General Ulysses S. Grant to Senator John Sherman, February 22, 1868

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES,        

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 22, 1868.

HON. J. SHERMAN,
        United States Senate.

Dear Sir: The "National Intelligencer" of this morning contains a private note which General Sherman sent to the President whilst he was in Washington, dictated by the purest kindness and a disposition to preserve harmony, and not intended for publication. It seems to me the publication of that letter is calculated to place the General in a wrong light before the public, taken in connection with what correspondents have said before, evidently getting their inspiration from the White House.

As General Sherman afterwards wrote a semi-official note to the President, furnishing me a copy, and still later a purely official one sent through me, which placed him in his true position, and which have not been published, though called for by the "House," I take the liberty of sending you these letters to give you the opportunity of consulting General Sherman as to what action to take upon them. In all matters where I am not personally interested, I would not hesitate to advise General Sherman how I would act in his place. But in this instance, after the correspondence I have had with Mr. Johnson, I may not see General Sherman's interest in the same light that others see it, or that I would see it in if no such correspondence had occurred. I am clear in this, however: the correspondence here enclosed to you should not be made public except by the President, or with the full sanction of General Sherman. Probably the letter of the 31st of January,¹ marked "confidential," should not be given out at all.

Yours truly,

U. S. GRANT.

_______________

¹ See General Sherman's Memoirs.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 308-9