in the recent wars with Hungary. I listened with very great interest, and with deep attention, to the speech of the senator, in which he portrayed his accusations against that power. But I was not prepared, and I am not yet prepared, to think the suspension of foreign relations with Austria is the proper form of giving expression to the sentiment which is expressed by the senator, and in which I cordially sympathize, and in which, I doubt not, every member of the Senate sympathizes with him. It was under those circumstances that I submitted the resolution to the Senate, in which I have expressed this sentiment of the American people, of condemnation of the atrocious conduct of Austria, and of deep and profound sympathy with the Hungarian people in their struggles for nationality and independence.

I regret very much that the honorable Senator from Illinois [Mr. DOUGLAS] has thought it necessary, upon the present occasion, to raise a question of comparative merit between the nativeborn and the foreign citizen. If the question, however, must be raised, I am free to say, that to the extent which is implied in the resolution which I have submitted, I give the preference to the foreigner, the emigrant; and that is to this extent: The man who is expelled by tyranny from his own land, in consequence of an effort to establish its nationality and independence, I give, in my sympathies, in my admiration, in my respect, a preference over one who has lost nothing, done nothing, suffered nothing, for his own freedom or for the freedom of mankind.

Further than this, I would not go; and if the Senator from Illinois has inferred that I have sympathies for men of other lands, as men, in preference to my own countrymen, he does me an injustice, which, in due time, when his proposition comes before the Senate, he will have an opportunity to correct. I, sir, have never been-I am not now-I do not know what I may be but I never have been in favor of making the profits arising from the sale of the public lands a source of ordinary revenue in the operations of the government. I have always maintained, and I think I always shall maintain, that it is a great fund, the common property of the whole people of the United States, properly to be applied to objects of great national improvement and beneficence. And in this particular instance, I believe that a proper opportunity is afforded for us to exercise our charity toward those who are entitled to our sympathies for their own struggles for liberty

and independence in foreign lands. Sir, I have never intimated an objection, I do not now say, that I have the slightest objection to the bill insisted upon by my respectable friend from Illinois, which is, I believe, the same in principle with the proposition of the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts, [Mr. WEBSTER,] and with that introduced to-day by the distinguished Senator from Texas, [Mr. HOUSTON.] When their propositions come before the Senate, they shall have my cordial support. I only say this, that the duty of making an expression in regard to the struggles for liberty in Europe was the subject under consideration when my proposition was submitted, and nothing more. I intended to go that length; that expression, I shall humbly insist, ought to be made; and it is not wise, in my judgment, to connect it with other propositions, which will also receive my support. So that I would not have the bill of the distinguished Senator from Illinois, [Mr. DOUGLAS,] or whoever may be entitled to the paternity of it, to be allowed to embarrass the proposition which I have had the honor to submit; nor shall my proposition be allowed to embarrass that of the Senator from Illinois. I hope that I am now understood upon the subject, and that I have relieved myself from whatever censure may have arisen from a misunderstanding of my intentions.

I ask the indulgence of the Senate for one moment, in reply to some remarks of my friend from Georgia, [Mr. DAWSON.] He has alluded to the motives which he supposed to operate upon members of this body, in bringing before the Senate questions of this character. My reply to the senator upon that point will be exceedingly brief. It is, that I am here for public measures, not for private ends that no imputation which can be made, even by a friend whom I esteem and respect so highly as I do my friend from Georgia, shall ever put me before this body, or any other, on a defence of myself against suspicions or complaints of this kind. And now, sir, the point in the remarks which I made, which elicited the most severe rebuke from my friend from Georgia was, that I had always been opposed to the applying of the current revenues arising from the public lands to the ordinary expenses of the federal government. And the senator persisted in supposing that I intended that they should be applied for no other purpose than a charity fund. I will illustrate, for the information of the senator and others, what I mean by the application of those revenues to great national purposes and objects.

The distinguished Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. CLAY,] several years since, by his great influence in the councils of the nation, secured the distribution among the several states of this Union of a portion of these and other surplus revenues of this government. I was at a distance, an humble follower and approver of that policy. The result of it in other states I do not know. But you, Mr. President, [Mr. FILLMORE,] can testify with me the result, the beneficent result, in the state of New York, from which we come. The share which was allotted to us was $6,000,000; the amount we received was $4,500,000. Every dollar of that four and a half millions, sir, more than ten years ago, went to the foundation of public schools, academies, seminaries, and other higher institutions of learning, and of libraries for the common people. And, sir, I will now state to the Senate-and I am proud that, in behalf of the state of New York, I am here this day to state it to the praise and honor of the distinguished Senator from Kentucky— the condition of the state of New York, of the people, bond and free-I might say, if we had any of the former class-native and foreigner, to which they have been brought by this act of justice -I will not call it benevolence. Sir, the state of New York, having a population of three millions of people, has not in it one child of citizen or foreigner that is not educated, from the age of five years to the age of twenty years, at the public cost and expense. Again, sir: at the distance of every mile and a half on every main road, railroad, canal, and cross-road-separated by only a mile and a half-is the school-house of New England. The schoolmaster is at home everywhere in New York, and all the time; and New York has made a trial of the blessed example of Massachusetts and Connecticut. This is what has been done in my day, since my and your experience began; and more than that: in every one of these school-houses is a public library of two hundred and fifty volumes, containing all that is interesting in ancient or modern history or science, literature, geography, and every other branch of human knowledge, open and accessible to every citizen —man, woman, and child—in the state of New York. Yes, sir, these four millions and a half have supplied us with libraries which, taken collectively, contain more than one million of vol

umes.

More than that, sir: there has not been left in the state of New York, the blind person who has not been taught to read his bible

-there has not been left in the state the deaf and dumb, the mute, who has not been brought to be able to give expression of his gratitude and praise to God, and to the state which has brought him from ignorance and degradation below his race. More than that, sir: we have not neglected that other unfortunate class. I have been asked why not consider the free negroes? Sir, the free negroes have been considered. This fund has been appropriated to their advancement, also; to raise their condition; to cultivate them to exercise the rights of self-government, and to carry on the great work of the emancipation of their race wherever they are found in bondage. Yes, sir, five thousand children of the African race are educated out of this great fund of national benevolence. What becomes of the reproach, then, that this is a charity? What would have been the disposition of this fund if it had been left here, sir? It would have been expended as the revenues of this country, always too large, too liberal, have been expended, in improvidence. It is therefore that I have always claimed that it should be distributed among the states, that they might apply it to works of advancement-progress-humanity.

Now, sir, there has been no diminution of the fund all this time. While we have been enjoying this four and a half millions, there is not one dollar of it gone. Every dollar is there yet. It is still in the treasury of the state of New York; and all that has been done has been done only by the use of the money. Tell me, sir, is it not wiser to make such a distribution of this fund than it would be to employ it in encouraging prodigality in the government; than to encourage that lust of conquest in which the Mexican war had its origin, by which were brought into this Union seven hundred and sixty-three millions of acres of public domain, to be added to the one thousand millions we had before? What has it wrought? It has proved, in the words of an honorable senator here, but a Pandora's box of evils; and we are entertained here, day after day, with the intelligence that the Union must be dissolved-that it is really now dissolved-even to-day. We employed the revenues of the public domains in extending our dominions, that were too large unnecessarily large—already. Sir, I want no more Mexican wars, no more lust of conquest, no more of seizing the unripened fruit, which, if left alone, would of itself fall into our hands. I claim that the federal government shall be brought at once to its responsibility to the people, and

that the people shall know what it costs them to indulge it in wars of conquest.

The Senator from Georgia and the Senator from Illinois are grieved that there is a peculiar character about my proposition, in considering the case of foreigners as distinguishable from the case of American citizens. My friend from Georgia supposes that he has found a peculiarly objectionable feature in this proposition, not found in that of the honorable Senator from Massachusetts and of the honorable Senator from Texas, because it provides distinctly for foreigners, without providing for others. Sir, these remarks—and I am sorry to say, the reception, ungracious to me, which they received from the Senator from Illinois-oblige me to say what I would not have said that the way to defeat any benevolent or charitable object is to bring into competition with it some other objects of charity which ought to be provided for first. Sir, the religion which inculcates the duty of charity gives us an admonition against such schemes for defeating the ends of charity.

Mr. DOUGLAS. Will the Senator from New York allow me to call his attention to the fact that my bill was brought in first, and, therefore, that it is his which is in competition with mine?

Mr. SEWARD. I do not allude to the senator's bill. The first time that I have heard of it from a source to which I could acknowledge myself indebted for the information, was this morning; and upon that occasion I rendered to him the deserved homage of my gratitude. I claim, however, that for the senator to join with the Senator from Georgia [Mr. DAWSON] in censuring me because I discriminated between foreigners and native born, was an unkind and an unnecessary return for that homage. I was going on to say, that the religion which inculcates charity at all events, and which will never exculpate him who neglects it, admonishes us also to pour oil upon and anoint with ointmentwith precious ointment-the Savior while he is with us, though the Pharisee may cavil, and say that this precious ointment might have been sold, and the value of it given to the poor. It is no excuse to me for not paying this creditor, that there is another creditor there to whom I am equally indebted; because we have poor in our own country, I am not discharged from the claim of charity upon me in behalf of the exiles, whose liberties have been stricken down, and who have been driven amongst us from