reversion of your broad domain descend to us unincumbered and free from the calamities and from the sorrows of human bondage.'"'

It was not uncommon for Seward to speak on special occasions. Four formal addresses were delivered in the years 1853–55: "The Destiny of America," at the dedication of the Capital University, Columbus, Ohio; "The True Basis of American Independence," before the American Institute, New York city; "The Physical, Moral, and Intellectual Development of the American People," before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Yale College; and "The Pilgrims and Liberty," at Plymouth.' They gave him an opportunity to project his speculations and generalizations into broader fields than were usually open to him. In eloquence these efforts cannot be classed as of the first order, nor were the occasions especially inspiring; but in thought, expression, and interest they deserve a high rank as political essays rather than orations. The formal speech at Plymouth was a profound study of the political significance of the ideas and acts of the Pilgrims, and it would have been strange, even with Seward's poor elocution, if it had not received great praise. But these and other public addresses not of a partisan character are now important chiefly as expositions of Seward's theories of our national development, and as indications of what he would have preferred to do in politics if he had had a free hand. They will also convince any candid man that Seward had a statesmanlike philosophy and an extraordinary intellect.

As Seward avoided as much as possible Weed's province of keeping up confidential relations with political followers, he won new supporters by his non-partisan

1 For other passages in the imaginative style, see 1 Works, 179 ff., 24 Works, 121-203.

225 ff.

addresses and cultivated their friendship by the distribution of his political speeches with probably a more lavish hand than any Senator of the time. He often said that he spent his whole salary in the printing and circulation of his speeches.' His private correspondence shows that bundles of his speeches were forwarded to devoted supporters in different parts of the United States for distribution. As early as the beginning of 1852 he asked one of his political friends in California for a list of the prominent Whigs of that State. The speeches were sent in all directions and often without solicitation. The recipients always felt pleased-for in those days almost any sort of reading-matter was welcomeand they must often have wondered how the famous New-Yorker had obtained their names and addresses. "I am hurried by sending off speeches by the thousand," he wrote, August 5, 1852. In subsequent years it was oftener a matter of tens of thousands, and sometimes of hundreds of thousands.

Seward's bearing as a Senator and as a party antago nist was excellent. His prominence, and the keenness and importance of what he said, made him the object of frequent and severe attacks. The charges were often very offensive, and were designed to injure his reputation. Shortly after the delivery of the "higher-law" speech he said: "I am not to be drawn into personal altercations by interrogatories addressed to me. I acknowledge the patriotism, the wisdom, the purity of every member of this body." And again he announced:

"I shall never assail the motives of any members of this body. I shall never defend myself against any imputation

12 Seward, 162; 3 Seward, 481.

This is shown by a letter in the Seward MSS. from W. H. Shepard, San Francisco, February 28, 1852. ⚫ Globe, 1849-50, 518.

of motives made against me. If such imputations are made, in whatever shape they may come, as they have done [come?] in various shapes here, I shall pass them by in silence. They will not in the least disturb my equanimity. I will venture further to assure those who may make them, that they will not in the least degree change my social and private feelings in regard to them."

This was a very extraordinary policy, but what is stranger, he adhered to it without a single important exception. Foote was the most persistent and insulting of Seward's political enemies. It was notorious at the time that, after one of the Mississippian's most inexcusable attacks, Seward invited him to dinner. After a Senator had made an important speech it was customary for him to pass around a paper to ascertain just how many copies his colleagues desired to send out. Such a paper in regard to a recent speech by Foote, in which Seward had been criticised with special venom, was accidentally handed to the New York Senator, who promptly subscribed for more than any one else. Foote's surprise and curiosity were hardly satisfied by Seward's explanation that he wanted the copies for distribution in New York!'

Seward's language was not always perfectly respectful and free from sarcasm and reproach. Toward Presidents Pierce and Buchanan he exercised on a few occasions very little self-restraint. But in relation to his colleagues he was equally careful of his own expressions and unmoved by theirs. Mrs. Seward, who was in the gallery one day when some of his remarks drew upon him a "tornado" of reproaches from Democrats, wrote that he "looked the personification of indifference, with his face turned directly toward the speaker." Natural

1 Globe, 1849-50, 686.

New York Tribune, March 19, 1850; Albany Evening Atlas, March 18, 1850. 'Statement of Mr. F. W. Seward to the author.

2 Seward, 120.

ly he was sometimes mistaken, and a few times in the course of exciting debates his remarks were cutting; but whenever any exception was taken to them by a fellow - Senator he was ready to repair any injustice. It was true, as he remarked in the first debate on the Clayton - Bulwer treaty: "I have received injuries, many of them, here. The memory of them died in the hour in which they were committed." He neither interrupted an opponent by annoying questions nor assumed a contentious personal attitude. Angry altercations between Senators were frequent, but Seward was never concerned with them except in the capacity of a peacemaker. In 1856 he said: "I therefore hold (as a general truth) that all men are sincere and honest; and I hold him to be merely a fool who esteems me to be otherwise." He early adopted for his guidance Cowper's lines

3

"A moral, sensible, and well-bred man

Will not affront me,-and no other can." "4

Notwithstanding these traits, Seward was, until the winter of 1860-61, the politician most hated and feared by the pro-slavery zealots. Benjamin expressed the general opinion of the South when he called him "the distinguished author of almost every heresy that ap pears" regarding slavery.' The secessionists usually had Seward in mind when they threatened that the

11 Works, 385.

2 In June, 1858, he negotiated peace between Senators Davis, of Mississippi, and Chandler, of Michigan, and between Gwin, of California, and Wilson, of Massachusetts. In the latter instance a challenge had been sent.-2 Seward, 346. 4 Works, 563.

43 Seward, 481. In answer to Hale's severe criticism on account of supporting the army bill, he calmly remarked: "I never yet have seen the time when I could not bear a difference with friends, as I never yet have seen the time when I cared in the least for unkind or hostile reproaches from my enemies."-Globe, 1857-58, 520.

B Globe, 1855-56, 1094.

Union should come to an end in case of the election of a "black Republican" President. Nevertheless, Seward took special pains to cultivate pleasant personal relations with prominent Southerners. Unlike Sumner and others, he had no prejudices against slave-holders. "Differences of opinion, even on the subject of slavery, with us are political, not social or personal, differences. There is not one disunionist or disloyalist among us all," he said in February, 1860. He was at one time very friendly with Jefferson Davis.' Senator Gwin, hardly less a Southerner than Davis, was a useful link between Seward and the leaders from the other section. At the beginning of 1858 Seward wrote to his son Frederick: "The southern and Democratic opposition in social circles has given way, and society of all classes is profuse in its courtesies." Even in the midst of the Civil War he spoke of "our old brethren of the South . . . with whom we used to have such pleasant social times."

་ 11 Davis's Jefferson Davis, 579 ff.

2 Derby's Fifty Years, etc., 70. The following story is at least approximately true, and well illustrates some of Seward's characteristics: "Mr. Seward was anxious to enter the charmed circle' of southern social life, from which, as a 'black Republican,' he was rigidly excluded. Doctor Gwin, with considerable trepidation, he afterwards confessed, invited him to a large dinner-party at his house, where nearly all the guests were southern Senators-among them, Toombs, Hunter, Mason, and Breckinridge—and their wives. Mrs. Gwin, afraid to assign him to any of the lady guests, herself took Mr. Seward in to dinner. Mr. Seward, by his brilliant and interesting conversation, soon dissipated the chilliness his presence had caused, and turned into a great success what Doctor Gwin had feared would prove a dismal failure.

"The next day Mr. Hunter said to Mr. Toombs: When I met Seward to day he had the impertinence to say, "Good-morning, Brother Hunter."' 'Did you knock him down ?' exclaimed Toombs. 'Why, no,' replied Hunter; how could I knock a man down for calling me his brother ?'"-18 Overland Monthly, 2d series, p. 470.

5 Works, 512.