rum-major.

Governor Seward also played a part in the story of his party's
downfall. The school question, growing out of his recommendation that
separate schools for the children of Roman Catholics should share in
the public moneys appropriated by the State for school purposes, lost
none of its bitterness; the McLeod controversy put him at odds with
the national Administration; and the Virginia controversy involved him
in a correspondence that made him odious in the South. In his
treatment of the McLeod matter, Seward was clearly right. Three years
after the destruction of the _Caroline_, which occurred during the
Canadian rebellion, Alexander McLeod, while upon a visit in the State,
boasted that he was a member of the attacking party and had killed the
only man shot in the encounter. This led to his arrest on a charge of
murder and arson. The British Minister based his demand for McLeod's
release on the ground that the destruction of the _Caroline_ "was a
public act of persons in Her Majesty's service, obeying the orders of
their superior authorities." In approving the demand, Lord Palmerston
suggested that McLeod's execution "would produce war, war immediate
and frightful in its character, because it would be a war of
retaliation and vengeance." Webster, then secretary of state, urged
Seward to discontinue the prosecution and discharge McLeod; but the
Governor, promising a pardon if McLeod was convicted, insisted that he
had no power to interfere with the case until after trial, while the
courts, upon an application for McLeod's discharge on habeas corpus,
held that as peace existed between Great Britain and the United States
at the time of the burning of the _Caroline_, and as McLeod held no
commission and acted without authority, England's assumption of
responsibility for his act after his arrest did not oust the court of
its jurisdiction. Fortunately, McLeod, proving his boast a lie by
showing that he took no part in the capture of the _Caroline_, put an
end to the controversy, but Seward's refusal to intervene broke
whatever relations had existed between himself and Webster.

The Virginia correspondence created even greater bitterness. The
Governor discovered that a requisition for the surrender of three
coloured men, charged with aiding the escape of a fugitive slave, was
based upon a defective affidavit; but, before he could act, the court
discharged the prisoners upon evidence that no offence had been
committ