Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1880 — HANCOCK TO SHERMAN. [ARTICLE]

HANCOCK TO SHERMAN.

Congress met on December 4th. 1878. The results of the Returning Boards frauds in Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida, were then known throughout the country. A large number of troops were concentrated at Washington, and there was much apprehension that the army would be called upon to take part in the settlement of the presidential contest. General Sherman, commanding the army of the United States, consulted with his immediate subordinates as to their views of their duty under these circumstances. He wrote to General Hancock two letters, one on the 4th of December. 1876, and the other on the 17th of the same month. General Hancock replied te these letters on December 28th, from Carondelet, near St. Louis, Missouri. After Hancock’s nomination for the presidency, the Republican press circulated a story that between the presidential election of 1878, and the establishment of the Electoral Commission, General Hancock had written a letter te General Sherman, declaring his intention "to take his orders from Mr. Tilden/' and expressing treasonable sentiments. The statements of the Republican newspapers were not refuted for some time, for the reason that General Sherman was absent in the far West, and the letter could not with propriety be published without his consent. That consent was given at the end of July last, and the letter was first published on the Ist of August. Its publication has not only absolutely refuted the falsehoods which had been circulated in relation to it, but has remilted in making plain te the world General Hancock’s profound statesmanship and his pre-eminent fitness for the office of President of the United States: "CauoinMttWT Y. 1 "St. Lows, Me., Beeember 28, MTV. | "Mt Dbar Gnumtan: Tour favor of the 4th instant reached mo in New York on the sth, the day before I left fer the West. 1 intended to reply to it before leaving, but cares incident to departure interfered. 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 fhte moment, and new X find myself to debt to yea another letter in acknowledgment of your favor of the 17th, received a few days since. “I have concluded te leave hero on the 28th (to-morrow} P.M., so that I maybe exported in Hew York on tite 81st instant. It has been coM and theory staeo my arrival hero. I have worked ’like a Ttuk* 0 presume that means hard work) in the country, in makfeg finooe, emtiteg down trees, repairing buMtams, <fee., 4tau and am at Mart able to say that fit Louto to the ooterofiptaee tn wintoe, as it is the hottest in summer, at m that I have enesHmterod tn a temperate seam. 1 have mnown 06. Lento tetoeoemb* to have genial wwdlbiw through not the month; ttdeßeeomber has been end «te rAror has boot Bonen more solid than 1 have ever hnownte "When I based the ranter that! was ordered to tbs Paeide seated no eompfetot nor made rsstdsnii off any Utak I would have g<mo quietly iff not prepared to go promptly. I certainly would have bean refonpfl from

i and anxieties concerning Presidential matters which may foil' ’lto those near the throne or tn authority within the nextj four months, as well as from other incidents or matter* which I could not control, and the action concerning 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 dangers which may cluster around military commanders tn the East, especially tn the critical period fast approaching. All’s well that ends well. The whole matter of the Presidency seems to me to and to admit of a peaceful solution. The machinery for such a contingency as threatens to present itself has been r all carefully prepared. It only requires lubrication, owing ' to disuse. The army should have nothing to do with the selection or inauguration of Presidents. The people elect the President. The Congress declares in a regular session who he is I We of the army have only to obey Ins mandates, and are protected in so doing only so far as t hey may be lawful. Our commissions express that. I like Jefferson’s way of inauguration; it suits our system. 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 inaugurated himself simply by taking the oath of office. There is no other legal 'inauguration in our system. The people or politicians may institute parades in honor of tho event, and public officials may add to the pageant by assembling troops and banners, but all that only comes properly after the inauguration, not before, and it is not a part of it. Our system des 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 connection with coming events. The capital is in my jurisdiction also, but lam a 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 Geueral-ln-Chief. “ Ou the principle that a regularly elected President’s term of office expires with the 3d of March (of which I have not th® slightest doubt), and which the laws bearing on the subject uniformly recognize, and in consideration of the possibility that the lawfully elected President may not appear until the sth of March, a great deal of responsibility may necessarily fall upon you. You hold over ! You will have power and prestige to support you. The Secretary of War, too, probably holds over ; but if no President appears, he may not be able to exercise functions in the name of a President, for his proper acts are those of a known 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 tho occasion 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,.ußed, no'occasion presenting itself, but our forefathers provided it. It has been exercised, and has been recognized and submitted to as law ful on every Sand. 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. Soma tribunal must decide whether the-people have duly elected a President. I presume, of course, that it is in the joint affirmative action of the Senate ana House, or why are they present to witness the count if not to see that it is fair ana just? If a failure to agree arises between the two bodies there can be no lawful affirmative decision that the people 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 by the House to elect a Bresident 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, or un- > til the appearance of a lawful President, or for the time laid I down in the Constitution. Such courses would be peaceful ' and I have a firm belief lawful. j

“ I have no doubt Governor Hayes would make an excellent President. 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 would of course 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 administration _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 depreci-. ated market. < “ I was not in favor of the military action in South Carolina recently, and if General Roger 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. X,could *ot have given him better advice than to refer him to the special message of the President in the case of Louisian* i some time before.

“Butin South Carolina he had had the question settled ** by a decision of the Supreme Court of the state, the highest tribunal which bad acted on the question, so that his line of .. duty seemed even to be clearer than the action in the Louisiana case. If the Federal court had interfered and overruled the decision of the state'eourt, 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, it the civil authority is supreme, as the Constitution declares* l " 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 L*d' given it, I should of course have notified you of my actions} immediately, so that it could have been promptly overrule* if it should have been deemed advisable by you or other perior in authority. Gen. Ruger did not ask for my advic a, t and I inferred from that and other facts that he did not,deei '® j it, or that, being in direct communication with military siAperiors at the seat of government, who were nearer to hit* I in time and distance than I was—he deemed it unnecessaryAs General Ruger had the ultimate responsibility of acticl* j 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 thX. lawful head of the military administration within the limits of ' the department; but, besides, I knew thathe had been called to Washington for consultation before taking command, and | was probably aware of the views ot the administration as to 1 civil affairs in his command. I knew that he was In direct com- I munication with my superiors in authority in reference to th® t delicate subjects presented for his consideration, or had idea® . of his oyn which he believed to be sufficiently in accord with ; the views of our common superiors to enable him to act intel- t ligently according to his judgment, and without suggestion® ; from those not on the spot and not as fully acquainted with ! the facts as himself. He desired, too, to be free to act. a® . he had the eventual greater responsibility, and so the matter I 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 1 it lawful or wise to use Federal troops in such matters a* have transpired east of the Mississippi within the last few I months, save so far as they may be brought into actio* under the article of the Constitution which contemplate® meeting armed resistanceror 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 thd United States intervene® la i 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 u®. ‘ft 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 differ-1 ent views of the law from theirs, and when legislation haa. sanctioned action seemingly in conflict with the fundamental* law, a> d they generally defer to the known judgment of their > supei/ >rs. Yet the superior officer* of th® army are so re-; gardf I in such great crises and are held to such responslbll-| tty. • qecially those at or near the head of it, that it is riece*-. 1 sary on such momentous occasions to dare to determine fosi themselves what is lawful and what is net lawful under ou*i system, if the military authorities should be invoked, aa> might possibly be the case in such exceptional time® when* there existed such divergent views as to the correct resulhd Th® army will suffer from its past action if ft has ictoA wrongfully. Our regular army has little hold upon the affeo-4 tions of the people of to-day, and its superior officers shoul<*[ certainly, as far as lies In their power, legally and with right-* eous intent aim to defend the right—which to us is TUB LAWti —and th® institutien which they represent. It is a meaning institution and it would be well if it should have aw opportunity to be recognized as a bulwark in support oa the rights of the people and of tub haw. j

" I am truly yours,

WINFIELD S. HANCOCK.

"Te General W. T. Sherman, Commanding Army of the United States, Washington, D. d” ‘