Letter from Aaron Jones to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; June 20, 1865

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Letter from Aaron Jones to Mississippi Governor William L. Sharkey; June 20, 1865

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People

Jones, Aaron D.Langley, George Owen, T. F.Sharkey, William Lewis, 1798-1873 Unknown, Lucas

Events

Political Office--Appointment to office Secession. American Civil War

Military Units

Confederate States of America. Army

Organizations

Churches

Occupations

Commercial agents Medical Profession Medical Profession--Physicians

Places

Illinois--Peoria County. Peoria Mississippi--Hinds County. Jackson

Social Identifiers

Christians Christians--Baptists Impoverished people Military Status--Military families Political Identities--Unionists (United States Civil War)

Vital Statistics

Death

Page 1

[Seal]

Peoria, Ill. June 20, 1865

Hon W. L. Sharkey
Prov. Gov. of Miss
Jackson Miss

Dear Sir

Allow me to congratulate yourself and the country on your appointment as Prov. Governor of the unfortunate State of Mississippi I am satisfied from what I know of your views respecting the terrible contest of arms which has just ended, that no better appointment could have been made. Had your counsels prevailed, the mad experi=ment of forcible secession would never have been made, and the dreadful carnage and devastation which have followed would have been avoided

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But you, and those who thought with you, were out voted and over [awed?], and the result is what every discerning man both North and South foresaw was insuitable, the entire subjugation of the whole Southern people, an event which the mad advocates of what they called the "right of secession" the "right of revolution", the "reserved rights of the States", "State sovereignty" &c &c thought impossible.

But ^as^ they have "sown the wind" they are now "reaping the whirlwind"; and while I pity them from the bottom of my heart I can but acquiesce in the policy adopted by the government in requiring evidence of renewed loyalty of all, before committing this work of readjustment and reorgan-ization to their hands; and in holding the leaders to a strict degree ac-countability for their armies.

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I trust that you will not find the work of readjustment difficult, and that you will have the hearty cooperation of every true friend of his country ^in the State^. I have several gen=telemen in Jackson who foresaw the existing condition of things from the first, and whose sympathies were ^with^ the "Union." The support they gave the "Confederate government" was a forced support; the result of ne=cessity, rather than of conviction. And I have reason to believe that a very large minority of the reflecting men throughout the State were in the same condition. The code of laws under which we lived, was as you remember was short and comprehensive "the will of the military commander" and men whose earthly all was at stake and whose wives and children were dependent on them for bread ~~[?]~~

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could make but a feeble resistance against that will became repugnant it was to their conviction of right and justice.

If it is not asking too much of you amidst your multiplied public duties, I should be pleased to hear from you respecting the present con=dition of things in Mississippi, and the changes that have taken place in Jackson and vicinity since I left thence. My wife has an interest in the ^[?] of your^ State. She owns [?] tract of land—some 500 acres adjoining the corporation of Jackson. T. F. Owen is her agent. Will you please inform me when you write whether her title is good, and ~~how~~ what she will have to do to hold it? She bought it of George Langley.

I have been in this city since last July acting as pastor of the 1^st_,, Baptist church. Dr. Lucas, whom you know is a member of my church.

With much respect
Your obt servant

Aaron Jones D