COMMENTS, NOTES AND REVIEWS. |
|
JOHN SHERMAN--A CHARACTERIZATION. One of the greatest of Ohio's sons, as well as one of the most prom- inent and influential of our National characters, has passed away in the |
|
|
served until his death, June 24, 1829. Judge Sherman left a widow, eleven children and no property. The children had to "shift for themselves." The school of life was their academy. They graduated with highest honors. After their father's death, John went to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, to live with a cousin. In 1837, at the age of fourteen, he obtained a position as rodsman on the government works on the Muskingum river, but after two years' service was dis- missed because of his open advocacy of the Whig party principles. He thus had an early taste of the uncertainty of office, and the despotic and arbitrary rule of the spoilsman. He then turned his attention to the law, went to Mansfield, took up his residence with his brother Charles, in whose office he pursued his legal studies and was admitted to the bar May 11, 1844. His public and political career began with his being a delegate from Ohio to the Whig National convention at Philadelphia in 1848, of which body he was secretary. In 1854 he was elected to (372) |
Comments, Notes and Reviews. 373
congress as an anti-Nebraska Republican,
from the thirteenth district
(Ohio). He was re-elected to congress as
a Republican in 1856, 1858
and 1860. In the thirty-sixth Congress
(1858) he was the Republican
candidate for speaker, and came within
two votes of election. He
might have had those two votes by the
promise of an apparently trivial
concession to the slavocracy. He was not
in the auction market. He
was never, throughout his career, a
purchasable article. On March 23,
1861, Mr. Sherman took his seat in the
United States Senate, to which he
had been elected by the Ohio
Legislature. He was re-elected to the
Senate in 1866, 1872, 1881, 1886 and
1892. In 1867 he introduced the
Refunding Act, which was adopted in
1870, but without the resumption
clause. In 1874 he introduced the famous
Resumption Act, which passed
the Senate the same year and the House
early in 1875. This bill fixed
the date for its going into effect as
January 1, 1879. In 1877 he was
appointed Secretary of the Treasury by
President Hayes, and in that
portfolio had the unique experience of
carrying out the crowning triumph
of his fiscal policy, which he, as
Senator, originated and advocated.
The resumption of specie payments by the
government was accomplished,
despite the dismal forebodings of other
acknowledged financiers. He
resigned the Senatorship March 4, 1897,
to accept the Premiership (Sec-
retary of State) in President McKinley's
cabinet. He occupied this po-
sition until April 28, 1898, when the
arduous duties incident to the ap-
proaching Spanish war, and his own
declining health, necessitated his
retirement from public life, a public
life extending over half a century
and being almost unparalleled in
American annals.
In 1880 John Sherman was the most
prominent candidate for the
Presidency, but James A. Garfield's
speech, in nominating Mr. Sher-
man, so captivated the convention that
the nominator himself became the
nominee of the party. Again in 1884 Mr.
Sherman's name was formally
presented to the national convention.
James G. Blaine was nominated.
In 1888 John Sherman was the foremost
candidate, leading all others
for several ballots in the national
convention. Benjamin Harrison was
nominated: In 1892 Harrison was
renominated. Mr. Sherman was not
in evidence, nor did he reappear in the
convention of 1896. John Sher-
man was ambitious. The
"presidential bee" buzzed for years in his bon-
net. He possessed every qualification
for the presidency. He would
have eminently filled the position. But
he lacked the shining, winning
elements of personal leadership. As a
chieftain he "pleased not the mil-
lion" but "was caviar to the
general" public. His falling short of the
highest honor in the nation poisoned him
with bitter disappointment,
and cast a sad and petulent tinge to the
declining years of his life. He
was extraordinarily honored, but he
thought he deserved it. It was his
due. He had not the insufferable
arrogance of a Conkling, or the colossal
conceit of a Sumner, but he did not wear
self-deprecatory modesty-
nor did he assume it. But he was no
ordinary man. He averaged far
above the level of modern statesmen.
From the beginning of the Civil
374 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
War to the time of his retirement (1898)
Mr. Sherman was a most not-
able figure in the halls of national
legislature. As we have seen, he
was four times elected to the House of
Representatives, and six times
elected to the United States Senate. He
was twice a cabinet officer. Such
a career was only possible to a man of
the highest qualities, most com-
manding talent, strictest integrity and irreproachable
reputation. In his
long and unbroken official career Mr.
Sherman held the confidence of the
public, not only of his native state,
but the entire country. He will
be classed in history as a deep and
broad statesman and a politician of
the shrewdest and highest class. He was
an influential participant in many
of the great events of our national
history during the period of the Civil
War, and the days of the subsequent
reconstruction. He was a close
student of all economical and political
questions. He was not an en-
thusiast nor a popular orator. He never
posed for applause, he never
"played to the grandstand," he
never indulged in the graces of rhetoric,
he was devoid of that non-descript
element called "personal magnetism."
He had little or no personal following.
He was cold, austere, dignified.
His most outspoken enemies deign to
admit that he is entitled to credit
for incorruptibility, for consistency
and persistency of purpose, and to
admiration for energy and force of character.
His mind was not bril-
liant, but legal and judicial. His power
of analysis was remarkable.
His reasoning clear and logical, and his
conclusions convincing. He was
listened to and followed, and elected,
because of the belief that he was
a safe guide. In sentiment and speech he
lacked descriptive power,
humor, wit, geniality and pathos. Like
Brutus, he "only spoke right
on." He was cool, judicious,
steadfast. He was a man of indomitable
industry, he ever worshipped at the shrine
of work. He succeeded more
by close application than all else. And
therein is he a model to all as-
pirants for success. As a man of affairs
he had few equals, not only
as to his public position, but his
private acquirements. He had New
England thrift and western speculative
enterprise. Rare combination.
Though always in public office, with its
incessant and innumerable and
exacting duties, he still kept a keen
eye on the "main chance." The
honesty and loyalty of his public acts
and purity of his private life from be-
ginning to end were never questioned,
and he died a millionaire. He stren-
uously adopted the advice of Iago,
"put money in thy purse." Perhaps no
one in his elevation had less need for
pelf; with no children, no vices, great
or small, habits the simplest and mode
of life painfully plain. In youth
it might be said he was an aristocratic
proletariat. In later life he became
a democratic plutocrat. He was never a
demagogue. He was a natural
financier. Monetary matters were the
normal subjects of his mind and
study, the favorite field of his thought
and action, as military affairs were
of his distinguished brother, William
Tecumseh Sherman, who next to
Grant, was our greatest soldier
chieftain. Mr. Sherman died October 22,
1899, in his home at Washington, D. C.
He was buried at Mansfield,
Ohio.
Comments, Notes and Reviews. 375
Mr. Sherman was one of the first members of the Ohio State Archaeo- logical and Historical Society, and for some years took a personal in- terest in its proceedings. For ten years past, and at the time of his death, he was one of the trustees.
JOHN BROWN-A REVIEW. In American history there are few, if any characters, the story of whose life is so erratic, dramatic or so tragic, as that of John Brown. As |
|
he spent his youth and many years of his manhood as a resident of Ohio (see account of the Hudson Centennial in the previous pages of this Quarterly) he is a proper subject for our consideration. His life has recently been written and published by William Elsey Connelley, a life member of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, the author of several valuable historical works, now a resi- dent of Topeka, Kansas, where he improved un- usual facilities for obtaining accurate knowledge concerning the career of John Brown in that state. Indeed, the work of Mr. Connelley deals mostly with the Kansas portion of Brown's efforts in behalf of freedom for the slaves. The author rather slight- |
ingly passes over the youth and formative period of John Brown, but does ampler justice to the latter part of his life. John Brown was the direct de- scendant of Peter Brown, an English Puritan, and one of the Pilgrim fathers, in the Mayflower, who landed on Plymouth Rock, December 22, 1620. Owen Brown, father of the famous John, was a Revolu- tionary hero, a tanner and a shoemaker, and lived at Torrington, Con- necticut, where John was born, May 9, 1800. In the year 1805 the family moved to Hudson, Ohio. Owen Brown was an ardent aboli- tionist, and religiously encouraged similar sentiments in the minds of his children. John was taught from earliest childhood to "fear God and keep his commandments." He received no more education than fell to the lot of the average boy on the pioneer man's frontier, where schools were few and necessarily inferior. He had an exceptionally studious and reflective disposition. He read such books as came within his reach. They were mainly "AEsop's Fables," "Life of Franklin," "Pilgrim's Pro- gress," "Plutarch Lives," "Life of Oliver Cromwell," "Baxter's Saint's Rest," Dr. Watts' Hymns, and above all and constantly the Bible. He learned little at school but something of mathematics and the principles of surveying. He never became much of a scholar. Thoreau has quaintly said of him, "He did not go to Harvard. He was not fed on the pap that is there furnished. As he phrased it, 'I know no more grammar than one of your calves,' but he went to the University of the West, |
376 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
where he studied the science of liberty;
and, having taken his degree,
he finally commenced the public practice
of humanity in Kansas. Such
were his humanities--he would have left
a Greek accent slanting the
wrong way and righted up a falling
man." He swore eternal enmity to
slavery. About 1837 he assembled his
household and devoutly laid be-
fore them the burden of his heart. The
time for action had come.
Henceforth he was to enlist in the war
for freedom. His first soldiers
were to be, like the converts of
Mahomet, members of his own family.
Three of his sons, then old enough,
consecrated themselves to this work
by prayer. In this service the father
was seen for the first time to
kneel in supplication, his uniform
attitude previously having been that
of "standing with reverence before
the throne." We can not follow in
detail the incidents of Brown's life as
narrated by Mr. Connelley. He
moved many times from Ohio to the East
and back, and was engaged
in many vocations. He was not a success
in business enterprises. He
failed several times, often at the
expense of his friends. His honesty
of purpose and integrity of conduct were
not questioned. In 1840 he
was residing at Hudson, Ohio, and
engaged in the wool business. In
1842 he moved to Richfield, where he was
involved in transactions with
Heman Oviatt (see Hudson Centennial,
ante). Mr. Oviatt and others
became his sureties and were obliged to
pay many thousand dollars in
his behalf. This led to a law suit,
which is fully reported in Oviatt
v. Brown, 14 Ohio, 286. Yet Mr. Oviatt,
grandfather of the writer of
this incident, wrote subsequently,
"from boyhood I have known him
(John Brown), I have known him through
manhood; and through life
he has been distinguished for his
truthfulness and integrity; he has
ever been esteemed, by those who have
known him, as a very conscien-
tious man."
In 1844 John Brown moved to Akron, Ohio;
in 1846 he went to
Springfield, Massachusetts. He then made
a tour through Europe, in
which he particularly studied the battle
fields of Napoleon. In 1849 he
moved to North Elba, Essex county, New
York. It was about this
time that Gerritt Smith offered to
colored settlers his wild lands in that
district of the Adirondack wilderness.
Many accepted his offer. John
Brown offered to live with them and aid
them. It is well known this
experiment was a failure on the part of
the negroes, though through
no fault of John Brown's. Then came May
25, 1854, the passage by
Congress of the bill providing for the
organization of the Kansas and
Nebraska territories and the repeal of
the Missouri compromise (1820).
The existence of slavery was left to the
decision of the people of the
state when admitted. Emigrants from
Arkansas and Missouri imme-
diately began to move into Kansas to
hold the state for the pro-slavery
party. On the other hand the
Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society sent
out colonies to keep slavery out of the
state. The "Kansas struggle"
then began. All the details of this
political discussion and warlike dis-
turbance are fully told by Mr.
Connelley, and this portion of his book
Comments, Notes and Reviews. 377
is a well digested resume of that
important period. In 1854 the four
eldest sons of John Brown, named John,
Jr., Jason, Owen and Fred-
erick, all children by his first wife,
then living in Ohio, determined to
move to Kansas. The removal, with two
other sons and a son-in-law,
was completed in 1855. The family
settled near the Pottawattomie,
a little stream in southern Kansas, in
Lykins county, about eight miles
distant from the site of Ossawattomie,
which the deeds of his family, as
Redpath says, subsequently converted
into "classic ground." We can not
dwell upon the exciting scenes that
occurred in "Bleeding Kansas." Brown
and his brave boys did not shrink from
the conflict. In 1857 Brown,
carrying with him the memory of his son
Frederick, murdered at Ossa-
wattomie, returned to his home at Elba.
But he immediately began a
crusade throughout New England in behalf
of abolition, and in prep--
aration for his contemplated
insurrection at Harper's Ferry. This pro-
ject was put in operation in the summer
of 1859, which he spent in mov-
ing the arms and other articles from
Ohio and various points to the
vicinity of Harper's Ferry. Early in
July he located with his little force,
in disguise as farmers, upon the farm of
Dr. Booth Kennedy, some five
miles from Harper's Ferry, on the
Maryland side of the Potomac. The
little band at the Kennedy farm grew
slowly, until it finally consisted
of twenty-three, three of whom were his
sons. They had adopted (earlier
in the year in Chatham, Canada) a
provisional government with a con-
stitution. In compliance with this
pretentious organization Captain John
Brown was made commander-in-chief; John
Henry Kagi, secretary of
war; Richard Realf, secretary of state,
and Owen Brown, treasurer.
This government was to be proclaimed
throughout the country round
about, with the idea that accessions
would swarm to it from the slaves
and freedom sympathizers. A guerilla
warfare was to be waged against
the slave owners; slaves were to be
liberated, armed and turned against
their masters, etc. On Sunday, October
16 (1859) the little band, under
cover of evening darkness, proceeded to
Harper's Ferry, and during the
night took possession of the armory by
forcing the door and overcoming
the watchman. By one o'clock on the
morning of the 17th, Brown had
complete possession of Harper's Ferry,
and all the arms of the Federal
government, then at that place. The
subsequent events are well known
history; how Colonel Robert E. Lee, of
the U. S. army, was sent from
Washington to suppress the invaders; how
the door was forced, and
Brown overcome with saber cuts and
bayonet thrusts; his son Watson
wounded and his son Oliver killed. Then
followed the tragic and far-
cical trial at Charlestown, seat of
Jefferson county, Virginia (now West
Virginia), and the final scene at the
scaffold, December 2, 1859. The
north stood aghast. The slave power with
malignant brutality had
crushed John Brown and his movement, but
they had stirred the North
and aroused the slumbering sentiment
that burst forth in the flames of
Civil War. Mrs. D. A. Randall, daughter
of Heman Oviatt, the mother
of the writer of this review, was
throughout life an intimate personal
378 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
friend and ardent admirer of and deep
sympathizer with John Brown.
He wrote her a letter the night before
his execution, expressing his
appreciation of her long friendship and
his perfect resignation to his
fate. Well do we remember, though at
that time but a child of eight,
how on the morning of December 2, after
the breakfast meal, that
mother at the morning invocation, broke
forth in a fervent prayer that
Divine Providence would sustain John
Brown in the ordeal through
which, in a few hours he was to pass,
and bless the cause for which he
was to die. Thousands of such petitions
ascended throughout the land.
John Brown's execution was a triumphant
apotheosis. He suffered
death upon the scaffold. It was an
unparalleled exhibition of consecrated
heroism in behalf of the cause of
freedom. His soul went marching on
and led the armies of liberty and
humanity to the sublimest victory
the world has ever witnessed.
John Brown is one of the great
characters of history. He had a
prophetic soul, the fortitude and faith
of the Christian martyrs. His
life and deeds will shine brighter and
brighter throughout the ages. The
story of his life, with all its
undercurrents and its subtle influences and
tendencies, has not yet been told. Mr.
Von Hoist has touched upon
the philisophy of his life. Mr. Sanborn
has thrown much light upon
the events of his career. Mr. Redpath
has concisely related the main
facts. But the proper historian of John
Brown has not yet appeared, per-
haps he is not yet born. Mr. Connelley's
book admirably accomplishes
the purpose for which it was put forth.
It should be read by all students
of John Brown. It is published by Crane
& Co., Topeka, Kansas.
BURKE AARON HINSDALE.
Burke Aaron Hinsdale, born at Wadsworth,
Ohio, March 31, 1837,
died at Atlanta, Georgia, November 29,
1900. His ancestors were New
England Puritans. His parents came from
Connecticut to the Western
Reserve in 1812. Burke was raised upon
the farm. He had an irre-
sistible desire for scholarship. At the
age of sixteen he made his way
to Hiram Hill, where the Western Reserve
Eclectic Institute (afterwards
Hiram College) had been opened three
years before. For thirty years,
as student and professor, Mr. Hinsdale
was identified with this insti-
tution. Young Garfield was a fellow
student, and there sprang up be-
tween them a firm and sympathetic
friendship, broken only by the tragic
death of Garfield. Professor Hinsdale
was a close and accurate scholar.
Possessed of a remarkable memory and an
omniverous reader, he be-
came a man of most extensive and useful
information. He was a
natural educator. He became President of
Hiram College (1870), was
ordained to the Christian ministery. For
years associate editor of the
Christian Standard. His capacity for
work and powers of endurance,
almost incredible. He lectured,
preached, edited, talked and wrote books
Comments, Notes and Reviews. 379
to an astonishing extent. In 1882 he was
made superintendent of the
schools of Cleveland. He became famous
throughout the country as au-
thority upon the questions touching our
public schools, their manage-
ment, the courses of study, discipline
of the pupils and general training
of the youth. In 1888 he was called to
the chair of the Science and Art
of Teaching at the University of Michigan.
This position he filled with
great ability until the time of his
death. Some of his published works
are "The Genuineness and
Authenticity of the Gospels," "The Jewish
Christian Church,"
"Ecclesiastical Traditions," "Schools and Studies,"
"Campaign Text Book for 1880,"
"President Garfield and Education,"
"Garfield's Life and Works" (2
Vols.), "The Old Northwest," "The
American Government," "How to
Teach and Study History," "Jesus as
a Teacher," "Teaching the
Language Arts," "Studies in Education,"
"Civil Government of Ohio,"
"Life of Horace Mann," "The Art of
Study," "A History of the
University of Michigan." A monograph on
the "Training of Teachers"
which he wrote was awarded a medal at the
late Paris Exposition. Besides the above
he contributed extensively to
educational journals and reviews.
Several valuable articles in the early
numbers of the Ohio Archaeological and
Historical Publications, were
from his pen. He took a deep and
constant interest in this Society, and
only a short time before his death, did
the writer of these lines receive
a letter from Prof. Hinsdale concerning
some work he wished to do for us.
He was a veritable encyclopedia upon the
events of the early history of
Ohio. He received academic honors from
Williams College, Bethany Col-
lege, Hiram College, Ohio University and
Ohio State University. He
was a member of many educational,
historical and literary societies. He
was a most genial and companionable man;
a most entertaining con-
versationalist, brimming over with
information upon almost any topic.
The writer has spent many a delightful
hour in his company. He was
deep in sympathy with young men, their
struggles, their difficulties, their
aims, their triumphs. To his pupils he
was always warm-hearted, help-
ful and encouraging. He was the true
tutor, not only informing, but
inspiring. There are few whose lives are
so rounded out and so fruitful
as was that of Burke Aaron Hinsdale.
OUR SOCIETY LIBRARY is much enriched by
a complete set of the Old
South Leaflets. These leafllets are reprints of important original
papers
(lectures and essays), accompanied by
useful historical and bibliograph-
ical notes. They are edited by Edwin D.
Mead, the wellknown au-
thor and scholar. They are published
under the auspices of the Direc-
tors of the Old South Work, Old South
Meeting House, Boston, Mass.
These leaflets now embrace a hundred
different subjects, each one of them
of importance and interest in American
History, chiefly of the New Eng-
land pioneer period. They may be
obtained in single leafllets for five
380 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
cents each, or bound in volumes (4) at
$1.50
per volume. In these pub-
lications Mr. Edwin Mead is
accomplishing great good, not only in the
distribution of the very best historical
literature, but in creating an in-
terest in the chief events of our
country. Mr. Mead is especially en-
gaged in eliciting the attention of the
school children and young people
to American history. He has inaugurated
excursions of young people
from Boston to neighboring localities of
historic prominence. On these
excursions lectures or talks are given
concerning the point visited. Mr.
Mead thinks this would be an excellent
suggestion for our Society.
Certainly some very entertaining and
profitable trips could be made from
Columbus to points, near by, of great
archaeological and historic interest.
ONE of the most satisfactory little
volumes that has appeared as the
outcome of the sudden expansion of our
national territory and industrial
growth, and their number (volume) is
legion, is The Expansion of the
American People, by Edwin Erle Sparks, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of
American History in the University of
Chicago. Mr. Sparks is an Ohio
boy and a graduate of the 0. S. U. His
book is a very readable state-
ment of the various phases of our
national growth, such as: early ac-
cessions of territory, migration of New
England civilization across the
continent to the Pacific; the different
sorts of settlements as repre-
sented in the Puritan, the French,
German and Spanish colonizations:
their assimilation into the American
political and social life; the growth
and methods of communication,
transportation, and travel throughout
the country. His accounts of the formation
of the roadways, canals,
steam railroads, trolley lines, etc.,
are graphic and most valuable. It is
an excellent summary of what the
American people have done since the
discovery of the continent to the
acquisition of the Philippines. Mr.
Sparks has a most happy style, and while
being strictly historical and
being packed with facts, like sardines
in a box, his little book reads
like a romance. Published by Scott,
Foresman & Co., Chicago, Ill.
SPEAKING of expansion reminds us that
our Society is not behind
in that feature of the times. Since the
issue of our October Quarterly
(1900) the Society has added greatly to
its possessions by the acquisi-
iton of Serpent Mound and Park, located
in Adams county, Ohio, some
six miles from the little station of
Peebles. This property is some sixty
acres in extent, embracing the hill
which is crowned by that most re-
nowned relic of the Mound Builders,
known as the Serpent. Complete
descriptions of this unique memorial of
a prehistoric race will be found
in Volume I, page 187, of our Society's
publications. We were enabled
to secure this through the efforts of
Prof. F. W. Putnam, of
the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass. A
proper statement of the
Comments, Notes and
Reviews. 381
transfer of this property from its
former owners, the Trustees of Harvard
University, to our Society, will be made
in the Annual Report of the
Secretary of the Society, which appears
elsewhere in this number of the
Quarterly. Our Society therefore enters
the twentieth century with the
custodianship of the two most extensive
and rare earth remains extant
of those curious and obscure people
known as the Mound Builders.
Perhaps the twentieth century will
divulge to us some of the things we
have sought to know, but never learned,
concerning those races which
seem to have had remarkable success in
"covering their tracks." But
our archaeological explorers, in the
language of the frontiersman, will
continue "to camp on their
trail."
PROFESSOR J. FRANKLIN JAMESON, PH.
D., recently professor of his-
tory in Brown University, and now
professor of American History in
the Chicago University, and managing
editor for the past few years of THE
AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, is
responible for a "Dictionary of United
States History,", (1492-1899). Issued by the History Publishing Co.,
Boston, Mass. It consists of some seven
hundred and fifty pages, 7x91/2
(inches). Considering the centuries
covered and the conciseness of the
covering, it is a creditable work. Its
chief defect is in what it does not
do. Innumerable events and countless
personages, which deserve notice
in connection with American history, are
ignored, while many which
might be spared, comparatively speaking,
are given space. Some of the
paragraphs show haste and carelessness
in preparation. We do not sup-
pose that Prof. Jameson personally did
this work--such compilations
are usually produced by proxy. This
dictionary, however, is valuable as
a ready running index to the more
important subjects in United States
History. In the language of the street,
"it puts you on to what you want
to know." We commend the book to
those who want to know quickly who
is who and what is what, in United
States History. It is cheap and
convenient.
IF THERE is any one panacea for the ills
and evils of our nation, it is
universal education. Particularly is
this the remedial application for the
southern states. One of the best and
bravest institutions for this purpose
is Berea College, established at Berea,
Kentucky. It is a modest little
college in the midst of wild and
mountain surroundings. Its pupils are
mostly the untutored and almost
uncivilized productions of the primi-
tive mountain homes. As the writer heard
President Frost recently say,
in a public address, "It is a long
way from President McKinley to Abra-
ham Lincoln, but you may travel it by
going to the rural vicinage of
Berea." You may see life there
to-day precisely as it was in the boy-
hood of Abraham Lincoln. The Berea Quarterly is a modest
little
382 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.
pamphlet, setting forth the work of
Berea College, and telling much
of the history and romance of the
country in which it is located. We wish
every advocate of education might read
the little Berea Quarterly.
PUBLIC POLICY, "a medium for
diffusing correct economic instruc-
tion on questions of public
policy," comes to us each week and is one of
the most satisfactory publications of
its kind. It is replete with original
articles on the various topics of
political and social science, and reprints
of what is best in all the publications.
It is edited by Allen Ripley
Foote, who is the author of several
standard works on economical, and
particularly municipal topics. He has
made a thoughtful study of the
Ohio Municipal Code, prepared by the
State Commission, and rejected
by the Legislature, and has published
his considerations in a concise and
valuable pamphlet. Public Policy is
published at Chicago at $2.00 per year.
FOR COMPLIMENTARY notices
of our Quarterly, we make acknowl-
edgment to the Review of Reviews,
Book Reviews, The Chautauquan,
Public Policy, The Old North West,
The Outlook, Theologische Zeit-
blaetter, The Young People's Paper, and particularly to some of the daily
papers, the Evening Dispatch, Press
Post, Citizen, Cincinnati Enquirer,
Ohio State Journal, St. Louis Globe,
Sandusky Register, the Chillicothe
Advertiser and others.
WE ARE
in receipt of a brief booklet suggesting
to the little ones the
legend of Fort St. Clair, adjoining
Eaton, Preble county-a location
filled with historic interest and
romantic memories of early pioneer days.
The pamphlet is a sketchy, poetic
production by Mrs. S. E. Reynolds, of
Eaton, Ohio, Secretary of the National
Association of Ladies Naval Vet-
erans of U. S. A.
WE ACKNOWLEDGE
our indebtedness to Gen. A. V. Rice of the
U. S.
Census Bureau for valuable documents;
also to the Baker Art Gallery,
Columbus, for the photograph from life
of the Hon. John Sherman.
COMMENTS, NOTES AND REVIEWS. |
|
JOHN SHERMAN--A CHARACTERIZATION. One of the greatest of Ohio's sons, as well as one of the most prom- inent and influential of our National characters, has passed away in the |
|
|
served until his death, June 24, 1829. Judge Sherman left a widow, eleven children and no property. The children had to "shift for themselves." The school of life was their academy. They graduated with highest honors. After their father's death, John went to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, to live with a cousin. In 1837, at the age of fourteen, he obtained a position as rodsman on the government works on the Muskingum river, but after two years' service was dis- missed because of his open advocacy of the Whig party principles. He thus had an early taste of the uncertainty of office, and the despotic and arbitrary rule of the spoilsman. He then turned his attention to the law, went to Mansfield, took up his residence with his brother Charles, in whose office he pursued his legal studies and was admitted to the bar May 11, 1844. His public and political career began with his being a delegate from Ohio to the Whig National convention at Philadelphia in 1848, of which body he was secretary. In 1854 he was elected to (372) |