His words gave offense to some who had long been his most earnest supporters,--a fact thus pointedly recognized by him: "I speak now singly for Union, striving if possible to save it peaceably; if not possible, then to cast the responsibility upon the party of slavery.

For this singleness of speech, I am suspected of infidelity to freedom." But Mr.Seward held his course firmly, and waited for vindication as men of rectitude and true greatness can afford to wait.

"I refer myself not to the men of my time, but to the judgment of history." A similar dedication of himself to the judgment of history was in Mr.
Seward's opinion again demanded of him.

He was firmly persuaded that the wisest plan of reconstruction was the one which would be speediest; that for the sake of impressing the world with the strength and the marvelous power of self-government, with its Law, its Order, its Peace, we should at the earliest possible moment have every State restored to its normal relations with the Union.

He did not believe that guarantee of any kind beyond an oath of renewed loyalty was needful.
He was willing to place implicit faith in the coercive power of self-interest operating upon the men lately in rebellion.