Having little official business on hand, Sherman and some of his comrades made a contract with Colonel J. B. Stevenson to survey his projected city of "New York of the Pacific" at the mouth of San Joaquin River and to mark out a channel through Suisun Bay. For this they were well paid, but the city never was built. After this Sherman surveyed a large ranch in Sacramento Valley and had some lively experiences with grizzly bears. All his earnings he invested in real estate at Sacramento, on which he made good profit. He was an interested witness of the great rush of prospectors to the coast in 1849, of the organization of government under a State Constitution, the election of Fremont and Gwin as Senators, and all the picturesque scenes that the rising community in those days presented.
SHERMAN ENTERING U. S. SENATE.
In the fall of 1849 his friend Warner was surveying Feather River and its source, Goose Lake. While engaged in that work he was murdered by Indians, and Sherman was much shocked and grieved at the loss. It was impossible at that time to punish his murderers, and it was not until the next Spring that his scattered bones were found and buried.
Sherman now became anxious to return to the East, chiefly, it is surmised, on account of his old playmate at Lancaster. Accordingly, he induced General Smith to send him home with dispatches. In January, 1850, he went down to Monterey to bid his friends there good-bye, and then took passage on a steamer for Panama. There they crossed the Isthmus, partly on mule-back and partly in a canoe. Thence they made their way to New York by steamer. Senator Gwin, Ord and A. J. Smith were members of the party, and Sherman brought along two Spanish boys from Monterey to put into college at Georgetown, D. C. Sherman's party on reaching New York put up at Delmonico's Hotel, on Bowling Green. The next day Sherman went to General Scott's office and delivered General Smith's dispatches, and was "ordered" (not invited) to dine with him the next day. At the dinner General Scott entertained his guests with stories of the Mexican war. Sherman felt deeply the fact that the country had passed through a foreign war and that his comrades had participated in great battles, while he himself had not even heard a hostile shot. He thought that his last chance was gone and his career as a soldier at an end. But Scott startled him with the prophecy that the country would soon be plunged into a terrific civil war.
After a few days in New York, General Scott sent him on to Washington. Mr. Ewing was then Secretary of the Interior, and Sherman, of course, became a member of his family. Sherman soon went to call on President Taylor at the White House. He had never seen him before, though he had served under him in Florida in 1840–41. He had a long and very pleasant chat with him, and was, he says, most agreeably surprised at his fine personal appearance, and his pleasant, easy manners.
As soon as possible Sherman obtained six months' leave of absence. He visited his mother at Mansfield, Ohio, and then returned to Washington. There, on May 1st, 1850, he was married to his first and only love, Ellen Boyle Ewing. The ceremony occurred at the house of Mr. Ewing, on Pennsylvania Avenue, opposite the War Department building. A large and distinguished company attended, including President Taylor and all the members of his Cabinet, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Thomas H. Benton, and many other prominent statesmen. The young couple made a wedding journey to Baltimore, New York, Niagara Falls and Ohio, returning to Washington on July 1st.
President Taylor took part in the celebration of the Fourth of July, and immediately afterward was taken ill and died. Sherman was present in the gallery of the Senate chamber when Fillmore took the oath of office and succeeded to the Presidency. He also attended General Taylor's funeral as an Aid-de-Camp.
Important political changes soon came on, which were watched by Sherman with much interest. Mr. Ewing resigned his office as Secretary of the Interior and became Senator. Sherman listened to many of the interesting debates that took place in the Senate at this time. He heard Webster's last speech in the Senate before he entered Fillmore's Cabinet. Learning that Webster was to make a speech, he went to the Capitol at an early hour, but found all the galleries already overcrowded. Anxious to hear the speech, he appealed to Senator Corwin, who asked him what he wanted. Sherman said he wanted him to take him to the floor of the Senate, adding that he had often seen from the gallery persons on the floor no better than he was. Corwin asked him in a quizzical way if he was a foreign ambassador. Sherman said he was not. A Governor of a State? No. A member of the House of Representatives? No. Ever received a vote of thanks from either house? No. Well, Corwin explained, those were the only persons entitled to go upon the floor; but there was just one other chance. "Have you any impudence?" "Yes, if occasion calls for it." "Could you become so interested in talking with me as not to see that door-keeper?" "Yes, if you will tell me one of your funny stories." So Corwin took Sherman's arm and walked around the vestibule for a few minutes with him, and then led him through the doorway into the Senate Chamber. The door-keeper began asking him if he was an Ambassador, or Governor, or Representative, but Sherman paid no attention to him, pretending to be so absorbed in Corwin's story as not to hear him. Once in, Corwin told the young man to take care of himself, and he did so.