Quote of the Day

If [the Southern people] want eternal war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their places [...]

Three years ago, by a little reflection and patience, they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late. All the powers of earth cannot return to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken; for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives [...]

To those who submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentleness and forebearance; but to the petulant and persistent secessionists, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better. Satan and the rebellious saints of Heaven were allowed a continuous existence in hell merely to swell their just punishment. To such as would rebel against a Government so mild and just as ours was in peace, a punishment equal would not be unjust. [...]

Read to them this letter, and let them use it so as to prepare them for my coming.

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman