ssented, under expectation of
personal benefits, present and prospective."[483]

[Footnote 480: Gideon Welles, _Lincoln and Seward_, p. 23. "I am sorry
to hear the remark," said the late Chief Justice Chase, "for while I
would strain a point to oblige Mr. Seward, I feel under no obligations
to do anything for the special benefit of Mr. Weed. The two are not
and never can be one to me."--_Ibid._, p. 23.]

[Footnote 481: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 270.]

[Footnote 482: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 277.]

[Footnote 483: _Ibid._, p. 277.]

What especially gravelled Seward was the action of his opponents. "The
understanding all around me is," he wrote his wife, on June 14, "that
Greeley has struck hands with enemies of mine and sacrificed me for
the good of the cause, to be obtained by the nomination of a more
available candidate, and that Weed has concurred in demanding my
acquiescence."[484] Seward suspected the truth of this "understanding"
as to Greeley, but it is doubtful if he then believed Weed had
betrayed him. Perhaps this thought came later after he heard of
Fremont's astonishing vote and learned that the newspapers were again
nominating the Path-finder for a standard-bearer in 1860. "Seward more
than hinted to confidential friends," wrote Henry B. Stanton, "that
Weed betrayed him for Fremont." Then Stanton tells the story of Weed
and Seward riding up Broadway, and how, when passing the bronze statue
of Lincoln in Union Square, Seward said, "Weed, if you had been
faithful to me, I should have been there instead of Lincoln."
"Seward," replied Weed, "is it not better to be alive in a carriage
with me than to be dead and set up in bronze?"[485]

[Footnote 484: _Ibid._, p. 277.]

[Footnote 485: H.B. Stanton, _Random Recollections_, p. 194.]

How much Weed's advice to Seward was influenced by the arguments of
opponents nowhere appears, but the disappointment of Democrats and
conservative Americans upon the announcement of Seward's withdrawal
proves that these objections were serious. His views were regarded as
too extreme for a popular candidate. It was deemed advisable not to
put in issue either the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia, or the repeal of the fugitive slave law, and Seward's
pronounced attitude on these questions, it was asserted, would involve
them in the campaign regardless of the silence of the platform. It was
argued, also, that although the