MEMOIR OP HON. W. W. SEATON. 313 



same would be the case with the representatives of foreign governments, and 

 with all enlightened strangers, and thus his influence was often propagated to 

 other countries than his own. But this subject has been so graphically, if quaint- 

 ly, touched by a contemporary journalist that we cannot do better than use his 

 words : " There is a parlor in Colonel Seaton's old house at Washington," says 

 this writer, " which, could its walls speak, would be more eloquent than the 

 walls of any other apartment in America. In that well-known room it was not 

 uncommon — we should rather say it was for years a weekly custom — for the 

 greatest men in the country, and the representatives of other nations, to gather 

 in the freedom of social intercourse. And this may be said with undoubted 

 truth, that in those free social conversations and exchanges of thought were 

 born many of the great measures of government which added lustre to the 

 American name, so that that room may be regarded as the birthplace of much 

 of our national glory , v 



After having filled successive municipal offices, Mr. Seaton, in 1840, yielded 

 to solicitations which had been often resisted, and accepted from the citizens of 

 Washington the dignity of the mayoralty, the highest which, under the public 

 law, it has ever been in their power to confer. During the succeeding ten years, 

 in which he was uninterruptedly recalled with unprecedented unanimity to pre- 

 side over the affairs of the- city, it is superfluous to say that he brought to the 

 discharge of his duties a fidelity and energy which distinguished him in all 

 situations, and which have stamped his administration as a model worthy of 

 imitation by all civic dignitaries. It would seem indeed to have rested only with 

 himself to fill the office to perpetuity, for when, at the end of the above period, 

 he peremptorily declined a re-election on the score of advancing years, his re- 

 tirement was regarded by all with undissembled regret. Nor is this matter of 

 surprise ; for if, in the unswerving discharge of duty, he had evinced an impar- 

 tiality and firmness worthy of honor, he had still more won the popular heart 

 by personal qualities which appealed to the sensibilities of all the good and all 

 the suffering. Accessible to all classes, listening with patient sympathy to the 

 story of need or wrong, which was ever promptly relieved or redressed, tender- 

 ly considerate of the humble and poor, his charity a household word wherever 

 he was known, he called forth a respect and love not accorded to the many, 

 and at last descended to the grave crowned by the blessings of those to whom 

 the withdrawal of his earthly presence seemed little less than a domestic 

 calamity. 



One point only in Mr. Beaton's municipal administration is it thought needful 

 here to particularize ; his persistent efforts in the establishment of the present 

 admirable system of public schools in Washington. A just tribute to his im- 

 portant work in behalf of education has been thus rendered by a municipal 

 colleague : " When Mr. Seaton entered upon the duties of the mayoralty there 

 were only two public schools in the city ; but justly estimating the value of a 

 new and improved system, he continued from year to year to press the subject 

 on the attention of the legislative branches of the government, until it was 

 adopted in the fourth year of his administration, from which time the number 



