Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, May 28, 1859
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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, May 28,
1859
transcriber
Transcriber:spp:cnk
student editorTranscriber:spp:lmd
Distributor:Seward Family Digital Archive
Institution:University of Rochester
Repository:Rare Books and Special Collections
Date:1859-05-28
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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, May 28, 1859
action: sent
sender: William Seward
Birth: 1801-05-16
Death: 1872-10-10
location: London, England, UK
receiver: Frances Seward
Birth: 1805-09-24
Death: 1865-06-21
location: Auburn, NY
transcription: cnk
revision: srr 2021-06-29
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Page 1
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Editorial Note
May 28th
“Do you find great improvement here made
since your first visit to England?” is a question
which every one puts to me. “Certainly” I
answer. But how does it compare with
the improvements made during the same
period in America? As well as possible
I reply, when you consider that besides
our own native hands ^and capital^ , we have annual
supplies of labor and capital as well
from England as all other parts of the world
while you borrow nothing from any quarter”
“But how in effective appearance?” When I
saw London before – and then returned
to New York, I said London is built of
stone, New York of brick – Now London is
built of stone, but New York is built of
marble –
Lord Palmerston
Birth: 1784-10-20 Death: 1865-10-18
differs in everyrespect from the prejudgement of him I had
made. He rules a party or a large inter-
est in the Liberal party not so much
8
by force of the weight of his author age
and experience as by his vivacity and
spirit in spite of great age and
experience – As old as General Cass
Birth: 1782-10-09 Death: 1866-06-17
orMr Buchanan
Birth: 1791-04-23 Death: 1868-06-01
he is nevertheless youth-ful ^and^ genial – No one of his followers claims
for him the attribute of venerable –
The Nobility ^and gentry^ must be seen once at
least in a ball or assembly to under-
stand it. When you see it in such a
place and hear the names and
titles so familiar to you in history and
romance you handled as familiarly
as the names and office designations
of prominent persons in Reb a similar
association among ourselves, you ceem
to regard it ^the class^ as distinct, peculiar and
chivalrous. and you come to regard
9
only as the class of persons most active
and prominent in political social and
fashionable life – How did this class
arise? Those who come to stations of
power and wealth by superior knowledge
or virtue, when education and facilities
for acquiring wealth were limited aggran-
dized themselves, shutting other and and
ambitious competitors out so far as possi-
ble, and they fortified themselves as a
class. How will it end? Equal edu-
cation in any state will equalize
society. The British nobility may go
down in that way. In France the
Nobility went down because they had
fortified themselves too strongly and
had become too despotic to be endured –
Equality which we theoretically call
10
the natural condition of society, is certainly
the condition which belongs to the highest
state of social development.