William H. Seward

William H. Seward (1801–1872) was an American politician who served as U.S. Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869 under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. Earlier he served as governor of New York (1839–1842) and as a U.S. senator (1849–1861), where he was a prominent opponent of the spread of slavery. He negotiated the 1867 treaty by which the United States purchased Alaska from Russia.