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 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

cipal. He was a zealous advocate of republican principles, and exerted a leading influence in the affairs of the party. In 1804, he was elected to the legislature, and during the continuance of the republicans in power, he was never without one or more offices of public trust. Although not a member of the legal profession, he was appointed first judge of Orange county, in 1815, which office he held for seventeen years. His exercise of the judicial functions was marked by discretion, impartiality, and promptness, and he is remembered to this day as one of the best judges the county ever had. After a visit to Europe, he lived in the enjoyment of universal respect until 1849, when he died in a ripe old age. Dr. Seward was the friend of religion, education, and public improvement. He founded the "S. S. Seward Institute," at Florida, an excellent high school for young persons of both sexes. He endowed this seminary with a permanent fund of $20,000, and continued its steadfast friend until the close of his life.

The wife of Dr. Seward was Mary Jennings, whose family had emigrated from Ireland at an early day. She was a woman of a clear and vigorous understanding, with singular cheerfulness of temper, and while devoted with untiring industry to the interests of her family, was a model of hospitality, charity, and self-forgetfulness. She died in 1843.

The subject of this memoir never forgot that he had Irish blood in his veins. This fact serves to explain, in part, the strong attachment he has always cherished for the Irish population of our country. While travelling through Ireland in 1833, his indignation was greatly aroused by the sight of the oppressions inflicted on the people by the British government. He ascribed a large share of the miseries of that unhappy country to its political mismanagement, and especially to the annihilation of its parliament, by the act of union. In writing home from Ireland, he expresses himself in the following terms :—

"But all this glory has departed. The very shadow (and for a long time the Irish parliament was but the shadow) of independence has vanished; Ireland has surrendered the individuality of her national existence, to share, like a younger sister, that of England. The walls of the parliament-house remain in all their primitive grandeur, to reproach the degeneracy of her statesmen. While traversing its apartments, I reverted to the debate when the degenerate representatives surrendered their parliament; and I thought that had I occupied a place there, I would have seen English armies wade in blood over my country, before I would have assented to so disgraceful a union. Something might have been spared, after the deed was consummated, to the wounded pride of the Irish people. The parliament-house ought to have been closed, and left in gloomy solitude, a monument to remind the people that they once had a country. But this was too great a concession for the economy of the English administration of affairs in Ireland. They who build palaces and monuments with a profuse hand, on the other side of the channel, sold the Irish Capitol, and it was forthwith converted into a hall for money-changers. I confess that overleaping all the obstacles which are deemed by many well-wishers of Ireland insurmountable, I wish the repeal of the union. I will not believe that if relieved of that oppressive act, she does not possess the ability to govern herself."

In a private letter written by Mr. Seward in 1840, to a gentleman who had taken strong exceptions to his sentiments in relation to Irishmen, the following passage occurs, in regard to the Irish lineage of his mother. After defending the character of the Irish from some severe charges made by his correspondent, and alluding to their many virtues, he says:

"If this confession of faith seems strange to you, permit me to explain that I could not believe otherwise, without doing dishonor to a mother eminent for many virtues, and to the memories of humble ancestors, whose names will not be saved from obscurity by the record of any extraordinary vices."

CHAPTER II.

WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD.

WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD was born in Floriu, Orange Co., N. Y., May 16, 1801. The house in which his parents then resided is still standing; but the village-church and schoolhouse, where his youthful feet were wont to tread, have given place to more modern structures. A venerable forest-tree on the ancient homestead still overshadows a clear, bubbling spring of water, which William was in the habit of frequenting in his school-boy days, with his books, for the purpose of reading and study in its cool and pleasant retirement. His boyhood is well remembered by the aged inhabitants of his native village. They love to recall their predictions of the future eminence of the studious lad, whose diligence and zeal had already attracted their attention. The colored servant, then a slave of his father's, who led him in infancy, and shared his juvenile sports, still lives to rejoice in the bounty of her young companion, who has given a comfortable home for her old age, in memory of their early attachment.

The subject of our narrative entered upon life amid external circumstances adapted to cherish and develop the higher elements of his nature. Orange county contains. within its borders West Point, Fort Putnam, Fort Montgomery, Minisink, Newburgh, Washington's headquarters, and other places famous in the annals of the Revolution. It has also been the birthplace or residence of many distinguished men, among whom may be named George Clinton, James Clinton, De Witt Clinton, Cadwallader C.