Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1886 — Page 7

GARLAND DEFENDED.

The Attorney General’s Purchase of Pan-Electric Stock Made for Investment Purposes. He Was Absent on a Vacation When Solicitor Goode Brought His Sait. Efforts of Political Enemies to Magnify an Innocent Matter Into a Grave Official Disdemeanor. A New York paper publishes the following -openj letter from George Ticknor Curtiß, Esq. It sets forth completely and authoritatively the history of the Pan-Electric Telephone Company so far as concerns the relations therewith of Messrs. Garland, Lamar, Goode, and other officers of the administration: I have gathered the precise facts in regard to Mr. Garland's connection with the Pan-Electrio Company, the action of the Solicitor General, of the President, and of the Secretary of. the Interior in respect to the Bell Telephone Company’s patent. I communicate the facts to you because I believe that when you understand them fully you wiU not do any inj ustice in your own mind to any of these gentlemen, and wjll not countenance the doing of any injustice to them or either of them by other persons. Some of these facts are public and well known to you. But I think it best to embody them in one statement, which will cover the 'whole ground, including as well facts that are now known and others which I have learned by independent investigation. Mr. Garland was one of the original founders on the Pan-Electric and Telegraph Company. Three years ago—that is, in the month of F ebruary, 1883, —Mr. Garland, at the suggestion of an old friend, became one of a number of persons who formed a company to acquire and operate the Bogers patent for a telephone. This was an enterprise which it was supposed could be developed without a large outlay, none of the incorporators being wealthy men. A stock was created, and Mr. Garland became the owner of five thousand shares, par value SIOO per share. Forty-five hundred shares were issued to him, and he left five hundred shares in the treasury of the company for its use. Some small assessments were laid from time to time, for the purpose of having enough to commence operations. The aggregate amount of assessments paid in by Mr. Garland was about $309. Mr. Garland became the general attorney and counsel of the company, and in that capacity he gave a written opinion that the Rogers invention did not infringe the Bell patent; but he never gave or formed any opinion on the validity of the Bell patent, neither at the formation of the Pan-Electric Company nor at any subsequent time. He has never examined the validity of the Bell patent. I have seen and read his op nion, and I can certify that it covers and refers to no question but the question of infringement. The opinion bore date Jan. 6, 1884. The Part-Electric Company made some licenses or sold some rights under the Bogers patent, and the proceeds divided among the stockholders amounted for Mr. Gar- ’ land’s distributive share to less than $2,000. The Pan-Electric Company, or some of its licensees, were sued by the Bell Company, but Mr. Garland took no part in the defense and was not relied upon to give it shape. At the , ; time he became a stockholder in that company he was a Senator, but his participation in the formation of the company can not by any reasonable person be considered as either an unusual or an improper thing for a Senator to be engaged in, as it was a mere investment ot a few hundred dollars in an undeveloped property which he could have no reason to suppose would in any way become a subject of legislative action. When President Cleveland’s Cabinet was formed Mr. Garland’s known eminence as a lawyer and the desirableness of having one or more Southern men in the Cabinet led me, as well as many other persons, to recommend to the President to offer to him the position of Attorney General. Of course, I knew nothing of Mr. Garland’s particular relations to any of his clients or to any business enterprise. I regarded him as a man of ability and learning in our profession and of a highly respected character. He became Attorney General in March, 1885. That he was bound to decline the office when it was tendered to him by the President because the Bell Telephone Company had sued a company in which he was a stockholder, or was bound to foresee the possibility that as an Attorney General he might have to consider the validity of the Bell patent, is an idea that I can not, and that I presume you can not, for a moment entertain. If the President had offered the place of Attorney General to me, and I had accepted it, I should have accepted with a full consciousness of the fact that there were claims in my hands for private individuals, in which I had an interest, and which might sooner or later require the action of the President through the Department of Justice, or some other department. But I never should have dreamed of declining the office on that account. If the President had tendered the office to you and you had accepted it, you must have entered upon its duties with a full knowledge of the fact that you had enjoyed the good fortune to be professionally connected with many clients on some of whose concerns the Department of Justice might at some time have to act. But I imagine that, whatever other reasons might have led you to decline the office, you would not have declined for this one, because you would have been well aware that in all executive and all judicial action, if the officer is disqualified or thinks himself disqualified from acting officially in a particular case, there is always provision for official action in the case by some other person. In the Department of Justice that other person is the Solicitor General ; and you are aware that there is a statute which provides for this official action in case of the disability of the Attorney General, which has already been construed to mean disqualification on account of some supposed interest in the subject-matter past or present, as well as disability from sickness or other cause. In the month of July last three or four gentlemen called upon Mr. Garland at the Department of Justice and said that they wanted the use of the name of the United States to bring a suit to repeal or vacate the Bell patent. One of them was a stockholder in the Pan-Electric Company. Supposing from the circumstance that it was the Pan-Electric Company alone which desired to make the application, although it was not, Mr. Garland answered that he could not receive the application or entertain it in any form or look at the papers. One of the gentlemen began to argue the matter, but Mr. Garland cut it short by saying that he must be the judge of his own disqualification, and they left. He did not say to them: “You can go up-stairs and make your application to the Solicitor General.” He supposed thev knew that the law empowered the Solicitor General to act in the matter, the Attornev General being or considering himself disqualified. Nothing was said about an application to Mr. Goode. Mr. Garland did not speak to Mr. Goode on the subject, nor did Mr. Goo£e know that these g< ntlomen had called upon Mr. Garland, for Mr. Goode was not in Washington nt the time. Mr. Garland’s absence from Washington was in no way necessary to the entertainment of the application by Mr. Goode. In fact, Mr. Geode left Washington on official business in British Columbia on the 26th of June, and returned to Washington on the 19th of August. The Attorney General left for his summer vacation on the 27th of August. When he went away the department was left in charge of Mr. Goode, but no intimation was made to him, directly or indirectly, by the Attorney General or by the Bell Telephone Company, and he did not know that Mr. Garland hud any interest in any telephone stock. Mr. Garland went to Arkansas for his vacation, and remained for rest and recreation during some weeks at a place where he saw no newspapers, and where he was almost be vend the reach of telegrams. One day, however, he received a telegram from the New Orleans Times-Democrat stating that the New York Tribune had attacked him for authorizing a suit in the name of the United States against the Bell Telephone Company, and off< ring the use of their columns if Mr. Garland wished to make an explanation. Completely ignorant that such a suit had been brought after he left Washington, Mr. Garland replied by telegram that he had not auth >rizad such a suit, and did not know that one had be; n brought. Any one who can extort out of these facts ground for suspicion that there was an arranged or tacitly understood plan to have a suit brought that would benefit the Attorney General without his authoriz*ation of it, by having it instituted in his absence by the .Solicitor General, must have a remarkable taste

for indulging in injurious aspersions. Not only did Mr. Goode not know that Garland had been spoken to about a suit before he left Washington, but Mr. Goode had no means of knowing that Mr. Garland was interested in the company that might possibly be benefited by such a suit. Mr Goode treated the matter as he would any other official business, without a thought that Mr. Garland would have any personal relation to it, near or remote. On Mr. Garland’s return to Washington he called upon the President, and they had some conversation about the tilegrams which had passed between the editor of the New Orleans paper and Mr. Garland, which the President had seen in some New York paper. There was to have been a Cabinet meeting within a day or two, and Mr. Garland said to the President that he w.ould then make a statement of all that he knew about this matter. The President answered that it would gratify him, and he presumed would gratify the other members of the Cabinet if Mr. Garland should make such a statement. At the meeting of the Cabinet Mr. Garland stated to the President and the other gentlemen present, orally, his whole connection with the Pan-Electric Company, his entire want of connection with the suit which the Solicitor General had authorized, and his ignorance of the fact that a suit had been brought until he was informed of it by the telegram from the New Orleans paper. Mr. Garland on the same day after the Cabinet meeting, at the suggestion of the President, put his statement in writing and gave the paper to the President. It was dated on the Bth of October last. The President allowed it to be publisned. On the same day (Oct. 8) the President wrote to the Solicitor General and suggested that he order the discontinuance of the suit which he had authorized the District Attorney of Western Tennessee to commence, and have the whole matter referred to the Secretary of the Interior to determine whether any new suit should be brought and where. This was done for the reason to which I shall presently refer. The correspondence between the President and the Solicitor General has been before the public for several months. I deem it proper to say here that there is no foundation for late rumors that Mr. Garland has recently tendered his resignation to the President on account of the attacks which certain newspapers are making upon him. He has not tendered his resignation to the President on account of these attacks or for any other reason. If a Cabinet officer could be driven from his place by a clamor such as has been made against Mr. Garland on such facts the place would be unfit to be held by a man of honor, and the fittest successor would be some man who could prostitute the office to his private advantage, regardless of the opinions of the good or the bad. You are well aware of all that took place at the hearing which Mr. Lamar gave to all the parties interested in this matter, and the decision to which he came. He extended a courtesy to the Bell Company officials by inviting them to be present at the hearing before him, and to adduce any evidence or make any arguments they saw fit. They were abundantly and very ably represented at the hearing. However problematical it may be whether the United States can, under existing laws, maintain any suit to repeal or vacate a patent for a useful Invention on any ground that could be pleaded by an individual when sued for infringing that patent—and to me it seems very doubtful—yet lean well understand how Mr. Lamar came to authorize or. advise such a suit in reference to the Bell patent. In the first place, there are a certain number of precedents ; and, although those precedents do not exactly fit the present case, they are sufficient to warrant the executive in all the executive action that has been taken—namely, to refer to the courts, and ultimately to the Supreme Court, to determine, first, whether the United States can maintain the suit, and, second, whether, supposing the suit to be well brought, the Bell patent is valid or invalid. Mr. Lamar certainly could not have authorized or advised the suit in order to shield Mr. Garland, for Mr. Garland had done nothing for which he needed a shield to be extended over him by the Secretary of the Interior. Mr. Garland had no more to do wi.h the institution of the first or the second suit than I hod. Mr. Lamar did not act as he did in order to shield Mr. Goode, for Mr. Goode did not stand in any need of any shield. He discontinued the first suit at the suggestion of the President, and waited for the action of the Secretary of the Interior. The President gave him that suggestion, not because the institution of the first suit was a step that might benefit the stockholders of the Pan-Elec-tric Company, but because there is a rule of administration that when anything out of the common course is to be done by the Department of Justice, the bead of the other department which is primarily concerned in the matter shall first act upon it. Again, it is proper for me to add that Mr. Garland, from the time of his return to Washington to the time of Mr. Lamar’s decision, never spoke to Mr. Lamar on the subject, and never spoke of it in Mr. Lamar’s presence excepting at the Cabinet meeting, when Mr. Garland made his oral statement to the President and his colleagues of the Cabinet, as I have above detailed. To prevent all cavil, I add that with the exception of that occasion, Mr. Garland not only never spoke to Mr. Lamar on the subject, but that he never had any communication with Mr. Lamar on the subject, direct or indirect, in any form. In regard to Mr. Garland's remote possible interest in the result of the suit that is to be brought because of his ownership of stock in the Pan-Electric Company, there are one or two considerations to which the public should give heed, if the public is in a state of mind on the subject to heed palpable truths. If the Bell patent is sustained or it is ultimately decided that the suit cannot be maintained by the United States, the PanElectric Company will be just where they are now—that is, liable to a suit or suits for infringement of the Bell patent, in which, like every other defendant, they can set up any defense that the law opens to them. But the value of their stcck can hardly be much advanced by that result of the Government suit, considering that they will have to fight a battle in suits brought against them *by the Bell Company. On the other hand, if the issue out of the Government's suit shall be that the Beil patent is declared invalid, the Pan-Electric Company can have nothing in the Rogers patent of any value, unless the Rogers patent covers something that was not covered by the Bell patent. To the extent of what the Rogers patent has of patentable novelty, after the Bell patent is put out of existence, if that shall happen, there may be some value in the Rogers patent. But this value is so problematical and uncertain that if Mr. Garland could get $1 per share for his stock he would be a wise man to sell it. Ido not suppose he could find a purchaser for it at any price. But, be it of some or of no value, he has no more responsibility for the present position of things than I have; and Mr. Lamar’s responsibility is simply that of a public servant who has performed an official act, in which the Supreme Court of the United States may or may not concur with him, and has performed it solely upon considerations of what he deemed his official duty. Yours always, Geobge Ticknob Cubtis.

For Instance.

The manufacture of glass in this country is “protected” by an average tariff of over 65 per cent., one of the highest rates of duty on any article. This tariff was laid for the alleged purpose of insuring the laborers in tlmt industry good wages. How has it worked? According to Commissioner Wright’s carefully prepared labor statistics, the wages of the workingmen in the glass industry have not only not increased under the protective tariff, but they have materially decreased. During the period from 1830 to 1860, when low duties or practical free trade prevailed, wages in the glass industry, following the tendency of wages in most other industries, increased 161.9 per cent. During the period from 1860 to 1880, when the highest tariff of any country in the world prevailed in the United States, wages in the same industry decreased 70 per cent. And yet we are told that the high tariff on glass must be maintained in order to keep up the wages of the workingmen.—Louisville Courier-Journal. Miss Ella A. Brown, a school-teacher well known in Georgia, has written a textbook in astronomy adapted to promoting observations.

NATIONAL LAW-MAKERS.

Brief Summary of the Proceeding's of Congress. A bill to provide for the control of the reservation at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the distribution of water was introduced in the Senate on the 9th in st. The Senate passed bills appropriating $359,000 each for public buildings at San Francisco and Portland. $200,000 for San Antonio. $150,000 for Pueblo, Fort Smith, Dayton, and Zanesville, and SIOO,OOO for Atchison, Sioux City, Oshkosh, and Vicksburg. A bill passed to sell the old site of Fort Brady, in Michigan, and erect a suitable building in a new location. The Speaker laid before the House the response of the Secretory of the Treasury to the Blond resolution. Referred. The Secretarj- says; "I have received the inquiries addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury by the House of Representatives in their resolution respecting the silver balance and circulation, and beg leave to say in reply that I will, with all due diligence, make full answer to the same. I am for the moment delayed by the current business of the department, and by a special endeavor to promote exigent reforms in the levy and collection of duties on imported commodities, by affording some information thereon in season for the advantage of the sub-committee of the Finance Committee of the Senate, which has requested the same and which I am happy to say is about to undertake an early examination of the difficulties set forth in my annual report in respect to the collection of revenue at the Custom House at New York.” The Speaker also laid before the House the reply of the Secretary of the Treasury to the resolution asking for a statement of the amount applied to the sinking fund during the fiscal year ending June 30,1885. Referred. The Secretary gives the following figures: Bonds, principal, $45,588,150; interest, $271,607.32; fractional currency, redeemed, $15,885.43. Total, $45,875,702,75. The Eustis resolution calling on the Secretary of the Treasury for information as to the refusal of the Assistant Treasurer at New Orleans to receive shipments of silver and to issue silver certificates therefor, was the theme of a protracted debate in the Senate on the 10th inst. Senator Call defended the action of the Treasury officials and Senator Plumb criticised it. Senator Coke attacked the Treasury Department vehemently, saying that the Treasury officials, while ostentatiously taking credit for suip irting the public credit and executing the law, were doing everything in their power to accomplish a directly contrary result. He made no war on the administration, he said, but he believed that a public office is a public trust, and in the position taken by him he executed the trust conferred on him by the people whom he in part represent d. Senator Teller praised the D<m>eratie members of the last House for “resisting the effort of the incoming Demo ratic President to discredit silver.” He comment id with severity on the statement made by lhe President and Secretary Manning, that it had 1 een possible to force only $50,006,0J0 in silver into circulation when ;9J,000,000 of silver cert sic rtes and $50,000,000 in silver coin were in the hands of the peopl ■. Mr. Georg" defended tho administration, after which Mr. Eustis said that he had telegraphed to Mr. Roach at New Orleans to ascertain the purpose of the bank shipment of silver, and had received this reply: ’’Shippers sought to get rid of excessive silver by shipping to the Sub-Treasury and asking that silver certificates therefor should be turned over to their New Orleans correspondents. The Sub-Treasurer declined to receive from express company because, first, he doubted the propriety of the Treasury becoming intermediary between country and city banks; second, for lack of clerical force. I feel assured that provision for sufficient clerks would remedy everything.” The matter finally went over. The House met, adopted resolutions eulogistic of Gen. Hancock, and immediately adjourned. Mb. Mitchell of Oregon introduced a bill in the Senate on the 11th inst. providing for the repeal of all treaties permitting the coming of Chinese to the United States and prohibiting their coming, except in the case of diplomatic oind official personages. The Senate passed without amendment the House bill for the payment of the “Fourth of July” claims and a bill regulating the promotion of West Point graduates. The Blair education bill was called up in the Senate, and Senator Morgan (Ala.) delivered a long speech against it. He called it a bill to tax the honest, hard-working man in order te educate the children of the drunken, loafing vagabond. Forty of the sixty millions of people in the United States were dead-beats ana nonproducers, and the tax imposed on the remaining twenty millions, he said, would foot up $lO a head. The constitutional ground for the bill. Mr. Morgan continued, w r as said to be found in the “general-welfare” clause of the preamble to the Constitution, Such an. application of that clause simply meant that you could pull down the man who got up by his own exertions, in order to put up a drunken loafer who would not exert himself. Senator Morgan characterized Senator Blair’s idea as one involving the right of Congress to educate the children of the several States without the consent of the States. The Senate adjourned to Monday, Feb. 15. In the House, Mr. Bingham, of Pennsylvania, asked leave to introduce a bill granting a pension of $2,000 per annum to the widow of Gen. W. S. Hancock, but Mr. Beach, of New York, objected. The House passed the bill to enable national banks to increase their capital stock and to change their names or locations. The Fitz-John Porter bill -came up in the House, and Mr. Havnes, of New Hampshire, opened the debate with a speech in its support. Mr. Steele, of Indiana, followed Mr. Haynes and opposed the bill, declaring that General Pope’s famous order could and should have been obeyed by General Porter. A map of the scene of military operations in question having been hung upon a support in the space in front of the speaker’s desk, Mr. Steele pointed out with a cane the movements of the various commanders. During the delivery of the speech Mr. Steele was interrupted at times by General Bragg, who took occasion to question the speaker’s statements, and at the close of the speech the two had a brief controversy over the circumstances attending certain movements at the battle, during which General Bragg said: “I find that those who were not there know very much more about it than those who were.” Mr. Steele replied: “In reply to J|iat I have read the reports of as distinguished soldiers as ever did battle for any cause who were there.” Thebe was no session of the Senate on the 12th inst. In the House of Representatives, after the reference of a large number of Senate bills to the appropriate committscs, the Speaker proceeded to call committees for reports of a private nature. At the conclusion of the call the House went into committee of the whole (Mr. Hammond, of Georgia, in the chair), on the private calendar. The Speaker laid before the House of Representatives, on the 13th inst,, the reply of the Postmaster General in response to the resolution calling for information as to whether the eight-hour law is now applicable to letter-carriers. The Postmaster General states that there is no department regulation prescribing the number of hours during which letter-carriers are required to work, and the eight-hour law has not been deemed applicable to letter-carriers, because they are not regarded as “laborers, workmen, or mechanics.” The opinion that the law is not applicable to letter-carriers was, the Postmaster General is informed, promulgated from the department before his incumbency of the office, and no change has been decided since. Adverse reports were submitted from the Committee on Postoffices and Post-Roads on bills to enable the people to name their Postmasters ; to regulate the naming of postoffices; to facilitate the delivery of mail matter. atia Messrs. Swinburne, of Now York, end Wolford, of Kentucky, spoke in favor < f, and Mr. Houk, of Tennessee, against the Fitz Jih i Porter bill. The Senate was not in session.

The first archaeopteryx, the fossil remains of the oldest-known bird, which seems to form the connecting link between birds and reptiles, was discovered in the lithographic slate of Solenhofen in 1861. Another specimen, recently found in the samo locality, has been sold for $5,000 to the Berlin Museum.

HANCOCK DEAD.

Another Brave Soldier and Brilliant General Vanquished by the Dread Destroyer. His Taking Off Sudden and Unexpected—A Sketch of the Deceased. [New York telegram.] Winfield Scott Hancock. Major General commanding the Department of the Atlantic, died at Governor s Island on Tuesday, the 9th inst. The cause of his death was a carbuncle, located on the back of his neck, combined with kidney trouble. The carbuncle first made its appearance Jan. 27, while the General was in Washington, whither he had gone on private business. He believed it to be a boil, and had it lanced. It caused him considerable annoyance for two or three days, but on Friday, the 29th ult.. he felt in the best of health and spirits. He returned to New York on that day. The supposed boil began to trouble the General after his return to Governor's Island, and a week ago to-day Dr. Janeway pronounced it a carbuncle and began to treat it us such. Two days later the General’s condition was apparently much improved. The carbuncle, however, broke out afresh on the 7th with a great deal of vigor. It grow worse and worse until 11 o’clock at night, when the General became delirious. The following day the kidney trouble was discovered, and the patient's condition was for the first time considered dangerous. Early this morning he became unconscious. Dr. Janeway called in Col. Charles Sutherland, Medical Director, and telephon- ® r ’ Stimson, of this city, who soon put in an appearance. The physicians examined tne patient, and soon saw that Gen. Hancock's hours were numbered. He sank steadily from that time forth until he died. Fears were entertained of uremic convulsion!, and procuration was made to treat them, but they did not appear, and the General passed away quietly. In the room at the time, in addition to the physicians, were Gen. James B. Fry, Lieut. Eugene Griffin, nn aid-de-camp ; Hospital Steward Robinson, and Orderly John Ward, Who had been in constant attendance on the sick man for several days pass. The patient had been unconscious for about six hours previous to his death. Mrs. Hancock was in the adjoining room when her husband passed away. She had been up with the General all night, and left him at four o’clock in the morning. Even then the sick man seemed to realize that his end was drawing near. As his wife imprinted a farewell kiss ou his sunken cheek ho murmured: “Oh, Allie, Myra, good ” Allie was a pet name by which he called his wife. The sentence was not finished. They were the last words ho attempted to utter. With Mrs. Hancock, at the time of her husband's death, were her cousin, Mrs. Emma Bouvier, and Mrs. Eugene Griffin. The survivors of General Hancock’s immediate familv, aside from his widow, are his brothers Hillary Hancock, who was born his twin, and is a lawyer at Minneapolis, and Brevet General John Hancock. He was the father of two children, both of yhom are dead. His daughter Ada died in March, 1875, and his son Russell died a year ago last December at his plantation in Clarksdale, Miss. The son left a widow and three children, one of them a boy, who has been living with the General at Governor’s Island.

The News in Washington.

(Washington dispatch.] A telegram announcing the dangerous illness of Gen. Hancock was received by the President about 1 o’clock to-day and was read to the Cabinet. Just after the Cabinet adjourned a second telegram was received conveying the intelligence of his death. The flag on the White House was immediately placed at half-mast, and the President soon after issued the following Executive order: “Tidings of the death of Winfield Scott Hancock, the senior Major General of the army of tho United States, have just been received. A patriotic and valiant defender of his country, an able and heroic soldier, a spotless and accomplished gentleman, crowned alike with the laurels of military renown and the highest tribute of his fellow-countrymen to his worth as a citizen, he has gone to his reward. It is fitting that every mark of public respect should be paid to his memory. Therefore, it is now ordered by the President that the national flag be displayed at half-mast upon all the buildings of the executive departments in this city until after his funeral shall have taken place.” The President also sent the following telegram to Mrs. Hancock: “Accept my heartfelt sympathy and condolence in your terrible bereavement. The heroism and worth of your late husband have gathered to your side in this hour of your affliction a nation of mourners.” The flag on the War Department building was placed at half-mast by order of the Secretary of War, and arrangements were made for the promulgation of a general order formally announcing Hancock's death to the army, which will be issued to-morrow. The Secretary of War also recalled the invitations he had issued for a reception to the officers of the army, navy, and marine corps for this evening.

Biographical.

General Hancock was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Feb. 14, 1824; he entered the West Point Academy in 1840, graduated in 1844, and in 1846 received his commission of Lieutenant of infantry. He served during the Mexican war, was promoted for his gallantry, and, having filled several subordinate posts, wai made Assistant Quartermaster of the Western Department with the rank of Captain on the Staff, which rank he held at the outbreak of the civil war. In 1861 he was appointed Brigadier General of volunteers, and served in the Army of the Potomac. He accompanied General McClellan's army to the Peninsula in 1862, and distinguished himself in the battle of Williamsburg. At the battle of Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, he commanded a division which suffered severely, and for his meritorious conduct on this occasion he received a commission as major general of volunteers. He took part in the battle of Chancellorsville. When the advance of the Union and Confederate forces encountered at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, and the Union forces were driven back, Hancock was sent forward by Meade to decide whether a general battle should be risked there, and if so, although he was outranked by Howard, who was on the field, was ordered to take the command until Meade should come up. In the decisive engagement July 3 Hancock’s division bore the prominent part, although he himself was severely wounded early in the engagement, He recovered sufficiently to return to duty Dec.*27,1863, but was unable to command a body of troops until April, 1864, when he was promoted to the command of the Second Army Corps and was engaged in all the battles of the Wilderness campaign, from May 5 to June 19. 1864, when the breaking out of the old wound received at Gettysburg compelled him to leave for a time. He returned to his command in July, and remained with it tuitil Nov. 26, 1864, being subsequently engaged in lighter duties until the close of the war. H® was promoted to be Brigadier General of the regular army in August, 1864, Brevet Major General March 13, 1865, and Major General of the United States army July 26, 1866. After the war he was successively commander of the Middle Department, 1865-66; of the Mi®, souri. 18C6-67; of the Department of Louisiana and Texas. 1867-69, and of the Department of Dakota, 1869-72. Upon the death of Gen. Meade, November, 1872, the President, in acknowledgment cf hie great military services, appointed Gen. Hancock to the command of the Department of the East, with headquuarters at Governor’s Island, New York, a position which he held up to tho day of his death, being one of the three Major Generals in tho United States Army, In 1868 Gen. Hancock was a prominent candidate for tho Democratic nomination to th® Presidency, which, however, was given to oxGov. Seymour. H secured the nomination in 1889, but was defeated in tho election by Gen. Garfield, who received a popular majority of 7.018 and an electoral majority of 59 over Gen. Hancock.

Sam Jones says “from a Governor doiyn to a dog pelter, lie would not vote for anakii that touched, tasted, or handled whisky to save hisjife.” Eeastus Corning, whose 1,100 orchids have cost a fortune, has also a collection of 50,000 butterflies.

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—A fire at Princeton, last week, destroyed valuable property. —The residence of James Grissum, south of Shelbyville, was burned. —Disappointed in love, Charles Dunbar, of Colfax, blew out his brains. —Dr. F. M. Wall, of Urbana, convicted of malpractice, has appealed the case. —The Cigar-makers’ Union of Terre Haute has resolved to boycott Chinese laundries. —The Wabash Importing Company has purchased twelve Norman stallions in France. —Robert Templeton, a miner in the mines near Harmony, was instantly killed by falling slate. —A detachment of the Salvation Army recently took possession of the village of Sweetzer. —John Fessner, a farmer living near Inwood, set tire to his dwelling »and perished in the flames. —William Harrison, of Wayne County, committed suicide while laboring under a fit of insanity. —Mrs. John Joey, of Wabash, recently gave birth to a boy baby weighing only nineteen ounces. —At Spencer, a huge sized pin was extracted from the hip of the infant daughter of Dr, W. E. Swigert, —Dr. E. R. Myrtle, of Cedar Point, and his thirteen-year-old step-daughter are said to have eloped together. —Judge Berry has set aside the $2,000 judgment against Dr. J. P. Orr, of Rushville, for alleged malpractice. —ln the case of Kreig and Heitz, charged with manslaughter, at Huntington, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. —The Prohibitionists have decided to call a Slate convention at Indianapolis May 20, and advise the running of straight Prohibitionist tickets wherever there is any likelihood of getting votes. —Probably the largest single pension ever paid at the local agency was to Ferdinand Black, of Etna Green, who received $10,763 for blindness. —Louis Grant, Sr., of Vincennes, master boiler-maker of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad, while engaged at work fell over apparently dead and expired in three hours. —The people of Milroy last week helped celebrate the one-hundredth birthday of Capt. John Boyd, who built the first frame bam in Rush county, more than fifty years ago.

—Valentine Kelley, of Clarksville, who has been hunting hidden wealth during the last two years, has unearthed an iron pot, at the bend on Silver Creek, containing $1,500. —Wealthy farmers in the northern part of Wabash County have become the victims of so many shrewd forgers that they have perfected the organization of a protective association. —The wife of Henry T. Kirk, in the northern part of Hendricks County, while insane, went out into a shed, poured a can of coal-oil over her head and clothes, applied a match, and was so burned that she died in a few hours. —Albert Van Wagner was arrested for seriously damaging and attempting to derail trains of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Company. He confessed, and declared he had no accomplices and no reasons for his act. «, —Twenty years ago Curtis Travis received a certificate of deposit for $l5O on the Bank of the State of Indiana, at La Porte. A few days ago the widow of the deceased discovered the paper, which she presented to the bank, where it was cashed. —An old lady at Zionsville, named Keely, was burglarized of a quantity of money and jewlery, at the pistol’s muzzle, and was so scared she could not identify her assailants, but the next night dreamed a man named Ashley was robbing her, which led to Ashley’s arrest and confession, and the arrest and breaking up of a dangerous gang of burglars. —New Holland has been agitated over the appearance of a grizzly bear. The beast is alleged to have been seen on the outskirts of the village by several farmers, but the reports gained no credence. The huge beast w as then said to have turned up in the neighborhood of the postoffice and the inhabitants were frightened half out of their wits. —A box-car which had some loose grain scattered over the floor was invaded by goats at Columbus, when some of the boys closed the door. Arriving at Indianapolis the brakemen opened the car door, when the goats jumped out, scattering in every direction. The crew, supposing they had been shipped as freight, engaged in a chase for hours. They then went to hunt the agent to see the way-bill, when they discovered the joke. —E. H. Shirk, of Peru, has brought suit against Keeport & Co. for trespass. In getting out stone for his kiln Keeport went across the canal-bed line. The farmers owning land along the canal claim that where the bed was abandoned for the purposes for which it was originally used by the Wabash & Erie Company, it reverted to them. The canal-bed, from Fort Wayne to Lafayette, was purchased by thft company of which E. H. Shirk is chief.