Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-09-03
seymour's Disqualification.
The Insanity in his Family
Will a Crazy Man be a Safe Presidents

[From the Cincinnati Gazette.l
The leading national organ of the Demo-
cratic party has at last been forced to come
out with an attempted defense of Governor
Seymour from the charge of hereditary in
sanity. This charge was first publicly made,
some months before the meeting of the New
York Convention, in the columns of the
Gazette We did not print it without am
pie proof of Its truth. ladeld
Ordinarily private grief Of this kind ID
sacred from public comment. But when a
great party, comprising more than onc-third
Of the voters of the nation, puts forward
man with such faint in his blood for our
highest office, and puts behind him. as his
possible successor, wild revolutionist like
Frank Blair, the matter becomes one of the
grave ,blic concern. If this thing be
true, ii democratic party is engaged in the
effort to make General Frank Blair Presi-
dent, and should accept that responsibility.
The long defense attempted in the New
York World consists in all account OF the
various uncles and cousins of Governor
Seymour who have not been insane. A
column of such matter brings the World to
this lame conclusion:
i. ssThe fair inference, the irresistible infer
ence from the history of the family is, that
no such hereditary tendency exists; and
even if it be true that there have been one
or two cases of insanity, it must have been
superinduced by accidental causes, and not
transmitten with the blood"
Now the facts in the matter are these:
/. Gov. Seymour's father, Henry. Sey
mour, shortly after the exposure of some of
some of his malpractices as Canal Commits
sioner of New York, became subject to fits
of mental alteration, in one of which he
committed suicide by blowing his brains out.
9. Gov. Seymour's brother fell victim to
the same terrible malady, and likewise died
a maniac suicide.
8. Gov. Seymour himself has been con-
stantly warned by his family and physicians
| to avoid all harassing mental cares and great
excitement, as almost inevitably tending to
develop the same faint in his own blood
Once, after some heavy pecuniary losses,
they took the precaution to remove him
| from political excitements in New York to
the seclusi0ns of Minnesota, and kept him
there in retiracy for several months, in ac-
cordance with the suggestion of his physi-
clans. His mind was believed then, by
both the physicians and the family, to be
trembling on the balance. sN
4. Gov. Seymour has himself referred, as
distinctly as could be expected, to the i'm
minent peril in which, as he we'll knows, he
is standing. To Mr. Harvey, a member of
the Massachusetts delegation to the New
York Convention, he said significantly that
his health (Which the World takes care to
pronounce perfecD was such that it would
be most perilous for him to accept the nom-
nation. If his physical health were perfect,
what could it be that made it perilous for
him, but the danger of excitement at which
his medical advisers were constantly point
ing, with the admonition, "That way, lies
death" To the New York delegation he
said, in one of his speeches at their caucus
es, that they well knew that it would be
dangerous for him to enter upon such life
canvass would open up. To the Conven-
tion itself he said, 81 can not become youl
candidate sosthout inaperilting both the
party and myself"
These are facts of public notoriety. Nc
New Yorker, during the Convention, pre-
tended to deny Governor Seymour's danger
from insanity. Many of those in the dele
CATION frankly admitted it to be an insupera
Bile bar to their presenting him as candi
date. 1t was as freely talked about and al
currently recognized among the better in
formed delegates, as the existence of Pendle
tons greenback theory, or Blair's letter
He received the nomination. as is known, il
an agony of conflicting emotions, and hi
first exclamation was, "My God, what shal
do?"
These things have been freely talked abou
, ever since. Now at last, six weeks after tn
: nomination, the leading paper of his party
when driven to notice the matter, can onl
hope that, 'seven if it be true that there hav
been one or two causes of insanity Tin hi
: family, it must have been supcrinduced b.
, accidental causes, and not transmitted witt
the blood" That is ALL
If the Democratic party had not been 81
) reckless as to drag this unhappy man int
' such position, we would have been the las
r to disturb his private calamity. But thi
thing is no longer private calamity. 1t
a public peril. To elect the Democrat
: candidate is to stimulate fresh rebellion a
f the South, and to place at the head Of put
. lie affairs man whom such excitemen
must, in his own fear, in the belief of hi
!, family and of his physicians, send to tn
Lunatic Asylum. 1t is to plunge the natio
|. into new whirlpools and give it crazy rilo
J Or, rather to look straight to the inevitabl
Z end, it is to make Gen. Frank Blair Pres
dent of the United States.
This is not matter to be salved over
Il pleas for the sanctity of family affairs. 1t
not a matter to be whistled down by stilte
70 talk about the decencies Of political discu
4 sions The indecency consists in forcin
a such peril upon the country, not in givir
# the country timely warning Of it.
~ Shall Frank Blair be President, instead
. Gen. Grant? That is the practical question
r. ---
se Mine trunks and seventy dresses are a