John Sherman: “Many men, struggling under loads of debt, found the weight of their obligations growing upon them faster than their…”

Though my grateful thanks are due to them and have been often expressed, yet I have felt, as they do, that my duty was to the whole country.

During forty years of public life, though many able men have aspired to the office I hold, the people of Ohio, through their general assembly, have preferred me to represent them.

What I have written is no doubt clouded with partisanship, but I would not be honest if I did not express my attachment to my party.

If my life is prolonged I will do all I can to add to the strength and prosperity of the United States, but nothing to extend its limits or to add new dangers by acquisition of foreign territory.