TO W. G. SHERMAN
| 45 East 68th St., New York, | |
| March 1, 1884. |
Let me say in reply to your letter of February 25th, that you entirely misconstrue what I said at Brooklyn[1] if you set me down as an “apologist of violent methods” such as are used here and there in the South. On the contrary, I abhor them as I abhor every crime, and as much as you abhor them. But the question how that condition of things can be changed for the better, is not one of mere sentiment. And when you say that this matter must be put forward by the Republican party as a political issue on the ground that things have not improved in the South since the war,—that on the contrary, they have grown worse,—you expose yourself, as I pointed out at Brooklyn, to the fatal reply that, as the Republican party has accomplished no improvement during the nineteen years it has been in power since the close of the war, it is useless to ask again for the same thing that has proved itself so ineffective, and that it is time to try some other kind of remedy. It is evident that upon such an issue the Republican party can not rely for success.
My opinion is that a very considerable improvement has taken place in the South at large since 1865 (although in some localities the state of things is still very bad), and that, while the Government should exert the power the Constitution gives it for the protection of citizens in the exercise of their rights, a complete remedy, if there is one, will be found only in the economic regeneration of the South and in the division of the colored vote as well as the white between different political parties.[2]
