86 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
not heard much that was favorable about a gawky and vulgar 
Westerner called Abe Lincoln. Nearly everyone realized, 
however, that national affairs were approaching a crisis. As 
events afterwards proved, Seward would have been a danger- 
ous man in the presidency because of his grandiose and ego- 
tistical ideas. How different things look at the time they hap- 
pen from the way in which history later evaluates them. 
David Dudley Field and Horace Greeley were influential in 
defeating the nomination of Seward, which made possible the 
choice of Lincoln. In later years a statue of Seward was erect- 
ed in Madison Square, near Greeley’s and Field’s homes. 
New York’s political apprehensions were somewhat over- 
shadowed during the fall of 1860 by the visit of no less a per- 
sonage than the Prince of Wales, the nineteen-year-old son of 
Victoria, afterwards Edward the Seventh. Because of his over- 
seas connections and international fame, Field was able to 
assist the British consul, his old friend Archibald, in the en- 
tertainment of the august visitor. Peter Cooper, another old 
friend, was chairman of the General Committee of Arrange- 
ments; Morse also assisted. Unfortunately the floor of the 
Academy of Music collapsed during the grand ball given for 
the Prince. The committees gave a sigh of relief when the 
royal party departed and the socially pretentious had put 
away their fans and furbelows. Incidentally the skirts of the 
ladies at the ball in the Academy of Music were so volumin- 
ous that one such lady would fill a modern elevator. The pe- 
riod was mid-Victorian and the costumes grotesque. 
