Explaining John Sherman: Leader of the Second American Revolution

Explaining John Sherman has an importance that goes beyond the activities of one midwestern politician. Although his older brother, Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, is better known today, John had a far greater impact on nineteenth-century America. His public career stretched from the late 1840s to the end of the century. No single figure was more important in shaping the policies of the early Republican Party or in laying the basis for the broad set of changes called the "Second American Revolution." Thus, explaining John Sherman sheds light on the direction of the party he helped establish, as well as the creation of the modern industrial state.¹

The arc of Sherman's career suggests the central role he played during a half-century in politics, and the respect his colleagues accorded him. Sherman entered politics as a Whig but, angered by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, became a founder of the Republican Party. Elected to Congress from Ohio in 1854, he soon stood out for his legislative skills and clear sense of purpose. Passing over more senior members, the Speaker in 1856 chose Sherman and two other lawmakers to investigate conditions in Kansas. With Sherman doing most of the work, the committee produced a 1,300-page report that excoriated the proslavery forces and provided an extraordinary source of information for Republican partisans inside and outside Congress. In the ensuing debates, Sherman distinguished himself by his passionate opposition to the spread of slavery and the clarity of his vision for the economy. When the thirty-sixth Congress convened in December 1859, Sherman was the overwhelming choice of the Republicans for Speaker. But the Ohioan had inadvertently signed a memorial endorsing Hinton Rowan Helper's abolitionist tract and on a series of ballots fell three votes short of a majority. After two months of fruitless divisions, Sherman withdrew. He became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee (the second most important position in the House) and helped guide the Morrill tariff through Congress.

Republicans agreed that had Sherman remained in the House after secession, they would have elected him Speaker. However, in 1861 the Ohio legislature elevated Sherman to the Senate, providing him with a new forum for his views and a new base of power. He took the lead in pushing through legislation for the National Banking System, income tax, and the new greenback currency. During Reconstruction he was a strong supporter of the Fourteenth Amendment and helped author the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Sherman continued to shape financial policy, and was largely responsible for demonetizing silver—the so-called "Crime of 1873." He then helped partially reverse that decision, securing the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890. His antimonopoly sentiments were embodied in the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. He served as secretary of the treasury under President Hayes and secretary of state under William McKinley. Sherman did not achieve all his goals, and in the age of the spoilsmen and all-powerful monopolies he was often out of step with his party. But no single Republican was more influential during the second half of the nineteenth century.²

What motivated this man? Was Sherman driven by a concern for the fate of African Americans? The short answer is no; however, it is important to elaborate on that answer. After all, a significant group of Republicans were reformers before they became politicians. These individuals, including Charles Sumner, George Julian, Charles Francis Adams, and Salmon Chase, had long histories of opposing slavery and campaigning for the rights of free blacks. Sherman was not in that coterie.³

"I am no Abolitionist," Sherman announced in 1856. "I have always been a conservative Whig. I was willing to stand by all the compromises—of 1850 and all." The Kansas Nebraska Act jarred Sherman loose from his old political moorings and made him among the first to join the Republican Party. But before the war his goal was preserving the West for free settlers, not addressing the injustices of slavery. He emphatically rejected abolition. During...