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SEWAKD, WILLIAM H. 



In 1834 Mr. Seward was nominated for 

 Governor, but was defeated by Governor 

 Marcy, although in every county he ran ahead 

 of his ticket. Among the charges brought 

 against him in this and the subsequent success- 

 ful canvass was "the atrocious crime" of be- 

 ing " a young man." But little over thirty, 

 he had dared to aspire to an office which had 

 thus far only been held by the ablest and 

 ripest statesmen of the State. He went back 

 to the practice of the law, and to the private 

 advocacy of liberal measures and reforms, 

 speaking at Auburn in 1835 on education and 

 internal improvements. In 1830 the anti- 

 rent troubles brought him prominently for- 

 ward, and he established himself at Westfield, 

 Chautauqua County, as agent of the Holland 

 Land Company. A speech delivered by him 

 in 1837, in the "Whig Convention of Cayuga 

 County, is still remembered as an unusually 

 able production. During the canvass of this 

 year he spoke often, and the revolution in 

 State politics which then occurred, and which 

 assumed from the circumstances a national im- 

 portance, was largely attributed to his exer- 

 tions. In 1838 he ran again for Governor, 

 beating Governor Marcy by 10,000 majority, 

 and taking his seat at the age of thirty-seven 

 as the first Whig Governor of the Empire 

 State. He was reflected in 1840, but declined 

 to be a candidate in 1842, and retired from 

 office January 1, 1843. The administration 

 of Governor Seward was, in many respects, 

 the most remarkable of any in the history of 

 the Empire State ; and many persons regarded 

 it as more influential in shaping the political 

 issues, which followed in the next twenty 

 years, than any other event of that period. 

 During that administration occurred the anti- 

 rent difficulties ; the enlargement of the Erie 

 Canal, largely the result of his foresight and 

 energetic advocacy ; the founding of the State 

 Lunatic Asylum at Utica, to which he gave 

 his best efforts; the eradication of the laws 

 for imprisonment for debt, and every vestige 

 of slavery, from the statute books ; the refor- 

 mation of the penitentiary system, and those 

 reforms in the severity of criminal sentences 

 which betokened the dawning of an era of 

 greater humanity ; the promotion of the agri- 

 cultural interests of the State; the creation 

 and fostering of normal schools, and the in- 

 crease of school libraries ; the extension of the 

 privileges of the public schools to all classes 

 and conditions, etc. But preeminently was 

 his administration known for its action rela- 

 tive to slavery. In the case of the colored sea- 

 men, charged by the Governors of Virginia and 

 Georgia as being slaves abducted from those 

 States, or carried to free States and set at lib- 

 erty, the seamen having been arrested in the 

 city of New York, and their extradition to Vir- 

 ginia and Georgia demanded, Governor Sew- 

 ard refused to surrender them. His grounds 

 for their refusal were ably stated in a series of 

 letters to the Executives of Virginia and Geor- 



gia, in which he maintained that the crimes 

 contemplated by the Constitution, in its provi- 

 sions requiring the rendition of fugitives from 

 justice, were not such as depended on the 

 legislation of a particular State, but such as 

 were determined by some common standard 

 to be crimes such as were mala in se. No 

 State, he argued, could force a requisition on 

 another State, founded on an act which was 

 only criminal through its own legislation, but 

 which, compared with general standards, was 

 not only innocent, but humane and praise- 

 worthy. Virginia, and other Southern States 

 in sympathy with him, threatened retaliatory 

 measures against the commerce of New York, 

 but Governor Seward was not to be influenced 

 or intimidated. A similar instance of his firm- 

 ness and sagacity was exhibited in the "Mc- 

 Leod case." Alexander McLeod, a British 

 loyalist, charged with burning the American 

 steamer Caroline during the Canadian rebel- 

 lion in 1837, was arrested and committed to 

 jail in the State of New York to await his 

 trial for the offence. The British minister al- 

 leged that the act was one of war, for which 

 his Government should be held responsible. 

 He therefore demanded the release of McLeod, 

 menacing hostilities in case of a refusal. 

 President Tyler's Administration Mr. Web- 

 ster being Secretary of State counselled com- 

 pliance, and urged Governor Seward to sur- 

 render the accused. Many of Governor Sew- 

 ard's friends also advised him to the same 

 course. But he resolutely resisted the demand 

 of the British Government, and refused to 

 adopt the policy of President Tyler. His bold 

 and independent stand sustained the honor of 

 his country ; and the fortunate conclusion of 

 the matter restored public tranquillity and 

 strengthened Governor Seward's administra- 

 tion. 



At the expiration of his second term as Gov- 

 ernor, he resumed the practice of his profes- 

 sion, though occasionally indulging in his taste 

 for literary labor. Thus, in 1843, he addressed 

 the Phi Beta Kappa, of Union College, on the 

 "Elements of Empire in America;" in 1847, 

 delivered an oration on the " Life and Charac- 

 ter of Daniel O'Connell ; " and in 1848 pro- 

 nounced an eloquent eulogy on John Quincy 

 Adams before the New York Legislature. He 

 also took an active part occasionally in na- 

 tional and State politics, canvassing the State 

 for Mr. Clay in 1844, though he had not favored 

 his nomination ; opposing the annexation of 

 Texas, and the Mexican War ; and about the 

 same time contending zealously against the 

 National American movement. He was largely 

 instrumental in securing the calling of the 

 Constitutional Convention of 1846. But the 

 greater part of his time, during the six years 

 1843-'49, was devoted earnestly to legal pr.ac- 

 tice, and his extensive attainments in the law, 

 and his eloquence before the jury, caused him 

 to be retained very often in cases of great im- 

 portance. Among them may be named the 



