ed his speech at
the Astor House, Seward rose to the plane of higher patriotism, and he
now broadened and enlarged the idea. During the presidential campaign,
he said, the struggle had been for and against slavery. That contest
having ended by the success of the Republicans in the election, the
struggle was now for and against the Union. "Union is not more the
body than liberty is the soul of the nation. Freedom can be saved with
the Union, and cannot be saved without it." He deprecated mutual
criminations and recriminations, a continuance of the debate over
slavery in the territories, the effort to prove secession illegal, and
the right of the federal government to coerce seceding States. He
wanted the Union glorified, its blessings exploited, the necessity of
its existence made manifest, and the love of country substituted for
the prejudice of faction and the pride of party. When this millennial
day had come, when secession movements had ended and the public mind
had resumed its wonted calm, then a national convention might be
called--say, in one, two, or three years hence, to consider the matter
of amending the Constitution.[697]

[Footnote 697: New York _Tribune_, January 14, 1861. _Seward's Works_,
Vol. 4, p. 651.]

This speech was listened to with deep attention. "During the delivery
of portions of it," said one correspondent, "senators were in tears.
When the sad picture of the country, divided into confederacies, was
given, Mr. Crittenden, who sat immediately before the orator, was
completely overcome by his emotions, and bowed his white head to
weep."[698] The _Tribune_ considered it "rhetorically and as a
literary performance unsurpassed by any words of Seward's earlier
productions,"[699] and Whittier, charmed with its conciliatory tone,
paid its author a noble tribute in one of his choicest poems.[700]
But the country was disappointed. The Richmond _Enquirer_,
representing the Virginia secessionists, maintained that it destroyed
the last hope of compromise, because he gave up nothing, not even
prejudices, to save peace in the Union. For the same reason, Union men
of Kentucky and other border States turned from it with profound
grief. On the other hand, the radical Republicans, disappointed that
it did not contain more powder and shot, charged him with surrendering
his principles and those of his party, to avert civil war and
dissolution of the Union. But the later-day historian, however,
readily admits tha