New-York tribune., 1883-06-19
GoVERYoR sEYMoURs APHoRISMS.


For man who has occupied 80 large space In
public life and welded wIthal Sc great an infiu-
ence, Ex-Governor Horatio Seymour has sin
gularly failed to contribute anything In the
shape of apothegm, proverb. aphorlsm, maxim
or slang to political literature. Men much
duller than he have said-and many OF them
perhaps without knowing it-short crisp things
that have been snatched up at once, made cur
rent and Incorporated into the body OF sayings
worth remembering. Lincoln continually Ut
tered himself in proverbs. Grant was aphor-
istic between his cigar puffs; and even Mr.
HAYES, whom cheap wits are so fond OF derld-
ing, said, :" He serves his party best who serves
his country best.n Then there are men VINO
say things that are not wise; things that gam
currency from the very fact that they are not /;
but they do say something that passes into cur
rency and are remem bered. General Wlni1elo
Scott Hancock, when he expressed himself on
the tariff question TO the effect that it was
.ouly q local ISSUE" said something far from
wise, but it gained uncommon currency IN the
briefest time. And he only followed uncon-
sciou sly in the footsteps of his great namesake
who had the happiness to make "hasty plate
of soup y remembered. and the Hsweet Ger
man accent" living phrase
But Mr.. Seymour in his public utterances has
never said anything unusually wise or foolish.
His talk in public has always been common
place. Precisely why, we cannot say but we
have a sort Of suspicion that it relates somehow
TO the natural timidity of his disposition and
character. He shrinks from saying anything
in public that can startle or alarm; anything
that sets people thinking; anything that has
not been said before Hence with all his
amiable qualities he has never struck out new
thought or put an old one into expression and
phrase to be remembered. In any talk that he
makes that is liable to become public he circles
round the old idea of Capitalization or some
such kindred theme, an contents himself with
the traditions. In private conversation, how
ever, when he does not feel the restraints of an
audience, he does say some scntentious things.
Two or three of them, too good to be kept
from larger circulation sift down to us 0cca-
sionally. This for instance. To friend whom
he was showing some tangled patches on his
home acres-and who knew that when Mr. Til
den at the top of his success as Governor asked
him about his chances for the Presidency, he
answered, "DOn't bother about that. BE
good Governor and let the rest take care OF it.
selfn--he said: any landscape gardeners are
nature and neglect" That was the lesson he
tried to teach Mr.. Tilden-and failed Mr..
Tilden over-cultiyated.
Upon another occasion when Mr.. Tilden,
thon Governor, was gradually widening the
breach between himself and old friends, he said:
aMr Tilden can put more men into his pocket
than any man | ever knew, but there's a hole
in his pocket and hc loses them all out" Time
has shown the truth of that remark. And
again after the hubbub over the Presidential
imbroglio of 1876 had somewhat subsidized and
it began to appear even to Mr.. Tilden's ardent
friends what a calamity it would have been to
the country, his party and himself had he sue
ceeded, Governor Seymour quietly remarked to
friend: Tilden showed great skill in losing
tho Presidency These are only instances OF
Mr. Seymour's bright, crisp sayings in private,
in the immediate circle of his friends. 1t is in
teresting to know that this most distinguished
Democrat of his time, though his conservatism
and his timidity and his strong hold on the
traditions of his party prevented his saying
anything above commonplace IN public, did
say things in private that had the snap, orig
inality and crispness of proverbs in them.
And we recall these two or three utterances at
this special moment because they seem some
how TO relate to little current gossip about the
possibility of SIr. Tilden's being once more n
candidate