A VINDICATION BY REV. JOSEPH P. THOMPSON, D. D., EDITOR OF THE "N. Y. INDEPENDENT." Dr. Joseph P. Thompson in an article for the "Independent," from Berlin, Prussia, under date of October 15, 1872, presents to the public two letters of the late Hon. William H. Seward, which at the time had never before been published. Appended is the substance of the article, with the letters of Mr. Seward in full : "The death of Mr. Seward has absolved me from the injunction not to publish the following correspondence. Having guarded it with sacred privacy for years, I feel that it now belongs to history. It was in the last days of President Buchanan's administration. Treason had avowed itself in the Senate of the United States and was more than suspected in the Cabinet. The South was arming. Fort Sumter was threatened. General Scott was making such show of preparation for putting down rebellion as the crippled resources of the War Department and the hinderances of the executive had left to him, and the nation was drifting into war. The horror of bloodshed and the fears of commercial and financial men gave new strength to the old counsels of compromise, and there was danger that the Senate would once more succumb to the dictation of the slaveocracy, from which Seward, Sumner, Hale, and their compatriots had barely emancipated it. The 'Union-savers' were ready to yield to any demand of the South as the condition of peace. At this moment it was announced that Mr. Seward would make a speech. 'The irrepressible conflict,' in which he had borne so conspicuous a part, was approaching its final issue. He was known to have accepted from Mr. Lincoln the post of Secretary of State, and his utterances were awaited with breathless interest, as foreshadowing the policy of the incoming administration. Mr. Seward spoke, but the grand pleas for freedom which had awakened the midnight echoes of the Senate Chamber were no longer heard. He too argued for Union and only for Union, as if there were no such thing as slavery in the land. The first feeling of the friends of freedom was one of surprise and disappointment; and this was almost instantaneously followed by distrust and indignation. Mr. Seward was denounced as an apostate; the most abusive epithets were heaped upon him, and the most anxious forebodings were indulged concerning his influence upon Mr. Lincoln's administration. "Of course, the Independent' must notice his equivocal utterances; but what to say? Suddenly it dawned upon me to read the speech between the lines,' and there might be discovered a far-reaching sagacity that showed Mr. Seward to be consistent with himself and master of the occasion. Being supported in this view by a counsellor the penetration of whose wisdom always answered to the integrity of his principles (Dr. Joshua Leavitt), I wrote an interpretation of Mr. Seward's speech and a vindication of its author quite at variance with the current construction of republican and anti-slavery journals. This article was the basis of the following correspondence: " WASHINGTON, February 23, 1861. MY DEAR SIR: The American people in our day have two great interests. One, the ascendency of freedom over slavery; the other, the integrity of the Union! The slavery interest has derived its whole political power from bringing the latter object into antagonism with the former. Twelve years ago freedom was in danger and the Union was not. I spake then so singly for freedom that shortsighted men inferred that I was disloyal to the Union. I endured the reproach without complaining, and now I have my vindication. To-day, practically, freedom is not in danger, and Union is. With the loss of Union all would be lost. With the attempt to maintain Union by civil war wantonly brought on there would be danger of reaction against the administration charged with the preservation of both freedom and the Union. Now, therefore, I speak singly for Union, striving, if possible, to save it peaceably; if not possible, then to cast the responsibility upon the party of slavery. For this singleness of speech I am now suspected of infidelity to freedom. In this case, as in the other, I refer myself not to the men of my time, but to the judgment of history. I thank you, my dear Sir, for having anticipated what I think history will pronounce.1 But do not publish or show this letter. Leave me to be misunderstood. I am not impatient. I write to you only because I would not be nor seem to be ungrate ful. Faithfully your friend, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. “A few months later an absurd rumor was started that Mr. Seward was responsi ble for certain delays and disappointments in the prosecution of the war, and he was even accused of disloyalty. In the absence of the responsible editors a paragraph to this effect crept into the Independent.' In their next issue the editors promptly repudiated it; and this correction called forth from Mr. Seward the following letter: WASHINGTON, November 15, 1861. MY DEAR SIR: Accustomed to leave misapprehensions of my motives, action, and character to find their corrections in the course of events, I forebore from all notice of the statement in the late number of the "Independent," which was calcu lated to bring my loyalty to the Union in question, although it excited my profound astonishment. But the rule of self-restraint to which I have adverted does not forbid me from acknowledging good offices rendered to me from motives of patriotism or the love of truth. I give you, therefore, my sincere thanks for your magnanimous contradiction of that erroneous statement. This correction having been made in the absence of any complaint on my part, it comes to me as an agreeable surprise. Permit me to add that it is a source of much pleasure thus to learn that the editors and proprietors of the "Independent," who have so long deservedly enjoyed my respect and confidence as patriotic and benevolent men, are not so easily misled in the impatience of the war as to suppose that I could abandon or change the principles and sentiments of my past life in the very moment when my country, under a sense of danger, has called me into her service, with a view that I shall carry them into full effect. Dear Sir, I am very respectfully and faithfully your friend and obedient servWILLIAM H. SEWARD. ant. "The first of these letters was written by Mr. Seward's own hand, and the italics are his. The short, crisp sentences show with what earnestness of feeling he was then moved. The second letter was dictated to an amanuensis and signed by Mr. Seward, and is more in the vein of formal politeness. Yet both exhibit that dignity of conscious rectitude and that patience of self-control which were among the most remarkable characteritics of this most remarkable man." MR. SEWARD AND HIS OFFICERS. WASHINGTON, March 3, 1869. TO THE HON. WILLIAM II. SEWARD, Secretary of State: The undersigned, officers in the Department of State, cannot allow the occasion of your retirement from the position of Secretary of State to pass without expressing their cordial appreciation of the uniform and considerate kindness which you have manifested towards them while in the discharge of their humbler duties. They feel that it would not be altogether proper, and might even be deemed presumptuous, in them, to speak of the manner in which, during a period in the 1 See vol. iv. p. 118, "Whittier." 651. country's history of unexampled difficulties and danger, you have discharged the various and exacting duties of your high office. While they do not doubt, however, what on that point will be the verdict of that tribunal from which there is no appeal, they especially desire to bear testimony to the fact, that neither the pressure of public cares nor the weight of private sorrows the latter seemingly too heavy to be borne- have served to disturb the exercise on your part of that courtesy towards subordinates which renders official intercourse so gratifying, and the discharge of official duties so pleasant. Earnestly hoping for their country's sake that your useful life may be greatly prolonged, and for your own that it may be attended with every possible blessing, the undersigned subscribe themselves, your obedient servants, DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 3, 1869. GENTLEMEN: I hasten to acknowledge the receipt of the very kind letter which you have just laid upon my table. It gives me sincere pleasure to recognize among the names subscribed to it every loyal, capable, trustworthy, and reliable officer whom I found in this Department when I entered it, with the exception of those who have voluntarily retired from the public service. It gives me equal pleasure to witness that there is not among the subscribers of your letter one person whom I cannot recommend for continued public service. A comparison between the list of subscribers and the official roll, as it stood when I entered the Department, and as it stood at various periods afterwards, discloses the honorable and gratifying fact, that although the country has passed through a long and severe civil war, and has subsequently passed through many political commotions consequent on the restoration of peace, only two persons have been dismissed the service for disloyalty, two or three at most for incompetency, and one for betraying the confidence of the Government. Gentlemen, it would be as idle as it would be presumptuous for us to undertake to fix a standard for the popular appreciation of our own services. That will be the task of history, which delights in contemplating studiously the vicissitudes of nations; and that task can only be performed when we shall have ceased to be. Let us therefore, be content for the present with claiming for ourselves and conceding to each other the humble pretension, that whatever may be the errors which history may at any time detect, those errors have been in all cases errors of judgment, and not of motive or purpose. In the name of the President of the United States I thank you all, and each of you, for the efficiency, fidelity, ability and courtesy with which you have performed your several trusts; and I pray God to have you all constantly, with your respective families and friends, in His holy keeping. I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. To Messrs. W. HUNTER, R. S. CHEW, E. PESHINE SMITH, GEORGE E. Baker, R. S. CHILTON, &C., &c., &c. SEWARD. EIGHT years of service, such as greatest kings Thou hast rode out from first to last the storm How could'st thou pause each step to vindicate A. D. F. R. |