The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-10
SHERMAN AND THE PRESIDENCY.
He Is Charged with a Change of FrOnt-His
Devotion to His Wife.

AFD $40
He Is Charged with a Change of FrOnt-His
Devotion to His Wife.
st. Louis letter in Whee, ing W va Intelligencer.
General Bacon is credited with saying that Old
Tecumseh has fully resolved to write no moro
letters declining or accepting the nomination
for the Presidency, and so he will leave the mat
ter wholly to the will Of the convention. When
shown what a Boston paper had 10 say about
the Generals unpopularity in New England,
Bacon became a little more emphatic, and said
that the statement that General Sherman Is SO
unpopular there that he could not get thirteen
votes in Massachusetts,, was simply a lie.
and when he was shown what the Rethetic
paster and clipper wrote about the General hay
ing no politics he simply smiled and said: He
has none of that fellows sort. But I'll wager
my head against u football that the fellow who
wrote that silly stuff was hiding behind a big
book in Harvard when Uncle Billy was pound
ing his way through to the sea. Why, sir
continued he warmly, 'last summer wherever
General Sherman went in New England he had
a perfect ovation
General Bacon belongs to General Sherman's
military family. and holds the most confidential
relations to the old hero. SO your correspondent
sought to get a letter from General Shermans
own hand through the courtesy of his old staff
officer. But it was no go. He said 1t was true
General Sherman had always been the most
approachable and most communicative and
talkatiye of our public men, free with the tongue
and pen, always and everywhere carrying his
lNhIb III liE0 dtlA W Ahh lOAhll ~ Nv III
had always spoken and written as the spirit
moved him, without hesitation or reserve. In
deed, on this question of the presidency the
General had several times written letters with
his own hand, saying he was not now and would
never be il candidate for the presidency before
any convention of the people. But it had become
a burden, an intolerable burden to him, to have
to repeat his views on this subject every
day, and some time ago the General declared
with peculiar emphasis that Re would never
name the subject again. And he will not.
When Uncle Billy says he won't there is an end
of it.
Wherever General Sherman goes he hears his
name mentioned in connection with the proSi-
dency every day, but he absolutely, and some
times quite grufiy, refuses to answer any ques-
ton put to him on this head. His mail-you
ought to see iti-almOst a bushel of letters every
day, from all parts of the country, and from all
sorts Of persons, begging and beseech1ng him to
say the word and he shall be President. He
simply directs them to be filed away, and never
answers one of them, nor permits his old staff
officer and friend to even acknowledge their re-
ceipU.
On the presidency he has suddenly become ST
lent as the tomb. Those nearest to him who
know him best shake their heads and wink
knowingly, as if to say. THAT means business
He used to converse freely with everybody about
the presidency, and was kept busy half the time
explaining that he would not accept the office,
until finally, sick and tired of it. and perhaps
for another reason not yet made public, be
bridled his garrulOus tongue, threw away his
voluble old pen, and became. mirabile dictu! a
candidate in earnest, without knowing it and
without saying sol
That General Sherman's reticence now simply
means that he is a candidate for the presidency
requires no other proof. Here there is no man
ner of doubt about it at all. His letters--and |
know-are not from Republicans alone, nor all
from the North by any means. Persons high in
the councils of both parties, unknown to each
other, urge him to accept the great prize. He is
as popular with one party as with the other, be
cause he never made stump speeches for either,
and never voted but once in his life, and that
time for Breckenridge, in 1860. He has the least
political record, so called, of any man who can
be named for the great office. But the soldiers
literally lombard the old fellow with earnest let
tiers begging him to become a candidate and as
surfing him of the vote of every man who wore
the blue. His old foes at the South declare their
confidence in his integrity and patriotism, and
are perhaps the most earnest and demonstrative
of all in their appeals to him to enter the lists for
the presidency.
1t is said the old fellow never growls or swears
audibly at least, while going through his mail
and newspaper clippings and marked para
graphs, except when some fling at the Catholi-
cism of his wife is seen, or when any reference
whatever, however kindly, is made to her relig-
ion. Not that he has any religion Of his own,
but he regards his wifes religion, as indeed ii is,
'nobody's business And thereby hangs a tale.
1t is well known indeed here that but foI that
General Sherman would have long since settled
all this talk about his running for the presidency
" oNlh q AlttAt III uliiliNt1hdblC
and emphatic utterance as should have rendered
it impossible TO have ever named him in print
again in connection with the presidency. But
this nettles the old fellow. Some Of the pleasant
photographers do not know how old Tecumseh
wOrships his good wife.
A friend of his is reported to have said to him
one day: General, if it were not that your wife
is a Catholic nothing could keep you out of the
White House. He turned around livid with sup
pressed rage, and, bringinghis old iron fist down on
the desk before him, exclaimed in thunder tones:
The - you say! Yes, and if it were not that
my wife is a Catholic and has heen placarded all
over the country on account of it l would never
accept the Office either. 1t may become neces-
sary to show these political dudes that | can get
there just as we'll with a Catholic wife as if she
were a Methodist. If they bother me much | will
show the - whelps what | can do. The same
dumbheads and scandalmongers called me crazy
after Shiloh, and predicted that l would got used
up between Atlanta and the sea; but l got there,
- them!'
1t is true, certainly, that there is a strong feel
ing i'll many quarters that there is the rub with
Sherman, If any one thing in this world more
than another is sacred to him it is the happiness
of his excellent wife. Retiring and modest her
self, to a fault, stunning publicity, doing her
aims before God rather than before men. a de-
vout Christian woman, she is the one especial
idol of his heart, and anything that reflects upon
her in any way touches the old fellow TO the
quick.
For the bravest are the ter derest,
The loving are the daring.
Within a limited circle here it is well known
that this is Shermans tender spot. He is easily
touched there. And it is more than half wills
pered that his suddenly assumed reticence, so
foreign to his temperament and habits, grows
entirely out of this. Here, be that as it may,
on this very account. you will find Democrats
waiting with anxiety to see what treatment the
good old fellow will receive at the hands of the
Republicans, determined if he is snubbed there.
as they confidently predict he will be, to rush his
name into the Democratic convention and nom
mate him anyhow, with the perfect assurance
that he will be elected.