St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-12-17
SENATOR JOHN SHERMAN.
His CRIES and His virtues.

SENATOR JOHN SHERMAN.
His Griefs and His Virtues.
The republican senators have finally
made John Sherman president of that
body 1t ought to have been done
years ago, but jealousy and personal
antagonisms have kept him out of it
until now. And even last week he
was not allowed to get it gracefully,
but Logan's name was thrust in first,
and he was given chance to decline
it, just to please his vanity, and with
out regard to Sherman's feelings. SEN
ator Hoar told me last winter that he
considered Sherman perhaps the wis
est man in the senate, and he is prob
ably right. Sherman was leading
man in the republican party before
any other of the present senators was
heard of in prominent position. AS
long ago as 1850 he was the republican
candidate for speaker of the house, and
of all his party associates then only
Henry l.. Dawes, Charles FL. Van Wyck
and Justin S. Morrill,, all in the senate,
remain in congress. But they reached
the upper house long after him, and
they have never attained the national
prominence that he has held since the
early days of the war. He is the only
senator who entered that body on the
day that Lincoln was inaugurated, for
Edmunds who is next in seniority, did
not appear in Washington until five
years later. This ablest secretary of
the treasury has been snubbed for four
years past in way that last winter
his patience would no longer bear, and
he openly rebelled. Now, his COM
plant is acknowledged and he is paci-
fed with the presidency of the senate,
a position he ought to have received
before, but which was refused two
years ago after he had been deliberate
ly promised it.
When William P. Fessenden left the
head of the senate finance committee
for the treasury department, on his re-
turn, Sherman, who had succeeded to
the craftsmanship, gracefully withdrew
in Fessenden's favor, and resumed his
former position. But Sherman was
not treated that way, for Senator Nor
rill absolutely refused to yield for him,
and he became second, where he had
been first. This was a cruel cut to
him. But he acted handsomely about
it and said he would take the chair
manship of the foreign affairs commit
tee He had served upon it for years.
To his surprise, the caucus blandly set
him aside and put in the place the Cal
ifornia millionaire, Miller, for what
reason was never explained. This
touched Sherman again, but he was
pacified by the direct promise that he
should be president pro tenn. in place
of Mr.. Edmunds, who had announced
his wish to yield the place. But Sher-
man and Edmunds have never loved
each other. So when the senators met
in caucus, what was Sherman's sur
prise to hear Philetus Sawyer of Wis
cOnsin come putting in and saying that
he had just been authorized to say
for Edmunds that if the senators wish
ed him to continue in the chair he
would do so. Whether this was inno-
cence or craft on the Vermont senator's
part | do not know, but after Sawyer
made his statement and nominated Ed
munds none of the others dared to say
a word of the agreement that had been
entered into in Sherman's behalf.
Without a word 80 senator's, who went
in to vote for him, nominated Ed
munds.
BY this time Sherman was very an
CRY. He declared that he had been
put off too long in order to prefer the
two senators from Vermont, and that
the pledges made to him had been out
rageously violated. In caucus after
caucus it was tried to pacify him. His
associates promised him that some
thing should be done this winter if he
would keep quiet until now. 70 all
these appeals he replied that he was
tired of waiting, and the result, as you
remember, was that one day last win
ter he rose in his place and refused to
serve any longer on the finance COM
mittee. On the open floor they asked
him to change his mind and he refus-
ed. But it was not thought wise to
put any one in his place, which re-
mains untitled to-day. All these con-
sideratiOns made Mr.. Sherman's assO-
ciates feel that they owed it to him to
make him president of the senate, but
his friends we're again delinquent in
allowing half the satisfaction of it to
be taken away, whom Logan was given
an opportunity to decline it. But LO-
gan had such active manipulatOrs as
Hale and Plumb working for him, and
on their assurance that he would de-
cline it, the farce of rendering it to
him was enacted.
Sherman has his faults, but he is a
wonderful man. l do not know anoth-
er who has so well in hand the various
interests of the government or who has
done so much in shaping practical leg
islatiOn. He looks, with the exception
of his hair, just the same as he did
when the war broke out, and his tall,
thin wiry figure seems strong for 20
years to come. He is growing more
sOciable as he gets older. Nothing
could be pleasanter than his talk when
he chooses to be gay. He has a great
intimacy with Senator HOar, and
another with William M. Evarts, which
dates back to the time when they were
together in Hayes cabinet. He and
his brother, the general, are very I'M
like, and while the general is regarded
as in some ways very erratic, that
word never could be applied to John.
Indeed, at least twice during the war,
the general would have been ordered
to leave his command and put on per-
manent waiting orders had it not been
for the influence of John, who was then
a senator and very near to Lincoln.
The general would certainly have
found himself in box for his unsol-
dier-like treatment of Stanton at the
time of the great review after the war,
if solemn committee of senator's, ar
ranged by the brother, had not waited
on johnson and told him that such an
action would precipitate quarrel
Washington Dispatch to Springfield
Republican,.
A Missionary Romance.