In
a word, he lacked the saving sense of humor--the quality which endeared
Abraham Lincoln to the whole nation.
Another Ohioan who loomed large in the history of the time was John
Sherman, a lawyer like all the rest, a member of Congress since 1855,
not at first a great opponent of slavery, but drawn into the battle by
his allegiance to the Republican party, forming an alliance with
Thaddeus Stevens, and collaborating with him in the production of the
reconstruction act. He was appointed secretary of the treasury by
President Hayes, in 1876, and his great work for the country was done in
that office, in re-establishing the credit which the Civil War had
shaken. He, also, was bitten by the presidential bacillus, and was a
candidate for the nomination at three conventions, but each time fell
short of the goal--once when he had it seemingly within his grasp. A
stern, forceful, capable man, he left his impress upon the times.
* * * * *
Of the men who guided the fortunes of the Confederacy, only two need be
mentioned here--Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens; for, rich as
the Confederacy was in generals, it was undeniably poor in statesmen.
The golden age of the South had departed; with John C. Calhoun passed
away the last really commanding figure among Dixie's statesmen, and from
him to Jefferson Davis is a long step downward.
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