Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1888 — IN HANCOCK’S DEFENSE. [ARTICLE]

IN HANCOCK’S DEFENSE.

A Letter to Sentor Ingalls From a Member of the General’s Staff. Colonel Finley Anderson, who was on General Hancock’s staff during the civil war, has addressed the following open letter to Senator Ingall’s at Washington: New York, March 12,1888. To Hon. John J. Ingads, President pro tem., United States Senate Washington, D. C.: Sir —I have just received a copy, of the Congfessional Record containing the official report of yonr recent speech, in which you not only insult the chief magistrate of the nation, but attempt to dishonor the memory of both Jtiancock and McClellan by naming each of them as having been an ally of the Confederacy. As a surviving member of Generd Hancock’s staff, who shared witk him the toils and the triumphs of th; civil war, and as a friend whom he honored with hiconfidence and affection to the end of his blameless life, I can not bear in silence your brutal blow at my old commander. I mast, therefore, as a soldier and a citizen, pretest against any utterances that raply an impeachment of his loyalty to his country.

When the summer flowers bloom again on the graves of the heroic dead a quarter of a century will have passed since the battle of Gettysburg became the arena where th 6 valor of the North and the South alike illustrated the greatness of the American people, and commanded the admiration of the world. The name of that peaceful Pennsylvania village baptized anew with their mingled blood was thus made immortal as the symbol of a national power equal to any os earth. The crowning victory of that combat has proved under Providence as clearly as though we had heard the voice of God say himself that those principles of liberty an law and fraterni T ty and union in earnest devotion to which Hancock lived and died, are essential to the welfare of mankind. To this result the highest human achievement of this century Hancock contributed more than any other soldier in the fiels. When Reynolds fell on tfie morning of the first day, it was Hancock wh )m Meade selected to take supreme command in front with power to choose the ground where the great battle of the war should be fought out. It was Hancock who planted his colors on Cemetery Ridge, where he rallied our disordered troops and formed the lines on those historic heights, beyond which the rising tide of rebellion never passed. It was Hancock by the coun + er-charge which saved the honor of the army on the evening of the second day. It was Hancock who repulsed that grand assault, with the most brilliant in the annals of the war, when

the flower «f the army of Northern Virginia withered and died before the fortitude of the Army of the Potomac in the final struggle on the third day. It thus that Hancock won at Gettysburg a triple crown of glory. Naturally enough, both houses of Congress adopted a joint resolution to the effect that, in addition to the thanks which had been voted to the officers and soldiers of t l ’© Army of the Potomac, “For the skill and heroic valor which at Gettysburg repulsed, defeated and drove back, broken and dispirited the veteran army of the rebellion, the gratitude of the Amerioan people and the thanks < f their representatives in Congress are likewise due, and are hereby tendered to Maj. Gen. W. S. Hancock for his meritorious and eonspieuous share in that great and decisive victory.” In view of Hancock’s constant snd conspicuous service to his country for more than forty years sealed as that service was by his own blood, and in view of his proverbial purity f character, it is amazing how any man could rise in the Senate chamber to defame his memory. But having had the audacity to do so, the least you can do in reparation of this cruel wrong alike to Hancock’s memory and the patriotic sentiment of the country is to rise again in the Senate chamber and make a full retraction and apology. Respectfully yours, [Signed] Finley Anderson.

The North Topeka Courier has brought to the surface the interesting fact that John James Ingalls, of Kansas, ran for Governor of that State in 1864, on a platform containing the following ‘planks:’ That *e hereby ratify the nomination of George B. McClellan of New Jersey, for j resident, and George H. Pendleton of Ohio, for vice president, and we pledge them our hearty support That we hereby ratify and adopt the Chicago platform, as understood and construed by Gen. George B. McClellan in his letter accepting the nomination of the Chicago convention for president of the United States.

This was the very iam« McClellan whom Ingalls stigmatized the other day as an “ally of th® Confederacy.” It seems that he was in better company in 1864 than he has been since. His present political companionship has effected his brutalization.

For years past, by its National conventions, the republican party has been pledged to a revision oi the tariff in the interest of the people. The next convention will renew the pledge.

Blaine is willing to reform the tjuiff to the extant of a “free chaw.”