[ST. LOUIS, MO.]
My visit South was
in every sense agreeable. My old friends in Alexandria did all they could to
make us welcome, and I was not allowed to pay a cent on steamboat, at the
hotel, or anywhere. I visited several plantations and saw negroes at work for
wages, and seemingly as free and as conscious of their freedom as the blacks of
Ohio. Boyd was perfectly grateful for the books you sent him, which were in the
library and marked with your name. I found my own portrait, in full uniform, in
the main hall, and in the library many books on our side of the war. Boyd asked
me for army and navy registers, post surveys, and railroad surveys, and other
national books that I have and will send him. Of course they have their old
prejudices, and labor to prevent their cause from sinking into one of pure
malignity, but as to the future, he promised me to teach his pupils to love and
honor the whole country. He preserves all my old letters, and we looked over
many, in every one of which I took the highest national grounds and predicted
the ruin of their country.
The marble tablet
which was built over the main door on which was cut the inscription "By
the liberality of the general government. The Union - esto perpetua," was
taken out and was found broken in pieces. I saw the deposition to that effect
in Boyd's possession, but he could not say if Vallas did it of himself, or on
the order of the board of supervisors.
You remember
attention was called to that inscription by my original letter of resignation,
and it is probable the rebels made Vallas take it out; anyhow Boyd has ordered
an iron casting of same size and same inscription, and promised me to place it
over the door in lieu of the marble, too much broken up to be replaced.
In New Orleans I was
cautioned against going to Alexandria, which was burned down at the time of the
Banks expedition, but I never received more marked attention by all classes,
and not a word or look reached me but what was most respectful and gratifying.
In like manner I had the most pressing invitations to stop at Jackson and
Canton, Miss., both of which places were destroyed by me. I do think some
political power might be given to the young men who served in the rebel army
for they are a better class than the adventurers who have gone South purely for
office.
SOURCE: Rachel
Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between
General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 327-8
