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Inquisitor Seabury is in the extraordinary position of representing all three branches of State government—judicial, executive, legislative. In the first capacity he has had eight policemen indicted, sent six others to prison, removed two magistrates, sent three scampering off under fire. In his capacity as the Governor's representative to hear malfeasance charges against doddering District Attorney Thomas C. T. Grain of New York County, Tammany Sachem, he had not, up to last weekend, reported his conclusions. As the Legislature's agent he was pressing his queries into the political machinery of sprawling Queens Borough, and even into the private financial affairs of Mayor James John ("Jimmy") Walker, who started off last week on another of his famed vacations "for health," this time to Europe.
Pontiff. Peculiarly and paradoxically is Samuel Seabury fitted to sit in judgment upon the wily rulers of the world's greatest city. A reformer by inclination, he is no fanatic; he uses the conventional means of the law. A representative of the Better Element, he has had political experience more varied than the most cunning double-crossing ward heeler. Pontifical are the remarks which he makes in a soft baritone about the weather. Even his manner of blowing his nose in court is sonorous, distinguished. He also has imagination and a sense of humor.
Lawyer Samuel Untermyer, chief legal brains of Tammany Hall, is an elegant dresser, always sports an orchid bontonniere. He usually makes his opponents in court look shabby. Well does Counsel Seabury, who dresses sombrely, almost clerically, know this. When Lawyer Untermyer was defending District Attorney Grain last spring, on the first morning of the trial, Counsel Seabury and his young assistants marched into the courtroom tricked out in morning coats, with sponge-bag trousers and pink carnations, looking like the groomsmen of a wedding party.
Samuel Seabury was born 57 years ago in the parish house of Manhattan's Church of the Annunciation, now obliterated. His great-grandfather was another Samuel Seabury, the first Anglican bishop in America and an out-&-out Tory.
Graduated from New York Law School in 1893, young Samuel Seabury almost immediately took to politics. Aged 24, he was nominated for Alderman by the Citizens' Union. This he refused in order to campaign for Single Taxer Henry George, who died without knowing his cause ' was so disastrously lost. Subsequently he ran for office as a Democrat, a Republican, on Fusion and Progressive tickets. He was made a judge of the City Court in 1901, a judge of the Supreme Court (with Tammany backing) five years later, was elected to the Court of Appeals in 1914. For almost every office to which he was elected he had been previously defeated on the ticket of another party. In 1916 he was the Democratic nominee for Governor. Tammany knifed him, Theodore Roosevelt mysteriously withdrew Progressive support. Disillusioned, Samuel Seabury retired to private practice of law.