He no doubt looked buoyantly forward, according to his temperament, trusting always to the healing influences of time and to that re-action in the headlong course of Southern men which he felt sure would be brought about by the sting of personal reflection and the power of public opinion.

A silver lining to the darkest cloud was always visible to his eye of faith, and he now brought to the contemplation of the adverse elements in the political field a full measure of that confidence which had always sustained him when adverse elements in the field of war caused many strong hearts to faint and grow weary.
The course of events developed occasions when Mr.Seward's influence proved valuable to the country, but it did not serve to recall his popularity.

He was thwarted and defeated at all points by the Southern leaders whom he had induced the President to forgive and re-instate.
These men had originally established their relations with Mr.Johnson by reason of Mr.Seward's magnanimous interposition.

But once established they had been able, from motives adverted to in the previous chapter, to fasten their hold upon Mr.Johnson even to the exclusion of Mr.Seward.

When Mr.Seward was beaten for the Presidential nomination in a convention composed of anti-slavery men who had learned their creed from him, Senator Toombs, in a tone full of exultation but not remarkable for delicacy, declared that "Actaeon had been devoured by his own dogs." The fable would be equally applicable in describing the manner in which the Southern men, who owed their forgiveness and their immunity to Mr.Seward, turned upon him with hatred and with imprecation.