Gen. W.T. Sherman's reply to Anti-Victors

My fellow Americans:
I have read your posts, in the nature of a petition to revoke the orders of sending all the troops to Iraq. I have read them carefully, and give full credit to your statements of distress that have and will be occasioned, and yet shall not agree to the revocation of those orders, because they were not designed to meet the humanities of the cause, but to prepare for the future struggles in which millions of good people outside of Iraq have a deep interest.

We must have peace, not only in Iraq, but in all the world. To secure this, we must stop the war that now desolates this once happy and favored country. To stop war, we must defeat the insurgency which are arrayed against the laws and Constitution that all must respect and obey. To defeat this insurgency, we must prepare the way to reach them in their recesses, provided with the arms and instruments which enable us to accomplish our purpose.

Now, I know the vindictive nature of our enemy, that we may have many years of military operations from this quarter; and, therefore, deem it wise and prudent to prepare in time. The use of Iraq for warlike purposes in inconsistent with its character as a home for families. There will be little manufacturers, commerce, or agriculture here, for the maintenance of families, and sooner or later want will compel the inhabitants to go.

Why not support the war now, when all the arrangements are completed for the transfer, instead of waiting till the plunging shot of contending armies will renew the scenes of the past years? Of course, I do not apprehend any such things at this moment, but you do not suppose that the troops will be there until the war is over. I cannot discuss this subject with you fairly, because I cannot know what is proposed to be done, but I assert that our military plans makes it necessary for the inhabitants to live with it, and our troops can only renew their effort of services to make their lives in any way as easy and comfortable as possible.

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into this 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 that our troops make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of a country.

If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until Iraq suffers the fate of many countries, which is eternal war. The government of Iraq 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 their houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, the leaders and the army and police become at once their protectors and supporters, shielding them 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 some 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 might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Iraq can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride. We don't want their oil or their businesses, or their lands, or any thing they have, but we do want and will have a just obedience to the laws of Iraq. That they will have, and if it involved the destruction of their improvements, it cannot be helped.