n would presage. The South had made continuous
assault on this speech, and on the particular phrase which
distinguished it, and had impressed many Northern men with the
belief that Mr. Seward had gone too far. In short, he had been
too conspicuous, and too many men had conceived predilections
against him.

When the convention assembled, notwithstanding all adverse influences,
Mr. Seward was still the leading and most formidable candidate.
His case was in strong and skillful hands. Mr. Thurlow Weed, who
had been his lifelong confidential friend, presented his claims,
before the formal assembling of the convention, with infinite tact.
Mr. Weed, though unable to make a public speech, was the most
persuasive of men in private conversation. He was quiet, gentle,
and deferential in manner. He grasped a subject with a giant's
strength, presented its strong points, and marshaled its details
with extraordinary power. Whatever Mr. Weed might lack was more
than supplied by the eloquent tongue of William M. Evarts. Seldom
if ever in the whole field of political oratory have the speeches
of Mr. Evarts at Chicago been equaled. Even those who most decidedly
differed from him followed him from one delegation to another
allured by the charm of his words. He pleaded for the Republic,
for the party that could save it, for the great statesman who had
founded the party, and knew where and how to lead it. He spoke as
one friend for another, and the great career of Mr. Seward was
never so illumined as by the brilliant painting of Mr. Evarts.

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION.

With all the potential efforts and influences in his behalf, Mr.
Seward was confronted with obstacles which were insuperable. He
was seriously injured by the open defection of Horace Greeley.
Not able, or even desirous, to appear on the New-York delegation,
Mr. Greeley sat in the convention as a representative from Oregon.
The old firm of Seward, Weed, and Greeley, according to his own
humorous expression, had been dissolved by the withdrawal of the
junior partner; and a bitter dissension had in fact existed for
six years without public knowledge. With his great influence in
the agricultural regions of the country, Mr. Greeley was enabled
to turn a strong current of popular feeling against the eminent
senator from New York. Mr. Seward sustained further injury by the
action of the States which were regarded as po