Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-05-25
visit To GOV. seward.

ALRANy. Tuesday. Nav %. ISL

l have turned aside from my direct route
| homeward, in order to pay visit of respect
and friendship to Gov. Seward. | found him
as busily and as happily engaged in directing
the improvements of his delightful country
residence, as if no such incidents as treaChery
and disappointment ever disturbed the tenor of
| his political life. His barns and Outhouses, you
| remember, were burned few weeks since.
! His special errand at home just now, is to ar.
range for rebuilding them when his plans
have been made for this work. he will return
to Washington, probably early next week, =
| and resume his seat in the Senate. He will
| serve out the remainder of his term in that
body, but will not, in any event or under any
circumstances, be candidate for reelection.
His personal friends know that this has been
his fixed purpose for the last two years He
regards his public life as definitely closed-and
seems to derive more solid satisfaction from
the prospect of retirement than any additional
honors could possibly confer Mr.. Seward is
unquestionably ambitious, but he has never
| permitted his judgment to be couded by the
fervor OF his political aspiration he knows
very well that the record he has made upon
the history of the country could not be i'm.
| proved by any prolongation of his service,
while the chances of protracted political life
might possibly render it less clear and conspic-
uouS than he leaves it now. Besides this, he
|
fore him; and the incessant, conscientious la,
| bors of thirty years have not been without
| their effect upon physical constitution never
very strong,-and have begotten the desire, 50
natural to men with whom reflection outweighs
impulsive ambition, for the repose and quiet
that belong to the closing years of an active
and useful life.
Those who know the society in whose bo-
som he will seek that rest, will have no diff
Guilty in understanding the pleasure with
| which he looks forward to the day of his de-
liverance from public and official cares. His
home is large country mansion-in the midst
of spacious, wellshaded and carefully adorned
| grounds-upon the borders of one OF the love
| Hest villages in western New York. by all
| classes of its inhabitants lie is regarded VITA
feelings that transcend the ordinary limits OF
mere friendship. He is respected, honored
and beloved by everybody and just now,
when he is supposed to have sustained the
heaviest blow that can fall upon the head of a
public man-in the Withholding of honors no.
bly, earned, and justly awarded by the hearts
of the millions he has served-nothing can be
more touching than the compassionate Sympa
thy and love which meet him at every step.
"NotEing but this said he twas wanting to
make my retirement the happiest event of a
long and successful public career" You may
dismiss all the speculations in which the public
Journals are just now INDUCING, as to the place
he will hold in the new republican administra-
tion-ifwe shall have one-as idle and useless.
Hencetorth the only sphere of his labors will
be his home, and the society which surrounds
it. Some who desired his nomination to the
presidency console themselves by looking for.
ward to 1864 as still likely to confer it upon
him. He knows too well the vigor and endur-
ance, physical and intellectual, which are es-
sential to the discharge of its duties, to look
upon such an event as desirable even if it
were possible. He has watched too carefully
the instances in which public men have flag
ged supertiuous" on the public stage,-and he
appreciates too highly the real dignity and
worth of his own position, to cherish the faint
est wish to add, in his own person., one more
to their number. "EIe must be a very vain,
or a very shallow person, said he "who, as
matter of personal choice, prefers to spend
what remains of life already close upon three
score years, in the turmoil and angry conten-
ton Of political controversy, rather than in the
quiet pursuits and calm enjoymcnts of private
lite"
1t must not be inferred from this that Mr.
Seward will abate anything of his interest in
the welfare OF the country, or in the fortunes
of that great party which by spo: taneous
and an honorable instinct, proudly recognizes
him as its head. In letter which he has al
Il,
reply to an invitation to attend a ratification
meeting, he expresses his satisfaction with the
nominations made at Chicago entire APP
| proval of the platform adopted there,-his be-
lief in the fidelity of Lincoln and HamIin to its
principles, and his ardent hope that no feelings
| of disappointment on the part of his friends
| will be permitted for a moment to hinder or
embarrass their election and the triumph ofthe
cause which they represent. 1t is not likely
that he will feel called upon, or that his friends
will expert him, to take any active personal
| part in the pending canvass but the whole
weight of his influence, both in the Senate and
in the country, will continue to be thrown as
they have been hitherto in the republican
scale.
Mr. Greeley was largely indebted to the for.
bearance of those upon whom he was waging
this warfare, for the means of making it effec.
tual. While it was known to some of the del
egates that, nearly six years ago,-in Novem-
Der, 1854,-he had privately, but distinctly,
repudiated all further political friendship for and
alliance Nth Gov SEWARD, and menaced him
Nth his hostility whenever 1t could be made most
e6ective, for The aUoUed reason that Cor. Se,card
had never aided ddpised his elevation to Office
that he had never recognized his claim to such
official promotion, but had tolerated the Gle
walton of men known to be obnoxious to him,
and who had rendered far less service to the
party than he had done,-no use was made of
this knowledge in quarters where it would
have disarmed the deadly effect of his pre-
tended friendship for the man, upon whom he
was thus deliberately wreaking the long hoard
ed revenge of a disappointed ofice-seeker.