UNITED STATES SENATE, Jan.
29, 1864.
My Dear Brother:
I received
your letter
from Lancaster, and also one from Cairo. If I had known when I left
Washington that you were to be at Lancaster, I would have met you there. But on
leaving Washington I engaged to meet certain gentlemen at New York, on New
Year's Day, and this left me no time. I have met several from Cincinnati who
saw you there, and all concur in saying you bear the storms of life well, and
appear in better health and spirits than before the war. Your official report
is very interesting, and I wish to see it published. I inquired of Cullen if it
has yet come by military channels to the adjutant-general, and he says not.
When it does come, he will have it published. As to your proposition to
increase the cadets at West Point, I find some difference of opinion among
regular officers. Cullen says that to graduate the number would require new
buildings, professors, etc.; that the utmost capacity of the school is four
hundred and fifty. Both he and Hardie seem backward about drawing the bill
without the assent of Stanton, but promised to send me a bill doubling the
cadets if Stanton would consent. This delicacy seems to me absurd, for I will
assume it, introduce it, and may be able to pass it. . . . We are all looking
to the operation on the Mississippi and at Knoxville. The latter seems to me
the point of danger. If Longstreet should be reinforced, why could he not
pounce upon Foster, or his successor, and make another march necessary for his
relief. The movement of recruiting is going on well enough. The draft will then
be thoroughly enforced. So Stanton says, and I believe him. The general
prosperity of the country is so marked that I am afraid of a reaction or a
collapse. The currency is awfully inflated, and our ability to borrow and to
pay interest has a limit. If the war continues two years longer, we shall be
terribly embarrassed. Still we have the sure foundation of public credit, a
great country, and a large and active population. Let me hear from you as often
as possible.
Affectionately yours,
JOHN SHERMAN.
SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The
Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837
to 1891, p. 222-3
No comments:
Post a Comment