Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1880 — REPUBLICANS FOR HANCOCK. [ARTICLE]

REPUBLICANS FOR HANCOCK.

Mr. Jerome and Col. Forney Address* ing: a House Full of Men Who Can’t Stand Garfield. [From the New York Herald.] A meeting of a curious and significant character was held last evening in Chickering Hall. There were fully 2,000 people present, several hundred of whom were ladies of stylish and intelligent appearance. The fact appeared that it was a gathering of Republicans, who came together to indorse Hancock and to raise the wildest kind of applause at every mention of his name. They outheroded Herod, and threw dyed-in-the-wool Democrats entirely in the shade by their enthusiasm for the Democratic candidates. According to the card the meeting was called by-the “National

association ot Conservative Republican and Independent Voters,” and the responses must have been gratifying to the managers. At 8 o’clock there entered on the stage Mr. Leonard Jerome, accompanied by the orator of the evening, Mr. John W. Forney, of Philadelphia, and followed by Col. H. H. Hadley, Gen. George P. Este, T. B. Wakeman, Gen. P. H. Jones, Col. E. M. Lee, Gen. H. G. Worthington, Paul £. Forbes, Samuel S. Patterson, John T. Green, George H. Mitchell, Col. Runkle, of Philadelphia, and other Republicans. Col. Forney took a seat on the right of the Chairman, Mr. Leonard Jerome, and was greeted with several rounds of applause. Mr. Jerome, in opening the meeting, said : I am glad to meet so largo a number of Republicans who, like myself, intend to vote for Gen. Hancock. We belong to that body of independent Republicans who only wish that the country shall be well governed. If ever there was a time when the ordinary lay voter could properly take it upon himself to break out of party trammels, this is the time. We are at peace with all the world and ought to be at peace between ourselves. And «e would be at peace among ourselves if the Republican party for its own perpetuation had not decided to make civil war perpetual. The only object that the Republican party has had for sixteen years past has been to keep itself in power. ‘ We now are not Democrats and we are surely not Republicans, but a go-as-you-please party. We don’t like the Republican Southern policy nor its financial schemes, and particularly we don’t like Mr. Garfield. In Gen. Hancock we find not only the soldier, patriot and statesman, but a gentleman. I confess I should like to see a gentleman of the old school in the seat of Washington, Jefferson and Madison. Gen. Hancock would as soon think of cutting off his right hand as of dismissing a soldier or an officeholder on account of his political preferences. Chairman Jerome then called upon Col. H. H. Hadley, who read the address of the Conservative Republican and Independent voters. It was an elaborate statement of reasons why the nomination at Chicago was an unfit one, and it said of Gen. Hancock: Of stainless private character, no breath of scandal has ever touched his fame. His career as a soldier was brilliant, and equalled by but few ; his honor is unimpeachable, and of his patriotism and love of country there can be no question. In view of the orders and letters published while in command at Louisiana and Texas, his letter of acceptance,-his more-re-cently-published communication to Gen. Sherman, there can be no doubt of his eminent ability and thorough familiarity with the constitution of his country. And, because he is such a man, many of our members will vote for him, feeling that no injury can, under this administration, come to the country ; yet they still remain Republicans. Referring to the Credit Mobilier and De Golyer charges, the address says : “ If all these charges are true the American people, taking, pride in their high position as voters, should join hands, irrespective of party, and bury this candidate under the ruins of an unprecedented defeat. If they are untrue, we think a fair and just review of Gen. Garfield’s career in Congress proves him to be a man whose professions concerning measures are almost always inconsistent with his actions ; that he is without fixedness of purpose or stability es character ; in short, a ‘ political trimmer,’who, if President, would be controlled by the most reckless and objectionable leaders of his party. ” Col. Hadley said that in response to the circular of the Central Committee over 1,100 former Republicans had signed the roll of the club, and that clubs were forming in every city of the country. . Col. John W. Forney was next introduced and said : “I like the style of your Chairman, so direct and straightforward. For myself, having been born a Republican, -when I go into the Democratic ranks I return to the Republican party. There is no party which now assails the importance of general freedom and the universal suffrage, and I feel every moment that lam welcome. Not alone do I return, for I have an able i corps at my side. A week ago I spoke i with Gen. Butler at Pittsburgh, and on ■ the platform were 125 men who had come ynt from the Republican ranks. There is a deep evangelization going on. Blaine i may count and canvass and bully, but the fates have decided that Gen. Hancock is to be the next President. What a man he is when you come to study him ! What a study for the youth of our country! He will require the bravery of Jackson, the wisdom of Washington and the philosophy of Lincoln. But Providence will give him all this armor. Let him appoint Republican soldiers, let him appoint Democratic soldiers, and I then let him wind up the triumvirate i by appointing a Confederate soldier. Gen. Hancock is the chosen instrument of national and international reconciliation, and the only elements hostile to this great man are the men paid for their persecutions of others and hired for their hatreds.” Dr. Mitchell, the President of the > Hancock-English Republican Campaign Club of this city, having, as Chairman Jerome said, 974 members, spoke briefly in explanation of the mission of the club. Other Converts. Mr. John J. McDonald, of Mount Sterling, 111., a candidate on the Repub- ’ lican county ticket for State’s Attorney, ■ has investigated the charges against ' Garfield inSfconnection with the Credit : Mobilier and De Golyer schemes, and, having come to the conclusion that “no honest man who will carefully read the evidence ” can support the Chicago candidate, he publicly announces himself in ! favor of Hancock’s election.— Chicago Times. A. M. Funson, a prominent attorney of this city and a life-long RepubEcan, turns his back upon the radical party and espouses the cause of Hancock and English. This will be a severe loss to the RepubEcan party, as he has been one of their most effective speakers, and a young man of promise.— Letter from Nevada, lowa. Gen. Sisson, ex-Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island, and long a prominent RepubEcan leader, has espoused the cause of the hero of Gettysburg. A recent great mass meeting of the Democracy in McCormick Hall, Chicago, was presided over by O. K. A. Hutchinson, a leading attorney and hitherto an ardent Republican. He says he can’t stomach Garfield, and will cast his first Democratic vote for Hancock.