Ohio History Journal

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COMMENTS, NOTES AND REVIEWS

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

person of John Sherman. He belonged to

a distinguished family. America has pro-

duced families no less illustrious than

those of old England or the Continental

countries. But America's families are

eminent through the law of heredity, and

not the law   of patent nobility.  The

Adamses and Washburns, the Harrisons,

the Bayards and the Shermans are not-

able examples of this law.

John Sherman was born at Lancas-

ter, Ohio, May 10, 1823. He was de-

scended from a long line of Puritan an-

cestors in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

His father, Charles Robert Sherman, was

a man of great legal ability and acumen.

He was elected by the legislature to the

Supreme Court of Ohio in 1823, and

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

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