John builded wisely.

"He took the treasury at a period when it was little more than a
great national bank of discount, with rates varying from day to
day; the coin standard a commodity of speculation on Wall street;
the credit of the government a football in the markets of the world;
and our bonds begging favor of European capitalists. He leaves it
what it ought to be--a treasury pure and simple, making no discounts,
offering no concessions, asking no favors; the board that once
speculated in coin as a commodity abolished, doors closed by reason
of occupation gone; the credit of our government at the head of
the list of Christendom; since we are launching at par a three per
cent. consol, which even England, banking house of the universe,
has never yet been able to maintain steadily above 97.

"This is no small achievement to stand as the record of four years.
It is an achievement that entitles the man who accomplished it to
rank as one of the four great American financiers who really deserve
the title--Robert Morris, Albert Gallatin, Salmon P. Chase, and
John Sherman.

"We take off our hat to John; not because we like him personally,
but because we admire the force of character, the power of intellect
and the courage of conviction that enabled him to face his
difficulties, surmount his obstacles and overcome the resistance
he met.

"The treasury he took up in 1877 was a battle ground. The treasury
he resigns to his successor in 1881 is a well-ordered machine of
red tape and routine, requiring for its future successful administration
little else than mediocrity, method and _laissez faire_. As we
said before, we take off our hat to John. He is not a magnetic
man like Blaine, not a lovable man like our poor, dear friend Matt.
Carpenter, not a brilliant man like our Lamar; not like any of
these--warm of temperament, captivating of presence or dazzling of
intellectual luminosity; but he is a great man, strong in the cold,
steadfast nerve that he inherits from his ancestor, and respectable
in the symmetry of an intellect which, like a marble masterpiece,
leaves nothing to regret except the thought that its perfection
excludes the blemish of a soul. John Sherman will figure creditably
in history. Mankind soon forgets the sentimental acrimony of the
moment, provoked by the suffering of harsh processes, and remembers
only the grand results. Thus John Sherman will figure in history
as the man who resumed specie pay