William Seward

William Seward (1801-1872) was Secretary of State to President Abraham Lincoln. In 1860, he had challenged Lincoln for the Republican Party nomination and made no secret of the fact that the thought he would be a fitter President than Lincoln.

After the U.S. was defeated in the Second Mexican War, Seward was one of the Repblicans who rejected Lincoln's call for the party to focus on workers' rights rather than foreign policy.