The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-05-16

man the Man for tho Democratic
Party.
The brief but significant and comprehen-
sive New Orleans speech Of General Sherman
on the Ku Klux Klans, from the ventilation
we have given it through our editorial columns
| looking to the next Presidency, has been run
ming through the South like an autumnal fire
in the dry grass of the great Plains under
roaring Nor'wester. The Memphis Aodtdnche,
for instance, enthusiastic in its recognition of
| General Sherman as the man for the democ-
racy in the approaching Presidential contest,
proposes to run him on the admirable peace
platform of universal amnesty and universal
amity." The Montgomery Gala. Mail says
eff General Sherman comes with the olive
branch instead of the sword the South will
gladly meet him on halfway ground" The
Selma (Ala.) Times says 1.-THE New YORK
HERALD has always had the happy faculty Of
being with the strong side." The Greenvills
Is. CO. Enterprise says the HERALD urges
with great force the claims of General Sher-
man upon ''the democrats and the liberal re-
publicans." The Wilmington IN. c. Star says
that, after this New Orleans speech, 1--WE pre-
fer to consider Sherman as an aspirant to
Presidential honors rather than as the author
of mere explosion of generosity toward those
to whom he has not hitherto been specially
kind, or as mere seeker after notoriety )" that,
considered as bid for the Presidency, it
most timely card !" that SHERMAN is Presi-
Dental whale of huge dimensions in the path
of Grant," and that 'if he wants the Presi-
dency we trust the democracy will not suffer
him to beg for it long"
1t is our opinion, however, that General
Sherman, in this New Orleans speech, had no
thought Of the Presidency, and was no more
bidding for it than was General Jackson, or
General Harrison, or General Taylor, or Gen.
eral Fremont, or General Grant when he was
first brought into the Presidential field. In
his Ku Klux speech at New Orleans General
Sherman simply spoke the honest opinions of
an honest soldier. He never has been q negro
worshipper. We have before US copy of a
letter from him, written in 1864, in the midst
Of the war, which is strongly suggestive Of his
general opinions on the negro question. The
letter is as follows
SIR-Yours OF August % is received. Thank you
Tor your kind expressions
Iron is iron and steel Is STEEL and all the popular
clamor on earth Will not impart to one the qualities
OF the other.
SO niger is not a white man, and ali the Psalm
singing on earth won't make him so. 1t is strange
to me that among people, North and South, who
nave so much common sense, that you can't say mig
ger till both parties make tools OF themselves and 1t
is hard TO say which are the worst. When settle
this little fight on hand the great ngger'' question
W. T. SHERMAN, NJ. G.
ATLANTA, Sept IL.
After writing this letter, in settling that
''ittle fight" he had on hand, General Sher-
man, before leaving Atlanta, depopulated it
by military order, and on leaving it COM
mitted the city to the flames and destroyed the
various railroads centring there to prevent
the place being used as a rebel base of opera
ing with his army swath sixty miles wide,
he swept it pretty clean, even of "niggers,"
taking with him a caravan of twenty-five thou
sand, more or less, with him TO Savannah, and
locating them, with many thousands more,
among the sea islands of South Carolina.
Carolinas, he swept his fiery way over swath
from sixty to hundred miles wide to General
10 Johnston's surrender at Greensboro, in the
''Old North State" And here, as the Selma
Gala Times says, if the people of the South
''never will forget his march to the sea and
march, still they will remember, to counter
balance it, that when the war was over he
gave to those who had fought him terms that
were alike magnanimous to the men Of the
Confederate armies and honorable to himself"
These terms, as originally agreed upon by
General Sherman, provided among other
things for the least possible Intervention by
the general government in Southern recon-
struction. Hence in coupling his original
agreement with 10 Johnston with the late
New Orleans speech of General Sherman we
have the secret Of his present popularity in
the South. If war with him was war peace is
peace; and this is the true Southern idea of
war and peace and of Southern chivalry.
The Generals opinions of the Ku Klux and
of the capabilities Of the law and order men of
the South to put down these Ku Klux Klans
without the aid Of the United States army are
popular, however, because they are correct
From an intelligent and impartial correspon-
dent travelling in the South we have these
facts THAT these Ku Klux Klans do exist
that they have been and are guilty of many
lawess acts; that, in fact, a large number of
their outrages never get into the newspapers !;
but that these terrible Ku Klux, instead OF
being political combinations, are sort OF
vigilance committees, ferreting out and pun
sbing, under the code of Judge Lynch, those
idle and vagabondizing negroes and their
accomplices guilty Of robberies, murders and
other outrages too horrible to name. In this