The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-02-18

commander, tha' the de(ences Of the
metropolis wert i so insecure condi-
tion as to render the city liable to cap.
ture by an expedition from the sea. The
Governor visited the defences of the
port and found it to be so. On Sunday,
July II, while at Long Branch for the
purpose of investigating the question of
coast defences, he received a telegraph
stating that conscription of recruits
had begun in New York. It had been
ordered by the provost marshal, without
consultation with Governor Seymour,
Gen. Wool and Mayor Opdyke, in the
absence of the militia, who had been
hurried off to Gen. Meade in Pennsylya-
MIA sud IN the most disturbed quarter Of
the city. A riot followed as ought to
have been expected. The Governor hast.
ened to the city on Monday and found Il
reign of terror prevailing. A mob was
sweeping through the streets, threatening
destruction to all who held the symbols
of authority. The citizens were para
lyzed. While Gen. Wool and the Gov.
ernor were in consultation at the St.
Nicholas Hotel the proprietor came and
besought them to leave, for fear that his
house would be burned over his head.
Yet the Governor never Ainched for
moment. He went to the City Hall, and
there SO organized tho civil power of the
city that it eventually queuched the riot
and restored peace. While engaged in
the performance Of This duty throng of
rioters, several thousand in number, sur.
rounded the City Hall and demanded to
see the Governor. He promptly took
his life in his hand and appeared before
them. What should he have said?
Should he have defed them, threatened
them with the sword or the law, and thus
melted them to greater excesses, or
should he plead for peace? AS civil
officer he had no choice but to disarm
them peacefully. He said: ~ beg you
to listen to me as friend, for I am your
friend and the friend of your families"
For this he has been denounced, though
it had the effect Of preventing further
bloodshed at that point. For this he
will be praised when the true history Of
those terrible days begins to be written.
Alone he faced the storm; alone he
overcame it.
In the autumn of 1864 Governor
Seymour presided over the National
Democratic Convention which nominated
Gen. Mcclellan for the Presidency.
Though he had opposed the idea of a
military candidate, Mr.. Seymour entered
vigorously in the canvass, and consented
to run for the Governoship in order to
aid the national nominee. The result
was disastrous to the party and its can.
didates. In 1868 he again presided over
the National Convention, and, after
nearly weeks balloting, was nomna-
ted for President. 1t was done against
his wishes, because he believed at the
time that there were stronger men in the
party, who could draw the entire "war"
vote away from the Republicans. Re-
luctantly he accepted and made gallant
fight. Defeat, under the circumstances,
was foregoDe conclusion. Governor
Seymour accepted the result philosoph.
ically, and when President Grant visit.
ed Utica be was the first to Welcome him
and congratulate him on the excellent
run be had made.
Since that time ne mas steadily de-
clined official honors. In 1875 he was
offered the Senatorship, but refused it in
favor of his friend and ncighbor, Francis
Herman. In 1877 he was unanimously
chosen by his party as their candidate
for Governor, but he peremtorily de-
clined, believing that another candidate
could easily be elected, and Lucus
Robinson was nominated in his place
and elected by the. people, He never
valued Office for its own sake. President
Pierce offered him a high Federal ap.
pointment in the States and President
Buchanan made him the profer of
foreign mission. But he always refused
Office except where the people evidently
desired it and the welfare of his party
demanded it.
On spur of the Deerfeld Hills, three
miles from Utica and overlooking that
city, is the unpretending home of Gov.
ernor Seymour. It's roof is shadowed by
hemlocks that have stood there for cen.
turies, and which, as their owner said,
"would talk Indian if they could speak
any language In front stretch the
broad acres that Mrs. Seymour inherited
from her ancestors in the days of the
Colonial Governor Cosly. For twenty
miles the valley of the Mohawk, green
and lovely and fringed by the purple
Dunderbergs, lies before the visitor as
he stands on the lawn, and he finds him
self carried away by the enthusiasm with
which the Governor speaks of it as "the
grandest highway of the nation which
the world has ever seen, the pathway of
millions towards the setting sum-"
Within the house breathes an atmosphere
of old historic times. There is the clock
which licked away the hours in General
Schuyler's house when Burgoyne was
there as a prisoner of war; the chair
that Bishop White used in the Continen-
tai Congress Governor Clinton's dress
sword; the commission of Governor
Seymour's maternal grandfather, Jona-
than Formau, as major in the Continen.
tai army, bearing the bold signature of
John Hancock; parchments that bear
the sign manual and seal of Peter
Stuyvesant and other old Dutch worth
les, and scores of historical articles of
Revolutionary and later days. And
quietly courteous the Governor did the
honors of his pleasant home, perfectly
unconscious that be was himself the
most remarkable sight among all these
reminders of the great and good of other
dave