The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-11-01
VICE PRESIDENT SHERMAN

Everybody will regret the death of
James schoolcraft Sherman, vice pres
Ident Of the United States, and candi-
date on the republican ticket for re-
election, He died at his home in
Utica, ". Y, Wednesday evening.
James Schoolcraft Sherman was
born in Utica on October "a, 1865. He
was married in 1881 to Carrie Bah
cock at East Orange, n. J. They have
three sons, Sheriff., Richard u. and
Thomas H., all living and in business
in Utica. He was an Elk, trustee of
Hamilton College, a member of the
Dutch Reformer church, member OF
many clubs and a business man of
wide interest.
He was the twenty-seventh vice
president of the United States and the
only one re-nominated. In nearly
quarter OF a century Of public life, he
was Jim" Sherman TO his intimates,
and probably half the nation referred
to him as Sunny Jim," a sobriquet he
earned as one well might imagine by
a never-failing, all-year-round sunny
disposition.
Sherman belonged to the school of
republicanism nowadays popularity
called regular" and he fought his po-
litical battles shoulder to shoulder
with men OF his faith without COM
promise or fiinching. Like every pub
lie man, he had critics, some bitter;
but he also had friends who were a
match for his enemies.
To the House of Representatives of
the -Fiftieth Congress, he came in the
winter of 1887, just passed his 27th
birthday, with the energy and opti-
mism OF youth, college bred from the
halls Of Hamilton which has given to
public life many other statesmen and
public figures, none without some
mark of distinction. He had been
elected mayor of Utica two years be-
fore. Like many others who came to
lead in the national Legislature, he
brought with him an education in law.
He was we'll born and well bred. His
father, Richard U. Sherman, was an
editor and public figure in New York
state
Two sessions of Congress found
Sherman defeated and out of office,
but not for long. Henry w. Bentley.
of Oneida county, beat him by less
than a thousand votes in the race for
the Fifty-second Congress. In the
interim, Sherman went back to Utica,
built up his law practice, and return
q
signal victory. He remained in the
House without defeat to the Sixtieth
Congress. when he was nominated and
elected vice president on the ticket
with Mr.. Taft.
His first year In the House brought
him into close association with lead
iers, Joseph w. Bailey, later a senator;
Breckenridge, Bryan, Bourke, Cock
ran, Crisp, Dalzell, Dingley, Dolliver,
Henderson, Payne, Paynter, Raynor,
Reed. Wadsworth, Fighting Joe"
Wheeler and a score of others whose
names became household words in
discussion Of the tariff and other ma
tional policies were his fellows. The
Senate held such men as Aldrich, AL
lison. Cockrell, Dandel. Frye, German,
Hoar, Hill, Teller, Vest and Wolcott.
All were not republicans, but all were
Jim" Sherman's friends, and in such
an environment he worked to a high
place in the councils and finally was
number one of the Big Five in the
House.
Cannon, Dalzell, Payne, Sherman and
Tawney were the great quintet during
the comparatively recent years in
which Congress was republican. Each
of them invariably wore a red carna-
tion for a buttonniere, and when Sher-
man went to preside over the Senate
and occupy the coveted marble room
in the other wing of the capitol he
took the custom with him and the
flower always appeared at every ses-
sion OF the upper house.
Any review of Sherman's life would
not be complete without a reference to
his work in the House. Briefly there
is recorded no time when he moved
galleries to applause by debate from
the floor, or changed any votes by elo-
quence. But the statutes bear marks
of his work in committees and caucus.
and the result Of his labors on the
rules committee, the interstate COM
merce committee and other branches
of the machinery of the House where
real legislation is done, while speeches
prevail upon the floor.
1t Is not to be said he was no cam
paigner. In New York state politics
he was a leading figure. He was known
In other states. His appearances in
campaigns, state and national were
not infrequent. He was at one time
chairman of the republican congress
sional committee He always was
active in the New York state repub-
lican conventions and a figure at all
national gatherings of that party.
sherman went TO preside over the
Senate just about a time when what
popularity Is known as senatorial dig
nifty was beginning to feel it's first
break. In the chair. Sherman was dig
nifty itself-fair in his rulings, his col
leagues said. quiet, firm, sure and sell
dom reversed an appeal. But dignity,
so far as the traditional senatorial
frock coat and silk hat were concern
ed, was generally absent. He regarded
his time presiding over the Senate as a
days business, to be attended to as IL
he were sitting in his bank in Utica
or at the directors table of one of the
many enterprises in which he had
found fortune and laid the foundations
of another for his sons. He usually
appeared in a business suit, on a hot
day he came in fiannels; on a very hot
day palm leaf fan displaced the
gavel and perhaps a glass of lemonade
topped Off the book of rules. Other
Senators, reluctant, perhaps, to trans
gress staid custom, fell in with his
ideas, and nowadays on a blistering
Washington summer day the Senate
chamber looks quite like a business
body.
The illness that proved fatal was
little known of in Washington until
the last few months. Mr.. Sherman was
not present during the closing days of
the last session. and the Senate, with
out a president pro tenn by the death
OF Frye, and unable to agree upon a
successor, got along by temporary