Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-05-28
Editorial Correspondents of the n. y TilnCs.l
THE CHICAGO CONVENTION.
visit to Gov. STANDARDIZATION of the
Convention.
AuRuRN, Tuesday, May 22, ls6O.

Convention.
AUBURN, Tuesday, May 90, 1860.
have turned aside from my direct rouie
homeward, in order to pay a visit oi re-
spect and friendship TO Gov. Seward.
found him as busily and happily engaged
in directing the improvements of his de-
l'ghtfUl country residence, as ii no such
incidents as treHchcry and disaPPo ,mtmemt
ever disturbed the tenor of political Iife.
Ills barns and outhonses, you remember,
were burned few weeks since. His spc-
{. al errond at home, just now, is to arr
range for rebuilding them when his
plans have been made for this WORK, lie
will return to Wnshington,-prO ear
" 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
q candidate for recollection. His personal
friends know that this hns been his fixed
purpose for the last two years. He regards
his public life as detnitively clOsed-dnd
seems to- derive more solid satisfaction
from the prospect of retirement than any
additional honors could possibly confer.--
Mr. Seward is unqnestiOnably ambitious,
but he has never permitted his jUdg-
mcnt to he cloudcd by the fervor of polit-
icAl aspiration: lie knows very well that
the record he has made upon the history
of the country could not be improved by
any proIongatiou of his service, while the
chances of protracted political life might
possibly render it less clear and conSpicu-
GUS than he leaves it now. Besides this,
he has toilcd, as few men have ever done
before him; and the incessant, conscien-
tious lNbors of thirty years have not been
without their effect upon physical con-
stitution never very strong,-and have be-
gotten the desire, so natural to men with
whom reflection ontweighs impulSive am
bition, for the repose and quiet that be-
long 10 the closing years of an active and
q useful life.
Those who know the society in whose
bosom he will seek that rest, will have no
difficulty in understanding the pleasure
with which he looks forward to the day of
his delivcrance from public and official
cares. His home is Il large country man
sion--in the midst of spacious, wcll-Shad-
ell and carefully adorned grOundS--upon
the borders of one OF the lovelicst villages
in Western New York. By all classes of
its inhabitants lie is regarded with feelings
that transcend the ordinary limits of mere
friendship. He is respected, honorcd and
beloved hy everybody; and just now, when
he is supposed to have sustained the
heaviest blow that can fall upon the head
honOrs nohly earned, and justly awarded
by the hearts of the millions he has
served, nothing can be more touching
than the compassionate sympathy and love
which meet him at every step. ''Nothing
but this said he, ''was wanting TO make
my retirement the hnPPiest event of a long
and successful public career" You may
dismiss all the spcculations in which the
public journals are just now indulging, ns
to the place lie will hold in the new Re!
publican AdministrNtion-if we shall have
one-ns idle and useless. Henceforth the
only sphere of his labors will he his
home, and the society which surrounds it.
Some who desired his nomination to
the Presidency console themselves hy
looking forward to 1864 us still like
ly to confer it upon him. He knows
too we'll the vigor and endurance, ply
steal and intellectual, which are essen
tal to the discharge of its duties, to look
upon such AN event as desirable, even if it
were possible. He has watched too care
fully the instances in which public men
have Gagged superfluOus' on the public
stagc,-and he appreciates too highly the
real dignity and worth of his own posi-
ton, to cherish the fnintest wish to add.
in his own person, one more to their num-
bcr. ''Hc must be n very vain, or very
SHALLOW person, SbIu lie, ''WuO. as II Hlut-
ter of personal choice, prefers to spend
what remains of life already close upon
three score years, in the turmoil and angry
contention of political controversy, rather
than i'll the quiet pursuits and calm en-
joymrnts Of private life.'
1t must not be inferred from this that
Mr.. Seward will nbatc anything of his in
terest in the welfare of the country, or in
the fortunes Of that great party which, by
spontaneous anu an honorable instinct,
proudly recognizes him as its head. In a
letter which he has already written to IL
Committee in New York, in reply to an
invitation to attend II ratification meeting,
lie expresses his satisfaction with the
nominations made Mt Chicago, his entire
approval of the platform adopted there
his belief in the fidelity of Lincoln and
Hnmlin to its principles, and his ardent
hope that no feelings of disappointment
on the part of his friends will he permitted
for mOmont to hinder or embnrrnss their
election and the triumph of the cause
which they represent 1t is not likely
that he will feel called upon, or that his
friends will expect 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 con-
time to he thrown as they have been
hitherto, into the Republican scale.
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