Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-07
POLICY OF LINCOLN.
General Sherman's Terms to John
ston Was an Embodiment of 1t.
LENIENT TOWARD THE SOUTH.
Wanted to Pay for the Slaves and Hoped
JEFF. Davis Would Escape.
sTANToN's BLOW AT THE soLDIEB
WRITTEN FOR THE prsPArcH.i

WRITTEN FOR THE pIsPArcH.i
Abraham Lincoln and William 7. She
man had never met until Sherman came
Washington to visit his bi other, the preser
Senator Sherman, ten days after Lincoln
Inauguration. Sherman's mission to th
capital was not to obtain a command. H
had resigned as President of military in
stitute in Louisiana, because, as he frankl
said to the State officials who controlled tn
institution, he could not remain and ow
allegiance to q State that had withdraw
from the Union. In his letter of resigna
tion, dated January IS, 1861, he said
Should Louisiana Withdraw from the Fed
eral Union, l prefer to maintain my allie
| glance to the Constitution as long as frag
ment Of it survives, and my longer stay her,
would be wrong in every sense OF the word
He left New Orleans about the first o
March to make his home in the North. Lik,
Grant, he rendered his services to the Gov
eminent, but again like Grant, his offer wa;
not answered. His first meeting with Lin
coin was in company with his Senator
brother to pay brief visit of courtesy tc
the President
Lincoln Didn't Sec the Danger.
After the Senator had transacted some
political business with Lincoln, he turned
to his brother and said: "Mf. President,
this is my brother, Colonel Sherman, who
is just up from Louisiana; he may give you
some information you want" To this Lin.
coin replied, as reported by Sherman him.
| self: .'Ah! How are they getting along
down there?" Sherman answered.: 'They
think they are getting along swimmingly;
they are prepared for war" To which Lin
coin responded: 'Oh, well, I guess we'll
manage to keep house" Sherman states in
his Memoirs that he was sadly disap-
pointed in Lincoln and adds that che
cursed the politicians generally" saying to
his brother: 'You have got things in -
can"
sherman then, as ever, was ruggedly hon.
est and patriotic and often more impress
siye than elegant in his manner of speech.
Some old St. Louis friends had obtained for
MIN the Presidency ofa street railway OF tina t
city st salary of 5000 Speaking of this
and answered Turner that l would accept
with thanks"
Sherman was one of the very few Generals
who seldom grieyed Lincoln. While he was
one of the most yoluminous OF writers on
every phase of the war and every question
arising from it, he never assumed to be
wiser than the Government, and he never
He Didn't Like the Politicians.
He had the most profound contempt for
politicians in and out of the army, and for
political methods generally, and his blunt
ness of both manner and expression empha-
sized his views and purposes SO that none
could misunderstood them. Naturally i'm
pulsivc. he often felt keenly the many com
plications which surrounded all great GEN.
erals, and he spoke and wrote with unusual
freedom, but always within the clearest
lines of military subordination. He was an
earnest, ardent, outspoken patriot, and had
more controversy than any other General
with the single exception of Mcclellan; but
doubt whether there is single important
utterance OF Sherman's during the four long
years of war, when new and grave problems
had to be met and solved from time to time,
tnat he would have recalled in the later
years of his life.. He had learned to cherish
the most profound respect for Lincoln, al
though they never met after his first intro
duction TO the President during the early
period of the war. until the spring of 1866. at
City Point, after Sherman had made his
march to the sea, and his great campaign
had practically ended in Raleigh, n. c.
There is no doubt that Lincoln's earliest
impressions of Sherman we're quite as un-
favorable to Sherman as were Sherman's
early impressions of Lincoln.
The names of Lincoln and Sherman are in
dissolubly linked together in the yet con-
tinued dispute over Lincoln's original atti-
tude on reconstruction, us Sherman claimed
to represent them in the terms of the first
surrender OF Johnston to Sherman at Dur
ham station, n. c. On the 18th OF April, 1865,
Sherman and Johnston met at tle house o:
Mr.. Bennett to agree upon the terms for the
surrender Of Johnston's army. On the 18th
OF April Sherman had announced to his
army The surrender of Lee. Two days later
q flag of truce was received from Johnston
proposing "to stop the further effusion of
blood and devastation of property" and
suggesting that the civil authorities of the
States be permitted ''to enter into the need
fui arrangements to terminate the existing
war"
News of Lincoln's Assassination.
sherman's answer of the same date said:
81 am fully empowered to arrange with you
any terms for the suspension of further hos
tilities between the armies commanded by
you and those commanded by myself An
with Johnston having been ar
ranged by staff officer, Sherman started
nom Raleigh on the Hth to fill the appoint
ment with Johnston. When he was about
to enter the car he was stopped by a tele-
graph operator who gave him the startling
of the assassination of Lincoln
on the Hth. He gave orders that no pub
icity should be given to the death of Lin
coln, and he did not even inform the staff
officers accompanying him. As soon as he
was alone with Johnston he communicated
to him the fact of Lincoin's assassination.
and he adds that ''the Precipitation came out
IN large drops on his (Johnsop's) forehead,
md he did not attempt to conceal his dis
.ressn
This conference with Johnston did not re- |
'ult in formulating the terms of surrender |
Johnston did not assume to possess author |
ty to surrender all the various armies vet |
n the field, but as Jefferson Davis with |
breckenridge, his Secretary of War, and |
Reagan, his Postmaster General were within |
each of Johnston, he proposed to meet |
Sherman on the following day, when he |
hoped to have authority to surrender the |
entire Confederate armies remaining in the |
ervice. When they met again Breeken- /
'idge was with Johnston without assuming /
o act in any official capacity. and the terms
If surrender were formulated and signed by
sherman and Johnston.
sherman's Terms of Reconstruction,
So far as the purely military terms were |
involved, they were practically the same as
hose agreed to by Grant and Lee at Apo
natuox. The third article of the basis OF
greement provided for "the recognition by
he Executive of the United States OF the
eyeral State Governments on their officers
nd Legislatures taking the oath prescribed
" the Constitution of the United States"
The fifth article provided for substantial
mnesty, SO far as in the power of tho Presi-
lent to all who accepted the terms of sur
ender, who should be protected in "their
POLITICAL rights and franchises as well as
heir rights OF person and property" 1t was
provided also that the armies of Sherman
nd Johnston should refrain from all war
Ike movements until the terms of surrender
we're unaily accepted, ana IN the event of
allure. 4S hours notice should be given by
ither side for the resumption of hostilities |
herman transmitted the agreement to the l.
government through Grant, and Stanton
the disapprovnl by the admins
ration with most offensive reflections upon
herman. |
But for the dispute that arose over sher-
lan's original terms of surrender with |
Lincoln's views as TO reconstruct
ion would never have been crystsllized in
istory. The fact that Sherman claimed to |
CT under the direct authority of Lincoln in
ne terms he gave to Johnston and to the.
iyil governments of the insurgent states,