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William Henry Seward
William Henry Seward
William H. Seward was born on May 16, 1801, in Florida, N.Y. He attended school there and at the age of fifteen entered Union College. In 1818, after a disagreement with his father over money matters, Seward ran away to Georgia, where he taught school and learned something of the South and slavery. He returned and in 1820 graduated from Union. Seward then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1822. He began practice as a junior partner of Judge Elijah Miller in "the bustling village of Auburn." He married the judge's capable daughter, Frances, and success came at once. The rise of the Anti-Masonic party lured him into politics, where he came into contact with master politician Thurlow Weed, who became his political mentor and shrewd guide into public office. Seward was elected state senator in the fall of 1830 as the advocate of internal improvements, sound banking, and social reforms. Following defeat in 1833, he cast his lot with the Whigs. New York GovernorWith Weed's help, Seward became the Whig candidate for governor of New York, and in 1837, when the poor economic situation made those in office look bad, he was elected. As governor for two terms, he attracted wide attention for his battle with Southern governors over the return of fugitive slaves and his efforts to secure equal opportunity for the education of Catholic children in New York. In 1842 he returned home to resume his law practice and to restore his depleted finances. Seward was not, however, out of the public eye. His position against slavery had given him a leading place in the formation of the new Liberty party. His own idea was to take a firm but moderate course. "Let the world have assurance that we neither risk nor sympathize with convulsive, revolutionary or sanguine measures." He was for compensation to the slaveholder with "regard for his feelings" and for equal compassion "to the slave." In 1846 two African Americans, both clearly mentally ill, were brought to trial in Auburn on the charge of murder. Seward's eloquent defense of these two "spread his fame far and wide and his Argument in Defense of William Freeman … went into four editions the same year." William Gladstone called his summation "the finest forensic effort in the English language." Seward was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1849. Sectional feelings had meantime become intense, and the Mexican War had raised again the issue of slavery in the territories. Seward supported a proviso barring slavery from any territory acquired from Mexico but sharply opposed Henry Clay's compromise bill, which left the slavery issue unsettled. Seward was reelected in 1854, the year Stephen A. Douglas introduced his Kansas-Nebraska Bill and the Republican party was created. He spoke against Douglas's bill but only gradually shifted to the new party. In Lincoln's CabinetWith the Republican victory in November 1860, Lincoln quickly chose Seward as secretary of state. Seward accepted with the assumption that responsibility for conducting the administration rested on his shoulders. He would assume the role of "prime minister" for a president who was inferior in experience and abilities to himself. Though he soon learned better, only the modesty and wisdom of a Lincoln would have endured Seward's unsolicited advice and his independent course in dealing with Southern matters. When he finally discovered that a conciliatory attitude and a willingness to leave slavery to each state was not enough to preserve the Union, Seward became one of Lincoln's most loyal defenders and, in the end, one of the nation's greatest secretaries of state. Although Seward's conduct during the period that the Southern states began seceding from the Union is open to serious criticism, his handling of foreign affairs deserves the highest praise. While the North rejoiced at the seizure of two Confederate agents on board the British ship Trent, Seward wisely accepted England's protest and returned the men. He handled the matter of English and French recognition of the Confederacy with such dignity and firmness that neither took official action. His pressure, coupled with a veiled threat of dangerous consequences, caused British officials to "take due precautions" in outfitting Confederate privateers. Seward urged Lincoln to run again in 1864. Seward was connected so closely with all that Lincoln represented that an attempt was made on his life the same night the President was assassinated. Seward remained in the Cabinet after Lincoln's death and supported President Andrew Johnson's efforts to bring the Southern states back into the Union. He remained loyal even when impeachment proceedings were brought against the President. Seward rounded out his diplomatic career by crowding France and Maximilian out of Mexico, settling the Alabama Claims, and purchasing Alaska from Russia. He spent his last days traveling, ending with a trip around the world. He died at his home in Auburn, N.Y., on Oct. 10, 1872. Further ReadingSeward's writings and speeches are gathered in The Works of William H. Seward, edited by George E. Baker (5 vols., 1884-1889). An indispensable biography is Glyndon G. Van Deusen, William Henry Seward (1967). The older, once standard life by Frederic Bancroft, The Life of William H. Seward (2 vols., 1900; repr. 1967), which devotes less space to Seward's personal life, remains useful for reference. Other biographies are T. K. Lothrop, William Henry Seward (1896), and Edward E. Hale, Jr., William H. Seward (1910). Seward figures prominently in James G. Randall, Lincoln the President (4 vols., 1946-1965). Additional SourcesTaylor, John M., William Henry Seward: Lincoln's right hand, New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1991. □ |
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"William Henry Seward." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Jun. 2011 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "William Henry Seward." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (June 21, 2011). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404705878.html "William Henry Seward." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Retrieved June 21, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404705878.html |
William Henry Seward
William Henry Seward 1801-72, American statesman, b. Florida, Orange co., N.Y.
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"William Henry Seward." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Jun. 2011 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "William Henry Seward." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (June 21, 2011). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Seward-W.html "William Henry Seward." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Seward-W.html |
Seward, William H.
Seward, William H. (1801–1872), secretary of state during the Civil War.An 1820 graduate of Union College, Seward became a lawyer in Auburn, New York, and was active in the Anti‐Masonic Party. He subsequently led the Whig Party in the state. Elected governor in 1838, he entered the U.S. Senate in 1849 and established himself as a promoter of America's mission in the world and a leading opponent of slavery. In 1850, he appealed to a “higher law than the Constitution” in condemning slavery, and in 1858, by then a Republican, spoke of an “irrepressible conflict” between freedom and slavery.
After losing the party's 1860 presidential nomination to Abraham Lincoln, Seward was offered the State Department as a consolation prize. He accepted only in the false hope of thereby becoming president in all but name. Initially, he proposed going to war with France and Spain in order to reunite the country and avert the Civil War. But his subsequent achievements were considerable. He worked successfully to keep the European powers out of the Civil War, smoothed relations with Great Britain after the Trent Affair, ended French intervention in Mexico through persuasion and the moving of American troops to the Rio Grande in 1866, and laid the groundwork for the so‐called Alabama claims for damages done by Confederate commerce raiders. He purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 and annexed Midway in the same year, concluded a treaty with Great Britain for the suppression of the African slave trade, and opened diplomatic relations with the black republics of Haiti and Liberia. In his eight years in office, he negotiated more treaties with foreign nations than had all his predecessors combined. With his vision of an American commercial hegemony that would spread democracy throughout the world, Seward was clearly ahead of his time. Such proposals as acquiring Hawaii, the Dominican Republic, and the Danish West Indies came to nothing at the time, as did plans for an isthmian canal and a worldwide telegraphic communications network. But they clearly foreshadowed the shape of things to come. [See also Civil War: Domestic Course.] Bibliography Glyndon Van Deusen , William Henry Seward, 1967. Manfred Jonas |
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John Whiteclay Chambers II. "Seward, William H." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Jun. 2011 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. John Whiteclay Chambers II. "Seward, William H." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (June 21, 2011). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O126-SewardWilliamH.html John Whiteclay Chambers II. "Seward, William H." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. 2000. Retrieved June 21, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O126-SewardWilliamH.html |
Seward, William
Seward, William (1801–1872), statesman. A New York lawyer, Seward adhered to the Anti‐Masonic party and later the Whig party. Elected governor (1839) and U.S. senator (1848), he championed internal improvements, educational reform, and antislavery. A leading candidate for the Republican party's presidential nomination in 1860, Seward served Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson as secretary of state (1861–1869). During the Civil War he worked with the U.S. minister to Great Britain, Charles Francis Adams, to prevent the Crown from recognizing and aiding the Confederacy and in resolving potential sources of conflict. He also pressured Emperor Napoleon III of France into remaining neutral and withdrawing French forces from Mexico (1866).
Seward vigorously promoted American commercial and territorial interests in the Pacific. Urging open markets and territorial integrity of China, he pledged, in the Burlingame Treaty of 1868, to respect the Chinese government's control of its domestic affairs. Conversely, he aggressively and willingly used naval force in foreign‐trade issues relating to China, Korea, and Japan. Seward's Pacific policy included the assertion of a U.S. claim to the Midway Islands (1867), support for the annexation of Hawai'i, and the controversial purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million—a transaction some called “Seward's Folly.” Seward's expansionist goals in the Caribbean proved less successful. He failed to buy the Virgin Islands from Denmark (1867), secure naval bases in Santo Domingo and Central America, or obtain Senate ratification of a Panama Canal treaty with Colombia. Seward's vision and accomplishments were those of a shrewd diplomat with an expansive view of America's destiny. See also Expansionism; Federal Government, Executive Branch: Department of State; Foreign Relations: U.S. Relations with Europe; Foreign Relations: U.S. Relations with Asia; Foreign Relations: U.S. Relations with Latin America; Manifest Destiny. Bibliography Glyndon Van Deusen , William Henry Seward, 1967. John M. Belohlavek |
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Paul S. Boyer. "Seward, William." The Oxford Companion to United States History. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Jun. 2011 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Paul S. Boyer. "Seward, William." The Oxford Companion to United States History. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (June 21, 2011). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O119-SewardWilliam.html Paul S. Boyer. "Seward, William." The Oxford Companion to United States History. 2001. Retrieved June 21, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O119-SewardWilliam.html |
Seward, William
Seward, William (1801–72) U.S. secretary of state, state governor, and U.S. senator, born in New York. As governor of New York, Seward promoted education and internal improvements, advocated humane reform of the prison system and mental health care, and was outspokenly antislavery. In 1849 Seward moved to the U.S. Senate, where he opposed slavery's extension into the Western territories and fought vigorously against the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Fiercely ambitious, Seward was considered the favorite to win the presidential nomination of the new Republican party in 1860, but in the end he lost to Abraham Lincoln, who was seen as less polarizing. Seward stayed loyal to the party and was named Lincoln's secretary of state. His goal was to preserve the Union, to which end he favored supporting Virginia Unionists by relinquishing Fort Sumter, but Lincoln demurred; he moved to reprovision the fort, and hostilities broke out. As secretary of state, Seward worked to keep European powers from recognizing or aiding the Confederacy and to prevent British shipbuilders from selling ships to the South. Seward clashed with President Andrew Johnson, who took office on Lincoln's assassination in April 1865; the two disagreed over Reconstruction, on which Seward was more moderate; he supported the Thirteenth Amendment but adopted a conciliatory tone toward the formerly secessionist states and toward former slaveowners. Seward opposed the Fourteenth Amendment because of its limits on participation in government by Confederates. His foreign policy was progressive; his most famous act was the acquisition from Russia of Alaska in 1867, a purchase known at the time as “Seward's Folly.” He also supported the construction of the Panama Canal.
Both a moral leader and a hard-nosed pragmatist, Seward is considered, along with John Quincy Adams, the nation's greatest secretary of state. |
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"Seward, William." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Jun. 2011 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Seward, William." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (June 21, 2011). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-SewardWilliam.html "Seward, William." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Retrieved June 21, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-SewardWilliam.html |
Seward, William Henry
Seward, William Henry (1801–72) US statesman. He served as Whig governor of New York (1839–42) and then as Senator (1849–61). A convinced opponent of slavery, he joined the newly formed REPUBLICAN PARTY in 1855 and served as Secretary of State under LINCOLN during the AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. Wounded in a separate attack at the time of Lincoln's assassination, Seward recovered and stayed in office during the Presidency of Andrew JOHNSON, generally supporting him against the radical Republicans. Seward believed in the need for the USA to expand its influence in the Pacific and was responsible for the US purchase of Alaska from Russia (1867). He advocated friendly relations with China and pressed for the annexation of Hawaii and other islands to act as coaling stations for a US Pacific fleet.
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"Seward, William Henry." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Jun. 2011 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Seward, William Henry." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (June 21, 2011). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-SewardWilliamHenry.html "Seward, William Henry." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Retrieved June 21, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-SewardWilliamHenry.html |
Seward, William H.
Seward, William H. (1801–72) US statesman. Seward lost the Republican nomination for president (1860) to Abraham Lincoln, who appointed him secretary of state. He succeeded in maintaining good relations with Europe during the Civil War, and his handling of the Trent Affair averted British recognition of the Confederacy. Seward was wounded in the shooting that killed Lincoln, but continued in office under Andrew Johnson, negotiating (1867) the purchase of Alaska.
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"Seward, William H." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Jun. 2011 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Seward, William H." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (June 21, 2011). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-SewardWilliamH.html "Seward, William H." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved June 21, 2011 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-SewardWilliamH.html |