revenues, if any, applied to the
payment of the state debt; Seymour insisted upon their use for the
enlargement of the Erie and the completion of the Black River and
Genesee Valley canals. Both favoured a sinking fund, with which to
extinguish the state debt, and both opposed the construction of any
new work which should add to that debt. But Dennison, with pessimistic
doggedness, denied that there would be sufficient surplus to produce
the desired result. Seymour, with much of the optimism of Seward,
cherished the hope that rich tolls, growing larger as navigation grew
better, would flow into the treasury, until all the canals would be
completed and all the debts wiped out. The Radical was more than a
pessimist--he was a strict constructionist of the act of 1842. He
held that the Seymour bill was a palpable departure from the policy of
that act, and that other measures, soon to follow, would eventually
overthrow such a policy. To all this Seymour replied in his report,
that "just views of political economy are not to be disseminated by
harsh denunciations, which create the suspicion that there is more of
hostility to the interests of those assailed than an honest desire to
protect the treasury of the State."[325]

[Footnote 325: Jabez D. Hammond, _Political History of New York_, Vol.
3, p. 412.]

Hoffman and Seymour set the tone to the debate in the Assembly. They
were, admittedly, the leaders of the two factions, and, although
Hoffman possessed remarkable powers of denunciation, which he used
freely against measures, his courtesy toward opponents was no less
marked than Seymour's.[326] Other Conservatives supported the measure
with ability. But it was Seymour's firmness of mind, suavity of
manner, unwearied patience, and incomparable temper, under a thousand
provocations, that made it possible to pass the bill, substantially as
he wrote it, by a vote of sixty-seven to thirty-eight. Even Michael
Hoffman refused to vote against it, although he did not vote for it.

[Footnote 326: "One morning Hoffman rose to reply to Seymour, but on
learning that he was ill he refused to deliver his speech for two or
three days, till Seymour was able to be in his seat."--H.B. Stanton,
_Random Recollections_, p. 175.]

The measure met fiercer opposition in the Senate. It had more acrid
and irritable members than the Assembly, and its talkers had sharper
tongues. In debate, Foster was the most formidable, but Albert
Lester's acerbity