The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1863-03-07
Letter from Gen. ROSecraRS to the
Indiana Legislature.

Letter from Sen. ROsecraRs to the
Indiana Legislature.
In response to resolutions of thanks
from the Indiana Legislature, General
Rosecrans has written the following let
ter:
Headquarters Dept of Cumberland, !
Murfreesboro, Tenn, Feb. Is. !
GENTLEMEN: In the name of the Off
GERS and Soldiers of the Army of the
Cumberland, thank you for the reselu-
tioEs of congratulation, approval and
coincidence you have sent us on account
of the Battle of Stone River
At the call of constitutional liberty,
the brave and true men of the West laid
aside peaceful pursuits, left their homes
and sought to qualify themselves to fight
for Government that had cost the blood
and treasures of two great wars and
eighty years of time, to establish.
For twenty weary months this Army
has stood guard to keep the Confederate
Wolf from your doors. They know what
hunger, cold, weary marches, and pain
full watchings it has cost to preserve our
homes from invasion, and our friends
and neighbors from CONSUMPTION; it is
therefore doubly pleasure to hear these
free and cheering words now from home.
The unscrupulous despots in our front
call us Lincoln hirelings," and we hear
that this calumny has lately been repeat
ed at home, by some of the men whose
property and persons have been kept safe
by our toll and blood, from the ruthless
hands of Kirby Smith, Bragg and Nor
gan. Presenting on our absence, these
men talk as if we were not citizens, and
speak mockingly of our patriotism. They
stab in the back the most generous, true
hearted men of the country, while stand
ing guard in front of their doors, and
they prolong the war by encouraging
the rebels to hope for divided counsels at
our homes
speak the conviction of the officers
and men of this army, when l say that
we fight to secure equal rights to all,
under the Constitution and the Laws
we fight in defence of our homes and
hearths, sure to be invaded, if the rebel
despots, who began the war can get the
power. But we long for peace-we pray
for peace; and we fight for peace-not
for a dishonorable peace-not for hol-
low truce. We have once been deceived
by the cry of mo coercion" and of
Estate rights" and have seen how the
rebel leaders practice, in East Tennes-
see, Missouri, Western Virginia and
Kentucky We have met the masses of
the South, and are witnesses of the false
hood, calumny and per6dy by which they
have been led to wage war against u.s.
We have seen flags of truce violated;
hospitals, ambulances and boats bearing
flags, fired upon; and our sick and
wounded stripped of their blankets and
robbed of their food and medicines; we
have been approached in battle by rebels
wearing our uniforms and CARRYING our
colors
After witnessing the wholesale SLAM
der of US, their perfdy and treachery to-
wards the masses of their own people,
and the unfair and dishonorabie means
to which they resort to gain an advan-
tage. we have been forced to the i'm
uloV"Oie 90. "~d- conviction, that the
LEADERS OF this rebellion are Pcrtfdio,ts,
freacherous, unscrupUIous and cruel
their leaders never will nor can he
peaceable, or true friends and neigh,
bors. And that, as Mr.. Davis has said,
they onl Y want the power, not the will,
to invade and subjugate us.
We should rejoice to see the power of
these leaders fall by the hand of their
own people, whom they Cypress; that
people for whose rights we fight, in COM
mon with our own; but unless it does
thus fall, we must destroy it, or it will
destroy our Nation, and our children
will pass under the yoke of a military
despotism raised on the sable foundation
of negro slavery, and the more degrad-
ing servitude of the "poor whites" such
as now overshadows the South. | say
"our children will pass under the yoke"
for that could only happen after the
brave and true men of the country-her
citizen-soldiers-shall have perished or,
deserted by the wretches whose homes
they have hitherto protected, keart-bro-
ken and despairing, shall quit the field
and give to slavery and to its domination
all those who love money more than
honor, and peace more than freedom
The issue Is plain one. Ii we who
battle for national existence are not to
be sustained by our own friends at home,
the sooner we know it the better. We
do not wish TO be deceived as to or po-
sition, nor fall victims to the treachery,
cowardice, or selfishness of those whom
we have loved and trusted
w. S. RosECRANs, Major General.
To the Honorable the Legislative Assem-
bly, of the State of Indiana.
from the indianapolis Journal
Legislative Summary.