The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-05-01

General Sherman, having been captured Dy
radical political club in New Orleans, made
| q very remarkable and significant speech, In
| which he alluded to some Of the leading ques-
| tons of the day. He spoke apparently very
much against his will, and said many things
| that must have surprised the company who
invited him to speak. Perhaps unconsciously
| to himself he took the field on that occasion
| as candidate for the nomination in 1872.
| General Sherman is o very popular man with
all classes and parties, his military record is
without stain, and taking himself and Grant,
as soldier against soldier, they probably stand
on equal footing. General Sherman's name
has not been mentioned prominently in con-
nection with the nomination. Perhaps his
appearance in the field may relieve the demo-
cratic party from many of its perplexities In
regard to its selection of a candidate from the
Western States. 1t may also relieve that
portion of the republicans from load of
doubt and fear who are forced unwiliingly
to carry General Grant into the contest as the
only nominee available to the party. The
popularity of General Sherman In the West,
his own home, is immense, and would do much
to set aside the jealouses and difficulties which
beset both parties in that section. We think
that these good, kind words from the man who
led his gigantic army from Atlanta to the sea,
leaving behind him in the Southern States
through which his track lay those DESC
lations which are the necessities of war-yet
perhaps not any more desolation than those
necessities demanded-will make General
Sherman very popular with the Southern
people. Speaking of the surrender Of Joe
Johnston and his army of Confederates, Gene
raj Sherman said :-'I believe this government
over the entire American Continent; but in
order to gain this much desired end,
and to maintain ourselves as a free
and independent republic, we have got
to show more charity toward each
other. 1t has been remarked by some gentle
rally conceded by the soldiers of both armies
at the close Of the late civil war that if the
questions and all matters of the settlement of
the differences between the North and South
were left to the armies it would be settled at
once, and everything would become quiet
and orderly. / so believed, and before
signing the agreement with General Joe
Johnston l called together all the generals
under my command, and without dissenting
voice they agreed with me. believed they
surrendered in good faith and would have
lived up to the very letter of the agreement;
nd in nj ho1
reconstruction acts of Congress and the armies
had been left at the time to settle all questions
of difference between the different sections of
the country, the people would have at once
become quiet and peaceable."
Here General Sherman states an opinion
which was shared in by every Southern man
who was not bombastic highfyer in his seces-
sion sentiments or purposeiess disorganizer
by nature. There are men who will not live
at peace. Warfare is their normal condition.
The Southern armies, as well as our own, had
plenty Of this kind of men In the ranks Of the
posed that they threw off the tigers
skin to assume the silky fleece of
the lamb upon the mere announcement of
peace. To expect this would be asking too
much Of poor humanity. That no such result
followed in many individual cases the action
ington prove quite as conclusively as anything
which the Southern eK-Confederate leaders
have said or done since Appomattox
day. We do not except the spirit which
is evinced by the restless demon which we
have learned to call Ku Klux, that after-clap
which follows a wasting fever. The Ku Klux
men are doubtless quite as bitter in their
wrath, quite as uncharitable in their hearts,
quite as unyielding in the exercise of their
vengeance as Ben Butler or Senator Morton,
or q dozen others we might name in the ranks
Of the administration party; but, fortunately
for the country, neither the Ku Klux, nor
Major General Ben Butler, nor Senator Oliver
P. Morton represent the feelings of the Amer
lean people upon this subject. The petty
viciousness of partsanship, North and South,
has not got control Of the manly, honest Amer
lean nature. That narrow spirit dwells only
with a few men in power and seeking a
renewal Of power, whose political existence,
just as the life of the predatory insect,
depends upon corruption.
General Sherman, therefore, echoed only
the opinion of all unprejudiced people, both
North and South, certainly Of the whole
democratic element, when he said that if
there had been no reconstruction acts of Con-
gress, and the armies had been left to them
selves, at the conclusion of the war. to settle
the diffculties-and they were not so manifold
after all that little kindness and good sense
could not have settled them-the people would
have at once become quiet and peaceable.
General Sherman believes in the chvalric spirit