Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/581

 Notes omd Queries. 571

The following is from the Globe- Dentocraf s report :

"Referring to the late war, he said it was not, as was generally understood, a war of secession from the United States, but a con- spiracy. ' I have been behind the curtain,' said he, ' and I have seen letters that few others have seen, and have heard conversations that cannot be repeated, and I tell you that Jeff. Davis never was a secessionist. He was a conspirator. He did not care for division from the United States. His object was to get a fulcrum from which to operate against the Northern States, and if he had succeeded he would to-day be the master-spirit of the continent, and you would be his slaves. I have seen a letter from Jeff. Davis to a man whose name I cannot mention, because he is a United States Senator. I know Davis's writing, and saw his signature, and in that letter he said he would turn Lee's army against any State that might attempt to secede from the Southern Confederacy.' "

" This public assault, under the covert plea that it is based upon in- formation which regard for a United States Senator does not permit him (General Sherman) to present, will, to honorable minds, suggest the idea of irresponsible slanders. It is thus devolved upon me to say that the allegation of my ever having written such a letter as is described is unqualifiedly false, and the assertion that I had any purpose or wish to destroy the liberty and equal rights of any State, either North or South, is a reckless and shameless falsehood, espe- cially because it was generally known that for many years before, as well as during the war, between the States, I was an earnest advocate of the strict construction State rights theory of Mr. Jefferson.

" What motive other than personal malignity can be conceived for so gross a libel ? If General Sherman had access to any letters pur- porting to have been written by me which will sustain his accusation, let him produce them, or wear the brand of a base slanderer."

To this letter General Sherman has made no reply, save to publish a letter purporting to have been written by Vice-President Stephens to Honorable H. V. Johnson, and condemning in strong terms some of the measures of Mr. Davis's administration, though affording not a scintilla of proof of General Sherman's charges, and utterly at variance with some of Mr. Stephens's piiblished opinions concerning Mr. Davis.

General Sherman has not yet produced the letter which he claims to have seen, and he cannot produce any evidence to substantiate his slander.