NEW YORK, July 22, 1890.
Dear Brother: I was gratified by the general tone and
spirit of your letter of yesterday, just received. You surely in the past have
achieved as much success in civil affairs as my most partial friends claim for
me in military affairs. It is now demonstrated that with universal suffrage and
the organization of political parties no man of supreme ability can be
President, and that our President with only four years is only a chip on the surface.
Not a single person has been President in our time without having been, in his
own judgment, the most abused, if not the most miserable, man in the whole
community. Your experience has simply been with nominating conventions. It
would have been tenfold worse had you succeeded in obtaining the nomination and
election.
*
* * * * * * * *
I had a letter from
General Alger yesterday, asking me to ride in the procession at Boston, August
12th, in full uniform, to which I answered No with an emphasis. I will attend
as a delegate from Missouri, as a private, and will not form in any procession,
horseback or otherwise. It is cruel to march old veterans five miles, like a
circus, under a mid-day sun for the gratification of a Boston audience. . . .
SOURCE: Rachel
Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between
General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, pp. 380-1
No comments:
Post a Comment