The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-09-03
SHERxAN's LETTER IN MAssAcHus

SHERNAN'S LETTER IN MASSACHUSETTS,.
1t was not, we confess, without deep
feeling Of modification, that we read the
letter Of Gen. Sherman, which we publish.
ed in our columns Monday. To y commu-
nifty like our own, warlike, patriotic, bust
ling and busy in our efforts for the cause,
severe upon communities here we see
negligence and indifference to the great is
sues before us all, Gen. Sherman's letter
must have startling, humiliating blow.
And yet there is no reason to doubt that in
this letter we have fair view OF the way
garded by able, experienced, fair-minded
and patriotic military men. Such opinions
must be listened to. They challenge onr
attention. We can not reply to them as we
would to the sneers or malignant falsehoOds
of the opposition press.
Such letter as that of Gen. Sherman
was written in no spirit Of hostility to New
England. 1t was not cOncocted to prove
that Abolitionists will not tight It was
not written for political purposes at all. It
was written, as we conceive, simply be-
cause Gen. Sherman felt it necessary to do
what he could to place our conduct in its
seeing, as he did that the course
we are pursuing was one which resulted
in little or no service to the country. We
are bound to take his evidence as well-nigh
conclusive on the matter Of the service
ableness of the troops furnished by u.s.
What he wants, he says, is Massachusetts
men in his army. And what should he
want, we ask, of this Commonwealth. but
that her own sons should be his soldiers?
What more reasonable request could he
make than this2 What request should be
answered before this? Which Of all the
numerous calls which beset us at this time
on every hand, should we attend to, before
this great first duty of going to the war.
Let not the people think that we can get
around this matter by some Of our various
expedients. All such talk il folly. Our
own young men, born and bred in our own
New England, with all the martial spirit
which has distinguished her sons from
Louisburg 10 Petersburg, with the train.
ing, religious, moral and intellectual.
which is theirs, with the strength and en-
durance Of our Northern climate, must en-
list In the ranks and fight this war through.
Others cannot do 1t. Poor whites, liberated
slaves, rebel prisoners who have taken the
oath to get out of prison, cannot take our
places. Filling our quota will not do it,
That miserable, wretched, mortifying talk
we hear 80 much Of, about ..dlling our
quOta"-what has that to do with the war?
The only thing is to fill our armies, and to
all them with efficient troops. One would
think that people had devised q way of fil-
ling the quota without filing the rar ks. II
they have, 20 mnch the worse for us-for
our reputation and for our success.
We see that new regiments are to be
raised from this State. It may be neces-
sary to do this, as our old organizations are
20 few and 80 weak, but we hope that all
our old regiments and batteries will be
filled before one new regiment or one of
the anomalous unattached companies Of
heavy artillery" It must be done or we
do no real good. All our endeavors must,
of course, be measured by the effect upon
the army. The question for Ms is, what
do General Grant and General Sher-
man want us to dor They have the reins,
they have the armies in charge, they have
the experience and skili-what do they
think we ought to dot Does any one doubt
for one moment that those officers would
reply, "Fill up yonr old organizations with
your own citizens first" It is hardly nec-
essary to urge upon the pnblio that all ef-
fort which does not further the operations
Of our armies is really useless though it
may free IL community from the opera
ton of the~ kaft. What is the draft COM
pared to Petersburg or Atlanta7 Is 1t to
70 down on the pages Of history that Mas