IMPORTANT HISTORICAL LETTERS.

CAPTAIN S. H. M. BYERS, now a citizen of Iowa, made a national reputation many years ago by a single song "Marching through Georgia." He was an officer in General Sherman's army in its famous March to the Sea, of which he will give a graphic narrative in an early number of the NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. Captain Byers was then, and still remains, a trusted friend of the great soldier, who has given him, recently, a remarkable proof of his confidence by permitting him to copy from his private records and correspondence a series of unpublished letters from historical Americans, illustrative of important epochs of the Civil War. These letters will appear in the NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

In a series of these letters, referring to "Reconstruction Days," Captain Byers has produced a correspondence between General Sherman and General Grant, relating to what is sometimes characterized as "President Johnson's Plot," to transfer the Government of the United States, at the close of the war, from the hands of the men who had saved it into the hands of the men who had fought against it in the South, or refused to fight for it in the North. As this subject, when brought into new prominence by Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, was discussed in the NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW by Hon. George S. Boutwell, this important correspondence was sent to him with a request to write an introduction to it.

As United States Senator and Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Boutwell enjoyed the entire confidence of General Grant and General Sherman, and, as one of the members who impeached President Johnson, he was familiar with all the secret evidence which justified that grave procedure.

I.

INTRODUCTION BY SENATOR BOUTWELL.

The letters which constitute the body of this article, furnished to THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW by a friend of General Sher

man, possess a general interest which justifies their publication. But there are to be found in the text statements and allusions whose value may not be appreciated by persons not acquainted with the history of the times.

It is worthy of notice that, both in the letters of General Sherman and in the letters of General Grant, there are evidences of mutual and intimate friendship which was not disturbed by the events of the war nor by the embarrassments to which both were subjected during the Administration of President Johnson.

The letters of General Sherman of the 18th of March, 1870, and the 18th of March, 1871, contain statements derived from his knowledge of affairs in the States of the South which have been justified, unfortunately, by the history of that section of the country from that day to the present. In his opening sentence of the second letter he says:

"It is notorious that no Southern man can be punished for murder and violence to a Union family, for the juries acquit them even if they are indicted."

It is evident, also, from these letters that he had no faith in the continuing capacity of the negroes to establish and maintain popular governments in the Southern States, and that the prejudices of the past would resume control. The spirit of General Sherman and the energy of his purposes are shown in his letter of 1871, in which he says:

"Unless Congress can and will give the President power to declare and execute martial law in any State or district where life and property are in peril our Government is simply ridiculous."

Again he says in the same letter:

"The rebels whom we defeated in war will beat us by politics."

The prediction, made by General Sherman in 1871, has been confirmed by the experience of the country.

The letters of General Sherman and General Grant indicate, also, that there were times when they lost confidence in the disposition of the leaders, even of the Republican Party, to maintain efficient and pure Governments in the South; and General Sherman makes the declaration, in his letter of 1871, that the Republican Party made use of General Grant's personal popularity to their advantage, and he prophesied that they would betray him and cast him off the moment it seemed to their advantage. His devotion

to the army and to the country is shown in the concluding paragraph of the letter to General Auger of 1871, where he says:

"Our duty is to keep the army, as far as we can, well ordered, well disciplined and as well content as possible. On its submission to discipline, its love of order and respect for authority this nation may yet have to depend, for things now tend, as in 1861, toward anarchy."

Happily his apprehension as to a state of anarchy has not been verified.

The first letter of General Grant is dated the 13th day of January, 1867, and it is addressed to General Sherman. The opening sentence of that letter refers to the Mexican mission of General Sherman. Those who are acquainted with the history of the times will recall the fact that General Sherman was sent to Mexico in the autumn of 1866, in company with our Minister to Mexico, Mr. Campbell, who had been recently appointed.

In the month of May, 1865, President Johnson issued a proclamation for the re-organization of the State of North Carolina. That proclamation was followed by others of the same character for the re-organization of each of the several States that had been engaged in the rebellion. By virtue of these proclamations, conventions were assembled, constitutions were formed for the several States, and legislative assemblies chosen. Under the constitutions so instituted the people were called upon to elect representatives to Congress, and the legislatures of the several States elected their respective quota of senators. In the early autumn of 1867, and previous to the meeting of the fortieth Congress, President Johnson, in two public speeches and in several private conversations, had given utterance to the opinion that the senators and representatives so elected in the States that had been in rebellion were legal members of that Congress and entitled to seats therein. The admission of those members, acting, as they would have acted, in conjunction with the Democratic senators and representatives from the loyal States, would have constituted a majority in each branch of Congress. While there is no positive evidence upon the point, there are many circumstances which justify the conclusion that President Johnson contemplated the organization of Congress upon that basis. Had that attempt been made, and successfully made, the Republican members of Congress from the loyal States would have been under the necessity either of accepting the organization and acting in it as a minority party, or they would

have been compelled to abstain from all association with it and accept the position, as far as the policy of the Administration could control affairs, of rebels against a constitutionally organized Government.

It is now an established historical fact that President Johnson made an effort to send General Grant to Mexico upon a mission, for which, probably, there was no sufficient reason in the relations of this Government to that of Mexico.

In an article published in the NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW for December, 1885, I gave the substance, and in some parts the language, of a conversation with General Grant in regard to the effort made by President Johnson to induce him to accept that mission. While the subject was under consideration by the President and Secretary of State, the President issued an order, without the knowledge of General Grant, requiring General Sherman to leave his command at Fort Leavenworth and report at Washington. That command was obeyed, but, before the arrival of General Sherman, the President had received the peremptory refusal of General Grant to enter upon the mission. In the letter of June 13, 1867, General Grant refers to the subject in these words:

"The termination of your mission to Mexico caused, I think, no disappointment, as the whole scheme failed when I refused to go."

This declaration by General Grant is conclusive to the point, that the statement which I made in the NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW of December last, to which I have referred, was justified by the facts.

In further support of the theory, that President Johnson contemplated the transfer of the Government into the hands of the Democratic party, with the coöperation of the Senators and Representatives who had been elected in the South under the proclamations which he had issued, is the remark of General Grant in the letter of the 13th of January, 1867:

"There was unquestionably a great desire to commit you to the support of the present Administration against Congress, right or wrong, as there has been me."

Again, in a letter of the 18th of September, 1867, General Grant refers to the attempt to send him to Mexico, and says:

“Unless great changes take place between this and the 1st of February, I shall not be able to leave Washington this winter. If I can get off, however,

for a couple of months, I shall take about the trip I refused to take last winter, and of which you had the opportunity of enjoying on that account. If I go, I shall not take Campbell with me.”

The anxiety to which General Grant was subjected, in his administration of the office of General of the Army during Johnson's administration, is indicated in this letter to General SherHe says:

man.

"I am afraid to say on paper all I fear and apprehend: but I assure you that, were you present, there is no one who I would more fully unburden myself to, than yourself, or whose advice I would value more highly."

Both General Grant and General Sherman were opposed to the methods of administration in the War Department under Secretary Stanton. In these letters there are indications, on the part of both these officers, that Stanton assumed the control of affairs to such an extent, that the administration in the hands of the General of the Army was merely nominal. General Grant refers to this condition of things when he uses these words:

"I am in hopes of getting the command of the army back again where it belongs, and, if I do, there should always, for some years at least, be some one present to exercise it, lest it revert again to the Secretary of War."

One of the most important letters in this connection is that of General Sherman to President Johnson under date of the 31st of January, 1868. The date of the letter is worthy of notice, inasmuch as it corresponds in time to the controversy which arose between President Johnson and four or five members of his Cabinet, on the one side, and General Grant on the other, upon the question. of fact whether General Grant made a promise to President Johnson to resign the office of Secretary of War, ad interim, during the suspension of Secretary Stanton. From this letter it appears that Johnson had invited General Sherman to come to Washington; but it does not appear in what capacity he expected him to act while there. After some introductory remarks as appears, which are not quoted, General Sherman says:

"To bring me to Washington would put three heads to an army-yourself, General Grant, and myself, and we would be more than human if we were not to differ. In my judgment it would ruin the army and would be fatal to one or two of us."

This statement is important in connection with what is known of the relations between President Johnson and General Grant, in the fact that it points directly to the removal of General Grant and