us reason together," said Weed, and together these two friends
worked out the policy of success. "I saw in him, in a remarkable
degree," continued Weed, "rapidly developing elements of character
which could not fail to render him eminently useful in public life. I
discerned also unmistakable evidences of stern integrity, earnest
patriotism, and unswerving fidelity. I saw also in him a rare capacity
for intellectual labour, with an industry that never tired and
required no relaxation; to all of which was added a purity and
delicacy of habit and character almost feminine."[268]

[Footnote 268: _Autobiography of Thurlow Weed_, p. 423.]

In his _Autobiography_, Seward says he joined the anti-masonic party
because he thought it the only active political organisation opposed
to Jackson and Van Buren, whose policy seemed to him to involve "not
only the loss of our national system of revenue, and of enterprises of
state and national improvement, but also the future disunion of the
States, and ultimately the universal prevalence of slavery."[269] Once
an Anti-Mason, he became, like Weed, a zealous and aggressive member
of the party. He embodied its creed in resolutions, he attended its
first national convention at Philadelphia, he visited John Quincy
Adams at Quincy--just then an anti-masonic candidate for Congress--he
aided in the establishment of the Albany _Evening Journal_, and, a
little later, as a delegate to the party's second national convention
at Baltimore, he saw Chief Justice Marshall upon the platform, sat
beside Thaddeus Stevens, and voted for William Wirt as an anti-masonic
candidate for President. It was during his attendance upon the
Philadelphia convention that Thurlow Weed had him nominated, without
his knowledge, for state senator. "While stopping at Albany on my way
south," he says,[270] "Weed made some friendly but earnest inquiries
concerning my pecuniary ability, whether it was sufficient to enable
me to give a portion of my time to public office. When I answered my
ability was sufficient, but I had neither expectation nor wish for
office, he replied that he had learned from my district enough to
induce him to think it possible that the party might desire my
nomination to the Senate."

[Footnote 269: _Autobiography of William H. Seward_, p. 74.]

[Footnote 270: _Autobiography of William H. Seward_, p. 79.]

Thurlow Weed had many claims to the regard of his contemporaries, but
the greatest was the in