Horatio Seymour (1810-1886), was the Governor of New York, 1853-55, and the War Governor of New York during the Civil War, 1863-65.  Horatio Seymour, who was instrumental in gaining government sanction for the building of Erie Canal, was also the Democratic Presidential candidate in 1868. 

On July 4, 1876, Horatio Seymour gave an oration entitled The Future of the Human Race, delivered at Rome, New York.  In it, he declared:

"He who studies with care the jurisprudence of the Old Testament will see that this feeling of reverence for forefathers and devotion to country is made the substance of positive law in the command that men should honor their fathers and mothers.  But sacred poetry is filled with appeals to these sentiments, and the narratives of the Bible abound with proofs of the great truth that the days of those who fear them shall be long upon the land which God hath given them.

"Men cross the ocean and encounter the fatigues, dangers of a journey to the other side of the earth, that they may walk through the streets of Jerusalem where our Saviour trod, or look out from the hill of Zion, or wander amid sacred places.  These scenes bring to their minds the story of the past in a way that thrills their nerves ....

"You will find that all history, all jurisprudence, all just reasonings, force us to the conclusion that not only does a Divine command, but that reason and justice call upon us all to honor our ancestors, and that there is a great practical truth which concerns the welfare and the power of all communities in the words of the inspired penman:  'Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.'" ¹