The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-30

the former glOrles OF a faded man.
But what do these friends say of his public /
conductY
One Of the most interesting of psychological |
phenomena is the peculiar and indeinable |
regret with which great statesmaHs ad- |
mrers are compelled to witness at last his |
decline and fall. Mr.. Seward stood once like |
an elm-green, towering, and monumental; |
but, after having grown gradually rotten at |
the root-a defective radical The at last top |
pied over, and now lies prone on the ground.
Accordingly his dnd-hearted neighbors, with
a pensive air, can only say to the visitor
"1his was once the grandest Of all our trees;
but look now ~ And they inwardly suffer
as they make the confession. For when q
man of great reputation thus plays false with
the public confidence, he becomes the author
of peculiar cruelty in the wounds which he
thereby intlicts upon his friends.
As | peered into Mr.. Stewards garden. and
saw the snow and ice cloabing his trees and
shrubs, / could not but think of the still more
chilling blight which has winter-killed his
green old age. OF course | do not refer to
his domestic bereavements. God forbid that
any criticism of a public mans character
should go untempered with sympathy at a
moment when his critics are looking at the
shut windows of his halt-empty house. and
remember that its recent and chief household
lights lie quenched in the grave. The late
mistress of this mansion was one of the
noblest women of America. ] have never heard
Mr.. Greeley praise the characterof any woman
as Ishave heard him always praise the charac-
ter of Mrs. Seward. A few days after her
death, he wrote in the independent the
noblest tribute which any public pen paid to
her memory. Gazing, therefore, at this
shadowed house through the haze of this
irresistible sympathy, l could not but recall
tenderly to my mind my early boyish enthu-
siasm for Mr.. keward-when | thought him
the greatest Of statesmen, and bravest of
leaders, when l believed that he loved liberty
better than power, and sought justice rather
| than office; when his calm, pure limpid elo-
! quence flowed like fountain undefled; when
ranked him as the foremost among American
statesmen, and one of the chief pillars OF the
| anti-slavery cause; and when | shed foolish
but actual tears of disappointment at his
rejection by the Chicago Convention, and the
| nomination of Abraham Lincoln instead
repeat that when one has built so much
! upon another as many q young man, years
ago, built upon Mr.. Seward, only to be
cheated in the end by the favorite whom he
| trusted in the beginning, there arises within
! one's mind towards such betrayer an un-
! conquerable and abiding emotion of repug
! nance-compounded of mingled affection, pity,
| and scOn.
Mr.. Stewards influence on public affairs is
! still incalculably bad. For instance (to chose
| the very latest evidence of it as a specimen,
only a few days ago, eighteen gentlemen as
sembled at Albany-composing the Republi-
! can State Central COmmittee-the official man
ayers of the Republican party in the greatest
/ State of the Union-a corps OF party engl-
neers, who rightfully have nothing to do with
| Mr.. johnson or Mr.. Seward, except to carry
| on q vigorous war against both. And yet,
when a resolution was introduced by one OF
these eighteen committeeman, declaring that
''the Republican party holds to the right OF
| every citizen to equality before the law, ten
votes against eight killed the resoution-in-
sulting the negro and disgracing the State
| Now why did these ten New York politicians
vote against truth and right? For no Other
reason under Heaven than just because Mr.
Seward, like an old leaven, still remains il
their hearts, and works in them to do mis-
chief
The Secretary of State still boasts that he is
the policy-maller of the President. The calami
ties therefore, which Mr.. Johnson has in
tlicted upon the nation through this policy are
to be registered against Mr.. Seward. What
a catalogue of mingled blunders and crimes
Macaulay said of Antony Ashley Cooper that
''every part of his life reflected infamy Oh
every other" In like manner, the impartial
historian will say of Mr.. Johnson that every
measure OF his administration reflected infamy
on every other. And yet, to all this record Of
humiliation Mr.. Seward stands pointing his
finger saying, ''This handwriting is mine ~
Nevertheless, Mr.. Seward does not deserve
all the credit of all the mischief which he
himself has wrought. He is one of twins,
His other self is Thurlow Weed. These twain
are like Jacob and Esau; you know the one
by his voice, the other by his hand. Both
have long ago forgotten their country to re-
member themselves. The one now possesses
q great Office; the other great fortune. But
each has earned a very unsuccessful success
''Ihere is way that seemeth right unto q
man, but the end thereof is death" "Verily,
they have their reward"
Ii Mr.. Seward, since 1861, had inscribed
against his own name such public record as
that of Thaddeus Stevens--faithful, instead o.
faithless-What a grand renown might have
been his reward to-day What loving en-
thusiasm the American people would have
manifested towards the distinguished anti
slavery Senator of New York What bounti
fnl accompanments of old age would have
been his portion-''reverence and troops o
friends J"
To outlive ones fame is a pity to outlivC
one's usefulness is a calamity; to Outlive One'i
conscience is a disgrace. Mr.. Seward ha!
brought upon himself this pity, this calamity
and this disgrace.
Melt, SHOWS of Auburn and unveil thu
great mans garden once again to the sun
Iut his pleasant plants, when they renew
their leaf and bloom shall only mock thei
masters laurel, which shall not again b.
green
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