Sunday, March 12, 2023

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, February 28, 1866

[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.

Affectionately,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 265

No comments: