The Waynesburg Republican. [volume] (Waynesburg, Pa.) 1867-18??, 1867-11-27
!. 21eSnesSog, 2lopenber q, 1851.
She 2Sagncsb,ars 2Republicam, !
Address OF Gen. sherman hefcrr the so
eIetv M thu 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 We'd
nesday last, Lieutenant General Sher-
man delivered an address before the
same, from which we extract the fol-
lowing passages I: =,
have often been asked by my fel-
low-soldiers, when troubled by the re-
ports of the disturbed condition OF
things at the South, whether, after al,
our labos had not been in vain ?
Whether We might not be called on to
repeat the scenes of 1868 and 1864 u
Or, wNss4cS the rebels, defeated inI
battle, might not, in the hurly bnrly
of time and politics, regain their "lo5t
cause" and their lost pride?
How any Southern gentleman, with
these facts plain and palpable, every
where staring him in the face, and re-
corded forever in the book of history,
can still boast of his "rost Cause" or
speak of it in language other than OF
shame and sorrow, pass my under
standing, and instead ofbeingrevivedi !
know that their Lost Cause will sink
deeper and deeper into infamy as the
time more keenly probes its hidden
mysteries and reveals them to the light
of day. ,y,t .-. .e -t
On these points l feel no great So
licitude; {; but whether | can convey to
your minds the same conviction, Twill
not say. History rarely goes back
ward, and events in the past are usual
ly 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
Iconspetely fulfill its natural office.
Slavery was the cause of the war,
and slavery would surely have been
extinguished in this country by a
gradual and natural process, and we
might have been spared our civil war,
hadnot other causes come into play. 1t
was found that the soil and climate of
the Southern States were admirably
adapted to the growth of cotton. The
power of steam was discovered and
applied to machinery of all kinds, es-
pccially III Old and New England, and
Eli Whitucy, of Massachusetts,, in
vented his cotton gin. These Great
ed an immense demand for the staple,
and seemed to have changed the whole
current of public opinion, The in
vcntion Of the cotton gin did more to
fix slavery upon us than any amount
of prohibtory legislation, or any
amount of anti-sluvery agitation, 50
that | have always felt that both Old
England anil New England had much
to do in fastening slavery upon us as
people, and should have just share
in the responsibility for its banciul re-
suit. Under these influences cotton
became power in shc land. 1t was
prmel arrogant and claimed to b,
king. 1t dictatatcd its terms, and
i threatened war unless its iaperious
demands were granted. 1t claimed
the right to go were it pleased, and
to extend itself over lands, such n
Kansas and California, not adapted to
it or to slave lalUr at all and at last
it rebclled and set up a government OF
its own, whose very corner stones west
cotton and slavery. Nothingon cartl
could Justify such rebellion, and
only mention these facts in the past tc
show that others than the people Of
the South were partially responsible
and should share the natural consc-
qucnccs of their own act.
Now that slavery is gone, and gon,
forever, with its unhappy wrecks left
behind, and all danger is past, if any
set of men again appeal to war when
they have courts to secure their rights
and redress their wrongs, would trust
our national destiny again to those
grand old national laws which raised
our country, through the long, tedious
vassalagc 0foolonization which car
ricd us safely through the ordeal OF
our Revolutionary war; made our
flag famous on the high seas in 1872
led our conquering armies to the gates
Of Mexico in 1917 and has borne us
gloriously through four years of as
hard war as ever tested the manhood OF
any people.