WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.319 Welcome back to The Deep Dive. We are back with 00:00:03.319 --> 00:00:06.900 a fresh stack of notes and biographies and historical 00:00:06.900 --> 00:00:09.980 accounts. And today we are tackling a figure 00:00:09.980 --> 00:00:13.380 who is technically famous, but I think for most 00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:17.199 of us he's famous in a very trivial sort of jeopardy 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:19.559 question kind of way. That is a very fair way 00:00:19.559 --> 00:00:21.420 to put it actually. Yeah. I mean, we know the 00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:23.219 name, but we don't really know the man. Right. 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:26.140 We are talking about William H. Seward. And if 00:00:26.140 --> 00:00:28.399 I'm being completely honest here before I read 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:31.140 through this source material, I had maybe two 00:00:31.140 --> 00:00:34.060 facts in my head about him. One, he's the Seward's 00:00:34.060 --> 00:00:36.299 Folly guy who bought Alaska when everyone else 00:00:36.299 --> 00:00:38.579 thought it was just this frozen wasteland. And 00:00:38.579 --> 00:00:40.799 two, he was Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State. 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:42.799 Which, you know, usually just conjures up an 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:44.979 image of a guy standing stiffly in the background 00:00:44.979 --> 00:00:47.399 of some black and white photo while Lincoln does 00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:49.859 all the heavy lifting. Exactly. But the sources 00:00:49.859 --> 00:00:52.299 we have today, they paint a wildly different 00:00:52.299 --> 00:00:54.619 picture. It wasn't just a background character. 00:00:55.140 --> 00:00:58.320 Our mission today is to uncover the man who some 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:00.799 historians argue was actually the indispensable 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:03.359 man of the Civil War era. Indispensable is a 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:05.739 strong word, but it really fits here. Yeah, he 00:01:05.739 --> 00:01:09.239 was a radical antislavery advocate way before 00:01:09.239 --> 00:01:12.200 it was popular or safe to be one. He was the 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:15.260 target of a brutal assassination plot on the 00:01:15.260 --> 00:01:18.599 exact same night Lincoln was killed. And this 00:01:18.599 --> 00:01:21.000 is the part that really surprised me. He essentially 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:23.060 designed the blueprint for the United States 00:01:23.060 --> 00:01:26.239 to become a global superpower. It's just a massive 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:28.879 legacy. If you look at the sheer breadth of his 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:31.819 political career from the 1830s straight through 00:01:31.819 --> 00:01:35.159 the Reconstruction era, Seward is arguably the 00:01:35.159 --> 00:01:38.079 most significant American politician of the 19th 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:40.280 century who never actually became president. 00:01:40.340 --> 00:01:41.739 And that right there is the hook that really 00:01:41.739 --> 00:01:43.980 got me. Because, you know, we tend to look back 00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:46.060 at history and think Abraham Lincoln was just 00:01:46.060 --> 00:01:48.299 inevitable, like he was destiny's child. But 00:01:48.299 --> 00:01:50.900 going into 1860, William Seward wasn't just a 00:01:50.900 --> 00:01:53.280 candidate. He was the heavy favorite. Oh, he 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:55.099 was the titan of the party. Yeah. Lincoln was 00:01:55.099 --> 00:01:57.299 an afterthought. So our goal with this deep dive 00:01:57.299 --> 00:02:00.120 is to figure out how this man, who is essentially 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:02.980 supposed to be king, ended up working for the, 00:02:02.980 --> 00:02:05.719 quote, little Illinois lawyer, unquote, and how 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:07.920 they form this incredibly effective political 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:10.319 partnership. It's a fascinating dynamic. So let's 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:14.360 start with that 1860 like. Why was Seward seen 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:16.520 as such a lock for the Republican nomination? 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:20.139 Well, you have to look at the resume. By 1860, 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:22.400 Seward is the most prominent Republican in the 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:24.780 country bar none. He had been the governor of 00:02:24.780 --> 00:02:27.039 New York for two terms. He had been a U .S. senator 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:29.860 for over a decade. He was the intellectual leader 00:02:29.860 --> 00:02:32.580 of the anti -slavery movement. And Lincoln? Lincoln 00:02:32.580 --> 00:02:35.180 was a one -term congressman from a decade prior 00:02:35.180 --> 00:02:37.580 who had famously just lost two Senate races. 00:02:38.020 --> 00:02:40.360 He was a fantastic orator, sure, but in terms 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:42.819 of actual governance, he was nobody compared 00:02:42.819 --> 00:02:45.159 to Seward. Wow. I mean, Seward was so confident 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:47.000 he didn't even go to the convention in Chicago. 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:49.620 He stayed home in Auburn, New York, literally 00:02:49.620 --> 00:02:51.759 waiting for the cannon on his lawn to be fired 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:54.409 to announce his victory. That is a level of confidence 00:02:54.409 --> 00:02:57.509 that usually precedes a disaster. Yeah, it really 00:02:57.509 --> 00:03:00.169 does. So if he was the smart bet, why did he 00:03:00.169 --> 00:03:02.449 end up losing? It really comes down to the old 00:03:02.449 --> 00:03:05.129 political adage that a long record is just a 00:03:05.129 --> 00:03:07.289 long list of things for people to get angry about. 00:03:07.770 --> 00:03:09.669 Yeah. Seward had been in the trenches for decades, 00:03:10.050 --> 00:03:12.530 and he had managed to make three very specific 00:03:12.530 --> 00:03:15.550 groups of people very nervous. OK, who were the 00:03:15.550 --> 00:03:18.270 groups? First, you had the moderates. Seward 00:03:18.270 --> 00:03:21.490 had a reputation as a radical. A dangerous radical, 00:03:21.509 --> 00:03:24.889 actually. He had given these fiery speeches where 00:03:24.889 --> 00:03:27.389 he used phrases that terrified the political 00:03:27.389 --> 00:03:30.490 center. Oh, I saw the phrase higher law pop up 00:03:30.490 --> 00:03:32.409 a lot in our notes. What exactly did that mean 00:03:32.409 --> 00:03:35.229 in this context? So this was back in 1850. He 00:03:35.229 --> 00:03:37.810 was arguing against the spread of slavery into 00:03:37.810 --> 00:03:40.949 new territories. And he basically said that while 00:03:40.949 --> 00:03:44.030 the Constitution might allow slavery, there is 00:03:44.030 --> 00:03:47.599 a higher law. meaning God's law or moral law 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:50.400 that condemns it. See, to modern ears, that sounds 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:53.199 like a very noble moral stance. It is to us. 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:57.120 But in 1850, it sounded like treason to a southerner 00:03:57.120 --> 00:03:59.810 or even a conservative northerner. He was essentially 00:03:59.810 --> 00:04:02.129 saying that his personal morality trumped the 00:04:02.129 --> 00:04:04.990 Constitution. Ah, I see. It implied that if he 00:04:04.990 --> 00:04:06.750 were ever president, he wouldn't respect the 00:04:06.750 --> 00:04:09.550 legal compromises that were barely holding the 00:04:09.550 --> 00:04:11.389 country together at that point. It made him sound 00:04:11.389 --> 00:04:13.370 like an anarchist to the establishment. OK, so 00:04:13.370 --> 00:04:15.050 the moderates are terrified he's going to tear 00:04:15.050 --> 00:04:17.230 up the Constitution. Who else? The nativists. 00:04:18.329 --> 00:04:20.310 And this is a crucial piece of the puzzle that 00:04:20.310 --> 00:04:23.560 often gets overlooked in history class. In 1860, 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.860 there was a very powerful political faction called 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:28.540 the Know -Nothings. They were intensely anti 00:04:28.540 --> 00:04:31.040 -immigrant and intensely anti -Catholic. And 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:33.160 Seward was on the wrong side of them. He was 00:04:33.160 --> 00:04:34.959 on the right side of history, but definitely 00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:37.399 the wrong side of that electorate. Back when 00:04:37.399 --> 00:04:39.740 he was governor of New York in the late 1830s 00:04:39.740 --> 00:04:42.360 and early 40s, he did something almost unheard 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:45.509 of. He pushed for public school funding for immigrants, 00:04:46.129 --> 00:04:48.709 specifically Catholic immigrants. Really? Yeah, 00:04:48.750 --> 00:04:50.709 he believed that if you educated the children 00:04:50.709 --> 00:04:52.850 of immigrants, they would just become better 00:04:52.850 --> 00:04:56.089 citizens. He famously called America the asylum 00:04:56.089 --> 00:04:59.149 of the oppressed of every nation, which angered 00:04:59.149 --> 00:05:01.149 the nativists, but made him a hero to Catholic 00:05:01.149 --> 00:05:03.370 communities. That sounds incredibly progressive 00:05:03.370 --> 00:05:06.389 for that era. It was, but the Know -Nothings 00:05:06.389 --> 00:05:09.620 absolutely hated him for it. And here is the 00:05:09.620 --> 00:05:11.600 political math the Republicans needed to win 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:14.420 Pennsylvania and Indiana to win the White House. 00:05:14.740 --> 00:05:17.300 Those states had huge natives populations. The 00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:19.339 party bosses realized that if they ran Seward, 00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:21.540 the nativists would revolt and they'd lose the 00:05:21.540 --> 00:05:23.839 general election. So Lincoln was just safer. 00:05:24.139 --> 00:05:26.779 Exactly. Lincoln had almost no record on immigration. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:30.060 He was a blank slate. So Seward was too moral 00:05:30.060 --> 00:05:32.819 on slavery for the moderates and too supportive 00:05:32.819 --> 00:05:35.199 of immigrants for the nativists. Right. And finally, 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:37.160 he had the heavy baggage of his best friend, 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:40.279 Thurlow Weed. Thurlow Weed is an incredible name, 00:05:40.459 --> 00:05:42.519 by the way. Sounds like a Batman villain. He 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:45.199 certainly acted like one sometimes. Weed was 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:48.639 a notorious political boss. He essentially ran 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:50.759 the New York machine. He was the guy in the smoke 00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:53.620 -filled room handing out patronage jobs and making 00:05:53.620 --> 00:05:57.240 the shady deals. So guilt by association? Precisely. 00:05:57.660 --> 00:05:59.420 Seward was the high -minded philosopher, but 00:05:59.420 --> 00:06:01.980 Weed was the muscle. It made Seward look corrupt 00:06:01.980 --> 00:06:04.120 just by being tied to him. Lincoln didn't have 00:06:04.120 --> 00:06:06.639 a Thurlow Weed. He looked... fresh and honest, 00:06:06.779 --> 00:06:09.060 you know, honest Abe. So the convention happens, 00:06:09.220 --> 00:06:12.019 the drama unfolds. Seward actually leads on the 00:06:12.019 --> 00:06:14.699 first ballot, right? He does. But he just can't 00:06:14.699 --> 00:06:17.439 clinch the majority. By the third ballot, Lincoln 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:20.000 overtakes him. The cannon on Seward's lawn never 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:22.540 fires. How did he take that? I mean, to be so 00:06:22.540 --> 00:06:25.120 sure and then lose to a guy you consider an amateur? 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:28.939 He was utterly devastated. He felt, and he actually 00:06:28.939 --> 00:06:31.620 wrote this in letters, that he had been justly 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:34.360 entitled to the nomination. He believed he was 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:36.439 the one who built the party, and now they were 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:39.120 handing the prize to this inexperienced Prairie 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:41.680 lawyer. I feel like most politicians in that 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:45.000 situation would sulk or maybe actively sabotage 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.420 the nominee. Many expected him to do exactly 00:06:47.420 --> 00:06:50.500 that. But this is where you really see the character 00:06:50.500 --> 00:06:53.399 of the man. After the initial shock wore off, 00:06:53.699 --> 00:06:56.779 he pivoted. He realized the cause saving the 00:06:56.779 --> 00:06:58.920 Union and stopping the spread of slavery was 00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:01.180 simply bigger than his own ego. So he supported 00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:03.660 Lincoln. More than supported. He famously went 00:07:03.660 --> 00:07:06.860 on a massive speaking tour. He arguably campaigned 00:07:06.860 --> 00:07:08.720 harder for Lincoln than Lincoln campaigned for 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:11.439 himself. But he still didn't really respect Lincoln 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:13.519 intellectually, did he? No, not at all. When 00:07:13.519 --> 00:07:15.980 Lincoln wins and asks Seward to be Secretary 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:19.519 of State, Seward accepts But he has this very 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:22.060 specific idea in his head. He thinks, okay, Lincoln 00:07:22.060 --> 00:07:24.600 is a figurehead. I will be the premier. I'll 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:26.500 be the one actually running the country. I love 00:07:26.500 --> 00:07:28.819 the arrogance there. Like, I'll let you sit in 00:07:28.819 --> 00:07:30.779 the big chair, Abe, but I'm driving the bus. 00:07:31.060 --> 00:07:33.060 It culminated in one of the most astonishing 00:07:33.060 --> 00:07:37.259 documents in American history. April 1st, 1861. 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:41.180 The so -called April Fool's Day memo. What was 00:07:41.180 --> 00:07:44.870 it? The war is about to start. The South is seceding. 00:07:45.129 --> 00:07:47.149 Seward sends a formal letter to Lincoln saying 00:07:47.149 --> 00:07:49.889 basically we have no policy. We are drifting. 00:07:50.329 --> 00:07:52.610 Someone needs to take charge. If it isn't you, 00:07:52.610 --> 00:07:54.750 it must be me. He actually put that in writing 00:07:54.750 --> 00:07:57.009 to the president. He did. And he even had this 00:07:57.009 --> 00:07:59.529 wild idea to reunite the country by purposely 00:07:59.529 --> 00:08:02.449 starting a war with France or Spain. He thought 00:08:02.449 --> 00:08:04.689 a foreign war would force the South to come back 00:08:04.689 --> 00:08:07.430 to the flag. That is just unhinged. Start a global 00:08:07.430 --> 00:08:10.129 conflict 50 years early just to distract the 00:08:10.129 --> 00:08:12.540 Confederacy. It was desperate. But look at how 00:08:12.540 --> 00:08:15.100 Lincoln handled it. He didn't fire Seward. He 00:08:15.100 --> 00:08:16.980 didn't leak the letter to the press to humiliate 00:08:16.980 --> 00:08:18.759 him, which he easily could have done. He wrote 00:08:18.759 --> 00:08:20.759 back a private note saying, essentially, if this 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:23.000 must be done, I must do it. Setting the boundaries. 00:08:23.220 --> 00:08:25.759 Exactly. He asserted his authority with total 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:28.240 grace and kept Seward in the fold. And somehow 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:30.180 from that massive moment of tension, they became, 00:08:30.620 --> 00:08:32.740 well, best friends is maybe a stretch, but they're 00:08:32.740 --> 00:08:35.220 incredibly close. Actually, best friends is pretty 00:08:35.220 --> 00:08:37.759 accurate for the Washington context. They spent 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:40.259 countless evenings together just chatting by 00:08:40.259 --> 00:08:43.759 the fire. Lincoln loved Seward's company. You 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:46.019 have to remember, Lincoln was under crushing 00:08:46.019 --> 00:08:49.299 weight. Seward was worldly, he was funny, he 00:08:49.299 --> 00:08:51.879 liked to drink, he had a million stories. There's 00:08:51.879 --> 00:08:53.539 that anecdote in the sources about the boots. 00:08:53.779 --> 00:08:56.139 Oh yeah, Lincoln walks in on Seward polishing 00:08:56.139 --> 00:08:58.799 his own boots. Seward says, in Washington we 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:01.460 don't blacken our own boots. And Lincoln deadpans, 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:03.480 well whose boots do you blacken? That's great. 00:09:03.659 --> 00:09:06.240 It really shows their comfort level. And I was 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:08.539 reading about their collaboration on the Emancipation 00:09:08.539 --> 00:09:10.960 Proclamation. I always assumed that was a solo 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:14.000 Lincoln project. But the notes emphasize that 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:16.879 Seward played a huge role in the timing. Absolutely 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:19.879 crucial role. Lincoln wanted to issue the proclamation 00:09:19.879 --> 00:09:23.379 in the summer of 1862. But the Union Army was 00:09:23.379 --> 00:09:26.039 losing battles left and right. Seward stepped 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:28.620 in and warned him, Mr. President, if you issue 00:09:28.620 --> 00:09:31.039 this now, when we are getting beaten, it will 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:33.159 look like the last shriek of a retreating army. 00:09:33.220 --> 00:09:35.179 It will look like an act of desperation. So he 00:09:35.179 --> 00:09:38.240 told them to wait for a win. Yes. He told Lincoln 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:40.200 to wait until they won a major battle. So it 00:09:40.200 --> 00:09:42.419 came from a position of strength. They waited 00:09:42.419 --> 00:09:45.960 for Antietam. That advice probably saved the 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:47.860 proclamation from being dismissed internationally 00:09:47.860 --> 00:09:50.559 as a joke. Let's talk about his actual day job 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:53.259 though, Secretary of State. The expert analysis 00:09:53.259 --> 00:09:54.860 in our materials suggests that while Lincoln 00:09:54.860 --> 00:09:57.940 was busy managing the generals, Seward was managing 00:09:57.940 --> 00:10:00.820 the entire world. The biggest nightmare scenario 00:10:00.820 --> 00:10:03.720 for the Union was that Britain or France would 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:06.419 formally recognize the Confederacy as a real 00:10:06.419 --> 00:10:09.559 country and intervene. If the Royal Navy showed 00:10:09.559 --> 00:10:12.340 up to break the Union blockade, the war was over. 00:10:12.679 --> 00:10:16.159 The North loses. Seward's entire job was to prevent 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:18.500 that from happening. And it almost went completely 00:10:18.500 --> 00:10:20.679 off the rails with the Trent affair. I see this 00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:22.559 reference constantly in Civil War history, but 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:25.340 what actually happened there? It's late 1861. 00:10:25.940 --> 00:10:28.419 A Union warship intercepts a British mail ship 00:10:28.419 --> 00:10:31.019 called the Trent. They board it, and they arrest 00:10:31.019 --> 00:10:33.059 two Confederate diplomats who are on their way 00:10:33.059 --> 00:10:35.559 to London to ask for military help. OK, so the 00:10:35.559 --> 00:10:37.600 Union caught the bad guys. Sounds like a win. 00:10:37.899 --> 00:10:39.779 The North loved it. They had parades, fireworks, 00:10:39.860 --> 00:10:42.980 the whole thing. But the British, they went completely 00:10:42.980 --> 00:10:45.580 ballistic. You can't just board a neutral Royal 00:10:45.580 --> 00:10:48.460 Mail ship and kidnap people. It's a massive violation 00:10:48.460 --> 00:10:50.879 of international law. Right. Britain immediately 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:53.440 started sending thousands of troops to Canada. 00:10:53.820 --> 00:10:56.799 They were ready to burn down New York. So Seward 00:10:56.799 --> 00:10:59.559 is stuck between a rock and a hard place. If 00:10:59.559 --> 00:11:01.840 he hands the prisoners back, the northern public 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:04.700 rips them apart. If he keeps them, Britain declares 00:11:04.700 --> 00:11:07.379 war and the Union is doomed. This is where he 00:11:07.379 --> 00:11:10.840 showed his absolute diplomatic genius. He wrote 00:11:10.840 --> 00:11:12.580 a masterful letter to the British government. 00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:15.200 He essentially said, we are returning the prisoners, 00:11:15.580 --> 00:11:17.639 but not because we were wrong to stop the ship. 00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:19.720 We are returning them because our sea captain 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:22.559 didn't follow the proper legal procedure of bringing 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:25.929 the ship into port for adjudication. He won on 00:11:25.929 --> 00:11:28.710 a technicality? He spun it brilliantly. He told 00:11:28.710 --> 00:11:31.210 the northern public we won because Britain finally 00:11:31.210 --> 00:11:33.909 acknowledged our maritime rights. And he told 00:11:33.909 --> 00:11:37.629 the British, hear your men, sorry about the procedural 00:11:37.629 --> 00:11:40.750 mix up. He allowed everyone to save face and 00:11:40.750 --> 00:11:44.070 a disastrous war was averted. That is some high 00:11:44.070 --> 00:11:46.779 level political maneuvering. But our sources 00:11:46.779 --> 00:11:48.740 point out there is a darker side to his tenure, 00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:50.779 too. There's a lot of talk about a little bell. 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:53.960 Yes. This is the part of Seward that makes modern 00:11:53.960 --> 00:11:56.940 civil libertarians cringe. Early in the war, 00:11:57.000 --> 00:11:58.919 before the military fully took over domestic 00:11:58.919 --> 00:12:02.000 security, Seward was actually in charge of arresting 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.120 suspected Southern sympathizers in the North. 00:12:04.139 --> 00:12:07.190 Without trial. without trial without habeas corpus 00:12:07.190 --> 00:12:10.529 there's a famous quote and the authenticity is 00:12:10.529 --> 00:12:12.629 debated by historians but it perfectly captures 00:12:12.629 --> 00:12:15.309 the power he held where he supposedly tells the 00:12:15.309 --> 00:12:18.129 british ambassador i can touch a bell on my right 00:12:18.129 --> 00:12:20.850 hand and order the arrest of a citizen in ohio 00:12:20.850 --> 00:12:23.409 i can touch a bell on my left and order the arrest 00:12:23.409 --> 00:12:26.210 of a citizen in new york can the queen of england 00:12:26.210 --> 00:12:29.500 do so much wow That is chilling. It really is. 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:31.440 He was running a massive domestic surveillance 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:33.759 and detention network. He argued it was absolutely 00:12:33.759 --> 00:12:36.159 necessary because spies were everywhere and Washington 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:38.500 was surrounded by slave states. But it shows 00:12:38.500 --> 00:12:40.440 that Seward, the liberal idealist, was willing 00:12:40.440 --> 00:12:42.480 to be incredibly authoritarian if he thought 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:44.679 it would save the nation. Which brings us to 00:12:44.679 --> 00:12:49.539 the end of the war. April 14th, 1865. The Night 00:12:49.539 --> 00:12:52.879 of Blood. I think most people know John Wook's 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:55.679 Booth shot Lincoln as part of a conspiracy, but 00:12:55.679 --> 00:12:57.940 I don't think they realize how close Seward came 00:12:57.940 --> 00:13:01.019 to dying that exact same night. It was a coordinated 00:13:01.019 --> 00:13:03.580 decapitation strike against the government. Booth 00:13:03.580 --> 00:13:06.340 went after Lincoln. Another conspirator was supposed 00:13:06.340 --> 00:13:08.659 to kill the Vice President Andrew Johnson, but 00:13:08.659 --> 00:13:11.740 he lost his nerve. And a massive brute of a man 00:13:11.740 --> 00:13:14.779 named Lewis Powell was sent to kill Seward at 00:13:14.779 --> 00:13:17.200 his home. And Seward was already in terrible 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:20.029 shape. He's completely helpless. A few days earlier, 00:13:20.049 --> 00:13:22.210 he had been in a horrific carriage accident. 00:13:22.730 --> 00:13:25.149 The horses bolted. He jumped out and he shattered 00:13:25.149 --> 00:13:27.990 his jaw and broke his arm. He was lying in bed 00:13:27.990 --> 00:13:30.350 in his home on Lafayette Square, drifting in 00:13:30.350 --> 00:13:32.309 and out of consciousness. So this assassin, Powell, 00:13:32.429 --> 00:13:34.789 just talks his way into the house. He pretended 00:13:34.789 --> 00:13:36.769 to be delivering medicine from Seward's doctor. 00:13:37.190 --> 00:13:39.769 He forced his way upstairs. Seward's son, Frederick, 00:13:39.870 --> 00:13:42.129 tried to stop him on the landing. Powell pulled 00:13:42.129 --> 00:13:44.370 a gun, aimed it right at Frederick's chest and 00:13:44.370 --> 00:13:47.629 pulled the trigger. It misfired. So Powell took 00:13:47.629 --> 00:13:50.070 this heavy pistol and pistol -whipped Frederick 00:13:50.070 --> 00:13:52.769 so hard he cracked his skull open. Frederick 00:13:52.769 --> 00:13:55.370 went into a coma for weeks. Then Powell kicks 00:13:55.370 --> 00:13:57.990 open the bedroom door. He has a massive bowie 00:13:57.990 --> 00:14:00.809 knife. He slashes Seward's daughter Fanny who 00:14:00.809 --> 00:14:03.330 was trying to protect her father. He jumps onto 00:14:03.330 --> 00:14:05.769 the bed where this old broken man is lying and 00:14:05.769 --> 00:14:08.090 he starts stabbing him wildly in the face and 00:14:08.090 --> 00:14:10.450 neck. How does anyone survive something like 00:14:10.450 --> 00:14:12.350 that? It was the carriage accident that saved 00:14:12.350 --> 00:14:15.279 him. Because of his broken jaw, Seward was wearing 00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:18.639 this awkward contraption, a metal and canvas 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:21.820 neck brace. Powell's knife kept deflecting off 00:14:21.820 --> 00:14:25.559 the metal. He sliced Seward's cheek open. Soot 00:14:25.559 --> 00:14:27.460 was permanently scarred from it, but he couldn't 00:14:27.460 --> 00:14:29.600 hit the jugular because of that brace. Plus, 00:14:29.720 --> 00:14:31.860 a soldier, Private Robinson, rushed in and managed 00:14:31.860 --> 00:14:34.779 to pull Powell off. That is just almost miraculous. 00:14:34.899 --> 00:14:36.720 It was an absolute bloodbath. Powell shouted, 00:14:36.940 --> 00:14:40.179 I'm mad, I'm mad, and ran out, leaving five severely 00:14:40.179 --> 00:14:42.759 wounded people in the house. Seward, bleeding 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:44.799 profusely on the floor, was actually one to whisper 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:47.500 to the servants, I am not dead. Send for the 00:14:47.500 --> 00:14:50.220 police. Close the house. The resilience is just 00:14:50.220 --> 00:14:52.960 unbelievable. But the psychological aftermath? 00:14:53.340 --> 00:14:55.809 Lincoln is dead. Seward survives. You would think 00:14:55.809 --> 00:14:59.090 he would just retire, go home to Auburn, especially 00:14:59.090 --> 00:15:01.450 since his wife died of shock just weeks later, 00:15:01.610 --> 00:15:03.690 right? Yes, his wife, Frances, and his daughter 00:15:03.690 --> 00:15:06.730 Fanny both died shortly after, essentially from 00:15:06.730 --> 00:15:09.289 the trauma and stress of that horrific night. 00:15:10.009 --> 00:15:12.610 His family was destroyed. He famously said later 00:15:12.610 --> 00:15:14.610 he wished he had deserved the reward of dying 00:15:14.610 --> 00:15:17.309 there with Lincoln, but he didn't leave. He stayed 00:15:17.309 --> 00:15:18.990 on as secretary of state for the new president, 00:15:19.190 --> 00:15:21.409 Andrew Johnson. And this seems to be where his 00:15:21.409 --> 00:15:23.330 historical reputation really tanked. Why did 00:15:23.330 --> 00:15:25.990 he stick with Johnson? The sources show Johnson 00:15:25.990 --> 00:15:28.049 was a disaster for the Republicans. It was a 00:15:28.049 --> 00:15:30.990 profound tragedy of loyalty. Johnson favored 00:15:30.990 --> 00:15:33.529 very mild, lenient policies toward the defeated 00:15:33.529 --> 00:15:36.529 South. He actively opposed civil rights for freed 00:15:36.529 --> 00:15:39.169 slaves. The radical Republicans who used to be 00:15:39.169 --> 00:15:41.730 Seward's closest allies absolutely hated Johnson. 00:15:42.210 --> 00:15:44.330 They eventually impeached him. So why stay? Because 00:15:44.330 --> 00:15:46.970 Seward genuinely believed that if he left... 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:49.679 the government would collapse into total anarchy. 00:15:50.580 --> 00:15:52.700 He supported Johnson's milder reconstruction 00:15:52.700 --> 00:15:54.960 because he thought he was the only adult in the 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:56.980 room keeping the president from doing something 00:15:56.980 --> 00:16:00.019 truly catastrophic. So he sacrificed his own 00:16:00.019 --> 00:16:02.399 political standing and legacy to be the guardrail. 00:16:02.460 --> 00:16:05.899 He did. And he was despised for it. He was booed 00:16:05.899 --> 00:16:07.879 in the streets. His old friends stopped talking 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:10.639 to him. They saw him as a traitor who was enabling 00:16:10.639 --> 00:16:13.159 a racist president. It was a terribly lonely 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:15.929 end to his domestic political career. But even 00:16:15.929 --> 00:16:18.169 in the middle of all that misery and isolation, 00:16:18.669 --> 00:16:21.029 he was still looking at a map. He was still planning. 00:16:22.370 --> 00:16:24.690 Which brings us to the empire part of the story. 00:16:25.149 --> 00:16:27.669 Seward was a visionary expansionist to his core. 00:16:28.029 --> 00:16:30.250 He didn't just want to heal the Union. He wanted 00:16:30.250 --> 00:16:32.129 the United States to dominate the hemisphere. 00:16:32.649 --> 00:16:34.870 He looked at the Pacific Ocean and saw the entire 00:16:34.870 --> 00:16:37.690 future of global commerce. Which leads us directly 00:16:37.690 --> 00:16:41.210 to the purchase of Alaska in 1867. The Russians 00:16:41.210 --> 00:16:43.190 want to sell. Why did Seward want it? Everyone 00:16:43.190 --> 00:16:45.909 else made fun of it. The papers called it Seward's 00:16:45.909 --> 00:16:48.610 Icebox or a polar bear garden. Actually, the 00:16:48.610 --> 00:16:51.169 notes debunk that myth a bit. While there were 00:16:51.169 --> 00:16:53.769 vocal critics, most major newspapers actually 00:16:53.769 --> 00:16:56.840 supported the purchase. Seward saw the strategic 00:16:56.840 --> 00:17:00.500 geometry of it. If the U .S. owned Alaska, it 00:17:00.500 --> 00:17:02.700 would bracket British Columbia, which was part 00:17:02.700 --> 00:17:04.420 of the British Empire. Right, putting the squeeze 00:17:04.420 --> 00:17:07.019 on them. Exactly. He thought it might pressure 00:17:07.019 --> 00:17:09.900 Canada to join the U .S. eventually, but more 00:17:09.900 --> 00:17:12.519 importantly, it was the bridge to Asia. He wanted 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:15.160 deep water ports that could reach China and Japan. 00:17:15.380 --> 00:17:17.559 So it wasn't about the natural resources. They 00:17:17.559 --> 00:17:20.140 didn't know about the gold or the oil yet. Not 00:17:20.140 --> 00:17:21.880 really, no. That was just a lucky bonus that 00:17:21.880 --> 00:17:24.640 came decades later. For Seward, it was entirely 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:28.180 about projecting commercial power. He negotiated 00:17:28.180 --> 00:17:30.700 with the Russian minister Stokoe and bought a 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:33.099 subcontinent for seven point two million dollars, 00:17:33.160 --> 00:17:35.319 which is about two cents an acre. He had to fight 00:17:35.319 --> 00:17:37.440 Congress tooth and nail to actually pay the bill, 00:17:37.579 --> 00:17:40.160 but he got it done. And later, when someone asked 00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:42.380 him what his greatest achievement was, he didn't 00:17:42.380 --> 00:17:45.339 say preventing war with Britain or helping Lincoln 00:17:45.339 --> 00:17:48.079 draft the Emancipation Proclamation? No, he said 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:50.890 the purchase of Alaska. but it will take the 00:17:50.890 --> 00:17:53.089 people a generation to find it out. Always playing 00:17:53.089 --> 00:17:55.910 the long game. Always. He tried to buy the Danish 00:17:55.910 --> 00:17:58.069 West Indies too, what we now call the Virgin 00:17:58.069 --> 00:18:00.950 Islands, but Congress blocked him. He looked 00:18:00.950 --> 00:18:03.369 at acquiring Hawaii, even looked at Greenland 00:18:03.369 --> 00:18:06.289 and Iceland. He had a grand vision of the U .S. 00:18:06.329 --> 00:18:08.890 as a commercial empire stretching from the Arctic 00:18:08.890 --> 00:18:11.150 down to the Caribbean. After he finally leaves 00:18:11.150 --> 00:18:13.849 office in 1869 when President Grant basically 00:18:13.849 --> 00:18:16.789 snubs him, He does something that I think perfectly 00:18:16.789 --> 00:18:19.170 captures his restless spirit. He doesn't just 00:18:19.170 --> 00:18:22.210 sit on a porch in Auburn. He goes on a massive 00:18:22.210 --> 00:18:25.569 trip around the world. At age 69, partially paralyzed 00:18:25.569 --> 00:18:27.890 from a stroke with a scarred face and a broken 00:18:27.890 --> 00:18:31.349 body, he sets off across the U .S. meeting Brigham 00:18:31.349 --> 00:18:34.529 Young in Utah and then heads to Japan, China, 00:18:34.549 --> 00:18:38.250 India, Egypt, Europe. He met with emperors and 00:18:38.250 --> 00:18:41.230 kings. He was the first truly prominent American 00:18:41.230 --> 00:18:43.869 statesman to engage with Asia on their own turf. 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:45.839 And there's a detail in the records here about 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:47.720 his traveling companion that I found really touching, 00:18:47.799 --> 00:18:50.099 but also a little quirky. You mean Olive Risley. 00:18:50.619 --> 00:18:52.140 She's a young woman, the daughter of a family 00:18:52.140 --> 00:18:53.920 friend. She traveled with him to help care for 00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:55.960 him physically. But of course, the Victorian 00:18:55.960 --> 00:18:58.380 society immediately started gossiping about an 00:18:58.380 --> 00:19:00.200 old man and a young woman traveling together. 00:19:00.460 --> 00:19:03.099 So Seward did the most practical Seward thing 00:19:03.099 --> 00:19:05.380 possible. He legally adopted her. He adopted 00:19:05.380 --> 00:19:07.019 her just so they could travel together without 00:19:07.019 --> 00:19:09.380 a scandal. Exactly. It was highly unorthodox, 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:12.420 but it worked. Yeah. It allowed him to have companionship 00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:15.519 and care in his final years without ruining her 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:17.819 social reputation. And when he finally passed 00:19:17.819 --> 00:19:21.440 away in 1872 back home in Auburn, his last words 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:23.819 to his family were surprisingly simple for a 00:19:23.819 --> 00:19:27.180 guy who spent his life giving these massive sweeping 00:19:27.180 --> 00:19:30.559 speeches. His final words were just, love one 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:33.130 another. That was it. So as we wrap up, let's 00:19:33.130 --> 00:19:36.170 try to synthesize all of this. We have this deeply 00:19:36.170 --> 00:19:39.329 complex figure, the idealist who hates slavery 00:19:39.329 --> 00:19:42.170 and envisions a diverse nation, and the operator 00:19:42.170 --> 00:19:44.589 who isn't afraid to arrest people without trial 00:19:44.589 --> 00:19:47.470 or make backroom deals. When you look at the 00:19:47.470 --> 00:19:50.170 source material, how should we view him today? 00:19:50.359 --> 00:19:52.440 Well, the sources really present a duality. You 00:19:52.440 --> 00:19:54.799 have what they call the John Quincy Adams Seward. 00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:57.539 The ideal is the dreamer of human rights and 00:19:57.539 --> 00:19:59.960 global empire. And then you have the Thurlow 00:19:59.960 --> 00:20:03.000 Weed Seward, the pragmatist, the ruthless backroom 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:05.759 dealer. But the provocative takeaway here is 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:08.960 about the America we live in right now. We built 00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:11.579 monuments to Lincoln because he saved the soul 00:20:11.579 --> 00:20:14.619 of the country. He kept us united. But if you 00:20:14.619 --> 00:20:18.039 look at the United States today as a global superpower, 00:20:18.329 --> 00:20:21.809 A massive industrial nation spanning the continent, 00:20:22.190 --> 00:20:24.730 trading heavily with Asia, projecting naval power 00:20:24.730 --> 00:20:27.690 and absorbing emigrants. That is almost exactly 00:20:27.690 --> 00:20:30.390 the nation William Seward designed. So Lincoln 00:20:30.390 --> 00:20:32.369 saved the Union, but Seward built the Empire. 00:20:32.609 --> 00:20:33.990 I think that's the perfect way to summarize it. 00:20:34.049 --> 00:20:36.630 He was the true architect of the American century, 00:20:37.109 --> 00:20:38.589 even if he never got to sit in the president's 00:20:38.589 --> 00:20:40.599 chair. Well, I am certainly never going to look 00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:43.259 at a map of Alaska the same way again. It wasn't 00:20:43.259 --> 00:20:45.859 folly at all. It was the future. This gives you 00:20:45.859 --> 00:20:48.079 a lot to mull over, especially when you think 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:50.799 about whose vision truly shapes a nation, the 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:53.039 one who holds the highest office or the one plotting 00:20:53.039 --> 00:20:55.579 the course behind the scenes. Thanks for diving 00:20:55.579 --> 00:20:57.880 deep with us today. My pleasure. And thank you 00:20:57.880 --> 00:20:59.819 for listening. We'll catch you on the next deep 00:20:59.819 --> 00:21:00.079 dive.