Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, August 5, 1859

  • Posted on: 8 December 2021
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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, August 5, 1859
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transcriber

Transcriber:spp:rmg

student editor

Transcriber:spp:les

Distributor:Seward Family Digital Archive

Institution:University of Rochester

Repository:Rare Books and Special Collections

Date:1859-08-05

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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Adeline Seward, August 5, 1859

action: sent

sender: William Seward
Birth: 1801-05-16  Death: 1872-10-10

location: Paris, France

receiver: Frances Seward
Birth: 1844-12-09  Death: 1866-10-29

location: Auburn, NY

transcription: rmg 

revision: vxa 2021-03-13

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Editorial Note

William Henry Seward's series of travel letters in 1859 are organized and listed by the date of each entry.
Friday August 5, Paris,
My dear daughter,
I have already led you through this
wonderful city - into its Elysium fields and into
its subterraneous caverns - as well into those
gardens which encircle it or into the camps which
protect and domineer over it. Little therefor of interest for
you remains to be told - I went this morning with Mr
Raymond
Birth: 1820-01-24 Death: 1869-06-18
of the New York Times Mr Masseras
Birth: 1823-03-09 Death: 1899-10

of the Courier des Etats Unis of New York to see their
Edition of "La Patrie one of the prominent Journals of the
City and to study the organization of its establishment
The editor
Birth: 1816-02-26 Death: 1868-07-10
is a gentleman of large intelligence, and his
establishment is distinguished by great order regularity
and precision. The "La Patrie is an evening paper -
At 10 AM all the editorial staff gather
round a table at which the Editor
resides - He distributes the
subjects to be presented
to the public among
them and
announces
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the task of each. They part, to work, He to eat
his breakfast and receive friends, and at three
the articles are submitted to him reviewed
amended or corrected at four the paper
goes to press and at six it is distributed
through the city. I was saddened to find that
the Press submits with contentment to the
dictation of the government, and wears lightly
the chains which fetter it. The plea is the
necessity of peace and order. But there is no
answer when I ask, But when or how is
France to obtain a permanent system of ^free^ government.
From La Patrie I turned off to
pursue my studies in the Louvre - among the
statuary and sculpture - beginning with the
Egyptian monuments and statuary - grotesque
and contemptible as the Gods and heroes
seemed I still saw in them the evidence of
the infantile state of our race. While I wondered
how that any people could find objects of reve-
rence in the sphynx the bull and the hideous
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features of
, I was
content nevertheless with
the evidences all around me
that religion is inherent in man -
and while I smiled at the absurd
egoism displayed in the monuments statues
and tombs of ancient Kings, I thought it more
excusable than the more artistic displays of the
same kind made by the first emperor of the French
Every where among these imposing relics of superstition and
tyranny there were mingled tokens of love affection for parents
friends, children, domestic animals of every kind that
told the affecting truth that Humanity is the same in all
ages. Cats dogs, squirrels fishes birds, which had been
favorites were found sometimes sculptured in stone, sometimes
in brass, often are in gold and in many cases even
embalmed - From the Egyptian I descended to the
Halls in which the peasants, the friezes, the gods, the
heroes, the captives, the families of the monarchs of Assyria
and Babylon are preserved. I walked on the
earth that once was trodden by Daniel
and I learned to admire more than ever
the sublime poetry of the bible
when I found out what
was unintelligible
and seemed
even
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absurd in that poetry had a touching meaning
when explained by the customs, manners and
worship of the age in which it was written.
"I will exalt my horn." Thus wilt break
the horns of the ungodly" How meaningless
this has always seemed to me - Yet how spirited
and poetic when I saw that bulls horns were
worn by Kings and Conquerors in ancient times.
as symbols of their power and their conquests.
When I saw thorns on chariot wheels how
full of meaning was the prophetic description
of the chariot of the Most High that wheeled
on "Wheels of Fire". From the Assyrian relics
I descended through the Pantheon of Gthe
Greeks, and found the monuments and inscriptions
of the victories of Salamis and Marathon and
almost seemed to be a mourner at the funerals
of noble Roman Chiefs and dames when I
contemplated their monuments and epitaphs, the
very prototypes of those found in any Christian
Cemetery in our own towns. How slow and
painful has been the progress of mankind. How
suggestive this thought is of the ultimate perfectibility
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of our race.
How instructive
in regard to the
duty we all owe to
the Creator to inspire the
talents and opportunities he gives us
for the advancement of our race -
Miserable indeed those ancients seem to
us to have been when we look on the monuments of
superstition and of ignorance and cruelty they have left.
Yet what a commentary do we read in these monuments upon
the absurdity and cruelty of a standing army of 300,000 men
including savage Turks, Moors, and Zouaves maintained
by the ruler of this empire to keep his subjects in submission
although under a pretense of defending them against imaginary enemies
truly Civilization is yet in its beginning.