it is equally incomprehensible how Seward could fail to see that this
demand of an unconditional surrender was a mortal insult to the head of
the government, and that by putting his proposition on paper he delivered
himself into the hands of the very man he had insulted; for, had Lincoln,
as most Presidents would have done, instantly dismissed Seward, and
published the true reason for that dismissal, it would inevitably have
been the end of Seward's career. But Lincoln did what not many of the
noblest and greatest men in history would have been noble and great
enough to do. He considered that Seward was still capable of rendering
great service to his country in the place in which he was, if rightly
controlled. He ignored the insult, but firmly established his
superiority. In his reply, which he forthwith despatched, he told Seward
that the administration had a domestic policy as laid down in the
inaugural address with Seward's approval; that it had a foreign policy as
traced in Seward's despatches with the President's approval; that if any
policy was to be maintained or changed, he, the President, was to direct
that on his responsibility; and that in performing that duty the
President had a right to the advice of his secretaries. Seward's
fantastic schemes of foreign war and continental policies Lincoln brushed
aside by passing them over in silence. Nothing more was said. Seward
must have felt that he was at the mercy of a superior man; that his
offensive proposition had been generously pardoned as a temporary
aberration of a great mind, and that he could atone for it only by
devoted personal loyalty. This he did. He was thoroughly subdued, and
thenceforth submitted to Lincoln his despatches for revision and
amendment without a murmur. The war with European nations was no longer
thought of; the slavery question found in due time its proper place in
the struggle for the Union; and when, at a later period, the dismissal of
Seward was demanded by dissatisfied senators, who attributed to him the
shortcomings of the administration, Lincoln stood stoutly by his faithful