The Sauk Centre herald., 1899-03-23
A DISTINGUISHED CAREER.

& FarlS has stopped.
A DISTINGUISHED CAREER.
Brief Biography of One of the Foremost
Men of His Time.
The passing of John Sherman removed
from the public stage about the last of
those towering figures whose public lives,
beginning with the civil war and covering
period of the last 40 years, were inter-
woven with the great events of that epoch.
As his illustrious brother, William Te-
cumseh, shared with Grant and Sheridan
the highest place among the military he
roes of the generation, so, too John
d. Sherman stood in civic life along
with Seward, Sumner Evarts, Blaine,
and that coterie of intellectual giants of
war and reconstruction days. Always a
leader, twice a member of the cabinet,
first as head of the treasury and then of
state affairs, three times candidate for
the Republican nomination for the presi-
dency and for years one of the great
creative forces in congress, his name was
identified with the laws, the law making
and the political struggles which engaged
attention for almost half century Few
men had more continuous public service
in such diversity of fields and in all of
them his work was conspicuous.
John Sherman was born in Lancaster,
O., May 10, 1928, three years after the
birth of his brother, William Tecumseh.
They came of sturdy ancestors, tracing
their lineage back through Roger Sher-
man, one of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence to the Shermans who
came over shortly after the landing of
the Pilgrims. The father was lawyer
~xf IN Ohio ba iy LOT
life to be Judge Of the supreme court
When he died, in 1929, the large family
of boys were left with scanty support
and were adopted by relatives
William T. went with Thomas Ewing,
who shaped his career as a soldier, while
John went with an older brother, Charles,
at Mansfield and took up the study Of
law which in turn took him into the field
of politics and public life. His first pub
lie service was in 1s4S when he was dele
gate to the Whig convention at Philadel-
phia which nominated Zachary Taylor for
the presidency. Again in 90 he was a
delegate to Baltimore when Winfield
Scott was nominated for the presidency
In those early days his characteristics
of caution and conservatism had marked
him as safe man among the many who
were wrought to excitement and emotion
by the events leading mp to the war.
These characteristics secured for him his
first election to congress.
Recame a Leader at Once.
He was elected to the Thirty-fourth
congress and took his seat Dec 3, 1865. A
momentous period was just then unfold
ing and he came upon the scene when just
such men of ability and courage were
needed The attempts to repeal the Mis-.
souri, compromise the breads Scott decis-
ion, the fugitive slave law, the spread of
abolition sentiment and the lowering
clouds of civil conflict gave evidence
that the very existence of the republic was
at stake Amid such impressive condi-
tions Sherman at once came to the front
as one of the leaders of legislative action.
His prominence began when the speaker,
Nathaniel P. Banks, appointed him on
the committee to investigate the ruffian-
ism in bleeding Kansas"
He was acting chairman during the in
quiry and the report he made was the
basis for the presidential canvas of 1876.
At the end of the second term in the con-
gress he was recognized as the foremost
man in the house of representatives He
was a candidate for speaker, coming
within three votes of that position. His
coming chairman of the committee on
ways and means. Here for the first time
his peculiar genius for finance showed it.
self. The finances of the country were
sadly crippled, members of congress were
not receiving their pay. The first step
was in securing the passage OF the bill
authorizing the treasury notes of 1860.
Became q Senator In 1861.
-
signed his seat as senator from Ohio and
( Sherman was elected to his place, enter
( ing the senate for the first time on March
q, 1851 His congressional fame had pre-
ceded him and he at once took the same
rank in the upper branch as he had in the
lower His service was continuous until
1873 most of the time us chairman of the
/ finance committee in which position he
wrote many of those far reaching meas.
ures of finance with which he was identi-
/ fed. The suspension of specie payment
occurred in 1862, necessitating the issue
/ Of United States notes. He largely car
2k bed this measure through and was also
the defender of the legal tender feature of
th sse notes which excited wide differences
in and out of congress Following this
he devised the plan for resuming specie
lpayment and practically framed the bill
BY which resumption was to occur on
Jan. /, 1879.
When Hayes became president Sherman
entered the treasury and there. as execl-
tive officer, had had an opportunity to ex-
ecute the plan of specie payment which
he had previously placed on the statute
books
In 1884 and in 1898 he was candidate for
the Republican presidential nomination,
but was not ominated.
He was returned to the senate in 1881.