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-**Thomas Hart Seymour** (1807–1868)
+[[262.thomas_s|(<-- 262. Thomas S.(7) Seymour)]] [[start|(Back to Start)]] [[264.william_ellery|(264. William Ellery(7) Seymour -->)]]
-* He served as Governor of Connecticut from 1850 to 1853 and as Minister to Russia from 1853 to 1858
+====== 263. Gov. Thomas Hart Seymour ======
+//Note: See also: [[wp>Thomas_H._Seymour|Thomas H. Seymour (Wikipedia)]].//
+. Gov. THOMAS HART<sup>7</sup> SEYMOUR (//[[174.henry|Henry]]//<sup>6</sup>,
+//[[083.thomas|Thomas]]//<sup>5</sup>, //[[028.thomas|Thomas]]//<sup>4</sup>,
+//[[009.Thomas|Thomas]]//<sup>3</sup>, //[[003.John|John]]//<sup>2</sup>,
+//[[001.Richard|Richard]]//<sup>1</sup>), born at Hartford, Conn., 29 Sept.
+, died there 3 Sept. 1868, unmarried. He was certainly named Thomas Henry
+Seymour, but his name appears in most reference works as Thomas Hart Seymour,
+and he may have changed his middle name. A discussion of this question will be
+found in Appendix X.
+He was educated in the public schools of Hartford, and in 1829 was graduated
+from Capt. Alden Partridge’s Military Institute, Middletown, Conn. He became
+editor of a Democratic paper, //The Jeffersonian//, as early as 1832, but was at
+the same time studying law, and was admitted to the Bar about 1833. He was also
+active in military affairs and was chosen Captain of the Hartford Light Guard.
+His attractive personality, said to have been without equal in the State, and
+his popular manners and address, soon threw him into politics, and he was
+elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth Congress (4 Mar. 1843 to 3 Mar.
+). He declined renomination.
+He was commissioned Major of Conn. Infantry, 16 Mar. 1847, and of the 9th U.S.
+Infantry, 9 Apr. 1847. The latter was the New England regiment of volunteers
+raised for service in the Mexican War, with Col. Truman Bishop Ransom of Vermont
+as its commander. On 13 Oct. 1847, Col. Ransom fell in the assault on
+Chapultepec. This was a fortress, the key to the City of Mexico, built upon a
+rock 150 feet high, impregnable on the north, and nearly so on the eastern and
+most of the southern face. Only the western and portions of the southern sides
+could be scaled. At a council of the commanders, two picked American regiments
+were selected to perform this task. One of them was "Tom" Seymour’s, and they
+pushed up the rugged steeps in the face of a withering fire. The walls at the
+base of this castle fortress had to be mounted by ladders. When Col. Ransom fell
+early in the assault, Seymour led the troops, scaled the heights and, with his
+command, was the first to enter the supposedly impregnable fortress.
+Seymour, who had been promoted to Lieut.-Colonel, 12 Aug. 1847, was promoted to
+command of the regiment, brevet Colonel "for gallant and meritorious conduct in
+the battle of Chapultepec," and took part in the capture of Mexico. He was
+honorably mustered out, 25 July 1848.
+His popularity enhanced by his conduct in the Mexican War, the "Hero of
+Chapultepec" was nominated for Governor of Connecticut in 1849, but though
+gaining largely over the Democratic vote the preceding year, was not elected. In
+ he was again a candidate and was elected by a handsome majority; and he was
+re-elected in 1851, 1852, and 1853. In 1852 he was Presidential Elector on the
+Pierce and King ticket, and in 1853 President Pierce appointed him U.S.
+Minister to Russia. Resigning the governorship, he accepted that post and filled
+it for four years. He formed a warm personal friendship for both the Czar
+Nicholas and his son, and received from them many costly tokens of their regard,
+including a handsome malachite table, which the author recalls viewing with awe
+when it was in the rooms of the Connecticut Historical Society. A pair of small,
+delicate, silver spurs, worn by "Governor Tom," are preserved by the author with
+many souvenirs of the Hale Family at the "Birthplace" in Coventry, Conn.
+While Minister to Russia, his Attache was the Hon. Andrew D. White, from whom we
+obtained the following anecdotes in 1905. Mr. White was greatly attached to Gov.
+Seymour, whose rare charm of manner, warmth of heart, and eagerness to serve
+others, had made a deep impression on him. He told of one occasion when an
+American gentleman and his wife, to whom Gov. Seymour was under no obligation,
+found themselves stranded in St. Petersburg. Gov. Seymour took them into his
+house, and on the lady’s account surrendered to them his own apartment, moving
+himself into a small, uncomfortable room in the back of the house, and not
+permitting any of his staff to give up their rooms. At one time, it was proposed
+that Mr. White should be initiated into some of the degrees of Masonry, Seymour
+and the rest of the company present being Masons. Gov. Seymour fell in with this
+proposal until he remembered that Masonry was forbidden in Russia, whereupon he
+took a firm stand and declined to participate, as he would not contravene the
+laws of Russia even though the house of the U.S. Minister enjoyed diplomatic
+immunity.
+After nearly a year of foreign travel, Seymour returned to the United States in
+. When the Civil War began, he opposed military measures against the South,
+and throughout the War was > the leader of the Connecticut Peace Democrats. He
+declined an invitation to act as vice-president of a war meeting held in
+Hartford 10 July 1862, and his remarks in his letter of refusal were used to
+injure him politically. He declined because the meeting "is one which ignores
+peaceful remedies of any sort as a means of restoring the Union, and calls
+loudly for men and means to aid in the subjugation and consequent degradation
+and overthrow of the South." His attitude made him the object of bitter attack,
+and in 1862 Orville H. Platt, then a member of the Lower House, climbed a step-
+ladder and turned his portrait in the Senate Chamber to the wall. It so remained
+turned to the wall until after the end of the war. Platt by this act acquired
+the name of "Portrait Platt." Years afterwards he had a notable career as one of
+the U.S. Senators from Connecticut. This identical portrait, illustrated
+herein, now hangs in the Memorial Hall in the State Library in Hartford, in its
+appropriate place in the line of Governors of Connecticut.
+Seymour ran as Democratic candidate for Governor in 1863, and one opposition
+newspaper went so far as to print in parallel columns passages from Arnold’s
+"Proclamation" of 1780 and passages from the Democratic Platform of 1863 and
+from a speech of Seymour’s, with the comment, "Benedict Arnold and Thomas H.
+Seymour are alike in expression of their desire for peace." A bitter campaign
+ended in his defeat by the Republican candidate, William A. Buckingham.
+Mr. Seymour did not again enter the political arena. Although the popularity of
+the "Hero of Chapultepec" with the masses was in large measure sacrificed as a
+result of his attitude of conciliation with the South during the Civil War, many
+devoted friends remained loyal to him. He was firm and sincere in his
+convictions, even though it meant the end of his public career. Who can say,
+whether or not his was the wider vision? Or whether a spirit of compromise and
+conciliation on both sides might not have restored a united country, without the
+scars left by the defeat of the South? History can tell only what occurred, not
+what might have been. Perchance it took more courage for "Governor Tom" to swim
+against the tide of popular passion during the Civil War than was required to
+first scale the heights of Chapultepec.
+\\ [[262.thomas_s|(<-- 262. Thomas S.(7) Seymour)]] [[start|(Back to Start)]] [[264.william_ellery|(264. William Ellery(7) Seymour -->)]]
-Source: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_H._Seymour|Thomas H. Seymour]] (Wikipedia)