The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-10-23
Iohn sherman.

The death q John sherman leaves no
uvlEg American whose part IN the affair.
o. the nation was so important as Iha'
which he bore. He had been for years the
greatest o. living Americans, judged by
the influence exerted over the country. II
IS over forty years since his name became
familiar 20 his oountrymen In one of the
most exciting episodes OF our ante-bellum
history. when the Thirty-sixth Congress
convened in December, 1859, Representa-
tive John Sherman, OF Ohio, who had
served during the two preceding Con-
gtesses. received the Republican nomina-
ton for Speaker. Then ensued q bitter
struggle which lasted for several weeks,
and resulted IN she withdrawal of Sher-
man after the thirty-Hinth ballot, on jan
nary q. and the election on February ] OF
Ar. Pennington, OF Pennsylvania. The
defeat Of Mr.. Sherman-the only obstacle
10 sis election-was caused by the fact
that he had signed a paper which was
construed into an Endorsement OF Hinton
Rowan Helpers Impending Crisis" an
anu-slayery work 10 which the John
Brown raid on Harpers Ferry had impart-
ed a peculiar significance beyond the
ready conception Of any person whose
memory does not 20 back TO those ex-
citing times
From that time 10 the closing scene John
Sherman was continually in the public
eve. and not one OF his contemporaries in
civil life matched him in achievement.
The greatest event in our history, since
AppomattOX, was resumption, and the
glory of the former belongs not more TO
Grant than does the honor OF the latter 10
John Sherman. He prepared the way and
contaminated the act. Against as strenu-
Gus an opposition as any proposition ever
encountered, denounced by his politica.
opponents and but timidly supported by
his own party, he pushed on 10 a victory
without which the war for the Union
would have been but modified blessing.
There are few chapters in our national
history that will be more profoundly in
teresting TO coming generations than the
story Of our finances from the beginning
Of our great war until Secretary Sherman
had closed the yawning gap between
paper and specie. and, in so doing, placed
the nations credit on a solid basis. For
the splendid success Of refunding opera
lions and the rapid extinguishment of our
bonded debt between 1879 and 1894 no
other man deserves so much credit as the
great financler who accomplished resump-
ton.
Mr.. Sherman has been unfairly criticised
for the silver-purchase act which bore his
name. 1t was not his child any further
than he made it so by striking out its
worst features. 1t was his only by accept
ance as a compulsory choice OF evils. His
influence was given for its repeal much
more cheerfully than it had been for its
enactment.
OF Mr.. Sherman's Presidential aspira-
lions and disappointments We do not care
10 write, preferring 10 think and speak of
him as the great Secretary of the Treasury
and the illustriOus Senator. But ii seems
proper, II not imperative to give express
sion to the almost universal regret of his
countrymen that any political exigency in
his party should have been permitted 10
withdraw him from the Senate, the fitting
place for his great career to have ended,