REVERDY JOHNSON (1796-1833). Maryland Statesman who served as U.S. Attorney General (1849-1850), U.S. Senator from Maryland (1841-1849) and (1863-1868); U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom (1868-1869); Strong Civil War supporter of the Union; famous Defense Attorney for Mary Surratt in the Abraham Lincoln Assassination Trial.
October 14, 1865-Dated Civil War Era, Autograph Letter Signed as U.S. Senator from Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, 3 pages, measuring 8” x 5” written in deep brown ink on white wove period paper, Very Fine. To Senator John Sherman,(1823-1900), the brother of General William Tecumseh Sherman; U.S. Senator from Ohio, 1861-1877 and 1881-1897; U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, 1877-1881; U.S. Secretary of State, 1897-1898. This personal unrecorded ALS has good content, expressing hope that Sherman was to be reelected to the Senate, noting that nearly the entire Senate hopes for such a result, "upon public as well as political considerations.” Both men served in the Senate simultaneously. Sherman from 1861, and Johnson took a Senate seat again in 1863, serving through 1868. They would have crossed paths constantly on the floor during 1863-1868, particularly in the Reconstruction debates that heated up once Congress reconvened in December 1865. Some modest edge tone and traces of prior mounting on the blank reverse. This unrecorder personal political letter reads, in full:

"Balt. 14 Oct'r '65 -- My Dear Sherman, --- As your Elections are now over, I suppose you can tell with some certainty, whether you will be reelected to the Senate. If you can, please let me know. --- In common with, I am sure, nearly, if not all the members of the body feel a lively interest in such a result as this, upon public as well as political considerations. -- Yrs Sincerely -- (Signed) Reverdy Johnson --- (to) Hnble John Sherman, Mansfield, Ohio"

Their actual working relationship was on the Senate floor, 1863-1868. Both men served simultaneously in the 38th, 39th, and 40th Congresses, and their interactions are captured in the Congressional Globe rather than in private letters. The key intersections:

Thirteenth Amendment (1864-65). Johnson broke with pro-slavery associations in an 1864 Senate speech, advocating the constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery, and in 1865 supported the 13th Amendment. Sherman voted for it as well, a rare point of agreement between the Ohio Republican and the Maryland Democrat.
Reverdy Johnson (May 21, 1796 - February 10, 1876) was an American politician, statesman, and jurist from Annapolis, Maryland. He gained fame as a defense attorney, defending notables such as Sandford of the Dred Scott case, Major General Fitz John Porter at his courts-martial, and Mary Surratt, conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. A former Whig, he was a strong supporter of the Union war effort.

At first he opposed wartime efforts to Abolish Slavery until 1864, and yet in 1865 he supported the 13th Amendment banning Slavery. Johnson served as United States Minister to the United Kingdom from 1868 to 1869.

Senator John Sherman and Reverdy Johnson were both U.S. Senators. Their actual working relationship was on the Senate floor, 1863-1868. Both men served simultaneously in the 38th, 39th, and 40th Congresses, and their interactions are captured in the Congressional Globe rather than in private letters.

Their key intersections:

Thirteenth Amendment (1864-65). Johnson broke with pro-slavery associations in an 1864 Senate speech, advocating the constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery, and in 1865 supported the 13th Amendment. Sherman voted for it as well, a rare point of agreement between the Ohio Republican and the Maryland Democrat.



Reconstructd. Sherman was a Republican moderate who joined in overriding President Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and voted for the Fourteenth Amendment. Reverdy Johnson was a conservative Democrat who attended the 1866 National Union Convention supporting President Johnson. As the leading constitutional lawyer in the Senate, Reverdy Johnson regularly sparred with Republicans (Sherman included) over the constitutionality of the Reconstruction Acts, though he notably helped negotiate final passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Senate.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868). Both sat as jurors in the Senate trial. They voted opposite ways Sherman voted to convict, with the total falling one vote short of the two-thirds needed, while Reverdy Johnson voted to acquit. Interestingly, Reverdy Johnson's report on the National Union Convention proceedings was entered into the record of the impeachment trial.

John Sherman (1823-1900) was one of the most prominent political figures associated with Mansfield, Ohio, and 1865 fell right in the middle of his long career. Sherman was a lawyer who settled in Mansfield in the 1840s and made it his lifelong home. He was the younger brother of General William Tecumseh Sherman, whose famous March to the Sea had just concluded as 1865 began.

Sherman was serving as a U.S. Senator from Ohio, having moved from the House of Representatives to the Senate in 1861. He sat on (and would soon chair) the Senate Finance Committee, making him one of the most influential figures in wartime and postwar financial policy. In 1865 the big issues on his desk were financing the end of the Civil War, managing the enormous national debt, dealing with greenback currency questions, and the beginning of Reconstruction debates following Lincoln's assassination in April of that year.

He went on to serve as Secretary of the Treasury under Hayes, returned to the Senate, authored the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, and finished as Secretary of State under McKinley.
[Reconstruction Era, Maryland, Civil War] [Reverdy Johnson, John Sherman, Thirteenth Amendment] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Autographs]