Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/501

Rh dissension within the party. He secured more hu- mane and liberal provisions for the treatment of the insane, a mitigation of the methods of discipline in the penitentiary, and the improvement of the common schools. His proposition to admit Roman Catholic ami for- eign-born teach- ers into the pub- lic schools, while it was applauded by the opposite party, drew upon him the reproach- es of many of the Protestant clergy and laity, and sub- jected him to sus- picion and abuse. His recommenda- tions to remove disabilities from foreigners and to encourage, rather than restrict, em- igration, likewise provoked the hos- tility born citizens. His proposition to abolish the court of chancery and make the judiciary elective was opposed by the bench and the bar, yet within a few years the re- form was effected. At his suggestion, specimens of the natural history of the state were collected, and, when the geological survey was completed, he prepared an elaborate introduction to the report, reviewing the settlement, development, and condi- tion of the state, which appeared in the work under the title of " Notes on New York." In the conflict between the proprietors and the tenants of Rens- selaerwyck he advocated the claims of the latter, but firmly suppressed their violent outbreaks. He was re-elected, with a diminished majority, in 1840. A contest over the enlargement of the Erie canal and the completion of the lateral canals, which the Democrats prophesied would plunge the state into a debt of forty millions, grew sharper during Gov. Seward's second term, and near its close the legis- lature stopped the public works. His projects for building railroads were in like manner opposed by that party.

In January, 1843, Seward retired to private life, resuming the practice of law at Auburn. He continued an active worker for his party during the period of its decline, and was a frequent speak- er at political meetings. In 1843 he delivered an address before the Phi Beta Kappa society at Union college on the " Elements of Empire in America." He entered largely into the practice of patent law, and in criminal cases his services were in constant demand. Frequently he not only defended accused persons gratuitously, but gave pecuniary assistance to his clients. Among his most masterly forensic efforts were an argument for freedom of the press in a libel suit brought by J. Fenimore Cooper against Horace Greeley in 1845, and the defence of John Van Zandt, in 18~47, against a criminal charge of aiding fugitive slaves to escape. At the risk of violence, and with a certainty of opprobrium, he defended the demented negro Freeman, who had committed a revolting murder, emboldened, many supposed, by Seward's eloquent presentation of the doctrine of moral insanity in another case. In Sep- tember, 1847, Seward delivered a eulogy on Daniel O'C'onnell before the Irish citizens of New York, and in 1848 a eulogy on John yuiucy Adams be- fore the New York legislature. He took an active part in the presidential canvass, and in a speech at Cleveland described the conflict between freedom and slavery, saying of the latter : " It must be abolished, and you and I must do it."

In February, 1849, Seward was elected U. S. sena- tor. His proposal, while governor, to extend suf- frage to the negroes of New York, and many pub- lic utterances, placed him in the position of the foremost opponent of slavery within the Whig party. President Taylor selected Seward as his most intimate counsellor among the senators, and the latter declined to be placed on any impor- tant committee, lest his pronounced views should compromise the administration. In a speech de- livered on 11 March, 1850, in favor of the admis- sion of California, he spoke of the exclusion of slavery as determined by " the higher law," a phrase that was denounced as treasonable by the southern Democrats. On 2 July, 1850, he delivered a great speech on the compromise bill. He supported the French spoliation bill, and in February, 1851. ad- vocated the principles that were afterward em- bodied in the homestead law. His speeches cov- ered a wide ground, ranging from a practical and statistical analysis of the questions affecting steam navigation, deep-sea exploration, the American fisheries, the duty on rails, and the Texas debt, to flights of passionate eloquence in favor of extend- ing sympathy to the exiled Irish patriots, and moral support to struggles for liberty, like the Hungarian revolution, which he reviewed in a speech on - Free- dom in Europe," delivered in March. 1852. After the death of Zachary Taylor many Whig senators and representatives accepted the pro-slavery policy of President Fillmore, but Seward resisted it with all his energy. He approved the nomination of Winfield Scott for the presidency in 1852, but would not sanction the platform, which upheld the compromise of 1850. In 1853 he delivered an ad- dress at Columbus, Ohio, on "The Destiny of America," and one in New York city on " The True Basis of American Independence." In 1854 he made an oration on " The Physical, Moral, and In- tellectual Development of the American People " before the literary societies of Yale college, which gave him the degree of LL. D. His speeches on the repeal of the Missouri compromise and on the admission of Kansas made a profound impression. He was re-elected to the senate in 1855, in spite of the vigorous opposition of both the Native Ameri- can party and the Whigs of southern sympathies. In the presidential canvass of 1856 he zealously supported John C. Fremont, the Republican can- didate. In 1857 he journeyed through Canada, and made a voyage to Labrador in a fishing-schooner, the " Log " of which was afterward published. In a speech at Rochester, N. Y., in October, 1858, he alluded to the " irrepressible conflict," which could only terminate in the United States becoming either entirely a slave-holding nation or entirely a free-labor nation. He travelled in Europe, Egypt, and Palestine in 1859.

In 1860, as in 1856, Seward's pre-eminent position in the Republican party made him the most conspicuous candidate for the presidential nomination. He received 1734 votes in the first ballot at the convention, against 102 given to Abraham Lincoln, who was eventually nominated, and in whose behalf he actively canvassed the western states. Lincoln appointed him secretary of state, and before leaving the senate to. enter on the duties of this office he made a speech in which he disappointed some of his party by advising patience and moderation in debate, and harmony of