New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-07-12
SEWARD AND LINCOLN.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMss GRAFTON RE
VIEWED

anl M.
| 80, after death upon the life and deeds Of
eminent men is worthy OF eternal renewal To friends
and relatives 10 is the dearest memento Oh ts ueu put
10 the State 1t adds glory and safety only In tne award
of mat consideration to those who have ser'eo her
| was also n good and ancient saying. DE "orfHS 70"
| nisi bonum," which had MT Adams appneu W o'noi'
as he did TO his friend. could have nau any ss
further IN saw But he Ia himself conscious OF ts Voia
tlon and he conesses that he is rakng over asneS VI
| fires still holding heat enough 10 burn. NO iaui' "
found with the pyrotechncs OF this oration' h"s0
| not to consider whether for 90 generations no
| philosopher and statesman has been founo uu.'" ~
| one man." or whether such union be possible MI
can objection DO mad, 20 his classification oil men VINO
have governed the nations though most frequently au
,heae oiassos are mingled into His definition Oh
| " statesman" coming down unmproyed aud uhim-
| proyabe from Plato to our tlmes"-a man III "no'n
| tba nower of thought and action ID perfectly
balanced equal to the present and reaching ior"a"
to the fuure-applies as well to shoenaAer VI oOA
But oratory as well the drama must have leS stage
scenerv and II anywhere certainly in those oratIons
intended TO instruct and amuse, where no action foo"s
| But was Mr. Seward this man Did he. by MI Adams
| own showing, come up to his dehmloh' nno mt
Seward first forming political party upon Oppositon
| to Freemasonry. But was Masonry oVerthro"h' No.
at all Seward left 1t at his death and at the death OF
his party stronger than when he first nade OSahAou
war upon it, Was there philosophy" In his action
Politicians attack int0mperance by licenses pro
hibiton laws and all that; but the statesman strikes
at the root the evil educaes the intellect "uehS 'ho
field OF innocent enjoyments and thus stes tue sOsS
| appetites which whisky, tobacco, opium, ana Suen
stmulants crafty. Was 1t "phlosophlcal OIher"i'o
10 attack Masonry institution which IN the d"fA ages
| was a real security and times harmless chaily
or pastme certain class>s intowns ana cities VINO
lack better pleasures In this then, ne was not
equal to the present" though perhaps reaching LOT
| ward TO the future
| hahf
comnaratiye obscurity Through all the years of long
life we find him the author Of no progressive mea
re The feeble anslavery utterance OF his YOUTH IL
known was forgotten. few enthusiasts VINO Oet'ol
Understood OF more earnest PATRIOTISM @' i's'
forced this vital principle, OF freedom lor ALL upon inc
nation Then when old parties and men were sh'et1
by the earthquake" seward comes once more 70 the
| front.
The Republican party was long years in embryo John
Quincy Adams, William Lloyd Garrison. Salmon p.
| Chase. Wendell Philips, Charles Francis Adams ana
Others were its fathers. 1t was only when was
"born" that Mr. Seward came forward to play wet
| nursei 1.-THE Wing party" says Mr. Adams, was no"
dead" Mr. Seward now, for the first time, enjoyed
the advantage OF being perfectly free from the embar
rassments Swinging out union with parayzing assoc
| ciates in the same party" Here progressive
| man Forced by the death OF the party to which he
chung while there lfe-thOugh antaeonisc to all
| the vitality OF the mountaineering ont with
Webster, "Where am TO 20 - he took tue hcld WIN
all his yigor."
THE CHICAGO CONVENTION
Mr. Adams in more than place in his Grafton takes
the ground that men fusrious for public service aud
notable uterances BEEN and he seems to conclude
must ever be- defeated for high place by those VINO
have done nothing said nothing worthy OF memory
Is this truet III republics are failure raise thef'
is nohing in Grafton which can indemnify us to
the assertion. Messrs Polk and Pierce were chosen De
cause they represented ideas or their party not be
| cause they were inferior IL often happens tina
several men great ability asprants for the Presl
dency as was the with Clay Webster, and Calhoun
They all beaten, not because the people OF even
party preferred There ia no question that
either OF them If he had stood alone would have been
chosen President other being equal by the party
and the people, But they divided the country into three
sets of parsans all of whom preferred another 10 the
, hated rivals The speeulaons OF DE Tocqueye that
the representatives Of republics wond ultimately rerec
the characteristics of the majority Of the constituency
may vet be verified in history but they had no sup
mort in the elections OF Polk and Pierce, and certainly
none in the OF Lincoln.
OF all the given by Mr. Adams for the detea
OF Seward the Chicago Convention, most people VII
agree that based on fact The premise tha
Henry Clay was defeated because he had long RECORD
OF public services is as absurd say man starved
hecause he had stomach inste OF for OF food
All the world knows that Clay defeated because the
Wings minority party, and because he lost TN
occasion OF turning 1t into ma1ority on the anti
Texas ISSUE by his celebrated Alabama letter. Which
2 turned the AboOnists, who we're inclined to support
4 him. against him There were four prominent candl
a dates before the Chicago ConventOn-Chase, Seward
Bates and Lincoln. Now any OF these was more dis
tncuished than the other. and entitled to the nomina
r ton Il was Chase, who not only 5ewards equal
ability and fame but his superior In long and conslsen
devotion the Liberal cause The trr 49, the dllsio
$ | OF the anttSlavery element be- cen Seward an
? | Chase gave Lincoln the advantage, which his pei
sonaI popularity and great talents turned into success
| I was not in that Convention, but always heard thai
the bargain and management" was on the part OF th
s | Seward men, the disgust OF many who otherwls
T would have supported him. New York paper say
4 truly: This cause the bad reputation OF the Re
= nubcan leaders who were identified with Mr. Seward
oruues and the popular belief that they corrupt
The corruption among his followers note
rious" And these fears were just for Seward in hi
subordinate place carried these practices to Washing
ton One Of the fatal legacies which military men eVe
leave to q free people Jackson's ayowal that 90
the yictors belong the spois" which is that party
higher than country. But they thought Of as
Stunning more than the aud the Constitution allow
" Not so with Seward. As in Asia the bodies OF mur
dered children and the suicides of gross superstition ar
said to accumulate the Gauges, and foster into tina
virus OF cholera which Is the scourge of the world
Seward by sustaining corrupt plundering the PEG
pie at will long they we're loyal TO him, carrie
y from Albany to Washington that fatal system whic
e threatens the utter ruin Of the Republic.
Il SEWARD INFERIOR 10 LINCOLN.
l. Nor was it because OF the "hgher law" and the " il
repressibe conflict" that Seward was defeated bu
Q literally because OF their ghosts" In his carefully
prepared electiOneerlng speech in the Senate in ls6
(which the writer OF this shown In manuscript be
fore delivery the cause OF AntiSlavery was virtually
j | abandoned Seward then took the ground that tn
> American people would stand by the Union, "slaver
or no Slavery" Consequently, outside Of personal 70
= lowers he had party, but disrusted by all