s to subdue rebellion against it and
discouraging precipitate movements for the abolition of slavery, he was
also in accord with the president in the policy of emancipation, as
ultimately formulated, and, on January 1, 1863, attested the
proclamation which has made the name of Lincoln immortal. He proclaimed
the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, by which
slavery was abolished, December 18, 1865, and of the Fourteenth,
conferring suffrage and civil rights upon the freedmen, July 26, 1868.
On February 3, 1865, he attended, with the president, the so-called
Peace Conference, in Hampton Roads, with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and
Campbell, the Confederate commissioners. The conference was fruitless,
owing to the inflexible determination of the president not to entertain
any proposals that did not involve the complete restoration of the
national authority as a condition precedent.

Lincoln began his second term March 4, 1865, Seward remaining in the
cabinet. On April 5th, Seward was badly injured by being thrown from his
carriage. Nine days thereafter Lincoln visited him in his sick chamber.
It was their last meeting. On the same evening Lincoln was assassinated,
and the murder of Seward was attempted. He was stabbed in several places
in the head and throat, and for several days his life was despaired of,
but he slowly recovered, and in June resumed his desk in the State
Department, President Johnson having urged him to retain it. He
continued in office throughout Johnson's administration, favoring the
reconstruction policy of his chief, without, however, incurring the
active hostility of his Republican friends. Distinctive events of his
second term were his maintenance of the Monroe doctrine, in the refusal
to recognize the French empire in Mexico, and the purchase of Alaska,
which was in consonance with views long entertained by him as to the
propriety of the expansion of the territory of the United States upon
the continent of North America. In the best sense of the term he was an
advocate of "Manifest Destiny," and was proud of the acquisition of the
Russian territory at the Far North. A treaty which he negotiated for the
cession of the Danish West India islands of St. Thomas and St. John
failed of ratification by the Senate.

He retired to private life March 4, 1869, and within the next three
years visited Alaska and Mexico, and made a journey around the world,
being everywhere received with offic