Cayuga County, which had never before thought of bolting any candidate bearing the Democratic label, and which had given some 1,800 majority for Jackson two years before. Mr. Granger, though nobly supported in the West, was deserted by the Anti-Jackson men in many of the Eastern Counties, and failed of an election by some 8,000 votes. mally nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, so that merchants of unspotted integrity and undoubted capacity, whose retirement from their life-long vocation of selling goods by Auction would have been regarded as a public misfortune, were refused commissions for nothing else than Political contumacy, and compelled to hire the name of one or another grog-shop Mr. Seward took his seat in the Sen- declaimer and ward-meeting packer, who ate, being his first introduction into of had procured an Auctioneer's commission fice or public life, at the meeting of as the due recompense of his services to the new Legislature in January, 1831-a 'the Party,' and who was thus enabled young member of a small minority, at a to live in vicious idleness and debasing intime when Party was despotic and our trigue from year to year, on the spoils of State especially under the sway of an as- the business community. Surrogates, Comcendancy familiarly known as "The Re- missioners of Deeds, Notaries Public, &c. gency," which combined general ability were all made in Albany, of course. Even with consummate knowledge of the springs the few offices of purely local character, of human action and a devotion to Party such as County Treasurers, Keepers of for Party's sake in a degree seldom equaled. Almshouses, &c. which had formerly and Van Buren, Croswell, Wright, Flagg, N. P. with obvious propriety been filled by the Tallmadge, Perley Keyes, Samuel Beards- Boards of Supervisors of their several ley, Cambreleng, Jonas Earll, Jr., Col. S. Counties, were, by Regency legislaYoung, John Cramer, John A. Dix, (a tion, required to be chosen by a vote of the recent convert,) and their associates, form- County Judges conjoined to the Boards of ed a nucleus of Political management and Supervisors, thus adding five devoted vasinfluence whose lightest whisper was heard sals of the Regency to the Board in each and obeyed in the remotest corner, the case, and paralyzing effort for a Whig Board most out-of-the-way nook, of the State. in balanced Counties. And, as if to guard Wielding the patronage of the Federal as against the consequences of any sudden well as that of the State Government, back- giving way of overtaxed popular endurance, ed by the unequaled popularity and seem- the Senate, whose assent was requisite to ing invincibility of Gen. Jackson, they had give validity to any new State appointment, gradually moulded every feature of our in default of which the incumbents held State's institutions to the one purpose of over indefinitely, had been arranged by increasing and perpetuating their own pow- a Republican' ascendancy in the late ConThe entire Judiciary of the State above stitutional Convention, so as to be re-electthe grade of Justice of the Peace was man- ed one-fourth annually, and, with the usual ufactured in Albany, and most of it subjectRepublican' preponderance of threeto re-appointment at short periods. All fourths to seven-eighths in that body, no manner of Weighing, Measuring, and test- popular outburst against the Party, (as ing the quality as well as quantity of staples was proved in 1824, and was again demonsold and delivered, was legally confided to strated in 1837,) could be potent to shake functionaries designated by the Central the Regency in this citadel of its power. It Power, into whose hands the Banks had could only be overcome by years of steady recently been more completely thrown, by and decided popular antagonism, and for the superinduction of the famous Safety- this it was presumed that the cohesion and Fund system upon the basis of the older discipline of the disorganized and headless plan of special charters and exclusive priv- opposing array would never be found adeileges to be accorded only as the Legisla- quate, but must succumb, after a year or ture-that is, the Regency-should think two at most, to the disciplined, experienced, best for the Party' Even the business carefully chosen and well-paid drill-serof selling goods by Auction was a close and geants of the Party.' Thus every aspiring gainful Political Monopoly; no man being youth was measurably constrained to enroll authorized to pursue that calling until for- himself in the ranks of the self-styled 'Re er. publicans;' he could choose the adverse side only by consenting to forego all reasonable chance of official emolument or distinction. If he were not a Republican' of the Regency stripe, he had no shadow of chance to be a Master or Examiner in Chancery, Notary, Commissioner, District Attorney, Auctioneer, Inspector, &c. nor to obtain any post opening the way to consequence or fortune. Such was the political bondage of the State of New York when Wm. H. Seward first took a seat in her Legislative halls. The limits of this Memoir will not allow more than a glance at his Senatorial career. Though uniformly in a minority embracing hardly a fourth of the Senate and of the entire Legislature, and therefore without hope of any immediate correction of the great evils and abuses above indicated, he yet made his abilities and his assiduity respected by his adversaries and admired by his compatriots. The great cause of Internal Improvement found in him a most ardent, fearless and effective supporter, as did that of Universal Education, including every proposition looking to an increased efficiency in our Common School system. He supported the act abolishing Imprisonment for Debt; that meliorating the Prison Discipline of our State; the erection of a separate Penitentiary for Female Convicts, &c., and was assiduous and influential in the discharge of his duties as a member of the anomalous Court for the Correction of Errors, of which the Senate then constituted an integral portion and numerical majority. The Deposits of Public Moneys were arbitrarily, unconstitutionally and in defiance of a vote of the People's Representatives, removed by Gen. Jackson's order from the United States' Bank in September, 1833. The Commercial consequences of that despotic usurpation began to be felt early in 1834, and induced a natural and intense Political commotion. Mr. Van Buren was then Vice-President with the Presidency in reversion, Wm. L. Marcy Governor, Messrs. S. Wright and N. P. Tallmadge U. S. Senators, with S. Beardsley, Cambreleng and a peculiarly docile delegation in the House. It was essential to them all, but especially to the Heir Apparent, that New-York should with emphasis sustain the high-handed act of the President, and all the vast machinery of the Regency was put in operation to that end. Resolutions approving the Removal were promptly presented in and driven through the two Houses at Albany; and on their heel came a proposition through Gov. Marcy for a State Loan of Six Millions of Dollars, to be placed at the disposal of the State officers and by them employed in sustaining the Banks and Business of our State, which, it was alleged, were imperiled by a war waged upon them by the Bank of the United States! Extraordinary and exceptionable as this measure was, its contrivers found no difficulty in passing it; indeed, it would be hard to imagine an act which they could not have passed by ample majorities. And, though they never borrowed nor loaned a dollar under it, and probably never expected to do either, yet the measure was none the less effective for the end in view. Not to protect the Safety-Fund Banks from apprehended hostility or feud, but to renew and confirm their fealty to their Regency creators and to secure the votes of their long array of stockholders, officers and customers in the impending struggle, was the act devised, and that purpose was effectually answered. Against this series of measures a speech was made by Senator Seward which thrilled the hearts and won the admiration of the Whigs of our State. It was an effort which pointed him out to thousands as the fittest leader of the embattled Whig host, and it was followed in due course by his nomination a few months later as the Whig candidate for Governor of our State in the approaching election. And, though the combination of interests, patronage and power in the adverse array, aided by disastrous results in the States voting just before New-York, proved irresistible, reelecting Gov. Marcy by some 12,000 majority, yet the Whig vote polled for Mr. Seward was larger than had been cast for the candidate of either party at any preceding election, except possibly that for Gen. Jackson two years before. The Whigs were of course beaten throughout and paralyzed for several succeeding years, and Mr. Seward returned to his practice, his Senatorial term closing with 1834. But 1837 brought the explosion of the Pet Bank policy, drawing after it the col Gov. Seward was inaugurated on the 1st day of January, 1838, and directly transmitted to the Legislature his first Annual Message. As this document is character mental ideas on which his public life has been grounded, the following extracts may be read in this connection with interest: "There have been periods of debasement when it was believed that the energies of man were unequal to greater achievement, and his character susceptible of no further improvement; that a law of necessity frustrated all efforts to increase his that his destiny would be speedily completed by destruction sent from the presence of unoffended Deity, upon him and the earth he had polluted. The tendencies of the present age indicate a more cheering result. The light of his intellect increases in brilliancy and reveals new mysteries to his persevering investigation. His passions become more equal and humane; his energies break lapse of the Political ascendancy which | jority of the Senators elected, the deadhad for ten years ruled New-York without weight accumulated under other auspices check or remission. With the general still held the Senate faithful to the ReSuspension of Specie Payments the Safety-gency. In all other departments, the Fund agglomeration and the Political Whig triumph was complete. fabric whereof it made a part fell into shapeless ruin. Without much effort or expectation, the Whigs swept the State like a tornado, choosing six of the eight Senators and one hundred of the one hun-istic of the man, and develops the fundadred and twenty-eight Members of Assembly. The Senate remained strongly Regency, as were the entire body of State and Canal officers, but the prestige of popular favor and their great preponderance in talent as well as numbers in the House enabled the victors to commence in earnest the long needed work of Political Re-security or mitigate the evils of his condition; and form. The Freedom of Banking, under general and equal laws designed to guard the bill-holders against loss by exacting a desposit of ample security for all paper issues; the overthrow of the Auction Monopoly ; the liberation of the Whig Counties from the Regency shackles imposed on them by the intrusion of the Albany-made Judges into the appointment meetings of the Boards of Supervisors; the restoration to the People of the right to use Small Bank Notes, and the re-invigoration of our Internal Improvement policy, such were the leading objects of Whig Legislative effort throughout the memorable session of 1838, some of which were then carried, and the speedy triumph of the residue rendered morally inevitable. Mr. Sew-ly the blessings of science, and social ease and inard held no public station, but he was frequently in Albany, in friendly counsel with the Whig Members, and heartily concurred in their general views and measures. And when in due time the Whig Delegates assembled to designate standard-bearers for the ensuing Election, he was a second time nominated for Governor, and this time with better fortune. In spite of unexpected disasters to the Whig cause in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other States, depressing hope and threatening to paralyze effort in our own, Mr. Seward was chosen Governor by 10,421 majority over Gov. Marcy, who had been three times elected by large majorities. The Whigs also chose Mr. Bradish Lieut. Governor; and prevailed in the Legislature and Congressional Delegation by like majorities; but, though they again chose a ma through the restraints of power and prejudice, and liberty. Froward indeed would this generation the democratic principle leads his way to universal be to ask for other signs than it now enjoys, that our race is ordained to reach, on this continent, a higher standard of social perfection than it has ever yet attained; and that hence will proceed the spirit which shall renovate the world. The ageney of institutions of self-government is indispensable to the accomplishment of these sublime purposes. Such institutions can only be maintained by an educated and enlightened people. It requires national wealth to dispense effectual dependence to produce a desire for their enjoyment. But education and national prosperity are reciprocal in their influence. If it were asked why knowledge is generally diffused among the wealth is more generally diffused. And if it were American people, the answer would be because inquired why the solaces and enjoyments of life are found in our dwellings, the reply would be that it is because education has been there. The augmentation of both prosperity and knowledge may be indefinite, and the security of Republican institutions be constantly increased, if that augmentation be impartially distributed. The spirit therefore that pervades our country and animates our citizens to seek the advantages of competence, sists the inroads of aristocracy and demolishes all is to be cherished rather than repressed. It reits defences. It annihilates the distinctions, old as time, of rich and poor, masters and slaves. It banishes ignorance and lays the axe to the root of crime. we equalize its enjoyments and direct it to the uniTo enlarge, therefore, national prosperity, while versal diffusion of knowledge, are the great respon sibilities from which arise the systems of Internal Improvement and Education. Our country is rich, beyond all she now enjoys, in latent, unappropriated wealth. The minerals within the earth are not more truly wealth hidden and unused, than the capabilities of its surface to yield immeasurable fruits to sustain the steps and gladden the hearts of the children of men. Emigration tending Westward with constantly increasing numbers manifests the resources of native labor we possess to render these capabilities productive. There is another resource which is ours neither by inheritance, nor by purchase, nor by violence, nor by fraud. It is the labor, the incalculable surplus labor, of the European States. This is wealth, and the moral energies of those who bring it hither are an element of national greatness. They come to us under the same law which controlled the colonists in their emigration and settlement here. They force themselves upon us even though we inhospitably resist them. The surplus capital of Europe, too, is seeking our shores with the same certainty and in obedience to the same aw. Anathematized though it be from our high places, and denounced by those who, removed by fortune beyond the general necessities, desire to maintain the power derived from what remains of inequality in our social condition, it still flows unseen over our land, and abounding prosperity vindicates its presence and its usefulness. This tide is now acquiring increased volume and velocity from the reduction of the distance between the two continents by Atlantic steam navigation. They who would roll it back must change not merely the relations existing between this country and Europe, but the condition of society on both continents. They must re-invigorate the energies of Europe, substitute democracies for her thrones, and religious toleration for her hierarchies. They must subvert the institutions and break down the altars of Liberty in America, arrest the prosperity of the nation, deprive enterprise of its motives, and deny to labor its rewards. If all this is not done, the settlement of our Western regions will go on; new States will demand admission into the Union; their trade and commerce will continue to augment our wealth, and their citizens, no matter whence they spring, to claim us as brethren. If the energies of the new States already planted adjacent to the shores of the lakes be seconded and sustained by wise and magnanimous policy on our part, our State, within twenty years, will have no desert places-her commercial ascendancy will fear no rivalry, and her hundred cities renew the boast of ancient Crete. The policy of this State includes every measure which tends to develope our own resources, or those of the regions which can be made tributary to our commerce, and every measure which invites the labor and capital of Europe. It requires that we welcome emigrants among ourselves, or speed them on their way to a Western destination, with all the sympathy which their misfortunes at home, their condition as strangers here, and their devotion, to liberty ought to excite. If their inclination leads them to remain among us, we must assimilate their principles,habits, manners and opinions to our own. To accomplish this, we must extend to them the right of citizenship with all its inestimable franchises. We must secure to them, as largely as we ourselves enjoy, the immunities of religious worship. And we should not act less wisely for ourselves than generously toward them, by establishing schools in which their children shall enjoy advantages of education equal to our own, with free toleration of their peculiar creeds and instructions. The year 1838 has been signalized by the momentous confirmation of the highest hopes excited by the successful application of steam power to the propulsion of boats. But this wonderful agent has achieved, alınost unobserved, a new triumph, which is destined to effect incalculable results in the social system. This is, its application to locomotion upon the land. Time and money are convertible. Husbandry of the one is economy of the other, and is equivalent to the economy of labor. Railroads effect a saving of time and money; and, notwithstanding all the incredulity and opposition they encounter, they will henceforth be among the common auxiliaries of enterprise. Happily, it is not in our power to fetter the energies of other States, although we may repress our own. This useful invention, like all others, will be adopted by them, although it gain no favor with us; and they who are willing that New-York shall have no Railroads must be ready to see all the streams of prosperity seek other channels, and our State sink into the condition of Venice, prostrate and powerless among the monuments of her earlier greatness. A glance at the map would render obvious the utility of three great lines of communication by Railroads between the Hudson River and the borders of the State. One of these would traverse several of the Northern Counties, and reach with its branches to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. A second, keeping the vicinity of the Erie Canal, would connect Albany and Buffalo. A third would stretch through the Southern Counties, from New-York to Lake Erie. It is certain that neither one or two of these improvements would accomplish the useful ends of all; and, when the growing wealth and importance of the several regions directly interested in these improvements are considered, it is not less clear that, however delayed, all must eventually be completed. It remains, then, to be decided whether it is wiser to regard them as trivial enterprises, each by the operation of local jealousies hindering and delaying the others, or whether all shall be considered as parts of one system and equally entitled to the consideration and patronage of the State. Action is the condition of our existence. Our form of government chastens military ambition. The action of the people must be directed to pursuits consistent with public order and conducive to the general welfare. Our country will else be rent by civil commotions or our citizens will seek other regions, where society is less tranquil, ambition enjoys greater freedom, enterprise higher motives, and labor richer rewards. We are required to carry forward the policy of Internal Improvement, by the abounding experience of its benefits already enjoyed ;, by its incalculable benefits yet to be realized; by all our obli The Colleges, Academies and Common Schools constitute our system of public instruction. The pervading intelligence, the diminution of crime, the augmented comforts and enjoyments of society and its progressive refinement, the ascendancy of order and the supremacy of the laws, testify that the system has been by no means unsuccessful in diffusing knowledge and virtue. It must nevertheless be admitted that its efficiency is much less than the State rightfully demands, both as a return for her munificence and a guaranty for her institutions. Some of our Colleges and Academies languish in the midst of a community abounding in genius and talent, impatient of the ignorance which debases, and the prejudices which enslave. The Common School System, but partially successful in agricultural districts, is represented as altogether without adaptation to cities and populous villages. The standard of Education ought to be elevated, not merely to that which other States or Nations have attained, but to that height which may be reached by cultivation of the intellectual powers, with all the facilities of modern improvements, during the entire period when the faculties are quick and active, the curiosity insatiable, the temper practicable, and the love of truth supreme. The ability to read and write, with the rudiments of arithmetic, generally constitute the learning acquired in Common Schools. To these our Academies and Colleges add superficial instruction in the dead languages, without the philosophy of our own; scientific facts, application; the rules of rhetoric, without its spirit; and history divested of its moral instructions. It is enough to show the defectiveness of our entire system, that its pursuits are irksome to all, except the few endowed with peculiar genius and fervor to become the guides of the human mind, and that it fails to inspire either a love of science or passion for literature. without their causes; definitions, without practical Science is nothing else than a disclosure of the bounties the Creator has bestowed to promote the happiness of man, and a discovery of the laws by which mind and matter are controlled for that benignant end. Literature has no other object than to relieve our cares and elevate our virtues. That the pursuits of either should require monastic seclusion, or be enforced by pains and penalties upon reluctant minds, is inconsistent with the generous purposes of both. Society cannot be justly censured for indifference to education, when those who enjoy its precious advantages manifest so little of the enthusiasm it ought to inspire. All the associations of the youthful mind, in the acquisition of knowledge, must be cheerful; its truths should be presented in their native beauty and in their natural order the laws it reveals should be illustrated al ways by their benevolent adaptation to the happi If ness of mankind; and the utility and beauty of what is already known, should incite to the endless investigation of what remains concealed. Education could be conducted upon principles like these, the attainments of our collegiate instruction might become the ordinary acquirements in our Common Schools; and our Academies and Colleges would be continually enjoying new revelations of that philosophy which enlightens the way, and attaining higher perfection in the arts which alleviate the cares of human life. If these reflections seem extravagant, and the results they contemplate unattainable, it need only be answered that the improvability of our race is without limit, and all that is proposed is less wonderful than what has already been accomplished. To the standard I have indicated, I do not hesitate to invite your efforts. Postponed, omitted, and forgotten, as it too often is, amid the excitement of other subjects and the pressure of other duties, Education is, nevertheless, the chief of our responsibilities. The consequences of the most partial improvement in our system of Education will be wider and more enduring than the effects of any change of public policy, the benefits of any new principle of jurisprudence, or the results of any enterprise we can accomplish. These consequences will extend through the entire development of the human mind, and be consummated only with its destiny." These extracts will seem long to those who take care not to read them; to those who earnestly seek to know who and what Gov. Seward is they will be more valuable than a greater extent of narrative and assertion. This Message was his first official exposition of his views on the chief topics of National and State concern; and by the light of these sentiments you may easily and clearly read his whole public career. Other extracts press for insertion, and are put aside only because they would swell this memoir beyond all reasonable bounds. Amid a very general defection and discomfiture the Whigs of New-York maintained their ascendency in their State Election of 1839, choosing an Assembly, 70 to 58, and so considerable a majority of the Senators as to give them for the first time a decided preponderance in the upper House also. The Canals and every remaining department of the Government except the Judicial now passed into Whig hands. Many of the Reforms for which the Whigs had vainly struggled for years were now effected with little opposition. Gov. Seward's second Message, in January, 1840, was in good part devoted to an eloquent and powerful vindication of the |
