Brief, Insightful Look at William Seward’s Efforts to Avoid Civil War

C. Evan Stewart’s study of Seward’s actions during the Secession Winter gives the Civil War secretary of state his due.

New York Senator William Seward, who was the prominent politician most favored to secure the nomination at the Republican Convention of 1860. Public Domain

The results of the 1860 Republican Convention in Chicago were certainly a shock. The smart money would have been on William Henry Seward, the senator from New York and not on Abraham Lincoln, the loser of the 1858 Illinois Senate race. But after just three ballots, Lincoln had overtaken Seward to become the Republican Party’s choice.

“The fact of the Convention was the defeat of Seward rather than the nomination of Lincoln,” wrote Murat Halstead, a Cincinnati newspaper reporter.