The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1884-12-31
AN INTERESTING LETTER.
The asis of Sherman's False Charge
Against Mr.. Davis.

have been stolen from the premises 0
: General HERsCHEL V. JOHNSON, a
Sandy, Grove GA, in the autumn of 1874
by one of SHERMAN's raiders:
THE LETTER
CHARLOTTESVILLE, GA, April 5, 1864.
My DEAR SIR-Your letter of the
9th instant Just reached me, and | de
vote a few leisure moments to you in
reply this evening, because | do not
know that I shall have time to do it il
the morning before the mail closes.
wrote you a pretty long letter day
before yesterday, and feel no disposition
to prolong the discussion. If after
reading that you are still of the opinion
that the act suspending the writ of ha
beas corpus in certain cases does not
attempt to confer upon the presiden;
and others under him the power to ar
rest and to hold persons arrested with
out proper warrant under oath, power
that they could not exercise without it.
then it is useless to say more; and II
after reading that letter and the order of
Gen. Cooper alluded to in it, you are
still of the opinion that personol liberty
is not jeopardized by it, that no blow Is
struck by it at the very 'vitals of liberty,
then indeed you would not believe
though one were to rise from the dead.
So no more on those points.
ANTIPATHY TO DAVIS.
II wish barely to say a few things on
some other points. After speaking of
the commemorate tone of the Milledge-
vile speech, you say: "Yet below the
surface your antipathy to the presi-
dent is perceptible:to anyone acquainted
with your opinions of the man. (under-
scoring mine), and on this point you
say: Il think you had as well have
| fully unbottled your wrath for after all,
you are as well understood, in the
! estimation of the country, to be hostile
! as if you had avowed it ; and you go on
to say that will necessarily be classed
with those whose palpable object is to
organize a party in opposition to the
administration, underscoring all mine;
and futher on you say that my antipathy
to Davis has misled my judgment. For
your candor and frankness in all this /
sincerely thank you, for it is conclusive
evidence to me that such are your opin-
ions, and | allude to these matters for
the SOlt DuIPOoC VI OOIiCOlAuS an OAIO
neous impression on your mind. | assure
you : have no antipathy to Mr. Davis,
nor am / hostile to him; and if there is
an object, or intention, or wish, with
any to organize party in opposition to
the administration know nothing about
it-have heard nothing of it.
GREAT OBJECTS IN VIEW.
GAS to the late movement on the
action of Georgia upon the subject of
the habeas corpus and the resolution in
relation TO the terms upon which peace
should be sought, / think | know as
much as anybody else. If any one is
responsible for it no one is more so than
myself ! ittrue that those resolutions
were not drawn up by me, but they
were prepared by Linton, after full
nsultation-prepared at his house
before he went to Milledgeville, and as
for Mr.. Davis or his administration they
had but little to do with it-nothing in
the world except in so far as they fall
within tt scope of the point as stated
They die not rise to the dignity of a
moments serious consideration or
thought way or the other. Greater
objects by far were then engrossing my
attention, and Linton's too, think. As
for Mr.. Davis, | repeat again | have no
feelings of antipathy, much less hostil
ity.
SUSPICION AND JEALOUSY
"What opinions you may think / en-
terrain of him as you intimate | know
not, but | have no hesitancy in stating
to you freely and frankly and most
confidently what my opinions of him are
they are much more akin to suspicion
and jealousy than of animosity or hate.
While | do not, and never have regarded
him as a great man or statesman on a
large scale, or a man of any marked
genius, yet l have regarded him as a
man of good intentions, weak and yacil-
lating, timid, petulant, feverish, obsti-
nate, but not firm. | am now beginning to
doubt his good intentions. | say doubt,
| for after watching him closely / am not
| satisfied in my own mind or arrived at
any conclusion whether some of his
shortcomings are to be attributed to
weakness or bad purposes. These are
nv real sentiments, and my reasons
for them are these: Since his first
elevation to power he has changed
many of his state-rights principles, as
in case of CONSUMPTION. His whole
policy on the organization and discipline
of the army is perfectly consistent with
the hypothesis that he is aiming at
absolute power. Not word has come
from him of military usurpation in the
orders for martial law by Bragg and
Van Dorm on the whole system of pass
ports and provost marshals, which is
utterly wrong and without authority of
law After all that may be said or
written by myself and others against
usurpations, not one word has escaped
Mr.. Davis showing his disapproval of
them.
DICTATORSHIP.
"Again, it is will-known that the sub
iect of dictatorship has been mooted,
talked of and discussed in private and in
the public journals, and that the most
earnest advocates of such a course, the
virtual doing away with Congress and
the constitution, have been editors, near
him-right under his nose-editors of
Journals recognized at the time to be the
organs of the administration. Now it
seems to me strange that this should be
so, and men holding and Advocating such
sentiments for months should hold such
near relations to bim if such SEN
timents were distasteful to him. These
are bad signs to me, yet they are not
conclusive evidences of bad objects or
intentions on his part. They leave me in
doubt, but certainly awaken my sus-
picion and watchful jealousy. They
teach me to be on my guard, and they
should in my opionion put the whole
country on their guard. The price OF
liberty is eternal vigilance. But again
!. | assure you feel no more hostility to
him than do to you, and great numbers
| meet who see no danger in these things
NY hostility and wrath land / have
enough of it to bust ten thousand bot
ties, is not against him or any man OF
q men, but against the thing-the mea
!. sure and the policy, which / see is lead
y ing us to despotism, If you can under
# stand and appreciate this position ant
: these feelings, then you can under
i stand me, and if you cannot then you d.
y not understand me and cannot; but
. trust you do.
A WRONG IMPRESSION.
:. allow you could have got the impres
sion Or entertained the thought tina
| had an antipathy to Mr.. Davis or wa
hostile to him is strange and unaccouni
able to me. You surely have heard m