Editing William H. Seward (section)

===Johnson administration===

====Reconstruction and impeachment====
[[File:Johnson President or King.jpg|thumb|left|[[Thomas Nast]] cartoon from before the 1866 midterm elections. Seward is depicted as Johnson's grand vizier, motioning for the execution of [[Thaddeus Stevens]], and is seen again in the inset, scars from the assassination attempt visible.]]
In the first months of the new Johnson administration, Seward did not work much with the president. Seward was at first recovering from his injuries, and Johnson was ill for a time in the summer of 1865. Seward was likely in accord with Johnson's relatively gentle terms for the South's re-entry to the Union, and with his pardon of all Confederates but those of high rank. [[Radical Republicans]] such as Stanton and Representative Thaddeus Stevens proposed that the freed slaves be given the vote, but Seward was content to leave that to the states (few Northern states gave African-Americans the ballot), believing the priority should be reconciling the power-holding white populations of the North and South to each other.{{sfn|Taylor|pp=253–255}}

Unlike Lincoln, who had a close rapport with Seward, Johnson kept his own counsel and generally did not take advantage of Seward's political advice as Congress prepared to meet in December 1865.{{sfn|Taylor|p=257}} Johnson had issued proclamations allowing for the southern states to reform their state governments and hold elections; they mostly elected men who had served as prewar or wartime leaders. Seward advised Johnson to state, in his first [[State of the Union|annual message to Congress]], that southern states meet three conditions for readmission to the Union: repeal of secession, repudiation of the war debt incurred by the rebel governments, and ratification of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]]. Johnson, hoping to appeal to both Republicans and Democrats, did not take the suggestion. Congress did not seat southerners but appointed a joint committee of both houses to make recommendations on the issue. Johnson opposed the committee; Seward was prepared to wait and see.{{sfn|Stahr|pp=450–451}}

In early 1866, Congress and President Johnson battled over the extension of the authorization of the [[Freedmen's Bureau]]. Both sides agreed that the bureau should end after the states were re-admitted, the question was whether that would be soon or not. With Seward's support, Johnson vetoed the bill. Republicans in Congress were angry with both men, and tried but failed to override Johnson's veto. Johnson vetoed the [[Civil Rights Act of 1866|Civil Rights Bill]], which was to grant citizenship to the freedmen. Seward advised a conciliatory veto message; Johnson ignored him, telling Congress it had no right to pass bills affecting the South until it seated the region's congressmen. This time Congress overrode his veto, gaining the necessary two-thirds majority of each house, the first time this had been done on a major piece of legislation in American history.{{sfn|Stahr|pp=457–461}}

[[File:Johnson as Mercutio.jpg|thumb|right|Johnson, as [[Mercutio]], wishes a plague on both their Houses (of Congress) as Seward (as Romeo, right) leans over him. [[Alfred Waud]] cartoon from 1868.]]
Johnson hoped the public would elect congressmen who agreed with him in the 1866 midterm elections, and embarked on a trip, dubbed the [[Swing Around the Circle]], giving speeches in a number of cities that summer. Seward was among the officials who went with him. The trip was a disaster for Johnson; he made a number of ill-considered statements about his opponents that were criticized in the press. The Radical Republicans were strengthened by the results of the elections.{{sfn|Van Deusen|pp=452–464}} The Republican anger against Johnson extended to his secretary of state—Senator [[William P. Fessenden]] of Maine said of Johnson, "he began by meaning well, but I fear that Seward's evil counsels have carried him beyond the reach of salvation".{{sfn|Taylor|p=267}}

In February 1867, both houses of Congress passed the [[Tenure of Office Act (1867)|Tenure of Office Bill]], purporting to restrict Johnson in the removal of presidential appointees.{{sfn|Taylor|p=272}} Johnson suspended, then fired, Stanton over Reconstruction policy differences, leading to [[Impeachment of Andrew Johnson|the president's impeachment]] for allegedly violating the Tenure of Office Act. Seward recommended that Johnson hire the renowned attorney, [[William M. Evarts]], and, with Weed, raised funds for the president's successful defense.{{sfn|Taylor|pp=271–273, 283–285}}

====Mexico====
[[File:OSR Mexico D024 william h seward traveling in mexico.png|thumb|left|"Hon. William H. Seward traveling in Mexico," engraving published 1870.]]
Mexico was strife-torn in the early 1860s, as it often had been in the fifty years since its independence. There had been 36 changes of government and 73 presidents, and a refusal to pay foreign debts. France, Spain, and Great Britain joined together to intervene in 1861 on the pretext of protecting their nationals, and to secure repayment of debt. Spain and the British soon withdrew, but [[Second French intervention in Mexico|France remained]]. Seward realized that a challenge to France at this point might provoke its intervention on the Confederate side, so he stayed quiet. In 1864, French emperor [[Napoleon III of France|Napoleon III]] set Archduke [[Maximilian I of Mexico|Maximilian]] of Austria on the [[Second Mexican Empire|Mexican throne]], with French military support. Seward used strident language publicly but was privately conciliatory toward the French.{{sfn|Van Deusen|pp=365–369}}{{sfn|Taylor|pp=198–199}}<ref>Temple (1928) pp. 106–108</ref>

The Confederates had been supportive of France's actions. Upon returning to work after the assassination attempt, Seward warned France that the U.S. still wanted the French gone from Mexico. Napoleon feared that the large, battle-tested American army would be used against his troops. Seward remained conciliatory, and in January 1866, Napoleon agreed to withdraw his troops after a twelve- to eighteen-month period, during which time Maximilian could consolidate his position against the insurgency led by [[Benito Juárez]].{{sfn|Taylor|pp=251–253}}<ref>Temple (1928) pp</ref>

In December 1865, Seward bluntly told Napoleon that the United States desired friendship, but, "this policy would be brought into imminent Jeopardy unless France could deem it consistent with her interest and honor to desist from the prosecution of armed intervention in Mexico."<ref>{{cite book|title=The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1865...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ktkSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA321|year=1869|publisher=D. Appleton|page=321}}</ref> Napoleon tried to postpone the French departure, but the Americans had General Phil Sheridan and an experienced combat army on the north bank of the [[Rio Grande]] and Seward held firm. Napoleon suggested a new Mexican government that would exclude both Maximilian and Juárez. The Americans had recognized Juárez as the legitimate president and were not willing to consider this. In the meantime, Juárez, with the help of American military aid, was advancing through northeast Mexico. The French withdrew in early 1867. Maximilian stayed behind but was soon captured by Juárez's troops. Although both the U.S. and France urged Juárez against it, the deposed emperor was executed by firing squad on June 19, 1867.{{sfn|Taylor|pp=269–270}}

====Territorial expansion and Alaska====
[[File:Alaska purchase.jpg|thumb|right|Signing the Alaska Purchase. Seward is seated at center.]]
{{main|Alaska Purchase}}
Although in speeches Seward had predicted all of North America joining the Union, he had, as a senator, opposed the [[Gadsden Purchase]] obtaining land from Mexico, and Buchanan's attempts to purchase Cuba from Spain. Those stands were because the land to be secured would become slave territory. After the Civil War, this was no longer an issue, and Seward became an ardent expansionist and even contemplated the [[Proposals for the United States to purchase Greenland|purchase of Greenland]] and [[Iceland]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Andersen |first=Anna |url=http://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2015/04/20/that-time-the-united-states-were-thinking-of-buying-iceland/ |title=That Time The United States Was Thinking Of Buying Iceland |work=[[The Reykjavík Grapevine]] |date=April 20, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525081129/http://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2015/04/20/that-time-the-united-states-were-thinking-of-buying-iceland/ |archive-date=May 25, 2015 |access-date=December 4, 2016 }}</ref> aiming to surround and then potentially [[Movements for the annexation of Canada to the United States#1860s|annex Canada]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 7, 2024 |title=All-American Arctic? |url=https://www.uphere.ca/articles/all-american-arctic |access-date=December 11, 2024 |website=Up Here Publishing |language=}}</ref> The Union Navy had been hampered due to the lack of overseas bases during the war, and Seward also believed that American trade would be helped by the purchase of overseas territory.{{sfn|Stahr|pp=453–454}}

Believing, along with Lincoln, that the U.S. needed a naval base in the Caribbean, in January 1865, Seward offered to purchase the [[Danish West Indies]] (today the [[United States Virgin Islands]]). Late that year, Seward sailed for the Caribbean on a naval vessel. Among the ports of call was [[St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands|St. Thomas]] in the Danish West Indies, where Seward admired the large, easily defended harbor. Another stop was in the Dominican Republic, where he opened talks to obtain [[Samaná Bay]]. When Congress reconvened in December 1866, Seward caused a sensation by entering the chamber of the House of Representatives and sitting down with the administration's enemy, Congressman Stevens, persuading him to support an appropriation for more money to expedite the purchase of Samaná, and sent his son Frederick to the Dominican Republic to negotiate a treaty. Both attempts fell through; the Senate, in the dying days of the Johnson administration, failed to ratify a treaty for the purchase of the Danish possessions, while negotiations with the Dominican Republic were not successful.{{sfn|Stahr|pp=453–457}}{{sfn|Taylor|p=275}}

[[File:Nast on Alaska.jpg|thumb|left|[[Thomas Nast]] cartoon on Alaska, 1867. Seward hopes that the purchase will help cool Johnson's fevered political situation.]]

Seward had been interested in whaling as a senator; his interest in Russian America was a byproduct of this. In his speech prior to the 1860 convention, he predicted the territory would become part of the U.S., and when he learned in 1864 that it might be for sale, he pressed the Russians for negotiations. Russian minister Baron [[Eduard de Stoeckl]] recommended the sale.<ref>James R. Gibson, "Why the Russians Sold Alaska." ''Wilson Quarterly'' 3.3 (1979): 179–188 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40255691 online].</ref> The territory was a money loser, and the Russian-American Company itself allowed its charter to expire in 1861. Russia could use the money more efficiently for its expansion in Siberia or Central Asia. Keeping it ran the risk of it being captured in war by the British, or overrun by American settlers. Stoeckl was given the authority to make the sale and when he returned in March 1867, negotiated with the Secretary of State. Seward initially offered $5 million; the two men settled on $7 million and on March 15, Seward presented a draft treaty to the Cabinet. Stoeckl's superiors raised several concerns; to induce him to waive them, the final purchase price was increased to $7.2 million. The treaty was signed in the early morning of March 30, 1867, and ratified by the Senate on April 10. Stevens sent the secretary a note of congratulations, predicting that the [[Alaska Purchase]] would be seen as one of Seward's greatest accomplishments.{{efn|Although there is a legend that the Alaska Purchase was widely decried as "Seward's Folly", this is something of a myth.  Most newspapers supported it, though the ''[[New-York Tribune]]'' called the treaty "insensate folly". In 1874, ''[[The Nation]]'' alleged that "Mr. Seward was much laughed at for his folly" and in 1880, an Alaska pioneer, [[Sheldon Jackson]], wrote in a book that the purchase was viewed as "Secretary Seward's folly". In his 1891 biography of his father, Frederick Seward wrote that the treaty had been denounced as "Seward's folly" and Alaska dubbed "Johnson's polar bear garden". See {{harvnb|Stahr|pp=487–488}}.|name=|group=}}{{sfn|Stahr|pp=482–491}}<ref>Thomas A. Bailey, "Why the United States Purchased Alaska." ''Pacific Historical Review'' 3.1 (1934): 39–49.  [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3633456 online]</ref>