Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/328

 SEWARD

SEWARD

successor in 1852, and was re-elected to the senate ill lijoo. In 1S5G. when Weed advised him against aspiring to the Presidency, he vigorously sup- ported John C. Fremont. In 1«57 he made a journey to Labrador on a fishing schooner and traveled in Europe, Egypt and Palestine in 1859. In ISM he was the natural candidate of the Republican organization for the Presidential nomination, but the opposition of Horace Greeley cost him the place. At the Republican national convention at Chicago, M;'.y l<i. his was the first name presented to the convention, and on the first ballot he received 17:3i votes against 102 for Abraham Lincoln ; on Mr. Lincoln's election, Mr. Seward became secretary of state in his cabinet, and assumed a conservative position in reference to the questions that confronted the new administration. While he declined official intercourse witii Hunter, Forsythe and Crawford, commissioners from the rebellious states, March 12, 1861, he favored the withdrawal of troops from Fort Sumter as a means of pacification, in- sisting, however, in fortifying and maintaining every fort and post that from its position presented a military advantage, in order to impress upon the foreign powers the stability of the United States government and its ability to put down a rel>ellion within its borders. He deprecated foreign intervention as an unfriendly act and projwsed the establishing of conventions to de- termine the rights of neutrals. "When congress determined to close the ports of the seceded states he instructed the U.S. minister at London as to the right of the government to take such a course. His surrender of Mason and Slidell to the British government after their unauthorised ari'est and detention by a U.S. naval officer, brought upon liim the condemnation of the radical wing of the Republican party, but his explanation of his act as consistent with the American doctrine of right of search quieted the opposition. He opposed all efforts of mediation to be conducted by European governments, and by the treaty with Great Brit- ain for the extinction of the African slave trade, lie gained the popular favor of the English peo- ple. His continuous and persistent efforts through able ministers and consuls, strengthened by com- missions of leading citizens competent to present the claims of the government and its ability to put down rebellion, prevented foreign interfer- ence, and when France undertook to gain a foot- bold on the American continent contrary to the spirit of the Monroe doctrine, by establishing Mexico as an empire. Mr. Seward quietly avoided any irritating interference until the civil war had closed, when he forcibly presented the question at issue to the French government and the Mexican empire collapsed. In the summer of 1862, when the war had assumed a condition of

uncertainty as to the issue. Secretary Seward held a conference with the governors of the northern states and obtained their co-operation in an extraordinary effort to change the condition; this conference resulted in the call by the Presi- dent for 300,000 additional men. His course in insisting on the rights of the United States to recompeusation from the British government for the destruction wrought upon the high seas by the Alabama nent out from a British port, led to the Geneva award of $15,500,000 as damages. On April 13, 1865, while an invalid from the effect of being thrown from his carriage, he was murder- ously assaulted by one of the conspirators against President and cabinet, and his son. Frederick W. (q.v.), was desperately wounded in defend- ing him. Secretary Seward's recovery was slow and his suffering intense. His wife died in W^ashington, June 21, 1865, aged 59 years. He was retained by President Johnson as the head of his cabinet, and by sustaining the reconstruction policy of the President, he carried out the avowed intention of President Lincoln, but displeased the radical wing of the Republican party and was subjected to much unfriendly criticism. He concluded with Russia an arrangement for the purchase of Alaska, which was accomplished by treaty, March 30, 1867, and an area of 580.000 square miles of Russian territory on the American continent passed by purchase for the sum of $7,200,000 to the United States. In 188-i Alaska was organized as a district with executive officers appointed by the President, but without legisla- tive institutions. Secretary Seward also nego- tiated for the purchase of the Danish West India Islands and the Bay of Samana, and made a treaty with tiie republic of Colombia. S.A., to secure to the United States control of the Isthmus of Panama, but an unfriendly senate prevented the purchases and consummation of the treaty. He supported the President in the efforts of the opposition to impeach and remove him from office in 1868, and favored the election of General Grant to the Presidency the same year. Upon the in- auguration of President Grant, March 4. 1869, Mr. Seward turned over the portfolio of state held by him for eight years to Elihu B. Wash- burn and returned to Auburn, N.Y., where he- prepared for an extended journey across the con- tinent and along the Pacific coast. He visited California, Oregon, AVashington, British Colum- bia, and the newly acquired territory of Alaska, returning home through Mexico, where he was a guest of the government and people. The next year he made his remarkable tour of the world, and was received with the highest honors by the governments of Asia, northern Africa and Europe, his record as a statesman making him welcome at foreign courts and giving him rare opportu-