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Chapter 15:
Johnson had been as violent as
Stanton in his censure of
Sherman's terms in
North Carolina.
General Grant told me at the time that the
President called
Sherman a traitor in the presence of the
Cabinet, and that he authorized the publication of the comments of
Stanton which called down on the great soldier the denunciations of the country he had helped to save.
But when it became desirable to make use of
Sherman Johnson could assume a different tone.
He resorted to every inducement of flattery, confidence, and tempting advancement, and offered him in turn the command of the army, the brevet of General, and the position of
Secretary of War, so that he might either cope with, supplant, or surpass
Grant.
But
Sherman was proof against all his wiles.
Johnson's first attempt to pit the great comrades against each other was in the matter of the mission to
Mexico.
I have already told the story, but some points belong to my present theme.
In October, 1866, the
President ordered
Grant to send for
Sherman who was at
St. Louis, but he did not inform the
General-in-Chief of the purpose of the order.
This, however,
Grant suspected, and wrote to
Sherman to come direct to his house.
There he told his friend of the plot of the Administration to send himself out of the country and to put
Sherman in his place in the interim.
Sherman at once waited on the
President and protested against the scheme.
He represented the determination of
Grant not
