To Maj Gen Thomas From Maj Gen Sherman Aug 5 1864

              Head Qtrs. Mil. Div of the Miss 
 
In the fields near Atlanta, Geo. August 5th 1864 
 
 
 
Man: Gen. Thomas 
 
Cmidg. Dept of the Cumbd 
 
 
 
General 
 
 
				Gen. Milroy’s letter of  
July 26th with your endorsement is now before me. 
He asks to suppress the sale and circulation in 
his Dist. of certain mischievous and treasonable news- 
papers, and transmits certain slips as proof of the  
mischievous, tendency of there contents. I have  
no objections whatever, but in human nature 
there is so much of the mule left that prohibition 
of a newspaper increases its circulation, so long 
as freedom of the press is one of the foundations 
Stress of our government. I think we must allow 
it to work out its solution, the Reduction ad absurdum 
of the mathematicians. It has been the chief cause 
of this horrid war. It has undermined all that 
was good, and generous, and magnanininous in the  
character of the American People. It has made false issues, 
it has kindled the wildest passions and kept them 
alive till reason no longer even pretended to 
enter into our national affairs. It has cost us two 
thousand million dollars, has destroyed half a million