planting. On the western slope of the Alleghany Mountains the lands are richer, the rivers larger and longer, the lakes are magnificent, the prairies are almost boundless, and the climate is salubrious. There is ample room for all, food for all, work for all, and happiness for all. It was good fortune and happiness to be born in such a country. Society there was less conventional than in any other section of the country; religious denominations were more tolerant, religious creeds pinched the conscience less, and the population was more transient. In early times in the West, men seemed to forget for awhile the creeds to which they were educated. Presbyterians often became Methodists or Baptists, and Baptists became Presbyterians; and some of each became Catholics, and Catholics, in turn, became Protestants, according to the circumstances of each case. The ways to heaven were regarded like railways—the traveller ready to start on his momentous journey would generally take the first train of cars that came along, without special inquiry as to the character of the parties who owned the stock and run the road, taking his chances of making connections with the great "highway" as he neared his eternal home. Sherman's parents were Episcopalians, but the Episcopal Church was not well adapted to small settlements in the backwoods; or if well adapted, was unable to keep track of all its flock scattered throughout the broad expanse, and hence the family availed themselves of such pious advantages, for awhile, as the Presbyterian Church could afford. But General Sherman, while he has a sincere admiration for good Christians, has a most provoking disregard for religious creeds, regarding them as a sort of relative good or necessary evil, depending more or less upon the intelligence, honesty, and general excellence of the men who instruct, lead, and control the religious impulses of the human heart in their respective "commands." His appreciation of a Christian soldier may be inferred from the following. "At my last interview with Mr. Lincoln," he wrote to Mr. James E. Yeatman of the United States Sanitary Commission, May 21, 1865, "on his boat anchored in James River, in the midst of the army, your name came up as one spoken of to fill the office of commissioner of refugees, freedmen, etc., and I volunteered my assertion that if you would accept office, which I doubted, the bureau could not go into more kind and charitable hands; but since that time the office has, properly enough, been given to General Howard, who has held high command under me for more than a year; and I am sure you will be pleased to know that he is as pure a man as ever lived, a strict Christian, and a model soldier, the loss of an arm attesting his service. He will do all that one man can do, if not forced to undertake impossibilities," etc. General Howard, it is well known, has been pious and exemplary from his boyhood, was ever faithful and devoted in the discharge of his religious duties, and this even while a student at West Point. He carried his religious principles with him into the army, and was guided and governed by them in all his relations with his officers and men. No matter who was permitted to share his mess or partake of his repast, whether the lowest subaltern of his command or General Sherman himself, no one thought to partake, if General Howard were present, without first the invocation of the Divine blessing, himself usually leading, like the head of a family. General Sherman seems greatly to have admired the Christian character of General Howard, making frequent mention of him in his correspondence in terms similar to those above quoted; and not only as a Christian but as a soldier, preferring him and promoting him to the command of one of his armies. From the same letter from which the last extract was taken, we make a further extract in regard to the Andersonville prisoners and the conclusion of the war : "I was as glad as you could have been to learn that those boxes of stores, prepared by you with so much care and promptness for the Andersonville prisoners, reached them at last. I don't think I ever set my heart so strongly on any one thing as I did in attempting to rescue those prisoners; and I had almost feared instead of doing them good I had actually done them harm, for they were changed from place to place to avoid me, and I could not with infantry overtake railroad trains. But at last their prison-doors are open; and I trust we have arrived at a point when further war or battle, or severity, other than the punishment of crime by civil tribunals, is past. "You will have observed how fiercely I have been assailed for simply offering to the President 'terms' for his approval or disapproval, according to his best judgment-terms which, if fairly interpreted, mean, and only mean, an actual submission by the rebel armies to the civil authority of the United States. No one can deny I have done the State some service in the field, but I have always desired that strife should cease at the earliest possible moment. I confess, without shame, I am sick and tired of fighting-its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers. You, too, have seen these things, and I know you also are tired of the war, and are willing to let the civil tribunals resume their place. And, so far as I know, all the fighting men of our army want peace; and it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded and lacerated (friend or foe), that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation. I know the rebels are whipped to death, and I declare before God, as a man and a soldier, I will not strike a foe who stands unarmed and submissive before me, but would rather say-'Go, and sin no more."" In another letter, to Chief-Justice Chase, written about the same time, General Sherman says:— "I have had abundant opportunities of knowing these people (the people of the South), both before the war, during its existence, and since their public acknowledgment of submission to the national authority, and I have no fear of them, armed or disarmed, and believe that by one single stroke of the pen, nine-tenths of them can be restored to full relations with our Government, so as to pay taxes and live in peace; and in war I would not hesitate to mingle with them and lead them to battle against our national foes. But we must deal with them with frankness and candor, and not with doubt, hesitancy, and prevarication. The nine-tenths would, from motives of selfinterest, restrain the other mischievous tenth, or compel them to migrate to some other country, like Mexico, cursed wit anarchy and civil war." And in a letter to General Schofield, under date of May 28, 1865, General Sherman wrote on the same subject: "I have watched your course in North Carolina and approve it. Maintain peace and good order, and let law and harmony grow up naturally. I would have preferred to leap more directly to the result, but the same end may be attained by the slower process you adopt. "So strong has become the National Government, by reason of our successful war, that I laugh at the fears of those who dread that rebels may regain some political power in their several States. Supposing they do, it is but local, and can in no way endanger the whole country. "I think I see already signs that events are sweeping all to the very conclusion I jumped at in my terms,' but I have refrained from discussing them on their merits, till in after times when it may be demonstrated that the plan sketched by me was at least in the right direction and constitutional, whether popular or not. The people of this country are subject to the constitution, and even they cannot disregard it without a revolution, the very thing we have been fighting against." Such were General Sherman's views and sentiments, as stated by himself, in the midst of stirring events of the times. They may be popular or unpopular, but no one will dispute the sincerity with which they were uttered. A more honest man than General Sherman does not live, and he is as gen |