Volume II Part 10 (1/2)
[Footnote 384: _Ibid._, p. 80.]
In New York, the campaign could have but one outcome. The Free-soil faction divided the Democratic vote nearly by two, giving Van Buren 120,000, Ca.s.s 114,000, and Taylor 218,000. The returns for governor varied but slightly from these figures.[385] In the country at large Taylor secured one hundred and sixty-three electoral votes and Ca.s.s one hundred and twenty-seven. But, a Whig majority of one hundred and four on joint ballot in the Legislature, and the election of thirty-one out of thirty-four congressmen, showed the wreckage of a divided Democracy in New York. The Hunkers elected only six a.s.semblymen; the Free-soilers secured fourteen. The Whigs had one hundred and eight. Returns from all the counties and cities in no wise differed. The Hunkers had been wiped out. If the Free-soilers did not get office, they had demonstrated their strength, and exulted in having routed their adversaries. Although Martin Van Buren was not to leave his retirement at Lindenwald, the brilliant son had avenged his father's wrongs by das.h.i.+ng Lewis Ca.s.s rudely and ruthlessly to the ground.
[Footnote 385: Hamilton Fish, 218,776; John A. Dix, 122,811; Reuben H.
Walworth, 116,811; William Goodell, 1593.--_Civil List, State of New York_ (1887), p. 166.]
CHAPTER XII
SEWARD SPLITS THE WHIG PARTY
1849-1850
The Legislature of 1849 became the scene of a contest that ended in a rout. John A. Dix's term as United States senator expired on March 4, and the fight for the succession began the moment the Whig members knew they had a majority.
William H. Seward's old enemies seemed ubiquitous. They had neither forgotten his distribution of patronage, nor forgiven his interest in slaves and immigrants. To make their opposition effective, John A.
Collier became a candidate. Collier wanted to be governor in 1838, when Weed threw the nomination to Seward; and, although his election as comptroller in 1841 had restored friendly relations with Weed, he had never forgiven Seward. It added strength to the coalition, moreover, that Fillmore and Collier were now bosom friends. The latter's speech at Philadelphia had made the Buffalonian Vice President, and his following naturally favoured Collier. It was a noisy company, and, for a time, its opposition seemed formidable.
”Fillmore and Collier came down the river in the boat with me,” wrote Seward from New York on November 16, 1848. ”The versatile people were full of demonstrations of affection to the Vice President, and Mr.
Collier divided the honours. The politicians of New York are engaged in plans to take possession of General Taylor before he comes to Was.h.i.+ngton. Weed is to be supplanted, and that not for his own sake but for mine.”[386] As the days pa.s.sed intrigue became bolder.
Hamilton Fish, Was.h.i.+ngton Hunt, and other prominent members of the party, were offered the senators.h.i.+p. ”I wish you could see the letters I get,” Hunt wrote to Weed. ”If I wanted to excite your sympathy they would be sufficient. Some say Seward will be elected. More say neither Seward nor Collier will be chosen, but a majority are going for a third man by way of compromise, and my consent is invoked to be number three.”[387] Then came the letter, purporting to be written by Seward, declaring that ”Collier must be defeated, or our influence with the Administration will be curtailed. You must look to your members, and see the members from Cattaraugus, if possible. I think Patterson will take care of Chautauqua.”[388] Out of this forgery grew an acrimonious manifesto from Collier, who professed to believe that Seward was giving personal attention to the work of making himself senator. In the midst of this violent and bitter canva.s.s, Horace Greeley wrote one of his characteristic editorials. ”We care not who may be the nominee,” said the _Tribune_ of January 24, 1849. ”We shall gladly coincide in the fair expression of the will of the majority of the party, but we kindly caution those who disturb and divide us, that their conduct will result only in the merited retribution which an indignant people will visit upon those who prost.i.tute their temporary power to personal pique or selfish purposes.”
[Footnote 386: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 87.]
[Footnote 387: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
173.]
[Footnote 388: New York _Herald_, December 1, 1848.]
Seward was continuously in Baltimore and Was.h.i.+ngton, studying briefs that had acc.u.mulated in his long absence during the campaign; but Weed, the faithful friend, like a sentinel on the watch-tower, kept closely in touch with the political situation. ”The day before the legislative caucus,” wrote an eye-witness, ”the Whig members of the Legislature gathered around the editor of the _Evening Journal_ for counsel and advice. It resembled a President's levee. He remained standing in the centre of the room, conversing with those about him and shaking hands with new-comers; but there was nothing in his manner to indicate the slightest mystery or excitement so common with politicians.”[389]
[Footnote 389: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
174.]
The Whig senators met in caucus on January 29, and by a vote of twelve to eleven decided to join the a.s.sembly. Then the fight began. William S. Johnson, a Whig senator from New York City, declared that he would neither vote for Seward in caucus nor support him in the Legislature.
”It would be equivalent,” he continued, ”to throwing a firebrand into the South and aiding in the dissolution of the Whig party and of the Union.” Thereupon the eleven withdrew from further partic.i.p.ation in the proceedings. When the caucus of the two houses convened, fourteen members declared it inexpedient to support either Seward or Collier; but an informal ballot gave Seward eighty-eight votes and Collier twelve, with twenty-two scattering. Three days later, on joint ballot, Seward received one hundred and twenty-one out of one hundred and thirty Whig votes. ”We were always confident that the caucus could have but one result,” said the _Tribune_, ”and the lofty antic.i.p.ations which the prospect of Seward's election has excited will not be disappointed.”
Successful as Seward had been in his profession since leaving the office of governor, he was not entirely happy. ”I look upon my life, busy as it is, as a waste,” he wrote, in 1847. ”I live in a world that needs my sympathies, but I have not even time nor opportunity to do good.”[390] His warm and affectionate heart seemed to envy the strife and obloquy that came to champions of freedom; yet his published correspondence nowhere directly indicates a desire to return to public life. ”You are not to suppose me solicitous on the subject that drags me so unpleasantly before the public,” he wrote Weed on January 26, 1849, three days before the caucus. ”I have looked at it in all its relations, and cannot satisfy myself that it would be any better for me to succeed than to be beaten.”[391] This a.s.sumed indifference, however, was written with a feeling of absolute confidence that he was to succeed, a confidence that brought with it great content, since the United States Senate offered the ”opportunity” for which he sighed in his despondent letter of 1847. On the announcement of his election, conveyed to him by wire at Was.h.i.+ngton, he betrayed no feeling except one of humility. ”I tremble,” he wrote his wife, ”when I think of the difficulty of realising the expectations which this canva.s.s has awakened in regard to my abilities.”[392] To Weed, he added: ”I recall with fresh grat.i.tude your persevering and magnanimous friends.h.i.+p.”[393]
[Footnote 390: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 56.]
[Footnote 391: _Ibid._, p. 97.]
[Footnote 392: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 98.]
[Footnote 393: _Ibid._, p. 99.]
From the outset, difficulties confronted the new senator. The question of limiting slavery excited the whole country, and one holding his views belonged in the centre of the struggle. But strife for office gave him more immediate embarra.s.sment. Apprehensive of party discord, Thurlow Weed, at a dinner given the Vice President and Senator, had arranged for conferences between them upon important appointments within the State; but Seward's first knowledge of the New York custom-house appointments came to him in an executive session for their confirmation. Seward, as Lincoln afterward said, ”was a man without gall,” and he did not openly resent the infraction of the agreement; but when Weed, upon reaching Was.h.i.+ngton, discovered that Fillmore had the ear of the simple and confiding President, he quickly sought the Vice President. Fillmore received him coldly. From that moment began an estrangement between Weed and the Buffalo statesman which was to last until both were grown gray and civil war had obliterated differences of political sentiment. For twenty years, their intimacy had been uninterrupted and constantly strengthening.