William Henry Seward, an American statesman, born in Florida, Orange co., N. Y., May 16, 1801, died in Auburn, N. Y., Oct. 10, 1872. He graduated at Union college in 1820, having passed six months of his senior year in teaching in Georgia, and was admitted to the bar in 1822. He commenced practice in Auburn, where in 1824 he entered upon political life by preparing an address for a republican convention, announcing an opposition to the "Albany regency," as the leaders of the democratic party of New York were then styled, which was continued until crowned with success in 1838. In August, 1828, he presided over a young men's convention in New York, called to favor the reëlection of John Quincy Adams to the presidency, and on his return home was tendered a nomination as member of congress, which he declined. In 1830 he was elected to the state senate as an anti-mason by a majority of 2,000, although the district had given a large adverse majority the preceding year. He originated an opposition to corporate monopolies which has since ripened into a system of general laws.

In 1833 he made a rapid tour of Great Britain and a portion of the continent, and contributed a series of letters to the Albany "Evening Journal." In 1834 he was the whig candidate for governor, and was defeated by W. L. Marcy; but in 1838 he was elected governor by a majority of 10,000 over Gov. Marcy. Among the measures to which he directed his attention were the extension of public education, the prosecution of the public works, including the enlargement of the Erie canal, and the removal of the legal disabilities imposed on foreigners. A prominent feature of his administration was his effort to secure the diffusion of common school education among children of every class, especially those in large cities and of foreign parentage, advocating an equal distribution of the public funds among all schools established with that object. Amid much opposition he exerted all his influence in favor of a reform in the courts of law and of chancery, preparing the way for the radical changes effected in the constitution of 1846. The geological survey of the state, the perfection of the general banking system, and the establishment of a lunatic asylum were also measures of his administration.

Imprisonment for debt was entirely abolished, the anti-rent rebellion was subdued, and every vestige of slavery was cleared from the statute books. In a controversy between Gov. Seward and the executive of Virginia on the application of the latter for the return of two seamen charged with abducting slaves, Seward maintained that no state could force a requisition upon another state founded on an act which was only criminal by its own legislation, and which, compared with general standards, was not only innocent, but humane and praiseworthy. The correspondence, known as " the Virginian controversy," was widely published. Mr. Seward was reëlected in 1840. On retiring from office (Jan. 1, 1843) he resumed the practice of law, first in the state courts, and afterward acquiring a lucrative share of patent causes in the courts of the United States. He occasionally appeared in criminal cases where persons were, as he thought, unjustly accused, when he not only gave his best efforts gratuitously, but sometimes furnished large sums for a proper defence. His arguments in the cases of Van Zandt, charged with harboring fugitive slaves in Ohio, of Freeman, charged with murder, and of 50 citizens of Michigan indicted for conspiracy, hold a high rank in the records of criminal trials.

In 1844 Mr. Seward entered with energy into the presidential contest in behalf of Henry Clay, and again in 1848 in support of Gen. Taylor. In February, 1849, he was elected United States senator. On the meeting of congress in December following, the members from the south, apprehending the adoption of an anti-slavery policy, took ground in opposition to Gen. Taylor's administration, and Mr. Seward soon became the leader of the administration party. In his subsequent speeches he avowed a determination to make no further concessions to the slave power, and was denounced as a seditious and dangerous agitator. In a speech on the admission of California into the Union, March 11, 1850, he used the following language : " It is true, indeed, that the national domain is ours. It is true, it was acquired by the valor and with the wealth of the whole nation. But we hold, nevertheless, no arbitrary power over it. We hold no arbitrary authority over anything, whether acquired lawfully or seized by usurpation. The constitution regulates our stewardship; the constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defence, to welfare, and to liberty. But 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." The phrase "higher law," thus applied to the law of God, was the subject of much excited comment in the senate and in the public press, and was afterward urged as a ground of reproach by the political enemies of Mr. Seward. The death Of President Taylor in July, 1850, and the accession of Vice President Fillmore, brought the conservative wing of the whig party into prominence; but Mr. Seward still maintained his position as a leader on the anti-slavery side. Besides his speeches on the compromises of 1850, he delivered several others on the commercial and industrial relations of the country. His speeches on the repeal of the Missouri compromise and the admission of Kansas, like those on the compromises of 1850, were widely circulated. In 1858 he made a speech at Rochester, in which, after alluding to the constant collision between the systems of free and slave labor in the United States, he said: "It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free labor nation." The southern secession threatening during the last session of the 36th congress (1860-'61), Mr. Seward in the senate expressed his views on "the state of the Union" in two speeches, in which he said: "I avow my adherence to the Union with my friends, with my party, with my state, or without either, as they may determine; in every event of peace or war, with every consequence of honor or dishonor, of life or death." He declared also in conclusion: "I certainly shall never directly or indirectly give my vote to establish or sanction slavery in the common territories of the United States, or anywhere else in the world." Mr. Seward's second term closed with the 36th congress, March 4, 1861. He had been reëlected in 1855 under circumstances of peculiar interest.

He was strenuously opposed both by those who disliked his uncompromising resistance to the slave interest, and by those who could not tolerate his opposition to the "American" party, at that time a rising power throughout the Union. The whig party having adopted in 1852 a platform approving of the slavery compromises of 1850, and nominated Gen. Scott for the presidency, Mr. Seward declined to sustain the platform, while he yielded his support to the candidate. In the presidential canvass of 1856 he was very active in behalf of Col. Fremont, the republican candidate. In 1859 he made a second visit to Europe, and extended his travels to Egypt and the Holy Land. In 1860, as in 1856, a large portion of the republican party favored his nomination for the presidency. In the convention, on the first ballot, he received 173 1/2 votes, Mr. Lincoln, the next highest, 102 - necessary for a choice, 233. Lincoln having been nominated, Seward actively canvassed the western states in his behalf. Lincoln tendered the chief place in his cabinet to Mr. Seward, and on March 4, 1861, he entered upon the duties of secretary of state. Secession was then imminent, but Seward apparently failed at first to apprehend the magnitude of the movement.

He declined (March, 1861) to negotiate with confederate commissioners, but believed that the difficulties of the two sections could be settled without recourse to arms; and he favored as a peace measure the evacuation of Forts Pickens and Sumter. During the entire war. his management of foreign affairs was eminently politic and effective. Conspicuous among these efforts were his conduct in the Trent affair (November, 1861); his declining the proposal of France to unite with Russia and Great Britain to mediate between the federal government and the confederates; his course in respect to the French invasion of Mexico; and his thorough reorganization of the diplomatic service abroad, so that by the American representatives, as well, as by his own despatches, the real issues at stake in the civil war were constantly made prominent to foreign governments. His diplomatic management during this critical period more than once kept the country from involvement in a foreign war. On Lincoln's election to a second term Seward continued as secretary of state. Early in the spring of 1865 he was thrown from his carriage, and his jaw and one arm were broken.

While he was confined to his bed by these injuries, on the night of the assassination of Lincoln, April 14, one of the conspirators penetrated to Seward's room and struck him several times' with a knife, and also severely wounded Frederick W. Seward, who came to his father's rescue. The assassin escaped from the house, but was soon arrested, and was hanged with other conspirators, July 7. Mr. Seward's recovery was slow and painful; but as soon as he was able he resumed the duties of his office under President Johnson, becoming unpopular with a large portion of his party from his support of the president's reconstruction policy. In March, 1869, he retired from public life, and soon after made an extended tour through California and Oregon, and went to Alaska, which had been acquired during his secretaryship and mainly through his efforts. In August, 1870, accompanied by members of his family, he set out upon a tour around the world, returning to Auburn in October, 1871. He was everywhere received with the greatest distinction, and the results of his observations were embodied in "William H. Seward's Travels around the World," edited by his adopted daughter, Olive Risley Seward (8vo, New York, 1873). - Mr. Seward contributed a historical essay, entitled "Notes on New York," to the great work on the natural history of the state, to which it forms the introduction.

In the senate he delivered eulo-giums on Clay, Webster, Clayton, Rusk, and Broderick. In 1849 he prepared a life of John Quincy Adams in a popular form, which had an immense sale. He also wrote a biography of De Witt Clinton, an abstract of which he prepared for this Cyclopaedia. "The Works of William H. Seward" (4 vols. 8vo, New York, 1853-'62) include a biographical memoir and historical notes, edited by George E. Baker. Most of his public orations have been printed separately; the latest is "Speech at Sitka, Aug. 12, 1869." See also "Review of Mr. Seward's Correspondence of 1862," by William B. Reed (Philadelphia, 1862); "The Life, Character, and Services of William H. Seward," a memorial address before the New York legislature, April 18, 1873, by Charles Francis Adams (New York, 1873); and "Lincoln and Seward," remarks on Mr. Adams's address, by Gideon Welles (New York, 1874).