General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, June 7, 1883

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES,        

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 7, 1883.

Dear Brother: . . . I expect all alteration to be complete by the time we reach there, early in October, and after a short pause I will come on to Washington, write up all by reports, and then ask the President to order me to St. Louis to await my retirement February 8, 1884, and by or before December 1st of this year to install General Sheridan in command of the army, vice Sherman retired.

It is better that the change should occur with the new Congress. The country is now generally prosperous, and the army is in reasonably good condition, considering the fact that peace and politics are always more damaging than war. . . .

[Later he writes from St. Louis:—]

I have fixed November 1st as the day for transferring the command of the army to Sheridan. This will enable me to conclude my report, and in like manner enable Sheridan to submit to Congress any special matters he may deem proper.

On the whole, the time is most opportune, and I think I can leave my post with the general respect of my fellows. . . .

Affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 356-7

General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, May 7, 1884

ST. LOUIS, May 7, 1884.

Dear Brother: . . . The more I reflect, the more convinced I am that I was wise and prudent in taking the exact course I have, and that it would be the height of folly to allow any false ambition to allow the use of my name for any political office.

John B. Henderson is my neighbor here, is a delegate at large to the Chicago Convention, and will, if need be, announce my unalterable purpose. . . . Why should I, at sixty-five years of age, with a reasonable provision for life, not a dollar of debt, and with the universal respect of my neighbors and countrymen, embark in the questionable game of politics? The country is in a state of absolute peace, and it would be a farce to declare that any man should sacrifice himself to a mere party necessity. Surely you do not rate Hayes or Arthur as great men, yet each gave the country a good administration. . . .

If you count yourself out, I will be absolutely neutral, and honestly believe we are approaching that epoch in our history when King Log is about as good as King Stork. Queen Victoria has proven about the best executive a nation has ever had, and we shall be lucky in securing a man of moderate ability and reasonable presence.

Yours affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 360

General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, June 7, 1884

St. Louis, June 7, 1884.

Dear Brother: Now that the Convention at Chicago has nominated Blaine and Logan, I feel such a sense of relief that I would approve of anything. My instructions to Henderson, verbal, telegraphic, and written, were all short, emphatic, and clear, and, so far as I am concerned, all may be published; viz. first, to do what was possible to prevent even the mention of my name; and, second, that though there should occur a break after

the first ballots, and my name should be presented as a compromise, to decline; and, lastly, if in spite of such declination I should be nominated, I would decline with an emphasis which might be construed as disrespectful to the Convention itself, which, of course, I do not want to do.

I would not for a million of dollars subject myself and family to the ordeal of a political canvass and afterwards to a four years' service in the White House. You and Blaine and others have been trained in a different school,— quite different, and have a perfect right to aim for the highest round of your ladder. . . . Here at this point I must confide to you, in absolute confidence, that I was in possession of a letter from Blaine,¹ all in his own hand, marked "Strictly, absolutely confidential," which I now possess, with a copy of my answer, with others from various people, all to the same effect, that in case of a break and deadlock between Blaine and Arthur it was inevitable that my name would be used, and that I had no more right to decline than if I had received an order as lieutenant of the army. When you come here sometime I will show you these letters, but I must not part with them. I had expected that my letters in answer, in case of a break—which all seemed to expect would compel the Convention to turn to you, Edmunds, Hawley, or Gresham, and it may be that my positive manner carried conviction of my sincerity and stubbornness, and helped to bring about the nomination of Blaine and Logan. Anyhow, I escaped, and that to me was salvation.

Affectionately yours,

W. T. SHERMAN.

_______________

¹ This letter was afterwards published in the "North American Review" with Mr. Blaine's consent.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 360-1

In The Review Queue: Accidental Presidents

Accidental Presidents:

Eight Men Who Changed America

By Jared Cohen

The strength and prestige of the American presidency has waxed and waned since George Washington. Accidental Presidents looks at eight men who came to the office without being elected to it. It demonstrates how the character of the man in that powerful seat affects the nation and world.

Eight men have succeeded to the presidency when the incumbent died in office. In one way or another they vastly changed our history. Only Theodore Roosevelt would have been elected in his own right. Only TR, Truman, Coolidge, and LBJ were re-elected.

John Tyler succeeded William Henry Harrison who died 30 days into his term. He was kicked out of his party and became the first president threatened with impeachment. Millard Fillmore succeeded esteemed General Zachary Taylor. He immediately sacked the entire cabinet and delayed an inevitable Civil War by standing with Henry Clay’s compromise of 1850. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded our greatest president, sided with remnants of the Confederacy in Reconstruction. Chester Arthur, the embodiment of the spoils system, was so reviled as James Garfield’s successor that he had to defend himself against plotting Garfield’s assassination; but he reformed the civil service. Theodore Roosevelt broke up the trusts. Calvin Coolidge silently cooled down the Harding scandals and preserved the White House for the Republican Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. Truman surprised everybody when he succeeded the great FDR and proved an able and accomplished president. Lyndon B. Johnson was named to deliver Texas electorally. He led the nation forward on Civil Rights but failed on Vietnam.

Accidental Presidents adds immeasurably to our understanding of the power and limits of the American presidency in critical times.

About the Author

Jared Cohen is the founder and CEO of Jigsaw at Alphabet Inc. He also serves as an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he ran Google Ideas at Google Inc. and served as chief advisor to Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. From 2006 to 2010 he served as a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff and as a close advisor to Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Accidental Presidents, The New Digital Age, Children of Jihad, and One Hundred Days of Silence: America and the Rwanda Genocide. He lives in New York with his wife and two daughters.

ISBN 978-1501109829, Simon & Schuster, © 2019, Hardcover, 582 pages, Photographs, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $30.00.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Samuel H. M. Byers

SAMUEL H. M. BYERS was born in Pulaski, Pennsylvania, in 1838. Coming to Iowa in 1851 with his father he was educated in the schools of Oskaloosa, where his father located. He enlisted in the Fifth Iowa Infantry and served in the army until March, 1865, was promoted to adjutant in April, 1863. He was in many battles and in a charge at Missionary Ridge was taken prisoner and for fifteen months suffered the horrors of Libby and other Confederate prisons. He finally escaped and returned to the army, where for a time he was on General Sherman’s staff. At the close of the war he was brevetted major. While in prison at Columbia, South Carolina, he wrote the well-known song, “The March to the Sea,” which brought him into national notice. It gave the name to Sherman’s famous march and thousands of copies were sold immediately after the war. Major Byers was sent by General Sherman to General Grant and President Lincoln as bearer of dispatches announcing his great victories. He served fifteen years as American consul at Zürich in Switzerland and was under President Arthur, Consul General for Italy. Under President Harrison he served as Consul to St. Gall and later as Consul General for Switzerland. Major Byers has been a contributor to the leading magazines of the country. He is the author of “Iowa in War Times,” “Switzerland and the Swiss,” “Twenty Years in Europe” and several volumes of poetry.

Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa From The Earliest Times To The Beginning Of The Twentieth Century, Vol. 4, p. 36

Presidents of the United States who were Veterans of the Civil War

Andrew Johnson	Brigadier General of Volunteers
Ulysses S. Grant	General-in-Chief of the United States Army
Rutherford B. Hayes	Brigadier General, Brevet Major General
James A. Garfield	Major General of Volunteers
Chester A. Arthur	Major General
Benjamin Harrison	Colonel 70th Indiana Infantry, Brevet Brigadier General
William McKinley	Captain, Co. E, 23rd Ohio Infantry, Brevet Major