Newspaper Page Text
‘1 am very well, brother,' she replied,
looking in his face with a smile ol sisterly
regard. But I have concluded to stay at
home this evening. I’m going to keep
your company.’
‘Are you, indeed! right glad am lof it!
though I am sorry you have deprived
voursell of the pleasure of attending this,
ball, which, I believe is to be a very bril
liant one. I was just going out, because it
was so dull at home when you are all a
way.’
‘I atn not particularly desirous of going
to the ball. So little so that the thought
of your being left alone had sufficient in
fluence over me to keep me away.’
‘lndeed ! Well I must say you are kind,’
Edward returned with feeling.
The self- saeri (icing act of his sister had
touched him sensibly. Both were fond
of music, and practised and played fre
quently together. Part of the evening
was spent in this way, much to the satis
faction of each. Then an hour passed in
reading and conversation, after which mu
sic was again resorted to. Thus passed
the time pleasantly until the hour of reti
ring came, when they separated, both with
an internal feeling of pleas :re more de
lightful than they had experienced for a
longtime. It was nearly three o’clock)
before Mr. and Mrs. Lindley, and the
daughter who had accompanied them to |
the ball came home. Hours before the ]
senses ofboth Edward and Helen had been
locked in fbrgcifulness.
Time passed on. Edward Lindley j
grew up, and became a man of sound :
principles—a blessing to bis family and j
society. He saw his sister well married,
and himself, finally led to the altar a love
ly maiden. She made him a truly happy
husband. On the night of his wedding, |
as he sat beside Helen, he paused for some i
time in the midst of a pleasant conversa- j
tion, thoughtfully; at last he said—
‘Do you remember, sister, the night you
staid at home from the ball to keep me
company?’
‘That was some years ago. Yes, I re
member it very well, now you have recal
led it to my mind.’
‘1 have often since thought, Helen,’ he
said with a serious air, ‘that by the sim
ple act of thus remaining at home for my
sake, you were the means of saving me:
from destruction.’
‘How so !’ asked the sister.
‘I was just then beginning to form an in
timate association with young men of my
own age, nearly all of whom have since
turned out badly. I did not care a great
deal about their company; still, Hiked so-1
ciety, and used to be with them frequent
ly—especially when you and Mary went
out in the evening. On the night of the
ball to which you were going, these young
men had a supper, and I was to have been
with them. I did not wish particularly to
join them, but preferred doing so to re
maining at home alone. To find you as
1 did, so unexpectedly in the parlor, was
an agreeable surprise indeed. I staid at
home with anew pleasure which was
heightened by the thought that it was your
love for ine that had made you deny your
self for my gratification. We read toge
ther on that evening, we played together,
we talked of many things. In your mind
I had never before seen as much to inspire
my own with high and pure thoughts. 1
remembered the conversation of the young
men with whom 1 had associated and in
which 1 had taken pleasure, with some
thing like disgust. It was low, sensual,
and too much of it vile and demoralizing.
Never from that hour did I join them.
Their way, even in the early stage of life’s
journy, I saw to be downward; and down
ward it has ever since been tending.—
How often since have 1 thought ol that
point in time so fully fraught with good
und evil influences. Those few hours
spent with you seemed to take scales from
my eyes. 1 saw with anew vision. 1
thought and felt differently. Had you
gone to the ball, and I to meet those young
tnen no one can tell what might have been
the consequence. Sensual indulgences
carried to excess, amid songs and senti
ments calculated to awaken evil instead
of good feelings, might have stamped upon
mv young and delicate mind a bias to low
affections that never would have been
eradicated. That was the great starting
point oflife—the period when l was com
ing into a stale of rationality and freedom.
The good prevailed over the evil, and by
the agency of my sister, an angel sent by
the author of all benefits to save me.’
Like Helen Lindley, let every elder
sister be thoughtful of her brothers at that
critical period in life, when the boy is a
bout passing up to the stage of manhood,
and site may save ihetr. from many a snare,
set for their unwary feet by the evil one.
IMMIGRATION OF PAUPERS AND
CRIMINALS.
From time to time there have appear
ed in the papers, paragraphs stating that
the people or governments of Europe were
taking measures for sending offiheir pau
pers and criminals to the United States.
One of these statements, which has much
circumstance about it, is unquestionably
false, as the annexed correspondence will
shew. But if there were more truth in
them than there is, we are putting our
selves in a poor condition for complaint
by adopting the same policy. Dr. John
Beadell, who was sentenced in 1642 to
ten years imprisonment for counterfeiting
by the U. S. Court, sitting at Pittsburg,
Pa. hasjust been pardoned by the Presi
dent ‘on condition of leaving the country.'
To be sure the President has not desig
nated the country to which he shall go,
but the injustice to other nations is not the
less on that account. How exceedingly
unworthy is that spirit which lets men
loose for crime, provided only that their
crimes are not committed against us.
[copy.]
NEW YORK, Dec. 1«, 1544.
Hon. John' C. Calhoun,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
Sir —A statement, of which I annexed
sprinted copy, on the subject of emigra-
tion from Germany, is travelling the round
in the American newspapers, accompa
nied with editorials and communications
more or less abusive of foreigners in gene
ral, and Germans in particular. The state
ment purports to come from an American
Consul in Germany, and its extraordinary
contents certainly deserve attention, if
true; at all events, they are well calcula
ted to strengthen the growing prejudices
against immigrants from Germany. The
German population of this country must
consider itself interested in the matter, at
least as much as the natives; and iftlie al
leged discoveiies of Consul List are true
the German Society ol New York, of which
I am an officer, will cheerfully, and I trust
effectually, co-operate with the public au
thorities in preventing the evil with which
this country is said to be threatened.
But, in the opinion of many, the state
ment itself bears evidence of inaccuracy;
and it is even suspected that it never had
its source in Germany, hut is of native ori
gin; and l have, therefore, been requested
respectfully to inquire of you whether
Consul List has made a report to your
Department, such as the annexed news
paper paragraph alleges, and whether the
extract therefrom, as published, is correct.
In the hope that you will favor me with
an answer, l subscribe myself, with great
esteem, Sir, your most obedient servant,
LEOPOLD BIERWIRTH.
The following is the statement above
referred to, purporting to be from Consul
List:
‘I have made inquiries with respect to
the transportation of paupers from this
country to the United States; but Stale af
fairs in this country not being so openly
conducted as might be desired, I have not
been successful until late, when by confi
dential communications, I have learned
things which will require energetic mea
sures on the part ol the United Stales to be
counteracted. Not only paupers but cri
minals, are transported from the interior
of this country, in order to be embaiked
for the United States.
‘A Mr. De Stein, formerly an officer in
the service of the Duke of Saxe Gotha,
has lately made propositions to the smal
ler Stales of Saxony for transporting their
criminals to the port of Bremen, and em
barking them there for the United States
at seventy-five dollars per head, which of
fer has been accepted by several of them.
The first transport of criminals, who for
the greater part have been condemned to
hard labor for life, (among them two no
torious criminals, Pleifer and Albrect,)
will leave Gotha on the 16th of this month
and it is intended by and by, to empty all
the jails and work houses of that country
in ibis manner! There is little doubt that
several other States will imitate the nefa
rious practice! In order to stop it I have
sent an article to the General Gazette of
Augsburg, wherein I have attempted to
demonstrate that this behaviour was con
trary to all laws of nations, and that it was
shameful behavior towards a country
which offers the best inducement to Ger
man manufactures.
‘lt has of late also become a general
practice in the towns and boroughs ofGer
inany to get rid of their paupers and vi
cious members by collecting the means
for effectuating their passage to the Uni
ted States among the inhabitants, and by
supplying them from the public funds.’
[copy]
Department ok State, )
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2d, 1844. \
Sir —ln reply to your note of the 16th
instant, I am directed by the Secretary of
State to inform you that no communication
has been received from Mr. List, of the
characte r referred to, at this Department.
I have the honor to be,
With high respect, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
(Signed) RICHARD K.CRALLE,
Chief Clerk.
To Leopold Bierwirth, Esq.
[From the Charleston Mercury .]
Mr. F. W. DAVIE AND THE EM
BAItRASMENTS OF THE SOUTH.
To Messrs. G. McDuffie, It'. Me Willie
and tV. B. Seabrook —
Gentlemen —You have doubtless peru
sed with becoming diligence, the letter
addressed to you iu the papers by F. W.
Davie, on the causes of our agricultural
embarrassments and distress, and the re
medy to avert them. Os our condition,
he remarks, ‘ that our (the cotton plant
ers) present condition is more hopeless
and ruinous than at any other period ol
our history.’ Being formerly a nullifier,
and advocating resistance to the general
government on account of the tariff of
IS2S, it would be natural to suppose that
whilst casting about lor the causes ot our
present ‘ hopeless and ruinous’ condition,
the tariff’act of 1842, liir higher in its un
just exactions, and lar more ruinous in its
effects on our commerce than the tariff
laws of 152S —would enter into the scope
of his discernment. But no—He takes
up the manufacturer’s cry from Lowell
echoed at the last session, by their hire
lings on the floor of Congress, and as
cribes our disasters to ourselves. It is
our over-production ol cotton. He says
4 it is mainly to be attributed to the sup
ply so far exceeding consumption, or in
other words, wo have produced beyond
the point of effective demand.
Now in the first place, if this distin
guished uultifier, who seems at present,
so blind to the operations of our tariff
laws, had only consulted proper sources
of information, he would have found that
great as the cotton crops have been lor
the last three y'ears, they have nearly all
been consumed.* The demand carried
off the supply, and at the close of the
last season, there was no such excess ot
Colton on hand as legitimately to produce
the important and ruinous effect on the
prices of the ensuing crop that has occur
red. Why then has not the price of cot
ton been maintained ? The answer
seems to be very plain. By our tariff
laws, our cotton cannot be exchanged for
the productions of our chief customers,
who must by the laws of commerce dic
tate in their markets the price of our cot
ton. The tariff laws of’24 and ’2B, i
threw down the price of cotton to nothing.,
The compromise act of 1833 forced into
existence by South Carolina resistance,
suddenly raised it. The more oppressive ;
tariff’act of 1542, has thrown down pri
ces still lower than in thirty and thirty j
two. Now, results correspond to causes.
But Mr. Davie cannot now see these
things. He joins the insulting rebuke of,
the manufactures and counsels us—not
I resistance as of yore to this unconstitu
tional and ‘ ruinous’ oppression—but to
imitate the Dutch some two centuries a-1
‘ go, who, when possessed of the monop- j
•oly of the spices of the East Judies, are
said annually to have burned all produ
ced over a certain quantity. This sense
less policy was bad enough, with respect
to a mere luxury ; and might when -the
monopoly was complete, as it was in this
case, have bad some temporary effect in
keeping up the prices.
But what shall we say to this exploded
barbarism in politics and commerce,
when it is proposed to be applied to pro
duct like cotton, in which the cotton plan-j
ters of the South have no monopoly?—
Diminish the supply of cotton in the Uni-)
ted States by burning it up. as the Dutch 1
did their spices, or withhold from produ
ing it, anil what would be the effect ?
It would immediately stimulate the pro
duction of cotton in Brazil and the East
Indies. The Honorable the East India
Company of Great Britian, would spare
themselves the trouble of sending to Mis
sissippi to get overseers to go to the East
Indies to give vigor to a proper competi- j
tion with us. Texas too, would be at j
once bereft of half of its attractions, and
Abolitionists would soon vote the great
Chester Statesman a full blooded member
of their Association, could his schemes be ;
carried out. It would certainly be ren-j
dering our Slave Institutions valueless, ’
and promote their object inure effectual- i
ly than a thousand presses and British
philanthropy to boot. But when this
cold blooded proposition to cut off the sup
ply of raw cotton, in order that the price j
may be a little enhanced, is considered in I
its effects on the poor millions who are
dependent on Cotton fabrics for clothing, j
it is absolutely hideous in its moral fea
tures. Diminish the supply of Raw |
Cotton from the United States one half
as he proposes, and will Mr. Davie tell j
us how many millions of people he will:
strip and murder with cold and sick-1
ness? lias he looked into the hell of
misery he would produce in the world?
It is to be hoped that he has not, and
has given counsel, the consequences of
which, he has not comprehended. When j
God by his Providence scourges the I
world bv a diminished supply of food
or clothing, any good man will deplore!
jit; and when abundance diminishes his
gain, it will be a consolation to him, i
that the many are benefitted. But to
create an artificial scarcity that we might
gain, like Lord Clive's iniquity towards ;
the famished Indians—inducing him to
i cut his own throat.
But Mr. Davie’s counsel as to the re-j
| sort of the cotton planter, in desisting to
produce cotton, is in perfect keeping with
| his whole policy. What are we to do
I with our negroes? He answers, ‘let
them be employed in the cultivation of!
5 grain, and the improvement of our plan
tations.’ As to the‘improvement of our
plantations,’if he means the growing up
of trees, 1 admit that will take place fast
enough by his policy. But in ‘ cultiva-
I ting more grain,’ has Mr. Davie any con
jeeption of the amount of grain now pro
duced in the Southern States ? Is he a
! ware that last year the States of New
j England produced but nine and a half
| bushels of grain to every inhabitant;
j that the Middle States, including Ma
ryland produced but twenty-nine and
a quarter to each inhabitant; that the
Northwest, excluding Kentucky and Mis
souri, produced hut forty-seven and a
j half to each inhabitant; but that the
South, taking the Potamac, the Ohio Riv
er and Missouri as the Notthwest boun-j
|dary, produced the enormous quantity of
fifty-three and three quarters bushels to
| every soul within their limits. I take
; these statements from a Congressional
document of the last session. Thus, we
'of the south, independent of our eighty!
millions worth of cotton, our twenty mil-!
lions worth of tobacco, our two millions |
worth of rice, produce more than four
times as much grain as New England,;
nearly twice as much as the Middle States
and one-eight more than the great grain
Stales of the West. In Indian Corn a
lone we produce nigh three hundred mil
lions of bushels. And yet we are told
by a southern planter, a politician who ;
affects at least to be fit to counsel the
southern people in affairs of State, that
our remedy for our distresses is to pro-;
duce more grain. Why—are not the
manufactures, at this moment, proclaim- j
ing to grain-growes of the North and
West, as loud as Mr. Davie himself to j
the cotton planters—that over-produc
tion—is the sole cause of their distresses? j
Is it not,their iniquitous policy which de
prives the grain-grower ot the natural mar- j
ketsof the world, but excessive production.
These plunderers can never produce too:
much themselves. Oh no! In order j
that they may produce more, they come J
to the government and get its arm to be j
stretched forth to keep off competition
with them—and extends by force, artifi-;
cial markets for their increased pro
ductions. Why, Gentlemen, suppose i
that the South produced no grain, and I
that there was room for profitable produc
tion, is Mr. Davie so oblivious of his fret I
trade doctrines as not to rely on the self-'
directing energies of the planter to pro-'
duce what his interest requires him to;
produce? and if his proposed diversion
of our labor to the production of grain
was profitable for a while, would it not
most speedily be subject to his reducing
process lor keeping up its prices. He j
would soon tell us of over production of;
grain; and propose that we should plant
only one-half as we are to do of cotton.
And would his reducing process stop
there ? Not at all. The rest of the
world would soon avail itself of any va- j
cuum, in supply, which we should thus
create and fill it up in grain as in cotton.
To be consistent, to keep up prices, he!
must then propose a still further reduc-'
tion of the southern planter in his pro- ;
duction of grain and cotton; one half
more—then a half more—until lie produ
ces nothing, and Mr. Clay’s theory of the
master running away from his slave will
be most beautifully realized.
If any thing could add to the absurdity
of this whole scheme, it is the means by
which Mr. Davie proposes to curry it out.
It is to be by voluntary agreement all over
the South, between a couple of millions
of cotton planters; each man of whom
will be tempted to produce more just ini
proportion as his neighbor, by his silly a
greement shall produce less. Really this '
gentleman must not only be of the opin
ion of the French Revolution Philosophy j
as to the perfectibility of man, but he must
suppose him to be already perfect—per- j
feet at least in an asinine adherance to the
most sublime, in its self-denying philos- ■
ophy, of all projects, which forgetting lib-;
eriy and right, would resort to sell-inflict
ion lor redress instead of meeting oppres-j
sion by a brave resistance.
If any shall suppose that I have been
too harsh in my criticism on the distin
guished Statesman of Chester, I am sure
be at least will excuse, when he ponders
over his denunciation in advance, of all
who cannot see either sense or reason in !
his counsel. ‘ That some perverse indi-J
viduals,’ he generously observes, ‘ would
refuse dieir co-operation, I have no doubt;
hut so few and so contemptible, as to have no j
influence on the general result.’
MERCATOR.
•The following table shows the produc
tion and consumption of American Cotton, j
for the last ten years.
Production. Consumption, j
1834 1,254,000 1,252,000
1835 1,360,000 1,342,000
i63G—7 1,422,000 1,392,000
1837—8 1,800,000 1,638,000
IS3S—9 1,360,000 1,381,000
1539—40 2,177,000 1,895,000
1840— 1 1,634,000 1,681,000
1841— 1,683,000 1,755,000
IS42 —3 2,370,000 2,050,000
1843—4 2,025,000 2,050,000
Average production for ten years, 1,708,1
500 bales.
Average consumption, 1,643,600; or ta
king the last three years, the average pro
duction 2,029,000 bales and the average
consumption 1,951,000 bales.
Fron the Baltimore Patriot.
SENTENCE OF THE REV. CHAS.
T. TORREY.
Avery large number of persons were
in attendance at the City Court this rnor
ining, for the purpose of hearing sentence
pronounced upon the above individual,
who was convicted during the recent term
|of Baltimore City Court on three separ
-1 ate indictments, for persuading, aiding
;and abetting in abducting slaves, tiie pto
perty of Mr. Heckrotle, of tins city. It
i will be remembered that after the cou
, viction of Torrey, a motion was made
by bis counsel in arrest of judgment and
for anew trial, which was argued before
the Court ou Monday last. The point of
anew trial, however, having been aband
ouded, it was only contended for an ar
rest ot judgment, upon the grounds of
certain alleged informalities in the indict
ments. At the opening of the Court this
morning—a very considerable crowd of
spectators being present in anticipation of
hearing the great speech which it was re
j ported Torrey would make—there was
quite a disappointment in his not appear
ing. His counsel asked permission of
the Court, in obedience to Torrey’s re
quest that he might not he publicly sen
tenced, which was granted.
We are therefore indebted to Mr. Lew
! is Servary, the obliging and polite assist
ant clerk of the Court, for the following
opinion and sentence.
Torrey desires to remain in jail until
Monday next, when the sentence will be
privately announced to him and he will
be removed to the Penitentiary.
OPINION OF THE COURT.
State vs. 7 orrey. —lt is certainly a gen
eral principle that where an offence is
created by act of Assembly, it is safest
to follow the very words of the act, but
such strictness is not absolutely necessa
ry.
If words of equivalent import and
meaning are used, it has always been
deemed sufficient, as the intention of the
Legislature is as fully accomplished in the
one case as in the other.
The offence intended to be punished
by the act is correctly defined in the sev
eral indictments in strict conformity' to
the law, but it has been oljected that the
words relating to the personal character
of the accused have been omitted, and
that he should have been described in the
words of the act as a free person. This
we think, has been sufficiently done in
the indictments by the usual and com
mon designation of yeoman, a term
which, in judicial proceedings, has al
ways meant free person, and is now used
in that sense only when a free white per
son is the subject of indictment. Free
negroes, perhaps, should be designated
as free negroes, as not entitled to all the
rights and privileges of freemen, and
therefore not yeomen, in the proper mean
ing of the word.
It would, therefore, have been tautolo
gy to have used the words free person,
where the word yeotnan, meaning the
same thing, had already been used,
and the charges in the indictments
could only he sustained against a ftee per
son. The prisoner in this case has been
tried as a free man, and not been depriv-,
ed ot any privilege or right to which he
was entitled, by the substitution or use
of the word ‘ yeoman, ’ instead of ‘ free
person.’
With regard to the number of indict
ments, one for each slave, it has been ur
ged that there should have been but one ;
indictment, as it was only one offence— j
all the negroes having gone off’ at one ;
time. Analogies have been drawn from
cases of larceny, where many articles |
have been taken at one and the same time ’
from the same person, in which case it is
considered but one offence, and therefore !
subject to only one indictment. But we
see no resemblance between a case of lar
ceny of dead chattels, in the removal of
which the thief is the sole agent, and the J
offences charged in these indictments,
where the voluntary act of each slave, i
for himself separately' from the rest, is 1
necessary to the completion of the offence
each must actually run away, in conse- j
quence of the previous illicit incitement
of the adviser, and thus are constituted
separate offences, for each of which an
indictment will properly lie.
The act of Assemby, we think, can
have no other construction. Its language
is, ‘that it any person shall entice, per
suade or assist any slave t or servant,
knowing him or her to be such, to run a
way from his or her lawful owner or pos
sessor, and such slave or servant shall ac- 1
tually runaway, such person shall be li- 1
able to indictment in the County Court of
the county where such offence has been
committed, or in the City Court of Bal
timore, if committed in the city of Haiti- j
more, and upon conviction shall under
go a confinement it> the Penitentiary, not
exceeding six years.’
The inducements held out by the free
person to the slaves may be addressed to i
many at one time, and so far are only one j
act, and if the crime consisted only in '
that act, it might be the subject of one
indictment only'; but as the actual running
away is necessary to complete the offence
and is a separate act of each slave, the in
dictment must be considered asseparately 1
applicable to each, whoshallhe induced
to run away, and it therefore subjects the j
adviser to as many indictments as there j
may be slaves who may' be influenced by I
j it.
The several motions in arrest ofjudg-;
merit, and if (any) for new trial are over
ruled.
Sentence. —The following is the. sen
tence : On the Ist indictment, confinement
in the Penitentiary from December 2Sth,
1.844, to 2d of April, 1817. On the 2d in
dictment until 2nd of April, 1849. On
the 3d indictment until 2nd April, 1851.
THE REPUBLIC.
SAML'EI. M. STRONG. Editor.
MACON, JANUARY 1545 l
MACON COTTON MARKET.
The Market for the past week has been
very inactive, and few sales making.—
The quantity coming forward lias been
small. There has been a better feel
ing, however,among buyers in the last lew
day's, than at the commencement of the
week. We make ourquolalions 2ycents,
4J as extremes.
THE REPUBLIC.
A\ e are under many obligations and
hereby lend our warmest thanks to the
kind friends who have so generously ex
erted themselves in extending the circu
lation and widening the circle ol this jour
nal’s influence. If, with the commence
ment of the New Year they will aid us in
procuring advertising, job, and other pa
tronage, we will enter upon tire discharge
ol our duties with redoubled energies.
1 he Republic is now upon a firm loot
ing with a large and constantly increasing
circulation ; and we assure our Democra
tic brethren that so long as it is controlled
by us, that whenever and whenever the
great principles we all profess are attack
ed or in danger, come what will, sink or
swirn, survive or perish, we will rush into
the thickest of the fray.
CITY ELECTIONS.
The following gentlemen, (all whigs,)
were elected on Saturday last, Mayor and
Aldermen of the city for the year 1845:
James A. Nisbet, Esquire, Mayoi ; Isaac
Holmes, E. Bond, Edwin Graves, Win.
B. Watts, James Denton, M. Rylander,
Clras. Collins, Henry G. Ross.
COUNTY ELECTIONS.
The elections held on Monday last, re
sulted in the success of the democratic
ticket with one exception : Janies Smith,
Henry G. Lamar, Nathan C. Munroe and
Henry Newsom, Esquires, democrats, and
Thomas Hardeman. Esquire, whig, were
elected Justices of the Inferior Court;
Richard Bassett, Tax Collector; Solomon
R. Johnson, Tax Receiver; and William
H. Macarthy, County' Treasurer.
MACON THEATRE.
The Theatre in this city will, we arc
glad to learn, be opened in a few days
under the management of Mr. John S.
Potter, the enterprising lessee of the
Charleston, Savannah, and Augusta thea
tres. Mr. P., we understand comes sup
ported by a good company of the corps
dramatique, and we trust our play-going
friends, and the lovers of the drama gen
erally* will extend to this the first effort
in our city towards establishing a respec
table theatre, a generous and liberal sup
port. The theatre has been removed to
a central and quiet part of the city and is
now undergoing a thorough state of re
pair. It will be newly painted, supplied
with new scenery', considerably enlarged,
and otherwise greatly improved ; and we
trust its enterprising owner, Mr. Horne,
may be sufficiently remunerated for his
entcrpiisc.
BIRO SUPPER.
1 he Nimrods of Macon turned loose
last week amongst the feathered tribe,
with great sport and no little success.—
We believe that they bagged about a two
horse cart load of ducks, squirrels, par
tridges, doves, and other game.
Two hunting parties were formed,
headed by crack sportsmen, and turned
out against each other. The average, party
is said to have won the supper. Though,
however, they might have counted more
game in the field than their opponents, we
question whether they had any advantage
at the feast.
We were honored with an invitation
and we never enjoyed an occasion of the
sort so well. Dull care seemed for the
time, at least, to be completely roasted,
and a ‘feast of reason, flow of soul,’ roar
of song and flash of wit, to have belabor
ed him out of countenace as well as out
of sight. The cracking of bones might,
however, have been heard in the interval
equal to the irregular firing of the militia
at the battle of Guilford Couit House;
hut we say it to the credit of the company,
infinitely more effective. No wonder! they
were most deliciously served up, (and he
served ’em right) by ‘ mine host’ of the
Floyd House, who upon such occasions
never misses fire.
However our crack amateur shots mav
delight in taking the game ‘on the wing/
we prefer by odds to take them sitting.
Os this we are profoundly convinced; aye,
even to the very bottom of our b s.
As last as the ‘golden hours sped,’ their
rapidity was somewhat facilitated by the
irresistible, soul-transporting punch pre
pared at the bar of the Floyd House.—
The very thoughts of it make the sparks
fly from our Promethean forge.
But half nnr flowing bowls were bagg’d,
\\ hen t tie clock told the hour for going,
Ami ive could tell by those hiccoughs and snorts
That one was the time for snoring.
The whole affair was ‘ done up brown/
and passed off as all such festivities ought,
leaving us with a few wrinkles the less,
in letter humour with ourselves and the
(world, and inspiring us all with those
kindlier feelings and social friendships
which tire the true charms of our exis-
I tenee.
We earnestly entreat our readers of
whatever political complexion to read an
extract from a letter signed O. P. Q., da
ted at Washington, ami addressed to the
New York Herald.
it is evidently the production of a saga
cious mind, and its statements con tail*
much that may lie relied on. Benton
the political desperado will no doubt head
the great anti-Texas anti-slavery patty of
this country, and Mr. Calhoun the cham
pion ot Southern rights, into whose hands
are committed the last hopes of the South,
will lead on the few brave spirits that clus
ter around the standard of the Constitution.
“Enemies without and traitors within”
the South will be borne down belore the
overwhelming force that now seems to be
swayed against her.
By the dissensions of her own citizens,-
Athens lost her liberties— from the same
cause the South will loose her vested rights.
To those who would taunt us with being
an alarmist, we might reply in the lan
guage of St. Paul—“l am not mad most
noble Festus, but speak forth the words of
soberness and truth.”
“1 begin then, by telling you that Col,
Benton is opposed to slavery, and in favor
of abolishing the institution in Missouri,
and, as soon us it can possibly be eilectcd,
in the United States. This is not merely
an abstract opinion of his, but an axiom,
upon which he will forthwith proceed to
act, and that too, in the most vigorous
| manner. You are aware that, at the re-
I cent State election in Missouri, the people
j decided by a large majority in favor of a
Convention to revise die Constitution of
the State. The delegates to this convcn
| lion arc to be elected in August next, and
the Convention itself meets in the winter
i lollowing. The present law provides that
no person holding an oilice shall be elected
to this Convention—but this absurd pro
vision, by which the best and ablest men
in the State were excluded from partici
i paling in the tbimation of the new consti
tution, will he repealed by the Legislature
: this winter, and the Statu laid out in dis
tricts so that Mr. Benton will be elected a
delegate to the convention from the upper
(democratic) ward in the city of St. Louis.
In that convention lie is to broach his grand
scheme tor the abolition of slavery, and in
corporate into the new constitution a de
claration of the new principle, which is to
be followed us soon as practicable by le
gislative enactments. The people of Mis
souri have become perfectly satisfied that
slave labor is an absolute disadvantage to
them, and that they can procure their
work done much cheaper by free labor,
i which entails no obligations, as in case ot
j slavery, to support and look after the la
borer any longer than be is actually engag
ed in toil. Thus, you see, it is not from
philanthropy, but absolutely as a matter
of interest, that slavery is to be abolished.
(Jod knows, it will be the direst curse that
could possibly come to the poor slave! ■
Now, he has, in his master, a lriend who
is bound by his own interest to see him
always well fed, clothed and housed, and
to nurse him when he is sick, while the law
compels the master to provide lor and
maintain the slave in his helpless old age.
But this is not to the present purpose.
The ice being thus broken by Misaoan,
it is believed that Kentucky, ' irgima,
Maryland and Delaware —perhaps Ten
| nessee and North Carolina —will soon so -
low suit, and abolish slavery in these
States. Then will come up, in e OOI f ar ’
nest, the question of the annexation ol 1
as, if it should not force itselt up before.—
But whenever it does come, Mr* Beoto* l
lias proclaimed that then and there e
i great question of slavery is to be
nently settled, and the principle whic 1
shall govern the future action ot the
ted Slates in respect to it, clearly and
’ tiuctly marked out. Texas ia to be a