But when he reached Illinois and Ohio and other Northern States, the scene was entirely changed. All was calm and placid. No one seemed seriously to think of serious trouble. The commercial instinct prevailed. Men were too busy making money to pay attention to politics. Others felt too secure in the established order of things to believe that any great change was at hand. Sherman was impressed with the idea that either the North had no adequate realization of the true state of affairs, which was scarcely credible, or, which seemed far more likely, it would tamely submit to a dissolution of the Union. The supine weakness of Buchanan had not aroused the North to shame, nor had the aggressive treason of the conspirators who surrounded him excited its righteous wrath. It is related that Horace Greeley, on hearing of the manner in which a long-suffering but at last indignant public had overwhelmingly routed at the polls the venal ring that had long plundered and oppressed it, threw up his hands in exultation and exclaimed with an oath, "This is a great people when it gets mad!" The North had not yet "got mad," and its greatness was not yet apparent.
Soon after coming North, Sherman proceeded to Washington, where Lincoln had just been inaugurated as President, John Sherman was now a Republican leader in the Senate, having been appointed in place of Chase, who had entered the Cabinet. Washington was enough of a southern city to be filled with war talk. Sherman's old friend, Anderson, had just moved his troops from Fort Moultrie into Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, and had announced his patriotic determination to hold that post for the Government at all hazards. Southern members of Congress and office holders in the Departments, even in the War Department, were openly talking treason of the rankest kind.
Sherman was one day at this time taken by his brother John to the White House, where he had a long interview with the President. On learning that Sherman had just come from the South, Lincoln inquired of him "how they were getting along down there." Said Sherman, "They think they are getting along swimmingly. They are preparing for war." "Oh, well," replied Lincoln, "I guess we'll manage to keep house." This remark greatly disappointed Sherman and he changed the subject as quickly as possible. As he left the White House, however, he relieved his mind most emphatically to his brother. "John," he exclaimed fiercely, "you damned politicians have got things in a hell of a fix, and you may get out of them as you best can!"
Thoroughly disgusted with Washington and the politicians, Sherman went back to Lancaster. His brother John begged him to remain at the Capitol and to be more patient with the President, but the impetuous soldier would not listen to him. At Lancaster he found letters from friends at St. Louis urging him to come on there and assume the presidency of a street railroad, which was sure to prove profitable. He quickly decided to do so, and on March 27th set out for St. Louis with his family. On April 1st they took possession of a house on Locust street, where Charles Ewing and John Hunter, law partners, boarded with them. Sherman was elected president of the street railroad company, which had a paying line in full operation, and tried to devote himself strictly to business. This, however, was impossible. The air was full of politics and of war. The Governor of Missouri and all the leading politicians openly sympathized with the seceding States. The troops at the State Camp of Instruction in Lindell's Grove were commanded by a Southern sympathizer, although he was a Northerner and a West Point man. There were, however, some loyal men about, among them being John M. Schofield, B. Gratz Brown, Clinton B. Fisk and Frank Blair—whose brother, Montgomery Blair was in Lincoln's Cabinet. These patriotic men had organized, chiefly among the German population of the city, four or five regiments of loyal "Home Guards." Nathaniel Lyon, also, kept his handful of Federal troops at the arsenal true to the Nation. Day by day the situation grew more strained. Sherman tried to keep out of the trouble, and talked freely with only a few intimate friends. But day by day it became more evident that a tremendous conflict was close at hand, and day by day the earnest soldier and ardent patriot felt himself more strongly drawn away from his street railroad and toward the defence of the Nation.
Meantime he was not forgotten at Washington, where his brother John was strongly urging his interests. On April 6th he received a telegraphic dispatch from the Postmaster-General, Montgomery Blair, saying: "Will you accept the chief clerkship of the War Department? We will make you Assistant Secretary of War when Congress meets." Sherman promptly telegraphed back, "I cannot accept," and then wrote by mail as follows:
"I received, about nine o'clock Saturday night, your telegraph dispatch, which I have this moment answered, 'I cannot accept.' I have quite a large family, and when I resigned my place in Louisiana, on account of secession, I had no time to lose; and, therefore, after my hasty visit to Washington, where I saw no chance of employment, I came to St. Louis, have accepted a place in this company, have rented a house, and incurred other obligations, so that I am not at liberty to change. I thank you for the compliment contained in your offer, and assure you that I wish the Administration all success in its almost impossible task of governing this distracted and anarchical people."
This letter gave great offence at Washington, and some members of the Cabinet prophesied that Sherman would join the secessionists. Another attempt, however, was soon made to secure his services for the Government, this time personally by Frank Blair. Blair asked Sherman to come to his house one night, and there told him that the Government had determined to relieve General Harney, who then commanded the Military Department of Missouri, and that a change would soon be made. "It is in my power," said Blair, "to appoint a Brigadier-General to command the Department, and if you will take the place you shall have it." Sherman replied that he had already, while in Washington, offered his services to the Government, and that they had been declined; he had now made business engagements which he could not readily break; and that while the offer was complimentary and tempting, he must decline it. Blair argued the point with him for some time, but to no avail, and soon thereafter Nathaniel Lyon was appointed to the place.
The attack upon Fort Sumter by the Charleston insurgents at last startled the North, although even then not many seemed to realize the magnitude of the struggle that had begun. Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for three months, thinking this force would be sufficient to suppress the rebellion. But Sherman regarded this movement with contempt. "You might as well attempt to put out the flames of a burning house with a squirt gun," he exclaimed, indignantly. And again, "You want to organize the whole military power of the North at once for a desperate struggle." A little later, at Washington, talking with Murat Halstead, the editor of The Cincinnati Commercial, he said: "You don't know anything about this people. Why, if we should have a reverse beyond the Potomac, the very women of this city would cut the throats of our wounded with case knives." So while Sherman's loyalty was doubted by some, others began to regard him as an alarmist.
The call of patriotism presently become louder and more urgent than the demands of business, and on May 8th Sherman wrote as follows to Simon Cameron, Secretary of War:
"I hold myself, now, as always, prepared to serve my country in the capacity for which I was trained. I did not and will not volunteer for three months, because I cannot throw my family on the cold charity of the world. But for the three years' call, made by the President, an officer can prepare his command and do good service. I will not volunteer as a soldier, because rightfully or wrongfully I feel unwilling to take a mere private's place, and, having for many years lived in California and Louisiana, the men are not well enough acquainted with me to elect me to my appropriate place. Should my services be needed, the records of the War Department will enable you to designate the station in which I can render most service."