"HeyBub" wrote in message
...

And, no, I'm not in favor of a state legalizing slavery - I was just
correcting the common, but wrong, notion that slavery, per se, was the
primary cause of the North invading the South.

"You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and
you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all
the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in
making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of
you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our
country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop,
but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war. The
United States does and must assert its authority, wherever it once had
power; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure, it is gone, and I believe
that such is the national feeling. This feeling assumes various shapes, but
always comes back to that of Union. Once admit the Union, once more
acknowledge the authority of the national Government, and, instead of
devoting your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and
this army become at once your protectors and supporters, shielding you from
danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I know that a few individuals
cannot resist a torrent of error and passion, such as swept the South into
rebellion, but you can point out, so that we may know those who desire a
government, and those who insist on war and its desolation."

*****

"You have heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers, that live by
falsehood and excitement; and the quicker you seek for truth in other
quarters, the better. I repeat then that, by the original compact of
government, the United States had certain rights in Georgia, which have
never been relinquished and never will be; that the South began the war by
seizing forts, arsenals, mints, custom-houses, etc., etc., long before Mr.
Lincoln was installed, and before the South had one jot or title of
provocation. I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of women and children fleeing from your
armies and desperadoes, hungry and with bleeding feet. In Memphis,
Vicksburg, and Mississippi, we fed thousands and thousands of the families
of rebel soldiers left on our hands, and whom we could not see starve. Now
that war comes to you, you feel very different. You deprecate its horrors,
but did not feel them when you sent car-loads of soldiers and ammunition,
and moulded shells and shot, to carry war into Kentucky and Tennessee, to
desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people who only asked
to live in peace at their old homes, and under the Government of their
inheritance. But these comparisons are idle. I want peace, and believe it
can only be reached through union and war, and I will ever conduct war with
a view to perfect an early success."

Excerpts from a letter to the Mayor and Councilmen of Atlanta
12 Sept. 1864
William Tecumseh Sherman