The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-10-05
Letter from General Rosecrans on the
Vital Issue Of the Present Political
Campaign.
ST. MARTINS, Brown Co., O.,
September 81, 1868. )

ST. MARTINS, Brown Co., o.,
September 81, 1868. )
To General John Lore, Indianapolis:
GENERAL: Indispensable duties pre-
vent me from attending the gathering
of the officers and soldiers at lndianap-
oils to which your letter invited me on
the 23d instant.
But beyond the great ratification l
should experience in meeting so many
of my old companions in arms, and
mingling our memories OF the past with
resolutions of the future efforts and sac
rifices for the honor of the land and flag
we love, my presence there would ac-
complish little more than simple state
ment of nv views on the chief issues
which now agitate the country.
/ believe our free institutions and
highest material interests are in grave
peril. / should therefore perform SOL
emn and responsible duty to my fellow
soldiers and countrymen who love this
nation more than party, by stating what
think the most vital issue before the
publis in the approaching Presidential
election.
Above all other issHes-expenditures,
taxation, bonds, greenbacks," or any
thing else, stands that of restoring the
people of the Southern States to hopeful,
cheerful self-gorernment
Restore them this, and as certainly
as day follows the sun, our political
stability will be assured; our financial
prosperity will speedily follow; the
value of property in the South will in
crease; our public securities will go to
a premium; our greenbacks will become
par; separate cash accounts for coin
and currency, with all their evils and
complications, will disappear from the
books of business men.
Believing, with all my soul, that the
preservation of our Government from
despotic changes, and all these inestl-
mable blessings depend upon the res
toration of the Southern people TO
wholesome, cheerful self-government, l
am equally certain that II can De done,
and dare pledge my honor and life for
them that they will give and observe
all proper guarantees to renounce seces-
sion, slavery, and their dependent is
sues; to protect, educate and elevate the
freedmen to the exercise of all the fran
chises they enjoy in Ohio, Indiana or
Illinois; and faithfully to perform all
the duties incumbent on them as good
citizens under the Constitution and
laws of the United States.
And what more could be asked of
them, or what greater results could pa
triotism desire for the country than de-
pend upon this issue
Not even the prosecution of the war
challenged more thorough renuncia.
ton of party preferences and personal
dislikes on the altar of our country
than does the attainment of this great
good.
The desolate and ruined South, the
oppressed tax payers of the West and
North, generosity, mercy, love of conn
try, apprehension of evils to come,
every motive that ought to move the
hearts of true and noble men, appeal to
us to say by our votes we will stop that
hopeless folly of attempting to govern
the Southern States by what we call
"loyal blacks" and give the people un-
der just guarantees the right, peacetul-
ly and legally, to recognize their own
Q government within the Union.
With such convictions, L hold the
man who would not express and act
upon them, traitor to himself and
country, and despise the partisan who
would find fault with any reasonable
steps he might take TO bring about so
great q good to the Nation.
CommendiRg my convictions, and the
reasons for them, to the Judgment of
my fellow-soldiers and countrymen,
remain, very truly yours,
w. S. ROSECRANS.