Tecumseh, and procured his appointment as a cadet at West Point, where he was trained for his great services in upholding the Union and bearing its flag in triumph "from the mountains to the sea."

John was the eighth child. His recollections are of the gradual scattering of the family, till but three children were left with their mother. In 1831 a cousin of his father, named John Sherman, took him to his home in Mount Vernon, where he remained four years attending school. At the age of twelve he returned to Lancaster, and entered the academy to prepare himself for college. At the end of two years he was far enough advanced to enter the sophomore class. Want of means and a strong desire to be self-supporting changed the current of his life. He obtained the position of junior rod-man in the corps of engineers engaged on the Muskingum improvement. In the spring of 1838, when only fifteen, he was placed in charge of the section of that work at Beverly, and so continued till the summer of 1839, when he was removed because he was a Whig. The responsibility attending the measurement of excavations and embankments, the leveling for a lock to the canal, and the construction of a dam, proved a better education than could have been obtained elsewhere in the same time. He studied law in the office of his brother Charles T. Sherman, afterward Judge of the United States District Court. He was admitted to the bar in 1844, and at once entered into partnership with this brother at Mansfield, where, during the ten years preceding his entrance into Congress, his ability and indefatigable industry gained for him distinction and pecuniary success.

In 1848 Mr. Sherman was a delegate to the Whig Convention at Philadelphia which nominated General Taylor for President. In August of the same year he married Cecilia, only daughter of Judge Stewart of Mansfield. In 1852 he was a Senatorial delegate to the Baltimore Convention, which nominated General Scott. His position as a conservative Whig, in the alarm and excitement consequent upon the attempt to repeal the Missouri Compromise, secured his election to the Thirty-fourth Congress, taking his seat December 3, 1855. A ready and forcible speaker, his thorough acquaintance with public affairs made him an acknowledged power in the House from the first. He rose rapidly in reputation as a debater on all the great questions agitating the public mind during that eventful period: the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Dred Scott decision, the imposition of slavery upon Kansas, the fugitive slave law, the national finances, and other measures involving the very existence of the republic. His appointment by Speaker Banks as a member of the committee to inquire into and collect evidence in regard to the "border-ruffian" troubles in Kansas was a turningpoint in his political career. On account of the illness of the chairman, Mr. Howard of

Michigan, the duty of preparing the report devolved upon Mr. Sherman. Every statement was verified by the clearest testimony, and has never been controverted by any one. This report, when presented to the House, created a good deal of feeling, and intensified greatly the antagonisms in Congress, being made the basis of the campaign of 1856. He acted with the Republican party in supporting John C. Fremont for the Presidency, because that party resisted the extension of slavery, but did not seek its abolition. In the debate on the submarine telegraph he showed his opposition to monopolies by saying: "I can not agree that our Government should be bound by any contract with any private incorporated company for fifty years; and the amendment I desire to offer will reserve the power to Congress to determine the proposed contract after ten years." All bills appropriating money for public expenditures were closely scrutinized, and the then prevalent system of making contracts in advance of appropriations was denounced by him as illegal. At the close of his second Congressional term he was recognized as the foremost man in the House of Representatives. He had, from deep and unchanged conviction, adopted the political faith of the Republican party, but without any partisan rancor or malignity toward the South. He was reëlected to the Thirty-sixth Congress, which began its first session amid the excitement caused by the bold raid of John Brown. Helper's "Impending Crisis," a book then recently published, was the cause of the protracted struggle which ensued for the Speakership. At the end of eight weeks, Mr. Sherman, who needed but three votes to secure his election, retired from the contest, and Mr. Pennington of New Jersey was elected Speaker. He was then made Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. He took a decided stand against ingrafting new legislation upon appropriation bills, saying: "This is a practice which has grown up within the last few years, and the Committee of Ways and Means deem it their duty at once to put a stop to it; and we have determined, so far as we can, to resist the adoption of all propositions looking to a change in existing law by amendments upon appropriation bills. The theory of appropriation bills is that they shall provide money to carry on the government, to execute existing laws, and not to change existing laws or provide new ones."

In 1860 he was again elected to Congress, and when that body convened in December the seceding members of both Houses were outspoken and defiant. The message of President Buchanan showed that he was perplexed and overwhelmed by events which he had not the courage to control. At the beginning of Buchanan's administration the public indebtedness was less than $20,000,000. At this time it had been increased to nearly $100,000,000, and in such a crippled condition were its finances