River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1875-11-18

voted heads of their luckless rank and
file. The result was that eight millions
! Of people in the South, without a govern
ment, without credit, without armies,
without arsenals, without anavy, without
commerce, without manufactures, with
sealed ports, and with the easiest country
to invade and the hardest to defend, on
the face Of the globe, were able to hold
out for four years against nineteen mil.
lions in the North rich in everything in
which their antagonists were deficient,
and free from all the emharraSsments and
disadvantages under which their antago-
nsts staggered until they fell. ~s
The value Of Gen, Sherman's book to
the cause Of truth and to the interests
Of history arises from the fact that IL
stripped from good many titled frauds
their thin veneering, that it expressly or
by implication gave the Confederates
credit for The disadvantages under which
they struggled, and it generally, or at
least whenever such justice did not con-
fict with the vanit, OF its author, accord
ed justice to the military abilities of the
Generals, and to the soldierly excellence
of the rank and file Of the Confederacy.
1t is true that Sherman did injustice in
his memoirs to Buell., Thomas and Nc.
Pherson; than whom the Federal cause
did not develop three more gallant, &C.
complished or chivalric soldiers. But we
can forgive him this injustice in view of
the justice he mtted out to that ridiculous
old bag of wool, llalleek, to that beastly
tyrant, uSurper and rufiian. Stanton; to
that detestable hummer and inflated blad.
der, John Logan, and to numerous others
Of the same illI and category. IL Boyn-
tons book stopped with correcting the
injustice done to Buell., Thomas and Nc.
Pherson, it would be valuable accom-.
paniment to the memoirs. But by going
beyond that legitimate limit, and attempt
ing the impossible in the shape of an ef.
fort to defend Halleck, Stanton and Lo-
gan, and to eXalt Grant, Boynton so near.
! y neu'ralizes the good there is in part
of his book as practically to destroy its
value as whole.
The noncluding portions of Boyntou's
book are devoted to discussion Of what
| its author calls Sherman's surrender to
Joe johnson. We had supposed that
the public mind was so fully. made up on
the subjects suggested by this branch Of
the discussion that not even an apologist
for Stanton or eulogist for Grant
would care to fly in the face of the set
tied opinion. Sherman's wise, humane
and liberal terms were rejected by Grant
and Stanton. The results of that reiec-
tion are before us in the nine years his
tory Of carpet-baggery and niggcrism in
the States of the South. Who is there to
defend the carpet-baggery and niggerism
that have cursed the South and disgraced
the Nation for the last nine years This
carpet-b aggery and this niggerism have
at last become things so unclean, car
cases so foul and stencil so horrible
that even their prime authors are trying
to wash their hands Of them. We do not
believe that BLynton will have hardhood
to defend them. And this carpet bag
gerry and this niggerism are the vindica.
ton of Sherman's terms with Joe
Johnston. He needs no other They
will vindicate his terms with Johnston
from the attacks Of far keener critics
than Boynton.