. . . Tribune states that General Sherman has surrendered a slave to a South
Carolinian named Tidings, professing to be loyal by order of Col. Scott,
assistant secretary of war. Gen. Sherman
seems to have had no agency in the matter, and simply obeyed express
instructions from the war department.
That such a thing should have occurred under Secretary Cameron’s
administration is most extraordinary.
The war department has no more legal power to assume the functions of a
U. S. commissioner in such a case than an army officer or any private
citizen. No proof beyond the claimant’s
assertion seems to have been required to prove his ownership of the negro.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye,
Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3
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