Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/163

Bancroft: Life of Williani H. Seivard 153 qualities as essential to success as Seward's, appeared in others. Chase was possibly more philosophical, Sumner more learned or widely-read ; many others were more eloquent in speech ; but Seward was the one leader who by nature and training was best fitted to gather and weld to- gether into an effective organization the deep and determined forces which from 1S40 to i860 gradually brought on the crisis and struggle of civil war. Jealousies of contemporaries, passions heated in the fierce blaze of war, the spirit of "Thorough " pervading so many sincere minds at the end of the armed struggle, the current notion that Seward like Clay was only a politician too shifty and ambitious to be trusted, these and other like influences have combined since Seward's death, as they did in his lifetime, to deprive him of no small part of what we deliberately regard as his just share of honor and fame as a leader in the most dramatic period of our annals. In our judgment, the highest success of such a work as Mr. Bancroft's was probably intended to be and certainly ought to have been, lay in dispersing the mists of detraction and misconstruction which had latterly gathered about Seward's character and career, and presenting him^the man and the public figure — in true proportions and in clear light — " both in time. Form of the thing, each word made true and good." Some intimations, if not authorized statements, reached the public in advance of its publication, that the present work was, so to say, written from the inside, with access to and use of documents or sources of authentic information not open to previous writers and students. Such forecasts do not seem to have been warranted. So far as the reviewer has discovered or been informed, Mr. Bancroft has here dealt with no new documents and has presented no new facts. Under these conditions what may be required of him is a true picture, a just estimate, a readable narrative, and an effective setting of the whole in the framework of cir- cumstances, events and times in which Seward lived and worked. Above all else, we think, his part as well as duty lay in giving the world a care- fully presented and well avouched estimate of Seward's mould of charac- ter, his moral or ethical standards, his fidelity, or want of it, to principle. That he was a politician is certain ; as this, was he merely crafty and self-seeking, or rather, able and sagacious? He was clearly a statesman, responsible and experienced ; as this, was he capricious and visionary, or consistent and patriotic ? In a word, was he only an opportunist, or was he a firm, principled statesman and political leader? It was not required of the author to set down categorical answers to these inquiries ; but it was the part of a new study of Seward, holding a half-way place between a sketch and a detailed life, to put before us clearly and fairly — more clearly than had been done before — the materials of a safe and just judgment. Seward's work and career covered two separable periods of time and were concerned with two separable lines of effort, both the periods and