FALSE FLAG OPERATION

“With only eighteen pence in my pocket, a thousand miles from home, my little wardrobe left thirty miles behind, where was I to go, and what could I do?”- Autobiography of William Henry Seward

     As Jack Hodges sat chained to the stone floor of the Goshen gaol in the freezing cold of mid-January, without a blanket or bed, Henry Seward reminisced of the same time period in his autobiography: 

“On the seventh day [January 12,1819] we crossed Tybee, and anchored in the river at Savannah. What an unexpected transition from New York, which I had left congealed and covered with snow, to Savannah, which seemed embowered with trees and flowers!….. My associate [Alvah Wilson] and I made inquiries at Augusta, and he contracted there for employment in that city. I proceeded by stage-coach as far as it went, and then hired a gig, which landed me at Mount Zion, in a society that had lately been founded there by immigrants from Orange County, to whom I was known. They were under the pastoral care of Rev. Dr. Beman, who afterward became so distinguished a preacher at Troy, in the State of New York….Farmers, there called “Crackers,” cheerfully gave me a lift as I overtook them on the way, and shared their provisions with me.”

   

     When I ran my suspicions concerning William H. Seward’s disappearance to Putnam County, Georgia, at exactly the same time that Jack Hodges escaped Goshen, my brother Bird didn’t miss a beat; “The old man got him out of town.” he said, with typical Osterhout over-confidence, having absolutely no evidence. It’s a gift with the Ostis. Even though every Seward scholar, and his own autobiography, omits even a hint of the Goshen scandal, Bird and I are not buying it. Was it just a sign of the times, family shame suppressed, quietly tucked away and forgotten, or something more sinister? I repeat—there is not a whisper of his mother’s brother’s murder, or the trials, pardons, or hangings that drew thousands of people to Seward’s hometown, in any printed material on William Henry Seward. It seems very conspicuous in its absence. 

    The conspiracy that put Richard Jennings face down in the snow could possibly have extended far deeper into the Jennings/Seward households than anyone ever suspected. Did Henry become involved in some way that could have affected his future prospects as a brilliant young student and eventual Governor of the state? Had he remained in Goshen, or at Union College, could he have been drawn into a public scandal, somehow denying his legacy as a great abolitionist, and the job as Lincoln’s Secretary of State? Could history have hung in the balance as Henry Seward sat in the black section of the Old Park, weeping over Mrs. Barnes convincing performance as Queen Elizabeth? Was Jack Hodges, with the promise of an eventual sentence commutation, possibly paid off to take the rap, and implicate only the small group, thereby keeping the Seward name out of the press? And, if that were the case, why did no other convicted suspect implicate any other Jennings or Seward in the plot? What else did the Little Magician or Doc. Seward have up their sleeves?      

     It’s certain Alvah Wilson accompanied Henry Seward on the schooner to Savannah, and into Beman’s orbit. Two teenagers, sailing south, two hundred years ago hold the key to this puzzle. These two (or maybe one) emigres know why they were on that boat anchored off Tybee Island. Even a dumb “cracker,” wouldn’t hire a seventeen year old to be the “rector” of their school. Seward is specific. He repeatedly uses the term “rector.” This is another anomaly that makes little sense.    

    Rev. Dr. Nathan S.S. Beman was already a well known Presbyterian preacher in Georgia, and would remain a friend of Seward’s throughout his life. Who exactly the “immigrants from Orange County,” are at the Mount Zion Church, I’ve been unable to determine. The county was named after Revolutionary General Israel Putnam in 1807. There could have been a New York connection to this particular geography of Georgia very early on. It had rich soil, covered in vast cotton fields and the plantations would only get larger in the run up to civil war. Northern investment in the slave trade and southern plantations was not unheard of.  

    Having a waiting and welcoming community would explain why Henry Seward ended up specifically in Putnam County. As Henry wrote, he was “known” to them. I’m certain two yankee college students were not haphazardly traveling into the deep south without planning, money, and connections. They had a laid out “escape” route, and awaiting opportunities when they arrived. Who provided all that would be the question to ask. For now, all these questions will have to remain unanswered. As ill-equipped as he was to “begin the world alone,” Henry had a school to run.

     

     The rich planter elite of the southern United States were in a golden age. Because of a chattel-slave based economy, there was so much prosperity in Georgia, white southerners were importing religion, education and culture from the northern colleges of Vermont and New York. Institutions like Beman’s alma mater Middlebury College, and Wilson and Seward’s Union College, were repositories of young educated men, lured south by good pay and instant prestige. In order to pilot their homegrown academies (religious, military, and liberal arts) for the immediate benefit of southern culture, young men, barely dry behind the ears, were recruited into dixie academia. Rev. Nathan S.S. Beman’s Mount Zion Church, Wilson’s Richmond Academy, and Seward’s Union Academy (named for his forsaken school), were only three of many privatized institutions of higher education, making up what became known as the Southern, Antebellum Academy Movement. 

     I suspect (but am far from proving) that, at the very least, the murder of his uncle, and trials of his cousins James and Hannah Teed, the poor tenant farmer David Dunning, Teed in-law David Conklin, and the black sailor Jack Hodges, had more than a passing effect on Henry Seward. He may, or may not, have been directly involved, but it must have had an impact on him. If nothing else, Seward was witness to the extreme of northern “biblical justice,” combined with the progressive anti-death penalty activism of Nott, Wisner, and even William W. Van Ness. These were big issues and impressive men, some in his own father’s circle. A career in law was his aspiration, and his father, Doctor Samuel Sweezy Seward, would have done anything to help his son attain his dreams.

      Instead of retreating safely back to academia, Henry went south, with or without the knowledge, help, or permission of his parents. He would witness for himself the chattel-slavery system, not as an objective observer, but as a paid participant, funded by the plantation elites. Maybe it’s just an old dusty rabbit hole of unwarranted suspicion on my part; an ancient question mark best left alone. After all, nobody else seems to care. Congratulations! You made it to page 104.