He sat near General Scott and not far from Webster, and heard the whole of the speech. He has recorded that it was heavy in the extreme, and he was disappointed and tired long before it was finished. The speech could not, in Sherman's estimation, be compared with Mr. Clay's efforts.
At the end of July all the family went home to Lancaster and Sherman was soon sent to St. Louis. In September, 1852, he was sent thence to New Orleans. But he soon applied for and obtained a leave of absence, desiring to go to San Francisco with a view to settling there. So he sent his family back to Ohio and went himself to California by the way of Nicaragua. When he boarded the steamer bound from San Juan del Sur for San Francisco there was a great rush for state-rooms. Just as he had secured his, a lady who had been a fellow-passenger from New Orleans asked him to secure one for her and her lady friend. The purser answered that there was not another left, and so put down their names for the other two berths in Sherman's state-room, promising to make other arrangements as soon as the vessel was off. So down went the entry, "Captain Sherman and ladies." A few minutes later the purser gave Sherman a berth in another state-room, so that the two ladies had the room to themselves. At every meal the steward invited Sherman to bring "his ladies" to the table, and they had the best seats there. The two ladies were, Sherman says, the most modest and best behaved on the ship. But soon after his arrival at San Francisco he discovered that one of them at least—the one who had asked him to secure the state-room for her—was a notorious woman.
It was a poor ship they travelled in, and the weather was foggy. In trying to make San Francisco harbor they ran aground, and Sherman went off in a small boat to reach the city and bring help. He came near getting drowned, but finally reached the city and sent back help to the stranded vessel. All the passengers were taken off and brought to the city in safety and the next night the ship went to pieces. Had even a slight storm arisen when they ran aground, probably not one of the passengers would have escaped.
Sherman now went into business in San Francisco. In the summer of 1853 he returned East and took his family back to the Pacific coast. On September 6th he resigned his commission in the army and devoted himself earnestly to various business enterprises, but the unhealthy state of speculation disgusted him. Presently there was a financial panic, in which Sherman and those associated with him lost considerably. But he held on there with varying fortunes until the spring of 1857, when he returned with his family to New York. Again in 1858, he went to San Francisco and closed up his business there, making full payment of all dues and then after some experience in St. Louis and elsewhere, settled his family at Lancaster in the fall of 1859.
Among his various adventures at this period was the practice of law. The young Ewings, his brothers-in-law, were establishing themselves as lawyers at Leavenworth, Kansas, and Sherman, after living for some time on a farm of 160 acres which he owned, near Topeka, joined their law firm. For two years he strove to be a lawyer, but with indifferent success. While the Ewings rose rapidly among the foremost leaders in the law and the politics of the State, their eccentric office partner gained but little influence and no prominence; the citizens knew little of him. "It happened one day," says an old copy of The Leavenworth Conservative, "that Sherman was compelled to appear before the Probate Judge, Gardner, we believe. The other partners were busy; and so Sherman, with his authorities and his case all mapped out, proceeded to court. He returned in a rage two hours after. Something had gone wrong. He had been pettifogged out of the case by a sharp petty attorney opposed to him in a way which was disgusting to his intellect and his convictions. His amour propre was hurt, and he declared that he would have nothing to do with the law in Kansas. That afternoon the business was closed, partnership dissolved, and in a very short time Sherman was on his way to a more congenial clime and occupation.
[CHAPTER V.]
THE CRISIS OF A CAREER.
Sherman in the Prime or Manhood—Great Events Approaching—How He Came to be a Schoolmaster—Organization of the Seminary—Political Talk—His View on Slavery—The Campaign of 1860 and Election of Lincoln—Secession—Sherman's Prompt Decision to Stand by the Union—Resignation of His Principalship—Departure for the North—Fate of the Seminary.
Sherman's real history begins with 1859. Up to that time, as we have seen, his life was one of preparation, checkered, adventurous, often picturesque, always earnest. Yet it comprised no word or act of vital import or permanent value to the world. Whether hunting in Florida, or mingling in gay society at Charleston, or watching the rush for gold and the rise of a new State in California, or banking in New York, or practicing law in Kansas, he did nothing that unfolded his own character to the fullest extent, or seriously impressed the history of the nation. The most interesting personal feature of those years was his long courtship and happy marriage; the incident of most public value, undreamed of at the time, was his horseback journeys through Northern Georgia. Neither of these, however, had his career been ended at that time, would have secured him more than a local and a transient fame. The work of his life yet lay before him.