William Henry Seward

First as governor of New York (1839–43) and later as a U.S. senator (1849–61), William H. Seward advocated strongly for reform. He argued against the passage of the Compromise of 1850 and declared that the country’s western territories should remain “unencumbered, and free from the calamities and sorrows of human bondage.” A staunch Republican, Seward served as secretary of state for Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson (1861–69). In that role, he sought to increase U.S. engagement in global commerce and geographic expansion, particularly in the Caribbean and Pacific, and he convinced Congress to purchase Alaska from Russia in 1867.