By Walter Stahr
Waltar Stahr gives us an exceptional look at an exceptional man, William Henry Seward. We all know Lincoln is our sixteenth President, but at the time most thought Seward would win the election. Despite being a political rival, Lincoln chose Seward as his Secretary of State. More importantly, Seward did become politically and relationally, Lincoln's indispensable man.
I appreciate Stahr's grasp of the surrounding historical narrative which, for me, makes this biography so rich. Stahr shows the volatility of the election of 1860. Even losing New York alone would have doomed the Republican ticket. The vote would have gone to the house and Lincoln could not have won there (p. 209). The author is devoted to details (The Compromise of 1850 [p. 131]; The Omnibus [p. 127]; Lincoln and Seward's early connections; Compromise of 1820 [p. 142]; Kansas-Nebraska Bill [p. 143]) and we are the better for it.
My copy of Seward: Lincoln's Indispensable Man is marked and sticky-noted in multiple places. Here are a few:
1. Faithfulness: Seward wanted his epitaph to read, "He was faithful." See page 102.
2. Greatness: "What is the Presidency of thge United States compared with the fame of a patriot-statemsman, who triumphs over popular injustice and establishes his country on the sure foundation of freedom and empire?" See page 111.
3. Influence:> Seward kept John Quincy Adam's portrait over his desk. See page 196.
4. Self-Importance: Seward exhibited a little more that a little self-importance.
5. On Lincoln's Magnanimity: Seward wrote to Francis (his wife), "It is due to the President to say that his magnanimity is almost superhuman. His confidence and sympathy increase every day." 1861 See page 290.
6. Time and Truth: In response to a letter suggesting the arrest of an officer who claimed the secretary of state was 'drunk from morning till night,' Seward wrote loftily that 'it has been a habit of my life to leave my conduct and character to the vindication of time and truth.'" See page 298
7. A brilliant verbal portrait of Seward: "I found him dressed in black, with his waistcoat half-unbuttoned, one leg over the side of his armchair, and a cigar struck stuck between his lips. Barring the cigar and the attitude, I should have taken him for a shrewd, well-to-do attorney, waiting to learn his new clients story: you are at your ease with him at once; there is a frankness and bonehomie about his manner which renders it, to my mind, a very pleasant one."
Seward was good company: “a good cigar, a good glass of wine, and a good story, even if it is a little risque, or pleasures which he obviously enjoys keenly. Still, a glance at that spare, hard-knit frame, in that clear, bright eye, shows you that no pleasure, however keenly appreciated, has been indulged in to excess throughout his long, laborious career." Edward Dicey, a young British reporter. See page 327
If you want to learn more about Lincoln, of course you can always read a biography, but read Seward and you will gain a more thorough picture of Lincoln and also what made William Henry Seward his "indispensable man." I highly recommend this book!