Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States

SEYMOUR

SEYMOUR, Horatio, was born in Pompey, Onondaga county, New York, in 1811, studied and practiced law for a time, and was elected mayor of Utica in 1840, and member of the legislature in 1841. He there became one of the leaders of the conservative, or hunker, democrats, supporting Gov. Bouck's administration. In the democratic dissensions which followed, he took no active part on either side, and, in 1850, was unanimously nominated for governor by a united convention of all the factions, and was beaten by about 300 votes in a poll of about 430,000. In 1852, he was again nominated, and was elected. In 1854, he was again the regular candidate in the "scrubrace" of that year, and was defeated by Clark, the fusion (afterward republican) candidate, by 309 votes. In 1862 he was again elected governor, by about 11,000 majority over Wadsworth, republican. (See DRAFTS) His party orthodoxy, together with his moderate and conciliatory course, had long since made him the recognized leader of the New York democratic party; and the inclination toward him spread until, in 1868, the national convention nominated him, against his own desire, for president. He was defeated, and has since refused to take any active part in politics. (See DEMOCRATIC PARTY, VI.) See Savage's Representative Men, 428; Jenkins' Governors of New York, 706; Croly's Lives of Seymour and Blair (1868); McCabe's Life of Seymour (1868).

ALEXANDER JOHNSTON.