Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-11-22
GENERAL SHERMAN.
His Address before the Society Of the
Army of the Tennessee.

His Address before the Society Of the
Army of the Tennessee.
At the last annual meeting OF the society
of the Army of the Tennessee, which was
held at ST. Louis on Wednesday last,
Lieutenant General Sherman delivered an
address before the same, from which we ex,
tract the following passages:
] have often been asked by my fellow sci
diers, when troubled by the reports Of the
disturbed condition of things at the South
whether, after all, our la5ors had not been
in vain? Whether we might not again be
called on to repeat the scenes of 1863 and
1864? Or whether the rebels, defeated In
battle, might not in the hurlyburly of time
and politics, regain their lost cause, and
their lost pride?
On these points | feel no great solicitude;
but whether can convey 10 your minds the
same conviction, | viii not say. History
rarely goes backward, and events in the
past are usually as real as the granite rock
on which we stand. Surely no men ever
had more glorious cause than we; and
never, in my Judgment, did war so com.
pletely fulfil Its natural office
Slavery was the cause Of the war, and
slavery would surely have been extinguished
in this country by gradual and natural
process, aud we might have been spared
our civil war, had not other causes come in
to play 1t was found that the soil and eli
mate of the Southern States were admirably
ada,,ted to the growth of cotton. The
- n" steam was discovered and applied
n machinery of all kinds, especially IN Old
and New England and Eli Whitney, of
Massachusetts,, invented his cotton gin.
These created an immense demand for the
staple, and seem TO have changed the whole
current Of public opinion The invention OF
the cotton gin did more to fix slavery upon
us than any amount of prohibitory legisla
ton. or any amount of anti slavery agitation,
so that | have always felt that both Old
England and New England had much to do
in fastening slavery upon us as apeople, and
should have Just share In the responsibility
for its baneful result. Under these inhuen-
ces cotton became a power 10 the land. IL
was proved arrogant and claimed to be King
II dictated its terms, and threatened wal
unless its imperious demands were granted.
IL claimed the right to go where it pleased,
and to extend itself over lands, such as
Kansas and California, not adapted to it Oh
TO slave labor at all; and at last il rebelled
and set up a government Of It's own, whose
yerv corner stones were cotton and slavery.
Nothing ON earth could justify such a rebel
ion, and I Oaly mention these facts in the
past to show that others than the people o.
tie South were partially responsible anC
should share the natural consequences oi
their own act.
Now that slavery IL gone, and gone for
ever, with its UNHAPPY wrecks left behind,
and all danger is passed, If any set of men
again appeal to war when they have courts
to secure their rights and redress then
wrongs, | would trust our national destiny
again to those grand old national laws which
raised eur country through the long, tediou:
vassalage Of colonization; which carried III
safely through the ordeal of our Revolu
tionafy war; made our flag famous on the
high seas in 1872; led our conquering armies
to the gates of Mexico in I84l; and ha'
borne us gloriously through four years Of a:
hard war as ever tested the manhood Of any
people.