[WASHINGTON, D.C.,
December 18, 1864]
I need hardly congratulate you on your magnificent campaign
through Georgia. This has been and will be done so often that you will not need
anything from me on the subject. We have watched with the deepest interest
every step of your march that we could trace through the rebel papers. A very
excellent map from the Coast Survey is posted in my room, marked with your
stopping-places, and has daily been changed, as you progressed to the coast. No
such anxiety has been evinced in any campaign by all classes, as in yours. We
now hear rumors of the capture of Savannah. I hope we shall get official
advices to-day. I live next door to Stanton, and he favors me with the
despatches when they come. By the way, he is your fast friend, and was when you
had fewer.
The election of Lincoln scarcely raised a ripple on the surface.
It was anticipated. Even the Democratic congressmen seem willing to acquiesce
cheerfully, and silently submit to all measures deemed necessary. In Congress
we have but little to do. New taxes and loans are the principal point of
legislation. We will impose taxes enough. Hitherto New England influence has
prevented suitable taxation, but now its necessity is imperative. I am assigned
Fessenden's place in the Senate as Chairman of Finance, and have enough to do.
Chase is Chief Justice. . . .
I could send you letters from very distinguished persons,
very complimentary to you, but you will have enough of that incense.
SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The
Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837
to 1891, p. 240-1
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