Colden, General Belknap, James Burt, Robert Armstrong, John Duer, Ogden Hoffman, Samuel R. Betts, Samuel J. Wilkin, and others. The town of Warwick originally with several other towns composed a part of the town of Goshen, having been set off from that town in 1788. It was settled directly or indirectly as early as 1703. A part of the town was called Florida or Floriday as early as 1738. The origin of this name is not clearly known, but it was probably derived from the Latin word Floridus signifying covered or red with flowers. The local scenery of Florida is scarcely surpassed in the country for beauty and magnificence. On each side, mountains of impressive grandeur rear their blue summits into the skies, while the broad and fertile valleys, watered by numerous rivulets and miniature lakes, enriched by genial and appropriate culture, and smiling in joyous abundance, complete the majestic and lovely panorama. The people of Florida, unlike the inhabitants of most other towns in that part of the state, were originally emigrants from New England. They were accordingly imbued with much of the stern and lofty spirit of the Puritans, while their descendants still retained many of their habits and feelings. Brought up amidst such sublime and ennobling scenes of nature-inheriting from a worthy ancestry the purest sentiments of honor and patriotism— imbibing, with his mother's milk, the love of truth, freedom, and equality—the mind of young Seward early received a powerful impulse toward the career of beneficent greatness, which has amply fulfilled the prophetic anticipations of his youthful associates and admirers.

One of the first acts remembered by the friends of young William Henry, was in no small degree significant of his juvenile tendencies. He ran away to school—most truants run in the opposite direction. His taste for books was displayed at an early age. They were his favorite companions, and he was seldom seen without a volume in his hands. His thirst for knowledge, once nearly cost him his life.

When about twelve years of age, returning near nightfall from a pasture on his father's farm, driving home the cows, he read a book as he walked, giving an occasional look to his charge, that was travelling quietly before him. A party of boys espied the abstracted herdsman, and disturbed his studious reveries with a volley of small stones. Resolved not to be disturbed in his reading by the missiles of his thoughtless companions, he turned his back toward them, and walked backward with his eye intently fixed upon his book. In a short time, he insensibly diverged from the path, and missing the bridge over a small creek, was thrown into the water. An elder brother, who had witnessed the accident, drew him from the stream in a state of unconsciousness, and he was fortunately restored without serious injury.

His precocious intellect, and his docile, cheerful disposition, led his parents to decide on giving him a superior education to that received by the other members of the family. The common school system had not yet been established in the state of New York, and he attended several different schools in the vicinity of his father's residence, until the age of nine years. At this period, he was sent to Farmers' Hall Academy, at Goshen, which then boasted of having had the celebrated Aaron Burr and Noah Webster among its pupils. The records of the "Classical Society" of Goshen, and of the "Goshen Club," still exist, showing young Seward to have been an active member of each the constitutions and minutes of proceedings being mostly in his handwriting. Among the principal exercises of these two societies, were declamation, debates, and compositions. In nearly all the debates which are noticed, Seward has a part, and then as now he was generally found on the right side. He pursued his studies at this seminary, and at an academy afterward established in Florida, until the year 1816. He was now but fifteen years of age, when he was presented for admission to Union College, Schenec

tady. The thin, pale, sandy-visaged boy was found qualified for the junior class, but on account of his extreme youth was persuaded to enter the sophomore.

CHAPTER III.

HIS COLLEGE LIFE -VISIT TO THE SOUTH DR. NOTT.

THE college career of young Seward, as related by his contemporaries, gave brilliant indication of the rare qualities for which he has since become distinguished. The traits of the future legislator and statesman were foreshadowed in the character of the modest youth during his period of academic retirement. Even then he displayed the manly originality of conception-the sturdy independence of purpose the firm adherence to his convictions of right-the intrepid assertion of high moral principles-the careful examination of a cause before appearing in its defencethe sympathy with the weak and oppressed-and the intellectual vigilance and assiduity in the pursuit of truthwhich have formed such conspicuous and admirable features in his public career.

His favorite studies in college were rhetoric, moral philosophy, and the ancient classics. It was his custom to rise at four o'clock in the morning, and prepare all the lessons of the day. At night, while the other students were engaged in getting ready the exercises of the next morning, he devoted his leisure to general reading, and literary compositions for class declamation or debates in society meetings.

In the year 1819, Seward, who was then in the senior class, and in the eighteenth year of his age, withdrew from college for about a year, passing six months of the time as

a teacher at the south. The spectacle of slavery could not fail to make a deep impression on his mind. He witnessed scenes which aroused him to reflection on the subject, and produced the hostility to every form of oppression, which has since become ingrained in his character. One of the many incidents which occurred to him may be related in this place.

While travelling in the interior of the state, he approached a stream spanned by a dilapidated bridge, that had become almost impassable. He forded the river with no little difficulty, and met on the opposite side a negro woman with an old blind and worn-out horse, bearing a bag of corn to mill. The poor slave was in tears, and manifested great distress of mind. She was afraid to venture on the bridge, and the stream seemed too rapid and violent for the strength of her horse. She was reluctant to return to her master, without fulfilling her errand, being fearful of punishment. The heart of the young northerner was moved. He went to her assistance, and attempted to lead the horse across the bridge. But the wretched beast was not equal to the effort. He made a false step, and falling partly through, became wedged in among the plank and timbers. Seward tried in vain to extricate him. Despairing of success, he mounted his own horse, rode to the master's residence, and informed him of the accident, and attempted to excuse the slave. In return for his kindness, he was met with a volley of imprecations on himself, the slave, the horse, the bridge, and all parties and things concerned. His disgust at this adventure taught him a lesson of wisdom, which he never forgot.*

* Another incident is related in one of his speeches as having occurred during a subsequent visit to the south, and he has been heard to remark that it contains the whole story of slavery: "Resting one day at an inn in Virginia, I saw a woman blind and decrepit with age, turning the ponderous wheel of a machine on the lawn, and overheard this conversation between her and my fellow-traveller: 'Is not that very hard work?'—' Why yes, mistress, but I must do something, and this is all I can do now I am so

Returning to college in 1820, he found the students in state of great excitement. They had hitherto been divided into two literary societies, the Philomathean and the Adelphic, between which an earnest, but not unfriendly rivalry subsisted. The former was the most popular with the stu dents, while the latter claimed the most diligent scholars. Young Seward was a member of the Adelphic, and entered into the interests of the society with characteristic zeal. During his absence, some twenty or thirty students from the southern states had left Princeton college and entered Union. These attached themselves to the Philomathean society, giving it a great superiority in numbers over its rival. Questions soon arose in the society, on which the members divided geographically. The southern students were left in a minority, and obtaining a charter from the college faculty, organized a third society called the Delphian institute. Their secession weakened the Philomathean, and was generally regarded by the older members of the rival society as a triumph on their side. The younger Adelphics, however, took a different view, favoring the Philomatheans, on the ground that the secession was factious and sectional. Seward, whose experience at the south, and popularity with all classes in college, served to qualify him for the office, virtually became umpire between the two parties. After an impartial hearing of the question, he decided in favor of the Philomatheans, and against the Delphian institute-thus siding with the sophomores and freshmen, in opposition to the views of his own classmates. He thereby incurred no small odium. The faction, which he

old.'—'How old are you?'-'I don't know; past sixty they tell me.''Have you a husband?'-'I don't know, mistress.'-'Have you ever had a husband?'-'Yes, I was married.'-'Where is your husband?'-'I don't know; he was sold.'-'Have you children?'-'I don't know; they were sold.'-How many?'-'Six.'-'Have you never heard from any of them since they were sold?'-'No, mistress.'-'Do you not find it hard to bear up under such afflictions as these?'-'Why yes, mistress, but God does what he thinks best with us.""