Sherman, J. S. (James Schoolcraft), 1855-1912

<p>James Schoolcraft Sherman (October 24, 1855 – October 30, 1912) was an American politician who was a United States representative from New York from 1887 to 1891 and 1893 to 1909, and the 27th vice president of the United States from 1909 until his death. He was a member of the interrelated Baldwin, Hoar, and Sherman families, prominent lawyers and politicians of New England and New York.</p>

<p>Although not a high-powered administrator, he made a natural congressional committee chairman, and his genial personality eased the workings of the House, so that he was known as 'Sunny Jim'. He was the first vice president to fly in a plane (1911), and also the first to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game.</p>

<p>Diagnosed with Bright's disease in 1904, Sherman's health was failing by the time of the 1912 campaign. Less than a week before the election, he died at home in Utica, six days after his 57th birthday, and President Taft was left with no running mate, although Nicholas Murray Butler was designated to receive the electoral votes that Sherman would have received. Taft and Butler came in third place in the election, carrying only eight electoral votes from Utah and Vermont. Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson and his running mate Thomas R. Marshall won the election while Progressive candidate Theodore Roosevelt and his running mate Hiram Johnson came in second place. The vice presidency remained vacant until Marshall's inauguration on March 4, 1913. </p>

<p>Sherman is the most recent vice president to have died in office.</p>

SHERMAN, JAMES SCHOOLCRAFT, a Representative from New York and a Vice President of the United States; born in Utica, N.Y., October 24, 1855; attended the public schools; pursued academic and collegiate courses and graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., in 1878; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1880 and commenced practice in Utica, N.Y.; president of the Utica Trust & Deposit Co. and of the New Hartford Canning Co.; mayor of Utica 1884; elected as a Republican to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses (March 4, 1887-March 3, 1891); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Justice Department (Fifty-first Congress); chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs (Fifty-fourth through Sixtieth Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress; elected to the Fifty-third and to the seven succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1893-March 3, 1909); was not a candidate for reelection, having been nominated as the Republican candidate for Vice President on the ticket with William Taft; elected Vice President of the United States in 1908 and served from March 4, 1909, until his death; had been renominated for Vice President in June 1912; died in Utica, Oneida County, N.Y., October 30, 1912; interment in Forest Hill Cemetery.

<p>James Schoolcraft Sherman was born in Utica, New York, on October 24, 1855, to Richard Updike Sherman and Mary Frances Schoolcraft Sherman. His father owned a canning factory and was active in Democratic politics. Sherman attended Hamilton College and graduated in 1878 after distinguishing himself in oratory and debate. He studied law there as well and received his law degree the year after his graduation. In 1880, he was admitted to the New York bar, and he married Carrie Babcock in 1881.</p>

<p>Breaking with his father, Sherman became a Republican. His father was displeased, but his displeasure was mitigated when Sherman was elected mayor of Utica at the age of twenty-nine. Two years after his election as mayor, in 1886, he won election the U.S. House of Representatives. Aside from two years after an unsuccessful reelection attempt in 1890, Sherman would remain in public office for the rest of his life.</p>

<p>During his twenty-year career in the House, Sherman chaired the Indian Affairs Committee and was a member of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Although he never chaired a major committee or held a position of party leadership, Sherman held significant power in the House. He worked closely with Speakers Thomas Reed and Joe Cannon during his tenure and was trusted to hold the gavel in their absence. He was noted for his parliamentary knowledge and as a reliable ally of the "Old Guard" conservatives who resisted the progressivism of more liberal members of the Republican Party, namely Theodore Roosevelt.</p>

<p>In 1908, Republican presidential candidate William Taft selected Sherman as his running mate for the presidential election. Sherman was chosen partially as a compromise pick to appease conservative Republicans and with hopes he would help Taft carry New York in the election. The Taft-Sherman ticket won in a landslide over the Democratic ticket of William Jennings Bryan and James Kern.</p>

<p>Shortly after the election, Taft requested that Sherman serve as his liaison between the White House and congressional leaders, particularly Speaker Cannon. Sherman testily replied that he would do no such thing, and that "acting as messenger boy was not part of the duties as Vice President." Taft began meeting Speaker Cannon on a regular basis in the wake of Sherman's refusal and began a drift towards the conservative wing of his party that would come to divide the Republicans and ultimately cost Taft reelection.</p>

<p>Sherman was an unwavering conservative and did not seek compromise with the progressives. In fact, he advocated punitive actions against them for disloyalty and entered in a contentious battle with Roosevelt to head the nomination convention for the party's nominee for governor of New York. When Roosevelt defeated Sherman, and thereby secured the power to select the party's nominee, it was widely perceived as a political defeat for the Taft administration.</p>

<p>The growing divide between the conservative and progressive elements of the Republican Party culminated in 1912, when Roosevelt announced his intention to pursue the Republican nomination for President. When he failed to wrest it from Taft, he announced his attention to run as a third-party candidate. Sherman was renominated as Taft's running mate, although Roosevelt's entry into the election essentially ruined their chance at victory. Sherman had suffered from Bright's disease, a serious kidney illness, for years and was too sick to campaign. On October 30, 1912, just days before the election, he died. His name remained on the ticket as Taft was decidedly beaten, receiving just eight electoral votes in an election that split the Republican Party vote and gave Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson an overwhelming victory.</p>