John Sherman

I called attention to the achievements of the Republican party during the past twenty-five years in war and in peace.

I said that Governor Foster was entitled to renomination, and I believed would receive it at the hands of the convention, that his able and earnest canvass two years before had laid the foundation for a great victory, culminating in the…

Indeed, I think it is better for the country than any refunding plan that would be carried out under a new law.

My sympathy was with Mahone, as I felt that, whatever his view of the debt question in Virginia was, he was right on the reconstruction of the south and in opposition to the bitter sectionalism of the Democratic party in that state.

I came here, sir, as a Virginian, to represent my people, not to represent the Democracy for which you stand.

Mankind soon forgets the sentimental acrimony of the moment, provoked by the suffering of harsh processes, and remembers only the grand results.

And it is but common frankness to say of him, even as one would give the devil his due, that he builded wiser than we knew--possibly wiser than he knew himself.

And yet there are few reasoning men to be found now ready to deny that it was for the best, and, taken all in all, a benefaction to the country; one of those sad cases, in fact, where it is necessary to be cruel in order to be kind.

Many men, struggling under loads of debt, found the weight of their obligations growing upon them faster than their power to meet, and they succumbed.

That which had been bought for a dollar worth sixty cents, must be paid for with a dollar worth eighty, ninety, or a hundred cents, according to the date on which the contract matured.

He went out of office at the close of his term with the hearty respect of the American people, and his administration may be placed as among the most beneficial and satisfactory in the history of the republic.

Among the multitude of public men I have met I have known no one who held a higher sense of his duty to his country, and more faithfully discharged that duty, than President Hayes.

In all stages of our history we have preserved the public faith by the honest discharge of every obligation.

Among the many incidents in my life I recall this as one of the happiest, when the bitterness and strife of political contests were laid aside and kindness and charity took their place.

We never brought Ohio quarrels before the Senate of the United States, and always found that honesty and ability were entirely consistent with gentlemanly courtesy between political opponents.

If any man could be chosen from the State of Ohio to advocate in the American Senate the principles of the Democratic party, there is no man in Ohio, or in the United States, more deserving of that honor than Allen G.

I am glad to know and feel the assurance that you now believe that, under the trying circumstances, I did the best I could to advance the common interest of our common country.

And now, having been elected by you under those adverse circumstances, I feel my heart overflowing with gratitude, and have no words with which to utter my thanks.

I was compelled to say 'No' a thousand times where I would gladly have said 'Yes.' I was compelled to decline the advice of men honestly given for a good purpose, because in my judgment that advice would not promote the public good.

All the evils that fell upon society in the United States during the period, all the grave distress, was simply attributed to me as a fault.

As a great financier he stands as a peer with Hamilton, with Chase.

To him, perhaps, more than to any other one man, is due the resumption of specie payments and the prosperity of this people to-day.

No words can express my sense of grateful obligation to the people of Ohio for their long continued partiality.

It will destroy confidence and surely check the growing prosperity of the country.

The withdrawal of the currency from circulation of the national banks, and then enforced winding up of the banks in consequence, would inevitably bring a serious embarrassment and disaster to the business of the country.