William H. Seward
People often forget when reflecting on United States history that William Henry Seward, like Lincoln, was also a target of John Wilkes Booth. Booth sent his associate, Lewis Powell, to kill Seward on the same night that he assassinated Lincoln. Powell entered Seward’s Lafayette Square mansion under the guise of delivering medication to Seward. A few days earlier Seward had been in a carriage accident, so it was a convincing ruse. Powell made his way up the stairs to Seward’s bedroom and slashed Seward’s neck. Seward survived this brutal attack because the knife missed his carotid artery(1). Seward was a true American hero. Not only did he put his life out there for the sake of the Union, he skillfully handled the Trent Affair. He was the mastermind of the diplomacy following the Trent Affair, preventing Britain from declaring war on the United States. If the United States had to fight two wars at the same time, most likely the Union would have never been restored. It is to Seward that we give credit. Seward was the hero of the Trent Affair, the United States’ response to the seizure of two Confederates on an unarmed British ship in neutral waters, who were on a diplomatic mission to England.
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1- Walter Stahr, “Seward and Lincoln: A Second Look,” In H. Holzer, C.Symonds, and F. Williams, eds. Exploring Lincoln: Great Historians Reappraise Our Greatest President (New York: Fordham University Press, 2015), 64. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/dickinson/detail.action?docID=3239961. RetrievedSeptember 13, 2020.