Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/United States/Seymour, Horatio

Seymour, Horatio, governor of New York, was born at Pompey, N.Y., May 31, 1810. He was admitted to the bar in 1832, but never practised law, having a large private property. He soon became a leader of the Democratic party of the State, serving three terms in the State legislature after 1842, one of them as speaker. He was elected governor in 1852. In 1862 he was nominated again, and his success alarmed the national administration with a fear that the great State of New York would now be lukewarm or unfriendly. He proved to be one of the best of the “war governors,” active, zealous, and prompt in raising and forwarding men and supporting the war, though he was accused of adopting temporizing measures with the draft mob in New York city in July 1863. He was nominated for the presidency in 1868, but was defeated by Grant, and then retired from public life. He died at Utica, N.Y., Feb. 17, 1886.—See Croly’s Life of Seymour and M‘Cabe’s Life of Seymour (1868).