not elected," was the astonished reply. "Why, that is more than all the candidates together ever get in New Jersey. A hundred and good heavens, sir, how many votes does it take to elect a man in New York?"

The redness of Mr. Seward's hair was taken. up and commented upon by some of his newspaper friends, who set forth in a most elaborate way that Esau, Cato, Clovis, William Rufus, and others of a lofty race of red-haired heroes, resembled Seward in this highly important respect; while others showed how many of the greatest names in history were achieved in youth. In those days of ferment parties rose and fell on what would now be considered very slight issues.

Perhaps the most momentous crisis in the political history of New York was that brought on by the Anti-Masonic movement in 1828-9. In September, 1826, William Morgan, an inhabitant of Batavia, in the county of Genesee, was arrested on the charge of petty larceny and was conveyed to the common jail in the county of Ontario, Canandaigua. He was taken from jail by citizens of Canandaigua, put in a closed carriage and clandestinely driven to Lockport, and thence to Fort Niagara, on the banks of the Niagara River. There for a time all trace of him. disappeared. The story goes that he was taken from Fort Niagara and in some way summarily put to death. The explanation of this curious transaction was that he was a Freemason who had conceived the notion of making public the

secrets of the order; that he had prepared a book which was then in type in a printing-office in Batavia, and was about to be published. The printing-office was forcibly attacked and burned down in the night to destroy the partly prepared book, and it was charged that this outrage and the supposed murder of Morgan were the work of the Freemasons. An intense excitement broke out in the counties west of Cayuga Lake, and in due time spread throughout the State, and even into other portions of the Northern States. The presidential election of 1828 was coming on and the Anti-Masonic party grew to be an important political factor. It was during this tremendous Anti-Masonic excitement that a political phrase, since well known, came into use. A body, said to be that of William Morgan, had been found in the Niagara River. It was never thoroughly identified, but Thurlow Weed, Mr. Seward's closest political friend and ally, was said to have declared that "it was a good-enough Morgan until after election."

. Curiously enough, the Anti-Masonic excitement assumed proportions big enough to carry it into a national canvass, and in 1831 Mr. Seward, visiting Massachusetts, thought it worth while to have an interview with John Quincy Adams on the subject of re-entering public life as the national candidate of the Anti-Masons. Mr. Seward describes John Quincy Adams as "a short, rather corpulent man, of sixty and upward. He was bald; his countenance was staid, sober almost to gloom or sorrow, and hardly gave an in

dication of his superiority over other men. His eyes were weak and inflamed. He was dressed in an olive frock-coat, and cravat carelessly tied, and an old-fashioned light-colored vest and pantaloons. It was obvious that he was a student just called from the labors of his closet." To this minute description, which indicates Seward's habit of close observation, is added this comment: "As I left the house, I thought I could plainly answer how it happened that he, the best Presi

dent since Washington, entered and left the office with so few devoted personal friends." Years afterward, Seward wrote a biography of John Quincy Adams, which to-day stands among the very best personal histories ever written by an American.

As I have said, Seward early imbibed ideas hostile to slavery, and he took an active part in forming those advance columns of the friends of human liberty which finally swept the Northern States. He was a second time a candidate for

Governor of New York, in 1838, and was elected over Marcy by a handsome majority. During his candidacy he was again assailed for the redness of his hair and his extreme youth, and it was in vain pleaded that he was four years older than when he had before been a candidate. Another charge against him was in reference to transactions with the Holland Land Company and their tenants, who were in possession of certain wild lands in Chautauqua County; but a more important issue in the campaign was raised by the Anti-Slavery Society, which propounded to the candidates in nomination three questions: First. In regard to granting fugitive slaves trial by jury. Second. In regard to abolishing distinctions and constitutional rights founded solely on complexion. Third. In regard to the repeal of the law which authorized the importation of slaves into New York and their detention as such during a period of nine months. In a calm. reply, Seward, while avowing his firm faith in trial by jury, and saying that the more humble the individual the stronger is his claim to its protection, and declaring his opposition in clear and definite terms to all human bondage, refused to make any ante-election pledges as to his action upon specific measures. He declared that these must actually come before him for his decision. The greater part of the followers of the Anti-Slavery leaders were satisfied with these answers, although the leaders themselves were

not.

Seward's election was hailed with the wildest

enthusiasm by the New York Whigs, and his inauguration and administration were regarded as matters of the highest political importance. During his administration of the governorship a controversy arose between him and the Governor of Virginia regarding the return of three sailors who were charged with the crime of aiding a slave, who secreted himself on board their vessel, to escape from bondage. Governor Seward took high ground in his reply. The laws of the State of New York, he said, did not recognize property in man, and to aid a person therefore to escape from slavery was not a crime. His exposition of natural law and of the law of slavery was masterly and unanswerable, and in the long controversy that followed, Virginia was finally driven to the extreme of threatening to dissolve the Union. The Virginia Governor appealed to other States, and finally in great wrath resigned his office. The Virginia legislature passed an act requiring that all New York vessels in ports of Virginia should be searched before they were permitted to sail, for slaves that might be secreted on board. A similar controversy arose between New York and Georgia during Governor Seward's administration, with a similar result. In all these cases Governor Seward maintained an attitude of calm, courteous, but immovable opposition to the claims of slavery. This position he steadily maintained through all his public career. While he was Governor he proposed to extend the right of suffrage to the negroes of New York,