In His Dispatches He
Talks Ever Of We Or Of I. In Every Word Of His Official Writings,
Of Which
A large volume has been published, he shows plainly that he
intends to be considered as the man of the
Day - as the hero who is
to bring the States through their difficulties. Mr. Lincoln may be
king, but Mr. Seward is mayor of the palace, and carries the king in
his pocket. From the depth of his own wisdom he undertakes to teach
his ministers in all parts of the world, not only their duties, but
their proper aspiration. He is equally kind to foreign statesmen,
and sends to them messages as though from an altitude which no
European politician had ever reached. At home he has affected the
Prime Minister in everything, dropping the We and using the I in a
manner that has hardly made up by its audacity for its deficiency in
discretion. It is of course known everywhere that he had run Mr.
Lincoln very hard for the position of Republican candidate for the
Presidency. Mr. Lincoln beat him, and Mr. Seward is well aware that
in the states a man has never a second chance for the presidential
chair. Hence has arisen his ambition to make for himself a new
place in the annals of American politics. Hitherto there has been
no Prime Minister known in the government of the United States. Mr.
Seward has attempted a revolution in that matter, and has essayed to
fill the situation. For awhile it almost seemed that he was
successful. He interfered with the army, and his interferences were
endured. He took upon himself the business of the police, and
arrested men at his own will and pleasure. The habeas corpus was in
his hand, and his name was current through the States as a covering
authority for every outrage on the old laws. Sufficient craft, or
perhaps cleverness, he possessed to organize a position which should
give him a power greater than the power of the President; but he had
not the genius which would enable him to hold it. He made foolish
prophecies about the war, and talked of the triumphs which he would
win. He wrote state-papers on matters which he did not understand,
and gave himself the airs of diplomatic learning while he showed
himself to be sadly ignorant of the very rudiments of diplomacy. He
tried to joke as Lord Palmerston jokes, and nobody liked his joking.
He was greedy after the little appanages of power, taking from
others who loved them as well as he did privileges with which he
might have dispensed. And then, lastly, he was successful in
nothing. He had given himself out as the commander of the
commander-in-chief; but then under his command nothing got itself
done. For a month or two some men had really believed in Mr.
Seward. The policemen of the country had come to have an absolute
trust in him, and the underlings of the public offices were
beginning to think that he might be a great man.
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