The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-18
JEFF DAVIS AND STATE RIGHTS.
ALetter in Which Alex. Il. Stephens Charged
Davis with Aiming at Absolute Power. =

ALetter in Which Alex. Il. Stephens Charged
Davis with Aiming at Absolute Power. =
Washington Special.
The original of the following letter from the
late Vieepresident of the Coufederacy is in
possession of General Sherman. thas a direct
and very pointed bearing on the pending con
troversy between the General and jeff Davis. 1t
is doubtful whether the latter has ever seen the
opinion which Mr.. Stephens expresses in this
letter of the President of the Confedcracy 1t
will be seen that Mr.. Stephens does not hesitate
to intimate his belief that Mr.. Davis was aiming
at absolute power, and to charge that the ques-
ton Of a dictatorship was advocated by journals
recognized as organs of his administration The
letter certainly goes far to justify General Sher-
mans position in the st. Louis speech. General
Sherman thus certifes it.
"ST. LOUIS, Mo-, Dec. Z, 1884,
1.-THE following is a true copy of an original
letter loaned me by Dr. H.. C. Robbins, of Ores
ton, Ogle, county Ill, who was formerly sur
geon of the One Hundred and First Illinois
Infantry, who obtained it on the premises of II.
V. johnson, at Sandy Grove, Ga, in the autumn
of 1864. w. II. SHERMAN, General"
CHAMPIONSHIPS, Ga, April 5, 1864
NY Lear OH. ! our leUl6F OF LlG lOln luSttllU
has reached me, and l devote a few leisure mo-
ments to you in reply, this evening, because | do
not know that | shall have time to do It in the
morning before the mail closes.
l wrote you a pretty long letter, day before
yesterday, and feel no disposition to prolopg the
discussion. If, after reading that, you are still
of the opinion that the act suspending the writ
OF habeaS corpus in certain cases does not at
tempt to confer upon the President ard others
under him the power to arrest and to hold per
CONS lV4taefa1 without nrAnafs appau n 11ndnp
oath-a power that they could not exercise
without it-then it is useless to say more; and
if, after reading that letter and the order of
General Cooper alluded to in it. you are still OF
the opinion that personal liberty is not leopard
ed by it, and 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.
Il wish barely to say a few things on some
other points. After speaking of the commendable
tone Of the Milledgeville speech, youssay, Yet
below the surface your antipathy to the Presi-
dent is perceptible to any one acquainted with
your opinion of the man., tunderscoring man
and on this point YOU saw: Il think YOU had as
well have fully unbottled your wrath; for after
all, you are as well understood, in the estima-
ton OF the country, to be hostile, as If you
had avowed it; and you 90 on to say that ! will
necessarily be classed with those whose palpa-
bic object it is to organize q party in opposition
to the administration (underscoring administra-
tom and further on you say that my anJipathy
to Davis has misled my judgment, or have al
lowed my antipathy to him to mislead my judg-
ment.
For your candor and frankness in all this I
sincerely thank you, for it is conclusive evidence
to me that such are your opinions, and | allude
to these matters for the sole purpose of correct
ing an erroneous impression on your mind. /
assure YOU L have no antipathy to Mr.. Davis.
nor am l hostile to him, and il there is an object
or intention or wish with anybody to organize q
party in opposition to the administration | know
nothing of it-bave heard nothing of it. AS 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. L think L know
as much as anybody else. If any one is respon-
sible for It, no one is more so than myself. 1t is
true that those resolutions were not drawn up
by me, but they were prepared by Linton after
full consultation, prepared at his house before
he went to Milledgeville; and as for Mr.. Davis
and his administration, they had but little to do
with it-nothing in the world, except In so far
as they fall within the scope of the point as
stated. They did not rise to the dignity of a
moments serious consideration or thought one
way or the other. Greater objects by far were
then engrossing my attention and Unions too,
l think.
LAS for Mr.. Davis, Irepeat again l have no
feeling of antipathy, much less hostility. What
opinions you may think l entertain of him, as
you intimate, l know not, but / have no hest
fancy in stating to you freely and frankly, and
~ FINN -
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 gen. $, yet | have regarded
him as "a man of good intentions, weak and
vacillating, timid and p%etulant, peevish and OBJ
s%tinate, but not firm. Am now beginning to
doubt his good attentions. l say doubt, for
after watching him closely 1 am not satisfied
in my own mind or arrived at any conclusion
whether some of his shortcomings are to be at
tributed to weakness or bad purposes. These
are my real sentiments, and my reasons for
them are these:
'Since his first elevation to power he has
changed many of his former States rights prin-
ciples, as in case Of CONSUMPTION. His whole pol
icy on the organization and discipline of the
army is perfectly consistent with the hypothesis
that he is aiming at absolute power. Not q
word has come from him of military usurpation
IN the orders for martial law by Bragg and Van
Dorm, and the whole system of passports and
provost marshals, which is utterly wrong and
without authority of law. After all that may
De said or written by myself and Others against
the usurpations, not one word has escaped MIR.
Davis showing his disapproval of them.
Again, it is well-known that the subject Of a
dictatorship has been mooted, talked Of and dis
cussed in private and in 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-rignt
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 that men holding and advocating such
sentiments for months, should hold such near
relations to him if such sentiments were dis
tasteful to him. These are bad signs to me, yet
they are not conclusive evidence of bad objects
or intentions on his part. They leave me in
doubt, but certainly awake my suspicion and
watchful jealousy. They teach me to be on my
guard, ana they should, in my opinion, put the
whole country on their guard.
'The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. But