The Governor issued a notice on November 17th, announcing that the seminary would be open on January 1st, 1860. On the latter date some sixty students reported to the principal. Sherman organized the school as nearly as possible on the basis of West Point, with roll calls, etc., but without uniforms or muskets. He himself attended to the business of the institution and gave but little actual class instruction. There were seventy-three students during the first term, and fifty-nine of them passed the examination on July 30th, 1860. Meantime Sherman had secured new legislation, granting the school a larger fund for its maintenance, and generally increasing its efficiency and scope. While advocating the cause of the school before the legislature he necessarily spent much time at Baton Rouge, and there was drawn into the political discussions that were then rife. His brother, John Sherman, was the Republican candidate for the Speakership of the House of Representatives at Washington, and was regarded through the South as an "Abolitionist"--a synonym for all that was monstrous and devilish. For this reason W. T. Sherman was looked upon with suspicion in Louisiana, and many people openly expressed their doubt of the propriety of retaining him at the head of an important State institution. One evening Sherman took dinner at the Governor's, and there met General Bragg and a number of leading politicians. After the ladies had left the table, the gentlemen took to talking politics, and General Moore, referring to John Sherman's candidacy for the Speakership, asked Colonel Sherman to speak his own mind frankly on the subject of slavery and the political conflict between the North and the South. Sherman responded frankly and fully. He declared that his brother was not an Abolitionist in the radical sense of the term. He was, of course, opposed to slavery, but did not advocate any forcible interference with existing institutions at the South, although he would resist their extension into other parts of the country. As for himself, Sherman declared that if he were a citizen of Louisiana and a member of the legislature, he would earnestly strive for the amelioration of the condition of the negroes; he would forbid the separation of families in the sale of slaves; and he would abolish the laws which forbade slaves to learn to read and write. He talked in this strain at some length and with his characteristic earnestness and vigor, and supported his views by citing illustrations from his own experience and observation. His remarks deeply impressed the whole country, and when he stopped speaking the Attorney-General of the State, who was present, struck the table a tremendous blow with his fist and exclaimed: "By ----, he is right!" After that there were no complaints of Sherman's political unfitness for his place.