Читать книгу Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman - Willis Fletcher Johnson - Страница 8

SHERMAN ENTERING U. S. SENATE.

In the fall of 1849 his friend Warner was surveying Feather River and its source, Goose Lake. While engaged in that work he was murdered by Indians, and Sherman was much shocked and grieved at the loss. It was impossible at that time to punish his murderers, and it was not until the next Spring that his scattered bones were found and buried.

Sherman now became anxious to return to the East, chiefly, it is surmised, on account of his old playmate at Lancaster. Accordingly, he induced General Smith to send him home with dispatches. In January, 1850, he went down to Monterey to bid his friends there good-bye, and then took passage on a steamer for Panama. There they crossed the Isthmus, partly on mule-back and partly in a canoe. Thence they made their way to New York by steamer. Senator Gwin, Ord and A. J. Smith were members of the party, and Sherman brought along two Spanish boys from Monterey to put into college at Georgetown, D. C. Sherman's party on reaching New York put up at Delmonico's Hotel, on Bowling Green. The next day Sherman went to General Scott's office and delivered General Smith's dispatches, and was "ordered" (not invited) to dine with him the next day. At the dinner General Scott entertained his guests with stories of the Mexican war. Sherman felt deeply the fact that the country had passed through a foreign war and that his comrades had participated in great battles, while he himself had not even heard a hostile shot. He thought that his last chance was gone and his career as a soldier at an end. But Scott startled him with the prophecy that the country would soon be plunged into a terrific civil war.

After a few days in New York, General Scott sent him on to Washington. Mr. Ewing was then Secretary of the Interior, and Sherman, of course, became a member of his family. Sherman soon went to call on President Taylor at the White House. He had never seen him before, though he had served under him in Florida in 1840–41. He had a long and very pleasant chat with him, and was, he says, most agreeably surprised at his fine personal appearance, and his pleasant, easy manners.

As soon as possible Sherman obtained six months' leave of absence. He visited his mother at Mansfield, Ohio, and then returned to Washington. There, on May 1st, 1850, he was married to his first and only love, Ellen Boyle Ewing. The ceremony occurred at the house of Mr. Ewing, on Pennsylvania Avenue, opposite the War Department building. A large and distinguished company attended, including President Taylor and all the members of his Cabinet, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Thomas H. Benton, and many other prominent statesmen. The young couple made a wedding journey to Baltimore, New York, Niagara Falls and Ohio, returning to Washington on July 1st.

President Taylor took part in the celebration of the Fourth of July, and immediately afterward was taken ill and died. Sherman was present in the gallery of the Senate chamber when Fillmore took the oath of office and succeeded to the Presidency. He also attended General Taylor's funeral as an Aid-de-Camp.

Important political changes soon came on, which were watched by Sherman with much interest. Mr. Ewing resigned his office as Secretary of the Interior and became Senator. Sherman listened to many of the interesting debates that took place in the Senate at this time. He heard Webster's last speech in the Senate before he entered Fillmore's Cabinet. Learning that Webster was to make a speech, he went to the Capitol at an early hour, but found all the galleries already overcrowded. Anxious to hear the speech, he appealed to Senator Corwin, who asked him what he wanted. Sherman said he wanted him to take him to the floor of the Senate, adding that he had often seen from the gallery persons on the floor no better than he was. Corwin asked him in a quizzical way if he was a foreign ambassador. Sherman said he was not. A Governor of a State? No. A member of the House of Representatives? No. Ever received a vote of thanks from either house? No. Well, Corwin explained, those were the only persons entitled to go upon the floor; but there was just one other chance. "Have you any impudence?" "Yes, if occasion calls for it." "Could you become so interested in talking with me as not to see that door-keeper?" "Yes, if you will tell me one of your funny stories." So Corwin took Sherman's arm and walked around the vestibule for a few minutes with him, and then led him through the doorway into the Senate Chamber. The door-keeper began asking him if he was an Ambassador, or Governor, or Representative, but Sherman paid no attention to him, pretending to be so absorbed in Corwin's story as not to hear him. Once in, Corwin told the young man to take care of himself, and he did so.

He sat near General Scott and not far from Webster, and heard the whole of the speech. He has recorded that it was heavy in the extreme, and he was disappointed and tired long before it was finished. The speech could not, in Sherman's estimation, be compared with Mr. Clay's efforts.

At the end of July all the family went home to Lancaster and Sherman was soon sent to St. Louis. In September, 1852, he was sent thence to New Orleans. But he soon applied for and obtained a leave of absence, desiring to go to San Francisco with a view to settling there. So he sent his family back to Ohio and went himself to California by the way of Nicaragua. When he boarded the steamer bound from San Juan del Sur for San Francisco there was a great rush for state-rooms. Just as he had secured his, a lady who had been a fellow-passenger from New Orleans asked him to secure one for her and her lady friend. The purser answered that there was not another left, and so put down their names for the other two berths in Sherman's state-room, promising to make other arrangements as soon as the vessel was off. So down went the entry, "Captain Sherman and ladies." A few minutes later the purser gave Sherman a berth in another state-room, so that the two ladies had the room to themselves. At every meal the steward invited Sherman to bring "his ladies" to the table, and they had the best seats there. The two ladies were, Sherman says, the most modest and best behaved on the ship. But soon after his arrival at San Francisco he discovered that one of them at least—the one who had asked him to secure the state-room for her—was a notorious woman.

It was a poor ship they travelled in, and the weather was foggy. In trying to make San Francisco harbor they ran aground, and Sherman went off in a small boat to reach the city and bring help. He came near getting drowned, but finally reached the city and sent back help to the stranded vessel. All the passengers were taken off and brought to the city in safety and the next night the ship went to pieces. Had even a slight storm arisen when they ran aground, probably not one of the passengers would have escaped.

Sherman now went into business in San Francisco. In the summer of 1853 he returned East and took his family back to the Pacific coast. On September 6th he resigned his commission in the army and devoted himself earnestly to various business enterprises, but the unhealthy state of speculation disgusted him. Presently there was a financial panic, in which Sherman and those associated with him lost considerably. But he held on there with varying fortunes until the spring of 1857, when he returned with his family to New York. Again in 1858, he went to San Francisco and closed up his business there, making full payment of all dues and then after some experience in St. Louis and elsewhere, settled his family at Lancaster in the fall of 1859.

Among his various adventures at this period was the practice of law. The young Ewings, his brothers-in-law, were establishing themselves as lawyers at Leavenworth, Kansas, and Sherman, after living for some time on a farm of 160 acres which he owned, near Topeka, joined their law firm. For two years he strove to be a lawyer, but with indifferent success. While the Ewings rose rapidly among the foremost leaders in the law and the politics of the State, their eccentric office partner gained but little influence and no prominence; the citizens knew little of him. "It happened one day," says an old copy of The Leavenworth Conservative, "that Sherman was compelled to appear before the Probate Judge, Gardner, we believe. The other partners were busy; and so Sherman, with his authorities and his case all mapped out, proceeded to court. He returned in a rage two hours after. Something had gone wrong. He had been pettifogged out of the case by a sharp petty attorney opposed to him in a way which was disgusting to his intellect and his convictions. His amour propre was hurt, and he declared that he would have nothing to do with the law in Kansas. That afternoon the business was closed, partnership dissolved, and in a very short time Sherman was on his way to a more congenial clime and occupation.