The Life and Public Services of Horatio Seymour
The Life and Public Services of Horatio Seymour

Author: James D. McCabe

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-10

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 9781331095750

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Excerpt from The Life and Public Services of Horatio Seymour: Together With a Complete and Authentic Life of Francis P. Blair, Jr. When a citizen of the Republic is presented to the people for election by them to the highest public position in their gift, it is eminently proper that they should know the events of his previous life, in order that they may be enabled to form from them an intelligent opinion as to his qualifications for the position to which he aspires. Especially is it important that they should have this knowledge when it is proposed to place him at the head of the nation in a time like the present, when the country, almost on the brink of ruin, requires in its Chief Magistrate not only personal purity and political integrity, but also the highest and most profound wisdom, and the greatest and most unwavering firmness, - a wisdom which shall foresee and provide against the dangers which threaten our institutions and prosperity, and a firmness which, resisting all the temptations of a selfish ambition, shall keep the Republic true to itself and to its God-given mission. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Two against Lincoln
Two against Lincoln

Author: William C. Harris

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2017-04-14

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0700624120

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Reverdy Johnson (1796–1876), Maryland senator, and Horatio Seymour, Democratic governor of New York, were two influential opponents of Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans during the Civil War. But unlike the Copperheads, they staunchly supported the war to suppress the rebellion. The story of these two figures of the loyal opposition by Lincoln Prize–winning author William C. Harris provides a new way of understanding critical controversies relating to the purpose of the Civil War, its conduct, emancipation, white racial opinion, loyalty, military conscription, and civil liberties. Johnson, a distinguished lawyer, former Whig, and conservative Unionist, did not believe that the secessionist states had left the Union, an idea with broad implications for post-war reconstruction. Like Seymour, he opposed Republican efforts in Washington to end slavery, assuming such a policy would backfire against the Union. However, Johnson in 1864 spoke in favor of the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery. Before the war, Seymour supported Stephen Douglas's popular sovereignty policies, allowing the territories to decide whether or not to permit slavery, and during the war he opposed any tampering with slavery. Two Against Lincoln explores how these two men negotiated issues of emancipation, reconstruction, and reconciliation, all while navigating the roiling currents of partisan politics. The book includes illuminating accounts of the framing of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1866, the ephemeral National Union (Democratic) Party of 1866, the role of Senator Johnson in the approval of the military reconstruction acts of 1867, the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, and, finally, the presidential election of 1868 in which Seymour as the Democratic candidate did better than expected against war hero U. S. Grant. Building on the author's award winning work on Lincoln and the border states, Two Against Lincoln illustrates the complexity of political divisions in the Union states, as embodied in two powerful, controversial leaders of the time.