Note 393 — Chapter XXVIII · LINCOLN, SEWARD, AND THE UNION 1860-1861

"While the evidence is not positive that Seward contemplated heading a movement of Republicans that would have resulted in the acceptance by them of a plan similar in essence to the Crittenden compromise, yet his private correspondence shows that he was wavering, and gives rise to the belief that the pressure of Weed, Raymond, and Webb would have outweighed that of his radical Republican colleagues if he had not been restrained by the unequivocal declarations of Lincoln."—James F. Rhodes, History of the United States, Vol. 3, p. 157.