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ard failed to preserve the attachment of his early friends. The companions of his school and college days, as well as those of his professional life, have ever been among his foremost supporters, as a public man. And he never forsakes a friend or a cause, that he has once espoused. No reproach can shake his fidelity to objects, of whose worth he has become persuaded.

CHAPTER IV.

LAW STUDIES- REMOVAL TO AUBURN-FAMILY- - RELIGIOUS CHARACTER AS A LAWYER.

PRINCIPLES

SOON after taking his degree at Union college, Mr. Seward entered the office of John Anthon, Esq., of the city of New York, as a student at law. He carried the habits of early rising and faithful application, which he had maintained during his college life, into his professional studies. He thoroughly mastered every elementary book which was put into his hands, making a written analysis of its contents. Completing his legal preparation with John Duer and Ogden Hoffman, Esquires, in Goshen, N. Y., he was admitted to the bar of the supreme court at Utica in 1822. For six months previous to his admission he had been associated in practice with Mr. Hoffman.

In January, 1823, Mr. Seward took up his residence in Auburn, and formed a connection in business with the Hon. Elijah Miller, a distinguished member of the legal profession, and at that time first judge of Cayuga county. Judge Miller, who had acquired a competency in a large and successful practice, was desirous of retiring from active professional pursuits, and discovering signs of great promise in young Seward, took him into his confidence, and proved a devoted and efficient friend.

Mr. Seward, in 1824, married his youngest daughter, Frances Adeline Miller. As this lady is still living, we can only say that the connection has been a singularly fortunate one in all respects. Four children compose their family; Augustus, a lieutenant in the United States army, and devoted to its scientific pursuits, Frederick, who has chosen the editorial profession, and a boy and girl yet in childhood. One daughter, "fondly loved," was therefore, perhaps, "early lost."

The town of Auburn, which Mr. Seward selected as a residence, is in the heart of one of the most fertile and delightful regions in central New York. Its growth has been rapid and healthful. Within a few years the primeval forest has given place to a populous city. Its inhabitants are distinguished for their intelligence, enterprise, and refinement. Free from the pride of wealth and the pretensions of aristocracy, they present an attractive example of genuine republican equality. In some degree these characteristics are no doubt due to the influence of Mr. Seward and his estimable family. During a residence of more than thirty years, he has won the unqualified respect and confidence of his townsmen. Moving in the highest circles of society, he has never avoided friendly intercourse with the most obscure and lowly. The patron of struggling merit -cherishing a deep interest in all social and philanthropic movements-watchful to aid the unfortunate and forsaken

and ever ready to devote his time, his talents, and his pecuniary means, to the defence of the wronged and oppressed of every caste and color-he has gained the lasting gratitude and love of the people with whom, for over a quarter of a century, he has lived as a neighbor and fellowcitizen.

Although free from all taint of sectarianism, Mr. Seward cherishes a strong attachment to the protestant episcopal church, of which he became a member in 1837. He has been frequently called to attend ecclesiastical conventions

of that body. At the anniversary of the American Bible Society in 1839, he was called to act as one of the vicepresidents, and in his address on that occasion he expresses the following sentiment in regard to the Bible:

"I know not how long a republican government can flourish among a great people who have not the Bible; the experiment has never been tried: but this I do know that the existing government of this country never could have had existence but for the Bible. And further I do in my conscience believe that if at every decade of years a copy of the Bible could be found in every family of the land its republican institutions would be perpetual.”

With his devotion to the cause of public improvement, he has been the patron of churches, schools, and benevolent institutions, liberally contributing his money for their support, and his counsels for their direction.

After establishing himself in Auburn, Mr. Seward -became interested in the military affairs of the neighborhood, and was soon honored with various military offices. Accepting the colonelcy of a regiment, he acquired wide distinction and still higher promotion by his zeal and discipline. Without personal military ambition, he was an ardent friend of a well-regulated militia system for the preservation of order and the defence of the country. He was an excellent tactician, and an accomplished commander, while his winning qualities as a man secured the friendship of all around him, who were engaged in the same department of public service.

From the commencement of his practice as a lawyer, Mr. Seward was always in the habit of arguing his own cases, instead of employing older counsellors, as is often done by young advocates. In the management of a case he sparingly refers to the authority of recorded decisions, but stating the general principles of law applicable to the question, and arranging the facts in the simplest order, enforces his arguments by à priori reasonings, and shows the basis of his position in natural equity. As a professional rule, he gives his aid to a weaker party against a stronger, even without compensation, whether his client be right or wrong; but if

a stronger party claims his services against a weaker, he does not engage in the suit without a clear conviction of its justice, whatever be the compensation. During the whole course of his practice he has never been known to act for a man against a woman; and was never but once engaged in a cause against the accused; and that was an instance of extreme outrage by a man upon a young

woman.

The legal career of Mr. Seward is illustrated with no less justice than vigor in the following sketch of his early professional life, written several years since for one of the periodicals of the day:

"The practice of the law in the country must not be estimated by the practice in the city. Each has its own advantages and difficulties; it is the peculiarity of the former, that it at once brings to the test, and to the public view, the intrinsic qualities of the man. The crowded bar, the long-deferred opportunity, the deference to age and experience, the overshadowing reputation of the seniors of the profession, and the innumerable natural or conventional impediments, which so long keep back, and so often depress the young aspirant with us, are felt in a very mitigated degree in the interior. The candidate for distinction is there summoned at once to the arena: naked steel is around him;' he is thrown upon his own talents, energies, and resources, and he stands and falls as in his native and unaided strength. To have stood this trial successfully, and, after eleven years of arduous labors, to have risen to the very foremost rank of his profession, as did Mr. Seward, is in itself an unerring indication of the high character of the object of these remarks. In all our courts, and in causes of every descrip. tion, his talents have been exercised and admired. He has stood forward and distinguished himself with such men as John C. Spencer, Joshua A. Spencer, Albert H. Tracy, and their contemporaries of the West, for whom competition, if not pre-eminence, may be challenged with the Athletes of the bar in any other section of the state or of the country. Property, liberty, and life, have been committed to the integrity and ability of this young man of thirty.three,' and he has never faltered in his trust, nor failed in an emergency, nor left unfulfilled an expectation."

His most formidable competitors at the Auburn bar, during the commencement of his practice, were Hon. John M. Hulbert and William Brown, Esqs. Both these distinguished men were accomplished scholars, erudite jurists, and powerful advocates. At this time they were in the

dazzling flush of professional success. The brilliancy of their fame threw most of their rivals into the shade. Many excellent members of the bar had been deterred by their eminence from attempting to vie with them in the courts. But upon a man like Mr. Seward, their influence was of a contrary nature. Their intellectual predominance only aroused his emulation; nor did he suffer by the comparison. Possessing a native independence of mind, he was early accustomed to original thought. This habit was strengthened by severe discipline. Attaching a due value to the suggestions of others, he still relied upon himself. Connected with this trait of character, was a rigid habit of industry; he studied while others slept. The time which most men give to recreation he devoted to strenuous toil. With such qualifications, Mr. Seward soon entered upon an extensive and successful practice. His fame grew with his years, until he fills a sphere which is surpassed in brilliancy and importance by that of few of his contemporaries, incontestably ranking with the first lawyers of the Union

CHAPTER V.

POLITICS- SLAVERY YOUNG MEN'S CONVENTION – ANTI

MASONRY-STATE SENATOR.

THE attention of Mr. Seward was early drawn to political affairs. His father was an ardent champion of the Jeffersonian democracy. The traditionary instincts and early prepossessions of the son were strongly in favor of the same principles. Mr. Seward, accordingly, sympathized with the democratic party, believing that it embodied the spirit of popular freedom to a greater extent than any other party of the day. He was early undeceived by experience. Discovering that, under the pretence of

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