of a mighty nation. During his
administration a treaty with Japan, securing for the United States
valuable commercial privileges, was consummated. His administration, as
a whole, was a successful one, and had he not signed the fugitive slave
law, he would, undoubtedly, have been the nominee of his party at the
convention in 1852.

In 1854 he made an extensive tour in the Southern and Western States,
and in the Spring of 1855, after an excursion through New England, he
sailed for Europe. While in Rome he received information that he had
been nominated by the Native American party in his native country for
the office of President. He accepted, but Maryland alone gave him her
electoral vote; however, he received a large popular vote. In 1874,
March the 8th, he died in Buffalo, where he had resided many years in
private life.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

A truly eminent American statesman, William H. Seward, was born in
Florida, Orange county, New York, May 16th, 1801.

He graduated with much distinction when only nineteen at Union College,
Schenectady, New York, then taught school in Georgia six months when he
entered a New York law school, and was admitted to the bar in 1822;
commenced the practice of law at Auburn in connection with Judge Miller,
whose daughter he afterward married.

In 1824 he entered upon his political career by preparing an address for
a Republican convention in opposition to the Democratic clique known as
the 'Albany Regency,' thus commenced a contention which only ended when
the association was broken up in 1838. He presided over a young men's
convention in New York in favor of John Quincy Adams' re-election to the
presidency. In August, 1828, on his return home he was offered a
nomination as member of Congress but declined. He was elected to the
State senate in 1830, when he originated an opposition to corporate
monopolies which has since ripened into a system of general laws. After
a rapid tour through Europe in 1833 he returned home to become the Whig
candidate for governor of New York, being defeated by W. L. Marcy. But
in 1838 he was elected over Marcy, his former opponent, by a majority of
10,000 votes.

Placed now in a position where he could exercise that mighty mind which
he unmistakably possessed, he achieved National distinction in the
measures he prosecuted. Prominent among these measures was the effort to
secure the diffusion of common school education, advocating an equal
dist