The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-10-13

rested so far as ! was concerned, and any
thing that Sherman, on his own response
biiity, might have afterward said would
/ have been treated by me with that silence
which the mendseious utterings OF
AN IRREPREssIBLE sLANDERER
deserved. But when the War Department
| of the United States was made the custo-
| dian of his slander, and the Republican
| Senators became its indorsers, and the
4 statements made az the Frank Blair Post
were lifted into official importance, il
/ became a duty, alike to myself and the
/ people | represented, to follow the ISLANDERS
with my denial. and TO expose alike its
author and its indorsers.
The United States Senate, by resolution
| offered by Senator Hawley, and debated
during Jan. u and 13, 1885, called upon
| the President of the United States to ''com-
municate to the Senate historical state
ment concerning the public policy OF the
executive department of the Confederate
States during the late war OF the rebellion,
reported To have been lately filed in the
! War Department bv Cen William /. Sher-
man" Ii was by means of that resolution
/ that the slander was revived, and It's ut
terer enabled 10 mould together a pretend
ed foundation for his baseless utterances at
the Frank Blair Post. While the matter
was fresh ia the memory and under the
searching inquiry ofthe newspaper report
ers, Gen. Sherman represented that he
could not consistently give the name of the
Senator To whom he said the letter had
been written, and after every Senator from
the Southern States had denied receiving
any such letter, and many OF them had ex-
pressed their belief that no such letter ever
had been in existence, he failed to sustain
his assertion by the production OF proof OF
the existence OF letter from me such as
he had alleged he had seen. After such
full denial both by myself, the reputed
writer, aud by every Senator who could
have been the receiver of that pretended
letter, the Senate offered an opportunity to
Gen Sherman to unload his slander depos-
tied in the War Department, and TO spread
the vile mass on the files of the United
States Senate.
In the interval between the meeting at
the Frank Blair Post in November, 1884,
and Jan s. 1855, DR.. II. c. Robbins, of
Cresson, Ogle county, H., loaned Sherman
letter, which he said had been written by
the late Alexander H. Stephens to the late
Herschel V johnson, both now dead =.
Sherman being unable 10 verify his an
thority for the assertion made by him at
the Frank Blair Post, this Stephens john
son letter was to be substituted Tor the Da-
Wis letter, which, with the circumstantiality
needful to one having little eredibility,
Sherman said he had seen. knew to be mine
from his acquaintance with my hand writ
ing, and appended to which he identified
my signature.
In view of the peremptory demand made
for the letter, and in the absence of any
answer as to where or when or IN whose
possession it was seen, gentleman might
hesitate to decide whether subterfuge were
more paltry or absurd.
THE NEXT ATTEMPT AT DECEPTION
was to represent the war records in confu-
sion. but this device failed az sIgually as
had the other Interpretations Of Gen.
Sherman On the 18th of December, FIVE
days after the publication OF his eertiti-
cate, the following press telegram swept
that suhterfuge away from him;
'WAsHINGToN, d. c., Dec. 12.-The
statement that the rebellion archives, now
in the War Department, are in confusion,
and that if the Davis letter, to which Gen.
Sherman has referred, were there, it would
take much time, and involve great search
to find il, is erroneous. The archives have
all been gone over thoroughly in the prep
aration of the War Records in progress
Of publication, and persons in charge of
the archives, and who have know edge
of their contents, say that no such letter
as that spoken of by General Shern an
is now there or has ever been there"
1t is apparent, then, that Sherman never
saw anv such letter of mine as that which
he said he had read and identified by my
signature, and tnat the Stephens } Johnson
letter was acquired after the speech had
been made, and was seized upon to create
pretext upon which he could excuse his
falsehood The conclusive proof which
had come to light By denials from Senators
of having received from me any such let
ter, and by their denying that they had
ever heard any such opinions expressed
by me, placed Sherman in dilemma from
which to advance involved further false
hood, and from which retreat was only pos
sible with humiliation and disgrace. He
selected the easier course, and went forward
with falsehood attending every step. In
his letter to the War Department of Jan.
6, 1885, he says he found my letter at Raj
eigh, y. c., saying:
sAmong the books collected at the pal
ace in Raleigh was clerks or secretary's
copybook, containing loose sheets and let
ters, among which was the particular let
ter of Mr.. Davis to which / referred in my
St Louis speech, and Notwithstanding" he
said, II gave it little attention at the time"
yet Reclaimed twenty odd years after that
he could recall its expressions and repeat
its purport He said that the Stephens
johnson letter was 'the letter, and here's
the origiral," but he reported to the War
Department that "the particular let
ter of Mr.. Davis" was found by him in
Raleigh.
SENATOR VANCE