William Seward

William Seward (1801-72), American statesman. William Henry Seward was born in Florida, New York, and educated at Union College, Schenectady, New York. He served as governor of New York State from 1839 to 1843, supporting educational reform and public works. From 1843 to 1849, he was engaged in the practice of law, specializing in criminal and patent cases. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1849 to 1861 (first as a Whig, then as a Republican), during which time he established an uncompromising antislavery policy. He was active in organizing the Republican Party, formed as a result of the Whig Party split over the slavery issue. From 1861 to 1869, he served as secretary of state in the Republican administrations of President Abraham Lincoln and President Andrew Johnson. His perceptiveness and diplomacy in this office were to a large degree responsible for preventing European intervention during the American Civil War. While secretary of state, Seward also advocated a policy of American expansion. Although he was unable to secure congressional approval for the purchase of several islands in the Caribbean Sea or for the annexation of Hawaii, he did secure consent for the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7,200,000. Alaska, considered by many to be an unwise purchase, was disparagingly called Seward's Icebox or Seward's Folly.