Volume II Part 21 (1/2)
[Footnote 550: William M. Evarts' speech making Lincoln's nomination unanimous. F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 451.]
[Footnote 551: Alex. K. McClure, _Life of Lincoln_, p. 171.]
At Auburn a funeral gloom settled upon the town.[552] Admiration for Seward's great ability, and a just pride in the exalted position he occupied in his party and before the country, had long ago displaced the local spirit that refused him a seat in the const.i.tutional convention of 1846; and after the defeat his fellow townsmen could not be comforted. Sincere sorrow filled their hearts. But Seward's bearing was heroic. When told that no Republican could be found to write a paragraph for the evening paper announcing and approving the nominations, he quickly penned a dozen lines eulogistic of the convention and its work. To Weed, who shed bitter tears, he wrote consolingly. ”I wish I were sure that your sense of disappointment is as light as my own,” he said. ”It ought to be equally so, if we have been equally thoughtful and zealous for friends, party, and country. I know not what has been left undone that could have been done, or done that ought to be regretted.”[553] During the week many friends from distant parts of the State called upon him, ”not to console,” as they expressed it, ”but to be consoled.” His cheerful demeanour under a disappointment so overwhelming to everybody else excited the inquiry how he could exhibit such control. His reply was characteristic. ”For twenty years,” he said, ”I have been breasting a daily storm of censure. Now, all the world seems disposed to speak kindly of me. In that pile of papers, Republican and Democratic, you will find hardly one unkind word. When I went to market this morning I confess I was unprepared for so much real grief as I heard expressed at every corner.”[554]
[Footnote 552: ”On the day the convention was to ballot for a candidate, Cayuga County poured itself into Auburn. The streets were full, and Mr. Seward's house and grounds overflowed with his admirers.
Flags were ready to be raised and a loaded cannon was placed at the gate whose pillars bore up two guardian lions. Arrangements had been perfected for the receipt of intelligence. At Mr. Seward's right hand, just within the porch, stood his trusty henchman, Christopher Morgan.
The rider of a galloping steed dashed through the crowd with a telegram and handed it to Seward, who pa.s.sed it to Morgan. For Seward, it read, 173-1/2; for Lincoln, 102. Morgan repeated it to the mult.i.tude, who cheered vehemently. Then came the tidings of the second ballot: For Seward, 184-1/2--for Lincoln, 181. 'I shall be nominated on the next ballot,' said Seward, and the throng in the house applauded, and those on the lawn and in the street echoed the cheers.
The next messenger lashed his horse into a run. The telegram read, 'Lincoln nominated. T.W.' Seward turned as pale as ashes. The sad tidings crept through the vast concourse. The flags were furled, the cannon was rolled away, and Cayuga County went home with a clouded brow. Mr. Seward retired to rest at a late hour, and the night breeze in the tall trees sighed a requiem over the blighted hopes of New York's eminent son.”--H.B. Stanton, _Random Recollections_, pp.
215-16.]
[Footnote 553: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 453.]
[Footnote 554: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 453.]
But deep in his heart despondency reigned supreme. ”The reappearance at Was.h.i.+ngton in the character of a leader deposed by his own party, in the hour of organisation for decisive battle, thank G.o.d is past--and so the last of the humiliations has been endured,” he wrote his wife. ”Preston King met me at the depot and conveyed me to my home. It seemed sad and mournful. Dr. Nott's benevolent face, Lord Napier's complacent one, Jefferson's benignant one, and Lady Napier's loving one, seemed all like pictures of the dead. Even 'Napoleon at Fontainebleau' seemed more frightfully desolate than ever. At the Capitol the scene was entirely changed from my entrance into the chamber last winter. Cameron greeted me kindly; Wilkinson of Minnesota, and Sumner cordially and manfully. Other Republican senators came to me, but in a manner that showed a consciousness of embarra.s.sment, which made the courtesy a conventional one; only Wilson came half a dozen times, and sat down by me. Mason, Gwin, Davis, and most of the Democrats, came to me with frank, open, sympathising words, thus showing that their past prejudices had been buried in the victory they had achieved over me. Good men came through the day to see me, and also this morning. Their eyes fill with tears, and they become speechless as they speak of what they call 'ingrat.i.tude.' They console themselves with the vain hope of a day of 'vindication,' and my letters all talk of the same thing. But they awaken no response in my heart. I have not shrunk from any fiery trial prepared for me by the enemies of my cause. But I shall not hold myself bound to try, a second time, the magnanimity of its friends.”[555] To Weed he wrote: ”Private life, as soon as I can reach it without grieving or embarra.s.sing my friends, will be welcome to me. It will come the 4th of next March in my case, and I am not unprepared.”[556]
[Footnote 555: _Ibid._, p. 454.]
[Footnote 556: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
270.]
Defeat was a severe blow to Seward. For the moment he seemed well-nigh friendless. The letter to his wife after he reached Was.h.i.+ngton was a threnody. He was firmly convinced that he was a much injured man, and his att.i.tude was that of the martyr supported by the serenity of the saint. But to the world he bore himself with the courage and the dignity that belong to one whose supremacy is due to superiority of talents. The country could not know that he was to become a secretary of state of whom the civilised world would take notice; but one of Seward's prescience must have felt well satisfied in his own mind, even when telling Weed how ”welcome” private life would be, that, although he was not to become President, he was at the opening of a greater political career.
CHAPTER XXII
NEW YORK'S CONTROL AT BALTIMORE
1860
The recess between the Charleston and Baltimore conventions did not allay hostilities. Jefferson Davis' criticism and Douglas' tart retorts transferred the quarrel to the floor of the United States Senate, and by the time the delegates had rea.s.sembled at Baltimore on June 18, 1860, the factions exhibited greater exasperation than had been shown at Charleston. Yet the Douglas men seemed certain of success. Dean Richmond, it was said, had been engaged in private consultation with Douglas and his friends, pledging himself to stand by them to the last. On the other hand, rumours of a negotiation in which the Southerners and the Administration at Was.h.i.+ngton had offered the New Yorkers their whole strength for any man the Empire State might name other than Douglas and Guthrie, found ready belief among the Northwestern delegates. It was surmised, too, that the defeat of Seward at Chicago had strengthened the chances of Horatio Seymour, on the ground that the disappointed and discontented Seward Republicans would allow him to carry the State. Whatever truth there may have been in these reports, all admitted that the New York delegation had in its hands the destiny of the convention, if not that of the party itself.[557]
[Footnote 557: ”There was no question that the New York delegation had the fate of the convention in its keeping; and while it was understood that the strength of Douglas in the delegation had been increased during the recess by the Fowler defalcation (Fowler's subst.i.tute being reported a Douglas man) and by the appearance of regular delegates whose alternates had been against Douglas at Charleston, it was obvious that the action of the politicians of New York could not be counted upon in any direction with confidence. Rumours circulated that a negotiation had been carried on in Was.h.i.+ngton by the New Yorkers with the South, to sell out Douglas, the Southerners and the Administration offering their whole strength to any man New York might name, provided that State would slaughter Douglas. On the other hand, it appeared that Dean Richmond, the princ.i.p.al manager of the New Yorkers, had pledged himself, as solemnly as a politician could do, to stand by the cause of Douglas to the last.”--M. Halstead, _National Political Conventions of 1860_, p. 159.]
The apparent breaking point at Charleston was the adoption of a platform; at Baltimore it was the readmission of seceding delegates.
Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas presented their original delegations, who sought immediate admission; but a resolution, introduced by Sanford E. Church of New York, referred them to the committee on credentials, with the understanding that persons accepting seats were bound in honour to abide the action of the convention. The Douglas men, greeting this resolution with tremendous applause, proposed driving it through without debate; but New York hesitated to order the previous question. Then it asked permission to withdraw for consultation, and when it finally voted in the negative, deeming it unwise to stifle debate, it revealed the fact that its action was decisive on all questions.
An amendment to the Church resolution proposed sending only contested seats to the credentials committee, without conditions as to loyalty, and over this joinder of issues some very remarkable speeches disclosed malignant bitterness rather than choice rhetoric.
Richardson, still the recognised spokesman of Douglas, received marked attention as he argued boldly that the amendment admitted delegates not sent there, and decided a controversy without a hearing. ”I do not propose,” he said, ”to sit side by side with delegates who do not represent the people; who are not bound by anything, when I am bound by everything. We are not so hard driven yet as to be compelled to elect delegates from States that do not choose to send any here.”[558]
[Footnote 558: M. Halstead, _National Political Conventions of 1860_, p. 167.]
Russell of Virginia responded, declaring that his State intended, in the interest of fair play, to cling to the Democracy of the South. ”If we are to be constrained to silence,” he vociferated, ”I beg gentlemen to consider the silence of Virginia ominous. If we are not gentlemen--if we are such knaves that we cannot trust one another--we had better scatter at once, and cease to make any effort to bind each other.”[559] Speaking on similar lines, Ewing of Tennessee asked what was meant. ”Have you no enemy in front? Have you any States to spare?
We are pursued by a remorseless enemy, and yet from all quarters of this convention come exclamations of bitterness and words that burn, with a view to open the breach in our ranks wider and wider, until at last, Curtius-like, we will be compelled to leap into it to close it up.”
[Footnote 559: M. Halstead, _National Political Conventions of 1860_, p. 168.]