eshadowed the result in November. Although
the Democrats had derived great advantage in 1862 because of their
bold stand for civil liberty and freedom of speech, a year later such
arguments proved of little avail. Gettysburg and Vicksburg had turned
the tide, and Seymour and the draft riot carried it to the flood.
Depew's majority, mounting higher and higher as the returns came
slowly from the interior, turned the Governor's surprise into shame.
In his career of a quarter of a century Seymour had learned to accept
disappointment as well as success, but his failure in 1863 to forecast
the trend of changing public sentiment cost him the opportunity of
ever again leading his party to victory.[927]

[Footnote 927: "Depew received 29,405 votes more than St. John for
secretary of state." _Ibid._, December 5, 1863.]

CHAPTER VII

STRIFE OF RADICAL AND CONSERVATIVE

1864

In his Auburn speech Seward had declared for Lincoln's
renomination.[928] Proof of the intimate personal relations existing
between the President and his Secretary came into national notice in
1862 when a committee of nine Radical senators, charging to Seward's
conservatism the failure of a vigorous and successful prosecution of
the war, formally demanded his dismissal from the Cabinet. On learning
of their action the Secretary had immediately resigned. "Do you still
think Seward ought to be excused?" asked Lincoln at the end of a long
and stormy interview. Four answered "Yes," three declined to vote, and
Harris of New York said "No."[929] The result of this conference led
Secretary Chase, the chief of the Radicals, to tender his resignation
also. But the President, "after most anxious consideration," requested
each to resume the duties of his department. Speaking of the matter
afterward to Senator Harris, Lincoln declared with his usual
mirth-provoking illustration: "If I had yielded to that storm and
dismissed Seward, the thing would all have slumped one way. Now I can
ride; I have got a pumpkin in each end of my bag."[930]

[Footnote 928: Delivered November 3, 1863. New York _Herald_, November
6.]

[Footnote 929: Nicolay-Hay, _Abraham Lincoln_, Vol. 6, p. 266.
Senators Sumner of Massachusetts, Trumbull of Illinois, Grimes of
Iowa, and Pomeroy of Kansas, voted Yes; Collamer of Vermont, Fessenden
of Maine, and Howard of Michigan declined to vote. Wade of Ohio was
absent.]

[Footnote 930: Nicolay-Hay, _Abraham Lincoln_, Vol. 6, p. 268.]

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