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

you lar more re- pSSl ioF the essential lea
lures of personal liberty, for Difference pal,
To State authority, and for respect showr
Tor constitutional restraint.
With the best wishes for your continued
good health, ! am, dear sir, your SINGER,
| friend, NAT. TYLER.
Ii is apparent that this so-calied ''his
/ torical statement" had been seen by Repub
lican Senators, and that they We're not ig
norant OF its real character when the Haw
| ley resolutions were under discussion IL
the Senate. Those Senators then knew
! that Gen. Sherman had, in his letter o
Jan. 8, 1885, to the Secretary of War
changed the issue between as from one o
veracity 10 a rambling, shufiiing discus
sion Of Conspiracy" and OF ''copspira
tors" in the winter of 1S60-6l, and thai
which at the Frank Blair Post may hav,
been "a white lie" not intended for pub
LEGATION, came before the Senate as an ''his
| torical statemeut,' bolstered with Other
falseho oods equally
WITHOUT FOUNDATION Or SUPPORT
in anything written or uttered by me. Il
now survives as an lex. Doe" of pie
turesque prevarication.
know nothing of any Conspiracy" OF
OF any ''conspirators." There was no Sc
/ CTcSS dDOul any pI the pU4IilSdl dUais
which led to the secession of the States in
! lS50-6l. There was no possi biiity of any
eoncealment. The people were advised by
the press, they acted Knowingly, and the
results, through all their various phases
were necessarily known to the people, by
whom they were ratified and confirmed.
| To talk now Of conspiracy and conspirators
| Is shallow nonsense, and moth hgIthstanding
| Sherman says that he was approached by
a number of the Knights OF the Golden
Circle" that accusation will be dismissed
as the coinage OF political demagogues. Ii
Sherman was approached by "conspira-
tors" they knew their man they may have
| heard of his conversation at Nicksburg
| his expression of approval of Southern
action, his talk of the id Yankees" IL
Gov. Roper, and such expressions, may
have regarded him as "A fit conspirator with
themselves. No man ever insulted me by
/ approaching me with suggestions OF con
| spiracy.
| As to the action taken at the conference
OF some of the Southern Senators in Jan
uary, 1861, and which is introduced in this
/ Historical statement" as evidence of a
Conspiracy" it is only necessary to say
to those Senators who, IN the debate on the
! Hawley resolution, referred to the letter oil
|
resolutions attached thereto, that the reso.
| lutions were forwarded to the conventions
of the States then in session, and thay they
We're the resolutions of Senators repre-
senting those States conveying to the con-
ventions of the States the views of the
Senators. Those resolutions were not dis
covered by Gen. Sherman-they were not
! dug up from beneath the sod In any yard
| through which he marched. They were
necessarily public since they were sent to
| conventions OF the States, and they wer.
printed IN the newspapers. To speak Of
| such action as a conspiracy, as Senator
| Sherman did in the debate ON the Hawley
resolution, shows to what defense he was
driven to assist his brother out of the mire
of mendacity in which be was founder
ing.
| 1t was the opinion of that conference in
| 1861 that secession was the only remedy y
| left to the States; that every effort to pre-
serve peace had failed, mainly through the
| action of that portion of the Republican
| party which refused all propositions for
adjustment made by those who sought in
January, 1861, to justify confidence, insure
peace and preserve the Union. In the
same month in which that conference was
held | served on a committee raised by the
Senate to seek some possible mode of quell-
| ing the excitement that tnen existed. That
committee was composed of the three polit-
ical divisions of the Senate, and it was con-
sidered useless to report any measure
which did not receive the concurrence OF
at least majority of each division. The
Republican Senators rejected every propo-
sition that promised paciication, and the
committee reported to the Senate that their
consultation Mas a failure. Was there less
conspiracy in the Republican Senators
combining to prevent pacifcatiou than
there was in Southern Senators uniting in
conference to advise the conventions OF
their States that their cause was hopeless
in Washington? Mr. Douglas, of Illinois,
assailed the Republican side of the Senate
for their refusal to accept any terms that
We're offered 10 them, and dem anded to
know what they proposed to do, and in
| that connection referred to Senator Toombs
| and myself as having been willing to accept
the line of $50 80, orthe Missouri compro-
mise, aud that the Republican Senator's
rejected the proposition. Which were the
conspirators, the Senator'S who offered the
Missouri compromise for the sake of peace,
or the Senator'S who rejected that offering
in order to enjoy a little blood letting
The venerable Senator Crittendon, OF the
on the side OF the peaceful efforts of the
Southern Senator'S, and not unfrequently
expressed himselfiu the most decided terms
as TO the conduct OF the opposition. Party
necessity may attribute the action OF the
Southern Senator's to conspiracy, but his
| tory will treat the actors of those days as
they deserve aud to her verdict, in common
with my compatriots in that trying hour,
the issue Is referred.
The epithets which Senator Sherman, in
the debate, applied to myself are his mode
of retaliation for my denunciation OF his
brother / have been compelled to prove
Gen. Sherman to be falsifier and slam
derer in order to protect my character and
reputation from his
wILLFUI. AND UNsCRUPULoUs MENDACITY.
III his brother, the Senator, felt the sting
Of that exposure, and his epithets are any
relief, am content that he shall go on the
record as denouncing me TRAITOR" be-
cause | have proved his brother to De a
| liar.
As the Republican party renounced the
| issue of treason when it abandoned my
| trial in 1867. not at nv instance, but in
face of my defiance, its leaders of the pres
ent day but stultify themselves in the cry
of traitor which they raise at the mention
of my name. This is more a matter OF
traffic than of argument, but as it serves to
| keep alive the issues and prejudices OF the
war period, it is a device which, as politi-
clans, they may not like TO abandon. 1t Is
not surprising that the politicians OF a
party which, in the mad fury of its pas
sions, deliberately hung a harmless and
hel pless woman, should continue to keep
warm their malice against an old soldier
| and long civil official by the frequent use
OF epithets. fit affords them any relief,
| il costs me so little concern that it would
be uncharitabIe to deny them the enjoy
nlent they take in hurling epithets at me
a game in which any fshwoman might
successfully compete.
The Senate when about to give its sane
ton to Gen. Sherman's ''historieal state
ment" ought in fairness to have dem anded
of him the production of the verifying let
| ters, papers and information within hi.
Knowledge or possession. He says in thai
/ Eek. Doc" But oil him (myself) | have
personal knowledge, not meant for publica-
ton, but to beco part of the 'Tradi
tions of the Civil War which The Grand
Army of the R=pdblic will preserve
What fair and h1nora able purpose could
the Senate have had in sanctionlDg such 8
| base and Infamous inuendo as that above
quoted from page of the sex. Doc?" Il
that personal knowledge Is withheld from
publication Tor the purposes OF future Sian
ders, surely the Senate ought net to have
made itself party to that malice which
hides its ISLANDERS until their subject shall
have passed away and contradiction ana
lexposure become difficult, If not impossi,
BILE Bot / am not apprehensiye OF Sher-
mans additions to the Traditions OF tbs
Civil Warn-he stands pilloried before The
public and all future history ~ an imbe
icife scold or an infamous slanderer-a,
either he is harmless
The statement on page that box con