Saturday, April 8, 2023

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, October 31, 1866

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31, 1866.

Dear Brother: I got your letter, and have this morning answered by telegraph, but wish to write more fully. When here last winter, I did not call to say good-by to the President, and wrote him a good letter of apology, enclosing my good wishes for his success in his professed desire to accomplish in his term of office the restoration of Civil Government all over our land. When I got in to Riley I received a despatch from the President, asking leave to publish it. I answered that he could publish anything I ever wrote if it would do any good, if Mr. Stanbury would advise it, but desiring, if possible, to avoid any controversy. On this he did not publish, and I have not made any request in the premises. I don't believe he will publish it, and I don't care much, for it contains nothing more than I thought then; viz., in February last, when I got here, there was a move to send Grant to Mexico with Campbell in an advisory capacity. Grant could not then be put to one side in that way, and on my arrival I found out that the President was aiming to get Grant out of the way, and me in, not only as Secretary of War but to command the army, on the supposition that I would be more friendly to him than Grant. Grant was willing that I should be Secretary of War, but I was not. I would not be put in such a category, and after much pro and con we have settled down that I shall go with Campbell. The Secretary of the Navy is preparing a steamer for us, and it will be ready next week at New York, when we will go forth to search for the Governor of Mexico; not a task at all to my liking, but I cheerfully consented because it removes at once a crisis. Both Grant and I desire to keep plainly and strictly to our duty in the Army, and not to be construed as partisans. We must be prepared to serve every administration as it arises. We recognize Mr. Johnson as the lawful President, without committing ourselves in the remotest degree to an approval or disapproval of his specific acts. We recognize the present Congress as the lawful Congress of the United States, and its laws binding on us and all alike, and we are most anxious to see, somehow or other, the Supreme Court brought in to pass on the legal and constitutional differences between the President and Congress.

We see nothing objectionable in the proposed amendments to the Constitution, only there ought to have been some further action on the part of Congress committing it to the admission of members when the amendments are adopted; also the minor exceptions to hold office, etc., should be relaxed as the people show an adherence to the national cause. I feel sure the President is so in the habit of being controlled by popular majorities that he will yield—save he may argue against Congress and in favor of his own past-expressed opinions. Congress should not attempt an impeachment or interference with the current acts of the executive unless some overt act clearly within the definition of the Constitution be attempted, of which I see no signs whatever. Some very bad appointments have been made, but I find here that he was backed by long lists of names that were Union men in the war. Of course our army cannot be in force everywhere: to suppress riots in the South, Indians in that vast region, only a part of which we saw, where whites and Indians both require watching, and the thousand and one duties that devolve on us. This army can never be used in the political complications, nothing more than to hold arsenals, depots, etc., against riots, or to form the nucleus of an army of which Congress must provide the laws for government and the means of support. Neither the President nor Congress ought to ask us of the army to manifest any favor or disfavor to any political measures. We are naturally desirous for harmonious action for peace and civility. We naturally resist the clamor of temporary popular changes, but as each administration comes in we must serve its executive and the War Department with seeming friendship.

I have called on Mr. Stanton, who received me with all cordiality, and placed at my disposal ample means to execute my present task with ease and comfort.

I start from here to-night, and shall reach St. Louis on Friday night, ready to start for New York as soon as the vessel is ready and as soon as Campbell is ready, say all next week. . . . I don't know that I can come by, say way of Mansfield, as, you see, I must move fast, staying every spare minute I can at home. Write me fully, and let us all pull together and get past this present difficulty; then all will be well. . .

Yours affectionately,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 279-82

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