CHAPTER II.

SOCIAL, LITERARY, AND FARM LIFE.

NOTWITHSTANDING Governor Seymour's opportunities and acquirements as a politician, he has never been a mere party man. His statesmanship has been on a more elevated plane, and he has only appeared in public when the public voice called him -when the public good required his services-and when duty left him no alternative but to yield. In the pursuit of polite and classic literature-in the cultivation of the higher arts—in the quiet discharge of social duties-in devising ways for the promotion of agriculture, of popular education, and of sound morality—he has always taken the greatest delight.

His zeal as a sportsman, in the true sense of that term, has always been keen and appreciative. The great North Woods of Northern New York have been to him a familiar and pleasant retreat; its lakes, its rivers, and its almost impenetrable forest-recesses, are to him as familiar as the school-room-they have been the school-room of his maturer years; but they have not been the limit of his wanderings. He has roamed yearly over the prairies of the far West, penetrated the wilds of the upper and lower Mississippi, and is almost as familiarly known to the hardy inhabitants of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska as to the citizens of his own New York.

Much of his time has been devoted to agriculture, and his large and beautiful home-farm on the northern bank of the Mohawk, opposite the city of Utica, has been the scene of many useful and practical experiments, which in his various addresses before different agricultural societies, State and county, have been given to the world. He is President of the American Dairymen's Association, and has done much to direct the attention of the farmers of the South and West to this branch of domestic industry. No less ardent has been his devotion to the educational interests of his State. He has long been an active trustee of Hamilton College, and his address upon the induction of President Fisher, and on various other occasions, and particularly his remarks at Albany before the Regents of the University, upon the educational system of the State, show a familiarity with the subject, and an enthusiasm in the cause, that commend their author to the consideration and confidence of the friends of popular education throughout the land. In this connection the attention of the reader is called to his eloquent address before the Mercantile Library Association of the city of New York, and his no less eloquent lecture before the New York Geological and Statistical Society, upon the history and topography of his native State. Both are remarkable productions, and should be studied by every one who would acquire an intimate knowledge of the history and characteristics of the Empire State, or would nourish and cherish a proper pride of country. On reading the latter, Governor

HIS PARTY AND ECCLESIASTICAL RELATIONS. 17

Marcy, then Secretary of State of the United States, addressed its author the following note:

WASHINGTON, April 13.

MY DEAR GOVERNOR-I have received your lecture on the topography and history of New York, and read it with more pleasure than I can well express. You have given us a charming and beautiful sketch. I could not, on reading it, help reproaching myself for being so ignorant of the many interesting facts which you have brought out. We have I find, many claims upon the consideration of our sister States which were unknown to me. The manner and the matter are alike deserving of high commendation. I owe you thanks for the pleasure the perusal of the lecture has given me.

Yours truly,

W. L. MARCY.

As has been stated, Governor Seymour was educated a Democrat and an Episcopalian, and to his party and his church he has ever adhered with unwavering fidelity; though the most tolerant of men, quietly, yet firmly maintaining and defending his own views, he is never impatient of opposition, nor unjust to others. Recognizing the great good there is in varied organizations, he would co-operate with each wherever the interests of his country or of humanity demand such co-operation, trusting to the Master of the harvest in His own good time, to gather in the wheat and to destroy the tares. There is not a denomination which has not been aided by his liberality in the erection of houses for public worship. He has been for years a leading vestryman of Trinity Church, Utica, and generally a delegate to the annual diocesan convention, and a delegate from Western New York in the national or triennial convention of the Church of the United

States. The late Bishop De Lancy always recognized Governor Seymour and the late Governor Hunt as his right-hand and chief supporters. Shortly before his death, Bishop De Lancy visited Governor Seymour at Albany, and spent several days in his family.

Before leaving this interesting portion of his career, to enter upon the more tumultuous scenes of his political life, it may be well to draw a rapid sketch of his home as it appeared at the time of his nomination. About three years ago he built upon the range, known as the Deerfield Hills, which rise gently on the north of the Mohawk Valley, and about three miles from Utica, his present home. It is a modest frame house, standing on the highest point of the farm of three hundred acres, which stretches down to the river. Approaching it from the lane which leads off the main road, it is almost hidden from view by an enormous black cherry tree of native growth. Once fairly on the rise, it is found to be a plain story and a half cottage, one of those unpretentious but roomy affairs, that stretch away from a façade of porch that seems to spring from the grass and flowers into spacious rooms without any intermediate halls or vestibules.

Standing on this porch and looking down the long slope to the river, the whole of the farm, with the exception of a grove at the north of the house, lies mapped out in pleasant alternations of hillock and meadow, field and forest-trees, with the valley beyond, and the white houses of Utica showing through the elms in the background. A fine pear orchard,

planted by the proprietor himself, is one of its features, and the clean cut hedge of English hawthorne running by the road-side, is an indication of careful and thrifty husbandry. He is said to take especial delight in the development of this estate, adding constantly the best stock, and supplying it with needed implements of improved design.

The indications of character which one will look for are uniformly simple. The spruce-tree at the side of the house, curiously bifurcated near its root and forming a rude chair, is unadorned by grotesque contortions of limbs, but is the governor's favorite seat. So with the house. There is nothing extrinsic or purely ornamental about it. This peculiarity, so conspicuous among the staid old settlers of Utica, seems to have been cherished particularly in this home. Immediately at the side of the front door, and projecting across the porch, is the well preserved and mounted head of an enormous moose- -a trophy of the proprietor's skill some twelve years ago in the Adirondacks. Entering the parlor, odorous with the balmy breath of flowers that throughout the season are placed upon the little side-table, and the pleasant taint of the India matting upon the floors, one sees at a glance that all is of the old school. Although of very recent construction, the house is not conformed to recent follies. Its air is that of a manorhouse, staid and venerable, but suggestive of comfort withal. There is a spacious fireplace of the olden time, begirt with a brass-headed dogs and glistening fender, and set in veritable Dutch tiles, sacred to the memory of some old inheritance in Albany, and a