Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-09-25
LineolB and Seward.

1t IS TO be regretted that MIR. Charles
F. Adams, in bis Memorial Address on
the Life, Character and Services of Viii
liam Ii. Seward, should have permitted
himself to do injustice to Abraham Lin
coin. Any attempt to CanoniZe Mr..
Seward by detracting from the merits
of his chief weakens the encOmiu1ns be-
slowed. Mr. Adams has claims to con-
sideration by reason of his talents, ac-
quirements, social position and public
service; but his estimate of the charac-
ter, capacity, executive ability and rela-
tive position of the Chief Magistrate and
his Secretary of State betrays a want of
just discrimination and correct know
ledge of each. A greater error could
scarcely be committed than to represent
that Mr.. Lincoln chad to deal with a
superior Intellectual power when he
came in contact with Mr.. Seward. The
reverse was the fact. In scholastic &C
QlIirementS 'EMr. Seward, never learned
man, may have the advantage, though
in this respect there was less difference
than is generally supposed; while, Sin
breadth of philosophical experience, and
in the force of moral discipline, the al
most self-taught and seif-retlrctive mind
of Mr.. Lincoln. which Surmounted diff
Culties and disadvantages which his Sec
rotary never knew, cOnSpicuOusly eS-
cclied Ia the executive council and in
measures of administration the secretary
had influence, not always happily eXer-
Cised, but the presidents was the master
mind. 1t Is empty panegyric to speak
Of the secretary of state as chief, or to
say MS suggestions, save in his own de-
partmcnt, were more regarded or had
even greater influence than those of
others His restless activity, unceasing
labOrs, snowy manifestations, and some
times incautious exercise of questionable
authority which the president deemed it
impOlitic to diSavOW, led to the impress
sion, which Mr. Adams seems also to
have imbibcd. that the subordinate WAS
the principal, and have induced him. to
use his own words, To "aWard to one
honors that clearly belong to another.
Far be it from me to derogate in the
least from the merits and services of Mr.
Seward, for | was a witness to his assid-
uity, and to some extent participant
and cOadiutOr with him in the labors and
trials that the administration encountered
in those - troublesome times. Bat it
was not necessary in stating his merits,
even in eulOgY, 10 underwriting AMI ans
state the worth. services and capabilities
of the remarkable man who was at The
helm and guided the government through
stormy period. tuassuming and I'M
pretentiOus himself, Mr.. Lincoln WAS the
last person to wear borrowed honors He
was not afflicted with the petty jealousy
of narrow minds, nor had he any apprc-
hrusion that others would deprive him
of lust fame lie gave to MIR Seward,
as to each ct his council. his generous
confidence, and patiently listened II he
did not always adopt or assent tn the
suggestions that were made To those
who knew Abraham Lincoln, or who
were at all intimate with his admiuistra-
ton, the representation that he was sub
ordinate TO any member of his cabinet
or that he was deficient in executive or
administrative ability, is absurd. Made
ON solemn occasion as was this adj
dress, and published and sent out to the
world in a document which purports To
be not only eutogistic but historic, it is
essential that the errors thus spread
abroad should be corrected. Mr., Adams
had not an intimate acquaintance with
Mr.. Lincoln, and evidently had but a
slight general knowledge Of his charac-
ter. With admitted great disappoint-
mcnt and disgust he received the intelli-
gence that this lawyer, legislator, and
political student of the pFairies, whom
he did not know and with whom he had
not associated, had been preferred by the
republican representatives at Chicago
over a senator from the empire state
with whom he was intimate and familiar,
who had hong official experience, which
he seems to have considered essential,
was acquainted with legislative manage
ment, and whose political and party
synpathies accord with his own His
preiudices as well as his partially were
excited, and from the beginning he mis-
conceived the character and underyalued
and moderated the capabilities of and
qualities of one of the most sagaCiOus
and remarkable men of the age. .....
Mr.. Seward was d politician--a parti-
san politician of the central school
with talents more versatile than pro
found; was more of Il conservative than
a reformer, with no great original con-
ceptiOns Of right, nor systematic ideas
of administration. So far as his party
adopted a reforming policy he went with
IL,
actual reforms by the democrats. The
representation that he was veteran
reformer, or the leader of the anti-siav-
cry movement, or of the republican par
ty is q mistake. He was neither an alb
olitionist nor a freesoilef, nor did he
unite with therepublicans until the whig
party virtually ceased to exist in most
of the States, and was himself one of
the last to give up that party, of which
he had been from its commencement
and ia all its phases an active member.
1t was with reluctance he finally yield
ed, when the feeble remnant of that or
ganization disbanded The republican
party, with which he then became asso-
ciated, was not of mushroom growth. 1t
was years maturing. Mr.. Seward, whose
friends claim for him its paternity, was
a wing at its inception. lie neither
rocked its cradles nor identified himself
with its youth, but gave it cheering
words, as he had other ephemeral organ
izations, in order to weaken the demo-
Gratis and help the wings. Faithful to
party, he adhered to the wings under
all circumstances. 1t was his marked
public characteristic. +.
Not until the wing party was pros
trate-a skeleton without strength or
yitality-did he yield and embark his
political fortunes in the great uprising.
In the destruction of political scaffold-
ing which he and his friends had con-
structed, persisted the hopes and labors
of years. To relinguish the machinery
and organization which by lobby man
agement under a slillful leader had be-
come powerful and controlling in the
Empire state of the Union, was a sacri-
fee not willingly made, and when it was
not in the anti-slavery interest, but with
covert design to perpetuate the Albany
dynasty under the name of republican.
The Albany lobby was never an aboli-
zionist lobby, or an anti-slavery lobby,
nor was the organization or its candi-
date. Any attempt to represent him or
those associated with him, as occupying
a more advanced position ON the anti.
slavery question that those who were of
the jefferson school," is rather eulogy
than fact. In the presidential contest
of 184S, when the domination OF previ-
ously existing parties was broken, and
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