Horatio Seymour

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the 19th century New York Governor and Presidential candidate. For the Vermont Senator, see Horatio Seymour (Vermont).
Horatio Seymour
Horatio Seymour

In office
1853 – 1854
18631864
Lieutenant Sanford E. Church
David R. Floyd-Jones
Preceded by Washington Hunt
Edwin D. Morgan
Succeeded by Myron H. Clark
Reuben Fenton

Born May 31, 1810(1810-05-31)
Pompey Hill, New York, U.S.
Died February 12, 1886 (aged 75)
New York City, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse Mary Bleecker Seymour
Profession Politician, Lawyer

Horatio Seymour (May 31, 1810February 12, 1886) was an American politician. He was governor of New York from 1853-1854 and from 1863-1864. He was the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States in the presidential election of 1868, but lost the election to Republican Ulysses S. Grant.

Horatio Seymour at home
Horatio Seymour at home

Horatio Seymour was born in Pompey Hill, Onondaga County, New York, educated at Geneva College (later Hobart College) and at the American Literary, Scientific & Military Academy, studied law at Utica, and in 1832 was admitted to the bar. He served as mayor of Utica, New York from 1842 to 1843. He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1842, and from 1844 to 1846, being its speaker in 1845.

He served as governor of New York from 1853 to 1854 and again from 1863 to 1864. During his second tenure as governor, he became a leading Northern opponent of President Abraham Lincoln's administration during the American Civil War. Seymour protested Lincoln's restriction of civil liberties, as well as the Emancipation Proclamation and the Union's military draft. He advocated the vigorous prosecution of the war, but protested against Lincoln's extensive use of executive war powers.

In 1868 he was president of the Democratic National Convention which met in New York City, and received its presidential nomination. He received 80 electoral votes against 214 for Grant.

After the presidential election, he took no further part in political affairs. He died in 1886 and was interred in Forest Hill Cemetery in Utica, New York with his wife Mary Bleecker Seymour.

[edit] References

  • Croly, David Goodman. Seymour and Blair: Their lives and Services, (New York, 1868)
  • Hartley, Horatio Seymour, (Utica, 1886)
  • McCabe, James Dabney. The Life and Public Services of Horatio Seymour (1868) online edition

[edit] External links


Political offices
Preceded by
Elisha Litchfield
Speaker of the New York State Assembly
1845
Succeeded by
William C. Crain
Preceded by
Washington Hunt
Governor of New York
1853 – 1854
Succeeded by
Myron H. Clark
Preceded by
Edwin D. Morgan
Governor of New York
1863 – 1864
Succeeded by
Reuben E. Fenton
Party political offices
Preceded by
George B. McClellan
Democratic Party presidential candidate
1868
Succeeded by
Horace Greeley
Personal tools
Languages