MANSFIELD, OHIO, May
16, 1865.
Dear Brother:
Your letter
of the 8th is received this morning, and at the same moment I hear through
K. W. that you will be in Lancaster to-day. I wrote you some days ago about
public opinion as to your arrangement with Johnston, but presume you did not
get it. It is now manifest that many high officials seized upon that
arrangement to ruin you, and you will not be wise if you allow them to do it.
Especially don't ever think of resigning. Your position is too high and
valuable to be drawn from it by temporary hostile political power. Remember the
case of Scott after the Mexican War. The mystery to me is that Stanton acted as
he did. If his motive was malicious, he is certainly the worst devil I ever
read of. He manifested and assumed the intensest kindness for you, and
certainly showed it to me. I still think that with him it was mere anger, — the
explosion of a very bad temper, — and if so, I sincerely trust no breach will
be made. With Halleck I was not disappointed. Has Johnson any enmity to you? I
have not seen him since his elevation, and have feared he was at the bottom of
the business. It is also manifest to me, that the bitter hostility shown you
springs partly from political jealousy, — a fear of the future. Much of this is
aimed at me. I have observed that every man who is opposed to me is eager to
assail you, while my personal friends, even among the Radicals, have defended
you. . . . Chase, you know, is in favor
of negro suffrage, and Jay and Henry Cooke are old Republicans, yet they have
uniformly, in public and in social circles, sustained you. So with the
newspapers. The feeling has so subsided and reacted that you can afford to be
calm and cautious. Grant is a jewel. I hope two things,— that you will have no
controversy with him, and never resign.
It was my purpose to go to-morrow to Washington, but I will
now delay it until Friday or Saturday. I suppose you will soon return to
Washington. I may be there some days, and hope to meet you there. . . .
Now as to your arrangement with Johnston. I think the judgment of unprejudiced men has
settled upon the conviction that your terms were too liberal. The recognition
of the rebel state organizations, now completely in the hands of the worst men
of the South, will not answer. They could perpetuate their sway, and we should
inevitably have new difficulties. Lincoln first recognized the Legislature of
Virginia, but after full reflection abandoned it. Why did not Stanton and
Halleck denounce Lincoln? And why suppress the fact that you were acting in
accordance with that precedent? Still I think it was not advisable to recognize
the state officials. In my opinion, it would have been wise for you to have insisted
upon the recognition of the emancipation proclamation, at least until the
courts passed upon it. It would be very wrong to let these rebels enjoy again
the unpaid labor of their slaves. Both these questions are past.
As to negro suffrage, I admit the negroes are not
intelligent enough to vote, but some one must vote their political
representation in the States where they live, and their representation is
increased by their being free. Who shall exercise this political power? Shall
the rebels do so? If yes, will they not now in effect restore slavery?
Will they not oppress the negroes? Is it not hard to turn
these negroes over to the laws made by the very men who endeavored to overthrow
the Government? After all, how much more ignorant are these slaves than the
uneducated white people down South? I assure you, that while I will not commit
myself on these matters, I feel sorely troubled about them, and would be glad
to talk with you in respect to them. . . .
Affectionately yours,
JOHN SHERMAN.
SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The
Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837
to 1891, p. 249-51
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