h
30, 1861.]

Seward never forgot a real friend. Out of thirty-five diplomatic posts
carrying a salary of five thousand dollars and upward, the Empire
State was credited with nine; and, of these, one, a minister
plenipotentiary, received twelve thousand dollars, and seven ministers
resident, seventy-five hundred each. Seward, with the advice of
Thurlow Weed, filled them all with tried and true supporters. Greeley,
who, for some time, had been murmuring about the Secretary's
appointments, let fly, at last, a sarcastic paragraph or two about the
appointment of Andrew B. Dickinson, the farmer statesman of Steuben,
which betrayed something of the bitterness existing between the
Secretary of State and the editor of the _Tribune_. For more than a
year no such thing had existed as personal relations. Before the
spring of 1860 they met frequently with a show of cordiality, and,
although the former understood that the latter boasted an independence
of control whenever they differed in opinion, the _Tribune_
co-operated and its editor freely conferred with the New York senator
during the long struggle in Congress for Kansas and free labour; but
after Seward's defeat at Chicago they never met,[752] dislike
displaced regard, and the _Tribune_, with eye and ear open to catch
whatever would make its adversary wince, indulged in bitter sarcasm.
William B. Taylor's reappointment as postmaster at New York City gave
it opportunity to praise Taylor and criticise Seward, claiming that
the former, who had held office under Buchanan, though an excellent
official, was not a Republican. This proved so deep a thrust, arraying
office-seekers and their friends against the Secretary and Thurlow
Weed, that Greeley kept it up, finding some appointees inefficient,
and the Republicanism of others insufficient.

[Footnote 752: "In the spring of 1859, Governor Seward crossed the
Atlantic, visiting Egypt, traversing Syria, and other portions of Asia
Minor as well as much of Europe. Soon after his return he came one
evening to my seat in Dr. Chapin's church,--as he had repeatedly done
during former visits to our city,--and I now recall this as the last
occasion on which we ever met."--Horace Greeley, _Recollections of a
Busy Life_, p. 321.]

To the former class belonged the minister resident to Nicaragua.
Dickinson had wearied of a farmer's life,[753] and Seward, who often
benefited by his ardent and influential friendship, bade him make his
own sele