The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1871-10-18
Rest Perturbed Spirit.

This, We all know, is the suggestion
which the filial Dane made to his pa
rent, "the old mole who worked in
the ground so FAST and who is here,
there and everywhere 1t is not diff
cult to associate this dramatic memory
with the reality OF poor Mr.. Seward,
who, having juss returned from cir
cumnayigating the globe, has accepted
an invitation $50 say the New York
papers) to accompany Captain Ash
bury on a yacht voyage to the Straits
of Magellan and Terra del Fuego.-
Really this old gentleman's restlessness
is a psychological curiosity. 1t can be
accounted for on no common theory.
Doctor Oliver Goldsmith, poet and
naturalist, tells us in the worst verses
he ever wrote, that
"The hare whom hounds and horns pur-
Pants to the place from whence at first he
few"
but is silent as to- the domestic ten
denotes of the fugitive creature, when
no one pursues. The good book is,
we are aware, a little more explicit
Be all this as it may, Mr.. Seward
seems to have a horror ofhis Auburn
aud to dread repose and solitude as
much as nature does a vacuum or a
certain disreputable entity does holy
water. We are disposed to take a
serious, and, if possible, compassion
ate view of this problem, and to see in
it something of that dread retributlon
which Providence occasionally, in this
world, supplies. If there be any II
man who, by his acts and teachings in
the past, is responsible for the ghastly
CONFUSION which for four years ago
nized this country, and lett it as it IS,
Mr.. Seward is that man. He hadn't
the excuse of personal grievance and
New England education, like Mr.
Sumner. He was not even an honest
decsrinaire, with q conviction without
asperity, as was the Chief Justice. In
his heart and conscience, he cared as
little about anti-slavery as he ever did
about anti Masonry and anti-Rentism.
He used one as he had done the 9th
ers, with more ultimate success, but
with Just as much conscientious insin-
cerity. He was a phrase-maker, and
to the debased and current coin Of alb
olitionism, he contributed his "irre-
pressible conflict" and "higher law
and they, in their way, did as much
harm as Mrs. Stoves iIl-omened ffc-
tons or MI. Helpers books. And
when, ut last, the truition came in the
shape of bloody, brothers war, who
so ready with his "higher law" practi-
ces in another form ; who SO expert
in devices by which poor Mr.. Lincoln
could be entrapped into cOuntenancing
deeds of wrong, and who SO jaunty IN
Boosting of his success? From the
day when he caused the arrest of the
accomplished gentlemen, and as is now
conceded, innocent men, who formed
the Maryland Legislature of 1861,
through all the tinklings of his little
bell, till, in the Cabinet of President
johnson, he bitterly opposed the re-
lease on bail of Mr.. Davis, he was
consistent in his acrimonY. If, at the
beginning of the strife, he favored some
sort of compromise, and did not cheat
Judge Campbell, "a question on which
Judgment is s~uspended,O he got bravely
over it
There was a period when, after all
this, Mr. Seward commanded earnest
though temporary sympathy, when
the brutal assassin attempted to butch
.er him in his bed. Wicked as was