Sherman Antitrust Act

About the Author

Senator John Sherman, known as the “Ohio Icicle,” was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on May 10, 1823, to Charles and Mary Sherman; Sherman's older brother William Tecumseh Sherman became a general during the Civil War. After working for a time on canal projects with an engineering company, Sherman studied law with his brother Charles and passed the Ohio bar exam when he was twenty-one years old. Graduating from law school in 1844, Sherman then went into practice with his brother.

During the 1840s Sherman began to develop an interest in politics. In 1848 he was appointed as a delegate and secretary to the Whig National Convention. This same year he married Margaret Sarah Stewart. In 1854 Sherman was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Serving on the House's Ways and Means Committee from 1859 to 1861, he firmly believed that the federal government should reduce its spending. Sherman was reelected to the House in 1860, and the Ohio legislature then elected him as one of the state's senators, replacing Senator Salmon P. Chase, who had resigned to become secretary of the treasury. During the Civil War, Sherman was instrumental in passing the Legal Tender Act of 1862, allowing the government to issue paper money to pay its debts. He also sponsored the National Bank Act in 1863, giving the government the same rights as privately held banks. Sherman also supported the gold standard, a currency backed by gold rather than silver, and helped to build up the nation's reserve of gold.

In 1877 President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Sherman secretary of the treasury. When his term expired in March 1881, Sherman was reelected to the Senate. Although he was ultimately unsuccessful, Sherman made three campaigns as the Republican candidate for president in the elections of 1880, 1884, and 1888. Sherman was never elected president, but he retained his seat in the Senate. It was during this time that he drafted what became the Sherman Antitrust Act, a measure allowing the federal government to break up any businesses that held monopolies and limited competition. President Benjamin Harrison signed the act into law in 1890. Sherman left the Senate in 1897 when President William McKinley appointed him secretary of state. Sherman resigned the position inApril 1898 after Congress declared war against Spain. Once he resigned as secretary of state, Sherman essentially retired from public life. He died in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 1900.