Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-07
any positive statement made by william T.

any positive statement made by William 7
Il Sherman?
There were four persons present at til,
con nference held at City Point on the asth o
March, 1866 They were Lincoln, Grant
sherman and Admiral Borter. 1t was be
fore these men that Lincoln freely discussed
the question of ending the war, and in Sher
mans Memoirs he saws: "Mr. Lincoln was
full ana frank in his conversation, assuring
me that in his mind he was already for thu
civil reorganization of affairs at the South
as soon as the war was orern Had Lincoln
stopped with the general assurance of his
| purpose to restore the South to civil govern
sherman misinterpreted his expressions
bnt Sherman adds the following positive
statement: "He (Lincoln) distinctly author
lzed me to assure Governor vance and the IN
rebel armies laid down their arms and re-
sumed their civil pursuits, they would o.
once be guaranteed all their rights as citl.
zens of common country; and that to
avoid anarchy, the State governments, then
in existence, with their civil functionaries
would be recognized by him as the govern
nents de facto till Congress could provide
Others"
No Possibility of Mistake.
There was no possibility for Sherman to
mistake this expression OF Lincoln. He was
distinctly instructed to assure the Govern
ment of North Carolina. the State in which
Sherman's army was then operating. that
upon the surrender of tho insurgent forces
J all would be guaranteed their rights as citi-
! zens, and the civil governments then in ex-
istenee would be recognized by Lincoln.
| There was no chance for misunderstanding
on this point. Either Lincoln thus in
structed Sherman, or sherman states Whae
is deliberately untrue. These were the last
instructions that Sherman received from
Lincoln or from the Government until the
surreneler of johnson.
In a little more than two weeks thereafter
1Zf., nr,lry av1f
that could have been regarded as an addi-
| tionai guide for Sherman was the surrender
| OF Lee, in which all the rights that Sherman
accorded to Johnston's army were given to
! Lees army by Grant The testimony of
Lincoln could not be had after the issue was
raised with Sherman, as Lincoln was then
dead: but Sherman knew that on the 9th OF
April, Lincoln had authorized the rt-
convening of the Virginia Legislature, and
thus felt sure that Lincoln was doing in
Virginia precisely what he had instructed
Sherman to do in North Carolina. Grant,
always reticent in matters of dispute except
when testimony was a necessity, was not
called upon to express any opinion as TO tne
correctness of Sherman's understanding OF
L1ncolns instructions.
Grants Opinion of Stanton.
General Badeau, who was with Grant at
the time he received Stanton's offensive
revocation of the agreement between Sher-
man and johnson, says that Grant pro-
nounced Stanton's ten reasons for rejecting
the terms of surrender to be "infamous."
An entirely new condition had been pro-
duced by the murder OF Lincoln and the
succession of johnson. and had sherman
been advised of the frenzy of public senti-
ment that followed the assassination Of the
President he probably would not have
obeyed Lincoln's instructions by the
promise that the Government would reoog-
nize the Confederate civil authorities OF the
States.
The tragic death of Lincoln aroused public
sentiment to the highest point of resent
ment The new President was ostentatious
in his demand for vengeance upon the
Southern leaders, Stanton was most violent
in his cry for the swiftest retribution, and it
was in this changed condition of sentiment
and OF authority. that sherman's terms.
accorded to Johnston in obedience to the
peaceful purposes of Lincoln, were sent to
the government for approval or rejection.
stanton Immediately proclaimed the reJec-
tlon of the terms OF surrender in d1spatch
given to the public press, in which he
denounced sherman with unmfngled 1eroclty
as having acted without authority ana
surrendered almost every issue for which
the war had been fought
Sherman Would Not Take Stanton's Hand.
So violent was this assault upon Sherman
from Stanton that soon after, when Sher-
mans victorious army was reviewed in
Washington by the T resident and Secretary
of War; Sherman refused the proffered hand
of Stanton before the multitude, President
johnson subsequently assured Sherman that
Stanton's public reflection upon Sherman
had not been seen by him nor any of Stan
tan's associates of the Cabinet until it had
been published. Admiral Porter, who was
ceived by Sherman, took down notes imme-
diately after the conference ended, and
within year thereafter he furnished Sher-
man statement of what had transpired, in
which he fnlly and broadly sustained Sher- !
man as to Lincoln's instructions. 1
= assume. therefore, that it is true beyond
all reasonable dipsute, that Sherman in his I
original terms Of Johnston's surrender in !
North Carolina, implicitly obeyed the diree- |
tions of Lincoln, and was therefore not only |
fully justified in what he did, but would |
have been false to his trust had he insisted /
upon any other terms than those he ac-
cepted
This issue made with General Sherman
and feebly sustained by few partisan his
torians of the time, has led intelligent stu
dents to study carefully Lincoln's ideas OF |
reconstruction, and they should be correctly |
understood to correctly estimate Lincoln's
character l frequently saw Lincoln during |
the summer and fall of 1864 and winter Of |
1855. Sometime in August 1864, spent sew
erai hours with him alone in the White |
House. when he spoke most earnestly about
the closing of the war.
What Lincoln said to Mcclure.
Hehad but q single purpose, and that was
the speedy and cordial restoration of the
discovered States. He cherished no resent
ment against the South, and every theory OF
that he ever conceived or
presented was eminently peaceful, and look
ing solely to reattacning the estranged peo-
Pile to their Government I was startled
when he first suggested that it would be |
wise to pay the South $400, 900, 600 as compen-
sation for the abolition of slavery, but he
had reasoned well on the subject and none
could answer the arguments he advanced in
Iavor of such a settlement of the war. He
knew that he could not then propose it to
Congress or to the country, but he clung to
It until the very last.
He repeatedly renewed the sAbject in con-
versations when I was present, and on the
,th OF February, 1865, he went SO far as to
formulate message to Congress proposing
Ind submitted it to his Cabinet, only to be
rejected. Lincoln sadly ac-
,epted the decision of his Cabinet and filed
lway the manuscript message with this in
1orsement thereon, to which his signature
vas added: February 8, 1865 To-day these
,apers, which explain themselves, were
lrawn up and submitted to the Cabinet and
disapproyed by them." When
he nrDnOSeu wos l.