The  friendly  zeal  which  has  prepared  these  volumes,  may  have
given  place  or  prominence  to  some  sentiments  and  speeches  which
a  timid  policy  would  have  suppressed.  In  similar  collections  an
Index  Expurgatoritts,  it  is  charged,  has  been  allowed  to  swallow  up
the  living  issues  of  the  day.
But  the  Works  of  William  H.  Seward  could  not  escape  an  injunc-
tion writ  from  their  primary  author,  unless  the  boldness  and  frank-
ness of  his  thoughts  had  faithfully  manipulated  the  types.
Mr.  Seward's  sentences  are  all  so  full  of  the  inspiration  of  Liberty
and  Justice,  and  so  like  aphorisms,  that  it  is  difficult  to  abbreviate


VI  PBEFACK.
or  to  suppress  a  page  without  loss  to  the  public  or  injustice  to  the
author's  fame.  Therefore,  what  at  first  may  appear  to  be  an
editor's  purpose  to  swell  the  size  of  the  volume,  will,  on  a  closer
view,  be  found  a  necessity.'

In  the  State  Library  at  Albany,  within  the  past  year,  has  been
erected  the  marble  bust  of  the  Ex-Governor  and  Senator  of  New
York.  It  is  midway  between  the  alcove  of  Histor}'  and  Philosophy,
and  its  gaze  is  directed  at  that  immense  compilation  of  brain  labor —
the  Edinburgh  Review.  A  lady  visitor,  who  was  stranger  to  the
place  and  face,  pausing  before  it  said,  "Here  beams  in  expression,
thought,  benevolence,  eanieatness  and  devotion  to  principle."

When  the  partisan  rancor  and  political  schisms  of  to-day  shall
have  subsided,  when  prejudice  shall  have  given  place  to  candor,
the  Muse  of  History,  we  believe,  will  say  the  same  of  these  volumes,
and  of  those  which  time  may  add.
The  Editor.
March  4,  1861.
