Horatio Seymour

Horatio Seymour (1810-1886) was an American politician. He was Governor of New York State from 1853-1854 and from 1863-1864.

Seymour was born in Pompey Hill, Onondaga County, New York, educated at Geneva Academy (later Hobart College) and at Middletown (Conn) Military Academy, studied law at Utica, and in 1832 was admitted to the bar. He served as mayor of Utica, New York from 1842 to 1843.

He served as Governor of New York from 1853 to 1854 and again from 1863 to 1864. As governor of New York in 1863 to 1864, he became a leading Northern opponent of President Abraham Lincoln's administration during the War of Secession. 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.

Horatio Seymour in The Guns of the South
Horatio Seymour defeated Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election.

Horatio Seymour in Southern Victory
In 1864, Horation Seymour was elected to succeed Abraham Lincoln as the seventeenth President of the United States after the Confederate States won the War of Secession. Although he advocated vigorous prosecution of the war while it was being fought, Seymour gradually took on a concillatory stance during his first term, a stance that was maintained by the Democrats until 1880.

Note: This is speculative.