I have 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 his 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 lawful one. No other determination could stand the test. The country, if not plunged into revolution, would become poorer day by day, business would languish, and our bonds would come home to find a 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 supreme, 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

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; besides, 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 his command. I knew that he was in direct communication with my superiors in authority in reference 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 Mississippi 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 been used unlawfully, at times, in the 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

are held to such responsibility, especially those near the head of it, that it is necessary, on such momentous occasions, to dare to determine for themselves what is lawful, and what is not lawful, under our system if the military authorities should be invoked, as might possibly be the case in 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 righteons intent, aim to defend the right, to us is the law and the institution 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,

WINFIELD S. HANCOCK.

TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN, Commanding Army of the United States, Washington, D. C.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE LIVING STATESMEN OF THE PAST.

HERE is nothing more depressing to the patri

TH

otic philosopher than the fact that a candidate, like General Garfield, all the defects of whose record are charged upon him by his own political 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 comparison 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 Democrats of both sections mingled together, differing about evanescent issues, but sincerely desirous to promote

national concord and prosperity. Now the statesmen 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 distrusted 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 not a 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, anxious to show their pride of country, and warmly attached to the Northern people in the great interests of life. Hundreds of them are connected by marriage 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