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William Henry Seward was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869 and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States senator. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was prominent in the Republican Party in its formative years and was praised for his work on behalf of the Unio…
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culture · American politician (1801–1872) · politician · lawyer · diplomat · writer · jurist · foreign minister · also William H. Seward, William Henry Seward, William Seward, Seward
Born 16 May 1801 · Died 10 October 1872 · Q297308
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“Disappointment! You speak to me of disappointment! To me, who was justly entitled to the Republican nomination for the presidency, and who had to stand aside and see it given to a little Illinois lawyer!”
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“banishes the distinctions, old as time, of rich and poor, master and slave. It banishes ignorance and lays axe to the root of crime”
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“brimmed with his youth, energy, ambition, and optimism”
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MutualArt.com: William H. Seward
The Atlantic: Union Portraits: Vi. William H. Seward
Signed a treaty of friendship with the Samoan Islands, laying the groundwork for another American acquisition
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Signed the trade reciprocity treaty with the Kingdom of Hawaii that eventually led to the American annexation of the islands
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Died 1872-10-10.
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Worked at his desk in the morning as usual, then complained of trouble breathing
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“I know, and you know, that a revolution has begun.”
Campaign: 1868 election, retirement and death.
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And supported Johnson during his impeachment
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Along with Herold, Atzerodt, and Surratt, convicted as conspirators in the Lincoln assassination
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Booth assigned Powell to assassinate Seward and George Atzerodt to kill Vice President Johnson
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“this policy would be brought into imminent Jeopardy unless France could deem it consistent with her interest and honor to desist from the prosecution of armed intervention in Mexico.”
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Election won: 1864 election; Hampton Roads Conference.
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Campaign: 1864 election; Hampton Roads Conference.
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Let alone re-elected, as the tide of war, though generally favoring the North, washed back and forth
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French emperor Napoleon III set Archduke Maximilian of Austria on the Mexican throne, with French military support
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That it might be for sale, he pressed the Russians for negotiations
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Lincoln ordered that responsibility for detentions be transferred to the War Department, ending Seward's part in them
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Ordered the arrest of Rose Greenhow, a Washington socialite with Confederate sympathies
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On the pretext of protecting their nationals, and to secure repayment of debt
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Career landmark: United States Secretary of State (1861–1869).
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“Executive skill and vigor are rare qualities. The President is the best of us, but he needs constant and assiduous cooperation.”
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Though well before Inauguration Day, March 4, 1861
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Which most praised, though white southerners were offended, and some abolitionists also objected because the senator, in his speech, said that Brown was justly punished
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To force change on the South whether it liked it or not
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No way to be certain how many delegates a candidate might receive
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Seward tried to appear a statesman who could be trusted by both North and South
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Would have refused to administer the oath of office
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Career landmark: United States senator (1859–1861).
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Seward was advised by his political supporters that he would be better off avoiding additional controversial statements, and left the country for an eight-month tour of Europe and the Middle East
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Career landmark: United States senator (1857–1859).
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And soon joined the nascent Republican Party, becoming one of its leading figures
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Career landmark: United States senator (1855–1857).
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Career landmark: United States senator (1853–1855).
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Career landmark: United States senator (1851–1853).
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Invoked a "higher law than the Constitution"
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During the brief special session called to confirm President Taylor's Cabinet nominees
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Career landmark: United States senator (1849–1851).
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And a Whig would likely be elected to replace John Adams Dix
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Were Clay again, and two war hero generals with little political experience, Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor
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That he was intent on seeing the "punishment of Seward & Co
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Seward became the center of controversy in Auburn when he defended, in separate cases, two felons accused of murder
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“he is still your brother, and mine, in form and color accepted and approved by his Father, and yours, and mine, and bears equally with us the proudest inheritance of our race—the image of our Maker. Hold him then to be a Man.”
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Seward was asked to run for president by members of the Liberty Party; he declined and reluctantly supported the Whig nominee, Clay
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To repeal a "nine-month law" that allowed slaveholders to bring their slaves into the state for a period of nine months before they were considered free
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Protecting the rights of blacks against Southern slave-catchers
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Career landmark: Governor of New York (1839–1842).
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And inaugurated in front of a crowd of jubilant Whigs
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Arranged the purchase of the company's holdings by a consortium that included himself
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But with the Democrats unpopular, saw a path to victory in 1838 (the term was then two years)
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But the nomination fell to former Attorney General William Wirt
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With Weed's aid, he gained the Anti-Masonic nomination for state senator for the local district
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Seward was offered the local nomination for New York State Assembly, but again felt there was no prospect of winning
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After the disappearance and death of William Morgan, a Mason in Upstate New York; he was most likely killed by fellow Masons for publishing a book revealing the order's secret rites
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Seward was journeying with his wife to Niagara Falls when one of the wheels on his carriage was damaged while they passed through Rochester
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Studied at Union College (1820).
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Born 1801-05-16.
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In the small community of Florida, New York, in Orange County
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In the village of Florida, in Orange County, New York, where his father was a farmer and owned slaves
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