On the free press

SAMUEL SAWYER, Esq., Editor Union Appeal, Memphis.

DEAR SIR : It is well I should come to an understanding at once

with the press as well as the people of Memphis, which I am ordered

to command; which means, to control for the interest, welfare; and

glory of the whole Government of the United States.

Personalities in a newspaper are wrong and criminal. Thus, though

you meant to be complimentary in your sketch of my career, you make

more than a dozen mistakes of fact, which I need not correct, as I

don't desire my biography to be written till I am dead. It is

enough for the world to know that I live and am a soldier, bound to

obey the orders of my superiors, the laws of my country, and to

venerate its Constitution; and that, when discretion is given me, I

shall exercise it wisely and account to my superiors.

***

Use your influence to reestablish system, order, government. You

may rest easy that no military commander is going to neglect

internal safety, or to guard against external danger; but to do

right requires time, and more patience than I usually possess. If

I find the press of Memphis actuated by high principle and a sole

devotion to their country, I will be their best friend; but, if I

find them personal, abusive, dealing in innuendoes and hints at a

blind venture, and looking to their own selfish aggrandizement and

fame, then they had better look out; for I regard such persons as

greater enemies to their country and to mankind than the men who,

from a mistaken sense of State pride, have taken up muskets, and

fight us about as hard as we care about. In haste, but in

kindness, yours, etc.,

W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General.

***

(Blind venture refers to any imagined secret conspiracy, in my opinion)

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