Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

- From the Charleston Mercury. Letters to the Xortb—\o. 5. Gentlemen : I desire it to be borne in mind, that I am not a slaveholder, and have no interest in the South only as a stranger and traveller; that my object in these letters is neither to advocate slavery nor defend the insti tution, but to narrate facts as i hud them. In the abstract, I used to regard slavery as an evil, though never to the negro ; and 1 non - have some doubts whether it is an evil in any sense of the word. It is regarded as an evil, be cause the slave States have not filled up with emigrants and flourished as rapidly as the Northwestern free States. But I am con strained to believe that “land monopoly,” as it is termed, and the ruinous system of agriculture that has prevailed, together with the poverty of much of the soil, has had more to do with producing a sparse population, and worn out fields, than slavery; that is, that the same re sults would have followed the same system of owning large tracts of land, and cultivating but •mall portions of that in some exhausting sta ple crop, if it had been done by hired labor. It is charged that slavery coriupts the morals of the whites. Upon this point it is certain that if the while population of the Swuth arc no better than they should be, they are no worse than their neigh, bors. And I must say that the proportion of crime is much less here than at the North. What, then, are the evils of the institutioSi ? An evil must be an injury to someone. An injury must hurt or make someone unhappy, and if vary great, it will per force make the af. dieted one very miserable. indeed, cases may be found where all this has happened. And so has it happened in the matrimonial state. But no more in one thun in the other, has it proved a great curse to the human family. The first slaves ever landed in America wrro twenty in number, from a Dutch man. of. war, in James River, in 1620. For a long time after this, they were an article of traffic in all the Colonies. No doubt they weie some, times cruelly treated in early times, but a very different feeling now exists between master and slave. In more than half the cages the present owners have grown up with the tie groes, and have been nursed by them in infan cy and sickness, and an attachment has grown up with them for one another as strong as ex ists between the members of a New Englund family. It is not in the nature of things for masters thus reared to be cruel to their people, or for those people not to entertain feelings of strong attachment to such masters. Would it not be well to inquire why the ne gro race have always been subjected to the con. dition of slaves by the whites, for such is the fact. Long before European ships visited the African coast the Arabic caravans bought the negroes of their negro enslavers, and sold them to the whites ; and if we believe the Bible, we must believe that the traffic was sanctioned of God. It is an undeniable truth that they are and ever have been a nation of savages, unaffected by surrounding civilization, and that they never have been civilized or Christianiz ed except in a state of subjection to white mas ters. Has Africa ever produced a negro hero, or sage, or man of science ? Not one. Because a few of the negroes among us do occasionally exhibit bright intellectual quali ties, many good philanthropists have been led to believe that the whole race might be elevu. ted to the same standard, and have come blind ly to the opinion that the first great necessary step to h-ing about this wonderful result, will be to declare them free, and insist that they are equal to the white race. Are these good, but erring men aware, that there is almost as much difference between the different tribes of the negro race as there is between the blacks and whites? For instance, the Joint's seem to be almost a I a distinct race of negroes, and have been a com- | paratively civilized people, from the era of their ! first discovery by the Portuguese. “Those of Guber and Hausa, where a con- ! siderable. degree of civilization has long exis- j ted, arc perhaps, the finest race of genuine tie- ! groes in Africa, unless the Jolofs are such, and ! should be excepted.” By slaveholders, the Coromantees are eg. I teemed the most intelligent and most capable of being taught ; making trusty and good drivers I to urge on those of a more sluggish nature, but very impatient and turbulent at being driven j themselves. These negroes are of a dingy j copper color ; their lips and high cheek bones, I like the North American Indians. Some ofj them will lie down and die, lather than yield | to be driven to work by the whip. In their mi. ‘ tive land they are never kept as slaves, on ac- I count of their sulkiness. The next in the scale of value, or perhaps they are equal, are the Congo*. They are tali, straight, bright copper colored, smooth skin, small round hands, and make good imitating mechanics; in that respect, like the Chinese. They are from the south coast of West Africa, be tween south latitude 4 degrees and 15 degrees: a district of country that contains the kingdoms of Loango, Congo, Angola, Matamba, and Bu. engula, which was discovered by the Portuguese in 1481, ever since which they have made slaves and converts of the inhabitants, the great er portion of whom, notwithstanding their con tact with the numerous Portuguese settlements in their country, and the strenuous efforts of the missionaries for more than three centuries, still remain sunk in the grossest barbarism and idolatry, going almost naked, living like beasts, and worshipping, if worship it can be called, the sun, moon, stars, and hideous beasts and reptiles. Much of the country, back from the coast, is desert, and inhabited by elephants, leopards, monkeys, monstrous serpents, and terrible crocodiles. This country is sometimes called Lower Guinea, and was formerly a great slave mart for Christians engaged in the traffic, and is th • cuast from which the great trade ot'the present day is still carried on—sometimes by citizens of the United State*. It is from this country that abominable, not. sy, domestic fowl, known as (be Guinea hen, wa9 .brought. It is a country so infested with venomous some of which are m >re than thirty feet in length, and reptiles and in sects, that it is unfit for the residence of human beings. The negroes from that coast, when brought here, and left in a state of slavery, are not found sighing to return to their own native had. , We are sometimes wont to complain of the little ant in this country, while in Guinea they exist in such quantities, that they drive the ill habitants from ilteir huts, and have been known to destroy the carcass of an ox in one night, and oficn would destroy the debilitated sick, if not guarded against. The Eboes and Mongullas are jet black, me dium height, chuckle.headed, thick lips, hearty eaters, inclined to grow fat, seldom possessing any mechanical skill, though gencialiy tractable and patient, lazy slaves, needing to be driven to work, am! unlike the Coromantees, oniy to be kept at it by driving. They are capable of great endurance under a burning sun. The Ashantees, who inhabit an inferior por tion of North Africa, have ever been the most powerful and warlike tribe of negroes on that continent. They have frequently defied the sci entific and destructive means of European war fare, and during the prevalence of the uncontroll ed slave trade, were the principal instruments to supply the hordes of slaves that were shipped from the upper Guinea coast. It was through the agency of this tribe that Spain derived her supplies to fill the celebrated Assicnto Contracts she made with Portugal, France and England, to supply their American colonies with negro slaves. But notwithstanding their power and warlike disposition, many of them suffered the same fate they were so anxious to inflict upon their weaker neighbors—their Chiistian allies never hesita ting to purchase whatever was offered with a black skin, without inquiring whether he was friend or foe. The Ashantees, Foutis Sulemas and Daho raans, are similar in leading characteristics as slaves to the Eboes and Mongullas. There are also some tribes of African ne groes that are so low in the scale of civilization, tnai they arc rejected as worthless, even by the W est India planter, where they are not even re. quired to learn the art of anything more scien tific than digging up the ground with a hoe, to prepare it for a crop of sugar-cane; for thus thousands of acres are prepared where the use of the plow is unknown. These beings (1 can hardly call them human) in their native country, live in the wild jungles, without fire, without clothing of any kind, and without habitations, and upon such loud as na ture provides for them without labor. They are about four feet hijih, the head strongly- re sembling in shape that of the ourang.outang, and having a profusion of huir on the body and limbs. I was lately told by an intelligent gentleman, that he knew three of them on one plantation in the West indies, who never could be learned to perform any labor, and their whole employment was catching rats; which they did in their own way, and the strongest incitement to which, was the fact, that they were allowed the privilege of living most luxuriantly upon ail they caught— actually rejecting their regular allowance of good bread and meat, for the more palatable dish of roasted rats. So much for taste. Another instance was related to me by a very kind hearted friend of mine, now residing in II- Itnois, of an attempt which he made some years ago in Florida, to tame one of these wild ne groes. by treating and feeding hitn with great care and kindness; but before lie had fairly ac complished the task, his ward escaped his care, and was not seen again for several weeks, when he was found naked as in his native wilds, bask ing in the broiling sun, upon the burning sandy beach, where he bad been holding a feast upon the stinking carcass of a porpoise, that had drift ed up in a storm. So much again for taste. Can §hch beings be civilized—christianized —rationalized? Is it sinning against the light of knowledge, and trutli that illuminates the nine teentli century, to compel such beings to be clothed, and fed. and instructed, and- to perform useful labor, in civilized society? I remain, a friend to my country, Solon Robinson. THE SOUTHERN SENTINEL. COLUMBUS, GEORGIA, FEU. 14, 1850. Being about to remove our office, we of i fer for rent, the room which we have heretofore i occupied. Apply at this Office. To Correspondents. “M. H. Otoo late for this week ; a place in the next number. E. T. B. Thank you. Hope there are a few more of the same sort left. S. T. A. VVe shall be very much obliged to yon. Wc are. indebted to Hon. M. J. Wellborn and Hon. H. W. Hilliard for valuable public documents. Wheeler’s Monthly is no more..-It has died the death ot all its predecessors, and his fate is dedicated by the Editor as a warning, to all who may have the hardihood (o assume “the mantle, which he throws from him in scorn.” 1 he “Horn of Mirth” has taken the subscription | list of the “Monthly.” Valentine’s Day. February 14 is the day sacred to St. Valentine, a pres byter, who, according to the legend, was beheaded at Home under Claudius. Mr. Braude (Popular Antiqui ties,yo\. i., p. 47) says that ho cannot find in the life of the saint any circumstances likely to have given origin to the peculiar ceremonies of the day. It appears to have been a very old notion, however, (for it is alluded to by (Jfiaucor, as well as by Sliakspcare in the Two Gentle men of Verona,) that on this day birds begin to couple. And the custom of “choosing Valentines” is of great an tiqoUy hv this country, as well as in France, where, how ever, it has been long disused. Lidgate mentions it (1476); Grose explains Valentine to mean “the first wo man seen by a man, or man by a woman,” on that day; but it does not appear where lie picked up this explana tion. There is also a curious French Valentine, com posed by the poet Gower, in IVorton’s History o f English Poetry (Addition to vol. ii., p. 31.) Ilcrrick mentions the notion and the custom : “Oft have I heard both youths and virgins say. Birds choose their mates, and couple too, this day.” It appears that the Reformers attacked this as well as other legendary customs of their time ; and that the Ro mantsts themselves were so scandalized at it that devices were invented for turning the day to profitable use. St. I rands de Sales introduced the practice of and. awing lots for patron saints on it, by way of substitute. According to others, this latter practice was of much older date, and substituted for a pagan custom by which bovs and girls drew oacli other’s names on the lath February ‘day of Februata June.) However this may be, it is certainly one of the few saints’ days in the calendar popularly re mornbered in England, as the returns of the post office invariably testify.— Encyc. If any of our young friends, (the old ones too, if they have not lost their fancy for such things,) haTe faiied to honor the occasiou, they can supply themselves with the “dots” to suit any sort of a fancy, from the-rich assort “cut still on hand at the Book store of our enterprising young friends —deGraffcnritd Robinson. §H9 unr cfl §na oa siEmraniLo MR. FOOTE'S SPEECH. The time of our readers cannot be more pleas antly occupied than in reading this speech, which we give entire on our first page. We shall not attempt to express our own gratitude to the hon orable Senator, for the merited castigation he has inflicted on Win. H. Seward of N. Y. We recollect, on one occasion, to have heard Mr. Toombs in one of his masterly bursts of invec tive eloquence, in addressing the House, de nounce that body, “as the common sewer through which the filth of the Executive was poured out upon the country,” and think his idea highly ap plicable to the catspaw who disgraces the pest ot Senator from New York. Mr. Seward is far excellence , the organ of Abolitionism, and fac* tionism, in the Senate. And Mr. Foote is just the man to administer the lush. He is the most brilliant and the most fearless man in the Sen ate, and though in the eagerness and impetuosity with which he has met the assailants of the South, he has somewhat transcended the grave dignity usually associated with that Body, he is nevertheless one of the ablest and most trust worthy conservators of his country’s interests. That he is entitled to the most hearty approba tion of tho South, is evident from the uncompro mising enmity with which he is regarded by those unfriendly to her rights. City Light Guard. —The following offi cers were chosen at ail election which took place in this company on last Saturday evening: Alexander C. Morton, 2d Lieutenant. I. C. Chandler, 3J “ It. D. S. Bell, 4th 00” Does the year 1859 belong to the first or last halt of the I9ih century? This question, has strangely enough, been the subject of a warm and yet undecided debate among some of our contemporaries. To our mind, it is as plain as open and shut, that the latter half of this cen tury will not begin until Jan. 1, 1851. The er ror arises in supposing that the present century began on the first day of January, 1800. The American Farmer. —We have receiv. ed the February No. of this Agricultural Month ly, but from some Cause the January No. has never reached us. The publishers would confer a favor by forwarding it. as we regard (ho Fann er, one ot the few monthly publications worth preserving. It is, we think, the best agricultural paper in the South. It may lie obtained by re mining one dollar to James Sands, Publisher, 128 Baltimore St., Baltimore, Md. Canadian Annexation. —Lord Grey has sent a despatch to the Governor of Canada, urg ing him to use every exertion, to arrest the pop. ular demonstrations in favor of annexation, and pledging the whole power, the blood and the trea sure of the mother country, to his support in doing so. We have not the slightest objection, and if it became necessary, we should not oppose an ex- j penditure of some of our own power, and treas- i ure, for the accomplishment of the same end. If the British Provinces are determined on an amal gamation, we should decidedly prefer to cede Massachusetts to England ; the partnership would be more congenial to all parties. 1 Late from Milledgeville.—Gov. Towns has j vetoed the Rock Island Bill. ! The Bill reorganizing the Congressional Districts J of the State being before the House, the Whigs re ; tired, leaving that body without a quorum. - . OO” Appointments by tiie Governor. — Benj. F. Gullctt, Secretary, in the place of Chas. 11. Rice, deceased. Chas. (J. Rice, Messenger. The Great Bridge Case.—VVe have seen a par | agraph going the round of the papers, that this great ; ease of Henry Shultz vs. the Bank of (he State of | Georgia ; more commonly known, as the Augusta Bridge case ; has been decided in favor of Shultz. ! We have just seen a despatch from one of the officers I of the Bank, to the Agent in this city, stating that ! no decision has yet been made, but. no doubt is en i tertained of the success of the Bank. The Tax Bill. j It will he seen from the letter of our Milledgeville j correspondent, that the ad valorem system of taxa i tion has been defeated in the Legislate re. VVe fully ; coincide with him, in the regret which he expresses at this result, and more especially, that it should have been the work of Democrats. The present tax law, or any other, framed upon its general principles, is unequal, unjust, and an outrage upon the country. It strikes us, if tiierc is any political principle, so well established in common sense and common jus tice, as to be beyond discussion, it is that the burdens of government should be distributed according to the benefits which it confers. It is a relf-evident propo sition, that he who possesses most, that is protected by the law, should pay most, for the tnfintjnance.of law. What is the design of all taxation ? What but to raise a revenue for the support of the Govern ment; and what are the ends of-all Government, but to secure its citizens in the enjoyment of their rights, to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of hap piness ? If these are the designs of our institutions, surely then it is nothing more than just, that be who has most, dependent upon the-proper discharge of j those ends, should contribute most to the machinery i of Government. Are the burdens of the country i meted out according to this principle, under the tax i law now in force ? Is it just that he who owns prop-1 erty to the amount of §IOO, should pay as much for I the support of Government as he who owns SIOOO worth ? Certainly the defeat of this measure, must be attributable toother motives, than an honest intention to enact wholesome laws for the country. But it is especially a stigma upon the Democratic party; a party that has boasted of the principles of ad valorem taxation, as one of the great contradistin guishing feature* of its political creed ; a party that hag denounced, and triumphed in denouncing, the inequality and the injustice of specific taxation. Where is the difference in principle between the enactment of such a law by Congress and by the State Legislature? If a tariff of specific duties, is : a more equitable distribution of the benefits and bur dens of the State Government, it is, pari passu, the most wholesome system for the general Government. For consistency’s sake, therefore, let us either adopt it in both, or reject it in both, cases. A Southern Coixtentioiv. —Our Legisla ture has just passed a bill, responsive to the call made bj’ the State of Mississippi, for a conven tion of delegates from all the Southern States, to i meet at Nashville, Tenn., in June next. By this bill, it is provided that the Legislatuie shall select lour, and each Congressional district, two delegates, equally divided in politics, who shall represent the State of Georgia in that conven tion. In obedience to the first provision, the Legislature has already selected, as the dele gates for the State at large—Messrs. McAllis ter and McDonald from the democratic, and Messrs. Law and Ciias. Dougherty from the Whig party. We have unbounded confidence in the ability and the patriotism of these men, and if the people of the districts are as judicious in the selection as the Legislature has been, we shall feel no uneasiness in committing the honor and the interests of Georgia, to the hands of those who will represent her in that convention. But some of our contemporaries doubt the wis dom of such a convention altogether. Upon ex amination, however, we have ascertained that this objection has invariably proceeded from one ot two classes. The first consists of those, who, from an honest, but overweening devotion to the Union, are ready to sacrifice, for its preservation, every thing but the very existence of the South, i This class opposes the convention, because they do i not recognize in the present crisis, grievances of siif | ficient magnitude to authorize redress, if in attempt- I ing to secure it, the Union will be endangered. The i second class is composed of those blind devotees to party , who to preserve a party organization, and to save the feelings of a party President, would compro init the honor, and abandon the rights of the South. ‘fhe resort to a convention, say they, wiil argue a distrust of Gen. Taylor; will insinuate a want of faith in his ability or bis disposition to take care of ns. A bold and unequivocal stand on the side of the South may repel our Northern friends, and a want of harmony in our tanks, may defeat us in tlie next contest for the Presidency. This class, it will be perceived, opposes the convention, on merely party grounds, and deserves, as we sincerely hope it will receive, the execration of all right-minded men. The man, who, with his eyes open to the ignomin ious destiny, prepared for the South, by the enemies of her interests, still seeks to retain his neutrality, in this unholy war of extermination, now so bitterly waged against her, because in so doing lie hopes to secure a mere party ascendency, is unworthy the name of a freeman. With this class, we confess, that we have no patience. The question presented for our consideration is this ; is the South, in danger 1 • Who that recurs to the history of political abolitionism for the last thirty years ; who that has marked the indications partic ularly of the last four years; who that has watched the gathering of the black clouds, now so portent ously lowering over our horizon, can be blind to the manifest determination of the North, to reduce the Gowth either to the degradation of a colonial depen dency, or to extirpate her peculiar institutions ? The South is in danger. We may blind our eyes to the reality of the crisis; we may close our ears to the thundering threats of extermination, but we can not thereby, make the crisis less real, or the threats less insulting. That crisis must be met, and those threats, if need be, must be hurled, in proud defi ance, back into the teeth of our assailants. If then our institutions are endangered, how are we, most effectually, to go to work to secure them ? i We answer, by concert of action among the South ern States. The moral power of even one State, de termined upon the vindication and the security of her rights, may stay for awhile the progressive spirit ol Northern encroachment, but it is only by unity of re sistance among all the Southern States, that an ef fectual stop can he put to these oppressions. And ! how is this concert to be obtained ? Only by the I convention of the entire South ; by a conference among all her leading spirits, and by the united and unanimous declaration of them all, that we will not longer submit. Let that Convention be held, and let the undivided voice of the South go forth, as vve know it will, from the deliberations of that Convention declaring our determin ation to resist even to civil war, and we shall then, and not tdl then, hope for a respectful recognition of our equality and rights. Election in tub First District. —So far as received, the returns certainly indicate the election of lion. Jos. W. Jackson to Congress, to fill the vacancy occasioned hy the resignation of Hon. T. 13. King. We congratulate the country, and the South especially, on the change. Mr. K ing was a Northern man by birth, and had not entirely outgrown his early predilections. Mr. Jackson, on the other hand, is devoted to the Union, and at the same time, true to the honor of his own section. The newly elected member is every way worthy of the trust his constituents have reposed in him, and will be an honor to the democracy, to his State, and to the South. Father Matiiew.—Qnr community has been very much disappointed, that this great Apostle of Temperance has not arrived. It was announced that he would be in our city on Tuesday morn i no- last, but owing to some unavoidable detention, that ar rangement was defeated, and lie will not be here until to-morrow (Friday) morniflg. The Southern Tribune l says: “During his stay here, (Macon, Ga.) he adminis tered the Temperance Pledge to four hundred and j fifty persons—making one hundred and sevenfy | five thousand in the aggregate, we learn, since his ar rival in the United Stales. lie will return in a few days to Griffin, and proceed thence on his way to the West, via Columbus, Montgomery, .Mobile, and New Orleans, where he will remain until spring, and thence ascend the Mississippi river. Father Mathew was horn on the 1 Oth of October, 1790. at Tliomastnwn, near Cashel, in the county of Tippe rary, Ireland. He is a Catholic clergyman of pleas ant manners and gentlemanly address.” Since writing the above, we have received the following communication from the Rev. Mr. Bek mikgham, which, in obedience to his wishes, and with the greatest pleasure, we lay before our readers Columbus, Ga., Feb. 13, 1850. i Mr. Editor : I have just received a letter from the Very Reverend Theobold Mathew. He hopes to ho in Columbus on Friday morning. I trust I shall prevail on him to officiate for me in the Catholic Church, on next Sunday. The public, in town and country, are anxious to see the “Apostle of Temperance.” Your paper will be the only one issued in Columbus this week. For the general information of our citizens, be pleased to pub lish this note—and oblige, dear sir, Yours, with respect, T. BERMINGHAM. Glimpses of the South, hy a Northern Man. . We publish this morning? the fifth of a series of letters, written bv Solon Robinson to his Northern friends, and published in the Charleston Mercury- ! It is gratifying to the frielids of humanity at the South, to be thus vindicated by a wit- ! ness, from the foul aspersions of yiose, who set them- j selves up for our judges, without k wing any thing of the South, or her institutions. We doubt not there are many well meaning men at the North, who, prejudiced by the exaggerated statements of false hearted philanthropists , have been led to join in the denunciation of the Southern States of the Union. If we believed half that we have heard from the mouths of abolition orators,*and read in abolition newspapers, we would join in a cru sade lor the extermination, at all itWards, ofan evil, so monstrous, as slavery is represented to be. And there are many honest men at the North, whose extended information would seem to forbid the supposition ot so much ignorance, who know nothing inure of the people or the institutions ot the South than they glean from just such sources as these. W e were once asked bv a good old Christian lady in Massa chusetts, if we didn’t “feedthe niggers down South on cottonseed 7” From the earnestness of her counte nance, wt- knew she was serious, and to test the ex tent of her ignorance and credulity, we replied, “yes ; mixed in occasionally with light wotni knots.” She did not exactly comprehend the nature of a “lightwood knot,” but imagining it to be something terribly outlandish, she raised her hands in ho'v horror, and exclaimed, “merciful heavens!” An I yet this fady had her library and hbf newsprapetS, and lived in a community whiclf ‘Boasts of its mental and moral enlightenment. When we reflect upon the enormity with which the institutions of the South, are invested, when viewed through this distorted me dium of ignorance, and credulity, and bigotry, we are 1 not surprised at the sonic ; times made among the lower classes at the North. We know of nothing better calculated to dispel this ignorance, and relieve the popular mind of the North of the false impressions which have been designedly made upon it by intriguing disbrganizers, than these calm, dispassioned and disinterested testimonials of such men as Solon Robinson. Congress has been engaged during the past week, principally in the discussion of Resolutions ; those of Mr. Clay, on slavery, of Mr. Cass, n suspending di plomatic relations with Austria, and of Mr. Bradbury, calling on the Executive for information as to the manner in which the appointing power has been ex ercised, being tbe most prominent. Mr. Clay, it is said, has delivered a speech on his resolutions, worthy of his departed glory. We have seen a copious sy nopsis of his speech, but have not yet bad the pleas ure of reading it entire. The Bill providing more effectually for the recoVery of fugitive slaves, has al so undergone considerable debate. Very little in the way of legislation has yet transpired. We hoped 1o have been able to commence, this week, the publication of our Washington correspondence. From some cause, however, we have not yet received a communication from that quarter. The Mail Facilities of South Western Georgia- This part of Georgia, already settled with a wealthy and rapidly increasing population, has been strangely overlooked, as well in the Na tional, as in the Sfate Legislation. The want of convenient mail routes through S. W. Georgia, in view of the agricultural importance of that section of the State, is indeed remarkable.— The mail from this place to the counties of Lee and Baker, and all the FlortdA mail, is carried circuitously by the way of Macon, and thus, the papers published in this city are a week or ten days old, before they can reach many of the Post Offices not more than 80 or 100 miles dis tant. We congratulate our friends in that sec tion of the State, that this neglect of their interests, will not have to be tolerated much longer. In a letter, which we have recently re ceived from our faithful and attentive Represent ative in Congress, Judge Wellborn, we are in- i formed that the subject has been brought before ! Congress, and is now engaging the attention of j the Committee on Post Roads and Post Offices, j Judge W. is endeavoring to have established, a tri-weekly mail, from this place leading through those counties, and intersecting with the Florida line, and writes that he has no doubt of the pas sage of a Bill for that purpose. The arrange- j ment will not be more satisfactory to our friends of S. W. Ga. than to ourselves, for we have re- , ceived frequent complaints of the delays of the mails, in that quarter. A Singular Fact.—lt matters not how irregular the mails may he, (and we are forced to make a com ! plaint of very great irregularity of late.) the Balti more Sun invariably reaches us. At least four out of the last seven mornings, wc have-been met at the Post Office, with the announcement, of -‘No mail north of Charleston,” and yet, on each of those mornings, we have received the Baltimore Sun ! How does it I get here ? 0O” Mr. Ilatinegan, late Minister to Berlin, ’ was to leave on the Bth-ultima for England and the United He hnct been confined by | rheumatism for nearly three 1 months. The report of >U Bodisco’s recall iscon ; tradicted. He is shortly to leave Russia for this I country. . . j Alabama Delegates to the Southern Convention. I At a joint meeting of both branches of the 1 i Ala. Legislature, convened in the Rep. Hull on the sth inst., the following gentlemen were se- ! lected as delegates to the Southern Convention, proposed to be held in Nashville Tcnn. in June next. * . J For the. State at large: Hons. Benj. Fitzpatrick, Jno. A. Campbell, Wm. M. Murphy, Thcs. J. Judge. John A-Winston, L. P. Walk er, Nicholas Davis, Jas. Abercrombie. For the First Congressional District. —Wm. D. Dunn,-of Mobile; T. B. Bethea, of Wilcox; Burwell Boykin, of Mobile ; R. V. Montague,, of Marengo. Second.— Gen. Geo. W. Gunn, Jefferson Buford, Gen. Reuben C. Shorter, George Goldthwaite. Third.— Howell Rose, of Coosa ; John S. Hunter, of Dallas; Andrew B. Moore, of Perry; Wm. S. Phillips, of Dallas. , Fourth. —Newton L- Whitefield, Joslma L. Martin, of Tuscaloosa; John Erwin, Joseph W. Taylor, of Greene. Fifth. —Hon. Dan’i Coleman, of Limestone ; Gen. Jesse W. Garth, of Morgan: Wm. Cooper, of Frank lin; Jas. A. Weakly, of Lauderdale. Sixth. —G. P. Bume, of Madison; Jas. M.Gee, o{ Marshall; Jas. M. Gunn, of Jackson ; AV. O. Winston. 1 of Dekalb. Seventh. —Alexander White, of Talladega ; Thomas j A. Walker, of Benton; Gee. S. Walden, of Cherokee ; Charles MeLemorc, of Chambers. Correspondence of the Southern Sentinel. MILLEDGEVILLE, February 10, 1850 , Dear C.; Since I wrote you, delegates have been chosen to Nashville Convention — Mr. McAllister and Judge McDonald by* the Democrats, and Judges Dougherty and Law, by the Whigs. Hon. Walter I. Colquitt and Hon. 11. V. Johnson have been nom inated us alternates bv the Democratic party. The great body of the Legislature seem to think, that it is time to put a stop t 0 Northern encroachments on our rights. I have thought so for twenty years. I sincerely hope that our difficulties may be atnictbly i settled ; out it we are forced to choose between sub mission and dissolution, dissolve, say I. Some of our peop e say that it is quarreling about abstractions to insist on our ri K l,t to carry slaves to California, and j * lave lal, ° r can nerer be profitable there, j It is very strange language, when we know while labor is worth ten times us much there as any where j else, and the climate a large part of the year mild* to say that slave labor cannot be made profitable. If a slave should sit by the fire six months in the year, he would still make more, than by cotton at 25 cents per lb. Ilad the compromise Bill passed, I have not a doubt but California would have been a slave State and may yet, .if we insist on our rights. The Rock Island bill has passed both Houses. In : the Senate, 23 to 17. It was amusing to one who ! knew the place well, to hear the statements and mis -1 statements in relation to the river—one said the riv | er was in places from three fourths to a mile wide/ | I have drunk at the head spring, and fished at the mouth, amt seen most ot the river, but have never yet seen a place that was the half of a mile. An other said that he understood, that the river at Rock Island was nearly two-fourths of a mile wide, and thatthere ivasa number of channels, and that the com pany had dammed up one of them, leaving plenty of water for the rest. In the summer there is but one channel of any consequence, and the whole of thM is dammed up. These statements were made by clerer men, who had been misled, or who had misunderstood those from whom they received their information. I think the river at Rock Island is less than a quarter of a mile wide, and in the summer it is in places not twenty steps. What effect this act may have on the manufacturing interests of Columbus, I am not pre pared to say. I consider it better water power than that of Columbus, as it is more easily controlled, from the fact, that during a freshet the body of the water runs east 9f the Island. The State receives lor the Island one thousand dollars, with a reserva tion of all private rights. How far the Bill affects private rights will be for the courts to determine. •- I find legal men differing, as to the extent *<f those rights. .Most of them admit that the owners on the Georgia side own to the centre of the channel. It is long since I have investigated the subject, and am not prepared to express an opinion. I believe a great majority of the Legislature were willing for the com pany to use the water, so far as the State could au thorize its use for the piper mil! ; but some of them did not like to confer a general privilege. There i* a Bill before the House that has passed the Senata, giving to the owners of fractions and Islands the ex clusive use of the water power, and limits its use to the Eastern side. It provides for machinery already erected. The Bank Agency Bill passed the House, but was indefinitely postponed in the Senate by a decided vote. The House has been most of its time for the last two days on the Tax Bill, and have, after a very animated discussion,, rejected the ad valorem system j by a vote ot 87 to-10. A wiser man tlmn I-ever ex ; fleet to be (llelvetius) said, that “Interest made Saints”—it makes very unjust legislation. Under our present tax laws, our poorest pine lands pay, in ! eluding county taxes, nearly 20*per cent, on their j selling price. Lands in Appling and Ware sell dai ly at $5 tor 490 acres, and the tax on them in Mus j cogee has been nearly one dollar per lot. The pres ent law makes one man pay more than one thou sand times as much tax on his.property, as his neigh* bor pays. For instance, all Wymitfon, worth move than .SIOO,OOO, does not. pay as much tax as ten dol lars’ worth of Fand in Appling. All Vineville, near Macon, worth as rntich as YVynnton, pays still less. And some of the finest farms in the State, worth with the improvements, ten to twelve dollars per acre, pay as pine lands, the ssme tax that is paid on the low palmetto ponds and flats of Ware and Appling. A gold mine worth $20,000 pays according to thequai itv of the land, which is generally second or thircf quality, and some of them are in the pine woods. A great deal was said in debate about protecting the agricultural interest; can the farmers want a protec tion founded on a system, (if system it can be call ed,) that is not only unjust, but dishonest f for I say it is dishonest for one class of men to throw more of the burden of the government on their neighbors than themselves, where all are equally protected. Before I heard the tax bill discussed, I had been simple enough to suppose that governments were in stituted to protect persons and property, and that each one should pay in proportion to what he worth. I And I was mistaken—they are instituted, for the benefit of the most powerful interests An, effort was made to abolish the poll tax ; the men who. introduced such “measures may be honest in if but I have often thought tiiey were popularity trnps, baited with 314 cents. The man that cannot devote the pro ceeds of one day’s labor in a year to the support of our free institutions, do s not deserve a goodgovern ment. I was sorry Vo see the ad valorem system defeated by the- Democrats. Wo have always been, its advocates by the general government,and I can not see why it is not the fairest and best for the State. The Legislature will probably adjourn on Saftus day. Yours, dec.. ■p- j A Washington correspondent writing un der date of February, says: Mr. Hilliard of Alabama, is spoken of as Mr. Hannegan’s successor to the new and splendid 1 court of King William, the great champagne or ator of Germany, of whom Henry Herne, the great German poet, satirically remarked that when under the influence of that exquisite bevar age, he imagines himself Emperor of China. 03” A Washington letter to the New York Couriersays : “Intelligence was received here to. day, from what is represented to be an authentic source in Michigan, stating that the Legislature ot that State would rescind the instructions under which Mr. Cass is now acting and which he must either obey or resign, in the event of the Proviso being distinctly presented. OC7~ Another Cuban Expedition. — It is ru mored that another Cuban expedition is organiz es* Fbe plan now, it- seems, -is to~organize beyond the limits of the Uuitcd’ States,