American Seymour Genealogy

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====== 244. Gov. Horatio Seymour ======

244. GOV. HORATIO<sup>7</sup> SEYMOUR (//[[150.henry|Henry]]//<sup>6</sup>,
//[[075.moses|Moses]]//<sup>5</sup>, //[[026.moses|Moses]]//<sup>4</sup>,
//[[008.John|John]]//<sup>3</sup>, //[[003.John|John]]//<sup>2</sup>,
//[[001.Richard|Richard]]//<sup>1</sup>), born at Pompey Hill, N.Y., 31 May
1810, died at Utica, N.Y., 12 Feb. 1886; married 31 May 1835, MARY BLEECKER,
born at Albany, N.Y., 12 Apr. 1812, died at Utica, N.Y., 8 Mar. 1886, daughter
of John Rutger and Hester (Barley), of Albany. No children.

He attended school in his native village until he was ten years of age, when he
was sent to Oxford Academy. In the spring of 1824 he entered Geneva academy (now
Hobart college), and remained there a year, going thence to Partridge's Military
Institute at Middletown, Conn. He studied law with Greene C. Bronson and Samuel
Beardsley, and was admitted to the bar in 1832, but he never practised his
profession, the care of the property he had inherited taking up much of his
time. He became military secretary of Gov. William L. Marcy in 1833, and held
the place until 1839. In 1841 he was elected to the state assembly as a
Democrat, and in 1842 was elected mayor of Utica by a majority of 130 over
Spencer Kellogg, the Whig candidate. In 1843 he was renominated, but was beaten
by Frederick Hollister by sixteen votes. In the autumn of the same year he was
elected again to the assembly, and in the session that began in 1844 he
distinguished himself among men like John A. Dix, Sanford E. Church, and Michael
Hoffman. He was chairman of the committee on canals, and presented an elaborate
report, which was the basis of the canal policy of the state for many years. He
advocated the employment of the surplus revenue to enlarge the locks of the Erie
canal and proceed with the construction of the Black river and Genesee valley
canals, and he showed thorough confidence in the development of trade with the
west. He was once more elected to the assembly in the autumn of 1844, and was
chosen speaker in the legislature of 1845. In 1850 he became the candidate of
the Democratic party for governor, as a man acceptable to all its factions; but
he was defeated by the Whig candidate, Washington Hunt, by a majority of 262,
though Sanford E. Church, his associate on the Democratic ticket, was elected
lieutenant-governor. In 1852 he was a delegate to the Democratic national
convention at Baltimore, and did all in his power to have the vote of the New
York delegation cast wholly for William L. Marcy, but failed. The same year he
was again nominated as the Democratic candidate for governor, and was elected by
a majority of 22,596 over his former competitor, Washington Hunt. During his
term there was a strong temperance movement in the state, and the legislature
passed a prohibitory law, which Gov. Seymour vetoed, declaring its provisions to
be unconstitutional, and denying its good policy. In 1854 he was renominated for
the governorship, and received 156,495 votes, to 156,804 cast for Myron H.
Clark, the Whig and temperance candidate, 122,282 for Daniel Ullman, the "Know-
Nothing" candidate, and 33,500 for Greene C. Bronson, the candidate of the
"Hard-shell" Democrats. The vetoed law was again passed by the legislature,
approved by Gov. Clark, and afterwards declared unconstitutional by the court of
appeals. In 1856 Mr. Seymour was a delegate to the Democratic national
convention at Cincinnati, and he supported the Democratic candidates, Buchanan
and Breckinridge, actively in the presidential canvass of that year. In a speech
delivered at Springfield, Mass., 4 July 1856, he set forth the political
principles that he had previously followed and afterward adhered to. It gives
the key to his whole political career. He argued against centralization and for
local authority: "That government is most wise which is in the hands of those
best informed about the particular questions on which they legislate, most
economical and honest when controlled by those most interested in preserving
frugality and virtue, most strong when it only exercises authority which is
beneficial to the governed." He argued against the attempt to reform by
legislative restraint, instancing a prison as a type of society perfectly
regulated and yet vicious. He argued for a liberal policy in regard to
immigration, saying that it was bringing acquisitions of power, peacefully and
easily, such as no conqueror had ever won in war; but he did not deny the right
of the people of this country to regulate immigration or even to forbid it
altogether, which he asserted many years afterward in regard to the importation
of Chinese. He argued that the growth of the north was so much more rapid than
that of the south that political supremacy had passed into the hands of the free
states. He argued for the right of the people of the territories to settle the
slavery question for themselves, assuming that under such a policy there would
be a rapid increase of free states.

In 1857 Mr. Seymour received from President Buchanan the offer of a first-class
foreign mission, but declined it; and he took no prominent part in politics
again until the secession movement began. He was a member of the committee on
resolutions at the convention held in Tweddle hall, Albany, 31 Jan. 1861, after
the secession of six states, to consider the feasibility of compromise measures;
and he delivered a speech designed mainly to show the peculiar dangers of civil
war. When the war began in 1861, Mr. Seymour was in Madison, Wis., and the
Democratic members of the legislature, then in session, called him into
consultation as to the proper course of political action. He counselled the
simple duty of loyalty, to obey the laws, and maintain the national authority,
and he was active in raising one of the first companies of Wisconsin volunteers.
When he returned home in the autumn he spoke at a Democratic ratification
meeting held in Utica, 28 Oct. 1861, saying: "In common with the majority of the
American people, I deplored the election of Mr. Lincoln as a great calamity; yet
he was chosen in a constitutional manner, and we wish, as a defeated
organization, to show our loyalty by giving him a just and generous support." He
was an active member of the committee appointed by Gov. Edwin D. Morgan to raise
troops in Oneida county, and he contributed liberally to the fund for the
volunteers. In the following winter he delivered at Albany an address on the
state and national defences; at a meeting of representative Democrats, held in
the state capital in the disastrous summer of 1862, he introduced a resolution
that "we were bound in honor and patriotism to send immediate relief to our
brethren in the field"; and, at the request of the adjutant-general of the
state, he became chairman of the committee to take charge of recruiting in his
own neighborhood. On 10 Sept. 1862, the Democratic state convention nominated
him for governor. In his address to that body, accepting the nomination, he
intimated that compromise measures might have prevented the war, justified the
maintenance of party organization, criticised the spirit of Congress as
contrasted with that of the army as he had found both during a visit to the
national capital and the camps, and argued that the Republican party could not,
in the nature of things, save the nation. After a canvass in which he asserted
on all occasions the right of criticising the administration and the duty of
sustaining the government, he was elected, defeating Gen. James S. Wadsworth by
a majority of 10,752 votes. Perhaps the fairest statement of his position in
regard to the war at that period is to be found in the following passage from
his inaugural message of 7 Jan. 1863: "The assertion that this war was the
unavoidable result of slavery is not only erroneous, but it has led to a
disastrous policy in its prosecution. The opinion that slavery must be abolished
to restore our Union creates an antagonism between the free and the slave states
which ought not to exist. If it is true that slavery must be abolished by the
force of the Federal government, that the south must be held in military
subjection, that four millions of negroes must for many years be under the
direct management of the authorities at Washington at the public expense, then,
indeed, we must endure the waste of our armies in the field, further drains upon
our population, and still greater burdens of debt. We must convert our
government into a military despotism. The mischievous opinion that in this
contest the north must subjugate and destroy the south to save our Union has
weakened the hopes of our citizens at home and destroyed confidence in our
success abroad." This argument against the probability of success along the path
that finally led to it was of course supplemented by an unequivocal declaration
in favor of the restoration of the Union and the supremacy of the constitution.
On 23 March 1863, President Lincoln wrote to Gov. Seymour a letter seeming to
suggest a personal pledge of co-operation, and the governor se nt his brother
to Washington to convey assurances of loyal support, but along with them a
protest against the policy of arbitrary arrests. On 13 April 1863, Gov. Seymour
sent to the legislature a message suggesting a constitutional amendment as a
necessary preliminary to a law allowing soldiers in the field to vote; and on
24 April he vetoed a bill "to secure the elective franchise to qualified voters
of the army and navy of the state of New York," on the ground that it was
unconstitutional. The amendment that he had recommended was afterward adopted.
In everything pertaining to the raising of troops Gov. Seymour's administration
showed conspicuous energy and ability, but especially in the effort to meet
Lee's invasion of the north in the early summer of 1863. On 15 June the
secretary of war telegraphed to Gov. Seymour asking for help, and within three
days 12,000 state militia, "well equipped and in good spirits," were on their
way to Harrisburg. The good-will for such an achievement was not rare during the
war, but it was not often joined with the necessary executive ability, and
President Lincoln and Sec. Stanton both sent their thanks to Gov. Seymour for
his promptitude. On 2 July, Gov. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, telegraphed for aid,
and on the two following days troops were sent to his assistance.

During the absence of the New York militia the draft riots began. They had their
pretext, if not their origin, in two grievances, which were afterward abolished.
One was the commutation clause in the draft law, which provided that any drafted
man might obtain exemption by paying the government three hundred dollars. The
poor regarded this as a fraud upon them in the desperate lottery of life and
death. The other was a discrimination against New York state, and especially New
York city, in the allotment of quotas. Gov. Seymour had been anxious to have
this injustice corrected, and to have the draft postponed; but it began in the
metropolis on Saturday, 11 July 1863. On Sunday the names of those drawn were
published, and on Monday the rioting began. The rioters stopped at no outrage,
not even the murder of the innocent and helpless. That night the governor
reached the city, and the next day he issued two proclamations, the first
calling upon all citizens to retire to their homes and preserve the peace, and
the second declaring the city in a state of insurrection. The same day he took
measures for enrolling volunteers and gathering all available troops. On Tuesday
he also spoke to a mob in front of the city-hall. Then, and ever afterward, his
impromptu speech was the subject of bitter criticism. It seems clear, from
various conflicting and imperfect reports of it, that he promised the crowd that
if they had grievances they would be redressed, declared himself their friend,
and urged the necessity of obedience to law and the restoration of order. The
design of the speech was twofold-to persuade the crowd to disperse, and, in any
event, to gain time for the concentration of the forces within reach to suppress
the riot. Under the direction of Gen. John E. Wool, with but slight aid from the
National forces, order was restored within forty-eight hours The rioting lasted
from Monday afternoon until Thursday evening, cost about a thousand lives, and
involved the destruction of property estimated at from half a million to three
million dollars in value. Shortly afterward Gov. Seymour wrote to President
Lincoln, pointing out the injustice done in the enrolment, and asking to have
the draft stopped, in order that New York might fill her quota with volunteers.
The president conceded that there was an apparent unfairness in the enrolment,
but refused to stop the draft. A commission, appointed by the war department to
investigate the matter, declared that the enrolment under the act of 3 March
1863, was imperfect, erroneous, and excessive, especially with reference to the
cities of New York and Brooklyn. On 16 April 1864, a Republican legislature
passed a resolution thanking Gov. Seymour for his "prompt and efficient efforts"
in pointing out the errors of the enrolment and procuring their correction. He
took an active part in the state canvass of 1863, making many speeches in
defence of his own record and the principles of his party, and attacking the
policy of the administration; but in the election the state gave a Republican
majority of about 29,000. On 22 April 1864, the governor sent to the legislature
a message urging the payment of interest on the state debt in gold; and this
action was construed by political opponents as a covert attack on the national
credit. On 3 Aug. 1864, the Democratic national convention met in Chicago, and
Gov. Seymour presided, refusing to be a candidate for the presidential
nomination. But he became a candidate for the governorship that year, and was
defeated by Reuben E. Fenton, Republican, by a majority of 8,293.

After the close of the war Mr. Seymour remained a leader in politics. He made
speeches in the state canvasses of 1865, 1866, and 1867, opposing strongly the
reconstruction policy of the Republican party, and criticising sharply its
financial methods. He presided over the state conventions of his party, 3 Oct.
1867, and 11 Mar. 1868, and over the national convention that met in New York
city, 4 July 1868. In spite of previous declarations that he would not be a
candidate before that body, and in spite of his protestations during its
proceedings, the convention nominated him for the presidency, and he allowed
himself, against his better judgment, to be overpersuaded into accepting the
nomination. In the election of 3 Nov. 1868, he carried the states of Delaware,
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon;
Mississippi, Virginia, and Texas did not vote; and the rest of the states voted
for Gen. Grant, the Republican candidate. The electoral vote stood 214 for Grant
and 80 for Seymour; the popular vote, 3,015,071 for Grant and 2,709,213 for
Seymour. This defeat virtually closed Mr. Seymour's political career, for,
though mentioned in connection with the presidency regularly every four years,
offered the senatorship, and nominated for the governorship, he refused steadily
to have anything more to do with public office. The remote origin of his last
illness was a sunstroke, which he suffered in 1876 while overseeing the
repairing of the roads in Deerfield, near Utica, where he had settled in 1864.
Mr. Seymour was of fair stature, lithely and gracefully built, and had a
refined face, lighted up by dark, glowing eyes. In social intercourse he was
simple in manner and considerate in spirit. As an orator he was easy,
agreeable, and powerful, plausible and candid in ordinary argument, and yet
rising often into true eloquence. He made many speeches on other than political
occasions; he loved farming, and often delivered addresses at agricultural
gatherings: he was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and frequently
took part in its conventions as a lay delegate; he was a member of the
commission for the state survey, and was in an especial way the champion of the
canal system. It may be said broadly that he was master of everything connected
with the history, topography, and institutions of New York.

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