During the war, the pressure of patriotic duty, as his new but reluctant enemies alleged, held him steadily to his old faith; but now, when he could do it without positive danger to the country, he was bent on administering discipline to the party and its leaders.

They likened him to Mr.Van Buren, revengefully defeating General Cass in 1848; to Mr.Webster, who on his death-bed gave his sympathy to the party which had always reviled him; to Mr.Fillmore, who deserted his anti-slavery professions in the hour of most pressing responsibility.

Comments even more severe were made by many who had been deeply attached to Mr.Seward, and had deplored his defeat at Chicago.

At such a period of excitement, it was not possible that a man of Mr.Seward's exalted position could in any degree change his party relations without great exasperation on the part of old friends, -- an exasperation sure to lead to extravagance of expression and to personal injustice.
Mr.Seward's course at this period must not be judged harshly by a standard established from a retrospective view of the circumstances surrounding him.

It is more just to consider the situation as it appeared to his own observation when his eyes were turned to the future.