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her legions to Italy, as she sees her influence about to be felt upon the banks of the Tiber. Poland yet cries beneath her fetters: When will you unbar the prison-door? Europe chides Upon the partition of Poland you claimed the lion's share, and claimed it too at the peace of Vienna.

ence.

And now, you offer Siberia in exchange for fair Hungary. Yet, I was at peace with you. I sought freedom from Austrian tyranny, and you interfered to crown my misfortunes with your cruelties. You warred against my national existYou drove my once happy people to flee for refuge to the mountains; to abandon their hearths; to forsake their altars; to poison their waters, lest they might quench your thirst; to destroy their bread, lest they might feed you; to fire their own dwellings, lest they might shelter you. The work of destruction, which they had not time to complete, you finished. You wantonly desolated their wheat-fields; you tortured their patriot clergy, and inflicted even upon female patriotism, your proverbial cruelties. And now, from the unchanging snows of Siberia, may be heard the wails of unseen Poland, as she rises from her cenotaph, ejaculates the woes and sufferings you have in store for my children, and with a warning voice whispers, "fight on !-fight on!"

Such is the first invective of Hungary against her mediating oppressor. From this she now turns and appeals to the world. To us especially does she thus appeal for sympathy. "You were oppressed; so were we. You declared and fought for independence, and triumphed upon the field of battle; so did we. You have had the experience of nearly three generations, and will you now by silence and inactivity, manifest before the world a trembling distrust in the justice and wisdom of your principles? In the days of your weakness the world sent you a Montgomery, a Kosciusko, and a La Fayette; and now, in the days of your pride and strength, fear not to make some just return.”

CXII. THE ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

FOUR years ago, California, a Mexican province, scarcely inhabited, and quite unexplored, was unknown even to our

UNDIVIDED ALLEGIANCE.

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usually immoderate desires, except by a harbor capacious and tranquil, which only statesmen then foresaw would be useful in the Oriental commerce of a far distant, if not merely chimerical, future.

A year ago, California was a mere military dependency of our own, and we were celebrating with unanimity and enthusiasm, its acquisition, with its newly discovered, but yet untold and untouched mineral wealth, as the most auspicious of many and unparalleled achievements.

To-day, California is a State, more populous than the least, and richer than several of the greatest of our thirty States. This same California, thus rich and populous, is here asking admission into the Union, and finds us debating the dissolution of the Union itself.

No wonder if we are perplexed with ever-changing embarrassments! no wonder if we are appalled by ever-increasing responsibilities! no wonder if we are bewildered by the everaugmenting magnitude and rapidity of national vicissitudes! Shall California be received? For myself, upon my individual judgment and conscience, I answer, yes. For myself, as an instructed representative of one of the States of that one even of the States which is soonest and longest to be pressed in commercial and political rivalry, by the new Commonwealth-I answer, yes; let California come in. Every new State, whether she come from the East or from the West-every new State, coming from whatever part of the continent she may-is always welcome. But California, that comes from the clime where the West dies away into the rising East-California, which bounds at once the empire and the continent-California, the youthful queen of the Pacific, in her robes of freedom, gorgeously inlaid with gold-is doubly welcome.

in

CXIII.-UNDIVIDED ALLEGIANCE.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

I HAVE heard somewhat here-and almost for the first time my life—of divided allegiance—of allegiance to the South and to the Union-of allegiance to the States severally and to the Union. Sir, if sympathies with State emulation and

pride of achievement could be allowed to raise up another sovereign to divide the allegiance of a citizen of the United States, I might recognize the claims of the State to which, by birth and gratitude, I belong to the State of Hamilton and Jay, of Schuyler, of the Clintons, and of Fulton-the State which, with less than two hundred miles of natural navigation connected with the ocean, has, by her own enterprise secured to herself the commerce of the continent, and is steadily advancing to the command of the commerce of the world. But for all this, I know only one country and one sovereign—the United States of America, and the American people. And such as my allegiance is, is the loyalty of every other citizen of the United States. As I speak, he will speak when his time arrives. He knows no other country and no other sovereign. He has life, liberty, property, and precious affections, and hopes for himself and his posterity, treasured up in the ark of the Union. He knows as well, and feels as strongly as I do, that this Government is his own Government; that he is a part of it; that it was established for him, and that it is maintained by him; that it is the only truly wise, just, free, and equal Government that has ever existed; that no other Government could be so wise, just, free, and equal; and that it is safer and more beneficent than any which time or change could bring into its place.

You may tell me, sir, that although all this may be true, yet the trial of faction has not yet been made. Sir, if the trial of faction has not been made, it has not been because faction has not always existed, and has not always menaced a trial, but because faction could find no fulcrum on which to place the lever to subvert the Union, as it can find no fulcrum now; and in this is my confidence. I would not rashly provoke the trial, but I will not suffer a fear which I have not, to make me compromise one sentiment-one principle of truth or justice-to avert a danger that all experience teaches me is purely chimerical. Let, then, those who distrust the Union, make compromises to save it. I shall not impeach their wisdom, as I certainly cannot their patriotism; but indulging no such apprehensions myself, I shall vote for the admission of California directly, without conditions, with out qualifications, and without compromise.

For the vindication of that vote, I look not to the verdict of the passing hour, disturbed as the public mind now is by conflicting interests and passions, but to that period, happily

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not far distant, when the vast regions over which we are now legislating shall have received its destined inhabitants.

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While looking forward to that day, its countless generations seem to me to be rising up, and passing in dim and shadowy review before us; and a voice comes forth from their serried ranks, saying, Waste your treasures and your armies, if you will; raze your fortifications to the ground; sink your navies into the sea; transmit to us even a dishonored name, if you must; but the soil you hold in trust for us, give it to us free. You found it free, and conquered it to extend a better and surer freedom over it. Whatever choice you have made for yourselves, let us have no partial freedom; let us all be free; let the reversion of your broad domain descend to us unencumbered, and free from the calamities and sorrows of human bondage."

CXIV.-MEANS OF HEALTH.

HORACE MANN.

SEE how the means of sustenance and comfort are distributed and diversified throughout the earth. There is not a mood of body, from the wantonness of health to the languor of the death-bed, for which the wonderful alchemy of nature does not proffer some luxury to stimulate our pleasures; or her pharmacy some catholicon to assuage our pains. What textures for clothing-from the gossamer thread which the silk-worm weaves, to silk-like furs which the winds of Zembla cannot penetrate! As the materials from which to construct our dwellings, what Quinceys and New Hampshires of granite, what Alleghanies of oak, and what forests of pine, belting the continent ! What coal-fields to supply the lost warmth of the receding sun! Nakedness, and famine, and pestilence are not inexorable ordinances of nature. Nudity and rags are only human idleness or ignorance out on exhibition. The cholera is but the wrath of God against uncleanliness and intemperance. Farnine is only a proof of individual misconduct, or of national misgovernment. In the woes of Ireland, God is proclaiming the wickedness of England, in tones as clear and articulate as those in which He spoke from Sinai; and it needs no Hebraist to translate the thunder.

And if famine needs not to be, then other forms of destitution and misery need not to be. But amid the exuberance of this country, our dangers spring from abundance rather than from scarcity. Young men, especially young men in our cities, walk in the midst of allurements for the appetite. Hence, health is imperiled; and so indispensable an element is health in all forms of human welfare, that whoever invigorates his health has already obtained one of the greatest guaranties of mental superiority, of usefulness, and of virtue. Health, strength, longevity, depend upon immutable laws. There is no chance about them. There is no arbitrary interference of higher powers with them. Primarily, our parents, and secondarily, ourselves, are responsible for them. The providence of God is no more responsible, because the viruÎence of disease rises above the power of all therapeutics, or because one quarter part of the race die before completing the age of one year,—-die before completing one seventieth part of the term of existence allotted to them by the Psalmist ;—I say the providence of God is no more responsible for these things, than it is for picking pockets or stealing horses.

CXV.-BRIEF AUTHORITY.

JAMES A. BAYARD.

Ir has been stated as the reproach, sir, of the bill of the last session, that it was made by a party at the moment when they were sensible that their power was expiring and passing into other hands. It is enough for me that the full and legitimate power existed. The remnant was plenary and efficient. And it was our duty to employ it according to our judgments and consciences, for the good of the country. We thought the bill a salutary measure, and there was no obligation upon us to leave it as a work for our successors. Nay, sir, I have no hesitation in avowing, that I had no con fidence in the persons who were to follow us. And I was the more anxious, while we had the means, to accomplish a work which I believed they would not do, and which I sincerely thought would contribute to the safety of the nation, by giving strength and support to the constitution, through the storm to which it was likely to be exposed. The fears which

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