Colonel William T. Sherman was writing to his wife in Ohio from Alexandria, Louisiana, where he was the first director of the Louisiana State Seminary, later Louisiana State University. He declared himself in this letter disinterested in politics, commented that the country was clearly ungovernable by politicians, and opined that whoever was elected in November "the same old game will be played, and he will go out of office like Pierce and Buchanan with their former honors sunk and lost." (By John Osborne)