The true policy is to rise above these narrow family divisions, and, without disparagement of any Republican, unite in the most active and zealous efforts against the common enemy.
John Sherman
The Public Record
John Sherman was an American politician from Ohio who served in federal office throughout the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. A member of the Republican Party, he served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He also served as Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State. Sherman sought the Republican presidential nomination three times, coming closest in 1888, but was never chosen by the party. Between 1861 and 1897, John Sherman served in the U.S. Senate for nearly 32 years and holds the record for longest serving senator from the state of Ohio.
gutenberg.org
From my view of the canvass the strength of our position now is in the honesty and success of the administration.
The argument of the 'solid south' is well enough in its way, and ought not to be overlooked, but we should also press those questions which lie close to the homes and interests of our own people.
I think our friends should push the business aspect of the campaign with greater vigor than they are doing, especially the tariff question which so deeply affects the interests of manufacturers and laborers.
I have learned certainly that the Democrats intend to make a powerful raid upon Ohio, for the double purpose of beating us if they can, and specially in hopes that they may draw off our forces in Indiana.
I have not known the Republicans of that state so confident in six years as they now are, and every available help should be given them to win the fight.
Indiana is now more thoroughly organized by our people than it has been for many years, and I believe that nothing can defeat us, except importations and purchases by the Democracy.
The lapse of time has had a healing effect upon both sections, and it is to be hoped that hereafter parties will not be divided on sectional lines.
I narrated the gross crimes of the Ku-Klux Klan and kindred associations to control the elections in the south, and the attempted bribery of an elector in Oregon.
As you do not disclaim the language to which I called your attention, I have only to say that in using it you uttered what was absolutely false, and what you knew to be false.
But for these crimes the boast attributed to you, that one hundred and thirty-eight solid southern votes would be cast for the Democratic ticket, would be but idle vaporing; but now we feel that it is a sober truth.
These crimes are all aimed at the civil political rights of Republicans in the south, and, as I believe, but for these agencies, the very state that you represent, as well as many other states in the south, would be represented, both in…
Still, you and your associates, leading men in the south, now enjoy benefits of political power derived from the atrocities of the Ku- Klux Klan, in which phrase I include all the numerous aliases by which it has, from time to time, been…
This question, however, is a very delicate one to discuss in popular assemblages, and I propose, therefore, in my speeches, to make only the faintest allusions to it, not surrendering, however, our views upon the subject, for upon this, I…
I regard Indiana and New York as the pivotal states, and there the struggle should be.
I now propose to write a political letter in response to one from Chicago, which I believe will have a wider circulation than a campaign speech.
You have saved the Republican party and the country from a great peril, and assured the continued success of Republican principles.
I congratulate you with all my heart upon your nomination as President of the United States.
Whenever the vote of Ohio will be likely to assure the nomination of Garfield, I appeal to every delegate to vote for him.
His hand was seen in the workmanship of those statutes that restored the unity of the states.
He aided to formulate the laws that raised our great armies, and carried us through the war.
Not one great beneficent law has been placed on our statute books without his intelligent and powerful aid.
Should it be my fortune to become President, or should it fall to the lot of any Republican, no one elected could afford to do less than invite Secretary Sherman to remain where he is." The folly of a few men made co-operation…
He is as eminently fit for President as any man in America, and should he be nominated all I am capable of doing will be done to aid in his election.
We should meet and act as though we were of one mind, until those delegates who are hostile to you refuse to act with us, and if we fail to win them over, the separation will be their act, not ours.
Politicians like John Sherman
