Statesmen . , the object of the most persevering and watch-ful solicitude on the part of every Americancitizen. In 1865, when President Lincoln was assas-sinated in the city of Washington, the band of con-spirators who had planned the murder of the Pres-ident had also included Seward and some othermembers of the cabinet in their deadly of the assassins, swiftly and unexpectedlygaining entrance at the street door, mounted tothe chamber where Seward was lying ill in hisbed. The conspirator, armed with a knife, threwhimself upon the sick man and stabbed himin several places, but was pr
Statesmen . , the object of the most persevering and watch-ful solicitude on the part of every Americancitizen. In 1865, when President Lincoln was assas-sinated in the city of Washington, the band of con-spirators who had planned the murder of the Pres-ident had also included Seward and some othermembers of the cabinet in their deadly of the assassins, swiftly and unexpectedlygaining entrance at the street door, mounted tothe chamber where Seward was lying ill in hisbed. The conspirator, armed with a knife, threwhimself upon the sick man and stabbed himin several places, but was prevented from instant-ly killing him by the attendant, a male the attendant and the assassin were strug-gling together, Seward craftily rolled himselfover and fell between the bed and the wall, andbefore the wretch could go further, help cameand Sewards life was saved. For days he lin-gered between living and dying, his face sogashed with the assassins knife that it was with WILLIAM II. SEWARD 139. The Seward Statue, by Randolph Rogers, in Madison Square, New York. difficulty that he could be fed. After manydays of pain and confinement he was permittedto be bolstered up in bed and look out upon thesummer sky. Fearing the effect that the newswould have upon the enfeebled invalid, Sewardhad not been told of the details of the conspiracynor of the death of Lincoln ; but as his eyessought out the familiar objects from the window 140 STATESMEN of his sick-room, he saw the Hag on the WhiteHouse at half-mast. Instantly divining all thathad happened, he said: The President is dead,and relapsed into silence, while the tears courseddown his scarred and wounded face. During Johnsons administration Seward wasable to resume his place in the State Department,and, greatly to the disappointment of some ofhis friends, he supported the policy of the Presi-dent, which was somewhat at variance with thatof Lincoln. Many of his friends fell away fromhim, and he doubtless endured in silenc
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