Chapter XII (2)

The Legislature of SOUTH CAROLINA met in special session on the 3d of December, and the Message of Governor SEABROOK was received on the same day. The Governor says that during the year he has purchased largely of muskets and rifles, and caused several thousand musket accoutrements to be manufactured at Columbia. He wishes the Legislature to authorize him to purchase eighteen brass field-pieces, to establish foundries for cannon and small-arms. He complains of the North on account of the incendiary resolutions of State Legislatures; the sweeping denunciations emanating from abolition associations; the bitter and vindictive feelings of the press, the bar, and the pulpit: the inflammatory harangues to popular meetings; the encouragement and aid given to runaway slaves, &c., which unwarrantable proceedings have caused South Carolina, for about one-third of her political existence, to present an almost uninterrupted scene of disquietude and excitement. He says that "the time has arrived to resume the exercise of the powers of self-protection, which, in the hour of unsuspecting confidence, we surrendered to foreign hands. We must reorganize our political system on some surer and safer basis. There is no power, moral or physical, that can prevent it. The event is indissolubly linked with its cause, and fixed as destiny." Resolutions had been introduced into the Legislature upon these subjects, but no action has been had upon them.

The Legislature of FLORIDA met on the 25th of November, and the Governor's Message was at once delivered. Gov. BROWN, though a strong friend of the Union, expresses serious concern for the perpetuity of the Union, in consequence of the manifestations of Northern sentiment on their obligations under the Federal compact. He asks from the Legislature authority to call a convention of the people of the State, in the event of the repeal of the fugitive slave bill, or the consummation of any other aggressive measure.

The Nashville Convention adjourned on the 18th of November. Resolutions were passed expressing attachment to a constitutional Union, but declaring the right of any State to secede; expressing also the conviction that "the evils anticipated by the South, in forming this Convention had been realized, in the passage of the recent compromise acts of Congress. They further recommended to the South, not to go into any National Convention for the nomination of President and Vice-President of the United States, until the constitutional rights of the South were secured. They also recommended to the slaveholding States to go into convention, with a view to the restraint of further aggression, and if possible, to the restoration of the rights of the South. The Tennessee delegation protested against the adoption of the resolutions, declaring the proceeding to be "unhallowed and unworthy of Southern men."

Large public meetings have been held in various sections of the country in favor of the Union and of the Compromise measures of the last session of Congress. One was held at Philadelphia on the 21st of November, attended by six or seven thousand people, and numbering among its officers some of the most respectable citizens of Philadelphia. Hon. John Sargeant presided, and speeches were made by Messrs. Dallas, J. R. Ingersoll, Rush, Randall, and others. Letters were received from the Hon. Messrs. Clay, Webster, Cass, and other gentlemen of distinction, who were unable to be present. Mr. Randall, in his remarks, said, that the general impression, that the clause in the Constitution requiring the return of fugitive slaves was the result of a compromise, was erroneous: the records of the Convention would show that it was adopted unanimously, and without amendment. Resolutions expressive of strong attachment to the Constitution, of obligation to abide by its provisions, of determination to maintain the supremacy of the laws, of disapprobation of anti-slavery agitation, and of approval of the Compromise measures, were adopted with much applause.

A very large meeting of a similar character was held at Boston, on the 26th, in Faneuil Hall. Dr. J. C. Warren, a descendant of General Warren, who fell at Bunker's Hill, presided, and on taking the chair made an eloquent and patriotic speech. Resolutions were adopted, asserting that the preservation of the Constitution and Union is the paramount duty of all classes; that the blessings flowing from the Constitution vastly transcend in importance all other political considerations; that the laws of the land are equally binding on every State, and upon all citizens, and no one can refuse, or seem to refuse to obey them; that the measures of compromise passed by the last Congress ought to be carried out by the people; that resistance to law is mischievous, and that all who advise those who may be the subject of any law, to resist, deserve the opprobrium of the community, and the severe penalty of the law; that at all times, and in all places, the citizens of Boston will sustain the Union, uphold the Constitution, and enforce obedience to the law. Speeches were made by B. R. Curtis, Esq., Hon. B. F. Hallett, and Hon. Rufus Choate, which were received with enthusiastic applause.

A Union meeting was held at Nashville, Tennessee, on the 23d, which was characterized by unanimity and great enthusiasm. The speakers were, Hon. Andrew Ewing, and Hon. A. J. Donaldson. Resolutions were passed declaring that no State has the constitutional right to secede, and that any such attempt would be revolutionary, and its consequences entail civil strife and bloodshed; that the continual agitation of the slavery issue, will, if persisted in, lead to the total alienation of one section of the Union from the other; that the people of the States have the right, whenever palpably, intolerably, and unconstitutionally oppressed, to throw off the chains that oppress them, but there is no present necessity for the exercise of this right that an attempt to repeal, or failure to enforce the fugitive slave law, will unite all the South, and most probably end in a total separation of the States; and that the Compromise measures of Congress meet their approbation, as the best that, under the circumstances, could be adopted, and they pledge themselves to give them hearty support.

A Union meeting was held at Staunton, Virginia, on the 25th of November, over which Col. JAMES CRAWFORD presided. Resolutions were adopted declaring the readiness of those assembled to meet all good citizens of every section, and of every party, on the platform of the Constitution, the Compromise, and the Union; and also expressing the belief that the maintenance of the Compromise in all its parts, without modification or amendment, is essential to the preservation of the Union. Letters were read from a number of distinguished gentlemen who had been invited, but were unable to be present.

A large meeting was held at Manchester, N. H., on the 20th of November, at which resolutions were passed expressing devotion to the Union, and a determination to stand by the Compromise measures, and to resist all further agitation of the subject.

A large Union meeting was held in Cincinnati, on the 14th of November, at which resolutions were adopted declaring their approval of, and determination to support, the measures of peace and compromise relative to the admission of California as a State; the establishment of the Territorial Governments of New Mexico and Utah; the settlement of the boundary question of Texas; the abolition of the slave trade in the district of Columbia; and the provision the more effectually to secure the observance of the constitutional duty to deliver up fugitives owing service or labor. They also declared that they condemned, and would oppose all forcible resistance to the execution of the law of the General Government for the re-capture of fugitives owing service or labor; that they regard such law as constitutional--in accordance with the compromise which formed the Union, and that they would sustain and enforce it by all proper and legal means, as a matter of constitutional compromise and obligation. And furthermore they declared that any effort to re-open the delicate and distracting questions settled and compromised by the Compromise and Peace measures passed during the late session of Congress are factious, and should be disapproved and opposed.

During the past month letters and speeches, upon the engrossing topic of the day, from some of the most eminent men in the country, have been given to the public, and have attracted a good deal of attention. They have been mainly on the side of the Compromise measures of the last session of Congress; as the agitation upon the other side, in the Northern States at least, has for the present almost wholly ceased. A speech of very marked and characteristic ability was made by the Hon. RUFUS CHOATE, at the Faneuil Hall Union meeting in Boston. Mr. C. thought that the union of these States was in manifest peril, mainly from a public opinion created by restless and unprincipled men. He traced, with great skill and in very graphic and eloquent language, the manner in which public opinion is moulded by the unceasing efforts of the press and the orator, and that it is only by a prolonged and voluntary educational process that the fine and strong spirit of nationality is made to penetrate the great mass of the people, and the full tide of American feeling to fill the mighty heart. He then depicted the manner in which hostility of sentiment and sympathy between different sections of the country has been created and is kept alive. Coming, then, to the means by which danger to the Union can be best averted, he said the first and foremost thing to be done was to accept that whole body of measures of Compromise, by which the Government has sought to compose the country, and then for every man to set himself to suppress the further political agitation of this whole subject. These measures were then referred to, one after the other, and the essential justice and expediency of each were declared. The two great political parties of the North, he said, ought at once to strike this whole subject from their respective issues. He was not for any amalgamation of parties, or for the formation of any new one: the two great parties had united for the settlement of this great question, and they could now revive the old creeds, return to their old positions, and so spare America that last calamity, the formation of parties according to geographical lines. The conscience of the community, moreover, is bound to discourage and modify the further agitation of the subject of slavery, in the spirit in which, thus far, that agitation has been carried on. It is a great error to suppose that conscience or philanthropy requires the constant agitation of this topic. We of the North have nothing whatever to do with slavery in the Southern States, for we have solemnly covenanted with them that we will not interfere with it, and that we will perform certain duties growing out of it. Those duties are obligatory upon us, and no pretense of a higher law can absolve us from them. These positions were presented by Mr. Choate with all his accustomed strength, and with even more than the warmth of feeling and profusion of illustration which distinguish all his efforts.

Mr. WEBSTER wrote a letter in reply to an invitation to attend the great Union meeting at Staunton, Va., approving most heartily of the objects of the proposed meeting, and assuring them, of his hearty sympathy and his unchangeable purpose to co-operate with them and other good men in upholding the honor of the States, and the Constitution of the Government. Political martyrdom, he declares, would be preferable to beholding the voluntary dismemberment of this glorious Republic. "It is better to die while the honor of the country is untarnished, and the flag of the Union still flying over our heads, than to live to behold that honor gone forever, and that flag prostrate in the dust." He assures them, from personal observation at the North, that through the masses of the Northern people the general feeling and the great cry is, for the Union, and for its preservation: and, "while there prevails a general purpose to maintain the Union as it is, that purpose embraces, as its just and necessary means, a firm resolution of supporting the rights of all the States, precisely as they stand guaranteed and secured by the Constitution. And you may depend upon it," he adds, "that every provision in that instrument in favor of the rights of Virginia and the other Southern States, and every constitutional act of Congress, passed to uphold and enforce those rights, will be upheld and maintained not only by the power of the law, but also by the prevailing influence of public opinion. Accidents may occur to defeat the execution of a law in a particular instance; misguided men may, it is possible, sometimes enable others to elude the claims of justice and the rights founded in solemn constitutional compact, but, on the whole, and in the end, the law will be executed and obeyed; the South will see that there is principle and patriotism, good sense and honesty, in the general minds of the North; and that among the great mass of intelligent citizens in that quarter, the general disposition to ask for justice is not stronger than the disposition to grant it to others." Mr. WEBSTER closes his letter by urging the people of Virginia to teach their young men to study the early history of the country, the feebleness of the Confederation--and to trace the steps, the votes, the efforts, and the labor by which the present Constitution was formed. He exhorts them to stand by their country, to stand by the work of their fathers, to stand by the Union of the States, "and may Almighty God prosper all our efforts in the cause of liberty, and in the cause of that United Government which renders this people the happiest people upon which the sun ever shone!"

Hon. A. H. H. STUART, Secretary of the Interior, wrote a letter also on the same occasion in reply to a similar invitation. He expresses great satisfaction that meetings in behalf of the Union are held throughout the country. He says he believes that the integrity of the Union, and the peace of the country, will mainly depend on the course which the people of Virginia may adopt in the present crisis. There has been a melancholy change in the feelings of the people toward the Union, he thinks, within a few years past. Then, nothing but his advanced age, the respect felt for his character, and the strongest professions of attachment to the Union, prevented John Quincy Adams from public censure or expulsion for simply presenting a petition to Congress for a dissolution of the Union. Now, dissolution is openly advocated in speeches, pamphlets, and the newspaper press. Let the idea go abroad that Virginia sanctions such sentiments as these, and our Union is but a rope of sand. The only safe reliance, Mr. Stuart thinks, is for Virginia to assume her old position of mediator and pacificator. "Let her speak in language that can not be misunderstood. Let her blend kindness with firmness. _But let no lingering doubt remain as to her loyalty to the Union._" Twenty years ago, when the Union was in danger, General Jackson declared that it must be preserved. General Jackson slumbers in his grave, and there are men plotting disunion over his very ashes. But Mr. Stuart assures those to whom he writes, that we have a man at the head of the Government "not less devoted to the Union than Jackson, and not less determined to use all the powers vested in him by the Constitution to maintain it. He justly appreciates his obligations to maintain the integrity of the Constitution, and to see that the laws are faithfully executed. He will know no distinction between the North and the South, but will enforce obedience to the laws every where."

Hon. H. W. HILLIARD, Member of Congress from Alabama, has written a letter declining a re-nomination, and discussing at some length the present condition of public affairs. The events of the past year, instead of impairing the strength of our political system, have, in his judgment, really served to demonstrate it. There is a growing conviction in the mind of the whole nation that the Constitution must be adhered to in its pristine spirit, and that, while it is adhered to, the republic will endure. He had no fear that the extension of our limits would enfeeble us. Our progress is the spread of a great family, all bearing with them the law, the traditions, the sympathies, and the religion of those from whom they sprung. The true way of perpetuating our Union is by multiplying the means of intercommunication, by making taxes as light as possible, by reducing postage, multiplying railroads, and bringing the Pacific coast nearer to us by the early construction of one of those great highways. The scheme of retaliation, lately projected, of discriminating against the products of other States must be abandoned, and our whole legislation, State and National, must be guided by a comprehensive, national, and patriotic spirit. "These States must regard each other as kindred States; the Constitution must be recognized in all of them as the supreme law; and the acts of Congress, passed in accordance with its provisions, must be obeyed, and we must fix in our minds and in our hearts the idea that, as we have had a common origin, we must have a common destiny." The measures of the last session must be regarded as a final adjustment of the disturbing questions growing out of slavery. Mr. H. exhorts to a conciliatory and a patriotic spirit. "Let us forbear," he says, "any hostile acts on our own part. I certainly desire to see in the midst of the great agricultural regions of the South a varied industry, which shall rival that of the North, and which shall spread over our fertile plains all the embellishments which wealth and a high civilization can bestow. I desire, too, to see a direct trade with foreign countries carried on through Southern ports. But I desire to see all this brought about by the enterprise and the energy of our people, entering into a bold and generous competition with those of the other States. We should seek to make Alabama a great and wealthy State; and we can do this by the vigorous development of our resources. Our fertile soil, our noble streams, our great cotton crop, our exhaustless mineral wealth, our population intelligent, industrious, enterprising, and religious--these will enable us to advance with a steady and rapid march in civilization, without resorting to legislative expedients to tax the products of other States associated with us in a common Government, one of the great objects of which is, to keep open the channels of intercommunication."

Hon. LEVI WOODBURY wrote a letter expressing regret that he could not attend the Union Meeting held at Manchester, N. H., on the 20th of November. He says that without more forbearance as to agitation of the subject of slavery, it is his solemn conviction, the Union will be placed in fearful jeopardy. He mentions as an alarming sign of the times the fact that any portion of our law-abiding community should either recommend forcible resistance to the laws, or actually participate in measures designed to overawe the constituted authorities, and defeat the execution of legal precepts issued by those authorities. This, he says, is in direct hostility to the injunctions of Washington in his Farewell Address to his grateful countrymen; and seems no less hostile and derogatory to every sound principle for sustaining public order and obedience to what the legislative agents of the people and the States have enacted.

A letter from Mr. WEBSTER, written on the same occasion, also alludes to the disposition which is abroad to evade the laws, and to resist them so far as it can be done consistently with personal safety. A "still more extravagant notion," he says, "is sometimes entertained, which is, that individuals may judge of their rights and duties, under the Constitution and the laws, by some rule which, according to their idea, is above both the Constitution and the laws." Both these positions are denounced as at war with all government and with all morality. "It is time," Mr. Webster adds, "that discord and animosity should cease. It is time that a better understanding and more friendly sentiments were revived between the North and the South. And I am sure that all wise and good men will see the propriety of forbearing from renewing agitation by attempts to repeal the late measures, or any of them. I do not see that they contain unconstitutional or alarming principles, or that they forebode the infliction of wrong or injury. When real and actual evil arises, if it shall arise, the laws ought to be amended or repealed; but in the absence of imminent danger I see no reason at present for renewed controversy or contention."

Mr. CLAY, upon formal invitation of that body, visited the Legislature of Kentucky on the 15th of November. He was welcomed by the Speaker of the House in some brief and appropriate remarks to which he responded at considerable length. He spoke mainly of the measures of the session in which he had borne so conspicuous a part. The session, he said, opened under peculiarly unfavorable auspices. The sentiment of disunion was openly avowed, and a sectional convention of delegates had been assembled, the tendency of which was to break up the confederacy. In common with others, Mr. Clay said he had foreseen the coming storm, and it was the hope that he might assist in allaying it that led him to return to the Senate. The subject had long engaged his most anxious thoughts, and the result of his reflections was the series of propositions which he presented to Congress soon after the opening of the session. A committee of thirteen was afterward appointed to which the whole matter was referred and they reported substantially the same measures which he had proposed. At that time he was decidedly in favor of the immediate admission of California into the Union as a separate and distinct measure; but subsequent observation of the hostility which it encountered led him to modify his opinions, and unite it with kindred measures in one common bill. In excluding the Wilmot Proviso, which had previously been the great aim and object of the South, they obtained a complete triumph--and obtained it, too, by the liberal, magnanimous and patriotic aid of the northern members. It is true they may never be able to establish slavery in any of this newly acquired territory; but that is not the fault of Congress, which has adhered strictly to the policy of non-intervention, but of the people of the territory themselves to whom the whole subject has been committed. The boundary of Texas gave rise to by far the most intricate and perplexing question of the Session. Various opinions were held in regard to it by various interests, and the matter seemed to him eminently one for compromise and amicable adjustment. We gave what seems a large sum (ten millions of dollars), to Texas for relinquishing her claim, but half this amount we owed her creditors for having taken the revenues to which they looked for payment of their debts. Mr. Clay said he voted the money very cheerfully, because he believed it would be applied to the payment of her public debt; and he wished that we had some legitimate ground for giving to every debtor State in the Union money enough to pay all its debts, and restore its credit wherever it has been tarnished. Of the fugitive slave bill Mr. Clay said simply that its object was simply to give fair, full, and efficacious effect to the constitutional provision for the surrender of fugitives. The act abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia, was of little practical importance to southern interests, while it was demanded by every consideration of humanity and of national self-respect. In looking at the result of the whole, Mr. Clay thought that neither party, so far as California is concerned, could be said to have lost or gained any thing, while in regard to the territorial bills and the fugitive slave law the South had gained all it could reasonably claim. The effect of these measures, Mr. Clay thought, would be to allay agitation and pacify and harmonize the country. At all events it will greatly circumscribe the field of agitation: for none of these measures can be opened for renewed action except the fugitive slave bill; and when the dispute is narrowed down to that single ground the slaveholding States have decidedly the advantage. The Constitution is with them, the right is with them, and the State which shall oppose the execution of the law will place itself manifestly in the wrong. It was not to be expected that these measures would lead to immediate and general acquiescence on the part of the ultras of either section; but Mr. Clay did confidently anticipate that all their mad efforts would be put down by the intelligence, the patriotism, and the love of union of the people of the various States. Mr. Clay went on to draw a picture of the condition of the country, and especially of the slaveholding States, in the event of a dissolution of the Union. Under the present law the South will not probably recover all their fugitive slaves; but they will recover some of them. But in the event of disunion not one could be demanded. Mr. Clay said he had often been asked when he would consent to a dissolution of the Union. He answered _Never_, because he could conceive of no possible contingency that would make it for the interest and happiness of the people to break up this glorious confederacy. He would yield to it, if Congress were to usurp a power, which he was sure, it never would, of abolishing slavery within the States, for in the contingency of such a usurpation we should be in a better condition as to slavery out of the Union than in it. He believed that the time would come, at some very distant day, when the density of the population of the United States would be so great that free labor would be cheaper than slave labor, and that then the slaves would be set free; and that Africa would be competent to receive, by colonization from America, all the descendants of its own race. If the agitation of this subject should be continued, it must lead to the formation of two parties--one for the Union and the other against it. If such a division should become necessary, he announced himself a member of the Union party what ever might be its elements. He would go further. "I have had," said he, "great hopes and confidence in the principles of the Whig party, as being most likely to conduce to the honor, to the prosperity, and the glory of my country. But if it is to be merged into a contemptible abolition party, and if abolitionism is to be engrafted on the Whig creed, from that moment I renounce the party, and cease to be a Whig. I go yet a step further: if I am alive, I will give my humble support for the Presidency to that man, to whatever party he may belong, who is uncontaminated by fanaticism, rather than to one who, crying out all the time and aloud that he is a Whig, maintains doctrines utterly subversive of the Constitution and the Union." Mr. Clay said that the events of the last few months had thrown together men of opposite parties, and he could say with truth and pleasure that during the late session he was in conference quite as often, if not oftener, with Democrats than Whigs; and he "found in the Democratic party quite as much patriotism, devotion to the Union, honor, and probity as in the other party."

Gen. JAMES HAMILTON has recently addressed a somewhat remarkable letter to the people of South Carolina upon the state of public affairs and the course which he desires his own State to pursue. Gen. H. was the Governor of South Carolina during the nullification crisis, and is fully imbued with the spirit of resistance to the Union. But he is also a man of great practical sagacity, and after carefully surveying the whole field, he is convinced that action now on the part of South Carolina would be ruinous to her cause. He has been all through the Southern States, and says he is satisfied that, in the event of such action, there is not another Southern State that would join her in it. He sketches the state of feeling in each of the States he has visited, and represents the Union party as decidedly in the ascendant in every one of them. He proceeds to say that although some of the recent measures of Congress, and particularly the admission of California, were exceedingly unjust to the South, yet they afford no justification for a disruption of the confederacy. Many, he says, believe that in the event of secession a collision will arise with the Federal Government, and South Carolina would have the sympathy and the aid of the other Southern States. But he does not believe the Federal Government would bring on any such collision; he thinks they would only prevent goods from entering their ports, carry the mail directly past them, and transfer all the commerce which they now enjoy to Savannah. He thinks South Carolina should await the result of the great battle in the North, between those who stand up for the rights of the South and their opponents. If the latter prevail and elect their President two years hence, the fugitive slave law will be repealed, slavery will be abolished in the District of Columbia, and a crisis will then occur which will inevitably unite the South. He urges them to await this event. The letter is written with great energy and eloquence, and will have a wide and marked influence upon public sentiment.

A complimentary public dinner was given to Hon. JOHN M. CLAYTON at Wilmington, on the 16th of November, by his political friends. Mr. CLAYTON, in reply to a complimentary toast, made an extended and eloquent speech, mainly in vindication of the administration of Gen. TAYLOR from the reproach which political opponents had thrown upon it. He showed that in proposing to admit California as a State, and to organize the territories of New Mexico and Utah as States, with such constitutions as their inhabitants might see fit to frame, Gen. TAYLOR only followed the recommendations which had been made by President POLK in 1848, which had been approved by Mr. CALHOUN in 1847, and which had then received the support of the great body of the political friends of both those statesmen. And yet his course was most bitterly opposed by the very persons who had previously approved the same principles. Mr. CLAYTON said he did not believe, and he never had believed, that there was any danger of disunion from the adoption of General Taylor's recommendations, and he ridiculed the clamor and the apprehension, that had been aroused upon the subject. The greatest obstruction both to the President and the country, arose out of the attempt to embody all the measures on the subject in a single bill; and yet the effort had been made to throw the blame of its failure upon the President and his Cabinet. His death showed the groundlessness of the charge, for the omnibus immediately failed. Mr. CLAYTON went on at considerable length to review the policy, both foreign and domestic, of the late administration, and to vindicate it from all the slanders and obloquy heaped upon it. He afterward, in response to a remark nominating General SCOTT as the next candidate for the Presidency, gave a glowing and eloquent sketch of the life and military career of that eminent soldier.

Hon. JOEL R. POINSETT has written a letter to his fellow-citizens of South Carolina, remonstrating earnestly against the scheme of secession which they seem inclined to adopt. He vindicates each of the Compromise measures from the objections urged against it, and insists that there is no such thing under the Constitution as a right of secession. Such a step could only result in the injury and ruin of South Carolina, and he therefore earnestly exhorts them not to venture upon it.

A letter from Hon. RICHARD RUSH, formerly U. S. Minister in France, has also been published, condemning very severely the anti-slavery agitation of the day, and urging the necessity of concession and harmony in order to the preservation of the Union.

Hon. GEORGE THOMPSON, a member of the British Parliament somewhat celebrated for his oratorical efforts in England and the United States in behalf of Abolition, is now in this country. Arrangements had been made by the Anti-Slavery men in Boston to give him a public reception at Faneuil Hall on his arrival. The meeting on the occasion was very large. Edmund Quincy presided. W. L. Garrison read an address detailing Mr. Thompson's exertions on behalf of abolition, and mentioning the facts attending his expulsion from this country fifteen years ago. The latter part of the address was interrupted by considerable noise, and several speakers who afterward attempted to address the meeting were not permitted to do so. No violence was attempted, but the meeting was compelled to disperse. Mr. Thompson has since been lecturing in Boston and other towns of Massachusetts on various topics not connected with slavery. His audiences have been good and he has been undisturbed.

We have received intelligence from CALIFORNIA, by the arrival of the regular mail steamers, to the 1st of November. The cholera had made its appearance at Sacramento City, but had not been very virulent or destructive. The steamer Sagamore burst her boilers on the 29th of October, while lying at her wharf at San Francisco, killing ten or fifteen persons and seriously injuring a number of others.

The admission of California into the Union was celebrated on the 29th of October with great _eclat_ at San Francisco. An address was delivered by Hon. Nathaniel Bennett, and a splendid ball was given in the evening.

An official statement shows that from Nov. 12, 1849, to Sept. 30, 1850, the total amount of bullion cleared from San Francisco was $17,822,877, and the amount received was $2,134,000. Business in California was very good.

The mines continued to yield satisfactory returns. The gold deposits on the Upper Sacramento are worked with increased industry and success. Those on the Klamath and its tributaries, which have been discovered during the past year, prove to be exceedingly productive. Not less than a thousand persons have been engaged in working them within twenty miles of the mouth of the river, and their returns are said to average fully an ounce per day. The Klamath river is about a mile wide at its mouth, which is easy of access, and for forty miles up the stream there is no interruption to steamboat navigation. The junction of the Salmon river is ninety miles above. Midway between these points the river travel is impeded by rocks, so that boats can not pass; but, after leaving these, there is no obstacle up to the Falls at the mouth of Salmon river. Both here and at the rocks, town sites have been selected. Twenty miles above the Salmon, the Trinity river comes into the Klamath. The land around these rivers is, with little exception, favorable to agricultural purposes.

From OREGON we have intelligence to the 25th of October. The rainy season had set in, but not with much severity. The Oregon Spectator states that emigrants from the Cascade Mountains were arriving every day, though quite a number were still on the way. It is feared that they will suffer severely, especially from falling snow, though the government was doing all in its power for their relief. Quite a number of them intend to winter on the Columbia, between the Cascades and Dalles, as they find excellent food for their cattle in that section. The amount of wheat grown in the territory during the past season is estimated at 800,000 bushels.

MEXICO.

We have intelligence from the City of Mexico to November 13th. The question of the Presidency, it is conceded, is definitely settled in favor of Arista. The financial condition of the Republic still engages the attention of Congress, which body is yet occupied in arranging the interior and foreign debt. General Thomas Reguena died on the 13th ultimo, at Guadalajara, and General Manuel Romero on the 31st, at San Louis Potosi. General Joaquin Rea, living at a village called Minerva, was, about the same time, murdered by one Felipe Delgado, and a band of scoundrels under his command. The _Siglo_ announces positively that the Mexican Government has concluded two contracts with Colonel Ramsey, for the transportation of foreign mails through the Republic. The Mexican Government will receive $20 for every 100 pounds of correspondence and 20 cents for every 100 pounds of newspapers. By another contract there is to be communication between New Orleans and Vera Cruz twice a month, between New York and Vera Cruz, by the way of Havana, twice a month, and between a Mexican port and San Francisco, once a month. It appears that at its session of the 18th of July last, the Mexican Geographical and Statistical Society elected Daniel Webster a corresponding member. The _Monitor Republicane_ learns by letters from New Grenada, that the Jesuits have been expelled from that country. The Congress of that Republic confirmed the decree of the Government with great unanimity.

GREAT BRITAIN.

Public attention in England continues to be absorbed by the bitter controversies excited by the Pope's bull extending his jurisdiction over that kingdom. Immense public meetings have been held in several of the principal cities of the kingdom, at which the Roman Catholic system has been unsparingly denounced. The newspaper press, daily and weekly, teems with articles upon the subject, and pamphlets have been issued by several of the most eminent dignitaries of both the Catholic and the Established Churches. The Government has been driven to take part in the war of words, and a letter from the Premier, Lord JOHN RUSSELL, to the Bishop of Durham, has been published, in which the proceedings of the Pope are severely censured, and contemptuous expressions are used concerning the ceremonials of the Roman Catholic worship. The newly appointed Cardinal WISEMAN, has issued an able, elaborate, and temperate "Appeal to the Reason and Good Feeling of the English People," against the violent clamor by which he and his church have been assailed. This paper seeks to vindicate the proceeding of the Pope from censure, by showing that there is nothing in it inconsistent, in any way, with loyalty to the English government, as the only authority sought to be exercised is spiritual and voluntary. The letter of the Premier is very closely analyzed, and sharp reference is made to the complaints made by the Chapter of Westminster, of his assuming the Archiepiscopal title. He proposes a "fair division" of the two different parts embraced in Westminster proper. One comprises the stately Abbey, with its adjacent palaces and royal parks: this he does not covet: to it "the duties of the Dean and Chapter are mainly confined, and they shall range there undisturbed." He looks for his field of labor to another quarter. "Close under the Abbey of Westminster," he says, "there lie concealed labyrinths of lanes and courts, and alleys and slums, nests of ignorance, vice, depravity, and crime, as well as of squalor, wretchedness, and disease; whose atmosphere is typhus, whose ventilation is cholera; in which swarms a huge and almost countless population, in great measure, nominally at least, Catholic; haunts of filth, which no sewerage committee can reach--dark corners, which no lighting board can brighten. This is the part of Westminster which alone I covet, and which I shall be glad to claim and visit, as a blessed pasture in which sheep of holy Church are to be tended, in which a bishop's godly work has to be done, of consoling, converting, and preserving;" and if the wealth of the Abbey is to remain stagnant and not diffusive, he trusts there will be no jealousy of one who, by whatever name, is willing to make the latter his care without interfering with the former. The letter is written with great ability, and is well calculated to make a deep impression. The dignitaries of the English church have also written various letters upon the subject, all in the same tone, modified only by the individual temper of the several writers. Large and influential public meetings have been held at Liverpool, Bristol, and other cities.

The friends of Law Reform in England took advantage of the recent visit of D.D. FIELD, Esq., of New York, one of the Commissioners for revising the Code of that State, to revive the general interest felt in the same subject in England. Mr. FIELD addressed the Law Amendment Society upon the subject, at its request: his statements were heard with marked attention, and excited a good deal of interest.

The Chamber of Commerce at Manchester has taken up the promotion of the growth of cotton in India with much earnestness. The British Government could not be induced, last session of Parliament, to respond to the wishes of the Chamber, and appoint a commissioner to proceed to India to inquire into the obstacles which prevented an increased growth of cotton in that country. The Chamber now entertains the idea of sending a private commission to India. The gentleman to whom this important and responsible service will be entrusted is Mr. Alexander Mackay, the author of "The Western World," who is well known in the United States, and whose eminent fitness for so responsible a mission is universally conceded.

The preparations for the great Exhibition of 1851 are advancing very rapidly. The building is rapidly going up, some twelve hundred workmen being constantly engaged upon it, and it every day exhibits some new features. As the commissioners anticipated, the demand for space from the various English local committees far exceeds all possible accommodation that can be provided in the building for the English exhibitors. The commissioners have not yet been able to digest the returns, so as to decide upon the necessary reduction of space to be made in each case, or to determine upon any principle by which that reduction is to be regulated. All parties will be accommodated so far as possible. Messrs. Clowes and Spicer, the celebrated printers, have obtained the contract for printing the Catalogue of the Exhibition. They give a premium of three thousand pounds for the privilege, and are to pay twopence for every catalogue sold, for the benefit of the Exhibition. The catalogue will be sold for one shilling. Another catalogue will be printed in several languages, and sold at an increased price.

A terrible storm swept the coast of Ireland during the month of November. Great damage was done to shipping, and an emigrant ship, named the Edmond, from Limerick to New York, was lost, with about a hundred of her passengers.

GERMANY.

The chief centre of political interest at the present moment is GERMANY;--and as the points out of which the controversy between Prussia and Austria has grown, are somewhat complicated, a general view of the political character and relations of the German States may be of interest. After the fall of Napoleon, the States formerly composing the German empire, entered into a confederation. The parties were Austria and Prussia for their German territories, Denmark for Holstein, the Netherlands for Luxembourg, and 33 independent States and Free Cities, comprising a territory of 244,375 square miles, and containing at present 42,000,000 inhabitants. The principal points agreed to in this Confederation were as follows: That all the members possess equal rights; they bind themselves for the security of each and all from all foreign attacks; they guarantee to each the possession of its German territories; any member to be at liberty to enter into any league or treaty, not endangering the security of the Confederation, or any of its members, except in case of war declared by the Confederation, when no member can enter into any separate negotiation or treaty; the members not to make war upon each other, but to submit all differences to the decision of the Diet, whose final action shall be conclusive. The affairs of the Confederation to be managed by a Diet, meeting at Frankfort on the Maine, at which Austria presides, and in which the larger States have respectively two, three, and four votes, and the smaller one each, the whole number of votes being 70; in ordinary matters the Diet to be represented by a committee of 17 plenipotentiaries, each of the larger States having one, and several of the smaller being united in the choice of one. The army of the Confederation was fixed, in 1830, at 303,484 men, to be furnished by the States in a fixed proportion. The inconveniences of this cumbrous organization are apparent. One member might be at war with any power, while the others were at peace: thus the Confederation took no part in the Italian and Hungarian warfare against Austria, for it guaranteed to her only the possession of her German possessions, and in Schleswig-Holstein, Bavarian troops were in the service of Denmark, and Prussian soldiers in that of the Duchies. Then, each State being absolutely independent, could and did establish custom-houses, and levy tolls and duties upon its own frontier, to the great disadvantage of commerce. This at last became so intolerable, that a general Customs-union (Zollverein) was formed, under the auspices of Prussia, by which duties are levied only upon the common frontier, and the proceeds distributed among the States, in the ratio of their population. The Customs-union embraces more than four-fifths of Germany, with the exception of Austria. A strong desire has always prevailed throughout Germany for the construction of a united government, which should take the place of the petty principalities into which the country is divided. Thus alone can the German people, having a common origin, speaking a common language, and possessing common interests, assume that rank in the political world to which their numbers, position, and civilization entitle them. But this desire on the part of the people, has of course, been strenuously opposed by the princes, although circumstances have at times induced the Prussian government to favor the movement, in the expectation of becoming the leading power in the new State, or rather of Prussianizing all Germany. This question is the true origin of the difficulties in Schleswig-Holstein, and the present threatening aspect of affairs, growing out of the disputes in Hesse-Cassel. The Duchy of Holstein is the northernmost State of Germany, lying upon the Baltic, on which it possesses one or two good seaports. The sovereign is the King of Denmark--not, however, as such, but as Duke of Holstein. The present King of Denmark is without male heirs, and upon his demise the crown will pass to the female line. But it is contended that the principle of the Salic law, excluding females from the right of succession applies to Holstein, in which case the heir of the Duchy is the Grand-duke of Oldenburg, a German prince. In order to avoid the separation of Holstein from Denmark, the king issued a patent conforming the succession in Holstein to that of Denmark. The inhabitants of the Duchy, whose sympathies are with Germany rather than Denmark, resisted; appointed a provisional Government, and appealed for protection to Germany. At that time it seemed that one of the many endeavors to establish a strict German Confederation had succeeded; and it became an object to attach Holstein to this Confederation, in order to gain the command of the Baltic. Prussia supported the Duchy; Austria and Bavaria opposed it, as favoring the designs of Prussia. The other states of Europe were opposed to the separation of Holstein from Denmark, upon the general conservative principle of maintaining things upon their old footing, as well as from an unwillingness to allow the commerce of the Baltic to fall wholly under the control of the Zollverein. Meanwhile "the year of revolutions," 1848, had passed, and, by common consent of all parties, the old Frankfort Diet was held to be virtually abolished, and delegates were called together to endeavor to construct a new Constitution. The Hungarian revolt was shaking Austria to its centre, and Prussia, true to her ancient instinct of aggrandizement, which has raised her from a petty principality to the rank of one of the Great Powers, took advantage of the compulsory concessions of Austria to her non-German subjects, to arouse the jealousy of the German states, and almost succeeded in forming a confederation, with herself at the head. But Russia having thrown her sword into the scale, and decided the balance against Hungary, Austria had leisure to attend to her German affairs. She soon succeeded in detaching state after state from the Prussian alliance, and began to insist upon the recognition of the old Frankfort Diet, which, was supposed to be dead and buried under the ruins of the two last eventful years. At this juncture, occurred the difficulties in the Electorate of Hesse-Cassel. The Elector, resisted in his attempt to levy taxes contrary to the constitution he had himself sanctioned, fled, and demanded the protection of the Diet, which was granted, for that body was composed of the representatives of the sovereigns, and knew nothing of constitutions. The Diet ordered the Austrian and Bavarian contingents of the Federal troops to march into the Electorate and reinstate the Elector. But Prussia, being nearer to the scene of action threw her own troops into the Electorate; not, however, avowing an intention of supporting the inhabitants in their opposition, but under the mere pretense of making use of the right of way from one portion of her territory to the other, between which Hesse-Cassel intervenes. Austria, in the name of the Diet, demanded that these Prussian troops should be withdrawn from the Electorate, upon which Prussia at once placed her whole army upon the war-footing. Thus, at the latest advices, the bodies of troops ready for hostilities, occupy the Electorate, and it is a matter of absolute uncertainty whether peace or war will ensue. In the mean while a conference had been held at Warsaw, between Austria, Prussia, and Russia, in which an attempt was made to settle the affairs of Germany. The decision made by this conference was so decidedly adverse to Prussia, that Count Brandenburg, the Prussian minister, was so chagrined at the disgrace of his country, that he fell into a delirious fever, from which he died. Austria alone is at the present time altogether unequal to a war with Prussia; but it is supposed that Russia will support Austria in the event of a war. Her reasons for so doing are obvious: if Prussia succeeds in forming a strong German Confederation, a power will be constituted capable of interposing an effectual barrier to her designs; whereas Austria is so far subservient to Russia, that her supremacy in Germany is almost equivalent to Russian control over the west of Europe.

The attitude of Austria and Prussia during the past month has been exceedingly belligerent and fears have been very generally entertained that war would be the result of the existing contentions. It seems, however, to be conceded that Austria is desirous of peace and that the King of Prussia really shares these pacific inclinations; but fears are entertained that the spirit of the people may have been so thoroughly aroused as to render nugatory any negotiations for peace which their rulers may conclude. Austria demands the right of passage through Brunswick of her army, ordered to interfere in the affairs of the Duchies; this Prussia has positively refused except with guarantees which will not be granted.

The Prussian Chamber met at Berlin on the 21st of November. The speech from the throne was pronounced by the king in person. He alluded to the commencement and vigorous prosecution of a railway system, to the extension of postal accommodations, and to the flourishing condition of commerce and navigation. In reference to his relations with Germany, the king declared his firm purpose to maintain the position he had taken, and said that he should soon stand more strongly armed, in its support, than he had been in ancient or modern times. The tone of the speech was considered warlike, and it had a corresponding effect upon the money market. But the public mind recovered from this feeling in the course of a day or two.

The public feeling throughout Prussia is described by correspondents as being highly excited. All classes are said to be desirous of war, and it is even feared that, if the king should consent to peace, he will not be sustained by his people, but will be driven to abdication and exile.