Forney, John W. Life and Military Career of Winfield Scott Hancock. The Work comprises his Early Life, Education and remarkable Military Career, which has made him Senior Major General of the Armies of the United States, and the choice of the Democracy of the Nation for the high Office of President. It also contains a succinct Biographical Sketch of Hon. Wm. H. English. Philadelphia, Pa., &c.: Hubbard Bros., 1880. First Edition. [12027]
Dark blue cloth decorated in bright gilt and black, edge-worn with frayed spine ends and corner tips, some dark soil/tiny white spots to binding, 7 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches. Previous owner's 1880 signature in pencil on the front free end paper. Wood-engraved portrait of Hancock as frontispiece plus many other wood engravings. 502 generally clean pp., some leaves with offset shadows from pressed flowers, now removed. Good. Hardcover.
A campaign biography extolling the accomplishments and virtues of Maj.-Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, the Democrat nominee for US President in 1880. He was beaten in the contest by James A. Garfield.
Winfield Scott Hancock (1824-1886), b. Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania; d. New York City. His military career ranged from the Mexican American War to the Indian Wars of the West, with his actions for the Union at Gettysburg making him a hero of the North.
"Hancock stands the most conspicuous figure of all the general officers who did not exercise a separate command. He commanded a corps longer than any other one, and his name was never mentioned as having committed in battle a blunder for which he was responsible. He was a man of very conspicuous personal appearance.... His genial disposition made him friends, and his personal courage and his presence with his command in the thickest of the fight won for him the confidence of troops serving under him. No matter how hard the fight, the 2nd Corps always felt that their commander was looking after them." - Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs, 1885, Vol. II, pp. 539–40.
John Weiss Forney (1817-1881), b. Lancaster, Pennsylvania; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Forney was a newspaperman, editor, writer, Clerk of the United States House of Representatives (1851-56), and Secretary of the U.S. Senate (1861-1868). He has been called something of a political chameleon, being chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party (1856); a supporter of James Buchanan, then Stephen Douglas, and finally, becoming a friend of Abraham Lincoln.
His support for Lincoln's successor was short-lived and he in fact aided the efforts to impeach and convict President Johnson. President Grant made him collector of the port of Philadelphia in 1871.
Here we have him promoting the Democrat candidate for President in 1880, Winfield Scott Hancock.
