The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1886-10-21
q MR.. DAVIS MAKES RETORT.
REPLYING TO THE sLANDERs or GEN.
w. Il. SHERMAN

The Baltimore Sun prints letter. five
columns in length, from ex-President
Jefferson Davis in relation to the long
standing controversy between himseI
and General w. r. Sherman. The let
ter is dated Beauvoir, Miss, September
%, 1856, and begins as follows:
cat various times and from many OF
my friends, have been asked to furnish
% reply to Gen. w. Il. Sherman's So
called report to the War Department,
which the United States Senate ordered
printed as Executive Document No. 49,,
Forty eighth Congress, second session.
a have been compelled by many causes
to postpone reply to these invitations
and have in some instances declined, for
the time being, to undertake tho labor.
A continuing sense of the great injustice
done me and the people l represented.
by the Senate making the malicious as,
sault of General Sherman public docu-
ment, and giving to his slander the i'm
portance which necessarily attaches to
an executive communication to the SEN
ate, has recently caused the request for
reply by me to be pressed with very
great earnestness. For this reason i
have decided to furnish reply for pub
hcation in the Baltimore Sun. The his
tory of my public life bears evidence
That did all III my power to prevent the
war, that L did nothing to precipitate
the collision; that [ did not seek tho post
OF Chief Executive, but a,.viscd my
friends that I preferred not to fill it.
That history General Sherman may SLAM
tel l2nsly assail by his statements, but he
eannlt alter its consistency; nor can the
Republicans of tho Senate change its m-
broken story of faithful service to the
Union of the Constitution until, by the
command OF my sovereign State, l with
drew as ler ambassador from the United
States Senate. For all acts of my public
life as PRESIDENT of the Confederate
States am responsible at the bar of
history, and must accept her verdict,
which shall do without the least apprc-
hension that it will be swaycd from the
truth by the malicious falsehoods of
General Sherman, even when stamped
as an executive document BY the United
States Senate.
Mr.. Davis then recitcs the statement
made by General Sherman before a cath
pring Of eX-Union soldiers III 1884, that
he (Sherman) had seen letter from
Mr.. Davis to Il United States Senator, in
which he Davis) said that he "would
turn Lees army against any State that
might attempt to secedc from the South
ern Confederqcy." Mr.. Davis then
quotes his letter TO the st. Louis Rcpub-
ltcan, printed at that time, denying the
truth Of Sherman's statement and the
interviews had subsequently by reporters
with Sherman, to whom the latter said: !:
"This is an affair between two gentle
men. will take my time about it and
write to Mr.. Davis myself. We will set
tie the matter, between u.s."
: tIt is hardly necessary for me to say, :"
continued Mr.. Davis, "that General
Sherman did not write to me, and we
had not settled the matter between us
otherwise than I aettled it by denouncy
ing his statement as false and himself as
slanderer. There the matter would
have rested, SO far as I was concerned.
But when the War Department of the
United States was made the custodian of
his slander and Republican Senators be-
came its endorsers, and the statements
O.. made at Frank Blair Post were lifted
into OFFICIAL Importance, it became q duty
alike to myself and to the people | rep
resented to follow the slanders with nv
denial and to expose alike its author and
his ondorsers.' ''
Mr.. Davis reviews at length the pro-
gress OF the controversy, reciting the de-
maj OF every Senator from the Southern
States that he had received such n letter
as that spoken of by Sherman, and ac-
cusing Sherman of first trying to substi-
tqte letter from Alexander Ii. Stephens
to Herschel V. johnson for the alleged
Davis letter; then of representing that
the Davis letter was lost in the confusion
Of the rebellion archives in the War De.
paptmept, and finally of pretending that
he had seen the alleged lettcr at Raleigh.
n. O., and intimating that it was ad-
dressed to Governor Vance. Mr. Davis
quotes the published denial of Governor
Vance that he had ever received such a
letter from him, and says
"My alleged Raleigh letter has never
peep fopnd. SheIman says il N9g sent
to Nashville, Savannah, Washington and
st. Louis, and may have been finally
burned in Chicago in the great fire Of
1871. But in its travels no other person
but Sherman saw it; not single officer
at any headquarters has been produced
who read it, and it passes belief thai il,
bite excitement Of the closing days Of the
"''h Civ N"hiii6o ny iihphioohlhCllIJ VNlcl
every letter of mine was carefully cx
amined to find evidence upon which tc
convict and destroy me, not an officer al
oil these headquarters should have reaC
Fiat Letter. EXery faiF-minded Iaqn mus
therefore conclude that General Sherman
stated at the Grand Army Post o .wilfu
and deliberate falsehood, and that hi
motlve had its inspiration in that meal
notice which has characterized his act
ana writing in other respects toward tn,
@ southern people. The so-calIed histori
co, statement concerning the pmbIi
RQiiey Of the Executive BenoTtmdpnt p%'i "
C6RfedeEate States, al IS sSer5oan tipoS ~ =
letter to the War Department IN ia IL beado, aGLp
in that executive document onebu 10 noSSit1 ,.it1
tho following statement: Efhat II 7 Is,Lar LaSl
man had seen papers which conYinnn, "n
p" Sae that even Nh. DAVIS, President nF YlfH' II,
Southern Confederacy, had, dnrino' a. fh -,
progress of the war, changed his Sat-, Soi
rights doctrines, and had threatened =
lse force--eYep Ices 9rrpY--shonlJ ON.
m state Of tho Uonfederacy attempt to sc Sc
eede FROM that government With tb
al. Ill.