With the President alone, or with a body no larger than a Cabinet, where the conferences and discussion are informal and conversational, Mr.Seward shone with remarkable brilliancy and with power unsurpassed.

He possessed a characteristic rare among men who have been long accustomed to lead,--he was a good listener.

He gave deferential attention to remarks addressed to him, paid the graceful and insinuating compliment of seeming much impressed, and offered the delicate flattery, when he came to reply, of repeating the argument of his opponent in phrase far more affluent and eloquent than that in which it was originally stated.
In his final summing up of the case, when those with whom he was conferring were, in Dr.Johnson's phrase, "talked out," Mr.Seward carried all before him.

His logic was clear and true, his illustration both copious and felicitous, his rapid citation of historical precedents surprising even to those who thought they had themselves exhausted the subject.

His temper was too amiable and serene for stinging wit or biting sarcasm, but he had a playful humor which kept the minds of his hearers in that receptive and compliant state which disposed them the more readily to give full and generous consideration to all the strong parts of his argument.