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<p><b><font color="#990000"><font size=+3>Articles From Previous Issues
- July 1996</font></font></b>
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<br><a NAME="EastPalmyraNYHumphreySherman"></a><font size=+2>East Palmyra,
NY</font>
<br><font size=+2>Memories of Early Ontario County, NY</font>
<br><font size=+2>Pioneer Humphrey Sherman</font>
<p>July 1996 Newsletter
<br>by Margaret Sherman Lutzvick
<br>malutz@aol.com</center>

<p>One of the highlights of visiting early Ontario County is to see the
many old farmsteads still standing. Especially intriguing is that it was
the only permanent home that Tiverton, Rhode Island born Humphrey Sherman
(1758 - 1812) (<i>David, Ebenezer, Samuel, Phillip</i>) built for his family
in East Palmyra. In 1823 when Ontario split into other counties the farm
became located in Wayne County.
<p>Humphrey first went to the area in 1794, and in a few short months his
wife, Mary Durfee Sherman, died leaving him with eleven children. He succeeded
to build a log cabin for a temporary home in spite of the trials of single
parenting, ongoing inclement wilderness conditions, and Indian uprisings.
Two years after his arrival he married Mary Howell, and together they had
seven more children - three of whom were born before their permanent house
was built.
<p>In 1801 Humphrey and his oldest sons built the farmstead that was to
remain in the family for the next 24 years. The home was built just a little
up the hill from where the log cabin stood in the front and atop a view
of the lower farmlands and a creek in the back. It was from his new home
that he ran his farm, blacksmith shop, and a tavern. The house was a regular
stopping off place for travelers. When the passengers disembarked from
the stagecoach and entered the house the women went to the right where
the ladies tearoom was, and the men went to the left where the Tavern was.
<p>After Humphrey's death in 1812 his brothers David and Gideon Sherman
moved from nearby Marion to the Palmyra farm, and together along with Humphrey's
sons Gideon and Stephen they ran the vast holdings that Humphrey had left.
After Humphrey's son Gideon died in 1824, his brothers David and Gideon
moved back to Marion, and the farm in East Palmyra began to come into others'
hands. First Caleb Beal owned the house, and had it remodeled in 1863 by
a carpenter named Nathan W. Taylor. Nathan left his mark on a kitchen doorframe
that remains there today. To wit:
<p><i>"Nathan W. Taylor put up this finish July 24, 1863, and I was drafted
the 23 of July to go and fight and I don't care a damb...on this job I
stuch a rusty nail in my foot whitch made me go Hoot te toot."</i>
<p>When the brick East Palmyra First Presbyterian church was built across
the street in 1843, the old wooden church was moved across the street to
the Beals' property. It remains there today and is now used as a barn.
<p>The house passed from the Beals family to the Hoad family in 1939, and
over the years much remodeling was done. Boards and plaster were torn off
walls, and the original planks were refinished. The tavern is now a living
room, the ladies tearoom is now a dining room, and some little rooms -
probably bedrooms for all of those children - are now parts of other rooms.
The upstairs bedrooms, complete with (non working) fireplaces, expose the
original beams placed there by the Shermans. During remodeling some fireplaces
that had been bricked over were soon discovered. The most interesting one
is in the kitchen where the original cooking crane remains. As well, there
is a wonderful baking oven just up and to the right of the fireplace. While
the house has been restored to its original state - with modern conveniences
of course - some things have never been changed. For example, the basement
water cistern is still there, as well as the original foundation, and the
very durable brick and cement work for the six fireplace chimneys. One
has to see it to truly appreciate what a wonderful job one of early Ontario
County ancestors did almost two hundred years ago.
<p>Humphrey Sherman, both of his wives, almost all of his children, their
spouses, their spouses' families, and some of their children are buried
only a short two blocks away in the East Palmyra Cemetery.
<p>Margaret Sherman Lutzvick is the author of <i>Going to Palmyra; Sherman
Deeds</i>. Gateway Press, INC., Baltimore, MD. Copyright 1997
<center>=================================</center>

<p>Reprint Copyright Margaret Sherman Lutzvick January 2001<a NAME="ShermanTragedy1894"></a>
<hr NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
<center><font size=+2>The Sherman Tragedy of 1894</font>
<p>Published in SOY Newsletter, July 1996
<br>Written by Bob Cook <a href="mailto:aerobob@msn.com">aerobob@msn.com</a>
<p>=================================</center>

<p>September 1, 1894 dawned sunny and hot. Hot and dry as it had been all
summer long. Fred and Noble Sherman were already sweating as they trudged
the mile to town. Noble grumbled about the heat, knowing he'd soon be complaining
about the cold. It seemed like that much of the time in Minnesota either
too hot or too cold.
<p>It was however, a great climate for trees. It was the seemingly limitless
pine forests that had lured the brothers to settle a mile north of Hinckley,
located midway between St. Paul and Duluth. Forests meant jobs transforming
trees on the stump to lumber loaded on the freight train. It meant hard
but steady work for strong men willing to work hard for their dollar. Lumbering
gave a man a chance to complain about the weather, instead of having his
entire fortune tied to it, as it was with farming. Noble and Fred knew
the desperateness of failed farms and were content to trade their hard
labor in the sawmill for the security steady work provided. Life was tough
but they were willing enough to work for a living and raise their young
families in the midst of the great pine forests of the upper mid-west.
<p>The writing is now faint and the hand requires some concentration to
read but Noble's name appears on the 1860 Town of Bloomer, Montcalm County,
Michigan census sheet - scribed on the 11th of July 1860. Dwelling #465
family #69 - Noble is listed as 3/12 years old, the fifth child of William
R. Sherman a farmer and Diana; both originally from New York. William was
an original settler of Bloomer and in the spring of 1852 had been one of
nineteen who voted in the town's first election. Some time after 1860 the
family spent a series of trying years moving. First to Wisconsin, then
on to Kansas where they lived in a sod house until a drought and failed
farm forced them to leave. By 1885 William and the remaining children had
re-settled near Bloomer, Michigan.
<p>Fred was born in 1863 and endured the moves and what must have been
difficult times growing up. He was 23 when he married 16 year old Eva Fisk
in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Gratiot County, Michigan on November
14, 1886. Eva was the sister of Noble's wife Albina. At some point the
two brothers and their sister wives headed together to make themselves
a new life in the forests outside Hinckley.
<p>Both families grew and on that Saturday, heading for work at the Brennan
Lumber Company, the two left behind a combined nine children. Each of the
men had an oldest child aged seven. Noble's a girl, Flora, and Fred's a
boy named Ralph. They also had one-year old sons named after their grandfathers.
Noble's son Romanzo named after the wives' father. Fred's young William
shared his name with his paternal grandfather. Fred had three other children;
Earl 6, George 4, and Bina age 2. Noble had two other sons; John age 5,
and Leslie now 3 years old.
<p>It had been a dry summer across much of the country, with a series of
fires throughout the forestland of the northern mid-west. Slash left by
loggers would catch fire from trains or other machinery and smolder for
days, creating thick smoke, which blanketed small towns like Hinckley.
The smoke had been so dense and pervasive that at times it had even interfered
with shipping on the Great Lakes. Despite their worn out state of unease,
people near the forests no longer worried too much about heavy smoke or
small fires in the area.
<p>That morning the road, usually damp with dew was instead dry and dusty
and the acrid smell of smoke from smoldering slash clung thickly to the
pines lining the way. Fred and Noble's shirts were already darkening with
sweat as they passed the gates of the mill. They mingled with others for
a few minutes before putting their lunch pails away and heading off to
their areas. At 7:00 a.m. the whistle blew, signaling the start of another
routine ten hour day.
<p>By lunchtime it was clear the day would be anything but routine. The
mill shutdown early to free men up to fight numerous small stump fires,
which were sending sparks into lumber piles. Others remained at the mill
moving barrels of water or extinguishing small flare-ups in the sawdust.
The small fires produced a lot of smoke and by noon the sun was little
more than a smudgy red orb. Nearby buildings began to take on ghost-like
appearances while inside, lamps were lit to stave off the darkness.
<p>There was a lot of activity but the several small fires all remained
under control. At home Eva and Albina were busy with the mountain of Saturday
chores and coping with hot and cranky children. Sometime after one o'clock
they were startled to hear in the distance the alarm signalling a fire
in town.
<p>At the bell the firemen assembled at the firehouse and started up the
new steam engine. Fred and Noble left the mill and plunged into the growing
chaos in the streets of Hinckley. Excited by the activity, they each joined
a separate group aiding the firemen in battling some fires in town.
<p>About an hour later the smoke thinned and lifted over the town. The
view was like looking through a pale yellow glass, the sky now brightening
a bit but the smoky haze still distorting colors. Fred's group had doused
their fire and he took advantage of the respite to cross over the Grindstone
River for home. Near the train station a cautious few were waiting to catch
the next train to Duluth. Noble, along with others, began to relax thinking
that maybe the worst of the fire threat was over. He talked for a time
with some friends, then turned and headed for home.
<p>Suddenly, a curtain of thick black smoke rolled over the town blackening
the sky. Strong winds howled down and sparks seem to erupt from everywhere.
Stunned, then frightened, Noble hurried on towards home but was delayed
by the gathering crowd as he passed near the train station. Swept up in
the moment he joined others rushing to stave off the fire from consuming
buildings in the southwest part of town.
<p>Pandemonium erupted. Fires were flaming everywhere, ignited by blowing
embers and fanned by the intensifying wind. Moments later message was received
that the town of Brook Park about 10 miles to the southwest had burned
completely and lives had been lost. Within half an hour the fire had intensified
to the point where hoses began to burn and fire chief Craig ordered the
men to abandon the equipment and head for their families and safety.
<p>It was now around 3:30 and the very gates of hell seemed to be breaking
open. The noise of the wind was deafening as it increased to gale force
and intense heat began to singe uncovered skin. The sky was black as midnight,
lit only by glowing sparks, firebrands and fireballs shooting into the
air. Great booms from exploding gases shook the ground, further panicking
the mob in the street.
<p>The shrill whistle of the train pulling out of the smoking depot sounded
as Noble ran in a panic north through town away from the flames sweeping
behind him. He was slowed then swept east by people spilling out from the
vacated train station. Nearby, the outside of a house seemed to simply
melt away, revealing a brief glimpse of the interior furnishings before
they burst into flames. He rushed with frenzied others to an abandoned
gravel pit nearby. Splashing into the water he looked back and saw a great
wall of fire erupt a few hundred yards to the north, blocking the bridge,
isolating him from his family and dashing his lingering hope of getting
home.
<p>Wading to deeper water Noble passed a trembling deer, stumbled over
a cow and stopped near a sobbing mother holding her child's head above
the water. The deafening roar of the inferno dampened the noise of shouts,
curses, prayers, screams and animal shrieks. Covering his head with his
soaked shirt, he huddled in the water desperately wondering about his wife,
children and brother's family. Shutting his eyes to the chaos, flames of
hell leaping wickedly into the blackness everywhere around him. Noble crouched
low, waiting to die.
<p>About the time Noble waded into "the pit", Fred spotted the houses.
Heart pounding, he sprinted in the lowering darkness through the sparks
of advancing fire towards his place. At that same moment Eva, clutching
her baby to her breast, hustled the children outside into the erupting
inferno and dashed across the yard to take refuge in the root house. Through
the smoke Fred saw Eva reach the cellar with the children. As Eva stumbled
to the shelter she looked back and saw Fred racing towards her. Gasping
for air through the thick smoke she slumped to the ground, and then cried
out in terror as the three boys bolted from her and ran back into the inferno
to their father.
<p>Next door, Albina had been trying to contain her growing terror as she
watched the menacing glow in the direction of Hinckley flare brighter through
the smoky haze. Without warning, fireballs suddenly rolled towards the
house exploding through the tops of the trees. She moved quickly with the
children to take refuge in the root house across the yard. Stepping outside
they were engulfed by furious heat and wind that hurled sparks down on
them like rain in a torrential thunderstorm. As they ran, the roof erupted
in flame.
<p>Albina stumbled and fell with her three hysterical little ones. Flora
was several yards ahead wild-eyed and screaming as she dashed on. The scene
was lit by a bright unearthly evil orange glow. The roar of flames, wind,
children's sobs and cracking timbers was deafening, the ground hot as an
oven. Crawling, sparks raining all about, Albina coughed in the dense smoke
and saw Flora, hit by a flying firebrand, fall to the ground. Gathering
her others close she crawled towards Flora and almost idly wondered what
had become of Noble.
<p>And so now, do I.
<p>Survivors from the hundred or so whose lives were spared in "the pit"
reported that three distinct waves of fire passed over them. A cacophony
of screams accompanied each roll of flame, searing heat and shower of cinders.
The final burst of fire passed over around 5:00 p.m., about 90 minutes
after they had abandoned battling the inferno in town. There was nothing
left to burn. The roar of fire stopped, the wind abated, the sky lightened
slightly, and a black ash "snowfall" began to sift down.
<p>Hinckley was gone. Only the charred ruins of the new brick schoolhouse
and the largely undamaged stone railroad roundhouse stood above the smouldering
streets. Railroad tracks were bizarrely twisted and stood stark against
the ashes, which rose and fell with the wind. Smoking rubble helped obscure
the charred remains of people and animals scattered about, completing the
surrealistic scene.
<p>Sunday dawned still and gray. The green pines had disappeared, replaced
by stark smoking black stumps and layers of ash. No birds chirped, few
animals moved, hundreds of blackened corpses greeted the day in grotesque
silence. Relief parties were on their way and survivors began the grim
task of surveying the damage and identifying the dead. By afternoon a steady
rain was falling, turning the mass grave being dug east of town to mud.
<p>All of New England witnessed a "dark day" that Sunday, intense smoke
from the conflagration dimming the sun. By Monday, newspaper front pages
from the "Oregonian" in the west to the "New York Times" in the east along
with other newspapers across the world carried reports of the destruction
and tragedy. Hinckley and six other communities had been consumed by the
blaze along with vast acreages of forest in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Throughout
the drought stricken mid-west and northeast people lived in fear of a like
event.
<p>The horror of what Noble saw returning to his home in search of his
family can be but dimly imagined. Near the smoldering rubble of what had
been his house, lay five dark masses in the ash. In and around Fred's root
house were seven more. The grisly scene is briefly recorded in the Pine
County Coroners Report:
<p>249. Sherman, Mrs. Albina... Age 26. Married. Resident of Hinckley.
Wife of Noble Sherman. Found near the house. Identified by her breastpin
and other jewelry. Reported by Noble Sherman, her husband, who then moved
to Riverdale, Michigan.
<p>250. Sherman, Romanzo... Age 1. Son of Noble and Albina Sherman. Found
with his mother. Family was buried in Hinckley.
<p>251. Sherman, Leslie... Age 3. Son of Noble and Albina.
<p>252. Sherman, John... Age 5. Son of Noble and Albina. Found with his
mother.
<p>253. Sherman, Flora... Age 7. Daughter of Noble and Albina. Found near
her mother. Identified by Father.
<p>254. Sherman, Fred... Age 31. Married. Resided one mile north of Hinckley.
Husband of Eva Sherman. Found 80 rods from house. Identified by knife etc.
Reported by Noble Sherman.
<p>255. Sherman, Mrs. Eva... Age 24. Wife of Fred. Found in root house.
Buried in Hinckley.
<p>256. Sherman, William... Age 1. Son of Fred and Eva. Found with his
parents. Buried in Hinckley.
<p>257. Sherman, Bina... Age 2. Daughter of Fred and Eva. Found with parents.
<p>258. Sherman, George... Son of Fred and Eva. Age 4. Found near his father.
<p>259. Sherman, Earl... Age 6. Son of Fred and Eva. Found near his father.
Buried in Hinckley.
<p>260. Sherman, Ralph... Age 7. Son of Fred and Eva. Found with his father.
<p>Many who had lost all material goods stayed on to rebuild Hinckley and
see the town rise like a phoenix from the ashes; but Noble slipped away
like a ghost leaving only a two-entry relief record in a forgotten file
and a dimly remembered family tale.
<p>On September 5th just four days after the fire, Noble was issued a set
of clothes valued at $5.00 in the nearby town of Pine City. The next day
he received $3.50 in cash and a train ticket to Riverdale, Michigan; near
the home of both his and Albina's parents.
<p>The mass grave where the remains of the 12 Shermans are interred, was
consecrated in 1900 by a 60 ton tapering shaft of gray granite more than
50 feet high. It is dedicated to the memory of 418 men, women and children
who perished in and around Hinckley during the two hour fire of September
1, 1894.
<p>Noble's fate is less clearly marked. It's said that he lived the lonely
life of a sheepherder in Idaho for much of the rest of his life before
returning in his later years to Michigan and marrying Flora, another brother's
ex-wife. The horrors of the fire must surely have blackened his heart long
after the perished were laid to rest. It is not hard to imagine that Noble's
fate as the lone survivor of this close-knit pairing of siblings and offspring
proved a cruel burden. Maybe, in reconstructing the tragedy, the burden
now shared, is finally laid to rest.
<center>
<p>All rights reserved - Bob Cook - January 2001<a NAME="JohnShermanSenator"></a>
<hr NOSHADE WIDTH="100%"></center>

<table WIDTH="90%" >
<tr>
<td WIDTH="158">
<center><img SRC="JohnSherman.jpg" ALT="Senator John Sherman" BORDER=4 height=241 width=150></center>
</td>

<td ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=TOP>
<center><font size=+2>John Sherman, Senator (1823-1900)</font>
<p>Published in SOY newsletter � July 1996</center>
Submitted by Robert L. Sherman, source unknown</td>
</tr>
</table>
John Sherman (10 May 1823-22 Oct 1900), statesman, born at Lancaster, Ohio,
was the eighth child of Charles Robert and Mary (Hoyt) Sherman, and a younger
brother of William Tecumseh Sherman. His father, a descendant of Edmund
Sherman who came from England to Massachusetts probably in 1634 or 1635
and later settled in Connecticut, moved from Connecticut in 1811 to Ohio,
where he practiced law. Charles Robert Sherman rose to the bench of the
state supreme court, but his untimely death in 1829 required his widow
to share the responsibility of educating some of their eleven children
with various friends and relatives. The famous brothers, Tecumseh and John,
were bound by rare ties of mutual understanding and affection.
<p>John had a lively, careless disposition that was trying to teachers
and foster parents alike. His education, divided between Lancaster and
Mt. Vernon, where he lived for four years with John Sherman, a cousin of
his father, gave him little taste for the college life that was planned
for him. He developed a liking for mathematics and surveying, left school
at fourteen to work on canal improvements, and at sixteen had grown men
working under him, constructing a dam. Fortunately for him, defeat of the
Whigs by the Democrats in 1839 led to his dismissal.
<p>After a few months of roistering, a change came over him. Helped by
material influences, dormant ambitions (inherited from six generations
of parental ancestors) addicting him to the law and public service, were
awakened. A new Sherman emerged -- one who realized that Ohio, lush with
expansion, was a fertile field for well directed purpose. He substituted
extreme self-control for careless abandon, and in1840 set himself studying
law under his uncle, Judge Jacob Parker, and his eldest brother, Charles
Taylor Sherman, at Mansfield. In this field, his father's repute and his
wide family connections proved stimulating and useful.
<p>Thus arbitrarily shortening his period of immaturity and dependence,
Sherman gained an early start on his career. Before formal admission to
the bar on 10 May 1844, he was doing much of a full-fledged lawyer's work.
Also he launched into business, proving competent as partner in a lumber
concern and buying real estate wisely. His rise to local prominence was
attested by his marriage 31 August 1848 to Margaret Sarah Cecilia, the
only child of a prominent Mansfield lawyer, Judge James Stewart. The Shermans
had no children, but adopted a daughter.
<p>Not content with country-town law and business, Sherman entered state
politics. Loss of a job at Democratic hands in 1839 had scarcely cooled
his ardor for Whiggery in 1840. Thereafter, he presented himself faithfully
at Ohio Whig conclaves, and he attended the national conventions of 1848
and 1852. He ran for no elective office until 1854, when the wave of anti-Nebraska
sentiment carried him into the federal House of Representatives, along
with many other comparatively unknown young men.
<p>Unlike most of these, however, Sherman of Ohio remained an official
part of the Washington scene continuously through nearly half a century;
as Representative, 1855-61; as Senator, 1861-77; as Secretary of the Treasury,
1877-81; as Senator, 1881-97; as Secretary of State, 1897-98. This was
an astounding feat, considering the fact that during these years, Ohio
four times elected a Democratic governor and thrice sent Sherman a Democratic
colleague in the Senate.
<p>The explanation lies in Sherman's temperament and situation. His heritage,
his mother's oft-repeated precepts, his victory over youthful excesses,
and his quick success in local law and business combined to overlay his
naturally hot temper with a cautious reserve that was excellently adapted
to Ohio's uncertainties.
<p>Economically, the conservative, creditor point of view became his personal
preference; but, politically, he understood the radical debtor psychology
that flourished among his constituents during the three major and four
minor depressions that punctuated his tenure of office. He carefully studied
the attitude of the Middle West and helped stamp national legislation with
the influence of that area. While he compromised his conservative personal
preferences with more radical demands from the Ohio electorate, the East
was compromising with the West on each piece of major legislation. Thus
he and his work became typical of his political generation.
<p>He had been elected in 1854 because he was a compromise candidate on
whom the warring factions could agree. Similar to George Washington, his
more moderate utterances on slavery contrasted with those of men like Joshua
R. Giddings and Owen Lovejoy and quickly aided his rise. Membership on
a House committee investigating unsavory Kansas affairs was exploited.
Sherman wrote a report, scoring the Democracy and all its Kansas works,
which was used effectively in the 1856 campaign (House Report No, 200,
34 Congress, First session, "Kansas Affairs").
<p>He became a hard working and effective laborer in the young Republican
vineyard and, at the beginning of his third term (5 December 1859), was
the caucus nominee for speaker. A forgotten endorsement carelessly given
Helper's 'Impending Crisis" deprived him of the coveted honor, and increased
thereafter his leaning toward compromise and caution in legislative matters.
The successful candidate, William Pennington, adopted Sherman's committee
slate and named him chairman of the Ways and Means committee. Here his
tariff convictions insured equitable relations with Eastern Republicans;
from loyalty to party he never deviated.
<p>Campaign labors of 1860 fortified Sherman further, making him, in spite
of Ohio's Republican factions, the successor to Senator Chase, whom Lincoln
elevated to the Treasury. On a widened stage the tall, spare, impressive
junior senator was ready to play his part, especially in his favorite field
of finance, for he at once became a member (and in 1867 became chairman)
of the finance committee. In the din of war, with its necessities, he helped
give the greenbacks the status of legal tender; but he never completely
forgot that there must be a day of reckoning, that order must be wrought
out of a chaotic currency. He sometimes tried to encourage a policy of
"paying as you go" and led in planning, with Secretary Chase, the national
banking system (embodied in the act of 25 February 1863). If Sherman's
program of economies and rigorous taxation, especially incomes taxes, had
seemed politically expedient, fewer bond and greenback issues might have
sprouted during the war. As it was he quieted his uneasiness over the greenbacks
by reiterating the popular doctrine that the country would "grow up to"
the expended currency.
<p>On the reconstruction issue, war between Sherman's personal preferences
and popular dicta waged unremittingly, for political rivalries in Ohio,
as elsewhere, imposed irrational tests of party loyalty and defined patriotism
without humanity. His desire for moderation was sufficiently known for
many Southerners to write him concerning tolerance, and he spoke out against
the fiery Sumner's program. But he did not carry his efforts at moderation
so far from the radical path as to stray outside the confines of dominant
Republicanism. Opposing Thaddeus Stevens' drastic military reconstruction
plan, he advanced a little less vigorous substitute, which became law 2
March 1867; and he voted for most of the radical program.
<p>For his former friend, Andrew Johnson, Sherman openly expressed sympathy;
he admired Johnson's "combative propensity", and asserted his right to
removed Stanton. But, knowing the ostracism suffered by the President's
supporters, he voted to convict him. When seven other Republicans prevented
conviction, he felt "entirely satisfied".
<p>On post-war finance Sherman dominated national policy, because of his
Senate chairmanship, his interest, and his ability. Like most congressmen,
he was swayed by the strong tide of inflationist sentiment, although as
a private individual he cherished anti- inflationist desires. He saw in
the cancellation of greenbacks the most direct route to specie resumption
and declared that a beneficial fall in prices must mark resumption; yet
on those very grounds he opposed McCulloch's currency contraction policies
of 1866 and 1868. The Middle West being then strongly inflationary, he
claimed that resumption would speedily come if the government merely met
current obligations. The greenbacks outstanding, he thought, were not too
much for the condition of the country. When public opinion blames McCulloch's
contraction policy for the stringency of 1868, Sherman said contraction
should cease in deference to that opinion. He realized that national credit
must be safeguarded by resumption as soon as political conditions permitted.
He entertained dreams of financial reforms international in scope, aiding
Emperor Napoleon Ill's scheme for a stable, unified currency among the
great trading nations. His work on the funding act of 14 July 1870 reduced
the burden of public interest and helped restore national credit. While
the dollar was still at a premium, he pushed the mint-reform bill, which
ended the coinage of silver dollars, so that after silver fell he was labeled
the arch marplot of the "Crime of '73". On the resumption act of 14 January
1875, he had to yield his won excellent plan of funding greenbacks into
bonds, for the substitute of George F. Edmunds. His preeminence in financial
matters, and his aid to Hayes' candidacy, made him the natural choice for
the Treasury in 1877.
<p>As Secretary of the Treasury, Sherman occupied a congenial place, for
responsibility for the national finances gave rein to his native skill
at economical management and deafened him to inflationist outcry. He strengthened
the resumption act by his interpretation of it, declaring that it empowered
the secretary to issue bonds after, as well as before, resumption; and,
in the face of congressional clamor, he convinced hard-headed bankers that
the government would redeem its bonds in gold, thus immensely enhancing
national prestige. He disappointed bankers who were confidently expecting
concessions from the government and amazed them by discarding their advice
and achieving sale abroad at a bond price above that of the open market.
Thoroughly informing himself beforehand, he coolly bargained with London
and New York syndicates and bankers, playing them off against one another,
even when they fought him in the gold market and when exchange rates and
London discounts went against him. He facilitated direct sales to investors,
independent of syndicates. The loans of 1878 and 1879 were especially skillful.
<p>Sherman's statesmanship while Secretary was proved by the political
obstacles he surmounted. The political odds against him in Hayes' administration
were terrific. Hayes' title to office was uncertain, the House was Democratic
for four years and the Senate for two, and the populace was discouraged
by a wearisome depression. Business failures, especially in the West, increased
in Sherman's first and second years, while mine-owners and inflationists
joined hands in a concerted effort to obtain "free silver". With both parties
torn sectionally on this issue, it appeared late in 1877 that inflation
politics would prevent Sherman from attaining his main objective - resumption
of specie payments and funding of the public debt. The House stopped resumption
operations temporarily by passing two bills: Bland's for a silver dollar
with unlimited legal tender and unlimited coinage, and Ewing's bill for
indefinite postponement of the date of resumption. While those bills awaited
Senate action, Sherman's Republican successor, Stanley Matthews, fathered
a concurrent resolution declaring government bonds payable in silver; and
both houses passed it, thus humiliating Sherman. However, divisions among
inflationists ultimately gave Sherman sufficient support to defeat the
more extreme objectives of Bland and Ewing.
<p>The Bland-Allison act (28 February 1878) stipulated a limited coinage
of silver, rather than free coinage; and - instead of postponing resumption
indefinitely - Congress on 31 May 1878 forbade further retirement of greenbacks.
Sherman has been severely criticized for failure to oppose the Matthews
resolution originally, or to support Hayes' veto of the Bland-Allison bill.
Faced by a fiscal and political exigency, he labored to obtain maximum
concessions from the extremists. He judged resumption and funding might
be achieved, in spite of Bland-Allison dollars and of 348,000,000 outstanding
greenbacks; and they were.
<p>After the passage of the silver bill, Sherman helped to rally conservative
support behind the administrations, and the insurgents were somewhat discredited
in the 1878 elections. Henceforward, comparatively free from the opposition
that had been hounding him, and aided by favorable trade developments,
he carefully protected the final preparations for resumption. He had the
New York sub-treasury made a member of the clearinghouses at Boston and
New York, and made payments to the government receivable in either legal
tenders or coin. Consequently, the premium on gold disappeared after nearly
seventeen years, and on 2 January 1879 specie payment were smoothly resumed,
to the general astonishment.
<p>Whether of not Sherman could continue specie payments thereafter depended
upon the demand for gold. The law of 31 May 1878, to which he had agreed,
not only stopped cancellation of legal tenders redeemed in gold, but also
had directed their reissue. Later, realizing the potential drain, he fabricated
a theory that notes once redeemed need not be reissued when the gold reserve
became less that 40 per cent of outstanding notes. Fortunately for him,
rain swept Britain and Europe in 1879 had to buy huge quantities of American
wheat, corn, and cotton, paying in gold. Trade rebounded beautifully, and
specie payments seemed so secure that the Secretary described legal tenders
as "the best circulating medium known". Not so the Bland-Allison dollars.
They soon worried Sherman, since their intrinsic worth was declining, businessmen
were forcing them back on the government, and treasury channels were so
choked with them as to threaten the placing of the United States on the
silver standard. The Secretary made a futile plea to Congress to impose
new limitation on their coinage. Then a rise in interior trade temporarily
removed his apprehension and he soon returned to the Senate and to his
political point of view on silver. As the end of his cabinet service approached,
the United States still stood on the gold standard. Resumption was an admitted
success.
<p>The most distinguished phase of Sherman's career was closing, but he
did not suspect it. He planned further achievements in the White House
- refunding the public debt at lower interest, perfecting disbursements,
settling the silver question without banishing gold or displacing paper,
reducing taxes, freeing the civil service from "infernal scramble", breaking
down sectionalism in party politics, and turning politics from outworn
war issues to "business and financial interests and prosperity". His dreams
were of the stuff that made the inner man, but his success at resumption
had made him a failure as a candidate for the presidential nomination.
He felt that the business class in general and the party in particular
owed him the office; but the unparalleled prosperity that he had helped
to create made Republican victory in 1880 so certain as to insure bitter
competition for the nomination. Poorly organized Sherman forces, although
they helped defeat the unit rule, could not rout the Grant phalanx, or
match the Blame magnetism. Worse, ten Ohio delegates stubbornly refused
to vote for Sherman. The nomination fell to the popular and available Garfield,
whose presence at Chicago Sherman had thought essential to his own success.
In 1880, as in 1888, and to a less degree in 1884, Sherman failed of the
nomination because he lacked the unscrupulousness in the use of patronage,
color in personality and appeal, cordial unity in the Ohio delegation,
and skill in manipulating politicians, and because he had an abundance
of inflationist opposition. In 1888 he reached the exciting total of 249
votes on the second ballot; but the thread of Ohio intrigue, torturously
unwinding through the correspondence of Foraker, Garfield, Hanna, Hayes,
McKinley, and Sherman, shows how futile was his dearest hope.
<p>Through his second period of sixteen years in the Senate (1881-97) Sherman
played the role of prominent politician, so cast by his adaptation to the
plot of the play in Ohio and in the nation at large. Ohio gave him Garfield's
seat only after a contest and he had to keep watch lest he should be shelved,
1879 and later, with the governorship. Democrats won the state thrice,
but luckily Republicans controlled when he came up for reelection in 1885.
In 1892 he succeeded in postponing the candidacy of Foraker (until 1896).
<p>In national politics also, the atmosphere was one of continual uneasiness.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats obtained simultaneous control of the
House, the Senate, and the presidency for more than a single period of
two years during this time. All the political veterans were confused by
uncertainties rising from the economic revolution, and by cleavages between
East and West that were disruptive of party strength. In such a situation
Sherman's services seemed indispensable, because of his long experience
in legislative compromise, his understanding of Western demands, and his
reputation for astuteness in estimating reactions. The newer group of Senate
managers - Nelson W. Aldrich, Eugene Hale, O.H. Platt, and John C. Spooner
- left Sherman out of much of their basic planning for he, unlike William
B. Allison, never joined them on terms of close intimacy. When the time
came to compromise with the West, they leaned heavily on him.
<p>He functioned most strikingly in connection with the Anti-Trust and
Silver-Purchase laws of 1890. The final draft of the first came from the
pen of Edmunds, and the important purchase provisions of the second never
had Sherman's hearty approval - but on the one he carries the responsibility,
for the finance committee, of initiating tentative drafts during two experimental
years (1888-90), and on the other he so adjusted a conference committee
stalemate between the two Houses as to save his party from a silver veto
and from defeat of the McKinley tariff. Then, as often during his legislative
career, the immediate political exigency faced by him and his fellow partisans
warped his judgment on "sound" currency and the protection of the Treasury.
<p>Republican colleagues honored Sherman with the position of president
pro tempore (1885-87) and listened deferentially whenever the famous ex-Secretary
spoke on finance. He was important in campaigns as keynoter on currency
and tariff subjects. Insistence of Ohio wool- growers on protection led
him into yeoman s service regimenting Middle- Western Republicans behind
a high tariff. His assignment (1886) to the chairmanship of the foreign
relations committee proved none too congenial. On minor issues he shifted
his position, not always in conformity with popular trends. His economic
philosophy always remained basically conservative; for example he favored
general regulation of interstate commerce but questioned the right of Congress
to establish maximum and minimum rates and opposed the prohibition of pooling.
<p>After he recovered from his nomination fiasco of 1888. Sherman was content
in the familiar Senate environment. There was leisure for profitable business
undertakings, a never-forgotten sense of service, long evenings alone in
his peaceful study, and later preoccupation with the work, published in
two volumes in 1895 as "John Sherman's Recollections of Forty Years in
the House, Senate and Cabinet". In 1879 he published "selected Speeches
and Reports on Finance and Taxation from 1858 to 1878". Things might have
drifted into the usual peaceful Senate demise if Hanna and the embarrassed
McKinley had not translated Sherman to the State Department to give Hanna
a Senate seat. In the unaccustomed place, under stress of Cuban excitements,
it became all too evident that Sherman had a growing and humiliating weakness
of memory, which incapacitated him for functioning out of his usual routine.
The fur-seal, Hawaiian, and Spanish negotiations were taken out of his
hands. When the cabinet decided for war with Spain he rose to the defense
of his anti-expansionist views, and resigned in protest. Two years of unhappy
private life ensued before his death.
<p>[Note: Robert cannot recall where this article came from, but suspects
it was from the National Archives. We are anxious to give appropriate credit,
if anyone can locate the original source. The photo of Sen. Sherman comes
from the site of the National Archives, thanks to Sherman Thompson.]
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