Seward, William Henry
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
su'ard, William Henry (1801-1872), an eminent American statesman. He was a native of Orange County, New York . He was graduated at Union College in 1820. Later he entered upon the practice of law at Auburn. In 1830 he entered the state Senate as an Anti-Masonic legislator. He became associated intimately with Thurlow Weed and Horace Greeley. The three controlled Whig politics in the state of New York and practically in the nation. In 1839 they made Seward governor, and in 1849 they sent him to the United States Senate. They were instrumental in nominating and electing William Henry Harrison, the first Whig president. In 1858 Seward delivered his famous "Irrepressible Conflict" oration. The following sentence relative to slavery is the keynote: "There is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will sooner or later become entirely a slave-holding nation or entirely a free-labor nation." In an earlier speech, he used the phrase, "higher law." It became the rallying cry of the Abolitionists, but caused the greatest indignation in the South. In 1860 Seward's friends in the Republican national convention considered him the logical candidate for president. He was defeated, however, by Lincoln. In making up his first cabinet, Lincoln conciliated Seward's friends and secured the services of one of the most sagacious men in the nation by making him secretary of state , a position which he held at the time of Lincoln's death. During the Civil War, Seward conducted the affairs of the United States with delicacy and ability. The Trent Affair and the interference of France with Mexico were handled in a masterly manner. On the night of Lincoln's assassination Seward was also attacked. He was stabbed severely, but escaped with his life. After retiring from office, he traveled extensively. In 1870-71 he made a journey around the world. Apart from his services during the Civil War, Seward seems likely to be remembered chiefly by the purchase of Alaska, due to his far-seeing statesmanship. He lies buried at Auburn. See Alaska ; Lincoln ; Trent Affair ; Maximilian; Auburn
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 prediction that Seward would "be remembered chiefly by the purchase of Alaska" has held up better than the writer could have known: the territory he bought in 1867 for $7.2 million, derided at the time as "Seward's Folly," became the 49th state on 3 January 1959, and the Prudhoe Bay oil strike of 1968 opened North America's largest oilfield. The factual outline here — Union College, Thurlow Weed, the "irrepressible conflict" speech of 1858, the loss of the 1860 nomination to Lincoln, the knife attack by Lewis Powell on the night of the assassination — still stands. What has shifted is emphasis: modern historians, popularly via Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals (2005), treat the Seward–Lincoln relationship as the central partnership of the wartime cabinet rather than a piece of political conciliation, and they give more attention to Seward's early impulse to unite the country by picking a fight with Europe. His Auburn house is now a public museum, and Alaska still keeps Seward's Day as a state holiday.
Written for this edition, 2026.