Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1869-05-14
I,nftcl. from Gcn. Shcl.-
rn:in--ThC surrender Of
Gen. j. L.. Johnston.
, The E.lItnr Of lhe N--Y rrilnn.

April, 1865.
am glad you have called public
attention TO the picture itself because
feel personal interest that Mr.
IIcaley should I've appreciated as one
of our best American artists. But
some friends here think by silence ]
may be construed as willing to throw
off on Mr.. Lincoln the odium OF
those terms. If there be any odium,
which | doubt, surely would not be
willing that the least shadow of ii
should go to Mr.. Lincoln's memory,
which | hold in too much venera-
ton to he stained by anything done
or said by me. / understand that
the substance of Wilkes original ar
ticle was compiled by him after II
railroad conversation with Admiral
Porter, who was present at that in
terview as represented in the picture,
and who made note of the CONVEX
sation immediately after We sepa-
rated. He would be more likely to
have preserved the exact words used
on the occasion, than j who made no
notes, then or since. can not now
even pretend to recall more than the
subjects touched upon by the several
parties, and the impression left on
my mind after we parted. The inter.
view was i'm March, nearly a month
before the final catastrophe; and it
was my part of the plan of opera
lions to move my army, REINFORCED
by Schofield, then at Goldsboro, n.
c., 10 Burkesville, Va, when Lee
would have been forced to surrender
in Richmond. The true move left to
him was q hasty abandonment of
Richmond, join his force to John
sons, and strike me in the omen
country. The only question was
could | sustain this joint attack till
Gen. Grant came in pursuit? was
confident could; but at the very
moment of our conversation Cen
Grant was moving Gen. Sheridan's
heavy force Of cavalry to his extreme
left, toprevent this very contingency.
Mr.. Lincoln, i'm hearing us speak of
n final bloody battle, which | then
thought would fall OH me near
Raleigh, did exclaim more than once
that blood enough had already been
shed, and he hoped that the war
would end without any more. We
spoke of what was to be done with
Davis, other party leaders and the
rebel army; and he left us under the
impression that all he asked of us
was, to dissipate these armies, and
get the soldiers back to their homes
anyhow, the quicker the better, leav-
ing him free to apply the remedy,
and the restoration Of civil law. He
(Mr. Lincoln) surely left upon my
mind the impression warranted by
Admiral Porter's account, that lie
had long thought of his course of
action when the rebel armies were
out of his way, and that he wanted
to get civil governments re-organized
at the South, the quicker the better,
and strictly conforming with our
general system.
1 had been absent so long that /
presumed, of course, that Congress
had enacted all the laws necessary to
meet the event of peace, so long ex-
pected, and the near approach of
which must then have been seen by
the most obtuse; and all / aimed to
Ito was 10 remit the rebel army sur
rendering to me to the conditions Of
the laws of tic country as they then
existed. At the time of Jonston's
surrender at Durham, drew up the
terms with my own hand. Breckin-
ridge had nothing at all to do with
them, more than to duscuss their
effect, and he knew they only ap-
piled to the military; and he forth
with proceeded to make his escape
from the country a course that be-
lieve Lincoln wished that Breckridge
should have succeeded in efecting.
rs well as all the other leading
Southern politicians, against whom
public Indignation always turned
with feeling far more intense than
against Generals Lee, Johnston, and
other purely military men.
1 repeat that, according to my
memory, Mr.. Lincoln did not ex-
pressly name any specific terms of
surrender, but he was in that kindly
and gentle frame of mind that would
have induced him to approve fully
what / did, excepting probably he
would have interlined some modifi-
cations, such as recognizing his
several prociamations antecedent, as
well as the laws of Congress, which
would have been perfectly right and
acceptable to me and to all parties.
] dislike to open this or any other
old question, and do ii for the reason
stated, viz, lest / be construed as
off on Mr.. Lincoln what
his friends think should be properly
borne by me alone.
If in the original terms / had, as |
certainly meant, included the procla-
Of the President, they would
have covered the slavery question
and all the real State questions which |
caused the war; and had not Mr..
Lincoln been assassinated at that
very moment, believe those "terms"
would have taken the usual course of
modification, or absolute
disapproval, sand been returned to
me, like hundreds of other official
acts, without the newspaper clamor
and unpleasant controversies so un~
kindly and unpleasantly thrust upon |
me at the time.
| am truly yours,
w. L. SHERMAN, General.
Washington, ID. g., April IL, go.
The following good hit has often +.
been published and we venture to
give it another lift.
a few years since. at the conclu-
zion of a Sermon tba ,,ra..l,o. 49,