an, became the exponent of the free-soil element, as also the
representative of the administration, an unprecedented trust to be
confided to a senator in his first term. He thus found himself in
opposition to Webster and Clay, and especially to the "Omnibus" bill of
the latter, a measure intended to reconcile conflicting claims
concerning the admission of new States, the status of slavery in the
Territories, and the protection to be accorded it in the free States. On
March 11, 1850, he made a speech, generally pronounced to be his ablest,
as it is certainly his most noteworthy deliverance, in which he declared
that there is a law higher than the Constitution, whose authority may be
invoked in legislation for the national domain. The death of General
Taylor brought him into collision with President Fillmore, who hailed
from New York, and was largely indebted for his vice-presidential
nomination to Seward's kindly offices. Fillmore urged the adoption of
the compromise scheme and signed the separate bills therefor as they
successively passed Congress, thereby incurring censure at the North,
while Seward retained his ascendency with the anti-slavery masses
throughout the country, as well as with the Whigs of New York.

He was re-elected to the Senate in 1855 by a combination of Whigs and
Anti-Nebraska Americans, and on October 12th, of that year, at Albany,
formally announced his adhesion to the new Republican party. In the
Senate he easily ranked as one of its most polished and effective
speakers who, while resolutely maintaining his own convictions,
scrupulously preserved the amenities of debate. He especially
distinguished himself by his earnest, yet unavailing, resistance to the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Among his popular addresses of
conspicuous merit are those on "The Elements of Empire in America," at
Union College, 1843; "Daniel O'Connell," at New York, 1847; "John Quincy
Adams," before the New York Legislature, 1848; "The Destiny of America,"
at Columbus, O., and "The True Basis of American Independence," at New
York, 1853; "The Development of the American People," at Yale College
1854, and "The Irrepressible Conflict"--_i.e._, between freedom and
slavery--at Rochester, N. Y., 1858. He made an extended tour in Europe,
Egypt, and Palestine, in 1859.

The Republicans met in National Convention at Chicago, in 1860, flushed
with anticipated success. Northern opposition to the extension of
slavery had combined