Friday, August 18, 2023

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, April 26, 1868

ST. LOUIS, April 26, 1868.

Dear Brother: I notice the Indians are getting restless.

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This is natural, for the department has been unable to fulfil any of the promises we held out to them of ploughs, seed, cattle, etc., to begin their new life of peace.

I feel reluctant to go further in these naked promises, as I fear our Government is becoming so complicated, that it is very venturesome to make promises in advance. I have the written guarantee of the Secretary of the Interior and of the committees on Indian affairs, and will try and impress on the Indians that our work is preliminary and not final or conclusive. . . .

Affectionately,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 317-8

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