Born May 16, 1801
Florida, New York
Died October 10, 1872
Auburn, New York

Secretary of state in the
Lincoln and Johnson administrations

"There is no law of this State which recognizes slavery, no statute which admits that one man can be the property of another, or that one man can be stolen from another."

William H. Seward. (Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)

William Henry Seward was an important political figure throughout the Civil War era. In the 1840s and 1850s, he became known as one of America's leading advocates of abolitionism (the movement to end slavery). During the war, he joined the administration of President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865; see entry) as secretary of state and became one of the president's most trusted advisors. Seward remained in his position as secretary of state through the first years of Reconstruction (the period from 1865 to 1877 during which the...