and bank credits. But to buy the wheat and the corn of the great Northwestern States, currency is essential. No State in the Union needs as much as the State of Illinois, and yet, in common with the other Western States, it has but a trifling amount. This is not merely a matter of inconvenience, but it is also an enormous tax. When currency is wanted to buy up the wheat and corn, and other products of the West, Western bankers are obliged to come to the Eastern States to borrow bank bills which have been given to these Eastern States by the Government, in excess of their business wants. The Western banker has to pay an interest for the use of these bills, and thus he is compelled to charge the produce-buyer two interests: one for himself, and the other for the Eastern banker. While the commercial paper of the Western cities, for its purposes, its short dates, its places of payment at the East, and the security given by a bill of sale of the property that is sent forward, is made the best commercial paper of the country, it is charged with enormous discounts, ranging from eight to twelve per cent.-the like paper in the Eastern States would be discounted for five or six per cent. All of this, as well as the other costs of purchase and of transportation, is taken out of the pockets of the farmers of the West. The West complains of the want of currency: but it will be seen that the great difficulty is that the Government gave the share of currency due the West to a few of the Eastern States.

Foreseeing this wrong, Gov. Seymour did what he could to prevent the establishment of the system,

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and he refused to remain a director of a bank with which he had been connected nearly thirty years, when it was reorganized under the national banking law. And while he has at all times firmly upheld the public faith, he has never allowed himself to be the owner of a single Government bond, for the reason that they were issued under a financial system which he opposed from the outset, and which he denounced as unwise and dangerous, as it was dividing our Union into debtor and creditor States, and engendered sectional controversies which were perilous to the peace of our country. He has always carefully abstained from any investment under a policy vhich he could not approve. While Gov. Seymour never had an interest in Government bonds, and while his property consists of real estate, a large share of which lies in the West, he has ever been so firm an advocate of the National faith, that the public was led to suppose that he was interested in Government securities. This, as has been explained, is untrue; he has no other interest in them than that of a tax-payer, no anxiety about them save that which springs from his desire to maintain the honor of our Government, the interests of the laborer, and the welfare of all classes of society.

7*

CHAPTER XX.

GOV. SEYMOUR AND THE INTERESTS OF LABOR.

GOV. SEYMOUR has always shown an active interest in favor of the mechanical, industrial, and laboring classes. He did what he could in the town where he lived to cherish all kinds of industry, by the erection of buildings, and by aiding its various enterprises. He was one of the first members of the Mechanics' Association of the city of Utica, and tried to give interest to its fairs and its system of lectures. His sympathy with the wants and interests of our mechanics and laborers gave him his strength with that class, as well as with the mass of the farmers of the State.

It was his deep feeling in behalf of labor that prompted him, in the face of the most violent denunciation, to take his stand against the waste and corruption of the administration. He pointed out where, in the end, the whole weight of taxation would rest. Years ago, he warned the people of this country that the policy of hate, of military despotism, and of political meddling would come home to our citizens, and that they would find the costs in the tax-gatherer's bill. He analyzed the cost of living to those who work for the support of themselves or their families. He showed that six hours of toil

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would give a man more than he now gains by ten, if it was not for the taxation which, in its endless forms, direct and indirect, swells up the cost of all he buys. He clearly proved that one hour of toil ought to pay a laborer's share of the cost of good government—that another hour was his full share toward the payment of the national debt-that the time which he was forced to labor, beyond eight hours, measured the waste and corruptions of government. He told of the swarms of idle and useless officials who are clothed and fed by his exertions. He pointed out the mockery of declaring that eight hours made a legal day's labor, if, at the same time, Congress piled up a load of taxation that forced him to work ten hours or starve; that this whole question of the labor movement resolved itself into a question of taxation; that to-day the tax-gatherer was the taskmaster; that men should see that if, beyond feeding and clothing themselves and their families, they had to feed and clothe great armies of armed men, and still greater and more voracious armies of hungry officials, that the laborer must toil on, for these armies must be fed and clothed before himself or his family. The cost of this would be found flour, meat, tea, sugar which he consumed, and of the clothing which he wore.

in the price of the

CHAPTER XXI.

THE ELECTION OF 1864.

MR. SEYMOUR was averse to be nominated for the office of Governor in 1864. He only yielded a partial assent to this act when it was urged that his refusal to run might be looked upon as showing a lack of confidence in the strength of General McClellan as a candidate. He had not favored the general at the Chicago convention, although he held him in the highest regard. Their relationships were of the most confidential and friendly character, but he thought the day had not come when the general's conduct and claims would be fairly considered, and that he ought not to be damaged by a premature trial. For these reasons he was embarrassed in making a direct refusal of a nomination which was unanimously tendered to him. Being thus placed upon the ticket, he was forced to make great sacrifices of time and exertions in a way not only injurious to his health and comfort, but in one that imperiled his liberty. He went forth in the face of the fact that his agents were locked up in prison; that he was threatened with arrest, and that an army was sent to keep by terror the voters from the polls of the city of New York. The fact that this armed force was commanded by General Butler was deemed