Thursday, August 11, 2022

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, December 23, 1860

ALEXANDRIA, Dec. 23, 1860.

. . . There certainly are symptoms of a general breaking up or dissolution of all government everywhere. The people of the parish on the other side of Red River have constituted themselves into a kind of vigilance committee with power to execute their own sentence on suspected parties. These are the best gentlemen of the country and though I can never approve of organizations that may as easily be adopted by the evil disposed as the well disposed, yet they show the tendency toward a general anarchy here as well as all over the United States.

I take it for granted South Carolina has "seceded” and that other Southern States will follow and that Louisiana will be precipitated along. Her convention meets Jan. 23 and I will await patiently her action. . .

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 316-7

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