SEWARD
SEWARD
successor in 1852, and was re-elected to the senate
ill lijoo. In 1S5G. when Weed advised him against
aspiring to the Presidency, he vigorously sup-
ported John C. Fremont. In 1«57 he made a
journey to Labrador on a fishing schooner and
traveled in Europe, Egypt and Palestine in 1859.
In ISM he was the natural candidate of the
Republican organization for the Presidential
nomination, but the opposition of Horace Greeley
cost him the place. At the Republican national
convention at Chicago, M;'.y l<i. his was the first
name presented to the convention, and on the
first ballot he received 17:3i votes against 102 for
Abraham Lincoln ; on Mr. Lincoln's election,
Mr. Seward became secretary of state in his
cabinet, and assumed a conservative position in
reference to the questions that confronted the
new administration. While he declined official
intercourse witii Hunter, Forsythe and Crawford,
commissioners from the rebellious states, March
12, 1861, he favored the withdrawal of troops
from Fort Sumter as a means of pacification, in-
sisting, however, in fortifying and maintaining
every fort and post that from its position presented
a military advantage, in order to impress upon
the foreign powers the stability of the United
States government and its ability to put down a
rel>ellion within its borders. He deprecated
foreign intervention as an unfriendly act and
projwsed the establishing of conventions to de-
termine the rights of neutrals. "When congress
determined to close the ports of the seceded states
he instructed the U.S. minister at London as to
the right of the government to take such a course.
His surrender of Mason and Slidell to the British
government after their unauthorised ari'est and
detention by a U.S. naval officer, brought upon
liim the condemnation of the radical wing of the
Republican party, but his explanation of his act
as consistent with the American doctrine of right
of search quieted the opposition. He opposed all
efforts of mediation to be conducted by European
governments, and by the treaty with Great Brit-
ain for the extinction of the African slave trade,
lie gained the popular favor of the English peo-
ple. His continuous and persistent efforts through
able ministers and consuls, strengthened by com-
missions of leading citizens competent to present
the claims of the government and its ability to
put down rebellion, prevented foreign interfer-
ence, and when France undertook to gain a foot-
bold on the American continent contrary to the
spirit of the Monroe doctrine, by establishing
Mexico as an empire. Mr. Seward quietly avoided
any irritating interference until the civil war had
closed, when he forcibly presented the question
at issue to the French government and the
Mexican empire collapsed. In the summer of
1862, when the war had assumed a condition of
uncertainty as to the issue. Secretary Seward
held a conference with the governors of the
northern states and obtained their co-operation
in an extraordinary effort to change the condition;
this conference resulted in the call by the Presi-
dent for 300,000 additional men. His course in
insisting on the rights of the United States to
recompeusation from the British government for
the destruction wrought upon the high seas by
the Alabama nent out from a British port, led to
the Geneva award of $15,500,000 as damages. On
April 13, 1865, while an invalid from the effect of
being thrown from his carriage, he was murder-
ously assaulted by one of the conspirators against
President and cabinet, and his son. Frederick
W. (q.v.), was desperately wounded in defend-
ing him. Secretary Seward's recovery was slow
and his suffering intense. His wife died in
W^ashington, June 21, 1865, aged 59 years. He
was retained by President Johnson as the head of
his cabinet, and by sustaining the reconstruction
policy of the President, he carried out the avowed
intention of President Lincoln, but displeased the
radical wing of the Republican party and was
subjected to much unfriendly criticism. He
concluded with Russia an arrangement for the
purchase of Alaska, which was accomplished by
treaty, March 30, 1867, and an area of 580.000
square miles of Russian territory on the American
continent passed by purchase for the sum of
$7,200,000 to the United States. In 188-i Alaska
was organized as a district with executive officers
appointed by the President, but without legisla-
tive institutions. Secretary Seward also nego-
tiated for the purchase of the Danish West India
Islands and the Bay of Samana, and made a
treaty with tiie republic of Colombia. S.A., to
secure to the United States control of the Isthmus
of Panama, but an unfriendly senate prevented
the purchases and consummation of the treaty.
He supported the President in the efforts of the
opposition to impeach and remove him from office
in 1868, and favored the election of General Grant
to the Presidency the same year. Upon the in-
auguration of President Grant, March 4. 1869,
Mr. Seward turned over the portfolio of state
held by him for eight years to Elihu B. Wash-
burn and returned to Auburn, N.Y., where he-
prepared for an extended journey across the con-
tinent and along the Pacific coast. He visited
California, Oregon, AVashington, British Colum-
bia, and the newly acquired territory of Alaska,
returning home through Mexico, where he was a
guest of the government and people. The next
year he made his remarkable tour of the world,
and was received with the highest honors by the
governments of Asia, northern Africa and Europe,
his record as a statesman making him welcome
at foreign courts and giving him rare opportu-
