Horatio Seymour
Horatio Seymour | |
---|---|
Speaker of the New York State Assembly | |
In office January 7, 1845 – December 31, 1845 | |
Preceded by | Elisha Litchfield |
Succeeded by | William C. Crain |
Member of the New York State Assembly from Oneida County | |
In office January 1, 1844 – December 31, 1845[a] | |
Preceded by | Multi-member district[b] |
Succeeded by | Multi-member district[c] |
In office January 1, 1842 – January 31, 1842[d] | |
Preceded by | Multi-member district[e] |
Succeeded by | Multi-member district[f] |
Mayor of Utica, New York | |
In office 1842–1843 | |
Preceded by | John C. Devereux |
Succeeded by | Frederick Hollister |
Personal details | |
Born | Henry Seymour (father) Origen S. Seymour (cousin) Horatio Seymour (uncle) Edward W. Seymour (nephew) Horatio Seymour Jr. (nephew) Roscoe Conkling (brother-in-law) | May 31, 1810
Education | Hobart College Norwich University (BA) |
Profession |
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Signature | |
Horatio Seymour (May 31, 1810 – February 12, 1886) was an American politician. He served as Governor of New York from 1853 to 1854 and from 1863 to 1864. He was the Democratic Party nominee for president in the 1868 United States presidential election, losing to Republican Ulysses S. Grant.
Born in Pompey, New York, Seymour was admitted to the New York bar in 1832. He primarily focused on managing his family's business interests. After serving as a military secretary to Governor William L. Marcy, Seymour won election to the New York State Assembly. He was elected that body's speaker in 1845 and aligned with Marcy's "Softshell Hunker" faction. Seymour was nominated for governor in 1850 but narrowly lost to the Whig candidate, Washington Hunt. He defeated Hunt in the 1852 gubernatorial election, and spent much of his tenure trying to reunify the fractured Democratic Party, losing his 1854 re-election campaign in part due to this disunity.
Despite this defeat, Seymour emerged as a prominent national figure within the party. As several Southern states threatened secession, Seymour supported the
As the 1868 Democratic National Convention opened, there was no clear front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, but Seymour remained widely popular. Serving as the chairman of the convention, as he had in 1864, Seymour refused to seek the nomination for himself. After twenty-two indecisive ballots, the convention nominated Seymour, who finally relented on his opposition to running for president. Seymour faced General Ulysses S. Grant, the widely popular Republican Party nominee, in the 1868 election. Grant won a strong majority of the electoral vote, though his margin in the popular vote was not as overwhelming. Seymour never again sought public office but remained active in politics and supported Grover Cleveland's 1884 campaign for president.
Early life and education
Seymour was born in
Political career
Entry into politics
Seymour's first role in politics came in 1833, when he was named military secretary to the state's newly elected
When, in the late 1840s, the New York Democratic Party split between the two factions of
First term as governor
In 1850, Seymour was the gubernatorial candidate of the reunited Democratic Party, but he narrowly lost to the Whig candidate, Washington Hunt. Seymour and the Softs supported the candidacy of their leader, Marcy, for the presidency in 1852, but when he was defeated they enthusiastically campaigned for Franklin Pierce in 1852. That year proved a good one for the Softs, as Seymour, again supported by a unified Democratic Party, narrowly defeated Hunt in a gubernatorial rematch, while Pierce, overwhelmingly elected president, appointed Marcy as his Secretary of State.
Seymour's first term as governor of New York proved turbulent. He won approval of a measure to finance the enlargement of the Erie Canal via a $10.5 million loan in a special election in February 1854. But much of his tenure was plagued by factional chaos within the state Democratic Party. The Pierce administration's use of the patronage power alienated the Hards, who determined to run their own gubernatorial candidate against Seymour in 1854. Furthermore, the administration's support of the unpopular Kansas–Nebraska Act, with which Seymour was associated indirectly through his friendship with Marcy, cost him many votes. Whigs controlling the state legislature also sought to injure him further politically by responding to his call for action on the problem of alcohol abuse with a bill establishing a statewide prohibition, which Seymour vetoed as unconstitutional. Yet for all his troubles Seymour's prospects for reelection looked promising, as the divisions of the Democrats' opponents between the regular Whig candidate, Myron H. Clark, and the Know-Nothing Daniel Ullman appeared to be more dangerous to the Democrats' opponents than the candidacy of the Hard Greene C. Bronson looked to Democratic unity. In the end, however, the anti-Democratic tide was too strong, and in the four-way race Clark, who received only one-third of the vote, defeated Seymour by 309 votes.
Interlude
Despite his defeat, as a former governor of the largest state of the Union, Seymour emerged as a prominent figure in party politics at the national level.
In the
Second term as governor
In 1862, the sitting governor, Republican
Seymour's second term proved to be even more tumultuous than his first one. As governor of the largest state in the Union from 1863 to 1864, Seymour was one of the most prominent Democratic opponents of the President. He opposed the Lincoln administration's institution of the military draft in 1863 on constitutional grounds, an act which led many to question his support for the war. He also opposed a bill giving votes to the soldiers on legal grounds, vetoing the bill when it reached his desk. While not opposed to the goal he preferred to establish voting provisions through a constitutional amendment that was working its way simultaneously through the state legislature; nonetheless, his veto was portrayed by opponents as hostility to the soldiers. His decision to pay the state's foreign creditors using gold rather than
The growing accumulation of problems steadily eroded Seymour's position as governor. In what was regarded as a rebuke of his policies, Republicans swept the 1863 state midterm elections, winning all of the major offices and taking control of the State Assembly. In the state elections the following year, Seymour himself was defeated for reelection in a close race by Republican Reuben Fenton.[4]: 350–359, 381
Prominent Democrat
Seymour continued as a prominent figure in national Democratic politics both during and immediately after his second term as governor. In 1864, he served as permanent chairman at the Democratic National Convention, where the opposition of many delegates to the two frontrunners, General
1868 Presidential election
Nomination
As the 1868 presidential election approached, there was no clear candidate for the Democratic nomination. Of the numerous candidates in contention, George H. Pendleton, who had run as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1864, enjoyed considerable support but alienated the fiscal conservatives in the party with his plan to pay off federal debt using greenbacks. When Seymour was approached about running for the nomination, he demurred again, preferring that either Indiana Senator Thomas A. Hendricks or U.S. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase receive the nomination instead.
At the convention, Seymour once again served as permanent chairman. Balloting began on June 7; on the fourth ballot, the chairman of the North Carolina delegation cast his state's votes for Seymour, whereupon the former governor again restated his refusal to accept the nomination. Two days later, as the twenty-second ballot was being taken, it appeared that Hendricks was in the process of winning the nomination until the leader of the Ohio delegation suddenly switched his delegation's votes to Seymour. Though Seymour reiterated his unwillingness to be the nominee, the delegations revised their votes and gave the nomination to him unanimously.[4]: 411–431
Campaign
With the nomination forced upon him, Seymour committed himself to the campaign. He faced considerable challenges; his opponent, General
Later years
After the presidential election, Seymour remained involved in state politics, though primarily as an elder statesman rather than an active politician. He received a number of honors during this period, including the chancellorship of Union College in 1873. In 1874 he turned down almost certain election to the United States Senate, urging the nomination instead of the eventual choice, Francis Kernan. He refused two additional efforts to nominate him for the New York governorship, in 1876 and 1879, as well as a final attempt to select him as the Democratic presidential nominee in 1880.[4]: 512, 521–526, 535–539, 571
Never enjoying robust health, Seymour suffered a permanent decline beginning in 1876. He made a final political effort in 1884 by campaigning for
Legacy
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2018) |
There is a memorial to Seymour at the Cathedral of All Saints (Albany, New York).
Seymour, Wisconsin, was founded in 1868 and named after Horatio Seymour.
Seymour Avenue in the Bronx, New York, was named for him.
Electoral history
Gubernatorial elections
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic
|
Horatio Seymour | 214,352 | 49.57% | +22.87 | |
Whig | Washington Hunt | 214,614 | 49.64% | ||
Liberty
|
William Lawrence Chaplin | 3,416 | 0.79% | ||
Whig hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic
|
Horatio Seymour | 264,121 | 50.31% | +.74 | |
Whig | Washington Hunt (Incumbent) | 241,525 | 46.01% | ||
Free Soil | Minthorne Tompkins | 19,296 | 3.68% | ||
Democratic gain from Whig | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Horatio Seymour (Incumbent) | 156,495 | 33.32% | −16.99 | |
Whig | Myron H. Clark | 156,804 | 33.38% | ||
Know Nothing | Daniel Ullman | 122,282 | 26.03% | ||
Democratic | Greene C. Bronson | 33,850 | 7.21% | ||
Whig gain from Democratic | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic
|
Horatio Seymour | 306,649 | 50.89% | +7.08 | |
Republican | James S. Wadsworth | 295,897 | 49.11% | ||
Democratic gain from Republican | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic
|
Horatio Seymour (Incumbent) | 361,264 | 49.43% | −1.46 | |
Republican | Reuben Fenton | 368,557 | 50.57% | ||
Republican gain from Democratic | Swing |
1868 Presidential election
Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote(a) | Electoral vote(a) |
Running mate | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Count | Percentage | Vice-presidential candidate | Home state | Electoral vote(a) | ||||
Ulysses S. Grant | Republican
|
Illinois | 3,013,650 | 52.7% | 214 | Schuyler Colfax | Indiana | 214 |
Horatio Seymour | Democratic
|
New York | 2,708,744 | 47.3% | 80 | Francis Preston Blair, Jr.
|
Missouri | 80 |
Other | 46 | 0.0% | — | Other | — | |||
Total | 5,722,440 | 100% | 294 | 294 | ||||
Needed to win | 148 | 148 |
Notes
- ^ Serving with:
1844: Justus Childs, James Douglass, Richard Empey
1854: Andrew Billings, Merit Brooks, Calvert Comstock - ^ Dan P. Cadwell, Amos S. Fassett, David Murray, John H. Tower
- ^ Chauncey C. Cook, Benjamin F. Cooper, Daniel G. Dorrance, Russel Fuller
- ^ Serving with: Ichabod C. Baker, Ebenezer Robbins, DeWitt C. Stephens
- ^ Calvin Dawley, Joseph Halleck, Luke Hitchcock, Nathaniel Odell
- ^ Dan P. Cadwell, Amos S. Fassett, David Murray, John H. Tower
See also
References
- ^ "Horatio Seymour".
- ^ Ellis, William Arba (1911). Norwich University, 1819–1911; Her History, Her Graduates, Her Roll of Honor. Vol. 2. Montpelier, VT: Capital City Press. p. 215.
- ^ a b Norwich University, 1819–1911
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Stewart Mitchell, Horatio Seymour of New York (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938).
- ^ "Horatio Seymour". HarpWeek. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2011.
- ^ NY Public Library, Schomberg Collection, badge produced in 1868, digitized 2013
- ^ "Princeton, N. J., July 4th, 1885".
Further reading
- Furniss, Jack. "To save the union “in behalf of conservative men”: Horatio Seymour and the democratic vision for war." in New Perspectives on the Union War (Fordham University Press, 2019) pp. 63-90.
- Harris, William C. Two Against Lincoln: Reverdy Johnson and Horatio Seymour, Champions of the Loyal Opposition (2017) excerpt
- Linkugel, Wilmer A. (1959). "Horatio Seymour: Stump speaker in 1868". Quarterly Journal of Speech. 45 (4): 431–438. .
- McCabe, James Dabney (1868). The Life and Public Services of Horatio Seymour. Jones Brothers & Co. online edition
- Mitchell, Stewart (1938). Horatio Seymour of New York. Harvard University Press., a standard scholarly biography.
- Murdock, Eugene C. "Horatio Seymour and the 1863 draft." Civil War History 11.2 (1965): 117–141. excerpt
- Wall, Alexander J. (1929). A Sketch of the Life of Horatio Seymour, 1810-1886: with a Detailed Account of his Administration as Governor of the State of New York during the War of 1861-1865. Lancaster. OCLC 3297449., thin
- Zornow, William Frank (1950). "McClellan and Seymour in the Chicago Convention of 1864". Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 43 (4): 282–295. JSTOR 40189856.
Primary sources
- Seymour, Horatio. Public Record: Including Speeches, Messages, Proclamations, Official Correspondence, and Other Public Utterances of Horatio Seymour; from the Campaign of 1856 to the Present Time. (1868) online.
External links
- Works by or about Horatio Seymour at Internet Archive
- Mr. Lincoln and New York: Horatio Seymour
- First Edition 1862 Report on Horatio Seymour Winning New York Governor's Race.
- Speeches of Hon. Horatio Seymour : at the conventions held at Albany, January 31, 1861 and September 10, 1862
- Profile, PoliticalGraveyard.com. Accessed March 28, 2024.