[413] "I will try to save freedom and my country," Seward wrote his wife.—F.W. Seward, Life of W.H. Seward, Vol. 2, p. 487. "I have assumed a sort of dictatorship for defence, and am labouring night and day with the cities and States."—Ibid., 491. "I am the only hopeful, calm, conciliatory person."—Ibid., 497. "It seems to me that if I am absent only three days, this Administration, the Congress, and the district would fall into consternation and despair."—Ibid., 497. "The present Administration and the incoming one unite in devolving upon me the responsibility of averting civil war."—Ibid., 497.
[414] F.W. Seward, Life of W.H. Seward, Vol. 2, p. 497.
[415] New York Tribune, January 14, 1861. Seward's Works, Vol. 4, p. 651.
[416] F.W. Seward, Life of W.H. Seward, Vol. 2, p. 494.
[417] New York Tribune (editorial), January 14, 1861.
TO WILLIAM H. SEWARD.
"Statesman, I thank thee!—and if yet dissent
Mingles, reluctant, with my large content,
I can not censure what was nobly meant.
But while constrained to hold even Union less
Than Liberty, and Truth, and Righteousness,
I thank thee, in the sweet and holy name
Of Peace, for wise, calm words, that put to shame
Passion and party. Courage may be shown
Not in defiance of the wrong alone;
He may be bravest, who, unweaponed, bears
The olive branch, and strong in justice spares
The rash wrong-doer, giving widest scope
To Christian charity, and generous hope.
If without damage to the sacred cause
Of Freedom, and the safeguard of its laws—
If, without yielding that for which alone
We prize the Union, thou canst save it now,
From a baptism of blood, upon thy brow
A wreath whose flowers no earthly soil has known
Woven of the beatitudes, shall rest;
And the peace-maker be forever blest!"
[419] F.W. Seward, Life of W.H. Seward, Vol. 2, p. 488.
[420] Ibid., p. 490.