SHERMAN, JOHN (1823-1900). An Ameri can statesman, born at Lancaster, Ohio. He was admitted to the bar in 1844, and settled at Mansfield, Ohio. He was a member of Congress from 1855 until 1877, first in the House, and after 1861 in the Senate. His ability as a speaker awl his familiarity with public affairs made him an influential member from the first. In 1859 he was the Republican candidate for Speaker of the House and came within three votes of election. After his defeat for the Speakership he was made chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the House and was instrumental in improving the financial condition of the Government. In the Senate he served as chairman of the Finance Com mittee, and took a conspicuous part in the advocacy of the issue of legal-tender currency during the Civil War and of the bill to establish a national banking system. He was the author of the Refunding Act of 1870, and carried through the resolution announcing the purpose of the 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, 1888 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 be resigned from the Senate to become Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President McKinley. 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 \V. T. Sherman was edited by R. S. Thorndike in a volume published in New York in 1896.