The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1865-03-16
A Letter From Gen. Sherman.

!
His View. q the Causes of the Wax aad
Of its Inevitable Results.
The following letter from Gen Sher-
man has just been published:
HBADo'Rs MI. DIV. OF THE Mlss.l
Is THE FIELD, NEAR MARR1ETrA. GA,
June 80. 1864
Mrs. ANNE GILMAN BowEN, Baltimore, |
Maryland:
DEMMABAM-You our welcome letter OF |
June 18th came TO me here amid the |
sound Of battle, and, as you say. little |
did dream. when l knew you, playing |
as school girl OF Sullivan's Island |
beach, that should control vast ar |
nv. pointing, like the swarm of Alaric, |
to the plains of the South Why, oh !!
why is this? If know my own heart. |
it beats as warmly as ever toward those
kind and generous families that greeted
US with such warm hospitality in days
long past, but still present in memory,
and today were Frank and Mrs. Porchcr,
and Eliza Gilman, and Mary Lamb, ana
Margaret Blake, the Barksdales, the
Quashis, the Pryors, indeed any and all
of our cherished circle, their children,
or even their children's children, to come
to me as of old, the stern feelings of
duty and conviction would melt as snow
before the genial sun. and / believe l
would strip my own children that they
might be sheltered; and yet they call me
barbarian, vandal, and monster, and all
! the epithets that language can invent
that are significant of malignity and hate.
/ All l pretend to say, on earth as IN
! heaven, man must submit to some ar
bitter. He must not throw off his allie
. glance to his Government or his God
! without just reason and cause. The
t South had no cause-not even preteNt.
Indeed, by her unjustitiable course, she
has thrown away the proud history OF
! the past, and laid open her fair country
: to the tread of devastating war. She
! bantered and bullied us to the conflict.
Had we declined battle, America would
have sunk back, coward and craven,
meriting the contempt of all mankind.
/ AS a nation, we were forced to accept
battle. and that once begun, it has gone
! on till the war has assumed proportions
/ at which even we, in the hurry -burly,
stand aghast l would not subjugate
the South in the sense so Extensively as
sumed, but would make every citizen
of the land obey the common law, sub
nit to the same that we do-no worse,
no better-our equals and not our SUI
periors. I know, and you know, that
there were young men in our day, now
no longer young, but who control their
fellows, who assumed to the gentlemen
of the South a superiority of courage
and manhood, and boastingly defied us
of Northern birth to arms. God knows
how reluctantly we accepted the issue,
but once the issue joined, like in other
ages, the Northern race, though slow to
IL
; than the more infamable of the South.
Even yet my heart bleeds when l see
the carnage Of battle, the desolation of
homes, the bitter anguish of families,
but the very moment the men of the
South say that instead of appealing to
war they should have appealed to reason
to our Congress, to our courts, to relig-
ion, and to the experience of history, then
will I say Peace-Peace; go back-to
to your point of error, and resume your
places as American citizens, with all
their proud heritages. Whether / shall
live to see this period is problematical,
! but YOU may, and may tell your mother
and sisters that l never forgot one kind
look or greeting, or ever wished to eff
face its remembrance but in putting on
the armor Of war 1 did it that our COM
mon country should not perish in infamy
and dshonor / am married, have a
wife and six children living in Lancaster,
Ohio. My course has been an eventful
one, but hope, when the clouds of an
: ger and passion are dispersed, and truth
energies bright and clear, you and all
who knew me in early years will not
blush that we were once dear friends.
Tell Eliza for me that l hope she may
live to realize that the doctrine of 'tse-
cession" is as mOnstrOus in our civil code
as disobedience was in the Divine law.
And should the fortunes of war ever
bring you or your sisters, or any of our
old clique under the shelter of my au
thority, 1 do not believe they will have
cause to regret it. Give my love to
your children, and the assurance of my
respects to your honored husband.
Truly, W. T. SHERMAN.