s
tent."--James F. Rhodes, _History of the United States_, Vol. 2, p.
494.

"The magnanimity of Mr. Seward, since the result of the convention was
known," wrote James Russell Lowell, "has been a greater ornament to
him and a greater honour to his party than his election to the
Presidency would have been."--_Atlantic Monthly_, October, 1860;
_Lowell's Political Essays_, p. 34.]

[Footnote 586: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, pp.
462-66.]

The growth and resources of the great Northwest, whose development he
attributed to the exclusion of slave labour, seemed to inspire him
with the hope and faith of youth, and he spoke of its reservation for
freedom and its settlement and upbuilding in the critical moment of
the country's history as providential, since it must rally the free
States of the Atlantic coast to call back the ancient principles which
had been abandoned by the government to slavery. "We resign to you,"
he said, "the banner of human rights and human liberty on this
continent, and we bid you be firm, bold, and onward, and then you may
hope that we will be able to follow you." It was in one of these
moments of exaltation when he seemed to be lifted into the higher
domain of prophecy that he made the prediction afterward realised by
the Alaska treaty. "Standing here and looking far off into the
Northwest," he said, "I see the Russian as he busily occupies himself
in establishing seaports and towns and fortifications on the verge of
this continent as the outposts of St. Petersburg, and I can say, 'Go
on, and build up your outposts all along the coast, up even to the
Arctic Ocean, for they will yet become the outposts of my own
country--monuments of the civilisation of the United States in the
Northwest."[587]

[Footnote 587: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 464.]

At the beginning of the canvass, Republican confidence and enthusiasm
contrasted strangely with the apathy of the Democratic party, caused
by its two tickets, two organisations, and two incompatible platforms.
It was recognised early in the campaign that Douglas could carry no
slave State unless it be Missouri; and, although the Douglas and Bell
fusion awaked some hope, it was not until the fusion electoral ticket
included supporters of Breckenridge that the struggle became vehement
and energetic. New York's thirty-five votes were essential to the
election of Lincoln, and early in September a determined effort began
to uni