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


THE FACTS OF HISTORY VS.. THE cREA-
TONS OF GEN. sHERsiAN's IMAGINATION
-scATHING REILLY TO USPRovoKED
ASSAULTS.
Baltimore Sun.
BEAUvoIR, MISS, Sept. %, 1856.
Col J. Thomas scharf, Baltimore, SD
Ny DEAR SIR-At various times and
from many OF my friends | have been
asked to furnish a reply to Gen. W. T..
Sherman's 80 called report to the War De-
partment, and which the United States
Senate ordered to be printed az "Ex. Doc.
No. So, FOrty-EiShth Congress, second
session" | have been compelled by many
causes TO postpone my reply to these inyi-
tations, and have IN some instances de-
clined for the time being to undertake The
labor. A continuing sense of the great
injustice done To me and to the people
represented by the Senate making the ma
liciOus assault of Gen. Sherman a public
document, and giving to his slander the
importance which necessarily attaches to
an executive communication TO the Senate,
has recently caused the request for a reply
by me TO he pressed with very great earn
furnish my reply to You for publication in
the Baltimore Sun.
More than twenty years after the
storm of war between the States had ceased
aud the waves of sectional strife had sunk
TO the condition of calm, the public har-
mony was disturbed by a retired general
OF the army making a gratuitous and gross
assault upon private individual, living
in absolute retirement, and who could only
have attracted notice because he had been
the representative Of the Southern States
which, oIgahized into confederacy, had
been party to the war.
THE HISTORY OF MY PUBLIC LIFE
bears evidence that / did all in my power
to prevent the war that / did nothing to
precipitaie collision that i did not seek
the post of Chief Executive, but advised
my friends that | preferred not to fill it.
That history Gen. Sherman may SANDER
ously assaIl by his statements, bat he can
not alter its consistency, nor can the Re-
publicans OF the Senate change its un-
broken story of faithful service to the
Union, of the Constitution until, by the
command of my sovereign Stale, | with
drew as her am bassador from the United
States Senate. For all the acts of my pub
States | am responsible at the bar of his
tory, and must accept her verdict, which l
shall do without the least apprehension
that it will be swayed from truth by the
malicious falsehoods OF Geu. Sherman,
even when stamped as an "Ex. Doc" by
the United States Senate.
Before "a gathering OF ex-soldiers of the
Union army Gen. Sherman took occasion
in the fall of 1884 to make accusations
against me and to assert that he had per-
sonal means of information not possessed
by others, and particularly that he had
seen a letter written by myself, that he
knew my handwriting, and saw and identi-
fed my signature to the letter. The grava-
men of his accusation was that the letter
to which he referred had passed between
jeff Davis and man whose name it
would not do to mention, as he is now a
member Of the United States Senate" and
that 'in that letter ne % said he would
turn Lees army against any State that
might attempt to secede from the Southern
Confederacy." The position of General of
the United States army, which Gen. Sher-
man had filled, demanded that immediate
contradiction OF that statement should be
made, and to that end published in the
St. Louis Republican the following denial :
"BEAUvoIR, MISS, Nov. 6, 1881.
editor St. Louis Republican:
"DEAR SIR have tonight received
the inclosed published account of the re-
marks made by Gen. W. I. Sherman, and
ask the use Of your columns to notice only
so much as particularly refers to myself,
and which is to be found in the following
extracts
"The following is taken from the St.
Louis Republican;
=" Frank p Blair Post, G. A. r., opened
their new hall, corner Seventeenth and
Olive streets last night.
Gen. Sherman addressed the assemblage.
He had read letters which he believed had
never been published, and which very few
people had seen. These letters showed
the rebellion to be more than mere seces-
sion--it was a conspiracy most dire.
Letters which had passed between JEFF
Davis and a man whose name it would
not do 10 mention, as he is now member
of the United States Senate, had been seen
by the speaker and showed Davis posi-
tion. He was not a secessionist. His OBJ
ject in starting the rebellion was not merely
Tor the secession of the South, but to have
this section of the country so that he could
use it as a fulcrum from which to fire ont
his shot at the other sections of the eoun-
Try and compel the people to do he
would have them. JEFF Davis would have
turned his hand against any State that
would secede from the South after the South
had seeded from the North. Had the rebel
lion succeeded, Gen. Sherman said, the.
people of the North would have ali been
slaves
ANOTHER AC CUNT.
9TH : lI.. =, f~.,. a. CIobo nov,,
Gratis report:
Referring to the late war, he said it
was not, as was generally understood, a
war of secession from the United States,
but a conspiracy. i have been behind the
CURTAIN said he, and | have seen letters
that few others have seen, and have heard
conversations that cannot be repeated, and
[ tell you that JEFF Davis never was a
secessionist. He was a conspirator. He
did not care for separation from the United
States. His object was to get fulerum
from which to operate against the United
States, and If he had succeeded he would
to-day be the master spirit of the Continent
and Won would be slaves. L have seen a
letter from Jefferson Davis to man whose
name | cannot pnention, because he is a
United States Senator. | know Davis
writing and saw his signature, and in
that letter he said he would turn Lees
army against any State that might attempt
to secede from the Southern Confederaey.'
"This public assault, under the covert
plea that it is based upon evidence which
regard for United States Senator does
not permit him to present, will, to honor
| able minds, suggest the idea OF irresponsi-
BILE slander-
at is thus devolved upon me to say
that the allegation OF my ever having
written such letter as is described is un-
qualihedly false, and the assertion that
had any purpose or wish to destroy the
| liberty and equal rights Of any State.
either North or South, is reckless,
shameless fslsehood, especially because it
was generally known that for many years
before, as we'll as during the war between
| the States. / was an earnest advocate of
the strict construction State-rights theory
of Mr. Jefferson. What motive other than
personal malignity can be conceived for so
| gross libel
sIf Gen. Sherman has access to any
letters purf ort;ng to have been written by
me which will sustain his accusations, let
him produce them or wear the brand of a
base slanderer.
Yours. respectfully,
s'JEFFERsoN DAVIS
The publication of the above letter at
| tracted very general notice, and two inter
views were had with Gen. Sherman BY re-
porters of the Globe Democrat and from
the ST. Louis Chronicle Ia the Globe
Democrat of November %, 1884, Gen
Sherman is reported a. having said
~Whateyer explanation make will be