distrust of the conservative, he would appear to retract and try
to smother the flames in a cloud of conciliatory smoke. Only the
restraining hand of Lincoln prevented him from committing fatal
blunders at the outset of the Civil War, yet his handling of the
threatening episode of the French in Mexico showed a wisdom, a
patient tact, and a subtle ingenuity which make his conduct of
the affair a classic illustration of diplomacy at almost its
best.*

* See "Abraham Lincoln and the Union" and "The Hispanic Nations
of the New World" (in "The Chronicles of America").


In 1861 Seward said that he saw Russia and Great Britain building
on the Arctic Ocean outposts on territory which should belong to
his own country, and that he expected the capital of the great
federal republic of the future would be in the valley of Mexico.
Yet he nevertheless retained the sentiment he had expressed in
1846: "I would not give one human life for all the continent that
remains to be annexed." The Civil War prevented for four years
any action regarding expansion, and the same conspiracy which
resulted in the assassination of Lincoln brought Seward to the
verge of the grave. He recovered rapidly, however, and while on a
recuperating trip through the West Indies he worked for the
peaceable annexation of the Danish Islands and Santo Domingo. His
friend, Charles Sumner, the chairman of the Senate Committee on
Foreign Affairs, was framing his remarkable project for the
annexation of Canada. President Johnson and, later, President
Grant endorsed parts of these plans. Denmark and Santo Domingo
were willing to acquiesce for money, and Sumner believed,