New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-06-05
SEWARD AS A STATESMAN.

Ihe reputSNon WllCh MIR. Seward has gained Tor
seems likely to be altogether lost in
the first year of his administration Of the affairs OF
his department When he had only the people Of
his own section for judges, it was easy enough Tor
him to palm fcunning for diplomacy, and trckery
and juggIery for political wisdom. By such means
he gained the credit of being statesman, 1t IS
when his reputation is brought to the test OF the
European crucible, since he undertook the man
agement of the foreign relations OF his country
that his pretensions are exposed, the cheat de-
tected and the world discovers political swindIer
III the man whom it has been accustomed to regard
as au.emhodiment Of wise craftsmanship.
That he is the master-sprit of the LincoIa Ad-
ministration is plain enough, well in its domestic
policy as its foreign. Scott has been subject to
his malgn influence for years. and it was the con-
viction that Scott was Stewards candidate for
President in 1852 that cost him such disastrous
defeat. In the management Of the wa1 which the
North now wages upon US, Scott undoubtedly has
the controlling voice. but for the Tact that the
war is commenced, and commenced under such
circumstances Of atrocity and berbarity as are
disgraceful to civilized people, is something for
which no other man is as much responsible as
William Fl. Seward.
But there never was an enterprise of such mag
nitude undertaken that has been marked by so
many blunders and absurdities as this scheme Of
Southern subjUgation. IfAEr Seward had set him.
| self to work to prove to the world that in all the
qualities Of craftsmanship he is counterfeit and
cheat, he could not have succeeded better than he
has done in three months service at the head Of the
| lincoln Administration.
| In saying this we have especial reference to his
late notification to the Governments of Europe that
| the United States now accept the doctrine laid
down by the Congress of Paris in 1856 in regard TO
! privateering. When Mr. Marcy rejected the pro-
positions of that Congress, in State paper of eX-
| traordinary ability, no whisper of objection was
heard from Seward, nor has any been heard since,
| though he has all the time been member of the
SENATE Committee of Foreign Relations. By his
silence, if not by his open approval, he has en-
| dorsed and upheld the position which Mr.. Marcy
assumed on behalf of the Government of the United
States. That he now repudiates that position and
gives assent to the propositions of the Paris Con
gress, is so evidently concession wrung from him
by the necessities of his case instead of his hon
est convictions of propriety and right that not one
of the parties to the Congress will fail to penetrate
his motive and reject with contempt and disdain
his profered acceptance.
The manner of his overture furnishes another
illustration of the low trickery of the man. Secret
instructions were given to Adams, his Minister to
| England, that the United States now accepted the
doctrine of the Paris Conference. In the case of
| Dayton, whom be sent 10 France, he made it a
| point to publish his instructions in full. But he
carefully conceals his instructions TO Adams-and
| it is only after he has suffered sufficient time to
elapse for Adams to get to England and carry out
his Instructions, that he permits the fact to leak
out that his Minister was authorized to tender to
| the British Government an acceptance of the
Paris propositions.
No doubt he expected the announcement would
carry terror to the souls of the Southern rebels"
1t so happens that those same rebels have an abd-
ing faith that the British Government will reject
with contempt this death-bed repentance" of
William Fl. Seward, on the subject of privateering
If he supposes the British Ministry a set of min
compoops, he may have some expectation of
seeing his oyertures accepted But the Southern
"rebels," knowing that the British Ministry in
stead of being the Incarnation of folly. is the em-
bodiment of wise craftsmanship and sagacty, feel
an assured confidence that his proposition would
now be rejected even were it offered in good faith
instead of being as England must clearly see it is
the mere expedient of man striving to escape
from the meshes in which he finds himself unex-
pectedly involved.
This last trick of Stewards win no more avail
him than any of his others. Despairing Of beating
the South by fair game, he has resorted to stock
ing the cards and all the other devices of profess
sonal political gambler; but he is foed in every
expedient, and detected in every cheat. History
will record no more signal instance of the rapidty
with which man has exchanged the reputation of
a statesman for that of a shallow and malignant
imposter than is furnished by the three months
ministerial career of William H. Seward.