SEWARD, WILLIAM H. 



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D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut, 

 and first Protestant Episcopal bishop in the 

 United States. He graduated from Columbia 

 College in 1823, and from the theological sem- 

 inary in 1826, was ordained deacon in 1826 by 

 Bishop Hobart, and received priest's orders in 

 1828. He was Professor of Languages in the 

 Flushing Institute, afterward St. Paul's College, 

 from. 1830 to 1834, editor of The Churchman 

 from 1834 to 1849, and professor in the General 

 Theological Seminary from. 1849 to his death, 

 and for some years before his death rector of 

 the Church of the Annunciation. Dr. Seabury 

 held to the high prelatical theories of his 

 grandfather, and was generally inclined to the 

 (so-called) High Church party. His published 

 works were : " The Continuity of the Church 

 of England in the Sixteenth Century : Two 

 Discourses, with Appendix and Notes," 1852 ; 

 "Discourses on the Supremacy and Obligation 

 of Conscience," 1861 ; " American Slavery 

 distinguished from the Slavery of English 

 Theorists, and justified by the Law of Nature," 

 1861 this was very sharply reviewed by Prof. 

 Peabody, in the North American Review, and 

 others ; " Mary the Virgin, as commemorated 

 in the Church of Christ," 1868 ; and several 

 funeral and other, occasional discourses, among 

 which was one on the death of the late Rt. 

 Eev. Benj. T. Onderdonk, D. D. 



SEWARD, WILLIAM HENRY, LL. D., an 

 American statesman, born in Florida, Orange 

 County, N. Y., May 16, 1801 ; died at Auburn, 

 N. Y., October 10, 1872. His ancestors upon 

 his father's side were Welsh, though for sev- 

 eral generations resident in this country ; his 

 mother, whose maiden name was Jennings, 

 was of Irish extraction. His paternal grand- 

 father, John Seward, was an officer during the 

 war of the Revolution, with the rank of colo- 

 nel. Samuel S. Seward, father of the deceased 

 statesman, was both a physician and merchant, 

 and late in the last century removed from Sus- 

 sex County, Virginia, to Florida, N. Y. At a 

 very early age William exhibited a fondness 

 for books, and ran away from home to go to 

 school, establishing a precedent that has been 

 rarely followed. At the age of nine years he 

 was sent to Farmers' Hall Academy in G-oshen, 

 which had numbered among its pupils Noah 

 Webster and Aaron Burr. With a strong 

 aptitude for knowledge, he rapidly advanced 

 in his studies, so that before he was fifteen 

 he was ready to enter college. In 1816 he 

 was received into Union College, from which 

 he graduated with high honors, though six 

 months of his senior year had been spent in 

 teaching in Georgia. He studied law with 

 John Anthon, in New York, and afterward 

 with Ogden Hoffman and John Duer, at Go- 

 shen, and was admitted to the bar in 1822. In 

 the following year he removed to Auburn, 

 where he formed a partnership with Judge 

 Miller, whose daughter, Miss Frances Adeline 

 Miller, he married in 1824. As a lawyer he 

 soon became distinguished for originality of 



thought, independence of action, and an indus- 

 trious devotion to his profession that brought 

 him a large practice and a high reputation. 



The attention of Mr. Seward was early 

 called to political subjects. His father was an 

 eminent Jeffersonian Republican, and the nat- 

 ural instincts as well as the early education 

 of the son led him to adopt the same princi- 

 ples. In 1824 he was selected by a Republi- 

 can county convention to prepare the usual 

 address, although scarcely old enough at the 

 time to be a voter. In several orations at this 

 early period of his life we find the same fer- 

 vent devotion to the cause of liberty that ever 

 afterward marked his public career. In 1827 

 he appeared as the champion of the struggling 

 Greeks, and by_his youthful eloquence secured 

 large contributions to the fund raised in this 

 country for their defence. 



One of the largest political conventions that 

 had ever assembled in the State of New York 

 was held at Utica in 1828, composed of young 

 men favorable to the election of John Quincy 

 Adams to the presidency. Mr. Seward pre- 

 sided over this convention with marked abil- 

 ity. The same year he was offered a nomina- 

 tion for member of Congress, but declined it. 

 The Anti-Masonic party was at this time rising 

 into temporary and local importance, and Mr. 

 Seward and his friends affiliated themselves 

 with it, believing that it afforded the best po- 

 sition for a successful resistance to the na- 

 tional and State Administrations. By this 

 party he was elected a State Senator from the 

 Seventh District in 1830, by a majority of over 

 two thousand, although his district had the 

 preceding year given a large majority the 

 other way. Not yet thirty years old, he en- 

 tered the Senate, and, at the same time, be- 

 came ex officio a judge in the highest court of 

 the State, and the peer of men venerable in 

 years and distinguished for talent and experi- 

 ence. He was politically in a small minority 

 in the Legislature, at a time when party lines 

 were strongly marked. The record of his ca- 

 reer as a Senator and a judge, nevertheless, 

 compares favorably with that of his associates. 

 The abolition of imprisonment for debt, the 

 melioration of prison-discipline, reforms in the 

 militia system, opposition to corporate mo- 

 nopolies, the extension of popular franchises, 

 the subject of education, and the work of in- 

 ternal improvement, received a cordial and 

 effective support from him during his term of 

 four years. In some of the reported opinions 

 pronounced by him as a judge, we find that 

 he did not hesitate to vindicate the claims of 

 justice even when opposed by the arbitrary 

 and time-honored rules of law. 



Mr. Seward found time during the recess of 

 the Senate to make a hurried visit to Europe 

 in the summer of 1833. His letters, upward 

 of eighty in number, written during his few 

 weeks' travel in Great Britain and portions of 

 the Continent, were published at the time, add- 

 ing much to his growing reputation. 



