, July 1, 1844.

Served on frontier duty at Fort Towson, I. T., ‘1844-453 and at Fort
Wachita, I. T., 1845-47 ; on recruiting service, 1847, in the war with
Mexico

(Second Lieutenant of Sixth Infantry, June 18, 1846,)
1847-48, being engaged in the defense of Convoy at the National Bridge,
August 12, 1847,—skirmish at Plan del Rio, August 15, 1847,—capture
of San Antonio, August 20, 1847,—battle of Churubusco, August 20, 1847,
—battle of

(But, First Lieutenant, August20, 1847, for gallant and meritori-
ous conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco,
Mexico,)

Molino del Rey, September 8, 1847, and assault and capture of the City,

of Mexico, September 13-14, 1847; in garrison at Jefferson barracks,
444 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Missouri, 1848; as Quartermaster, Sixth Infantry, June 30, 1848, to
October 1, 1849, and Adjutant, October 1, 1849, to November 7, 1855;
at regimental headquarters at Fort Crawford, Iowa, 1848-1849,—St.
Louis, Missouri, 1849-51, and Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, 1851-52,

(First Lieutenant Sixth Infantry, January 27,1858, to dune 5,
1860,) .

1852-55 ; as Assistant Adjutant General of the Department of’ the West,

headquarters at St. Louis, Missouri, June 19 to November 27, 1855;

and on Quartermaster duty at

(Captain Staff—Assistant Quartermaster, November 7, 1855,)
Fort Myers, "Florida, 1856-57, during hostilities against the
Seminole Indians; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, with troops quel-
ling Kansas disturbances, August 1, to December 31, 1857, and at
Depot, January 1, to March 31, 1858; at headquarters of Utah rein-
forcements, May 15, to July 15, 1858; on march with Sixth Infantry
from Fort Bridger, Utah, to California, August 13, to November 15,
1858, and Chief Quartermaster of Southern District of California, at
Los Angelos, May 5, 1859, to August 8, 1861. ‘

‘Served during the Rebellion of the seceding States, 1861-66, in the
defenses of Washington, D. C., September, 1861,—March, 1862, in the.
Virginia Peninsula

(Brigadier General U. 8. Volunteers, September 28, 1861,)
campaign (Army of the Potomac) March,—August, 1862, being en-
gaged in the siege of Yorktown, April 5 to May 4,-1862,—battle of
Williamsburg, May 5, 1862,—battle of Chickahominy, June 27, 1862,
action of Golding’s Farm, June 28, 1862,—battle of Savage Station,
June 29, 1862,—battle of White Oak Swamp, June 30, 1862,—and re-
treat to Harrison’s Landing, July 1,-4, 1862; on the movement to Cen-
treville, Virginia, August,-September, 1862; in the Maryland cam-
paign (Army of the Potomac), September,-November, 1862, being en-
gaged in the battle of Crampton’s Pass, South Mountain, September 14,
1862,—reconnoisance from Harper’s Ferry to Charlestown, Virginia,
October 10-11, 1862,—and: march to Falmouth, Virginia, October-No-
vember, 1862; in the Rappahannock
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 445
aaa General U. 8. Volunteers, Nov. 29,1862, to duly’ 26,
7866,)

campaign (Army of the Potomac), December, 1862,-June, 1868, being
‘engaged in the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862,—and
battle of Chancellorsville, May 2-4, 1863; in the Pennsylvania cam-
paign, June-July, 18€3, in command of Second Corps of the Army of
the Potomac, being engaged in the Battle of Gettysburg, July is,
1863, where he was severely wounded in the repulse of Longstreet’s
attack upon our left centre, which he at the time commanded.

On sick leave of absence, disabled by wound, July 4,-December e
1863;

(Major Staff Quartermaster, U. 8. Army, Nov. 80, 1863,)

in command of, and reeruiting Second Army Corps, January-March
1864; in the Richmond campaign, commanding Second Corps of Arniy
of the Potomac, being engaged in the Battle .of the Wilderness, May
5-6, 1864,—Battles-of Spottsylvania, May 9-20, 1864,—Battle of North
Anna, May 23-24, 1864,—Battle of Tolopotomy, May 29-31, 1864,—
Battle of Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, and operations in its vicinity,
June 3-12, 1864,—march to James River, June 12-15, 1864,—and Bat
tle before Petersburg, June 16-18, 1864; on sick leave of absence on
account of breaking out of Gettysburg wound, June 19-27, 1864; in
opérations about Petersburg, in command of Second Corps, Army of
the Potomac, being engaged in the battles of Deep Bottom (in com-
mand), July 27-29, and

(Brigadier General, U. 8.-Army, August 12, 1864,)

August 15-20, 1864,—Battle of Ream’s Station (in command), August
25, 1864,—Battle of Boydton Plank Road (in command), October 27,
1864,—and siege of Petersburg, June 15-November 26, 1864; at
Washington, D. C., organizing the First Army Corps of Veterans,
November 27, 1864, to February 27, 1865; in command of Department
of West Virginia, and temporarily of the Middle Military Division
and Army of the Shenandoah, February 27 to July 18, 1865;
446. LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

(But, Major General, U. 8. Army, March 18, 1865, for gallant
and meritorious services at the Battle of Spottsylvania, Vir-
ginia,)

of the Middle Department, July 18, 1865, to August 10, 1866 ;

(Major General U. §. Army, duly 26, 1866,)

on Board for retiring disabled officers, at Philadelphia, Pa., November
27, 1865 to August 30, 1866, and on Board to make recommendations
in regard to ordnance, January 30 to June 4, 1866; in command of the
Department of Missouri, August 20, 1866, to September 12, 1867, being
engaged on expedition against the Indians of the plains; in command
of the Fifth Military District, November 29, 1867, to March 16, 1868,—
of the Division of the Atlantic, March 31, 1868, to March 5, 1869,—of
the Department of Dakota, May 17, 1869, to December 3, 1872,—of the
Division of the Atlantic, headquarters New York City, December 16,
1872, and of the Department of the East, December 16, 1872, to October
29, 1873, and November 8, 1877; Member of the Court of Inquiry in
the case of General Dyer, November 9, 1868, to May 15, 1869,—and of
Board to examine officers unfit for the proper discharge of their duties
ete., October 17, 1870, to Jung 3, 1871.

In command of Department of Dakota, 1871-1873. In command of.
Military Division of the Atlantic, 1873-1880, /
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK.. 447

CHAPTER XIV.
THE LADIES OF THE WHITE HOUSE.

T,\ROM the earliest days of civilization, woman
has figured prominently in society and govern-
ment. The records of female influence in

England, France, Germany, Italy, and- Spain, are .

peculiarly pleasing. And while this sort of litera-

ture is universally sought from many motives, the
women most conspicuous in history are those that |
are renowned for virtue as well as beauty, though
there are thousands of instances proving the last
more potent than the first.

Modern experience discloses a severer state of
female morality in foreign governments. Queen
Victoria, ex-Empress Eugenie, the beautiful Queen
of Italy, the new Queen of Spain, the wife of the.
President of France (Madame Grevy), the eques-
trienne Queen of Austria, the venerable Empress
of Germany, and the Crown Princess, the daughter
of Victoria—are types of a better era and a
higher culture.
448 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER ‘OF

When we turn to our own country, nothing is
more creditable to republican institutions than the
ladies of our early and recent Chief Magistrates.
From Colonial days, from Mrs. Martha Washing-
ton, from the brilliant entertainment in Washing-
ton’s camp, near Middlebrook, in celebration of
the anniversary of the American alliance with
France, and the subscription balls in Philadelphia,
down to her last appearance, when she retired to
private life, she was accustomed to speak of her
public days in New York and Philadelphia as her
“lost days,” preferring home comfort and seclusion
to the dazzle and dress of public life.

It is stated that the wife of John Hancock, the
great Boston patriot, who was noted for his genial
' home, open house, and sumptuous table, was a
woman almost as full of energy as her husband,
and an amusing story is told of Mrs. Washington
and Mrs. Hancock, who were very intimate friends.
Mrs. Washington would say to Mrs. Hancock:
“There is a difference in our stations; your hus-
band is in the cabinet, but mine is on the battle-
field.” As showing the habits of those days, so
different from our own, and forming such a con-
trast to the plain dignity and quiet elegance of
General Hancock and his family at Governor's
Island, it is related that the first Mrs. Hancock’s
wedding fan was from Paris, made of white kid,
painted with: appropriate designs. Fan-mounting
was then done in this country by ladies. The
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 449

christening suit of her baby came from England,
and was of embroidered linen, and stomacher of
muslin and brocaded lace,

. After John Hancock’s death, she was one of the
wonders of the age, and as his widow was visited,
until the close of her life, by distinguished persons
from foreign countries, as well as her own.

An amusing incident is told of John Hancock
and Samuel Adams. As the Governor, Hancock,
was one day driving, out with his wife, he met
Sam. Adams walking, with the Sheriff beside him.
Hancock asked, “Why, what is the matter?”
Adams replied, “I am going to jail, as I cannot
satisfy the.demands of my creditors.” The Gover-
nor settled the demands and bade the Sheriff leave
his prisoner. Many a time was his purse opened
for Sam. Adams’ benefit under similar circumstan-
ces, and many a time did he help the poor and the
mbed yp:

- The Boston Mrs. Hancock was adloiawlediged to
possess rare beauty, a courtly manner, a high-toned
spirit, fine powers of conversation, dressed with
care and very dignified. She was one of the
Quincys.

But notwithstanding the hyper-criticisms of the
Mawworms of the day, the fact is growing clearer
that the American women are becoming more
interested in public ‘affairs every hour; and it is
pleasant to be reminded, that the wives of the two

chief candidates for President in 1880 are espe-
27
450 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

cially cultivated and sensible. The modern news-
paper reporter has become a sort of Christopher
Columbus, ever looking for new characters, as the
world-seeking Genoese sought for new lands.
Nothing escapes these ubiquitous inquirers. Presi-
dential aspirants are examined with as merciless a
severity as if they were candidates for pope,
while all their sisters, and their cousins, and
their aunts, and notably. their wives, are subjected
to a similar inventory. It was not so in the olden
time, save as to the men. Washington, Adams,
Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Jackson, Lincoln,
and Grant, were very thoroughly overhauled, pri-
vately and publicly; but the ladies of the White
House, with two or three exceptions, have passed
the ordeal of public life tranquilly and easily.

Strickland’s “Queens of England” is rather the
polished adulation of a courtier; but in this coun-
try, the writer who undertakes to characterize the
wives of the Presidents has little material to work
upon, and generally little pay.

The best book on the Presidents’ wives is that of
Mrs. Laura Carter Holloway, published in 1870;
and to that, with other materials at my command,
I refer for a running commentary upon the
galaxy of gentlewomen who have periodically
played in the four or eight years drama, and some-
times for a shorter interval, in what the foreigner
has amusingly called “the presidential palace of
the republicans,”
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 451

' Having known most of the ladies, and many of
their associates, who have figured in and flitted out
of the White House since 1840, a brief reference to
the long procession since Mrs. Martha Washington,
in 1789, by way of introduction to the accom-
plished woman who will, I believe, succeed Mrs.
Hayes on the 4th of March, 1881, will be a
pleasing exception to the heavier parts of this
volume. Women in society are a later growth
than women in political power, just as kings and
queens are older than the best of our inventions
and discoveries in science and in art. And when
we remember that even Shakespeare’s plays were
for many years enacted by boys, we may, perhaps,
make some allowance for the accomplished
woman, who, in a recent popular magazine, takes
up the cudgels against her sex, and, at least
to her own satisfaction, proves that all the great
things in our civilization have been produced by
men, and that the best and most distinguished
women of the present day are simply the proofs
and products of a superior masculine system. We
can not look for such high culture, and inbred
greatness, in the wives of our American chief
magistrates as are found scattered through the
royal houses of the Old World, and for an obvious
reason. Our Presidents do not inherit their titles,
and their places. They are never trained for high
offices. In the average, the chief magistrate is an.
accident; there is no incident of a cradled ruler,
452 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

or an embryo executive, in this country; wheréas,
.elsewhere, the nurse of the infant frequently knows
that infant may or must become a future king or
queen; and all the curled darlings of the courts
grow up in the reasonable certainty that their lot
is not the lot of other people; but that other peo-
ple are reared with equal or more certainty of
being “hewers of wood, and drawers of water.”
And as with our Presidents, so with our Presidents’
wives,
MRS. MARTHA WASHINGTON.

.. First, Miss Martha Dandridge, then the widow
Mrs, Custis, and last Mrs. Martha Washington, was
extremely plain in‘her dress, quite domestic, wore
clothes woven by her own servants, and her hus-
band, the General, appeared at his inauguration,
in 1789, in a suit of fine cloth, the handiwork of
his own household.

Her first husband was rich, her ee richer;
and in early life she was regarded as remarkably
handsome. - She had her own trials, as the wife of
the great President; and once passing through
Philadelphia, was insulted, by the ladies there, for
some reason, who. declined extending her any
civilities. She was a thorough housekeeper, and
on one occasion, as the best proof of her skill in
domestic manufactures, two of her dresses, worn at
receptions, were composed of cotton striped with
silk, and entirely home-made. She had no ehild-
ren by Washington, but two by her first husband.

4
| WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 453

Her levees, held at No. 3 Franklin Square, New
York, were numerously attended. Her levees in
Philadelphia were held, in Market street between
Fifth and Sixth, on the south side, in a house
rented from Robert Morris, who had furnished it
handsomely, but not gorgeously. Washington died
on the 14th of December, 1799; and on the 31st,
Mrs. Martha Washington answered the resolutions
of condolence passed by the Congress of the United
Siates in a grateful letter. She died in the spring
of 1801, in the seventy-first year of her age.

Mrs. Washington had been a, very handsome
woman, when she married Colonel Washington,
and in the admirable picture of her by Woolston,
painted about the same time, we see something of
that pleasing grace which is said to have been
_ her distinction. Born of a good family and heiress
of a liberal fortune, Martha Dandridge had troops
of suitors before her first marriage, at seventeen,
and when a few years after, as the richest’ and.
handsomest widow in Virginia, Mrs. Daniel Parke
Custis attracted the tender regard of the young
soldier of Mount Vernon, there was, of course,
abundant competition ;. but only the brave deserve
the fair, and in this case only the bravest could
win the fairest. “ Like her illustrious husband,”
we learn from the journals of the day, “she was
clothed in the manufactures of our own country
in which her native goodness and patriotism ap-
peared to advantage.” She came .to Philadelphia
454 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

from Gray’s Ferry; Mrs. Robert Morris occupied’
a seat beside Mrs. Washington, who was to be her
guest, resigning her own carriage to young Custis,
and at about two o’clock the procession entered
High street, near her residence, greeted by the
ringing of bells, the discharge of thirteen guns
from the park of artillery under Captain Fisher,
and the cheering shouts of an immense concourse
of joyous people. Here Mrs. Washington, taking
leave of her escort, thanked the troops and citi-
zens in the most gracious manner for their. polite
attention.

Though Mrs. Washington is said by some people
who have written descriptions or memoirs of her,
to have been a very notable housewife, it does not
appear from any correspondence or other docu-
ments which have fallen under my observation,
that she ever did much to relieve the General ot
the trouble of household affairs. They evidently:
lived together on very excellent terms, though she.
sometimes was disposed to quarrel with him about
her grand-children, who, he insisted, should be un-
der thorough disciplinarians as well as competent
teachers when they were sent from home to be
educated.

The higher domestic life of that period, as re-
vealed in all we know of its refinement and
elegance, its dignified courtesy and inflexible
morality, can be contemplated with only a re-.
spectful ddmiration. It was in keeping with the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 455:

frankness and sincerity of ascendant politics.
Women unhesitatingly evinced their sympathies
with whatever was generous and honorable in
public conduct, but rarely if ever in forgetfulness
of the requirements of feminine propriety. Though
patriotic they were content to. be women still, and
were anxious for the distinction of delicacy and
grace. They perceived that it was their nobility
not to be men, but to be women worthy of men.
In possession of every right with which they were
endowed by nature, they had no desire to exercise
men’s prerogatives. There were indeed some
shameless females, not unwilling to exhibit morti-
fication at having been created of a sex whose finer
attributes were beyond.their emulation, and all
the poor stuff which this class* now displays in
periodical offences against decency, was spoken
and written till it grew too stale even for derision ;
but these creatures were not in society; they were
regarded only as curious monsters. Such wives as
those of Washington, Adams, Jay, Wolcott, Brad-
ford, and King, had no desire, as Montaigne ex-
_.. presses it, “to cover their beauties under others
_ that were none of theirs.”

MRS. JOHN ADAMS.

A very different person was Mrs. John Adams,
the wife of the second President of the United
States, one of the class whom her grandson,
Charles Francis Adams, said, “‘ were more remarka-
456 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF ‘

ble :for: their letter-writing propensities than the
novel-reading and more pretending daughters of
this era.” She was Abigail Smith, married to
John Adams when she was twenty years old, in
1764, and.in 1775 was at her home charged with
the sole care of her little brood of children ; frugal,
kind, working with her own hands, often at the
' spinning-wheel, and learning French as if in expec-
tation of her destiny. She was a New England
fighting woman, for when the Revolution came on,
she wrote of the English: “Let us separate, they
are unworthy tobe our brethren. Let us renounce
them, and instead of suplications, as formerly for
their prosperity and happiness, let us beseech the
Almighty to blast their counsels and bring to
naught all their devices,” She was the first re-
presentative of her sex from the United States at
the court of Great Britain with her husband, John
Adams. She saw George IV and the Queen, and
soon became a notoriety by her frank and peculiar
manners. Afterwards, as the wife. of the second
President, she opened the first New Year’s recep-
tion in the White House in 1801, and her descrip-
tion of Washington City in 1800 is very amusing ;
‘she wrote: “You cannot see wood for trees. Con-
gress comes in but to. shiver, shiver, shiver. No
woodcutters or carters to be had at any rate. We
are now indebted to a Pennsylvania wagoner to
bring us through in the treasury office—a cord and
a half of wood; which is all we ‘have in this house
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 457
«
where twelve fires are constantly required, where

we are told the roads will soon be so bad it cannot
-be drawn.” Her health was too poor to entertain
much, and so she returned to Quincy after being
mistress of the White House for less than half. a
year. She died on the 18th of October, 1818,
seventy-four years old.

Mrs. Adams was one of the remarkable charac-
ters of her age. She was not without tenderness
and womanly grace, but her distinction was a mas-
culine understanding, energy, and’ decision, fitting
‘her for the bravest or most delicate parts in affairs,
and in an eminent degree for that domestic relation
continued harmonious through so many changeful
years, herself unchanged always, and making her
own life a portion of her husband’s in a manner
that illustrates the noblest ideas we have of mar-
riage.

MRS. THOMAS JEEFERSON.

The third President of the United States was a
widower, Mrs. Jefferson, the wife of the author of
the Declaration of Independence, having died. nine-
teen years before his election. She was a widow,
Mrs. Skelton, at the time of their marriage, 1772.
Jefferson was a true Democrat. He held no for-
mal receptions, and his daughters were only with
him twice during his een ‘years Erceenty at
Washington.
' My. Jefferson, after a very pleasant passage, ar-
rived at Norfolk, from France, on’ the 23d of No-
o

458° LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

vember, 1789, and in 1801 he was elected Presi-
dent after filling other high and important offices.
His wife had been dead many years, but his two
daughters, whom he had educated very carefully
in their native country and in Europe, were now
grown to womanhood, and the eldest of them had
been waiting his return to be married to Mr.
Thomas Mann Randolph, of Tuckahoe, whom he
describes as “a young gentleman of genius, science,
and honorable mind, who afterwards filled a dig-
nified station in the general government, and the
most dignified in his own state.” Mr. Jefferson.
was the model democrat of all time in the Presi-
dency.
MRS. JAMES MADISON.

The fourth President of the United States, James
Madison, also married a widow, Mrs. Todd,
who became the famous Dolly Payne Madison.
Her courtly manners and personal charms made
her a universal favorite. In her thirty-seVenth .
year she entered the White House, having dis-
pensed the hospitalities of her husband’s house
while he was Secretary of State for eight years,
making everybody happy with her bright and
cheerful manners. Her chief trait was her table,
which was so plenteous that it was more like a
harvest home supper than the entertainment of a
Secretary of State, which she answered by saying
that “she thought abundance preferable to ele-
gance, that circumstances formed customs and cus-
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 459:

toms formed tastes, and as profusion was repug-
nant to foreign customs, from the circumstances of
the superabundance of our country, she did not
hesitate to sacrifice the delicacy of European taste
for the less elegant but more liberal fashion of
Virginia.” But she did not stay long in the White
House. The second war with Great Britain came
on, the British burned that and the Capitol, and |
the President and his household had to fly. When
in Paris, I heard Dr. Evans describe the troubles
of the fugitive Queen Eugenie as she fled from |
Paris after the fall of Sedan, I thought of the suf-
fering of Mrs. Madison when the British drove her
from Washington after destroying the President’s
house. She had to fly in disguise and in the most
dreadful storm of the period, sought in vain for a
place wherein to rest her head. After the retire
ment of the English, the President rented the house
- owned by Col. Tayloe, which I distinctly remember, .
on the corner of New York Avenue and 18th
Street, Washington City. At her last New Year’s
reception, the President was dressed in a full suit _
of cloth of American manufacture made of the ~
wool of Merinos raised in the United States. She
was not a learned woman but had great natural
talents. In 1817 President. Madison’s term ex-
pired. She lived to a great age, dying on the 12th
of July, 1849, at her residence in Washington City,
southeast corner of Highth Street and Madison
Place.
460 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

MRS. -JAMES MONROE.

The next lady of the White House was Mrs
James Monroe. She married Senator Monroe in
1789 and came to Philadelphia with her. husband
to take his seat in the Senate of the United States.
He was afterwards appointed American Minister
to France, where they remained five years, a fact
enabling her to enjoy society and study French
character. She was tall and gracefully formed,
polished and elegant, and as the wife of a Virginia
senator, independent by her fortune, surrounded by,
luxury and prosperity. While she was abroad, La
Fayette was captured by the Austrians and thrown
into a Prussian dungeon at Wesel on the Rhine,
where he was terribly treated. Mrs. Monroe took
a deep interest in the illustrious prisoner, and re-
. solved to secure an interview between the General
and his wife, who had herself been condemned to
death. La Fayette was released from prison at
the end of five years, and his wife at the end of
twenty-two months. In 1817 President Monroe,
. after his election, removed to the White House
where he and his wife continued to reside during
his eight years term. They had brought with
them certain foreign customs and manners, and
their ‘levees were quite distinguished, although
very democratic. Foreigners spoke of the cordi-
ality of the President and his wife. After he re-
tired from office, President Monroe was engaged
with the other two ex-presidents, Jefferson and

{
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 461

Madison, in establishing the University of Virginia,
and Mrs. Monroe was never so happy as when
entertaining the throng of visitors who delighted
to do honor to the three ex-presidents of the United
States, the sons of the old Commonwealth of Vir:
, ginia, as they met together under her roof. She
-died suddenly in 1830, at an advanced age.

MRS. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Mrs. Louisa Catherine Adams, wife of John
Quincy Adams, was the sixth lady of the White
House, and with her closed the list of the official
women of the American Revolution. She was born
in the city of London, February 11th, 1775, her
father, Mr. Johnson of Maryland,'then living in
England. Like her husband’s mother, she was
what might be called a public woman from her
marriage, and this will account for their uncom-
mon posterity. John Quincy Adams first saw her
in her father’s house, in 1794. On the 26th of
July, 1797, they were married at the church of
All Hallows. In 1801, after the birth of her first
child, she embarked with her husband on his.re-
turn to the United States, having settled in Boston,
where she determined to live, but her husband was
elected United States Senator, and she removed
with him to Washington, then a primitive and
ill-conditioned place. Her husband, John Quincy
Adams, was sent out as Minister to Russia, and she

accompanied him, remaining six years in St. Peters-
L
ae
462 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

burg, where they lived frugally and made the basis
of a very comfortable competency in America.
The second war between England and America
broke out while Mr. Adams was in Russia, and
the Emperor prépared the way for the return of
John Quincy Adams. and his wife, by offering to
‘ mediate between the-two countries. The commis:
sioners were royally entertained at St. Petersburg,
much to the delight of Mrs. Adams, who then saw
"high society at its best. John Quincy Adams was
elected President of the United States, after filling
various high cabinet positions, in 1824, and was
inaugurated March 4th, 1825, with considerable -
ceremony, Mrs. Adams giving up the comforts of
a home forthe thankless trials of a lady of the
White House, where she remained four years, ©
returning to Quincy to be recalled to Washington
by the election of her husband as member of the
House of Representatives shortly after. He held
his seat in the House for fifteen years. His wife
remained with him all the time down to his death
on February 21st, 1848, when she, like Mrs.
Washington, answered the resolutions of Congress
in a letter of excellent taste. She died on the
14th of May, 1852, about seventy-seven years of
age. There were four children, three sons: and a
daughter, the only survivor, I believe, being
Charles Francis Adams, now living near Boston,
in his seventy-fourth year.
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 463

MRS, ANDREW JACKSON.
Mrs. Andrew Jackson was. never in the White

‘House, having died in three months before his in-

auguration as the seventh President of the United
States. A stormy life, the wife of another man, and
hardly divorced when General Jackson paid atten-
tion to her, she passed away on the 23d of De-
cember, 1828, leaving the future mistress of the
White House, Rachel’ Donelson, who afterwards
married the adopted son of Andrew Jackson, a
black-haired, sprightly, pretty child of twelve years
at that time. Of Mrs. Jackson, herself, it need -
only be said she was a plain woman, not beautiful.
Terror-stricken at the idea of going into the White
House, she purchased all the clothing and house-
hold articles both for herself and her servants’
use, and was defended by old Hickory, with a
knightly gallantry all his own. There were two
ladies of the White House, during General Jack-
son’s term of eight years, Mrs. Andrew Jackson
Donelson, who presided at the receptions and who
died young, of consumption, and Mrs. Andrew
Jackson, Jr., the wife of President Jackson’s foster
son, who was the second mistress of the Presiden-
tial Mansion. This lady was the daughter of Peter
York of Philadelphia, whose grandfather, Judge
York, held an appointment under the crown of
Great Britain prior to the Revolution. While she
was presiding at the White House in Washington,

_ General Jackson said to a deputation from the Key-
464 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER. OF

stone State, “Gentlemen, I am very glad to see you,
for Iam much indebted to Pennsylvania. She has
given me a daughter who is a great comfort to her
father.” She lived at the Hermitage after the death
of General Jackson and Mrs. Donelson for many
years, and was an excellent woman. She died
shortly after our unhappy civil war,

MRS. MARTIN VAN BUREN. ~

Martin Van Buren, the eighth President of the
United States, lost his wife in 1819, seventeen
years before his election to the Presidency. The
mistress of the White House was Mrs. Abraham
Van Buren, who married Colonel Van Buren, Presi-
dent Van Buren’s oldest son, in 1838. She was a
South. Carolina lady, irresistibly beautiful in form
and deportment. She and her husband remained
abroad for. some years in the family of Andrew
Stevenson, her uncle, then United States Minister
to England. They remained with the President
during the last year or two of his term of office,
and then lived with him at Lindenwald, after his
retirement until death.

MRS. WM. HENRY HARRISON.

Anna Semmes, the wife of the ninth President ot

the United States, Mrs. William Henry Harrison, _

was born the famous year of American Independ-
ence, near Morristown, N.J. She became the wife of
Captain Harrison..in 1795.. She never saw the
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 465

White House, detained at her husband’s home by
_ her own illness, where she-heard of his death on
‘the 4th of April, 1841. She remained at her old
home, where the happiest years of her life had been
spent, until 1855, when she removed to the: resi-
“dénce of her only surviving son, the Hon. A. Scott
‘Harrison, five miles below North Bend, Indiana,
_dying on the 25th of February, 1864, in the eighty-
‘hinth year of age.

MRS. JOHN TYLER.

Now we reach John Tyler, who became the
tenth President of the United States by the death
of General Harrison. His first wife was.the daugh-
ter of Robert Christian of Virginia. She died on
the 19th of September, 1842. The President mar-
ried again Miss Julia Gardner on the 26th of
June, 1844, at the Church of the Ascension, New
York City. Fora period of eight months this beau-
tiful lady did the honors of the Executive Mansion
- with success. 1 think she is still alive. ,

MRS. JAMES K. POLK.

Mrs. James K. Polk, daughter ‘of Captain Joel
and Elizabeth Childress, was born near Murfrees-
boro, Tennessee, on the 4th of September, 1804,
and is still living at Nashville, in the beautiful
home of her husband. I know this estimable lady
well. More than once I.attended her receptions.
_ Astately, attractive, exceedingly well balanced and
well preserved Southern woman, she was also a

28
466 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Christian and a patriot down to, and after her hus-

band’s death. Her hair was very black, her dark
eyes and complexion reminded me of the Spanish
type of beauty. While Mr. Buchanan was Sec-
retary of State, I had many opportunities of seeing
this excellent woman, and during the Centennial
year had quite an agreeable correspondence with
her, when I invited her to become my guest, but’
she was compelled to decline.

MRS. ZACHARY TAYLOR.

Mrs. Zachary Taylor was another of the ladies
who never presided at or managed the White
House. Her plain, heroic and unpretending hus-
band was elected President of the United States in
1848, she having bitterly opposed his candidacy.
When it was understood that she would not assume
the responsibility of going to Washington as its
presiding divinity, her daughter, Elizabeth Taylor,
twenty-two years of age, was announced as her
mother’s substitute. When she took possession,
she had just been married to Major Bliss of the
regular army. She was educated in Philadelphia.
The inauguration of “old Rough and Ready” was
one of the most brilliant ever seen in Washington,
the Whigs having mounted into power after a
long: absentee from office. Her mother, Mrs.
Taylor, was never visible in the reception rooms.
She received her visitors in her private apart-
ments, and so escaped observation. The political
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 467

revolution made the receptions of Mrs. Bliss very

attractive, and the old hero President surprised

his friends by his courtliness and dignity. But.

his administration only lasted a year, for on the
9th of July, 1850, he was overheated at a celebra-
tion and died, in the sixty-third year of his
age. Thus terminated the public career of Mrs.
Bliss. Mrs. Taylor survived until August 22,
1850, and Major Bliss soon followed, leaving his
wife without children, to become the wife, of
another man, under whose name her historic con-
nection passed away. ,

MRS. MILLARD FILLMORE.

Mrs. Millard Fillmore, wife of the new Presi-
dent, the former Vice-president, was born in 1798,
and made a most acceptable mistress of the Presi-
dential mansion, dying at Willard’s Hotel, Wash-
ington City, on the 30th of March, 1853,. a few
weeks after the termination of her husband’s ad-
ministration. During her illness the lady of the
White House was the only daughter of President
Fillmore, Miss Abigail al and she also died
on the 28th of July, 1854.

MRS, FRANKLIN PIERCE.

Mrs. Franklin Pierce, the wife of the next
President of the United States, was Jane Means
Appleton, of ‘Hampton, New Hampshire,’ born
March 12th, 1806. She was married to Franklin
Pierce at the age of twenty-eight, in 1834, and was
468 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

an amiable person, whose husband was one of the
‘truest men and altogether the most perfect official
‘person I ever knew. She was in ill health when
he was elected President, in 1852, and had been
the mother of three children. While going to
‘Washington, on the 5th of January, 1853, with
her husband, the President-elect, and her only
boy, an accident occurred on the Boston and
‘Maine Railroad, throwing the cars down a steep
embankment, in which their bright little son lost
his life. Thus she began her experience in the
White House under a cloud, which ‘seemed to rest
upon her for four years. She would appear at
some of the receptions and state dinners, but pre-
ferred retirement. She remained in Washington
until the termination of her husband’s adminis-
tration, when she made the European: tour with
him. She survived till the 2d of September,
1863, and died at Andover, Mass.

MISS HARRIET LANE.

Now I come to a lady, still living in Baltimore,
of whom it may be said that no one ever filled the
position at the head of a great establishment with
more delicacy, dignity, and refinement. I mean
‘Harriet Lane, the niece of James Buchanan, the
succeeding President of the United States, now
Harriet Lane Jolinston. Having differed from. her
uncle early i in his administration, after having given
‘thé best years of my life to make him President,
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 469

and. never having but once crossed his threshold
during his Presidency, I am glad to say that
the recollection of her many excellent traits and
sweet courtesy, and the fragrant memory of her
dear sister, Mary, her brother Eskdridge, and. all
her kindred, including her father and her Uncle
Lane, are mental pictures that I love to dwell upon.
She accompanied Mr. Buchanan abroad as Min-
ister to England, and was the lady of the White
House during four years, from 1857 to 1861. She
now temporarily resides, during the summer, at
Wheatland or at Bedford, and is the mother of
~several children, comforted, says her biographer,
in the great work of training up her boy to be
worthy of the name of James Buchanan Johnston.

MRS. MARY TODD LINCOLN.

Of Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the mur-
dered President of the United States, Abraham
Lincoln, I do not allow myself to write at length.
Her life was so eventful, and so full of trials, and at
the last so saddened by the terrible tragedy of our
age, that I cannot. lift the curtain to revive the
memories of the great civil war, with which Mr.
Lincoln’s administration opened, and with ,which
it closed. One incident I may mention: After his
assassination, she remained behind in the White
House (while President Johnson occupied other
quarters), with her little son, Thaddeus or “Tad,”
as. he was more frequently called. My dear friend,
470° LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Marshall: O. ‘Roberts, of New York, still living;
had sent me a check for ten thousand dollars to
administer to her immediate wants, as a genuine
evidence of his kind and thoughtful nature. She
was in her bed-room when I asked to’ be admitted,
to hand her this welcome contribution, and the
poor little’ boy, since called to his last rest, a
curious child, quaint, witty and winning, crawled °
into my arms and pointed the way to his mother.
The double agony, the wild animal-like grief of
the elfin child, the deep horror of the stricken
widow, with the fresh memory of the mur-
dered father, made up altogether such a scene
as can neither be described nor forgotten. Mrs.
Lincgln is still living, having only one child left,
her accomplished and gifted son, Robert T. Lincoln,
a member of the Cook County Bar in the City of
Chicago.
MRS. ANDREW JOHNSON.

Mrs. Andrew Johnson, like Mrs. Zachary Tay-
lor, and very like Mrs. Franklin Pierce and Mrs.
Fillmore, recalling also the early death of Mrs.
Andrew Jackson, cathe to Washington with her
husband, but was rarely seen. She never appeared
in society at Washington. Her very existence
was almost a myth. She was last seen at a party
given to her grand-children, and was seated in one
of the reception court-chairs of satin and ebony.
Ske did not rise when the children and her guests.
were presented to her, but simply said: “I am an
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. - 471

- - invalid, my dears.” Her two daughters, Mrs.
Patterson and Mrs. Stover, attended to the duties
vot hostess of the White House, the last succeeding
“the first. When Mrs. Senator Patterson found
herself the first lady in the land, she made the
remark, which at the time struck me to the heart:
“We are plain people from the mountains of Ten-
nessee, called here for a short.time by a national
calamity. I trust too much will not be expected:
of us.” And when poor Anna Surratt threw her-
self prostrate on the. floor of the White House
begging to see Mrs. Patterson, she said, “Tell the
girl she has my sympathy and my tears, but I
have no more right to speak than the servants of
the White House.” It must not be forgotten, that
when Mrs. Surratt.was executed, that act was
demanded by the ravenous cry of a great party, if
not a great people, and the most resolute in yield-
ing to the popular wish was the President.

. MRS. ULYSSES S. GRANT,

No lady ever followed a chief magistrate into.
the White House more surrounded with tempta-
.tions and more envied. than Mrs. Grant, Miss
- Dent when she married the young lieutenant,
Ulysses S. Grant, and none I am sure ever passed.
over its portals “wil the good opinion of more
people, and with the fine consolation that she had
done her best to help ease her husband’s labors,
and to contribute to the happiness of others,
472 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

Among my most pleasant souvenirs of the Presi-
dential Mansion, from 1869 to 1876,’ were the
evenings I was permitted to spend with the father
of Mrs..Grant, the venerable Mr. Dent. He lived’ —
in his son-in-law’s family during several of the
years of his administration, and was present at the
public and private dinners. The frank and fear-
less and amusing utterances of the old gentleman
were so indulgently listened to by his daughter.
and by the President, and were generally so origi-.
nal as to leave a deep impression. More than
once when I met him in the presence of the Chief
Magistrate, Ulysses S. Grant, he would say,
“Well, I was always a Democrat; I was in favor
of putting down the Rebellion, but I never had
any: confidence in these modern Republicans, and
I do not believe that you can forget the old Dem-
ocratic party, neither you nor Ulysses,” pointing
at him. Nobody ever lost his temper, nobody
attempted to stop the fine old man, and there was
such an air of independence about him that I do
not know whether I liked most the way in which
he talked himself, or the affectionate manner in
which Mrs. Grant and the General listened to
‘him. ©
MRS. R. B. HAYES.

Of Mrs. Hayes, the present lady of the White’
House, I can only say that judged by public in-
formation she is the model priestess of a new
_ system. For the first time in the history of the:
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 473.

Government, the principles of Father Matthew
‘have been sanctified into a custom in the mansion |
of the President of the United States. This itself,
if not an act of high courtesy, is certainly an
_ achievement of rare courage..

All our Presidents, from Washington down,
liked a glass.of wine. Washington affected Ma-
‘deira; Jefferson the thin wine of France; Monroe.
and Madison were the Virginia statesmen of the
old school, not averse to a little apple toddy ; John
Quincy Adams had a quarrel and a bitter quarrel,
as he tells us in his memoirs, with a certain poli-
ticlan, whom he had to tell that he did not know

_. anything about the celebrated vintage called Tokay.

Andrew Jackson dearly loved his gin-sling.
Franklin Pierce was the most graceful host at his
own or at any other table I ever knew. John Ty-
ler liked his cock-tail. James Buchanan was a
connoisseur of old rye and good Madeira. Abra-
ham Lincoln was a natural Temperance man, not
so much because he made it a form, as because,
perhaps, he had found “to what base uses men
will come” who abuse the berry. Andrew John-
son was sometimes over fond of an extra dram.
Grant never denied his army education, and was.
true to the last to his colors alike of society and of
war, while I must say that even Mr. Hayes, pure
as the water he prefers, and abstemious according
to. the new dispensation at Washington, did take a
glass of champagne wine with me at the Union
474 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

League several years ago, before he entered into
the Presidency.

After this long list of ladies of the White House,
so many of them Southern women, I reprint what,
when I said it, was denounced,. by a clergyman in
Philadelphia, last Decoration Day, .May 29, 1880,
whe had not yet learned to forget and forgive:—

“To chronicle the good done for the cause of the Union by the women
of America would be like chronicling the stars. As well call from their
dusty graves, by name, the million of Union and Confederate dead,
known and unknown, that now sleep between the lakes of the North and
the gulf of the South. We stand-appalled before the living! Why, asks.
the censor? Why vex ourselves about the dead? But here, in this:
sweet sanctuary, as I talk to the survivors, vainly hoping that the dull,
cold ears ef your dead comrades may hear my voice, may I not say
something to you about the women of the South? They, too, have had
their dead. Alas! they had a longer catalogue of agony than our
women. Do weever think of their dead hopes, their perished pleasures,
their destroyed homes, their revolutionized customs? I constantly put.
myself in their place, and I am often moved to inexpressible grief as I
think of them. The Southern women are our sisters; but they are
different from our Northern sisters. Among their peculiarities is their
sensitiveness to our sympathy. They recoil from. pity, they scorn con-
solation, they hug their dead to their hearts, and seem envious if others
attempt to share their sorrows. A Northern woman is rarely a politi-
cian, while the most delicate of the gentler sex of the South imbibe
their politics with all their teachings, and often dim their beauty in the
angry impuise of the moment. And! yet I speak whereof I know, there
is no malignity in the heart of a true Southern woman. She is full of
the theories of her father and brother, but she is not insensible to the
gentle ministrations of our Northern daughters. During the war we
heard much of the ferocity of the Southern’ladies, and doubtless many
were deeply wounded by its necessary rigors; but now holier impulses
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 445

are producing a natural harvest. The unrafiled courtesy of the best
women of the North, the wider dissemination of the best culture, the
wonderful improvement of the Southern newspapers, the rapid spread
of a higher female education, the astounding growth of Southern rail-
roads, and the unseen forces of example, like the magical processes of
a restless assimulation, are gradually moulding, not only the women,
but the men of the South, ‘into a better condition of life.

“But if these ministrations were not within themselves so potent,
there is the ennobling example of the men who survive to tell of the
battles they fought in the opposing armies. The proud disdain of par-
tisan politics by the true soldier is a spectacle fit for the gods. The noisy,
like the mousing partisan, is always a trader for office or was a very
poor fighting man. Bravery is twinned with modesty always, as silence
is the best badge of the soldier. The proud warrior like Grant or Lee,
like Sheridan or Joe Johnston, talks with his ‘sword, and shuns the
loud declaimer as he does the drunken bully. These are your genuine
missionaries,

And what makes these gallant missionaries so effective among the
women, North and South, is their presence at the memorial days in
both sections. It is the province of the brave and fair to honor real

-grief over the monuments of their loving dead. Hate dies before the

tomb; the flowers of forgiveness bloom on the sepulchre. Even love
has been consecrated as men and women shed mutual tears over the
dear departed. Over all.shines the supreme star that, in a reunited
country, you cannot maintain a divided people. . There is an omnipre-
sence in this age that defeats alienation. The nations are coming toge-
ther; continents are neighbored by steam and electricity. Distance is
annihilated, and men and women speak across the ocean, make love by
the telephone, and marry by photograph. How.then to keep the North
and South separate? It can no more be done with the living than it
can be done with the dead. The hearts of the first will throb in unison
as surely as the ashes of the last mingle together.”

When brave men to battle go,
They fight as foe fights foe,
476 LIFE AND ‘PUBLIC CAREER OF

And then forget the blow.

‘Sometimes, indeed, the girls

Refuse to follow; the proud lip curls,

And the sweet voice bitter accents hurls;

But it will happen, in this earnest life,

‘Even in the trials of our civil strife,

Where sisters quarrel, and where the Southern wife
Is sometimes ready to employ the knife
Against her foe; that there is a rest,

A pause, when the wild bosom heaves,
Takes counsel, and the hurt heart grieves
Over quick temper; and this relieves
The surcharged spirit, like leaves

That fall, the ripest fruit to show,

To feed the hungry multitude below.
Sometimes their too fiery anger,

Like all passion, dies in languor;

And then these most lovely foemen :
Forget their hate, remembering they are women.
So illogical is a passionate word,

Like a keen and always noiseless sword,

Only a hint is needed to the female heart

To sheathe the sword, and make tears to start;
And then almost as quick as Spring-like weather,
The angry women melt, and fondly come together.

Mrs. Hancock, who in all probability will pre-
side in the establishment of the next President of
the United States, was Miss Russell of St. Louis.
She is a woman of fine physique and beauty of
face. She is seven years younger than her hus-
band, who is nearly fifty-seven. The pictures of
her, taken some years ago, before the death of her
only daughter, whose loss was a severe blow to
WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. ATT

her, are very pleasing. Neither. sorrow nor time,
however, have altered her much, and the Mrs.
Hancock of to-day is charming. She is slightly
above medium height, and has a winsome way of .
her own which nobody who comes in contact with
her tries to resist.

The following well deserved tribute to Mrs.
General Hancock, the hostess at .Governor’s
Island, New York, will show how she is estimated
by one of her own sex, and how, in the event of
the choice of her husband to the Presidency, she
is qualified to walk in the footsteps of her prede-
cessors :

“Tt has been my special privilege and good
fortune to have known for many years Mrs. Han-
cock, the wife of our distinguished General, and I
cannot resist the influence that inspires present
meditation to add my tribute to a character com-
bining such rare excellence of heart and mind.
Possessed of intelligence and perception of an
unusual order, quick at reparte, fascinating in
conversation, of wondrous adaptability, companion-
able alike to youth and age, she cannot fail to be a
favorite with all. She is eminently fitted to adorn
the most exalted position to which she might be
called—an accomplished musician, it was indeed a
rare treat to hear her, but this pleasure within the
last few years I have not been permitted to enjoy.
Since the loss of her dearly-loved and only daughter,
much of the sunshine which brightened her life
478 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF
y

has departed, leaving upon her face, which has an
incomparable charm for me (in my opinion is the
surest indication of character), the impress of a
great sorrow ; and as I see an occasional thread of
silver in her golden red hair, I realize it is in truth
the sorrowful heart that changes youth to age.

“Transcendent above all else with this accom-
plished and amiable lady, is the kindly generous
nature with which she is richly endowed. Loyal
and just, replete with every noble impulse, she is
ever striving to ameliorate the condition of others
less favored than herself, a heart. responsive to
every charitable demand, with words of sympathy:
and cheer for earth’s afflicted ones, her sympathy
falls like dew upon their blighted hearts. A mantle
of inheritance has fallen on her; the generous
hospitality which characterized her dear father
and mother, and made their home in St. Louis
one long to be remembered, is her special gift.
The recipients of her bounteous kindness, for they
are legion, will renew with heartfelt pleasure
the happy hour she has given, and the cordial:
welcome always extended to them. She isin my.
_regard the peer of her good husband, and the em-
- bodiment of the exquisite sentiment :

‘A perfect woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command.’ ”

As: Mrs. Hancock and Mrs Garfield carefully.
study the lives of the ladies who came in and
LIFE AND CAREER OF WINFIELD S. HANCOCK. 4°79

passed out of the respective administrations of this
government, since Washington’s first term, in 1789,
. they will gather nothing to discourage them. Ido
not think as much as can be said of the queens of
foreign dynasties before the reign of Queen Victo-
- ria, and I am proudly sure that the fact is at least
as strong in regard to all our American Presidents.
Since the First English George no other European
power has presented so marvellous a succession of
good rulers as the United States; and, I may add,
not all the dynasties since Alfred, have shown so
much integrity and capacity. Generals Hancock
and Garfield may also think of this with satisfac-
tion. ,
 

W. H. ENGLISH.
HON. W. H. ENGLISH,

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR VICE-PRESIDENT.

 

CHAPTER XV.
ANCESTRY.

N the cemetery of the thriving but rather quiet
town of Carrollton, the county seat of Greene
County, Dl. there is, or was some years ago, an
humble monument standing by two graves,
bearing the following inscriptions :

In memory of Elisha English, born March 2, 1768, near Laurel,
Sussex County, Del. Married Sarah Wharton, Dec. 10, 1788. Re-
moved to Kentucky in 1790, and to Greene County, Illinois, in 1830.
Died at Louisville, Ky., March 7, 1857. He was a faithful husband, a
kind father, and an honest man. /

In memory of Sarah Wharton, wife of Elisha English. Died No-
vember 27, 1849, in the eighty-second year of her age. She was kind
to her neighbors, devoted to her family, and a noble woman in all the
relations of life. : .

My father and my mother. They lived lovingly together as husband
and wife over sixty years, and, before the tie was broken, could number
200 living descendants. Their fourteen children all married and had
children before a death occurred in the family. This monument is

erected to their memory by Elisha G. English, of Indiana.
29 483
484 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

These are the grand-parents, on the father’s
side, of the subject of this sketch, the Hon. William
H. English, and the facts disclosed by these inscrip-
tions-embody the most that is known of their
history.

On the mother’s vids his grandparents sleep their
last sleep in the Riker’s Ridge (or. Hill’s) burying-
ground, a romantic spot near the Ohio river, a few

miles northeast of Madison, Indiana, and again

recourse is had to a monument which marks their
graves as containing an epitome of the most that
is known of their history :

In memory of Philip Eastin, a Lieutenant in the Fourth Virginia
Regiment in the war of the American Revolution, who was buried in
this secluded spot in the year,1817, leaving his widow and a large fam-
ily.of children to mourn his loss. ‘He sleeps his last sleep, he has
fought his last battle.” Honor his memory, for he was one of the
brave and true men whose gallant deeds gave freedom and independ-
ence to our country.

In memory of Sarah Smith Eastin, who died near this place and was

., buried here in the year 1848. She was married to Lieutenant Philip
Eastin at Winchester, Va., in 1782, near which place she was born, be-
ing a descendant of the Hite family, who first settled that valley. The
prosperity of early life gave place in her old age to poverty and the
hardships of rearing a large family in a new country; but she acted her
part well under all circumstances, and died with the respect and love
of all who knew her. Now that the joys and sorrows of a long and
-eventful life are over, they sleep well. May they rest ‘in peace. This
monument is erected to their memory by their erecdeim, William H.
‘English.

Of the seventeen children born to this pair, Ma-
hala, the mother of our subject, first saw the light
WILLIAM H. ENGLISH. ‘485

in Fayette County, Ky., and now resides with her
distinguished son and only surviving child at In-
dianapolis, in the eighty-second year of her age,
retaining in a remarkable degree her health and
‘all her faculties,
- Asan element of character, and one which all
good persons recognize as essential to greatness,
not one can be named so well calculated to inspire
respect as a profound veneration for ancestors,
especially when its development draws the child-
ren more to parents as the weight of years increase.
This trait of character was never more beautifully
exhibited than in Mr. English’s devotion to his
parents. His honors and his prosperity only vital-
ized his affections for them, and in his elegant home,
with all the refinements, comforts and luxuries
wealth could command, he demonstrated the good-
ness of his heart, the armth of his affections and
the nobility of his character. Indiana, among all
_ her society, presents no more beautiful picture of a
son’s devotion than is to be found in the residence of
Mr. English, where his mother, now over four-score
years of age, is enjoying all the care that affec-
tion can bestow.

I met William H. English, the Democratic can-.
didate for Vice-President, in 1852, while he was'a
member for Indiana, in the House of Representa-
tives of the United States, and I was clerk of that
body, elected in 1851 and re-elected in 1853. He
was born in Scott county, Ind., August 27, 1822,
486 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

received a good education, and spent three years
at the University of South Hanover, then studied
law and was admitted to practice in 1840. In
1843 he was elected Clerk of the House of Repre-
sentatives of Indiana, and Clerk of the State Con-
stitutional Convention in 1850, and in 1851 was:
Speaker of the House of Representatives of his
state, and after his re-election to Congress, was
made a regent of the Smithsonian Institution.

A MODEL BUSINESS MAN,

Very agreeable, painstaking, exact in business
and full of work, was Mr. English. He was
among the early supporters of Judge Douglas,
and one of the leaders of the popular sove-
reignty party in Congress. If there is one doc-
trine that has triumphed over all opposition, it
is the doctrine that the people of the territories,
like the people of the states, shall adjust all their
internal affairs, slavery inclusive. And although
Mr. Garfield, in one of his speeches in the House
of Representatives, recently took occasion to ask
what had become of popular sovereignty, thereby
classing it among the perished dogmas of the last
twenty years, if he should now go to Kansas, he
would there find two likenesses, one on canvas and
the other in marble, the one of Andrew H. Reeder
of Pennsylvania, and the other of Eli Thayer of
Massachusetts. Both of them are cherished in the
innermost heart of the people of that great state,
WILLIAM H. ENGLISH. 487

because they were the successful champions of:
popular sovereignty. Reeder is dead, but if he
were now living, I do not think he would be
found silent under the sneers of the politician
Garfield. Eli Thayer is still living at Wor-
cester, Mass., a Republican advocate of General
Hancock, and his proudest title to distinction is
the fact that he organized the first emigrant aid
company that made Kansas free, and that he was
literally turned out of the Republican party in
Massachusetts because he preferred the rule of the
people in the territories to the rule of Congress, or
the dogma of the Wilmot proviso. While I write
this tribute to Mr. English, my old friend, Mr.
Thayer, comes into my office and enunciates his
favorite text, namely: “The Emigrant Aid Com-
pany was the first organization of the kind, and it
was the first time in the history of the world that
the strength of free labor was organized to oppose
physically the imbecility of slavery.”

Observing the effort to prove tnat Mr. English
belongs to the monied class, it may be worth
something to know he is supported with great
resolution and willingness by the old Republican
leader of Massachusetts, the friend of freedom and
the laboring man.

The exciting struggle in the national legislature
over the admission .of Kansas is no longer a text
for party quarrels or a pretext for sectional hatred.
Never has any doctrine born riper or richer fruits
488 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

than popular sovereignty in Kansas and Ne-
braska,

There were very many differences before the
Kansas question was settled, and from 1854 to
the admission of Kansas into the Union as a State
in 1860, but it is profitable to remember that the
Lecompton Constitution, which was the invention
of the extreme men at that time, was regarded as
so unjust and unfair among liberal Southern states-
men that they did not hesitate to denounce it as
unspeakably contemptible and dishonorable.

A LOVER OF BOOKS.

The remark that General Hancock is not a
statesman of the modern type, but a soldier after
the model of Washington, Harrison, Taylor and
Grant, ought to be supplemented by the remark
that General Garfield is one of the modern dille-
tante who talk of civil service and do not practice
it, and regard the protection of American industry
as one of the vulgar ideas of the day. They there-
fore incline to the theories of the Cobden Club.
Garfield may be healthfully contrasted with the
’ fact that William H. English combines a good deal
of the practical, every-day habits of Winfield 8.
Hancock, and at the same time a large considera-
tion for polite literature. No man can be elected
Regent of the Smithsonian Institute at Washing-
ton without having considerable taste for science ;
no man could be a successful practitioner before
WILLIAM H. ENGLISH, - 489.

the Supreme Court of the United States for many
years without being something of a lawyer; and
no man can be a prosperous banker without a
large knowledge of American finance. Mr. Eng-
lish is two years older than General Hancock.

Those who remember the excitement. prior to
the admission of Kansas as a free State, in obe-
dience to the popular will, will accept the gphilo-
sophical truth that “time at last makes all things
equal.” And now, when Kansas is one of the
grandest commonwealths in the world, and when
popular sovereignty has proved itself to be the
real remedy for all local faults, and has been
incorporated into the whole organism. of the
country; adjusting and settling all territorial
difficulties, it seems difficult to believe that so
_ much acrimony should have existed between the
North and the South on this question, and not
only between the North and the South, but
between individual members of the Northern Dem-

cratic Party.
The relation of Mr. English to the bill that bore
his name has ceased to be misrépresented, and his
after life shows that when finally war broke out,
he was on the side of that portion of our people
that were ready to make any sacrifices for the
preservation of the Union.

Alluding to the folly of the South, when they
threatened to break up the Union because of the
election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, he
490 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

declared that “not a corporal’s guard of Northern
men would go out of the Union for such a cause,
and that his constituency would only march under
the flag and keep step to the music of the Union.”

- A CONSISTENT DEMOCRAT.

Preserving a complete identity with his party
as a Democrat, however, he never sustained a de-
feat béfore the people, but retired in the full me-
ridian of success to private life, just at the begin-
ning of the War. Sharing the confidence of the
leaders of his own party, he was also the intimate
personal friend of the Republican Governor of
Indiana, Oliver Perry Morton, another of the
Democrats who associated with the Republican
party to put down the institution of slavery. He
offered the command of a regiment to Mr.
English, in full confidence that he was anxious to
serve the country and put down the authors of
our Civil War. In a speech made by Mr. Eng-
lish, at Madison, Ind., the Madison Courier, of
that place, a paper not of Mr. English’s politics,
said:

“Mr. English spoke for over an hour, and declared himself
opposed to the Republican doctrines, and should boldly assail Mr.
Lincoln’s policy whenever he thought it wrong; but as a native of In-
diana, thoroughly identified with Free State interests, he felt his alle-
giance was exclusively due to the State of Indiana and the Government

of the United States, and he should accordingly abide in good faith by
their laws, and stand under the time-honored flag.”

In 1863 he became associated with the Hon.
WILLIAM H. ENGLISH. 491

Hugh McCullough, then entering upon the duties of
comptroller of the currency, and the great bankers,
J. F. Lanier, of New York, and George W. Riggs,
of. Washington, in the banking business. Under
such auspices, he organized the First National
Bank of Indianapolis, which ultimately became one
of the most solvent and substantial institutions in
the West. Under his administration as president,
the bank began with a capital of $1 50, 000, and
during his admirable management the éapital was
increased to a million with $150,000 surplus; for
over fourteen years Mr. English presided with
remarkable ability and fidelity. Governor Morton,
George W. Riggs, Thomas A. Hendricks, Hon. J.
Cravin, and Hon. Franklin Landers, were directors.

In 1877 he resigned the presidency of this bank,
when the stockholders and directors paid him the
high compliment of passing the following resolu-
tion: ’

“That the Executive Committee of the Board be directed to have
prepared and present to Mr. English a suitable testimonial and memento

of our personal regard and esteem, and that he carry with him our most
sincere wishes for a long life of usefulness and happiness.”

After retiring from the bank, Mr. English sold
out all his stock, and that of the street companies
and other railways, and does not now own a dollar
in any corporation. A clear-headed man of business,
a lover of books, a sound lawyer and a good
speaker, logical rather than ornate, he has pre-
served his credit like his integrity, to the end,
492 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

and has always been the bold advocate of honest
money and a sound national system of finance.

Mr. English was married on the 17th of Novem-
ber, 1847, in the city of Baltimore, Md., the Rev.
Henry Slicer, Chaplain of the United States Senate,
Washington, performing the ceremony. On the
14th of November, 1876, Mr. English became a
widower. His son and daughter are both living
and both married. The fine residence of the De-
mocratic candidate for Vice-President, in Indiana-
polis, is pointed out because it was originally
intended for the site of the residence of the Gov-
ernor of that great State. His wealth is large, his
taste refined, and his position among the first, so-,
cially and commercially.

At this moment he is Chairman of the Demo-
cratic State Central Committee of Indiana, the
duties of which he continues to discharge as not
inconsistent with his tastes and opinions.

He was born in Scott County, Indiana, on
the 27th day of August, 1822, and may be said
to have grown with the growth, and strengthened
with the strength of a great commonwealth.
When his father first settled in Indiana, the
valley of the Mississippi, now an empire in wealth
and population, was comparatively a wilderness,
the home of savage beasts, and roving bands of
scarcely less savage men, Now it contains a popu-
lation of two millions and is full of the promise of
a wonderful future.
WILLIAM H. ENGLISH. 493.

IN FAVOR OF ALLOWING THE PEOPLE TO VOTE ON
SLAVERY.

Mr. English has been a consistent member of,
the Democratic party, was an open adversary
of Know-nothingism, a hearty sympathizer with
popular sovereignty, but never allowed himself to
go to the extremes of those who made the question
of free Kansas a leading object of their political
lives. He was never a Lecompton Democrat, yet
not of those who wished to cripple the administra-
tion or break up the Democratic organization.
And this is the way he talked to the Southern
men who forced the disruption of the Democratic
party on the question of slavery, twenty-two years
ago. The two extracts from his speeches will show
exactly where he stood on that question.

“T think before Kansas is admitted, her people ought to ratify, or, at
least, have a fair opportunity to vote upon the constitution under which
it is proposed to admit her: at the same time, I am not so wedded to
any particular plan that I may not, for the sake of harmony and as a
choice of evils, make reasonable concessions, provided the substance
would be secured, which is the making of the constitution, at an early
day, conform to the public will, or, at least, that the privilege and oppor-
tunity of so making it be secured to the. people beyond all question.
Less than this would not satisfy the expectations of my constituents, and °
I would not betray their wishes for any earthly considerations. If, on
the other hand, all reasonable compromises are voted: down, and I am
brought to vote upon the. naked and unqualified admission of Kansas
under the Lecompton constitution, I distinctly declare that I can not, in

conscience, vote for it.”

During the long and exciting contest over this
\
494 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

question, which has seldom before been equaled in
bitterness, and was really the prelude to the terri-
ble civil war, Mr. English never departed from the
position taken in this speech. As a party man he
was anxious to heal the divisions that had sprung
up among his political friends upon this question,
and to relieve the Administration and the South
from the position they had taken, which Mr. Eng-
lish, in his heart, considered impolitic and danger-
ous.

He was “Anti-Lecompton,” but not one of those
who wished to cripple the Administration or break
up the Democratic organization. He boldly and
eloquently appealed to his Southern colleages. Al-
luding to the recent defeats of the Democracy at
the North, he said:

“Tt should not be forgotten, that when we men of the North went
forth to encounter this fearful army of fanatics, this great army of Aboli-
tionists, Know-nothings and: Republicans combined, you, gentlemen of
the South were at home at your ease, because you had not run counter
to the sympathies and popular sentiments of your people; you went
with the current, we against it. We risked everything, you compara-
tively nothing; and now I appeal to you whether, for the sake of an
empty triumph of no permanent benefit to you or your ‘ peculiar insti-
tution, you will turn a deaf ear to our earnest entreaties for such an
adjustment of this question as will enable us to respect the wishes of our
constituents and maintain the union and integrity of our party at home?
Look to it, ye men of the South, that you do not, for a mere shadow,
strike down or drive from you your only effective support outside the
limits of your own States.”

There is no better way to study character than
WILLIAM H. ENGLISH. 495

-by the Plutarch method of parallels. How Mr.
English was valued is shown by the following tes-
timonials. President Buchanan wrote to him as.
follows :—

“It was your fate to end a dangerous agitation, to confer lasting bene-
fits upon your country, and to make your character historical. I shall

ut

remain always your friend. If I had a thousand votes you should
have them all with a hearty good will.”

And now let us see what his constituents said
when he retired from office. The Convention
which nominated his successor in Congress adopted
unanimously the following resolution :

Resolved, That in selecting a candidate to represent this District in
the Thirty-seventh Congress, we deem it a proper occasion to express
the respect and esteem we entertain.for our present member, Hon. W.
I. English, and our confidence in him as a public officer. In his. re-
tirement, in accordance with his well known wishes, from the position
of Representative, which he has so long filled with credit to himself
and benefit to the country, we heartily greet him with the plaudit,
«Well done thou good and faithful servant.”

Again: Mr. English was for fifteen years
intrusted with the management of one of the most
important financial institutions in the West, from
which he voluntarily retired with the thanks of the
directors and stockholders.

“For the very great financial ability, constant watchfulness and per-
fect fidelity with which he has managed it from its organization to the
present time.” ,

And this resolution was offered by Colpuel John
©. New, now the Chairman of the Indiana Repub.
lican Central Committee.
496 LIFE.AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

THE CANDIDATES CONTRASTED.

Now note the career of the Republican Candi-
date for Vice-President, Chester Arthur :

Mr. Arthur was entrusted with the collection of
the United States revenue at the city of New
York. Was he faithful to that trust? This ques-
tion has been answered in the negative by the
highest Republican testimony in the land, and it
is too clear and emphatic to be called in question
or explained away.

Here is what President Hayes and John Sher-
man said of Mr. Arthur when he was removed
fromthe post of Collector of New York. It is
Republican testimony, and should not be ques-
tioned by Republicans. -

“With a deep sense of my obligations under the Constitution, I regard
it as my plain duty to suspend you tn order that the office may be honestly
administered.’”—R. B. Hayes to Collector Arthur, January 31, 1879.

“Gross abuses of administration have continued and increased dur-
ing your incumbency.”—Sherman to Collector Arthur, J anuary 31,
1879. .

“Persons have been regularly paid by you who have rendered little

or no service; the expenses of your office have increased, while its re-
, ceipts have diminished. Bribes, or gratuities in the shape of bribes, have
been received by your subordinates in several branches of the Oustom House,
‘and you have in no case supported the effort to correct these abuses,’”’—Secre~
‘tary Sherman to Collector Arthur, January 31, 1879,
WILLIAM H. ENGLISH. 497

CHAPTER XVI.
THE LESSON OF HALF A CENTURY.

It will be forty-eight years next December since
Andrew Jackson’s proclamation, like the trumpet
of the archangel, aroused the country, by directing
attention to the dangers of nullification, preparing,
thereby the masses for that civil war which ended
in the maintenance of the sovereignty of the Re-
public. When Daniel Webster, more than. fifty
years since, on the 26th of January 1830, opened
his great speech in defense of the Union, he pre-
figured the text of General Jackson’s proclamation.
Before Webster began his immortal appeal, he set
us an example which it is well for us on the out-
post of another conflict, to re-publish for our own
guidance and the benefit of the people:

“Mr. PrestpEnt: When the mariner has been tossed for many
days in thick weather, and. on an open sea, he naturally avails himeelf
of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun to ‘take his
latitude and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his
true course. Let us imitate this prudence, and before we float farther on
the wavesof this debate, refer to the point from which we departed, that
we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are.”

4
498 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF °

I have endeavored in these pages, now brought
to a close, to direct the attention to the main point
in this Presidential competition, and throughout
have kept. my eye upon the primary duty which
should govern and conclude the struggle. Mr.
Webster pleaded for the union of the States; so
General Hancock pleads to-day. The chief duty
is how to preserve what cost so much agony to
establish, so much ne to maintain, and so much
blood to save.

The distressful past is s dead, and nothing of the
present is’ so strong as the fact that there is not
now a living interest that does not desire the perpe-
tuity of our free institutions, and real fraternity
among our people. Those who remember the past
only to recall the errors of our forefathers, to stimu-
late the exasperating memories of the civil war,
and re-light the fires of savage sectional hatred,
are the busy enemies of this great foundation Duty.
They have no real concern in union, because they
have no real concern in conciliation. They have

no interest in peace, because they have no interest
in forgiveness. They place party above country,
and again seize the Presidential election to open
another page of recrimination, to prolong the pas-
sions which the real founders of the Republican
party all tried to subdue before they were called
away.

It was a Southern man and a Democrat who
. taught armed nullification the danger of assailing
WILLIAM H. ENGLISH. 499

the Republic, in 1832, and it is a Northern man
and a Democrat who in 1880, asks the people of
both sections to come together in one mission of.
brotherhood. Both these men were soldiers:
Jackson drove the British invader from the soil of.
Louisiana on the 8th of January, 1815; Hancock
drove the Confederate invader from the soil of
Pennsylvania, on the 3d of July, 1863. The peo-
ple of the North and South rewarded General
Jackson by electing him twice to the Presidency,
and now the people of the North and South are
about to elect General Hancock to the Presidency,
not alone because he was among the bravest of the
brave in the hour of direst peril, but was among,
the most magnanimous, and chiefly because ‘he. is
now the leader of the only'party pledged to peace
and prosperity. |

I think I have shown clearly that General Han-
cock’s mission has been prepared for him by the
events of the last twenty years, by the example and
the efforts of the founders of the Republican party,
by the guarantees made necessary to clinch and bind
and rivet the Union together, by the treaty of
Appomattox, and afterwards by the amendments
of the Constitution, accepted solemnly by the
Democratic party in National Convention assem-.
bled, and reiterated. by the Democratic candidates
for President and Vice-president. I have directed
attention to the increasing spirit of concord and
_ harmony among the Southern people. I have
30
500 LIFE AND PUBLIC CAREER OF

pointed out the honest and vigorous revival of the
national sentiment in the Southern states: the
restoration of law and order, the improvement in
the whites and the education of the blacks, the
freedom of speech, of opinion and of intercourse,
the amazing growth of material development, the
complete abandonment of State Rights as para-
mount to National sovereignty, the growth of the
Southern population, the increase of Southern
literature, the vast multiplication of social and
commercial interests and obligations, and above
all, that pride of Union, that love of country, that
deep admiration for the dearest memories of the
past—all of which had been subordinated and
almost fairly blotted out by the hate and recrimi-
tion of the Civil War, and the succeeding efforts at
reconstruction.

The congenial reader of these pages will see
that Ihave faithfully labored to keep these objects
in view. Could there be a nobler duty than that
which restores kindness in our National household ?
Is there on earth a more inspiring spectacle than the
reconciliation of families, and the forgiveness of
kindred, a purer gospel than that forbearance
which never ceases to be a virtue? If one man is
happier when he brings two friends long alienated
together; what must be the feelings of the patriot
who gives himself up to the restoration of love
and honor and faith and confidence among forty-
eight millions of the best people on earth? Who
WILLIAM H. ENGLISH. - §01

would not give up party to a mission which has
induced thousands to give up their lives? The
Americans who fought at Gettysburg and in all the
other historic fields of our Civil War, were not
kindled into personal hate. Each side contended
for its principal convictions, but all were still
at heart loyal citizens of one country in April of
1865. — ‘

I have several times printed what was told me
by General Meade that when there was a pause in
the negotiations before the treaty between Lee and
Grant, the terror that prevailed among the oppos-
ing lines, between the Union soldiers on the one
side, and the Confederate soldiers on the. other
side, lest there might be some misunderstanding,
was akin to the agony of a starving garrison wait-
ing for food and water. And when finally the
word was given that truce had been declared, and
that peace had come and come to stay, a scene took
_place that all the inspiration of the orator and the
genius of the painter would have been required to
describe. The Union veterans poured into the
camp of the Confederates, rushed to shake hands
with them, took them into their tents, gave them.
“food and refreshment, and so a love-feast and a
libation of joy, came after the bloody sacrifice and
the prolonged conflict that begun in 1860 and
only closed when Abraham Lincoln passed away
in Washington, breathing forgiveness to the mis-
guided people of the South.
502 LIFE AND CAREER OF WILLIAM H. ENGLISH.
‘

It is this lesson that I have tried to extract
from our Civil War, and if that story should be -
crowned by the election of General Hancock to
the Presidency in next November, we, in 1881,
begin a half century of dazzling Freedom
and Peace. It will not be like that which
closed in April of 1865, not a half century of
heresies, mischievous statesmanship, illogical hatred
and merciless sectionalism, assailed motives, quar-
-relling families, blasted trade, languishing com-
merce, personal government, personal malignity,
personal punishment, the elevation of .inferior and
bad men, the banishment from place of high intel- :
lect and ripe experience; but a half century such
as alone can come to a people that had got rid of
slavery, had saved the only Republic on earth,
and laid the foundations of good government deep
in their own hearts and strong enough to endure
all the storms of time.