Ohio History Journal

JOHN SHERMAN.     GEORGE U. HARN. [Mr. Harn is a native Ohioan, having been born at Wooster where he was trained in the printing and journalistic profession. When a mere lad he became the Columbus correspondent for the Cincinnati Times- Chronicle, now the Times-Star. Later he became one of the owners of the Mansfield Herald, with the business and editorial control of which he was connected for many years. Under President McKinley Mr. Harn was agent of the United States Internal Revenue Commission in Ohio and several southern states. Early in life Mr. Harn became acquainted with John Sherman, this acquaintance grew into an intimate friendship that lasted till the death of the Senator. Mr. Ham's article is unique in manner and gives some interesting side-lights upon the character of the great statesman and financier.--EDITOR.] John Sherman was a Senator in Congress a longer time than any other person. He was elected to the Senate a greater num-

ber of times than any other person.  Without excepting Thomas Hart Benton, he was a  member of the senate longer than any other person. Benton was elected five con- secutive times, but served a few days less than thirty years. Sherman was in at- tendance at the sessions of the Senate a greater number of days than any other per- son. He voted on a larger number of proposed federal laws than any other person. He attended the daily ses- sions of the upper chamber as dutifully as the ambitious

school boy attended school; his absence excited query and com- ment. (309)

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310      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

He was a representative in Congress under the administra-

tion of two presidents, Mr. Pierce and Mr. Buchanan; a Senator

under seven, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Garfield, Arthur, Cleve-

land and Harrison.

He was a candidate for public trust before the people four

times, always successful; before the General Assembly of his

native State six times, ever victorious. His long, eventful, useful

and distinguished career would have been endorsed by the

Legislature of Ohio by his election in 1898 to the Senate for the

seventh time.

As the nominee of his party he was never defeated.

*    *    *    *

John Sherman's paternal ancestors were public men, leaders

of the people, statesmen, jurists.

They came from England, from Essex, to Connecticut and

Massachusetts, long before liberty bell proclaimed the birth of

another nation. Taylor Sherman, his grandfather, was a lawyer

and a judge. Charles Robert Sherman, his father, followed in

his footsteps. And John, the brother of the great General, was a

common pleas judge, pro tempore, in northern Ohio, before he

had attained his twenty-eighth year of age.

Taylor Sherman was a native of Norwalk, Connecticut. His

wife, Elizabeth Stoddard, was a descendant of Anthony Stoddard,

who emigrated from England to Boston in 1639. She died in

Ohio in 1848.

Charles Robert Sherman, the father of John Sherman, was

born at Norwalk, Conn., studied law with his father, was ad-

mitted to the bar in 1810, and the same year married Mary Hoyt,

also of Norwalk, and a few months thereafter came to Ohio and

located at Lancaster, where John Sherman and all his brothers

and sisters, except the eldest, Charles T. Sherman, were born. He

was elected a Supreme Judge of the State of Ohio in January,

1823, when but thirty-five years old. He died suddenly at Le-

banon on the 24th of June, 1829, while holding a term of court,

aged forty-one years. He left a family of eleven children, the

youngest an infant a month old, the oldest, Charles T., aged

eighteen. Judge Sherman's household was in decidedly strait-

ened circumstances.

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John Sherman.                  311   Thomas Ewing, who lived at Lancaster, a distinguished citizen of the state, but not until two years later a member of the Senate, luckily, was a friend of the Shermans. He adopted the third son, William Tecumseh, and procured his appointment as a cadet at West Point. The eighth child, John, was six years old. A cousin of his father, named John Sherman, then recently married, a merchant at Mt. Vernon, took the fatherless boy home with him in 1831,

where he remained four years at school. At the age of twelve he returned to Lancaster and became a pupil for two years at Howe's academy, at the end of which time he was prepared to enter the sophomore class at college. But his mother was unable to gratify his ambition to acquire a thorough and systematic education, and in 1837 he was compelled to accept the position, tendered him, through the efforts of his brother Charles, by Colonel Curtis, of junior rodman on the Muskingum Canal improvement. In the following spring the officer in charge of the work at the station

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312      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

where the young man was employed resigned, and he was tem-

porarily placed in charge, assuming a grave responsibility grow-

ing out of the construction of a work which was to cost $300,000.

In the autumn of 1838 the Whig party was thrown out of

power. A new Board of Public Works took charge of the im-

provement. Young Sherman was 16 years old. He was a Whig.

His services were dispensed with. Andrew Jackson had given

way to Martin Van Buren the year before. The American doc-

trine that to the victors belong the spoils was enforced.

John Sherman began the study of law in the office of his

brother Charles T., at Mansfield, Ohio, when he was exactly 19

years old. He was admitted to practice May 11th, 1844, just

after attaining his majority.

Mansfield was a village of about 1,100 inhabitants, the seat

of Richland County, always reliably Democratic. The bar was

able and distinguished. Among its members were Thomas W.

Bartley, at that time Governor of Ohio, later a Judge of the

Supreme Court, who was succeeded in the gubernatorial chair by

his father, Mordecai Bartley; Jacob Brinkerhoff, a Judge of the

Supreme Court, and eminent as a member of Congress; and

others almost as well known.

On the list of law students were the names of William B.

Allison, the Senator from Iowa, and the late Samuel J. Kirk-

wood, a federal cabinet officer and Governor of the State of

Iowa.

During the ten years following young Sherman's admis-

sion to the bar he was active in the general practice as partner

of his brother Charles, and at the same time took a deep interest

in the political issues of the day. He found leisure, also, to en-

gage in several financial ventures not connected with the law.

One of them was the making and publication of a map of what

was then Richland County. This he compiled from observations,

his own surveys and search of the records. Many of the details,

such as the source and course of the streams, he personally veri-

fied. He took the drawing to Pittsburg and had it lithographed.

He expected great returns from its sales, as a well known de-

ceased railroad operator did from the sales of a rat-trap. The

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John Sherman.                    313

results were similar. That map is one of the rare relics of the

present day.

In 1848 he attended the Philadelphia convention as a dele-

gate from his Congressional District. When the convention was

being organized a member arose and said that there was a young

man present from a district so strongly Democratic that he could

never hope to get office unless the convention gave him one, and,

"I, therefore, move," he said, "that John Sherman, from 'the

Berks County District of Ohio, be made secretary of this con-

vention."

A delegate from farther West immediately jumped to his feet

and said that there was a young man present from the State of

Indiana in precisely the same situation, and,

"I move to amend so that Schuyler Colfax be made assistant

secretary of this convention."

Together, Sherman and Colfax walked up to the stand.

Mr. Sherman was elected a member of the House of Repre-

sentatives in October, 1854, when he was 31 years old. The

Thirteenth District was composed of the Counties of Erie, Huron,

Morrow and Richland. It had previously been represented by a

Democrat, Gen. William D. Lindsley, of Erie. At the election

of 1852 three tickets had been voted for. The convention which

nominated Sherman was known as the Anti-Nebraska conven-

tion. It was composed of members of the Democratic, the

Whig and the Free Soil parties. It was held at Wilson's hall, at

the village of Shelby. There were three leading candidates, Hon.

Joseph M. Root, of Erie, who had already served three terms in

the House, and subsequently served in the Ohio House of Repre-

sentatives; Gov. Tom Ford, and John Sherman, both of Richland.

A number of gentlemen, who subsequently became nationally

known, were delegates to the convention. Gen. John W. Sprague,

some years afterwards a potent factor in the politics of Washing-

ton territory, was a member. Great difficulty was experienced

in harmonizing the several elements, but the result finally was

the withdrawal of Ford, which cleared the atmosphere, and

brought about the nomination of Sherman.

At the election he received 8,617 votes, whereas Lindsley

got 5,974. It is noticeable that Erie, Huron and Morrow there-

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314      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   after remained in the Republican columns, while Richland then, as now, was one of the strongholds of Democracy. On July 13th, 1855, at Columbus, the first Ohio Republican convention was held. It nominated Salmon P. Chase for Gov- ernor. That was, substantially, the beginning of the Republican party of the nation. On May 28th, 1895, at Zanesville, another Republican con- vention was held. It endorsed William McKinley for President. John Sherman was president of the first, and president of the last.

Mr. Sherman took his seat in the House December 3rd, 1855. He forthwith became a leader in that body, and it was greatly through his influence that Gen. Banks was made Speaker of the Thirty-fourth Congress. Unexpectedly, in March of the year fol- lowing, he was appointed a member of the Kansas investigating committee. When he received the telegram advising him of his ap- pointment he was en route from Mansfield to Washington. With- out completing his journey he returned to his home, and a few hours afterward was on his way to Kansas. The committee heard testimony at Lawrence, Leavenworth, Lecompton and Topeka.

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John Sherman.                    315

 

Circumstances caused the writing of the report to devolve upon

Mr. Sherman, and the report, when made public, intensified the

antagonism in Congress, and was the basis of the Presidential

campaign of 1856. His experiences and observations in Kansas

fortified him in the position he had assumed on the paramount

questions of the day.

Mr. Sherman was nominated, without opposition, and elected

to Congress from the same district in 1856, 1858 and 1860. At

the close of his second term in a body then having 237 members,

a large majority of them being representative men, in all senses

of the word, he was recognized as the foremost man in the House.

The Thirty-sixth Congress began its first session amid the ex-

citement caused by the bold act of John Brown at Harper's Ferry.

Mr. Sherman was a candidate for speaker. After eight weeks'

struggle, when within three votes of election, he gave way and

Mr. Pennington, of New Jersey, was chosen. Helper's Impend-

ing Crisis was the cause of his defeat. He then became chair-

man of the Committee on Ways and Means.

In the autumn of 1860 Mr. Sherman had been elected to

Congress the fourth time, his fourth term extending from March,

1861, to March, 1863. William Dennison had been elected Gov-

ernor of Ohio to succeed Salmon P. Chase, and assumed the office

on January ₉th, 1860. In the same month, Mr. Chase, who had

been a Senator from Ohio from 1849 to 1855, had again been

elected to the Senate as the colleague of Benjamin F. Wade, to

succeed George E. Pugh, from the fourth of March, 1861. On

his inauguration President Lincoln appointed Chase his Secretary

of the Treasury. On the 12th of March, Governor Dennison

notified the Ohio General Assembly, still in session, of the resig-

nation of Chase as Senator, whereupon the Legislature pro-

ceeded to elect his successor.

Sherman remained at Washington. On the first day's bal-

loting it was found that he had a majority over Governor Den-

nison, Gen. Robert C. Schenck and John A. Bingham. The

caucus, however, was feverish. Without authority Sherman's

name was suddenly withdrawn, but almost immediately again

presented. He was finally chosen as the choice of the Republi-

cans. On the joint vote of the Assembly the vote stood: Sher-

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316      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

man, 76; William Kennon, Jr., 53 votes. Kennon had been a

member of Congress in 1847-9 from the Belmont County Dis-

trict.

Mr. Sherman took his seat in the Senate for the first time

on March 23rd, 1861. Thus he was in the same hour a member

of the House and a member of the Senate.

Subsequently Gen. Garfield became a Senator while a mem-

ber of the House, and President while a Senator.

On January 18th, 1866, Mr. Sherman was elected for six

years from March ₄th, 1867. Sherman had 91, and Allen G.

Thurman 41 votes.

In January, 1872, he was elected for six years from March

4th, 1873. Sherman had 73 votes, Gen. Geo. W. Morgan 59,

Gen. J. D. Cox 6, A. F. Perry I, Gen. R. C. Schenck I.

Mr. Sherman resigned the Senatorship March 5th, 1877, and

became Secretary of the Treasury in President Hayes' cabinet.

Hon. Stanley Mathews, Republican, was selected his successor

for the unexpired portion of the term.

Sherman was re-elected to the Senate for six years from the

4th of March, 1881; re-elected for six years from March 4th,

1887; and re-elected for six years from March 4th, 1893. His

last term would have expired March ₄th, 1899, and there has

been no good reason to believe he would not have been elected for

the seventh time, had the course of events been other than as they

occurred in 1897.

He, therefore, was elected to the House for eight years and

served about six; was a member of the cabinet four years; and

was elected to the Senate for 36 years and served 31 years, 11

months and 12 days. Counting the period he acted as Secretary

of State in President McKinley's cabinet, he was in public life in

four different offices almost 43 years.

Our hostile friends have repeatedly pointed out the undis-

puted fact that during a period of thirty years of stewardship in

the most dignified legislative body, his colleague, for more than

three-fourths of that time, had been a Democrat. When we

consider that the State of Ohio ten times in succession has cast,

except in 1892, when one of the 21 electors, James P. Seward,

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John Sherman.                    317

 

of Richland County, voted for Grover Cleveland, a solid Re-

publican electoral vote, this fact is the more singular.

When Mr. Sherman went to Washington as a Senator his

colleague was that other great man, Benjamin F. Wade, who was

thrice honored. In 1868 the Ohio Legislature was Democratic.

It elected Allen G. Thurman as Mr. Wade's successor. Six years

later, Mr. Thurman was re-elected. Then Hon. George H. Pen-

dleton, of Cincinnati; Hon. Henry B. Payne, of Cleveland, and

the Hon. Calvin S. Brice, of Lima, each serving a single term,

became the great financier's colleagues. And it was in the even-

ing of his life that for the first time, except in the case of Wade,

that his colleague was of the same political faith, namely, Joseph

Benson Foraker.

Looking backward, to the dawn of the century-what a

noble list of stalwart statesmen has the Heart of the Nation given

to the Senate.

With the exception of Judge Stanley Mathews, who

served out Mr. Sherman's term, while he was Secretary of the

Treasury, no other Republican, except Foraker, Hanna and

Dick, has represented Ohio in the Senate since Wade retired.

Senator Sherman enjoyed the most distinguished honors that

the House could confer, except that of Speaker; he had been

chairman of the most important committees in the Senate, as well

as President pro tempore; he was then at the head of the greatest

department of the government, as Secretary of the Treasury, a

post of more vital import to the whole people at that time than

that of premier. Therefore his ambition to end a long public

life as the chief magistrate of the nation was certainly not repre-

hensible. We are familiar with the result of that contest; with

the dramatic nomination, the election, and the untimely taking

off of the lamented Garfield.

His friends made a second effort in his behalf and failed.

From that day he put wholly out of his mind all Presidential

aspirations, yet there are not a few who will ever regret that he

was unsuccessful.

What might have been the course of events had he been

nominated in 1888?

In the light of events, it was clearly the mistake of Sher-

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318      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

man's life for him to accept a place in McKinley's cabinet. He

should have served out his term in the Senate and then retired.

I personally know that at least one close friend advised him to

that effect. From the moment he entered the cabinet his ir-

ritability was remarked by his life-long friends - by those who

had no favors to ask and by those who had. The position of chief

clerk to an aggressive executive could not be other than, to say

the least, irksome; in this case the more so because of the fact

that the latter had been inspired by the former, and, in a manner,

had fallen heir to his mantle. Sherman had always held that the

function of members of the cabinet was more than that of

supervising clerks, and his theory was illustrated when he served

as Secretary of the Treasury under President Hayes. In fact,

when Cleveland was President, Mr. Sherman one day remarked

to me that he would not act as a member of the cabinet under

Cleveland because the members were "mere clerks."

 

Throughout his life Mr. Sherman was able to recognize

faces, but often unable to recall names. Many who approached

him for favors which were not his to bestow, in the last days of

his greatness, seized upon this increasing failing and magnified it

into something worse, until the public grew to believe that he

was no longer the semblance of his earlier self. Up and until the

last he made no promises, outright or by inference, that he did

not keep. This rule now seems to be old-fashioned and out of

date.

Mr. Sherman's public life was consistent and pure. Most

public men find it necessary to modify their views as time passes.

His vote was found on the side of what was at the time at least

the plurality, and has since become the majority, on the great

questions that have been settled during the last five decades in

our country's history.

As far back as 1856, in a debate on the submarine telegraph,

opposing the granting of a monopoly to the corporation, he said:

"I can not agree that our government should be bound by

any contract with any private incorporated company for fifty

years."

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John Sherman.                    319

 

Forty years later his bill to regulate trusts voiced the same

sentiments.

While speaking on the tariff bill he said:

"The addition to the free list should be of articles not pro-

duced in this country, and whose free importation will not com-

pete in any way with the great interests of any section of this

country."

In his Zanesville speech, delivered in May, 1895, he iterated

his views thus:

"We prefer to tax foreign productions rather than our own.

We believe that the policy of protection should be extended to all

productions impartially, to labor on the farm as well as in the

workshops. We are opposed to the policy of protecting woolen

manufactures and admitting wool free."

He was always opposed to any form of internal taxation for

government purposes, except as a war measure: The pension list

is a legacy of war. Internal revenues should be especially de-

voted to the payment of pensions.

In 1862 he favored a war tax "upon consumption and pro-

duction rather than upon persons and property." In 1894 he had

not changed his mind, as is evidenced by his opposition to the

income tax.

*    *    *    *

In the spring of 1879, while Mr. Sherman was Secretary of

the Treasury, the Democratic press of Ohio, sought to influence

public sentiment with a view of accomplishing his nomination

for Governor of the State. At that time it was generally under-

stood, that he was a candidate for the presidency, and the object

of the movement was to check his growing national popularity

by an attempt, at least, to procure his defeat at the gubernatorial

elections.  Suddenly Mr. Sherman arrived at Mansfield. He

came alone, and unannounced. His family had departed a few

days prior for Europe.

His presence at his home quickly became known, and the

leading citizens, without regard to party, decided upon a sere-

nade.

About midday newspaper correspondents from nearby cities

dropped into Mansfield, among them a plenipotentiary from a

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320      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   leading Cincinnati journal, with whom the writer had some acquaintance. He wanted a verbatim report of the expected speech, but could not write stenography. Finally a shorthand writer in the person of a young man, the private secretary of a leading manufacturer, the late Michael D. Harter, was discovered and employed. At night-fall the band, followed and preceded, by hundreds of people, proceeded to Mr. Sherman's hotel. The committee on arrangements had procured a store box and placed it on the ban-

quette at the hotel, to be used as a speaking platform. Mean- time the stenographer had been stationed in the hallway of the ladies' entrance to the hotel, and the press congratulated itself that it had the affair well in hand. In answer to calls from the people Mr. Sherman soon ap- peared accompanied by a citizen, who mounted the improvised rostrum, and went through the formality of an introduction of our distinguished townsman. It was evident that the Secretary of the Treasury was more or less surprised, and greatly pleased, with the spontaneous and enthusiastic ovation.

• 12
 

John Sherman.                    321

 

He began his remarks thus:

"My Countrymen"-

It is noticeable in nearly all of Mr. Sherman's speeches from

the stump, that he used the words "my countrymen" when ad-

dressing his hearers. And then continued:

"I am very happy to be again in your midst, to see your

faces, and to greet you as friends. I never felt like making an

apology for coming before you until now. I found when I ar-

rived in my old home the papers said I came West seeking the

nomination for Governor. I came purely on private business, to

repair ruined fences, and look after impaired property," and then

he forthwith entered into an explanation of the financial policy

of the administration.

The speaking exercises having been finished, the correspond-

ents and the stenographer rushed to the telegraph office, where the

stenographer for an hour or more wrestled with his notes, and

at last announced that he was unable to intelligibly translate them,

whereupon the writer sat down, and with the help of those

present, recorded what the speaker had said. The phrase about

"repairing ruined fences" was pounced upon by the press of the

country, and to the present day it turns up constantly upon every

hand.

Mr. Sherman then told the literal truth. Fences were being

built on the Stewart farm, half a mile east of the town, a farm

inherited from her father by Mrs. Sherman, as well as on Mr.

Sherman's farm, now within the corporation limits, and now

mostly laid out in residence lots.

It may be interesting to follow the evolutions of this fence

repairing incident. A year later, on March 31st, 1880, when Mr.

Sherman's chances for the Presidential nomination were thought

to be good, on his annual return to his home, he was greeted by

perhaps ten thousand people, hundreds of them strangers, from

Ohio and other states. The event was grand and one long to be

remembered. He spoke on the same spot, and from a similarly

improvised platform. His opening remarks were as follows:

"Fellow Citizens and Fellow Townsmen: - I noticed in com-

ing here that some of the papers are discussing why I came to

Mansfield. When, a year ago, I visited you, I innocently said

Vol. XVII-21.

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322      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

I came to repair my fences. That was the simple truth; but

thanks to my very good friend here before me, Mr. Knight (his

farmer), my fences are in very good repair."

And they remained in good repair.

The writer is informed that Mr. Sherman recounts this in-

cident in his book. He never read the book and hence is not

posted on his version of the affair. The foregoing is a statement

of fact, which would be verified by the late Chauncey Newton,

were he alive.

This "political classicism," as Mr. Howells, of the Ashtabula

Sentinel, calls it, has become of world-wide note, and is used al-

most as frequently in Great Britain and elsewhere, especially

where English is spoken, as here.

*    *    *    *

One evening, years ago, I went up to the Sherman house on

an errand. I did not expect to meet strangers there. To my

surprise when ushered into the library I found a member of the

President's cabinet, a distinguished member of Congress, who

afterwards became the Governor of a great State, and later a still

more eminent national figure; the chairman of a State com-

mittee, who had won two victories; and a candidate on the

State ticket*. My impulse was to withdraw, but I was prevailed

upon to remain. The conversation, momentarily interrupted by

my entrance, was resumed, when I discovered the subject under

discussion was the selection of a State Executive Committee. It

had been customary in Ohio for years for the Republican State

convention to designate, by Congressional Districts, the several

members of the State Central Committee, and for the candidates

on the State ticket to submit to this committee a list of names

from which to select the Executive Committee.

The member of the cabinet proposed this name and that; the

chairman of the committee suggested this person and that person;

the candidate for a State office thought this gentleman and that

one especially available, and so on; and the gubernatorial aspirant

finally wanted to know what the functions of the Executive Com-

mittee were, anyway, which the cabinet officer explained. The

 

*Foster, McKinley, Hahn, etc.

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John Sherman.                    323

 

merits, and the demerits, of the several gentlemen whose names

had been proposed, their geographical location; their political

prestige, availability, fitness, and-so-forth, were pretty generally,

and unsparingly, and with the cheerful frankness said to be com-

mon at sewing circles, criticised and canvassed.

During all of this interesting four-cornered conversation the

host spoke scarcely a word. He smoked a pretty good cigar

and seemed to get a great deal of satisfaction out of it. They

all smoked, and they all talked - except the host.

Presently it seemingly suddenly dawned upon the subsequent

Governor and President that the head of the party of the State

had made no suggestions, whereupon he interrogatively said:

"Senator, by the way, you have proposed no one for this

committee. You, I presume, will be a candidate before the next

Legislature for election to the Senate. It is right, and proper,

that your wishes, as to the personnel of the committee, should be

considered. Who do you want to become members of it?"

The Senator replied:

"Oh, never mind about me. I have made it a rule during

my entire public career to never propose, or care, who should

serve on committees of this character. Besides that, my idea is

that we are about to try to elect a Legislature and a State ticket,

and not a United States Senator. The election of a Senator will

occur next January."

That was all.

The next day the opposition press contained scare headlines,

followed by columns of leaded type, graphically telling how John

Sherman had again thrown his opponents, and declaring that he

was again on top!

*    *    *    *

There seemed to exist between William Tecumseh, in the

family fondly called "Cump," up to the hour of his death, and

John, a stronger love than between the other brothers. This

was perhaps because the lines of these two men ran more in

similar orbits. From a very early time, from their struggling

boyhood days, they carried on a correspondence, down to the

death of the General, and the soldier was a guest at the home of

the statesman often, and as frequently as the public and private

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324      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

demands upon his time would permit. This correspondence,

through a period of more than a half century, has been preserved,

arranged in proper order, bound in book form, and was kept in a

fireproof vault at the Mansfield house, and a part of it only has

appeared in print.

General Sherman once said, in reply to a request to deliver

a lecture under the patronage of a lyceum bureau, that he would

not do so for a fee of a thousand dollars. The Senator was al-

ways of the same mind. While he had ever been ready to speak

for the benefit of his party, or to the veterans of the Sherman

brigade, an organization which he was chiefly instrumental in

raising and equipping at the breaking out of the war, and by

which he was honored annually by being elected its presiding

officer, the occasion cannot be called to mind on which he de-

livered a speech for pay, at least since he ceased the practice of

law prior to the beginning of the war.

*    *    *    *

John Sherman and Miss M. S. Cecilia Stewart were married

at Mansfield on the 31st of August, 1848. She was the only

child of the late Judge Stewart, of Mansfield, who immigrated to

Ohio from  Pennsylvania.  They never had children.   They

adopted a friendless little girl who grew to womanhood and was

married to an estimable gentleman at the Federal Capitol some

years since. There was seldom a day since they began house-

keeping when the home in Ohio, or that at Washington, was not

brightened by one or more of their numerous nephews or nieces.

Years ago Mrs. Gen. Miles and Mrs. Senator Don. Cameron,

daughters of Judge Charles T. Sherman, and later the General's

sons and daughters, or the children of Mr. Sherman's other sisters

and brothers, were always welcome.

Mrs. Sherman was the ideal wife of a great man. It cannot

be remembered that she ever interested herself to her husband's

detriment in affairs of State. She was a lady of rare accomplish-

ments, fortified with perhaps the longest, and, it may be said,

the most trying experience in public life covering the most excit-

ing period in our country's history. She was capable of filling

every social position. There were few ladies in the land better

qualified to perform the varied and manifold duties incumbent

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John Sherman.                    325

 

upon the wife of so distinguished a statesman. Her judgment

was always acute and accurate. Mr. and Mrs. Sherman for

nearly half a century were the closest of friends and companions.

She sanctioned what he approved; he was gratified with what she

enjoyed.

It is said that when she first went to Washington, shortly

after her marriage, that a lady of much social experience, the

wife of a Senator from Kentucky, solemnly warned her that if

she was seen constantly with her husband that the gossips would

certainly talk about her. Being young and of a retiring dis-

position, she felt it a great hardship that she could not enjoy the

society of her husband in public with impunity.

Mrs. Sherman's tastes were eminently domestic. She was a

thorough housewife. The details of her home were always her

personal care. Mrs. Sherman was a member of Grace Episcopal

church at Mansfield.

Mr. Sherman built his house at Mansfield in 1849, and re-

modeled it about thirty years afterward. It was a plain, sub-

stantial two-story brick edifice with a mansard roof, and had a

wide gallery at the main entrance, and was located near the cen-

ter of twenty-odd acres of land, surrounded by a fine forest, many

of the trees of which, particularly the buckeyes, having been

planted by Mr. Sherman himself. The house was built on per-

haps the highest ground in the city, on the most desirable resi-

dence street.

In the rear of the house was maintained a fine garden, and

extensive grapery and quite a large orchard. There was scarcely

a berry, fruit or vegetable, indigenous to the latitude of Ohio,

that was not grown on these grounds, as many of the noted men

of the country can testify from personal experience. Both Mr.

and Mrs. Sherman gave the garden, the vineyard and the

orchard their careful attention. In the summer, and the autumn,

the latter was especially busy "putting up" the harvest of the

vineyard and the orchard, and a generous quantity found its

way to the table of the house at Washington.

The grounds were one of the beauty spots of this section of

the Buckeye State. The city of Mansfield sets upon as many

gently rising hills as the Roman capital. The country round

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326      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

about is undulating and picturesque. When Mr. Sherman bought

that little plat of land it was half a mile in the country. Now

the city has grown nearly a mile beyond, to the margin of Sher-

man-Heineman park, a fifty acre breathing place presented to

the city of Mansfield jointly by Mr. Sherman and Mr. A. J.

Heineman. Across Park avenue west, up and down which

thoroughfare the electric cars now race, is the palatial home of

the widow of another man of national fame, the late Hon.

Michael D. Harter, once the champion of honest money in the

House of Representatives.

There were finer houses, more costly homes, but no nobler

grounds than those of the Shermans. And the people were even

welcome to enjoy them. Each year they were the scene of fetes

and gatherings for the benefit of the churches and the charities.

Presidents, governors, senators, past, present and future; plain

citizens, diplomats, editors, soldiers; politicians of high and

low degree, some bent on good, others on evil, have sat upon

the broad gallery.

Murat Halstead was caught one day in the garden eating

gooseberries. He explained that those berries were larger than

any raised in Europe and not so sour. A few days afterward,

Mr. Halstead's newspaper, in no ambiguous words, and in Hal-

stead's inimitable style, thundered forth the policy of the party.

Mansfield is certainly the highest city in the state. The

Sherman house was perhaps the most elevated residence in the

state. The town is located on the crest of the ridge which

stretches from the northeast corner southwesterly through Ohio.

Waters rising four or five miles west of the town flow into the

sea through Lake Erie, and those rising within the corporation

empty into the ocean by way of the Ohio and the Father of

Waters. The Sherman house was about 1450 above the sea,

1018 above the Ohio at Cincinnati, and 885 above Lake Erie.

The highest knobs in the state are in Logan county, 1540 feet

above the ocean, 1108 above the Ohio and 975 above the Lake,

and the next highest about six miles west of Mansfield, being

1475, 1043 and 910 feet respectively above the sea, the river and

the lake.

• 18
 

John Sherman.                    327

The heirs of Senator Sherman in 1904 demolished the house

and disposed of the real estate in the form of building lots.

*    *    *    *

John Sherman's stump speeches, as everybody knows, were

didactic. They usually read better than they sounded. Often

he did not readily bring forth the word he sought to utter. A

stranger listening to him for the first time, not informed of his

abilities, would imagine, at the beginning, that he was going

to fail. No one can justly claim for him the talent of the

forensic orator. However, as he advanced, he might become pa-

thetic, and often really eloquent. His speaking was not a physical

effort. His gestures were few. His vocabulary, to be under-

stood by the most common of the powerful average people.

does not require reference to the books. His hearers came for

instruction, not amusement. He seldom told an anecdote. The

attention of his audience was held solely because of the wisdom

that dropped from his lips. He always had the loyal support

of the middle classes, the well-to-do, the prosperous farmers, the

brain and sinew of the commonwealth. The frugal German-

American was ever his friend. They heard, they understood,

they acted.

All of his speeches were carefully prepared. They were

dictated to a stenographer, in ample time before the date of

delivery. I have had the pleasure of seeing a great many of

his speeches in the stenographer's long-hand after the author

had revised them. It was very rarely that he altered a phrase

or a word, either before the manuscript went to the printer or

at the time of delivery. He spoke the same speech he had com-

posed, almost word for word. It occurred more than once that

newspaper men sought to prove that he didn't say what he had

written. With the printed speech in hand they have followed him,

sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, and were

amazed at the accuracy of his memory

About twenty-five years ago, the beginning of the era of

wonderful modern journalism, the press associations began to

ask for advance copies of his key-notes. He then commenced

the practice of having them put into type a few days prior to

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328      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

their delivery. Since that this custom seems to have been gen-

erally adopted by public men.

After he became the most potent factor in the cabinet of

President Hayes, and it was understood that he was a candi-

date for nomination for the presidency, the leading and most

successful opposition newspaper in Ohio, failing to unearth

scandal with which to drag him down, began a crusade against

him on the frivolous score of selfishness. He was denounced

as an icicle, and branded as the incarnation of coldness. Every

man who met him can refute these charges. No newspaper

man ever approached him on a news errand and left him

chilled, unless he merited chilling. The truth is that Mr. Sher-

man was of easier access to the press and the people than,

perhaps, any other distinguished man at Washington.

Senator Sherman's campaign speeches often sparkled with

original axioms, simple and trenchant.  Once, after he had

made a noted effort, a gentleman compiled and brought to me

over half a hundred sentences of that character, but a small

per centum of which was made up of more than fifteen words.

Some of them were used as the mottoes of the campaign.

There are few great, men who can, or do, confine them-

selves to as limited a vocabulary when addressing the public.

This was one, doubtless, of the reasons for his popularity with

the average common people. They heard, or read; they under-

stood, they approved.

When it is remembered that his education in youth was

limited to about six years, in the schools of the frontier, and

that his learning was acquired chiefly by observation, reading,

and reflection, a study of this subject ought certainly to be

interesting.

To illustrate: His speech delivered at the Ohio Repub-

lican State Convention at Zanesville in May, 1895, the last

great effort meant to define the policy of the party, was brief -

composed, eliminating the proper nouns and figures, of about

sixteen hundred and thirty words. There were substantially

three subjects, with which he was more familiar than with any

other three questions, and with which no man in America was,

• 20
 

John Sherman.                    329   perhaps, more familiar, viz: a retrospect of his party's achieve- ments; the tariff question; the money issue. Break this speech into its component parts. We find he used 532 words to express the ideas evolved, employing each one an average of more than three times; and that a large per centum  of the 532 words were of the same root, varied as verbs, adverbs or nouns. More than one thousand of the words spoken were monosyllables, and over 350 were dissyllables. He employed no word beginning with J, H or Z, while K loaned him but one, Q two, Y only three, and V two; thus confining himself, almost exclusively, to words from  but 19 letters of the alphabet. He repeated the adjective "the" 145 times, the preposition "of" 109 times, the conjunction "and" 59 times, "in" 46 times, "is" 34 times, "a" 28, "we" 29, and so on. He employed 90 words twice, thirty-odd thrice, and a great many others oftener. On that occasion, at least, he was partial to the letters T and P, because he drew on the columns of the former for thirty to express 266 thoughts, and on the latter for 72 with which to voice 130. The ninth letter of the alphabet was uttered as a pronoun of the first person ten times, but not once egotistically, as the context clearly proves. It was not necessary, in order to understand Mr. Sherman's meaning, to refer to a glossary, or consult an up-to-date dialect lexicon. Every word of the speech can be found in the earliest English dictionary. Following is a complete alphabetical list of the words used in the Zanesville speech with the number of times used:

A. 60-and 28-a 15-all 11-as 8-are 7-at 4-an 4-any 3-action 2-also

2-alone 2-amount 2-adopt abroad act accomplished after additional admitting adopted ages

already always among ample announce annually anywhere another appeal applied articles

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330      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

ascending assigned assurance available   36 words used 173 times.   B. 11-be 9-but 9-by 3-been 3-before 3-believe 2-based 2-both 2-bi-metallic back bank battle bearer bearing belong beneficial beyond bands brothers bulk bullion   21 words used 56 times.   C. 5-country 4-candidate 4-coin 4-commercial 4-convention 3-can 3-change 2-coins 2-coinage 2-cheaper 2-could

2-contracted 2-chief 2-condition 2-credit 2-common 2-currency called cannot capital carefully carried carry cents choice cheapening civil citizens coined coining concert confer conferred confessedly confess conditions congratulate congress commerce commission commodities composed cooperate copy corner creed courage course court current   50 words used 80 times. D 2-debts 3-do

4-debt 2-duty 2-duties 2-did 2-during 2-dollar 2-dollars 2-declared 2-demand 2-domestic daily death dead declare degradation demanded denomination denounce designate deserving diminished discharged discipline disposed disturbed developed diversified demonetization   30 words used 57 times.   E. 5-every 3-each 2-either 3-equal equally equality effected enemies entirely elect elected election especially

• 22
 

John Sherman.                  331

erring ever exchange executive extended excess   20 words used 29 times.   F. 18-for 9-from 4-favor 2-faith 2-farm 2-first 2-forever 2-free 2-fail 2-fixed faithfully fall false farms favors fate fifty firm flag follow forty fourteen force foreign fractional friends fundamental   27 words used 62 times G. 11-great 8-gold 4-good

2-governor get generally gentlemen greatly   8 words used 33 times.   H. 16-have 7-has 6-had 4-honor 4-hope 3-high 2-highest 2-hearty 2-honestly hardship here home hotch-potch   13 words used 51 times. I. 46-in 34-is 16-it 10-I 7-if 7-its 3-international 3-industries 2-increase 2-indispensable 2-important 2-issues 2-into increases industry including indicate indivisible

influence intelligence intelligent interest interests impartial impartially importance impress invited   28 words used 151 times.   J. None. K. 2-kind   1 word used 2 times.   L. 3-labor 3-large 3-last 3-low 2-lowest 2-let larger largely lay lead legal life like limited limitation limits logical love   18 words used 28 times.

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332      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

M.   8-money 4-matters 4-metals 2-made 2-maintain 3-market 2-me 2-mankind 2-measured 3-more maintained maintaining make making many may men members means meet met metal measure mine minor most monometallic   27 words used 44 times.   N. 8-not 5-nations 4-now 3-notes 2-nation 2-nominate need next nearly new necessary

no nominally   14 words used 37 times.   0. 109-of 10-only 9-or 8-on 6-our 2-own 2-over 2-other 2-one 2-one-half 2-obligations 2-officers 2-old offers opinions opposed orphans ours outside   18 words used 164 times.   P. 13-party 10-policy 5-power 4-principles 4-productions 3-people 3-production 3-price 3-purchasing 3-pay 3-payments 3-public 2-plenty 2-produces

2-perform 2-preside 2-president 2-pension 2-platform 2-purpose 2-parts 2-par 2-present 2-prosperity 2-protection part partially passing peanuts pittance poverty prefer preserve pretense privileges principle parties paid patriotic pensioners planted powers precisely preserving prior produce past parity paper pathway performed portion praise prescribing preservation primary produces proper properly

• 24
 

John Sherman.                  333

promise promised promote propose proposition protecting protective provided provincial purchased purposes purchases   72 words used 130 times.   Q.   quantity quantities   2 words used 2 times.   R. 6-ratio 3-roll 2-redemption 2-repudiation rather rational redeemable reduced reliance repealed rest result revenue right rights reform resumption   17 words used 26 times.

S. 14-silver 4-should 4-standard 2-stand 2-selecting sacred sanction scheme section seek sentiment shrieks silent single slaves specie same stamp still stone subjects superior sums surviving 8-state 4-soldiers 4-such 2-small 2-support same say secure selection senator several since similar skilled spite so sound staple stood storms

success supplied supreme system   48 words used 84 times.   T.   145-the 28-to 14-this 11-that 11-them 9-their 8-those 6-they 5-than 5-tariff 2-there 2-these 2-then 2-transaction tax taxation today together taken tender temptations therefore thank think through time treat trust turning two   30 words used 266 times.

• 25
 

334      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

U. 5-upon 4-us 3-under 3-Union unabridged unblemished unskilled use united until universal utilized unquestioned urged   14 words used 25 times.   V. value various   2 words used 7 times.   W. 29-we 15-will 10-war 8-was 4-with 4-while 4-would 3-wants 3-wages 3-which

2-what 2-who 2-whole 2-world 2-wool 2-workshops waits want ways well weight were whether whose within whiskey wish wisdom widows worthy woolen workingman whoever   33 words used 112 times.   X. None.   Y. 11-you your years   3 words used 14 times.

z. None.   Proper Nouns.   Atlantic 2-American Australia Democrat 2-Democratic Europe 2-Grant Lincoln Mexico 2-McKinley North 6-Ohio Populists 12-Republican 5-Republicans 2-Sherman Sheridan South United States Wilderness   20 words used 45 times.   Figures. 1855 1873 1892 $50,000,000 6 words used 6 times.

NOTE--The figures to the left of words indicate the number of times they were used. The remaining words were used once only. *     *    *    * The story has been related many times at Mansfield by the old citizens that in early life he made a rule to lay aside out of his earnings $500 a year. No matter what his income

• 26
 

John Sherman.                     335

 

might be his expenditures were regulated accordingly. Thus

was laid the foundation of his competency. Those who were

best informed know that a political life, at least in the latter

part of it, had been a detriment to him, from a money-getting

standpoint. Twice he reluctantly became a candidate for re-

election to the Senate, and then only at the last hour, and be-

cause of the earnest urging on the part of leading citizens

throughout the land. In this day of frenzied office seeking this

may cause some to marvel, but it is nevertheless true.

When less than thirty years of age Mr. Sherman took a

deep interest in the projected Ohio railways, particularly those

subsequently built through the northern part of the state. At

his death he was actively interested in the Fort Wayne road.

Later in life, and when one of his terms as Senator was about

to expire, he was offered the presidency of one of the greatest

railway corporations in America, the Northern Pacific, at a

salary many times that of a United States Senator.

*    *    *     *

Mr. Sherman frequently told, with pleasure, of his first

meeting with Mr. Lincoln. It occurred at Willard's hotel in

the month of February, 1861. Mr. Sherman called upon the

president-elect immediately after his arrival. Lincoln grasped

his hand and said:

"So you are John Sherman?"

He inspected the tall Buckeye from crown to sole.

"Well, I'm taller than you, anyway; let's measure."

They got their backs together.  Mr. Sherman said that

Lincoln was considerably the taller.

*    *    *    *

After a score or more of years have matured my judgment,

I want to relate the following incident:

It happened one morning that I was in Mr. Sherman's K

street library at Washington, when a gentleman came in and

said:

"Senator, the President has sent William Howard Taft's

name to the Senate."*

*The office was that of Internal Revenue Collector.

• 27
 

336      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   With the impertinence of youth, I remarked, "Mr. Sherman, you would not have recommended Taft if he had not been the son of his father." Quickly, and heatedly, came the reply: "That is not so, Taft is a capable young man; he will make his mark."

• 28