Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-10-18

His service as Secretary of State
continued through the eight years
of Abraham Lincoln's and his sue
cessor's administrations. Mr.. Sew
ards service to the nation during
the war was inestimablc, especially
during the first two years, when
complications with England grow
ing out Of the Trent affair." and with
France and other European nations
ION account of the invasion of Mexi.
COY were threatening to involve us
in war with those nations, and rem
der the preservation Of the Union
against such odds impossible. There
is no doubt that Secretary Seward
committed mistakes at this period
of his career, as again when he
adhered too closely to Andrew
johnson in ls65-6s; but they have
generally been forgotten by the
public in grateful remembrance of
his faithfulness and skill in time of
trial.
Since yielding up the protfolio of
State in March, 1869, Mr.. Seward
has not held any public office. His
later years were distinguished by a
conservatism which contrasts
strongly with the somewhat radical
liberalism Of his earlier political
life, but it was the conservatism of
methods rather than principles
which comes with ripening years
and responsibility of station, and his
name should 60 upon the pages of
history coupled rather with achive-
ments in behalf of liberty, progress
and reform than with the optimism
and extreme good nature toward all
parties which characterized the last
few years of his public career. AS
a legislator and Governor Of New
York he aided TO achieve more and
understanding reforms than has
fallen to the lot of many to achieve.
He took the helm of state in 1889,
amid great embarrassments grow
ing out of hard times and corrupt
administrations, and before he re-
tired from his post Of executive re-
sponsibility these things had been
done: The facilities of public edu-
cation extended; the Erie Canal en-
larged and other beneficent public
works carried out: certain improp-
err legal disabilities removed from
foreigners; the old, cumbersome,
expensive and justice-thwarting
forms of law which had character
zed the New York code in great
measure abolished; Il geological
survey Of the State accomplished:
the banking system perfected; an
asylum for lunatics established; i'm
prisonment for debt abolished; Ger.
tain vcstiges Of the old slave code
expungcd from the statute books
and the right of free State tc
resist the demand of a slave State
to hunt It's slaves, boldly assisted
and championcd in famous cor.
respondence with the Governor Of
Virginia.
Nor are the achievements of Sew
ard confined to the political field
He has written many essays and
orations on literary and industrial
topics, and published q life of De
Witt Clinton. AS a traveller, he is
also somewhat noted, having made
the tour Of Europe in 1888; Of Europe
Egypt and Asia Minor in 1859; and
shortly after his retirement from
Office in 1860, the grand tour Of the
world, during which he received
more distinguished honors from
the rulers of the earth, both civilized
and barbarous, Christian and heath
en-, than have fallen to the lot Of any
other American. His journey was
in many respects like a royal pro
gress, its magnificence being due.
however, more to the great empire
which he had so conspicuously rep
resented before foreign nations than
to the fame of the individual. Mr.
Seward has devoted his last years
to recording the incidents and OBJ
servations Of this famous journey
"a work which he had fortunately
completed before death overlook
him.
We have alluded to the faults O.
the lamented statesman. One O
these was that besetting disease Of
American statesmen, the Presiden
tial mania, which attacked him a,
least as early as 1850, and which
his bitter personal enemy, Horace
Greeley, doubtless had chiefly il
mind while publishing his homilie'
on the evils of this disorder. Blu
it is certain that Mr.. Seward never
had Presidency-on-the will
half the virulence with which j,
beset his lecturer. At all events
it never led him into such unmanly
and unpatriotic acts as Greeley has
perpetrated in his Quixotic chase
after the Presidential chair. Al
Chicago, in 1860, Seward led al
rivals as the Republican candidate
but was defeated through the ma
chinations Of Cameron, Greeley and
the Blairs. Seward accepted the
action of the conventions of 1856
and 1860 with magnanimity, not
outstanding they had disappointed
his reasonable ambition-a fact
which cannot be recorded of many
Presidential aspirants.
Mr.. Seward was a man of. suave
and polite manners, and had social
qualities every way agreeable. He
was luxurious liver, though not a
reckless one, as his remarkably pre-
served vitality we'll testifies. His
bodily vigor was itself put to ter
riblc test when, in the spring of
1865, Seward was attacked by an
assassin belonging to the Wilkes
Booth conspiracy. Though in low
state of health at the time-having
been but recently thrown from his
carriage and subjected to severe
bodily injurics-he rallied from the
effects of Payne's murderous dag
ger, and soon resumed his duties,
belying all the fears which his ad-
vanced age and the desperateness
of his wounds had melted in the
hroacfC of hrc oouu}rvuan II iS RI