William Henry Seward (1801 - 1872)

Born 16 May 1801 in Florida, Orange, New York, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Frances Adeline (Miller) Seward — married 20 Oct 1824 in Auburn,Cayuga,New York,USA

Descendants

Died 10 Oct 1872 at age 71 in Auburn, Cayuga, New York, United States

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Preceded by 23rd Secretary Jeremiah S. Black Preceded by 11th Governor William L. Marcy Preceded by John Adams Dix

William H. Seward 24th United States Secretary of State 1861—1869 12th Governor of New York 1839—1842 US Senator (Class 3) from New York 1849—1861

Succeeded by 25th Secretary Elihu B. Washburne Succeeded by 13th Governor William C. Bouck Succeeded by Ira Harris

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Biography

William Seward is Notable.

William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was an American politician from the state of New York. He served as the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was a dominant figure in the Republican Party in its formative years, and was widely regarded as the leading contender for the party's presidential nomination in 1860. [Wikipedia]

Denied the nomination, he became a loyal member of Lincoln's wartime cabinet, and played a role in preventing foreign intervention early in the war. On the night of Lincoln's assassination, he survived an attempt on his own life. As Johnson's Secretary of State, he engineered the 1867 purchase of Alaska from Russia in an act that was ridiculed at the time as "Seward's Folly" (no valuable minerals, let alone gold or oil, were discovered in Alaska until 1880, eight years after Seward's death.) His contemporary Carl Schurz described Seward as "one of those spirits who sometimes will go ahead of public opinion instead of tamely following its footprints.

Seward studied law at Union College, graduating in 1820 with highest honors, and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1821. In that same year, he met Frances Adeline Miller, a classmate of his sister Cornelia at Emma Willard's Troy Female Seminary and the daughter of Judge Elijah Miller of Auburn, New York. In 1823, he moved to Auburn where he entered into law partnership with Judge Miller. The firm, Miller & Seward, would merge with the New York firm, Blatchford & Clizbe, in 1854 to form Blatchford, Seward & Griswold, the predecessor of the law firm, Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Seward married Frances Miller on October 20, 1824. They raised five children:

1. Augustus Henry Seward (1826–1876
2. Frederick William Seward (1830–1915)
3. Cornelia Seward (1836–1837)
4. William Henry Seward, Jr. (1839–1920)
5. Frances Adeline "Fanny" Seward (1844–1866)
6. Adopted daughter, Olive Risley Seward

From A Daily Dose of History: Link

On March 11, 1850, William Seward of New York rose to give his maiden speech in the United States Senate, during the debates over the proposed Compromise of 1850. Seward had been sworn in a year earlier, but in accordance with Senate tradition had not taken the floor to speak during his first year. A Whig lawyer and former two-term governor of New York, Seward had acquired an anti-slavery reputation, despite having grown up in a slaveholding family in northwest New York. He spent weeks preparing his speech, which he intended to answer John C. Calhoun’s argument that the constitution permitted the extension of slavery into the territories without any further Congressional action on the matter. When Seward took the floor, the galleries were packed with spectators, eager to hear what the 48-year-old freshman senator would say.

The speech was a dud. Witnesses reported that Seward read it in a quiet monotone, while absent-mindedly twirling his glasses in his left hand, boring the spectators and his fellow senators. The galleries soon emptied. Thomas Hart Benton read a book. Daniel Webster used the opportunity to work on other matters. Senator Seward was not a compelling orator.

Yet the speech that was so unimpressive to those who witnessed it would go on to remembered as one of the most important and influential speeches in Senate history. Within a few weeks hundreds of thousands of copies of it were being circulated throughout the country, enflaming a debate that was dragging the nation toward civil war.

In Seward’s speech he called for the immediate admission of California as a free state, without granting any of the concessions in the proposed compromise. In the speech he cited Montesquieu, Burke, Emer de Vattel, Machiavelli, and others. But most of his rhetorical ammunition came from religion. “A moral question has arisen,” he declared, “transcending the too narrow creeds of parties.” “You cannot roll back the tide of social progress,” he argued, asserting that all “laws must be brought to the standard of the laws of God, and must be tried by that standard, and must stand or fall by it.” As for the claim that the Constitution allows slavery, he famously replied, “There is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes. The territory is a part, no inconsiderable part, of the common heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Creator of the universe. We are his stewards, and must so discharge our trust as to secure in the highest attainable degree their happiness.”

Seward’s speech, remembered by history as the “Higher Law” speech, was a sensation, especially because it challenged the prevailing opinion that Christianity endorsed slavery and therefore could not be immoral per se. Further, for Southerners, and many Northerners, Seward’s claim that “there is a higher law than the Constitution,” was alarming, amounting, they argued, to a claim that abolitionists were above the law.

Seward’s speech was a significant episode in the hastening demise of the Whig Party. By 1855 Seward had joined the newly formed Republican Party, and the Whigs were history. In 1858 he delivered his famous “Irrepressible Conflict” speech, predicting emancipation and declaring that whether it came peaceably or violently was up to its opponents. After being narrowly denied the 1860 Republican nomination for president (in large part because of his controversial speech), Seward went on to serve in Lincoln’s cabinet, survive an assassination attempt, and negotiate the purchase of Alaska. He died in October 1872, at age 71.

Residences

• 1801-05-16, Birth; Florida, Orange, New York
• 1830, Age: 20-30, Auburn, Cayuga, New York
• 1850, Age: 49, Auburn, Ward 2, Cayuga, New York
• 1855, Auburn, Cayuga, New York
• 1860, Age: 59, Auburn, Ward 2, Cayuga, New York
• 1865, Auburn, Ward 2, Cayuga, New York
• 1870, Age: 69; Auburn, Ward 2, Cayuga, New York

Legacy Two states have counties named after William Seward: Kansas and Nebraska

In 1909, the USPS issued a 2-cent stamp in his honor. ^[1]

This profile is a collaborative work-in-progress. Can you contribute information or sources?

Sources

1. ↑ "Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition Issue," National Smithsonian Postal Museum

See also:

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress: Congressional Biography: William H. Seward
• William H. Seward. by Edward Everett Hale, Jr., [American Crisis Biographies.] (Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs and Company, Philadelphia, 1910. Pp. 388.) The American Historical Review, Volume 16, Issue 4, July 1911, Pages 834–836, Link, Published: 01 July 1911
• Wikipedia: William_H._Seward
• The Ninth New York Heavy Artillery. A history of its organization, services in the defenses of Washington, marches, camps, battles, and muster-out ... and a complete roster of the regiment, by Alfred S. Roe, Worcester, Mass., 1899. William H. Seward, Pg. 434. - Original data: Link

• "United States Census, 1830," database with images, FamilySearch (Link: 19 August 2017), William H Seward, Auburn, Cayuga, New York, United States; citing 166, NARA microfilm publication M19, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administra

• 1850 US Census: Auburn Ward 2, Cayuga County, NY, 19 Jul 1850. Frances A. Seward, 44, in household of Elijah Miller. - Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Roll: 482; Page: 250a. Also: FamilySearch Link
• New York, U.S., State Census, 1855: Auburn, Ward 2, Cayuga County, 18 Jun 1855. William H. Seward, 54, lawyer. - Original data: Census of the state of New York, for 1855. Microfilm.Cayuga County Clerk Office. Also: FamilySearch Link, FHL microfilm: 1435218.
• 1860 US Census: Auburn Ward 2, Cayuga County, NY, 3 Jul 1860, Pg. 30. William H. Seward, 59, lawyer. - Original data: Eighth Census of the United States, NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.; Roll: M653_727; Page: 406; FHL microfilm: 803727. Also: FamilySearch Link
• New York, U.S., State Census, 1865: Auburn, Ward 2, Cayuga County, 15 Jun 1865, Pg. 40, Line 8, William H. Seward, 64. - Original data: Census of the state of New York, for 1865. Microfilm. New York State Archives, Albany, New York. Also: FamilySearch Link; FHL microfilm 853201.
• 1870 US Census: Auburn Ward 2, Cayuga County, NY, 2 Julm 1870, Pg. 80. - Original data: Ninth Census of the United States, NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.; Roll: M593_910; Page: 86B, FHL microfilm 552409
• Find A Grave: Memorial #945; William H. Seward, Fort Hill Cemetery, Auburn NY, Plot: Glen Haven Section

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Derivative Sources

• The following have been contributed by some editors:

1. Profile created by Donna Creekmore through the import of creekmore Family Tree.ged, 26 Oct 2013.
2. Ancestry Family Tree Data: Creekmore -Bauers-Frakes-Rutherford Family Tree: William Henry Seward