em, however, to keep the
majority from going for Seward, who got eight votes here as it was.
Indiana was our right bower, and Missouri above praise. It was a
fearful week, such as I hope and trust I shall never see
repeated."[548] That Greeley received credit for all he did is
evidenced by a letter from John D. Defrees, then a leading politician
of Indiana, addressed to Schuyler Colfax. "Greeley slaughtered Seward
and saved the party," he wrote. "He deserves the praises of all men
and gets them now. Wherever he goes he is greeted with cheers."[549]

[Footnote 548: James S. Pike, _First Blows of the Civil War_, p. 519.]

[Footnote 549: Hollister, _Life of Colfax_, p. 148.]

The profound sorrow of Seward's friends resembled the distress of
Henry Clay's supporters in 1840. It was not chagrin; it was not the
selfish fear that considers the loss of office or spoils; it was not
discouragement or despair. Apprehensions for the future of the party
and the country there may have been, but their grief found its
fountain-head in the feeling that "his fidelity to the country, the
Constitution and the laws," as Evarts put it; "his fidelity to the
party, and the principle that the majority govern; his interest in the
advancement of our party to victory, that our country may rise to its
true glory,"[550] had led to his sacrifice solely for assumed
availability. The belief obtained that a large majority of the
delegates preferred him, and that had the convention met elsewhere he
would probably have been successful. In his _Life of Lincoln_, Alex.
K. McClure of Pennsylvania, an anti-Seward delegate, says that "of the
two hundred and thirty-one men who voted for Lincoln on the third and
last ballot, not less than one hundred of them voted reluctantly
against the candidate of their choice."[551]

[Footnote 550: William M. Evarts' speech making Lincoln's nomination
unanimous. F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 451.]

[Footnote 551: Alex. K. McClure, _Life of Lincoln_, p. 171.]

At Auburn a funeral gloom settled upon the town.[552] Admiration for
Seward's great ability, and a just pride in the exalted position he
occupied in his party and before the country, had long ago displaced
the local spirit that refused him a seat in the constitutional
convention of 1846; and after the defeat his fellow townsmen could not
be comforted. Sincere sorrow filled their hearts. But Seward's bearing
was heroic. When told that no Republican