Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1880 — A Fair Minded Opinion in the Case of Garfield vs Hancock. [ARTICLE]

A Fair Minded Opinion in the Case of Garfield vs Hancock.

General Garfield by his own labor and effort became in tarn a good farmer, carpenter, teacher, lawyer, scholar, legislator, major-general, congressman, senator and statesman, and is only forty-nine years of age. General Hancock has been a ward of the nation for forty years and studied nothing but military ssience aud bas only rose to rank ol major* general and is fifty-six years old. As a military genius Garfield, a volunteer, attained the same rank in two years that Hancock aregular did in forty years. Garfield bas acted from ohoice and Hancock has always followed the suggestions of others. Garfield has made his own plans and Hancock bas merely executed the programme of bis superiors in rank. Garfield is a practical man in the affairs of citizenship and Hancock is nothing but a theoretical soldier. Garfield’s affections and sympathies are with the poor and lowly; he knows by- experience the stings of poverty. Hancock has always reveled an luxury affluence, and the government has always supplied his every want from childhood. Garfield is a humble man of the people. Hancock is a purely military aristocrat Garfield’s life was essentially civil; only in the country’s need did he don the trap-, pings of war. Hancock’s life from choice has been purely military and

except in time of war quite sedentary and indolent. Garfield knows the wants of the peopls. Hancock does not. Garfield’s presidency would illustrate the hum of industry and business. Hancock’s would ■avor ot the barracks and camp. Garfield would conduotbis high office with charity and humility, knowing that it was a trust imposed upon him as a servant for the whole people. Hancock, being taught to command would regard it as a new promotion in the army of which he has ever been an inseperabJe part from choice both in peaoe and war. Garfieid is a statesman, Hancock a mere cut and dried West Point soldier without one quality o? statesmanship. Garfield is famil* lar with all the qnettions of administrative policy in the nation, Hancock is a mere West Pointer without any experience outside of army routine and was never even entrust

ed with an independent command «f any important expedii ion. With all questions ot public policy, currency, revenue, internal improve* raents,constitutional interpretation, civil service reform, postal regulation, diplomacy in our foreign* re* 1 alfcm*, and public education, Gar' field is familiar, while Hancook is a novice without an 7 experience or knowledge. . Garfield’s administration would purely and simply refleot the wishes of the common people for the benefit

of the common people. Haneock’s tape of West Point and the exclusiveness of regular army headqu&t era. Let us think of the men, their habits of life, their surroundinjp, their experiences and characters. Garfield was a poor orphan and plodded his way sure and steadfast from ignorsnee to be the ripest of scholarly heroes, from poverty to a moderate fortune; he has been inured to phyaieal and brain wdrk all hia life, and haa never been idle. Har. cock has been the foster-child of the nation and needed no spur to effort; he has passed through the routine of army regulations tor forty years and bas no record as a practical man; be has a fine military bearing, and in a subordinate position has been a good soldier. Gar. field is all this and more. He is a great American civilian and the peer of the best statesman in the nation or in the world, The voter should study the lives of these men and if he is not bound by party ties choose between them and say, applying his own common sense and experience* which of these two men should be made chief magistrate of fifty mil lion of people straggling for an existence in a free country. The man who bas spent all his "life in the regular army as a subordinate offi. cer, breathed the exclusive atmosphere of aristocracy where no one is permitted to speak disrespectfully of officers, where absolute monarchy prevados as a rule and where the duties of subordinate officers except In actual battle are narrow and specific, and tfho without any civil experience is fifty-six years old. Or would you prefer a. man who has used the plow, shovel, boe, sickle, the carpenters plane and auger, who has been a boatman, a student and teacher in the common schools, a tutor in college, who became a ripe scholar by his own efforts, a college president, a state senator, a brilliant volunteer soldier rising quick to the rank of Major General, a leader iu congress for eighteen years, at the age of forty eight elected a senator of the United Slates and now at the age of fortynine the nomiuee for president of the United States. The West Point Cadet would and could have little fitness for these high civic duties. The citizens volunteer sol* dier s life has been so gentle and the elements of true greatness so mixed in him that the unbiased and indeed all men and nature might stand up and say to all the world; “This is a man.” The decision must be for Garfield.

COMMON SENSE.