101 Series I Volume XLVII-III Serial 100 - Columbia Part III
Page 101 | Chapter LIX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. -UNION. |
you can give him an order of transportation, say to Burlington, Iowa, or give him $40 and charge to me; I expect to turnup somewhere, and having pay due since January 1, think my credit good for that amount. I like to hear from you.
Truly, your friend,
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General.
[APRIL 5, 1865. -For Sherman to Thomas, in reference to organization of Army of Georgia, &c., see Vol. XLIX.]
HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, Goldsborough, N. C., April 5, 1865.His Excellency MICHAEL HAHN,
Governor of Louisiana, New Orleans:
DEAR SIR: I had the honor to receive your letter of March 3 inclosing the engrossed copy of the resolutions of the Legislature of Louisiana approved March 3, 1865. * I will publish them in general orders to the army, and think that it will be a source of pride for the officers andmen to see the deep interest that is felt in them by the constituted authorities of your favored State. I thank you kindly for recalling tome the events that attended me at Alexandria at the outset of this war. No mena not actually present at the South can comprehend the toild and snares laid by old, wily, and mishievous traitors to ensnare the young and credulous. Truth was perverted, prejudices kindled into a wild passion, and a flase prdie begotten calculated tomislead the youth, and even old men, into a belief that the whole fabric of our Government was weak and tottering, and was about to fall with a crash that would ruin all who clung to its fortunes. I cannot pretend to superior wisdom, but in the retirement of the pine woods of Rapides Parish my day dreamds still rested on the high seas, in California, on the broad plains of Kansas, the majestic valley of the Mississippi, and the Atlantic slope with its busy, industrious people, where I had roved in former days, everywhere realizing the fact that our General Government was kind and paternal, and that its faults (if any) arose from an excess of leniency and forbearance, and I could not be made to believe that it should yield the destiny of our future to the guidance of the few discontented demagogeus of the South, or its conceited cotton planters and negor owners. I am willing to say, however, that I regarded the Constitution as a bargain. That weof the North should respect slave property without bstracts, merits, or defects, and had the Southern people abided by the common laws and triubnalds, wouldhave fought to maintains such property, but the moment they igonoredthe compactand appealed to war we were no longer bound in law or honor to respect that obnoxious species of property. As soon as war is over I believe that good men can readjust the affair of the country so that slaves will never again be bought and sold, and yet the labor of all be directed again to the develpment of the vast agricultural wealth that lies in the future fields of the South. Accept my hearty thanks for considering me still a citizen of Louisiana, and I beg you to foster and encourage all its native population to
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*Resolutions embodied in Special Orders, Numbers 49, Part I, p. 44.
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