Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/104

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SHERMAN. 80 SHERMAN. Government to resume the payment of its obliga- tions in specie at as early a date as possible. In 1877 he retired from the Senate to become Secretary of the Treasury under President Hayes. He succeeded in accumulating a redemption fund in the Treasury and made it possible for the Government to keep its promise to resume specie payments on January 1, 1879. In 1881 Sherman returned to the Senate, where he served without interruption until 1897. In 1880, 1884, and 18SS he was a prominent candidate for the Re- publican Presidential nomination. Besides meas- ures already mentioned Senator Sherman was the author "of the important statute of 1890 known as the Sherman Silver Law, providing for the monthly purchase of silver bullion by the Government, and of the notable act of the same year known as the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, forbidding combinations in restraint of trade or commerce among the States. In 1897 he resigned from the Senate to become Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President JIcKinley. On account of advanced age and growing infir- mities, he resigned this office shortly after the outbreak of the war with Spain in 1898, and retired to private life. He died on October 22, 1900. Consult: Senator Sherman's Reminiscences (New York, 1895) ; and Bronson, Life and Public Services of John Sherman (Columbus, 1880). Some of his correspondence with General W. T. Sherman was edited by R. S. Thorndike in a volume published in New York in 1896. SHERMAN, Roger (1721-93). An American patriot, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, born in Newton. Mass. He was a shoemaker for a number of years; removed to New Milford, Conn., in 1743; became county surveyor of lands in 1745; after 1750 engaged in mercantile pursuits; studied law. and in 1754 was admitted to the bar. He then served .suc- cessively as member of the Connecticut Legisla- ture, justice of the peace, judge of the Common Pleas, and treasurer of Yale College. In 1766 he was appointed judge of the Connecticut Su- perior Court, and in the same year was elected to the Connecticut Senate, continuing in the former office for 23 years, and in the latter for 19. He was an active member of the Continental and Confederation Congresses from 1774 to 1787, served on a number of important com- mittees, and, in particular, was a member of the Committee of Five appointed to pre- pare a draft of the Declaration of Independ- ence, to which document, as finally adopted, he affixed his signature. While a member of Congress he served (1777-79 and 1782) on the Connecticut Committee of Safety, and in 1783, together with Richard Law, he revised and codi- fied the laws of the State. From 1784 until his death he was Mayor of New Haven, to which place he had removed in 1761. While holding this office he was an active and influential mem- ber of the Constitutional Convention at Phila- delphia in 1787. He took a conspicuous part in the debates before that body and presented the famous compromise relative to the systems of representation in the two Houses of Congress. He was a member of the Connecticut convention called to take action on the Federal Constitu- tion, and was influential in securing its ratifica- tion. He was one of the first Representatives in the Federal Congress from Connecticut, and in 1791 was transferred by appointment to the Senate, in which body he served until his death. Consult Boutelle, Life of Roger Sherman (Chi- cago, 1896). SHERMAN, Thomas We.st (1813-79). An American soldier, born at Newport. R. I. He graduated at West Point in 1836. and as second lieutenant took part in the Seminole War. He was promoted to be captain in 1846. served under General Taylor in the Jlexican War, and was brevetted major for gallant conduct at the battle of Bucna Vista. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Artillery, and soon afterwards was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. He commanded the land forces in the operations against Port Royal and the Sea Islands in the W'inter of 1861-62; commanded a division under General Banks at Port Hudson in 1863. where he lost a leg, and from that time until the close of the war commanded a reserve brigade of artillery and Forts Jackson and Saint Philip at New Orleans. On June 1, 1863, he was promoted to be colonel of the Third Artillery; on March 13, 1865, was brevetted brigadier-general in the Reg- ular Army for gallantry at Port Hiidson, and major-general in both the volunteer and the regu- lar armies for his services throughout the war, and on being mustered out of the volunteer service on April 30. 1866, took command of his regiment at Fort Adams, R. I. In 1870 he was placed on the retired list with the full rank of major-general in the United States Army. SHERMAN,, William Tecumseh (1820-91). A distinguished American soldier, born at Lan- caster, Ohio, on Feb. 8, 1820. He graduated at West Point in 1840, and afterwards was sta- tioned at several places in the South, during which time he devoted his spare moments to the study of law. Upon the outbreak of the war with Mexico he was sent around the Horn to Cali- fornia, where he served as acting assistant ad- jutant-general. Returning to the East in 1850, he was appointed captain in the Commissary Department, with headquarters first at Saint Louis and later at New Orleans. In Septem- ber, 1853, he resigned from the army and en- gaged in the banking business in San Fran- cisco, where he remained luitil 1857. He then engaged in business for a brief period in New York ; in 1859 he began the practice of law in Kansas; in 1860 became superintendent of a military academy in Louisiana, and at the begin- ning of the Civil War was pi'esident of a street railway company in Saint Louis. In May, 1861. he reentered the army as colonel of the Thir- teenth Infantry, and a few weeks later was ap- pointed brigadier-general. His first active sers'ice was in the first battle of Bull Run. where his brigade lost heavily. In August. 1861, he was detached from the Army of the Potomac and sent to take command in Kentucl<y under General Robert Anderson. Sherman succeeded him in full command on October 17th. It was at this time that he became the target for ridicule on aceoimt of his declaration that 200,000 men would be required to end the war in the West. The opinion was regarded as that of a crazy man and he was relieved of his command by General Buell in November and was ordered to report to General Halleek, then commanding the Department of Jlissouri. After