Improvement in Agriculture Essential to the Security of Republican Institutions.-Extracts from Annual Messages.-The Homestead of the American Farmer should be exempted from Involuntary Sale.— Extract from Speech in the Senate on the Homestead Bill.-Popular Prejudices against Improvement in Agriculture Unreasonable and Per- nicious. Address before the Vermont State Agricultural Society at Rutland, 1852.-Improvement of Farms and Farmers.- Address be- fore the New York State Agricultural Society at Albany, 1842..... 175 Internal Improvement the Policy of the Founders of the Republic.— Extracts from Annual Messages.-Internal Improvement Wise and Beneficent.Address at the New York and Erie Railroad Conven- tion at Elmira, 1837.—Internal Improvement the Real Source of the Prosperity of New York, and the only Sure Bond of Union of the States. Remarks at the Celebration of the Completion of the New York and Erie Railroad, Dunkirk, 1851.-The Suspension of the Public Works of New York condemned and their Resumption recom- mended.-Extract from Annual Message, 1842.-New York and Massachusetts.Address at the Celebration of the Completion of the Western Railroad between Boston and Albany, at Springfield, 1842. 184 The Proper Range of Popular Education.- Address at Westfield, N. Y., 1833. Popular Education a Leveller.--Address at Sunday-School Celebration, 1839.-Female Education.-Improvement of Popular Education must begin not with the Government, but with the Peo- ple.-Education preferable to Conquest.-Speeches in the Senate.— The Bible the Basis of Republican Institutions.-Annual Messages to the Legislature.-The System of Public Schools defective.— Amendment proposed.-Education of the Children of Exiles.-New John Quincy Adams.-Eulogy before the Court of Chancery.-Mutual Compromises.-The Recaption of Fugitive Slaves in the Free States. -Speeches in the Senate on the Compromises of 1850.-The Fugi- tive Slave Law of 1793 Unconstitutional and Void.-Argument in the United States Supreme Courts.-Extradition of Fugitives.- Emancipation in the District of Columbia.-Admission of New Slave States. Uses of the National Domain.-The Higher Law.-Slavery in the New Territories.- Apprehensions of Disunion Groundless.— Slavery. The Slavery Question can never be settled by Compro- Public Faith.—Speeches in the Senate.— French Spoliations.—Ameri- can Enterprise.-American Steam Navigation.-Collins Steamers.— The American People.-Their Moral and Intellectual Development.— Address at Yale College, July, 1854.—Insanity.—Argument in De- fence of William Freeman, Auburn, July, 1846.-Insanity.-Some of its Causes and Circumstances.-The Wrongs of the Negro.-The Indians.—Speech of an Onondaga Chief.— Governor Seward's Reply. -Letter.-Reply to the Colored Citizens of Albany, January, 1843. -Speech in the Senate of New York, February, 1831.—The Militia System.Reforms proposed.-Speech in the Senate of the United States, 1852.-The Public Domain.-The Homestead Principle.- The Whig Party.-The Albany Regency in 1824.-Secret Political MEMOIR. CHAPTER I. THE SEWARD FAMILY. THE ancestors of WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD were of Welsh extraction. The first of that name in America emigrated from Wales during the reign of Queen Ann, and settled in Connecticut. A branch of the family, from which Mr. Seward is descended, removed to Morris county, N. J., about the year 1740. This branch again divided, one portion of which removed to Virginia, where it is still found in considerable numbers, as well as in Georgia and Kentucky. His paternal grandfather, John Seward, resided in Sussex county, in that state, where he sustained a high reputation for enterprise, integrity, and ability. On the breaking out of the Revolution, he became a prominent leader of the whig party, and on more than one occasion during the long struggle, was engaged in active service. His dwelling is defined on all the maps of the American colonies of that period. Being a zealous partisan he became the object of especial jealousy on the part of the loyalists. The following anecdote is among the traditions of the family. While General Washington's headquarters were at Morristown, Colonel Seward's residence was on the lines. Various plots were resorted to by the tories to cir cumvent and capture him. One day a man of rather suspicious appearance, on a horse without saddle or bridle, approached the house and upon being hailed by Colonel Seward replied that he brought a message from General Washington requiring Colonel Seward to hasten to headquarters. He was asked if he had a written order. His reply was in the negative. Colonel Seward then charged him with being a tory, whereupon he applied his whip to his horse and rode off at full speed. Colonel Seward seized his rifle and with unerring aim brought him to the ground. He lived long enough to confess that he was sent by a party of loyalists to decoy the colonel from his house that he might be waylaid and his house destroyed. He died in 1799, leaving a family of ten children. His son, Samuel S. Seward, received an academic and professional education, instead of a share in the paternal inheritance. Having completed his studies, he established himself in the practice of medicine in his native place, and soon after became connected in marriage with Mary Jennings, the daughter of Isaac Jennings, of Goshen, New York. Removing to Florida, a village in the town of Warwick, in Orange county, N. Y., in the year 1795, he combined a large mercantile business with an extensive range of professional practice, both of which he carried on successfully for the space of twenty years. He retired from active business in 1815, and devoted himself to the cultivation of the estate, of which, by constant industry and economy, he had become the owner. Dr. Seward was a man of more than common intellect, of excellent business talents, and of strict probity. After his withdrawal from business, he was in the habit of lending money to a considerable extent among the farmers in his neighborhood; and it is said that no man was ever excused from paying the lawful interest on his loans-that no man was permitted to pay him more than that interest—and that no man who paid his interest punctually was ever required to pay any part of the prin |