William Henry Seward (1801-1872), was Governor of the State of New York, 1839-43, a U.S. Senator 1849-61, and Secretary of State under President Lincoln during the War between the States, 1861-65.  Lincoln's assassins also attempted to kill him, as one of John Wilkes Booth's accomplices broke into Seward's home and wounded him.  He later served as Secretary of State under President Andrew Johnson, 1865-69, where he worked to implement the "reconstruction" in the South.

Among his accomplishments was the negotiation of the purchase of Alaska from Russia, 1867, which was at the time mockingly called "Seward's Folly", as the land was thought to be of no use, though later it proved to be of tremendous benefit.

 William Henry Seward stated:

"I do not believe human society, including not merely a few persons in any state, but whole masses of men, ever have attained, or ever can attain, a high state of intelligence, virtue, security, liberty, or happiness without the Holy Scriptures; even the whole hope of human progress is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible." ¹

William Henry Seward gave an oration entitled The Destiny of America, in which he stated:

"Shall we look to the sacred desk?  Yes, indeed; for it is of Divine institution, and is approved by human experience.  The ministers of Christ, inculcating Divine morals, under Divine authority, with Divine sanction, and sustained and aided by special cooperating influences of the Divine Spirit, are now carrying further and broadly onward the great work of the renewal of the civilization of the world, and its emancipation from superstition and despotism." ²

In 1836, as vice-president of the American Bible Society, William Henry Seward expressed:

"I know not how long a republican government can flourish among a great people who have not the Bible; the experiment has never been tried; but this I do know: that the existing government of this country never could have had existence but for the Bible.

"And, further, I do, in my conscience, believe that if at every decade of years a copy of the Bible could be found in every family in the land its republican institutions would be perpetuated." ³