Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-09-20
Law and Order.
2ES. SHERMAN APPEALS TO THE GOOD PEOPLE OF
UNION

hey SHERMAN APPEALS To THE GOOD PEOPLE OF
THE UNION.
The following card from Gen. W. T. Sherman.
addressed to the editor of the Republican. was
published to-day:
Fades IN civil broils and strife i'm California when
vigilance committees assumed ruIe and we
Know, or think we know. how good. honest
people have done some acts of violence under an
non.S. CONVECTION that they were doing the
IiSht thing, and we believe that time. the great
physician, will cure all things TO the patient
nave occasionally and recently heard the
same arguments on the streets the same
Straps ol wisdom enunciated, and even at this
9read hour, when our noble, brave President is
lying in the very agonies of death at Long
Branch, and the cowardly miserable wretch
hulteau. Is covering in his cell at the public iaf
IL occurs to me that you and / should. In our
respective spheres. make profitable use of our
past experience. No man on earth holds in
higher esteem the noble qualities of James A..
Garneld than myself. | was on the point of
starting for Chattanooga tonight to do honor to
the heroes of Chickamauga, of whom he was
one OF the most prominent, but was stayed by
the unfavOrable report from his bedside at noon
and shall remain here at my post Of
duty till the last moment OF hope. At
Chickamauga, eighteen years ago, Garfield
was chief of staff to Gen. ROsecrans, whose
right wing was broken back by the
vehement charges of Bragg's forces. and was
carried along with the broken masses almost
into Chattanooga. when he begged for the privi-
1ege OF returning to join Gen. Thomas whose
guns told him that that heroic man still stood
fast with his right wing. Gen. Rosecrans gave
him leave, and he did return running the gaunt-
let. joining Gen Thomas and serving close to
his person till night enabled them to fall back in
good order TO Chattanooga. That was Gen
Garfeids last fight. in which he felt especia
pride and know that he intended to be at
chattanooga next Wednesday to celebrate the
event But ii is ordered otherwise for he now
lies by the seashore on his death-bed, from a
wound inflicted by the miserable wretch Guiteau.
For this man Guiteau | ask no soldier.
no citizen to feel one particle of sympathy on
the contrary. could | make my will the law,
shooting or hanging would be too good for him.
But do ask every soldier and every citizen to
remember that We profess to berthe most loyal
nation on earth to the sacred promises of the
law There is no merit in obeying an agree
able law. but there is glory and herOism in sub
mittln9 gracefully to an oppressive one Our
constitution reads: no person shall be held to
answer for capital or otherwise Infamous crimes
unless on a presentment or indictment of a
grand jury; and in all criminal prosecutions the
accused shall enjoy the right to speedy and
public trial by an impartial Jury of the
state and district wherein the crime shall
have been committed. This is the solemn
contract of government, binding on the con-
sciences of all. Should our President die the
murderer is entitled to a speedy trial by iury
and hope he will have justice done him. But it
Is not any office of yours, OF of anybody except
the regular courts of this District which are in
Undisputed power. Violence i'm any form will
bring reproach upon us all-On the country at
large. and especially on us of the District of
Columbia.
- All the circumstances of the shooting and
OF the long, heroic struggle for life. impress me
so strongly that / would be ashamed of my
countrymen if they mingled with their feeling of
grief any thought of vengeance. Vengeance is
mine. saith the Lord / trust the public press
will exert its powerful influence to- maintain the
good order and decorum which have prevailed
since the saddest of all days in Washington,
July 2, 1881"