William Boynton, Sherman's Historical Raid

[253] briefly to present the following views upon the propositions discussed in Cabinet council yesterday.

These propositions, agreed upon and signed by General Joseph E. Johnston and W. T. Sherman, may fairly be regarded as providing for the immediate cessation of hostilities, the disbandment of our armies, and the return of our soldiers to the peaceful walks of life; the restoration of the several States of our Confederacy to the old Union, with the integrity of their State Governments preserved; the security of their ‘people and inhabitants’ in their rights of person and property under the Constitution and the Laws of the United States, equally with the people of any other State, guaranteed, and a general amnesty for and on account of any participation in the present war.

The very grave responsibility devolved upon you by these propositions is at once apparent. To enter at all upon their discussion is to admit that independence, the great object of our struggle, is hopeless. I believe and admit this to be the case, and therefore do I advise you to accept these propositions so far as you have the power to do so; and my conviction is that nine-tenths of the people of every State of the Confederacy would so advise if opportunity were presented them. They are weary of the war and desire peace. If they could be rallied and brought to the field, a united and determined people might even yet achieve independence; but many circumstances admonish us that we can not count upon their cordial and united action.

The vast army of deserters and absentees from our military service during the past twelve months, the unwillingness of the people to enter the armies, the impracticability of recruiting them, the present utter demoralization of our troops consequent upon the destruction of the Army of Virginia, the rapid decrease by desertion of General Johnston's army, which as it retreats south, if retreat it can, will retain in its ranks but few soldiers beyond the by-paths and cross-roads which lead to their homes, together with the recent successes of the enemy, the fall of Selma, Montgomery, Columbus, and Macon, his forces in the field and his vast resources, all dictate the admission I have made.

I do not believe that by any possibility we could organize, arm, and equip, and bring into the field this side of the Mississippi fifteen thousand men within the next sixty days, and I am convinced that both General Beauregard and General Johnston are utterly hopeless of continuing the contest. A guerrilla warfare might be carried on in certain portions of our country for a time, perhaps for years, but while such a warfare would be more disastrous to our own people than it could possibly be to the enemy, it would exercise little or no influence upon his military operations, or upon his hold upon the country. Conducted upon our own soil our own people would chiefly feel its evils, and would afford it neither countenance nor support. Guerrilla warfare never has been and never can be carried on by and between peoples of a common origin, language, and institutions.