ived at the hands of the assassin, Payne,
at almost the same moment in which Booth fired his fatal shot at the
President, were at first considered mortal. The murderous assault came
only a short time after a severe injury Mr. Seward had received in
consequence of being violently thrown from his carriage. The shock to
his nervous system from the attack of the assassin was so great that
his physicians did not for some days permit him to learn the fate of
the President, or even to know that his own son, Mr. Frederick Seward,
who had been his faithful and able assistant at the State Department,
was also one of the victims of the plot of assassination, and was
lying, as it was feared, and indeed generally believed, at the point of
death.

To the joy no less than to the surprise of the entire country Mr.
Seward rallied and regained his strength very rapidly. He was wounded
on the night of the 14th of April. By the first of May he had so far
recovered as to be informed somewhat minutely of the sorrowful
situation. By the tenth of the month he received visits from the
President and his fellow-members of the Cabinet, and conferred with
them on the engrossing questions that pressed upon the Administration.
On the 20th he repaired to the Department of State--which then occupied
the present site of the north front of the Treasury building--and held
conference with foreign ministers, especially with the minister of
France, touching the complication in Mexico. From that time onward,
though still weak, and bowed down with grief by the death of Mr.
Lincoln and the possibly impeding death of one still nearer to him, Mr.
Seward gave close attention to public affairs. The need of action and
of energy so pressed upon him that he found no time to utter
lamentation, none to indulge even in the most sacred personal grief.
The heroic element of the man was displayed at its best. His moral
strength, his mental fibre, his wiry constitution were all tested to
their utmost, and no doubt to the serious shortening of his days.

Mr. Seward feared that the country was in danger of suffering very
seriously from a possible, if not indeed probable, mistake of the
Administration. In the creed of his own statesmanship, there was no
article that comprehended revenge as a just motive for action. No man
had suffered more of personal obloquy from the South than he, no one
living had received deeper personal injury from the demoniac spirit,
the wick