Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1880 — AN ELOQUENT TRIBUTE [ARTICLE]

AN ELOQUENT TRIBUTE

James E- Powell, of Kansas City, Pays an Wloquont Tribute to General Hancock. [Denver Daily News.] The following tribute to General Haucock was paid by James Elbert Powell, of Kansas City, the eloquent youn« rival of Bob Ingersoll, in his brilliant lecture on “The Solid South,” now being delivered iu Colorado under the auspices of the American Literary Bureau of New York: “ l cau not close this allusion to the era of reconstruction in the South, ladies and gentlemen, without offering a tribute to ‘hat man, who, tried by the true test of greatness, has proven himself a peer—whose young sword flashed like a meteor over the bloody fields of Mexico, and flung its gleams across the deepening twilight of Spottsylvania and Gettysburg—whose splendid energies and Spartan prowess have ever been dedicated to the cause of individual justice and national honor—whose gallantry is emblazoned upon the brightest pages of American history, but whose glory as a warrior is eclipsed by the grandeur of the civilian—who was no less a hero beneath the olive branch of peace than when leading the charge under the red banner of war—who never feared to draw his sword at the call of hisoountry, or to lay it, sheathed, upi n the shrine of constitutional Government when the dust of conflict had drifted away—who crystalized his views and molded his measures with that royal compassion which yielded to a conquered and impoverished foe the inviolable inheritance of civic liberty—who is one of the grandest men in the land, recognized by the brilliancy of his individual luster, and uot reflecting the borrowed rays of other luminaries—to that defender of the Union, that champion of the Constitution, that sovereign of soldiers, that pioneer of peace, that prince of patriots, General Winfield Scott Hancock, the exponent of great virtue, of tried courage, of lofty wisdom, of broad intelligence of earnest patriotism, of noble aspiration and of true manhood. He is a soldier, not alone of manner or of rank, but of merit and of mind—he is a soldier, who distinguished liimseif in the defense,of libert3\ and the vanquishment of des-potism-he is a soldier who lifted himself above the ignoranee and prejudice of the day, and planted the royal banner of pardon and love upon the battlements of sectionalism aud strife—he is a soldier, not by the power of fear, but by the force of splendid superiority; he is a soldier upon whose bosom radiates the star of honor, and to whose memory will be issued the highest patent of nobility. When, at the foot or Bunker Hill, in the shadow of that royal shaft, which stands a monumental emblem of heroic valor, whose remembrance is eonseeiated in the hearts of 50,000,000 of patriots, beneath the rays of the stais and the light of the centuries, the goddess of historic unity ard liberty, the guardian of our national faith shall call the roll of the grand army of heroes, there will be no more gallant—no more glorious response, than that which swells from the heart aud the record of Winfield S. Hancock.

He believed that when the Southern chieftain surrendered his sword to the Northern conqueror beneath the historic tree at Appomattox, the Southern sun went down, and with its setting were buried the passion and pain of war; that the blue and the gray should clasp hauds forever, and the Northern sigh meet the Southern sorrow above the same graves, garlanded with the same flowers, gathered by the same hands, consecrated by the samq regrets, and bedewed with the same tears. He has recently been nominated by a great political body for the highest office in the gift of the American people, and, though I come to nighi as the advocate of no faction—the ohampion of no party—as a lover of my country, I must say, that, if General Hancock’s destiny, casts its meridiau beams upon him in the White House, they will fall upon an Rxecuiive from whose hands the scepter of justice will not drop in helpless impoteace, but one who will continue to battle for union and liberty, while truth, courage and fidelity to principle shall find a home in, the hearts and hopes of men. He will not be a politician for the sake of party as he has not been a soldier for tho sake of glory, but he will be a man for the sake of his country. He is a man, the corner stone of whose character Is integrity. He is a man whose virtues are negative or obstructive, but positive aud aggressive. He is a man with a strong mind, a pure heart and a ready haud. He is a man who will set his face against any system of political looseness, and link honor and valor to a sympathy with the people. He is a man whose favor no spoils of office can buy, whose voice no mocking flattery can silence—he is a man, upon whose escutcheon rests no stain or semblance of dishonor—he is a man who will bind together the fragments of our dismembered Union—he is a man, who will heal the wounds of sectional hate, and kindle the warmth of fraternal affection—he is a man who will rise above the level of partisan zeal, above the reaoh of personal vanality, above the influence or suspicion of corruption, above tbe scope of moral cowardice—a man who will bring confidence, bring courage, bring peace to our unhappy country, where now “Freedom weeps, Wrong rules the land. And waiting Justice sleeps.”