retention of the cornerstone of the Republican party, without
grieving the Unionists of the border States, or painfully affecting
the radical Republicans of the Northern States. Seward knew that the
latter censured him, and in a letter to the _Independent_ he explains
the cause of it. "Twelve years ago," he wrote, "freedom was in danger
and the Union was not. I spoke then so singly for freedom that
short-sighted men inferred that I was disloyal to the Union. To-day,
practically, freedom is not in danger, and Union is. With the attempt
to maintain Union by civil war, _wantonly_ brought on, there would be
danger of reaction against the Administration charged with the
preservation of both freedom and Union. Now, therefore, I speak singly
for Union, striving, if possible, to save it peaceably; if not
possible, then to cast the responsibility upon the party of slavery.
For this singleness of speech I am now suspected of infidelity to
freedom."[712]

[Footnote 707: "Oily Gammon Seward, aware that intimidation will not
do, is going to resort to the gentle powers of seduction."--Washington
correspondent of Charleston _Mercury_, February 19, 1861.]

[Footnote 708: New York _Tribune_, February 4, 1861.]

[Footnote 709: New York _Tribune_, February 5, 1861.]

[Footnote 710: "I have rejoiced, as you of New York must certainly
have done, in the spirit of conciliation which has repeatedly been
manifested, during the present session of Congress, by your
distinguished senator, Governor Seward." Robert C. Winthrop to the
Constitutional Union Committee of Troy, February 17.--_Winthrop's
Addresses and Speeches_, Vol. 2, p. 701. "If Mr. Seward moves in
favour of compromise, the whole Republican party sways like a field of
grain before his breath." Letter of Oliver Wendell Holmes, February
16, 1861.--_Motley's Correspondence_, Vol. 1, p. 360.]

[Footnote 711: Detroit _Post and Tribune_; _Life of Zachariah
Chandler_, p. 189.]

[Footnote 712: Letter to Dr. Thompson of the New York _Independent_.
F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 507.]

Lincoln, after his arrival in Washington, asked Seward to suggest such
changes in his inaugural address as he thought advisable, and in the
performance of this delicate duty the New York Senator continued his
policy of conciliation. "I have suggested," he wrote, in returning the
manuscript, "many changes of little importance, severally, but in
their general effect, tending to soothe the pub