CHAPTER XXVII.

HORATIO SEYMOUR AS A MAN, AN ORATOR, AND A STATESMAN.

GOVERNOR SEYMOUR's bitterest enemy has never dared to impugn his private character. In that respect he is unassailable. He never wronged a human being in person or purse. With ample private means and simple tastes, he has had none of the ordinary temptations to increase his possessions by questionable means. Among his neighbors, his word has always been as good as his bond. legislative and executive career, he charged with giving a corrupt vote in measure which would inure to his advantage.

During his was never helping any own private

His habits also are above reproach. He rarely takes wine and seldom smokes; when he does, it is generally out of compliment to his host or guests or because he does not wish to appear singular in the circle in which he moves. Nor does he use profane language. A cultured Christian gentleman, he is ever conscious of the impropriety (to use no stronger term) of those irreverent expletives, which form so large a part of the ordinary language of American men, when away from the presence of the other sex. Yet there is nothing puritanical about Horatio Seymour. He is tolerant, kindly and genial in his

deportment toward all with whom he is associated. Strict in his judgment of his own habits and language, he does not permit himself to criticise or condemn his fellow-men. Accustomed in his long political career to mix with all kinds of people, he has found a large charity in this regard to be as convenient as it is necessary and wise.

As a popular speaker, Governor Seymour has long been without a superior in his own State. Graceful, fluent, profound, powerful, yet always conciliatory, concise, instructive, and just, he never fails to interest and impress an audience. In this respect an English traveler of uncommon intelligence, years ago, said of him that he approached the type of the best class of English statesmen more nearly than did any other man he met in America. Professor Wilson, of Hobart College, himself a Republican, in a recent address before the upper class-men of his college, referred to Governor Seymour as the best living example of a popular orator, partaking in his style of the logic of Webster, the analysis of Calhoun, the grace of Clay, and the fluency of Choate.

He is peculiarly an extemporaneous speaker. In oratory more than in any other thing, has nature endowed him royally. He is the happiest when called out unexpectedly. He often writes or dictates his speeches but never memorizes them, and rarely follows his manuscript closely. The thought and the course of argument are retained, but it is noticeable that his language is better, if possible, in his impromptu speech than in the written draft of it. The inspiration of the audience and the scene make his

words more graceful and effective, more fluent and energetic. The electrical bursts of eloquence which have given him fame, have been those which were evoked by the inspiration of the moment. The presence of an audience, the inspiriting effect of the scene and the occasion, rouse all his faculties and exhibit his most admirable and commanding capacities.

Take him "for all in all," he is one of the few men in the country fitted by deportment and training to be President of the United States. Trained to public life, thoroughly conversant with all public questions, wise in council, willing to take responsibility, discreet in action, ready of speech, affable, of kindly temper, he would dignify and adorn the highest office in the gift of the people.

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CHAPTER XXVIII.

LOOKING AHEAD-RESULT OF THE ELECTION.

THE nomination of Horatio Seymour for President, and of Francis P. Blair, Jr., for Vice-President, necessitates a change in the calculations of those who, previous to these nominations, were rash enough to count as sure the election of Grant and Colfax. If popular enthusiasm form an element in the forecasting of the result of an election-and who will affirm that it does not?--the problem before us is easy of solution. High as General Grant had stood in public esteem, his nomination as the candidate of the republican party for the Presidency met with no popular response. On the contrary, so soon as it was known that the democratic party had nominated Horatio Seymour as its standard-bearer in the present campaign, the whole party heartily approved its action, and its adherents were unusually demonstrative.

But expressions of popular enthusiasm may be deceptive. What is needed is not cheers but votes. The main question, then, is whether the requisite number of votes can be obtained to elect Horatio Seymour, President, and Francis P. Blair, Jr., VicePresident, of the United States? To answer this question intelligently, it is necessary to examine cer

tain political statistics. It is proposed first to review the vote cast by each State for Mr. Lincoln, in 1864; the vote of each State at its last general election; and then to compare the two, from which comparison alone, it is possible to forecast intelligently the result of the Presidential campaign of the present year. It will also be necessary to examine the votes of the Southern States since the close of the war, though an examination of this character must, perforce, be far less satisfactory than one could desire. That each step may be clear as the reader proceeds, it is proposed to consider each State by itself, and then recapitulate in tabular form, all that has been ascertained in the investigation; by each State, in this connection, is meant each State that took part in the Presidential election of 1864.

Naturally, we begin with Maine, and in all these observations upon particular States our aim will be to be as brief as possible, lest the reader be taxed with wearisome details. "As goes Maine, so goes the Union," ran the proverb in the days when it was a democratic State, simply because at that time it was the first of all the States, in which the issue was doubtful, to hold its election for State officers prior to the Presidential election. It gave a majority of 21,122 for Mr. Lincoln, in 1864, but in 1867 elected the republican candidate for Governor by a majority of only 11,818.

New Hampshire's majority for Mr. Lincoln, in 1864, was 3,529, but last spring it re-elected its republican Governor by a bare majority of 2,493.

Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, of