The National tribune., 1885-10-01
\ GRAND LETTER
From Gen. Sherman While in the Field
Before Atlanta.

DANIEL NJ MARTIN, Sand Mountain:
My DEAR FRIEND: When in Larkinsville
last Winter, ! inquired after you aud could get
no positive answer | wish you had sent lie
your letter of Jan. 22-whiCh have Just re-
ceived-lor could have made you feel at ease 1t
once Indeed do we'll remember cur old times
about Bellefonte and the ride we took TO the
corn mills and the little farm where ! admired
the handsome colt and tried TO buy ii. Time
has wOTI on, and You are now an old man, IN
want and suffering, and / also no longer young,
but leading an hostile army the very road
camc when / left Belleionte. and al this mo-
ment pouring into Atlanta the dread missiles
of war seeking the lives of its people. And yet
am the same William Tecumseh sherman that
you knew in 1ci4 with as warm 4 heart as
ever, and anxious that peace and plenty shall
prevail in this land, and 10 prove it defy Jeh
Davis. Gen. Lee, or Gen. Hood to make The
sacrifice for peace that will, personally and
officially.
Twill to-day lay down my power and my
honor-already won-will strip myself naked,
and my wife and child stark naked in the
world as we came, and begin life anew, If the
people of the South will but cease the war, elect
their Members of Congress. and let them settle.
by argument and reason, the questions growing
out OF slavery, instead of trying TO divide our
country into two angry halves, To quarrel ana
fight to the end OF time. Our country cannot
he divided by an east and west line, and must
be one and. if we must fight, let Us fight 1t out
now. and not bequeath II to our children.
was never politician, but resigned from the
army and lived in California till 1857, when
came back with my wife and three children,
who wanted TO be near home-Mr. Ewngs, not
Mr.. Corwin's-but had the old army 50 ground
III my composition that civil pursuits were too
tame, and / accepted an offer President of
the Louisiana Military Academy. Therefore,
at the time Of LincOn's election, j was at Alex
andria on Red River.
! saw, and you must have seen, that the
Southern politicians wanted 70 bring about
secesSion-separation. They could have elected
Mr.. Douglas, but they managed that Lin
coins election was made certain, and, after they
had accomplished this, was it honest or fair for
them TO allege it as a cause of war? Did not
Mr.. Breckinridge. as Nice-President. in his
seat declare Mr.. Lincoln the lawful y-electcd
President of the United States? Was 1t ever
pretended the President was our Government?
Don't you know that Congress makes laws, the
Supreme Court judges them. and the President
only executes them? Don't you know that
Mr.. Lincoln, Of himself, could not take away
your rights? Now, / was in Louisiana; and
while the planters and mechanics and indus
trious people were happy and prosperous, the
politicians and busy bodies were scheming and
plotting, and got the Legislature 10 pass an
ordinance of secession, which was submitted to
the people, who voted against it: yet the poll
ticians voted the State out, proceeded to take
possession OF the United States Mint, the forts,
the arsenal, and tore down our flag and in
suited it. That, too, before NJ. Lincoln had
got to Washington. l saw these things, and
begged Bragg and Beauregard and Gov. Moore
and host OF personal friends 10 bewar, IN
that was high treason. But they ansW cred:
The North was made up Of mean manulacthr-
ers, of traders. of farmers. who would not fight.
The people of the North never dreamed of in
terferinG with the slaves or property of the
South. They simply voted as they had a right
to do, and they could not understand why the
people of the Seuth should begin TO take pos
session OF the United States forts and arseuals
till cur Government had done something wrong
-something oppressive. The South began the
war You know it. / and millions Of Others iv-
ing at the South know it: but the people of the
North were as innocent of il your little grand
children. Even after forts had been taken, pub
lie arms stolen from urarsenals and distributed
among the angry militia, the brave and honest
frccmen Of the great North could not realize
the fact and did not, until Beauregard began
TO fire upon a garrison Of United States troops,
in fort built by the common treasury of the
whole country. Then, as by mighty upheaval,
the people rose and began to think of war, and
not until then.
] resigned my post in Louisiana in March,
1861, because Of the public act on the part of
tie State in Selling the United States arsenal
at Baton Rouge, and went to St. Louis, where !
readily got lucrative employment. hoping that
some change would yet avert war. But it came,
and /, and all Of military educatioI. had to
choose ] repeat. that then. as now had as
much love foT the honest people Of tho South.
as any man living. Had they remained true to
the country, ] would have resisted, even with
arms, any attack upon their rights-eyen thei~
slave rights. But when as Il people. they tore
down our old flag, and spit upon it, and called US
towards, aud dared us 10 the contest, then
H.r.--
country, and punish the men who challenged
Us Ia the conflict Is This not true picture?
Suppose the North had patiently submitted,
what w0uld have been the verdict of history
and the world? Nothing else bat that the North
was craven and coward. Wil you say the
North is craven and coward now?
Cruel and inhuman as this war has been. and
may still continue TO be Il was forced upon us
We had no choice And we have no choice yet
We must 60 on, even 10 the end Of time: even
ifit result IL fakiuga million of lives and desc
latiu@ the whole land, leaving desert behind
We must maintain the integrity Of our country
And the day vii come when the little grand
child you love so well will bless US who fought
that the United States Of America should not
sink into infamy and worse than Mexican an
srchy, by the act Of Southern politicians who
care 40 more for you. or such is you. than thew
care for Hottentots | have never underratcd
the magnitude Of this war, for know the size
Ci lilt 7Ditl! tlt tallttNiIN o. Operating
il. But ! also know that tho Northern races
have, ever since the world began, had more pa
tience and perseverance than the Southern
races. And so VIII Il DC now we will purscyere
10 the end. All mankind shall recognize in US
brave and stubborn race, not 10 be deferred
b. the magnitude Of the danger. Only three
years have passed, and that is but a minute in
nations life, and see where we are Where
are the naughty planters of Louisiana, who
compared our hard working. intelligent whites
OF the North with their negroes?
The defeats we have sustained have hardly
made pause IN our course, and the vaunted
braves Of Tennessee, Mississippi. Louisiana
Missouri, etc, instead Of walking rouzn-shod
over the frec!ncn Of the North, are engaged iii
stealing horses and robbing poor old people for
living, while our armies new tread in every
Southern State, and your biggest armies in
Virginia and Georgia lie behind forts, and
dare not come out and fight US towards of the
North, who have come 504 miles into their
country 10 accept the challenge.
Bnt M dear OlI friend, ] have bored vCu too
much. Ny handwriting IS not plain, but you
have tine to study it ogt. anG, a5 you c:lr an
dorstand, hav" great Ge4l OF writing TO do.
and it must be doLe il hurry. Think oe
what have written. TAX If oyer with your
neighbors, and ASK yourselves i, II war slials
and tribUiGtions. you Jave suffered rl0re from
ia I'D