It has protected our flag on every sea; not the stars and bars, not the flag of a state, but the stars and stripes of the Union.
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.
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It has done more than any party that ever existed to provide lands for the landless.
It supports free common schools as the basis of republican institutions.
While it respects religion for its beneficial influence upon civil society, it recognizes the right of each individual to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, without prejudice or interference.
It has secured, for the first time in our history, the rights of a naturalized citizen to protection against claims of military duty in his native country.
It invites them all to partake of equal privileges, and secures them an equal chance in life.
It opposes all distinctions among men, whether white or black, native or naturalized.
It has tried to secure the equality of all citizens before the law.
It maintains the supremacy of the national government on all national affairs, while observing and protecting the rights of the states.
It has never deprived any class of people, for any cause, of the elective franchise.
It emancipated a whole race, and has invested them with liberty and all the rights of citizenship.
It has always taken side with the poor and the feeble.
It led our country in the great struggle for union and nationality, which more than all else tended to make it great and powerful.
To err is human; but where it has erred it has always been on the side of liberty and justice.
We demand the immediate calling-in and payment of all United States bonds in full legal tender money.
The national banking system should be immediately abolished.
The general government should issue an ample volume of full legal tender currency to meet the business needs of the country, and to promptly pay all of its debts.
To now accept the nomination for governor, though it is an honor I would otherwise highly prize and feel deeply grateful for, would be justly regarded as a abandonment of a trust important to the whole country, to promote my personal…
I am now engaged in a public duty which demands my constant attention and which can clearly better be completed by me than by anyone coming freshly into the office.
If the present policy prevails, we shall be able to borrow all the money needed for national uses for less than four per cent., perhaps as low as three.
Some of my newspaper friends here have tried to make me a candidate for Governor of Ohio, but I hope none of you will vote for me in convention or before the people.
The President very truly said that any appearance of a personal hostility or opposition to General Grant, would be inconsistent with my constant support of his administration during eight years, and would induce a concentration that would…
The feeling is growing daily that General Grant will not allow his name to be used and that, while his eminent services should be fully recognized and rewarded, it is neither right nor politic to elect him to the presidency for the third…
The true issue for 1880 is national supremacy in national matters, honest money and an honest dollar.
I would do this, not for the purpose of irritating the south or oppressing them in any way, but to assert and maintain the supremacy of national authority to the full extent of all the powers conferred by the constitution.
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