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such various and vast obligations suddenly and unexpectedly incurred."... "Nevertheless the President earnestly desires that recognition shall even now be made of the sympathies and condolences which were then poured in upon us with a profusion that did honor to human nature."

Under the direction of Mr. Seward all these testimonies were printed in a handsome quarto volume of 930 pp., entitled "Tributes of the Nations to Abraham Lincoln." 1

One of the first mental efforts of Mr. Seward, after his convalescence from the terrible wounds of the assassin, was the preparation of the following proclamation of Thanksgiving to be issued by the President. In this view, the document has additional interest.

PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, it has pleased Almighty God, during the year which is now coming to an end, to relieve our beloved country from the fearful scourge of civil war, and to permit us to secure the blessings of peace, unity and harmony, with a great enlargement of civil liberty; and whereas, our Heavenly Father has also, during the year, graciously averted from us the calamities of foreign war, pestilence and famine, while our granaries are full of the fruits of an abundant season; and whereas, righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any people: NOW, THerefore, be it known, that I, Andrew JoHNSON, President of the United States, do hereby recommend to the people thereof, that they do set apart and observe the first Thursday of December next as a day of national thanksgiving to the Creator of the Universe for these great deliverances and blessings. And I do further recommend that on that occasion, the whole people make confession of our national sins against His Infinite goodness, and with one heart and one mind implore the Divine guidance in the ways of national virtue and holiness.

Dated, Oct. 28, 1865.

Mr. Seward and General Scott obtained information, during the winter of 1860-61, that the assassination of President Lincoln was contemplated by the enemies of the government, even at that early period. Measures of protection were immediately instituted which to many seemed unnecessary. The reality of the danger and the wisdom of the precautions taken, at the time of Mr. Lincoln's first inauguration, found a sad verification in his death at the threshold of his second term.

There is trustworthy evidence that President Buchanan, acting

1 The only similar collection, perhaps, are the "Addresses to President Washington" on his retirement from public life, never yet compiled and published.

under the secret advice and counsel of Mr. Seward, contributed not a little to the safe inauguration of Mr. Lincoln in 1861.

John H. Surratt, suspected of being an accomplice in the murder of Mr. Lincoln, fled from the country, and finally found refuge in Italy. The vigilance of the Department of State, through its agents abroad, followed him until he was captured1 and returned to the United States. The Papal government promptly surrendered the fugitive, although no treaty of extradition existed between that government and the United States.2 In the prosecution of Surratt in the courts of the District of Columbia, the Department employed able lawyers and spared no efforts to secure a conviction. But the jury in each of the two trials failed to agree on a verdict.

Mr. Seward actively opposed the attempted impeachment of the President. He took high grounds against the proceeding, regarding it as an attempt on the part of the prosecutors to depose the constitutional President of the United States, and install in his place one of their own number- a virtual usurpation of executive power under the forms of law by the legislature. He accordingly heartily approved the course of Senators Fessenden, Trumbull, and Grimes who were influential in defeating the ill-advised measure. The argument of Mr. Evarts against impeachment, before the Senate, Mr. Seward pronounced to be worthy of a place in history with the best forensic efforts in the trial of Warren Hastings. To Chief Justice Chase, also, he ascribed high honor for the wise and impartial manner with which he presided over the High Court of Impeachment.

On the 18th of December, 1865, Mr. Seward issued his proclamation announcing that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States, had received the ratification of the requisite number of States, by their legislatures, and was now a part of that sacred instrument, the fundamental law of the Union, a measure which he believed necessary to secure our entire and complete national independence. Throughout his life, an advocate of universal suffrage for the exile and the emigrant, and even for the slave, Mr. Seward had the satisfaction also of proclaiming the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which aimed to give the right of suffrage, along with equal civil rights, to all, without distinction of color or previous condition of servitude. This proclamation bears

1 November 25, 1866.

2 See Arguelles, page 19.

date July 28th, 1868. The amendment excluded from office all who had before the war heid office and afterward engaged in the Rebellion; it made the debt of the United States valid and sacred, while the Confederate debt was repudiated.

1

His proclamation announcing the ratification of the 13th Amendment may be well regarded as the crowning act of his public life. He had brought all his influence to bear upon Congress to secure its favorable action, and it was especially appropriate that this great '. ordinance should be proclaimed by him.

The 14th Amendment also bears his name and seal.2 While this amendment was under consideration in Congress he proposed as a substitute the following, substantially, "All persons born in the United States after the date of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation shall be entitled to vote on arriving at the age of twenty-one years, and this should enter into reconstruction.”

During the year 1866, the nation was convulsed with conflicting ideas of reconstruction. Mr. Seward, in speeches at Auburn and in New York, gave full expression of his views.

3

A convention of citizens who favored "the restoration of the Southern States and their representation by proper men in Congress" was held in Philadelphia, August 14, 1866. Mr. Seward's approval of the call for this convention was solicited. In a favorable response to the inquiry, he reiterated the sentiments of his Auburn and New York speeches.

In a letter dated July 11, 1866, Mr. Seward expressed these views :

"After more than five years of dislocation by civil war, I regard a restoration of the unity of the country as its most immediate as well as its most vital interest.* That restoration will be complete when loyal men are admitted as representatives of the loyal people of the eleven States so long unrepresented in Congress. Nothing but this can complete it. Nothing more remains to be done, and nothing more is necessary. Every day's delay is attended by multiplying and increasing inconveniences, embarrassments, and dangers at home and abroad. Congress possesses the power exclusively. Congress, after a session of seven months, still omits to exercise that power. What can be done to induce Congress to act? This is the question of the day.”

Mr. Seward, entertaining these views, welcomed every effort made

1 See post, pages 595, 598.

2 In a letter to the editor of this volume, dated Auburn, May 2, 1870, Mr. Seward says: "When the reconstruction question arose about the 14th Amendment, I proposed one, that all persons born in the United States after the date of Mr. Lincoln's proclamation abolishing slavery should be entitled to vote on arriving at the age of twenty-one years, and this should enter into reconstruction."

3 See post, pages 529, 558.

to stimulate the action of Congress. In this light he approved the call of the Philadelphia Convention. Congress, however, occupied different grounds, and an apparent alienation arose between him and his former political associates.

While slavery had the controlling influence in our government, projects for the acquisition of northern territory received little favor. The war of the Rebellion precluded the administration of 1861-65 from giving much attention to the subject, although Mr. Seward during that time did not lose sight of the peaceful enterprise. In March, 1867, formal negotiations were instituted for the purchase of Alaska, and before the month closed, a treaty for that object was signed by Mr. Seward and Mr. de Stoeckl, the Russian Minister.1 The Senate ratified the treaty with but little opposition, and having been ratified by Russia, a proclamation thereof was made on the 20th of June, 1867. The appropriation for the sum named as the purchase-money was made by Congress on the 27th of July, 1868. Formal possession by the United States took place in August, 1868.2

Our Minister to Russia, at the time of the negotiation, although he was intrusted with no part in it, regarded the treaty as "a brilliant achievement which adds so vast a territory to our Union ; whose ports, whose mines, whose timber, whose furs, whose fisheries, are of untold value; and whose fields will produce many grains, even wheat, and will become hereafter the seat of a hardy white population." 3

Immigration was always regarded by Mr. Seward as a chief source of the nation's wealth and prosperity, and as one of the principal replenishing streams appointed by Providence to repair the ravages of war and the wastes of national strength and health. Congress, in July, 1864, passed an act giving the Department of State supervision of the whole subject. Under the operations of the law immigration was encouraged and the welfare of the immigrant protected. This was consistent with the policy Mr. Seward had all his life advocated, and which, like his policy of freedom, had encountered objections, political, religious, and social. He, early in

1 See post, page 601.

2 The United States derives a revenue of nearly half a million from Alaska already. Its postal revenue is larger than that from any other territory, and exceeds that of a few States.

› See Alaska and Its Resources. By W. H. Dall. Lee and Shepard, Boston. 1870. Also speech in the Senate, on Alaska, 1867, by Charles Sumner.

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the war, issued a circular to our consuls abroad, calling their attention to the Homestead Act, and requesting them to make public that in no country in the civilized world are such opportunities. offered as in the United States, to active, industrious, and intelligent men, for the acquisition of abundant means of support and comfortable homesteads for themselves and their families.1

In 1868, Congress failed to make the necessary provision for the support of the Bureau of Immigration, which Mr. Seward had or ganized in 1864, and it was discontinued. Some of its duties have since been assumed by the Bureau of Statistics in the Treasury Department.

Consistently with his efforts to encourage immigration he steadily opposed all schemes for the colonization in foreign lands of colored men, and discouraged the emigration of the emancipated In this he differed from President Lincoln.

race.

Having advocated the recognition of the independence of Hayti and Liberia, he had the satisfaction of receiving Ministers from those countries on equal terms with those of other foreign powers.2

The return of peace seemed only to increase the arduous duties of the Department of State. An increasing number and a greater variety of questions pressed for consideration.

The Paris Exposition of 1867 was, to our countrymen especially, a great success. Under the management of the Department of State, exhibitors from the United States enjoyed facilities which lightened their labors and relieved them of many embarrassments. A conference for the establishment of uniform coinage was held in Paris, the same year, in which the Department was actively interested.

In 1866, Mr. Seward was able to congratulate the country that, while sentiments of reconciliation, loyalty, and patriotism had increased at home, a more just consideration of our character and rights, as a nation, had been manifested by foreign governments.

The somewhat mysterious course of France toward Mexico was a subject of much anxiety to Mr. Seward. The introduction, into. a neighboring Republic, of a monarchical form of government, under a European prince supported by French arms, could but excite the gravest apprehensions. Mr. Seward had plainly indicated to the

1 See Vol. I., p. 289.

2 Hayti, March 3, 1863; Liberia, May 18, 1864.

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