Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/503

This page needs to be proofread.
SEWARD
SEWELL

continued to 1846 in a memoir by his son, Fred- erick W., with selections from his letters (New York, 1877). The vignette portrait represents Gov. Seward in early life, and the other illustration is a view of his residence at Auburn. There is a bronze statue of Mr. Seward, by Randolph Rogers, in Madison square, New York. His son, Augustus Henry, soldier, b. in Auburn. N. Y., 1 Oct.. 1826; d. in Montrose, N. Y., 11 Sept., 1876, was graduated at the U.S. military academy in 1847, served through the Mexican war as lieutenant of infantry, after- ward in Indian territory till 1851, and then on the coast survey till 1859, when he joined the Utah expedition. He was made a captain on 19 Jan., 1859, and on 27 March, 1861, a major on the staff. He served as paymaster during the civil war, re- ceiving the brevets of lieutenant-colonel and colo- nel at its close. Another son, Frederick Will- iam, lawyer, b. in Auburn, N. Y., 8 July, 1830, was graduated at Union in 1849, and after he was ad- mitted to the bar at Rochester, N. Y., in 1851, was associate editor of the Albany " Evening Journal " till 1861, when he was appointed assistant secretary of state, which office he held for the eight years that his father was secretary. In 1867 he went on a special mission to Santo Domingo. He was a member of the New York legislature in 1875, and introduced the bill to incorporate the New York elevated railroad and the amendments to the constitution providing for a reorganization of the state canal and prison systems, placing each under responsible heads, and abolishing the old boards. He was assistant secretary of state again in 1877-'81, while William M. Evarts was secretary. Union con- ferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1878. His principal publication is " The Story of the Life of William H. Seward " (3 vols., New York, 1891). Mr. Seward resides at Montrose-on-the-Hudson. Another son, William Henry, soldier, b. in Au- burn, N. Y., 18 June, 1839, was educated by a private tutor, and in 1861 engaged in banking at Auburn. He entered the volunteer service as lieutenant-col- onel of the 138th New York infantry, and was af- terward made colonel of the 9th New York heavy artillery. In 1863 he was sent on a special mission to Louisiana. Col. Seward was engaged at Cold Harbor and the other battles of the Wilderness campaign. He afterward commanded at Fort Foote, Md., and took part in the battle of Mono- cacy, where he was wounded, but retained his com- mand. He was commissioned as brigadier-general on 13 Sept., 1864, was commandant for some time at Martinsburg, Va., and resigned his commission on 1 June, 1865, returning to the banking business at Auburn. He is president of the Auburn city hospital, and an officer in various financial and charitable associations. William Henry's nephew, Clarence Armstrong, lawyer, b. in New York city, 7 Oct., 1828 ; d. 24 July, 1897, was a mem- ber of his uncle's family, his parents having died when he was a child. He was graduated at Hobart in 1848, studied law, and began practice in Auburn as a partner of Samuel Blatchford, whom he assisted in the compilation of the " New York Civil and Criminal Justice" (Auburn. 1850). In 1854 he established himself in New York city. He was judge-advocate-general of the state in 1856-'60. After the attempted assassination of Sec. Seward and his son, Frederick W., he was ap- pointed acting assistant secretary of state. He was a delegate to the National Republican convention of 1878, and a presidential elector in 1880. His practice had especially related to railroads, express companies, patents, and extraditions. Another nephew of William Henry, George Frederick, diplomatist, b. in Florida, N. Y., 8 Nov., 1840, was prepared for college at Seward institute in his native village, and entered Union with the class of 1860, but was not graduated. In 1861 he was ap- pointed U. S. consul at Shanghai, China. In the exercise of extra-territorial jurisdiction he hud to pass judgment on river pirates claiming to be Americans, who infested the Yang-tse-Kiang dur- ing the Taeping rebellion, and by his energy and determination checked the evil. In 1863 lie was made consul-general, and introduced reforms in the consular service in China. He returned to the United States in 1866 to urge legislation for the correction of abuses in the American judicial estab- lishment in China, which he was only able to effect on a second visit to the United States in 1869. He went to Siam in 1868 to arrange a difficulty that had arisen in regard to the interpretation of the treaty with that country; He was appointed U. S. minister to Corea in 1869, but at his suggestion the sending of a mission to that country was deferred, and he did not enter on the duties of the office. In 1873 he landed the crews of two American ves- sels-of-war, and, as dean of the consular corps, summoned a force of volunteers for the suppres- sion of a riot which endangered the European quarter. On 7 Jan., 1876, he was commissioned as minister to China. During his mission he was called home to answer charges against his adminis- tration, in congress, and was completely exculpated after a long investigation. He declined to under- take the task of negotiating a treaty for the re- striction of Chinese immigration, and, in order to carry out the views that prevailed in congress, he was recalled, and James B. Angell was appointed his successor on 9 April, 1880. After his return to the United States, Mr. Seward became a broker in New York city. He was president of the North China branch of the Royal Asiatic society in 1865-'6. Besides his official reports and diplomat- ic correspondence, he has written a book on " Chi- nese Immigration in its Social and Economical As- pects," containing arguments against anti-Chinese legislation (New York, 1881).


SEWELL, Jonathan, Canadian jurist, b. in Cambridge, Mass., in 1766 ; d. in Quebec, Canada, 12 Nov., 1839. He was the son of Jonathan Sewall, attorney-general of Massachusetts, who, about 1777, adopted the English form of the name. He was educated in the grammar - school at Bristol, Eng- land, and was sent to New Bruns- wick in 1785 to study law with Ward Chipman. After his admis- sion to the bar he practised for a year in St. John, and then removed to Quebec, where he soon attained a high profession- al position. In 1793 he became

solicitor -general,

in 1795 attorney-general and judge of the court of vice-admiralty, and from 1808 till 1838 chief justice of Lower Canada. The question of boundaries between the Dominion government and Ontario was settled in