The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1868-07-24
HORATIO SEYMOUR.
A Sketch Of the Life Of Political Gam.
bier and DemagOgue.
from the New York Tribune, July loth.l

from the New York Tribune, July 1Oth.l
Governor Seymour's life is more re.
markable for what it lacks than for what
it contains. A long catalogue might be
made Of the public stations usually fill
ed and official experience enjoyed by
politicians before entering upon the race
for the Presidency, and which are want
ing In Mr.: SeymOur's career. He is ex-
clusively New York politician, having
never sat in Congress nor ever held any
Federal Office whatever, or been in any
way connected with national affairs.
Yet, though State politician, his name
is identified with no measure of State
policy, as have been those of De Witt
Clifton. silas Wright, Governor Temp
kins, AZariah c. Flagg, Governor Sew
ard in his earlier career, and other poll
ticians who won their fame in the serv-
ice of the State. Though Mr.. Seymour's
official position has been confined TO
State offices his political capital with the
Democratic party has all been obtained
by his views and course on National
questions, upon which he has always
been the embodiment of timidity sole
ly. If there are any political crisis in
which caution or cowardice, favored
with duplicity, would be the highest
craftsmanship, Mr.. Seymour might
wherever courage or Executive ability
were required he would be sadly want
ing. In this, as in all other respects, he
stands in square, marked, and strong
contrast with General Grant. No two
men could have been nominated whose
personal characters and history would
have SO exactly represented the conflict
between the Union Republican party
and the Democratic rebel party during
the war as Grant on one side and Sey-
mOur on the other. Grant never held
State Office, his whole public life being
identified with the service of the nation
at large. Seymour never held a nation
| al Office, his whole public life being iden-
tified with the politics of his State.
Grants public record is summed up in
the single fact that he saved the country
in the greatest crisis to which it was ever
subjected. His part in subduing the re-
bellion could have been performed by
no other person, and it is not too much
to say that without him the rebellion
never would have been subdued. OF
not by feathers weight to preserve the
Union. These contrasting facts are the
gist of the claims of the two men on
their respective parties for the nomina-
ton to the Presidency.
14OIdIlO SCN was UOEu OllI-
pey, Onondaga county, New York, in
1911, and is now in the fifty-seventh
year of his age. He is the seventh in
lineal descent from Richard Seymour,
one of the early settlers of Hartford,
Conn.,, from whom are also descended
Gov. Thos. II. Seymour of Conn, ORR
gen S. Seymour, who represented Itch
field county, Conn.,, in Congress. David
L. Seymour, who represented Rensse-
laer county, New York, in Congress,
and Senator Seymour, who for twelve
years represented Vermont in the Uni
ted States Senate, of the last of whom
Governor Seymour is nephew. Gov
ernor Seymour's grandfather, Moses,
served as a major in the Revolutionary
war, and was present at the surrender
of Burgoyne, He afterward Represent
ed Litchfield county, Conn, in Congress
for seventeen years, His son Henry.
father of Horatio, was born in 1850. and
at manhood removed to Onondaga,
where Horatio was born. Afterward
Henry removed to Utica, and served in
the Legislature and as Canal Commits
sioner. HoratiO was literally educated,
studied law, and entered upon the prac-
tice in Utica but, finding that the care
of his fathers large estate, together with
that of John r. Blocker, his father-in-
law. required all his attention, beside
rendering the pecuniary profits of his
profession unnecessary, he relinquished
practice, and has since devoted himself
solely to the management of his estates.
He was always q Democrat, and has
never incurred the merit or demerit of
being outside the party. In 1912, at the
age of thirty years, he was elected May
or of Utica. In the fall of 1871 he had
been elected to the Assembly, wherein
l,ae oy.NTn1 NTH Inhn niv Toxyi1
FLOYD Jones and Michael Hoffman. In
| 1874, during the severe attack by Mr..
Hoffman on the administration of Gov
ernor Bouck, Seymour as the defender
of the Governor, first became promi-
nent by the exercise of that oily SuGUtt-
er IN n1od0 in debate which often dis
arms and Subdues opponents of the grea-
est ability who are incumbered by an
impetus orarrogant temper. Mr.. Hoff-
man, belonging to latter class. Mr.. Sey-
mour's tact and courteous suavity gain
ed him respectable prominence if not the
victory. He sat in the Assembly until
| 1S45, when he was elected Speaker. Du-
ring this term he aided to elect Daniel
| S. Dickinson to the United States Sen
ate. In 1850 he was nominated for Gov
ernor against Washington Hunt, <on a
| platform mainly ofopposition to the ap-
| preparation of the future revenues of
the State for charging the Erie canal,
which he contended was in violation of
the constitution adopted in 1916. He
was defeated, however, by 262 votes,
though Mr.. Church, the candidate for
Lieutenant Governor on the same tick
ct, was elected by considerable major
ity, the entire vote being-for Hunt,
l4,6I4; Seymour, 314,352. In 1852 he
was again nominated by the regular
Democrats against Hunt, Wing, and
Tompkins, Free Soil, and was elected,
the vote being for Seymour, 264, III
Hunt, 239, 1856; Tompkins, 1920. On
this vote also Seymour ran about 5000
behind Church, the candidate for Lieu
tenant Governor. His principal official
act was his veto of the Maine Prohibit
DRY Liquor law. In 1854 he was again
nominated and defeated, the vote being
for Seymour, 156, 1876; UIlInan (Know
Nothing) 122,2S2; Clark maine law,
156, S04, and Bronson, 1880. This was
falling off in the Democratic vote Of
nearly 100000, and the result for the
time consigned Mr.. Seymour to private
life. In the dissentions of the Demo
cratic party made up in a confused way
of the slavery question, canal questions
and personal issues, Hunkers, Of
; lizards" led by Daniel S. Dickinson
Greene c. Bronson, Shell, and the like
were the more pro-slavery; the Barn
burners, led by John Van Buren, wer,
Free Soil and the ''Softs," with whom
Seymour affiliated were opposed to al
agitations, and were for maintaining tn
4 harmony of the Democratic party Is b
: first article of the faith. Mr.. Seymou
1 therefore stood by the administration