Wyoming democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., Pa.) 1867-1940, 1867-11-27
The Opinion of a Soldier,

General SHERMAN's speech at the reun
essee, in St. Louis, on the 18th instant,
contained, after a rehearsal of the achieve
ments of that army during the war, an ap-
peal to the good sense of his countrynnen,
North and South, which is full of soldierly
magnanimity and feryOr. lfslayery is held
to be the real cause Of our civil war, then
General SHERMAN, himself born of New
England parents, "honestly believes that
the people of New Englang in common
with all the great north who shared in the
original cause and enjoyed large part Of
the profits resulting from cotton and slave
labor, should be charitable and liberal in
the final distribution of the natural penal
ties" He proceeds:
"If children must inherit the sins Of
their fathers, even in the third and fourth
generations, then none of US who trace our
origin back 10 the earlier days Of this re-
public can escape this mathematical and
philosophical conclusion or in the Ian
gusge Of DR.. Draper: "Guilty, then, both
of US in the sight Of God, let us not vex
each other with mutual elimination, but
bear our punishment with humility. y
How has this punishment been partitioned
by the results of the war? We of the
north have to mourn the loss of fathers,
brothers, sons and friends, and arc bur
deued with a vast national debt binding on
| US in fact, in law and in honor, never !
hope, to be questioned by any honorable
man in America till every cent is paid
Look to the South, and you who went
with me through that land can best say
if they, too, hsvn't been fearfulIy punished.
Mourning in every household desolatiop
written in broad characters across the
whole face of their country, cities in ashes
and fields laid waste, their commerce gone,
their system of labor annihilated and de-
stroyed. Ruin, poverty, and distress every
where and now pestilence adding the very
cap-sheaf to their stock of misery; her
proud men begging for pardon and appeal
ing for permission to raise food for their
children her five millions of slaves free,
and their value lost to their former mas
ters forever.
With our population increasing thirty
three per cent, every ten years; with our
national wealth developing in even great
er ratio; with our froutiers pushing back
in every direction; with farms and villages
and cities rapidly covering our vast ma
tiona domain; with mines of gold and
silver and iron and coal pouring out wealth
faster than ever did the cotton fields of
the South, with forty thousand miles of
| finished railroads, and other thousands in
progress-can any one doubt our present
strength. or calc ulate our future destiny
If our friends at the South will heartily
and cheerfully join with US in this future
course, for one would welcome them
back, our equals, but not our superiors,
and lend them helping hand" 5" .,.
When men Ike General Sherman take
issue in this wise with the confscation and
destructive policy just reiterated more
renomously than ever by Thaddeus Ste
vens, we may hope on that the real Grand
Army of the epublic"-soIdiers who
fought in the war and do not bluster in
time of peace, are in no danger of becom-
ing Radical enthusiasts. 4