Speech of Hon. William H. Seward

Excerpt from Speech of Hon. William H. Seward: At Auburn, October 20, 1865 No sorrow in the sum of agony which the nation has paid for its life, conspicuous or obscure, has been in vain. The path of duty is always the path of sacrifice. The men who stood at the head of Government, in that terrible time, and bore the daily burden, did not ask others to brave dangers which they were not willing, themselves, to encounter. In their mission, given them of Heaven to fulfill with a consecrated patriotism, and religious fidelity, they did not count their own lives dear unto them. Our beloved President, whose worth none could have known as you knew it, whose confidence and labors and perils you shared so largely, must at last make his grave with the martyrs of liberty, to complete the nations sacrifice. It has been your lot, my dear sir, after a long and honored service of the State, and in the orderings of a wise Providence, which in a great crisis always regards the fitness of men for their place, to take a chief part in the momentous events of the past five years. The whole world knows where you have stood, and what you have done, and what you have suffered, toward the result over which all now rejoice. The past is secure - and the reward is certain. Need I say that all this while, you have had our support and confidence, our sympathy and our prayers. The blow from the assassins hand, which struck you down, smote our hearts. The great national bereavement put on a deeper gloom because of the peril that hung over your life, and the lives of your household, which has always been a part of ourselves. We wept with you, when the life, dear to you as your own, was taken. We rejoiced with you, when the life which was bound up in yours was restored. I know you will pardon this allusion to scenes and events which have endeared you to your friends and neighbors, not only, but have attracted public sympathy at home and abroad. They make this interview one of thoughtful and tender interest. They lift public life out of the sphere of personal ambition, and partizan strife, and invest it with unwonted dignities and sacred memories. 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.