The boyhood home of Governor Horatio Seymour, built about 1815 on Whitesboro Street at Hotel Street, is shown circa 1890.

The Seymours moved to Utica early in 1820 and took up residence in a brick house on Whitesboro Street facing south and almost on the bank of the canal. Horatio used to accompany his father on some of his inspection trips and he watched the boats passing east and west over the canal. Thus began his life-long love affair with the Grand Canal.

Young Horatio attended various schools in Utica before his parents sent him to the academy in Geneva and then to a military academy in Middletown, better known for teaching drill formations than classics. His schooling completed, Horatio entered the law office of Green C. Broonson and Samuel Beardsley, both active Democrats. Beardsley, a close ally of President Andrew Jackson, exercised much power in the House of Representatives. Bronson, in 1854 ran for governor as a hard line Hunker Democrat who challenged Seymour, candidate of the regular Democrats, and took enough votes to cause the defeat of Seymour.

Horatio Seymour plunged into the world of politics when Governor Marcy appointed him his military secretary. A striking figure in his uniform, the six foot tall aide received many invitations to the homes of Albany aristocrats, a blend of Dutch patricians and transplanted Yankees. Horatio fell in love with Mary Bleecker, daughter of John Rutgers Bleecker, who had inherited many acres of land on both sides of the Mohawk River. Within two years, Horatio and Mary exchanged vows and their home became a center of gracious hospitality.

The rapid growth of Utica meant increasing wealth for the Seymour-Bleecker families. Even today, several Utica streets recall the given names of these families – Rutgers, Bleecker, Catharine, Miller to name a few.

The family wealth enabled Seymour to devote considerable time to politics and public service, including a term as mayor of Utica beginning in 1842. In 1841, he was elected to the New York State Assembly rising to the office of speaker in 1845. Party chieftains recognized his gifts as an orator and his talent as a conciliatory figure among warring factions. Six times the Democratic Party nominated him for the office of governor and twice he was victorious.

Seymour subscribed to the political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson – a weak central government, low taxes, free trade, reliance on freeholding farmers and artisans.

Seymour distrusted zealots such as ‘abolitionists, prohibitionists, and nativists because they disrupted party harmony and upset public concord.
As governor, Seymour faced not only the Whigs but also Democratic factions. He leaned toward the Hunker Democrats who favored grants for canal enlargement.

In 1860, he backed Stephen A. Douglas who won the nomination of the National Democratic party. Abraham Lincoln, however, won a majority of electoral votes although he attracted only 40 percent of the popular vote.

The shots by Confederate soldiers on Fort Sumter awakened New Yorkers to the reality of disunion, Seymour opposed the secessionists but he also criticized some of Lincoln’s actions as provocative and unconstitutional. He charged that Republicans arbitrarily arrested and by suspending habeas corpus were violating civil and political rights, The Republicans in turn accused Seymour of encouraging the rebels and obstructing efforts to put down the rebellion.

Marysland

In 1862, Seymour accepted The Democratic nomination for governor and won by a comfortable margin. Seymour criticized the draft act passed by Congress in March 1863 as unfair because rich men could buy exemption and hire substitutes in order to avoid conscription. Moreover the federal government assigned New York state exceptionally high quotas by ignoring the exceptionally high number of volunteers who rallied to the colors in 1861.

In July 1863, after a weekend of grumbling in saloons about the draft, Manhattan workingmen formed a mob in protest and for three days roamed the streets. They burned the homes of abolitionists and even torched an orphanage for colored children. Although Governor Seymour put down the disorders, Republicans blamed him for encouraging the rioters.

In 1864 Seymour lost his race for a third term by the slim margin of eight thousand votes. The Democrats charged that the Lincoln administration obstructed agents of the Democrats from delivering ballots to soldiers and other dirty tricks.

The governor moved to Marysland, a five hundred acre farm in Deerfield where he and Mary Seymour could enjoy semi-retirement. Actually, their new wooden farmhouse soon became a regular stop for politicians, journalists, and family friends. Political leaders such as Samuel Tilden secured Seymour’s help in prying loose the hold of Boss Tweed on their party. In 1868 he presided over the Democratic national convention driven by factionalism. Unable to agree on a candidate, the delegates drafted Seymour, the only true draft by a major party in our history. 0f course, the Democrats, soon to be labeled the party of Rum, Romanism and Rebellion in the campaign of 1884, had only a slight chance of winning the election. This chance evaporated when the Republicans nominated a war hero, Ulysses S. Grant.

Ironically, one of Seymour’s bitterest opponents was his brother-in-law Roscoe Conkling, Republican leader in the Senate and a close ally of President Grant. Conkling had married Seymour’s youngest sister over the objections of Seymour. Whenever Seymour ran for office, Conkling campaigned strenuously against him, his brother-in-law.

Parlor at Marysland

Seymour took keen interest in history and education. He served as trustee of Hamilton College which awarded him an honorary degree. He became the first president of the Oneida Historical Society and planned the centennial celebration of the Battle of Oriskany. His welcoming speech at that event greatly impressed Harold Frederic, youthful reporter for the Utica Observer. Frederic dedicated his novel In the Valley to Seymour, whom he described as a “venerable friend to whose inspiration my first idea of the work was due”.

Seymour’s career straddled years of turmoil and progress. Throughout all this “an old humbug of a farmer” (his phrase) upheld Jefferson’s concern for democratic values, calmed angry voices, and raised the standard of public service.

No wonder the London Times discovered in Seymour a political leader comparable to luminaries in British public life. For Americans, however, a more apt comparison might be with that extraordinary galaxy of founding fathers who established a federal union, maintained local and state powers, and balanced the rights of individuals against those of society. If Marysland did not match Monticello in architectural quality, its gentleman farmer proved a worthy heir of Thomas Jefferson.