Thoroughly disgusted with Washington and the politicians, Sherman went back to Lancaster. His brother John begged him to remain at the Capitol and to be more patient with the President, but the impetuous soldier would not listen to him. At Lancaster he found letters from friends at St. Louis urging him to come on there and assume the presidency of a street railroad, which was sure to prove profitable. He quickly decided to do so, and on March 27th set out for St. Louis with his family. On April 1st they took possession of a house on Locust street, where Charles Ewing and John Hunter, law partners, boarded with them. Sherman was elected president of the street railroad company, which had a paying line in full operation, and tried to devote himself strictly to business. This, however, was impossible. The air was full of politics and of war. The Governor of Missouri and all the leading politicians openly sympathized with the seceding States. The troops at the State Camp of Instruction in Lindell's Grove were commanded by a Southern sympathizer, although he was a Northerner and a West Point man. There were, however, some loyal men about, among them being John M. Schofield, B. Gratz Brown, Clinton B. Fisk and Frank Blair--whose brother, Montgomery Blair was in Lincoln's Cabinet. These patriotic men had organized, chiefly among the German population of the city, four or five regiments of loyal "Home Guards." Nathaniel Lyon, also, kept his handful of Federal troops at the arsenal true to the Nation. Day by day the situation grew more strained. Sherman tried to keep out of the trouble, and talked freely with only a few intimate friends. But day by day it became more evident that a tremendous conflict was close at hand, and day by day the earnest soldier and ardent patriot felt himself more strongly drawn away from his street railroad and toward the defence of the Nation. Meantime he was not forgotten at Washington, where his brother John was strongly urging his interests. On April 6th he received a telegraphic dispatch from the Postmaster-General, Montgomery Blair, saying: "Will you accept the chief clerkship of the War Department? We will make you Assistant Secretary of War when Congress meets." Sherman promptly telegraphed back, "I cannot accept," and then wrote by mail as follows: