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William Seward and the New York School Controversy, 1840–1842: A Problem in Historical Motivation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Vincent Peter Lannie
Vincent Peter Lannie*
Affiliation:
Western Reserve University
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Extract

Human motivation is at best difficult to fathom, especially since “complex” and “ambivalent” man is frequently conditioned by multiple factors and motivated by many and often disparate considerations. The task is further complicated when one attempts to assess the motivational factors that induce a person to act one way instead of another in a particular situation.

Type
Research Article
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , Spring 1966 , pp. 52 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © 1966 by New York University 

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References

Notes

1. Seward to Mrs. M. P. Mann, Albany, N.Y., May 5, 1842 (Seward Papers, University of Rochester). Henceforth, the Seward Papers will be identified as UR. Cf. Mrs. M. P. Mann to Seward, Troy, N.Y., April 25, 1842, UR. Google Scholar

2. Seward to Harman C. Westervelt, Albany, N.Y., March 25, 1840, UR. For Westervelt's views “respecting our Irish ‘fellow citizens,’” see Harmon C. Westervelt to Seward, New York, N.Y., March 19, April 18, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

3. Seward to Harmon C. Westervelt, Albany, N.Y., March 25, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

4. Baker, George E. (ed.), The Works of William Seward (3 vols.; New York: J. S. Redfield, 1853), III, 147, 210; II, 199. Cf. Seward to William Palmar, Albany, N.Y., December 17, 1840, UR. For a brief discussion of Seward's trip to Ireland in 1833, see my “William Seward and Common School Education,” History of Education Quarterly, IV (September 1964), 183.Google Scholar

5. Baker, op. cit., II, 208.Google Scholar

6. Henry Van Der Lyn to Seward, Oxford, N.Y., December 3, 1838, UR; John T. Gilchrist to Seward, New York, N.Y., December 7, 1838, UR; James Brown [et al.] to Seward, New York, N.Y., December 7, 1838, UR. Google Scholar

7. Seward to Henry Barnard, Albany, N.Y., June 28, 1839, UR. Google Scholar

8. Francis Wayland to Eliphalet Nott, Providence, R.I., September 8, 1841, UR; George Wardner to Alexander G. Johnson, Windsor, Vt., September 5, 1856, UR. Professor Glyndon G. Van Deusen, in his “Seward and the School Question Reconsidered,” Journal of American History, LII (September 1965), 315–316, conclusively demonstrates that Samuel Luckey, presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the New York District, did not participate in these educational discussions with Seward prior to his recommendation of 1840. Cf. Samuel Luckey to Seward, New York, N.Y., November 25, 1840, UR. Nevertheless, Luckey's letter to Seward indicates that they probably had other discussions concerning educational matters for Luckey wrote: “… I thought I understood your views on the general question of education, which were evidently liberal, as they should be….”Google Scholar

9. Baker, op. cit., II, 215.Google Scholar

10. Hugh Sweeny to Seward, New York, N.Y., September 16, 1840, UR; Hugh Sweeny to Seward, New York, N.Y., September 17, 1840, UR; Robert B. Minturn to Seward, New York, N.Y., April 10, 1840, UR; Nicholas Devereux to John C. Spencer, Utica, N.Y., April 2, 1840, UR; James Kelly to Seward, New York, N.Y., April 10, 1840, UR; Francis O'Donoghue to Seward, Newburg, N.Y., October 10, 1840, UR; Patrick Carberry to Thurlow Weed, Auburn, N.Y., January 14, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

11. John Hughes to Seward, New York, N.Y., August 29, 1840. Archdiocesan Archives of New York, St. Joseph's Seminary, Yonkers, New York.Google Scholar

12. Harman C. Westervelt to Seward, New York, N.Y., March 19, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

13. Seward to Harman C. Westervelt, Albany, N.Y., March 25, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

14. Baker, op. cit., III, 386-87.Google Scholar

15. Seward to Thomas C. Reed, Albany, N.Y., November 9, 1841, UR. Google Scholar

16. Lawrence W. Power to Seward, New York, N.Y., November 14, UR: A Conservative to Seward, New York, N.Y., November 12, 1840, UR; A True Whig to Seward, New York, N.Y., November 11, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

17. Harman C. Westervelt to Seward, New York, N.Y., March 19, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

18. The Log Cabin, November 9, 1840.Google Scholar

19. John Hughes to Seward, New York, N.Y., November 29, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

20. Seward to John Hughes, Albany, N.Y., December 3, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

21. Seward to Harman C. Westervelt, Albany, N.Y., March 25, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

22. George Wardner to Alexander G. Johnson, Windsor, Vt., September 5, 1856, UR. Google Scholar

23. Pratt, John W., “Governor Seward and the New York City School Controversy, 1840-1842,” New York History, XLII (October 1961), 357.Google Scholar

24. Seward to Harman C. Westervelt, Albany, N.Y., March 25, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

25. Seward to William Palmar, Albany, N.Y., December 17, 1840, UR. Google Scholar

26. Seward, Frederick, Autobiography of William H. Seward from 1831 to 1834 with a Memoir of His Life and Selections from His Letters from 1831 to 1846 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1877), pp. 502–03.Google Scholar

27. Seward to Samuel P. Lyman, Albany, N.Y., June 7, 1841, UR. Google Scholar

28. Jacob Harvey to Seward, New York, N.Y., April 26, 1841, UR; Henry Dana Ward to Seward, New York, N.Y., June 7, 1842, UR; Seward to Henry Dana Ward, Albany, N.Y., June 10, 1842, UR. Google Scholar

29. Pratt, John W., “Religious Conflict in the Development of the New York City Public School System,” History of Education Quarterly, V (June 1965), 111.Google Scholar

30. Baker, George E. (ed.), The Works of William H. Seward (3 vols.; New York: J. S. Redfield, 1853); Baker, George E., The Life of William Seward (New York: J. S. Redfield, 1855); Seward, Frederick, Autobiography of William H. Seward from 1831 to 1834 with a Memoir of His Life and Selections from His Letters from 1831 to 1846 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1877); Weed, Harriet A. (ed.), Autobiography of Thurlow Weed (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1883).Google Scholar

31. H. V. R. Schermerhorn to Seward, Walnut Grove, N.Y., January 17, 1849, UR; Seward to H. V. R. Schermerhorn, Auburn, N.Y., February 20, 1849, UR. This brief correspondence between Seward and Schermerhorn was discovered in 1961 at Old Museum Village at Smith's Cove, Monroe, N.Y. as the museum was preparing a Civil War exhibit. Cf. New York Times, September 23, 1961.Google Scholar

32. Perkins, Dexter, “William Henry Seward,” in Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935), Supp. 16, 615-21.Google Scholar

33. McClure, Alexander, Recollections of Half a Century (Salem, Massachusetts: Salem Press Company, 1902), pp. 216–18. McClure declares that “Seward's attitude on the school question when Governor of New York … made his election [and thus his nomination] impossible in 1860.” The Know-Nothing party still exerted considerable influence and held the balance of power in both Indiana and Pennsylvania which were key states in any Republican victory. Know-Nothings would not vote for any man who was sympathetic to the Roman Catholic Church and friendly toward Catholic immigrants. Therefore, McClure asserts, the Republican convention at Chicago passed over Seward and nominated Abraham Lincoln. Cf. Hale, Edward E. Jr., Seward, William H. (Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs and Company, 1910), p. 148; Catton, Bruce, The Coming Fury (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1961), pp. 58-59; Wittke, Cart, We Who Built America, (rev. ed.; Cleveland: The Press of Western Reserve University, 1964), p. 155.Google Scholar

34. Baker, , op. cit., II, 215.Google Scholar