William H. Seward was born in Orange County, Florida. A graduate (1820) of Union College, he was
admitted to the bar in 1822 and established as a lawyer in Auburn, N.Y., which he made his
lifelong home. He was active in the Anti-Masonic party and later joined the Whig party. Seward and
his close personal and political friend, Thurlow Weed, became the two most influential Whigs in
New York state. A state senator from 1830 to 1834, he ran unsuccessfully for the governorship in 1834.
In 1838, however, he won that office, and he was reelected in 1840. As governor, Seward worked for
educational reforms and internal improvements; he
also secured legislation to better the position of
immigrants and to protect fugitive slaves. He returned to his law practice in 1843.
Seward was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1849. Reelected in 1855, he was one of the Senate's most
prominent members in the troubled years preceding the Civil War. A genial, gregaruious man with
intellectual interests, he was generally liked, even by his political opponents.
Seward was an uncompromising foe of slavery, and, although he apparently tempered his public
expressions so as not to alienate votes, he nevertheless made two remarks that became
catchphrases of the antislavery forces. Voicing his opposition to the Compromise of 1850
in the Senate, he said (Mar. 11, 1850) there is a higher law than the Constitution which regulate our authority over
the domain. In a speech at Rochester on Oct. 25, 1858, he declared that there would exist an irrepressible conflict until
the United States became either all slave or all free.
With the disintegration of the Whig party, Seward and Weed joined (1855) the new Republican party. Prominent as he was, Seward, despite (or possibly
because of) the efforts of Weed's machine, was never able to secure the Republican presidential nomination. His friendship toward immigrants, especially
the Irish, alienated members of the former Know-Nothing movement within the Republican party.
In 1861, Seward became Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln , and many expected him to be the real power in the administration.
He revealed his own desire to dominate the President in a peculiar memorandum (Apr. 1, 1861) to Lincoln in which he proposed waging war against most of Europe
so as to unite the nation. Seward also did some unwarranted meddling during the Ft. Sumter crisis. After the Civil War broke out, however, he showed himself an
able statesman, although it took all of Lincoln's ingenuity to keep both Seward and his rival, Salmon P. Chase , eternally ambitious
for the presidency, in the same cabinet. Seward's handling of delicate matters of diplomacy with Great Britain, particularly in the
Trent Affair , was notably adept. He also protested French intervention in Mexico and after the Civil War helped bring an end to it.
The plot of John Wilkes Booth to assassinate Lincoln also included a stabbing attack on Seward, but he recovered from his wounds and
retained his cabinet position under the new President, Andrew Johnson . He supported Johnson's Reconstruction policy and, like the
President, was roundly denounced by the radical Republicans. Seward's most important act in this administration was the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. His
foresight was not generally acknowledged, however, and Alaska was long popularly called Seward's folly. He also tried to purchase the two most important islands in
the Danish West Indies (the Virgin Islands), but the Senate refused to approve his action.