th
Seymour at its head was agreed upon. This meeting, called a great
popular protest against demagoguery, opened an aggressive canvass to
defeat Hunt and destroy the Syracuse indorsement of Seward by raising
the cry that Seward Whigs preferred civil war to a peaceable
enforcement of the fugitive slave law. Seward took no part in this
campaign. After Congress adjourned on the last day of September, he
devoted the short time between the sessions to his law business. His
friends, however, were active. Weed attacked the Castle Garden meeting
with a bitterness and vigour rarely disclosed in the columns of the
_Evening Journal_, and Greeley poured one broadside after another into
what he regarded as the miserable mismanagement, blundering, and
confusion of the Administration.

While waiting the result of the election, people were startled into
sadness by the sudden death of Samuel Young at the age of seventy-two.
He had retired in usual health, but died during the night. His
distinguished career, covering nearly two-score years, was
characterised by strong prejudices, violent temper, and implacable
resentments, which, kept him behind men of less aptitude for public
service; but he was always a central figure in any assemblage favoured
with his presence. He had a marvellous force of oratory. His, voice,
his gestures, his solemn pauses, followed by lofty and sustained
declamation, proved irresistible and sometimes overwhelming in their
effect. But it was his misfortune to be an orator with jaundiced
vision, who seemed not always to see that principles controlled
oftener than rhetoric. Yet, he willingly walked on in his own wild,
stormy way, apparently enjoying the excitement with no fear of danger.
"In his heart there was no guile," said Horace Greeley; "in his face
no dough."

It was several weeks after the election, before it was ascertained
whether Seymour or Hunt had been chosen. Both were popular, and of
about the same age. Washington Hunt seems to have devoted his life to
an earnest endeavour to win everybody's good will. At this time
Greeley thought him "capable without pretension," and "animated by an
anxious desire to win golden opinions by deserving them." He had been
six years in Congress, and, in 1849, ran far ahead of his ticket as
comptroller. Horatio Seymour was no less successful in winning
approbation. He had become involved in the canal controversy, but
carefully avoided the slavery question. Greeley found