William Seward was a politician who served as Governor of New York, US Senator, and Secretary of State under Presidents Lincoln and Johnson. He was an opponent of slavery, supported education and prison reform, and was nearly assassinated the same night as Lincoln.
William Seward was a 19th-century American politician. He served as Governor of New York and United States Senator, as well as Secretary of State under both President Abraham Lincoln and his successor, President Andrew Johnson. His part in the purchase of the state of Alaska from Russia was one of the most famous purchases in American history, and was later known as “Seward’s Folly” because the public believed the land was worth nothing to the United States. Seward was nearly assassinated the same night Lincoln was assassinated, but he lived through the ordeal and continued his job as Secretary of State.
As governor of New York, William Seward was an outspoken opponent of slavery in the United States. He and his wife were known for providing help to fugitive slaves, and his experiences as a boy largely dictated his feelings about slavery, since his parents were slave owners. Other causes Seward supported as governor included education and prison reform; he was in favor of providing aid to schools to improve the quality of education and was an advocate of overhauling the penal system to make it more humane.
Seward was eventually elected to the United States Senate, where he continued his anti-slavery stance first as a member of the Whig Party and then in the Republican Party. He had ambitions to run for president, and his opportunity came in the late 1850s. The outspokenness for which William Seward had become famous was both a blessing and a curse to the man, and in preparation for his run for the White House, Seward decided to take a trip overseas to allow tensions to ease in his absence. While he was away, Abraham Lincoln, a much lesser known candidate, mounted a strong campaign, winning the Republican nomination and eventually the presidency.
Seward supported Lincoln throughout the campaign and when Lincoln won, William Seward was selected as Secretary of State. He and Lincoln shared common views on slavery, and while they felt slavery should be abolished, they both felt it should be done through politics rather than war. When war finally broke out, Seward worked closely with Lincoln to save the Union. As the war drew to a close in 1865, President Lincoln was assassinated; that same night, Seward’s life was nearly taken by an assassin, but Seward survived and continued to work under the new president, Andrew Johnson.
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