Hugh T. Reid, Hoyt Sherman, W. F. Coolbaugh, and Lucius H. Langworthy . . .

. . . of Iowa, are among the proposed corporators in the Pacific Railroad bill now before Congress.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 22, 1862, p. 2

Senator John Sherman to Major General William T. Sherman, November 10, 1865

UNITED STATES SENATE CHAMBER,

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 1865.

Dear Brother:

Your note of the 4th is received. I am glad to hear you are settled, and from all accounts delightfully. You deserve quiet and repose after five years of change and labor. When in New York the other day, I found that party of English capitalists were delighted with their visit with you, and seemed especially polite to me on that account. I got for two of them Bowman and Nichols’ works,¹ which they wanted to take home. But for my political employment I could have received from them very lucrative employment in the prosecution of their vast railroad schemes. Even as it is, if they, within six months, show their ability to execute their plans, I will identify myself much more with them. The truth is, the close of the war with our resources unimpaired gives an elevation, a scope to the ideas of leading capitalists, far higher than anything ever undertaken in this country before. They talk of millions as confidently as formerly of thousands. No doubt the contraction that must soon come will explode merely visionary schemes, but many vast undertakings will be executed. Among them will be the Pacific R. R. and extensive iron works, like some in England. Our manufactures are yet in their infancy, but soon I expect to see, under the stimulus of a great demand and the protection of our tariff, locomotive and machine shops worthy of the name. I do not fear, whatever may be the result of the senatorial election, but I can find enough to do, and without lowering the position I have occupied. As for the chances, from all the information I can gather, there is but little doubt a majority of the Legislature is for me. Still I know enough of the shifts and dangers in a new body of men like a Legislature not to be over sanguine. Since I am in the contest I will do all I can for success, and hope my friends will do likewise, but if defeated will bear it patiently. In a short time I will send you a list of the members who are from the military service, in the hope that you may know some of them well enough to influence them. You can feel perfectly easy in doing this, as my opponents use to the uttermost against me any prejudice or feeling against you. This election over, I think I shall be very willing to say good by to politics, and will then seek to settle myself comfortably in some part of Ohio where I can engage in railroads, banking, or manufacturing. The law in this country is now only useful as the pathway to other pursuits.

. . . . . . . . . .

I have seen Johnson several times. He seems kind and patient with all his terrible responsibility. I think he feels what every one must have observed, that the people will not trust the party or men who, during the war, sided with the rebels. The Democratic party is doomed forever as a disloyal organization, and no promises, or pledges, or platform they can make will redeem them from the odium they justly gained.

Yours affectionately,

JOHN SHERMAN

__________

¹ Lives of General Sherman

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 258-9

Within a year Congress has . . .

. . . done more for the benefit of the great mass of the people than during the twenty years of peace which preceded it.  Prior to this war the Government was run exclusively for the benefit of a class, and that class the last one that should have been favored.  All questions of tariff, currency, commerce, revenue, and the public lands were decided to suit the interests and the whims of the planters.  States that excluded slavery were themselves excluded from the Union, or insulted and kept waiting for years.  Tariffs had to be adjusted to suit the ideas of 350,000 planters and breeders of slaves and the public lands so disposed of and managed to facilitate their occupancy by planters in large tracts, to the exclusion of poor white men.  Things are now entirely changed.  Congress is legislating for the benefit of the whole people.  Our foreign relations are now managed with a view to promote commercial intercourse and prosperity of the whole country.  The Pacific Railroad might now be built but for the fact that we are engaged in a great war.  But most important of all “THE HOMESTEAD BILL” has passed both houses of Congress and become law.  This is a most beneficent measure, destined to produce the most important results.  It is destined to do more for us as a nation than all the legislation of the last fifty years – to greatly accelerate our rapid growth – to largely increase our substantial wealth and national strength and glory.  The friend of civilization and progress – the poor and humble and down trodden, not only of America, but of the whole world, have reason to thank God and take courage.  The desolation of civil war and blood-shed is upon this generation, but the homestead law is for all time.  The National Domain stretching far to the West and South, large enough to make thirty States as big as Iowa, is reserved and offered without money and without price, free homes for free white men.  Who can calculate the vast results to flow, even in fifty years from the passage of this law?

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 2