New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-09-07
THEIR WITNESS.

Major-Gen. W. T. Sherman has become de-
cided fayorite with our Sham Democracy. They
praise him; they damage him by needless de-
lenses and indications; they laud his first ar
rangement for Peace with 10. Johnston; they
even talk at times of running him for next Pres
ident. He is no Radical" he stood out
stoutly against negro soldiers; he has not yet
rubbed off the rust of all his old West-Point
preiudices; and all the world knows he is hon
est and outspoken. Whatever testimony he
sees fit to offer, therefore, on the issues of the
day, is entitled to their respectful consideration
The Huntsville 1droeate (Ala.) Of Aug. 81,
contains private letter, written in August of
last year, by Gen. Sherman, while besieging
Atlanta, to an old Southern friend, Mr.. ID. Nj.
Martin of Sand Mountain, Ala, who seems to
hava been swept into the vortex of Rebellion.
In this letter, along with much of merely per.
sonal interest, Gen. Sherman says:
81 was never politician hut resigned from the army
and lived In California till s57 when came oack with
nv wife and three children. who wanted TO be near
home; but had the old army ground into my CON,
position That civil pursuits were too tau ard accepted
offer ms President OF the LOUISIANA Military Academy
Therefore nj the time Of LincOlns election was at
Alexandria on Red River. saw and you must have
seen. that the Southern politicians wanted 10 DING
about secession, separation. They could have elected
Mr. Douglas but they 50 managed that iincolns elec
ton made certain, and Gtfy they had accomplished
this. II honest and fair for them To hllege II as
cause Of wart Did not Mr. Breckenridge. Vice
President in his seat. dee Mr. Lincoln the lawfully
elected President OF the United States Was " ever pre-
tended tie President our Government Don't you
know TINT Congress makes tue laws, the supreme Court
Judges them, aud the President only executes them
Don't you know thai Mr.. Lincoln of himself could not
take away your rightsf Now. WAS in Louisiana, and
while The planters aud mechanics and Industrial people
were happy and Prosperous. the politicians and busy
bodies scaening aud plotting and got tie Legs
laturc 20 pass ordinance Of secession which WAS sub
mitted 10 the people, who voted against n-yot the
politicians voted the State out and proceeded 10 take
possession of the United states mint, the forts. TIE
aTscnal-and tore down an cd Hng ana insulied
il. That, too. before MIR. Lincoln had got TO Wash.
ingt0n. | saw these tnings. and begged BfdVR.
and Bcauregnrd. aud GOV. Moore, and hos,
Of personal friends. 10 beware. IL that was
high treason. Bat they answered the North was made
up Of mean manufacturers of traders OF farmers who
would fight The people o. the North nsrer dreamed
OF interfering with the slaves property Of the south
They simply voted they had right 10 do and they
could understand why The people Of the south should
begin 10 take possession of the United States forts and
arsenas till our Government had done something
wrOng-sometmns oppressive. Inc south oeRan the
war. You know 1t; | and millions Of Others living at
the South know T. but the people If the North
innocent OF II Your little grandchildren Even after
forts bad been taken public arms stolen from our arse
mails and distributed among tie angry militia the brave
and honest eemen Of the grca. North could not realize
the fact. and did not until Ecauregard began TO IRE
upon a garrison Of the United States troops In fort
Then by mighty upheayal tie people rose and be-
gan TO think Of war, and not until then
Gen. S. is mistaken as to the submission
by the Convention OF Louisiana of its Ordi-
nance OF Secession to vote OF the people.
They were great deal too cunning for that.
But he is emphatically right on the main points,
namely:
|. That the Southern Democratic leaders en-
gineered Mr.. Lincoln's first election;
9. That Secession and Disunion were con-
triyed and carried by those leaders i'll defiance
of the popular will;
3. That the war was commenced by those
leaders before Mr.. Lincoln was inaugurated;
and
4. That the position of the North in that War
was essentially defensive against wanton insult
and aggression.
To show that these are not Abolition
assumptions, we clip one brief passage from the
close of Gen. Sherman's letter-as follows:
Il care not straw for niggers. The moment the
master rebels the negro H. FREE 0 course; for he Stare
only By iap and The iap brok,H. he Is FREE"
When this doctrine was first distinctly enun-
ciated by Edward Everett, it was met by a
howl of exccration from the Coppcrhead jour
nails, as the desperate device Of u conservative
turned cOurtier and radical in his servilty.
Here it is quite as broadly affirmed by Gen.
Sherman, in language even more terse and forci-
bic than Mr.. Eyerett's. How shall he be an
swcred
We insist that our contemporaries who still
assert that the North made war on the South, OF
provoked the South to secede, shall either try to
confute Gen. Shemans summing up of the
case or cease their iterations of the assumptions
he explodes.