[February 28, 1866]
Dear Brother: Of
course I agree substantially with the President. If we do not design to make a
complete revolution in our form of Government, but rather to preserve it, you
must, sooner or later, allow representation from the South, and the longer it
is deferred the worse will be its effect.
Any seeming purpose
to restrict them from retaining. political power with your party will react
against you.
The case is very
different when a native conquers an adversary, but even in that case we have
always incorporated new conquests as a part of the whole, as in Louisiana,
Texas, and California. If the people of the South are to be punished, it must
be done by trials and convictions of individuals.
SOURCE: Rachel
Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between
General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 265
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