Show i GEN HAKCOCKS straightforward jmanly letter concerning southern tclaims I i fairly knocks the underpinning t from republican howlers Rebel claims southern war claims etc have furnished the chief theme t for republican ttump speakers This I yell was their principal stock in trade I They opened their harangues with it and sandwiched it between meaning lest utterances and wound up with a deafening shout that if the democrats demo-crats obtained control of the govern menttho troasury would be depleted I by the payment of rebel claims against the nation There was abso j j lately nothing in the cry though it was the best campaign argument i t argu-ment that the radicals could bring forward The Fourteenth Amendment I to the Constitution provides that I Neither the United States nor any elate shall assume or pay any debt or J t obligation incurred in aid of insurrec t tlonor rebellion against the United I States or any claim for the loss ort or-t 1 emancipation of any slave but all T f snob debts obligations and claims I shall ha held illegal and void U Ia viewof this it is an insult to tbe majority I ma-jority of the people of the United States to intimate that the southern I claims would cr could be paid It i > cills in question the loyalty honesty t find patriotism of all the people and q I hints that the Constitution 1aa worthless III worth-less document binding on nobody I iI I Hancock fought the rebellion and for 1 the Union as bravely as ary man I < 1 and no one had the right t l 1 to ask him whether he would violate tt L rlllthe Constitution The people had a much better right to demand of Grant a positive denial that be would bet be-t E I proclaimed emperor in the event of 1 1 I his reelection than to ask General tI F Hancock to say whether he was in favor of the payment of renal rif k claims But Hancock has answered jr y the impudent inquiries and done it it I in such 5a way tbat there can f t be no mistaking his meaning HeAt He-At f 1 I will not be a party to tho payment off H of-f any of these f claims and will veto any t legislation for that purpose should amilOtS be silly enough or disloyal tOP enough fe attempt EO rank a violation o f Abe Constitution In view of The u iaj thatthe republicans werejraaking f the southern war claim cry in i lightening the ignorant vcten Han cocks letter is good and timely though it ii a shame that he should have been atked to write it The republicans re-publicans who havo stolen more money from the public treasury dur log tbe twenty years that it has hem under tbeir control than would pay all i the southern claimF for emend paled slaves and all will now have to invent some other bugaboo for cam sign purposes Tbe old one is gone and with it passes away about the only thing that the plundering party baa heretofore been Able to utilize |