ile generous
and charitable natures will probably concede that John Brown acted on
earnest, though fatally erroneous convictions," he said, "yet all good
citizens will nevertheless agree that this attempt to execute an
unlawful purpose in Virginia by invasion, involving servile war, was
an act of sedition and treason, and criminal in just the extent that
it affected the public peace and was destructive of human happiness
and life."

It has been noted with increasing admiration that Lincoln and Seward,
without consultation and in the presence of a great impending crisis,
paralleled one another's views so closely. Each embodied the
convictions and aspirations of his party. The spirit of an unsectarian
patriotism that characterised Seward's speech proved highly
satisfactory to the great mass of Republicans. The New York _Times_
rejoiced that its tone indicated "a desire to allay and remove
unfounded prejudice from the public mind," and pronounced "the whole
tenor of it in direct contradiction to the sentiments which have been
imputed to him on the strength of declarations which he has hitherto
made."[514] Samuel Bowles of the Springfield _Republican_ wrote
Thurlow Weed that the state delegation--so "very marked" is the
reaction in Seward's favour--would "be so strong for him as to be
against anybody else," and that "I hear of ultra old Whigs in Boston
who say they are ready to take him up on his recent speech."[515]
Charles A. Dana, then managing editor of the _Tribune_, declared that
"Seward stock is rising," and Salmon P. Chase admitted that "there
seems to be at present a considerable set toward Seward." Nathaniel P.
Banks, who was himself spoken of as a candidate, thought Seward's
prospects greatly enhanced.

[Footnote 514: New York _Times_, March 2, 1860.]

[Footnote 515: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
260.]

But a growing and influential body of men in the Republican party
severely criticised the speech because it lacked the moral earnestness
of the "higher law" spirit. To them it seemed as if Seward had made a
bid for the Presidency, and that the irrepressible conflict of 1858
was suddenly transformed into the condition of a mild and patient
lover who is determined not to quarrel. "Differences of opinion, even
on the subject of slavery," he said, "are with us political, not
social or personal differences. There is not one disunionist or
disloyalist among us all. We are altogether uncon