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Horatio Seymour
HSeymour
Historical Figure
Nationality: United States
Year of Birth: 1810
Year of Death: 1886
Cause of Death: Natural causes
Religion: Episcopalianism
Occupation: Lawyer, Politician
Spouse: Mary Bleecker
Political Party: Democratic Party
Political Office(s): Mayor of Utica,
Governor of New York
Fictional Appearances:
The Guns of the South
POD: January 17, 1864
Type of Appearance: Contemporary references
Political Office(s): Governor of New York,
President of the United States

Horatio Seymour (May 31, 1810 - February 12, 1886) was an American Democratic Party politician. He was Governor of New York in 1853-54 and 1863-64.

Seymour was a so-called War Democrat who supported the Union's military cause; however, during his second term as governor, he became a leading Northern opponent of President Abraham Lincoln's administration during the American Civil War. Seymour protested Lincoln's restriction of civil liberties during the Civil War, as well as the Emancipation Proclamation and the Union's military draft. He advocated the vigorous prosecution of the war, but protested against the extensive use of war powers by Lincoln.

Seymour also ran for President in the 1868 election with Francis Preston Blair Jr. as his running mate. The ticket lost to Republican Party candidate Ulysses S. Grant and his running mate Schuyler Colfax by a margin of 214-80 in the electoral college.

Horatio Seymour in The Guns of the South[]

Hseymour

Horatio Seymour was able to gain the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in the immediate aftermath of the Second American Revolution, running on a ticket with Clement Vallandigham. Seymour narrowly defeated Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election. The election was a close one, and it was over a week after the election before Seymour's victory was determined. Seymour was able to carry 138 electoral votes from ten states.

As part of peace negotiations Lincoln had finalized with the CSA before Seymour took office, Kentucky and Missouri would vote for which country it wished to join. The vote was scheduled to happen after Seymour's term started, but the new president abided by his predecessor's deal and didn't contest the results when Kentucky left the Union. Under Seymour, the United States shifted its focus away from its southern border towards its northern one. Eventually, the U.S. invaded the Canadas, and began a war with Britain in 1866.

See Also[]

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