The New York Herald Newspaper, May 21, 1853, Page 4

NEW YORK HERALD. JAMES GORDON BENNETT. PROPRIETOR AND EDITOR, OPFICE N. W. CORNER OF FULTON AND NASSAU STS. Wokmme XVII... 20. -eceeeseee sss ssee eNO 140 | SOOO AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery—Emwest MaLTRAVERS— Bascar Divekvismment -La Syirnive. saespway THEATRE, Broadway—Damon any Py- vmas- Boiv Dracoon. NIBLO'S—Tux Curmzss Tours. BURTOWS THEATRE. Chambers street—Ir is Tee Cusron caja Country—Inusa Lion—Hauntep Cuam- | = — NATIONAL THEATRE, Chatham street—Ron Roy— Rove Mz, Leve uy Doc—Oxanc Ourana, WALLACK’S THEATRE, Brosdway—Dox Cxsan vz Basaz—Youne Scamp. 87, CHARLES THEATRE, Bowery—Inisun Jomsn— Keapies’ Ricure- Jack Suxrrann. ‘Dow Cxsan ve Bazan—Faint AMERICAN MUSEUM—' Lapr—No Some No Suprsr. Misant Never Won Fax wares Faaes. OPEKA HOUSE, 473 Brosdway—Brmorss 's Ovens Taovurs. Latepelag nema Wood’s Musical Hall, 444 Broad- Minsraxcsy. pana AVENUE—Afternoon and Evoning—Fuaz eomrs Go1ossal LirropRome. wan €IROUB, 37 Bowery—Equesrnias Enrepramuents. GBORAMA, 686 Brondway—Banvann’s Paronams ov vam Hoy Lanp. HEMER’S SOIRKES MYSTERIEUSES, 639 Broadway. OWEN’S ALPINE RAMBLES, 539 Broadway. METROPOLITAN HALL—Paor. Axoensos. New York, Saturday, May 21, 1853, ———— Malls for Europe. THE NEW YORK WEEKLY HERALD. ‘The U.S. mail steamship Hermann, Capt. Higgins, wif eave this port this morning, at 12 o'clock, Beuthampton and Bremen. Subdscriptions and advertisements for any edition of the Mew Yors Herp will be received at the following places im Europe -— ‘Lrvexroor—Jobn Hunter, No. 2 Paradise street. Loxpox—Edward Sandford & Co., Cornhill. “Wm. Thomas & Co., No, 19 Catharine street. Panm—Livingston, Wells & Co., Rue de la Bourse. “ BH. Revoil, No. 17 Rue de la Banque. ‘She European mails will close at half-past ten o’clock this morning. ‘Tho Wasxty Henaxp will be published at half past nine @eleck this morning. Single copies, in wrappers, mupence. for_| ‘The News. Politieal news reems to be a remarkable scar @ommodity in the vicinity of Washington at the present time. At all events, our correspondents have not to-day furnished a syllable with regard to appeintments, removal, or anything else of a politi- eal nature. We have, however, ascertained from good authority that the selections for foreign mis- sions of every description have been perfected, and will probably be promulgated to-day, in which event we shall be able to spread the list before our readers to-morrow. Keep cool, we shall soon know who are to be our representatives abroad. Everybody will doubtless be pleased to learn that ounsel yesterday finished summing up in the Gard- mer case. The jury retired at two o'clock in the af- flernoon, and had not agreed at nine in the evening. Lake Erie was visited by another very destructive gale last Thursday. The telegraph reports that a large number of vessels were capsized, sunk, and @riven ashore. Many lives are already known to have been lost. The anti-renters are again at their old tricks, as will be seen bya despatch from Schoharie. They Inst Tuesday seized an officer, named Lawrence, who attempted to serve a writ on one of their number, and mutilated and maltreated him in the most bar- Darous manner. It is to be hoped, now that the ex- @itement consequent upon Presidential and State elections and inaugurations has entirely subsided, that these people, who have hitherto in a great mea- gare set our laws at utter defiance, will be brought to justiee and punished to the utmost extent. Let them no longer escape behind the shiela of political influence. The members of the Boundary Commission are re- ported to have left New Orleans, for the Rio Grande, on the 12th inst. Benjamin T. Williams was yesterday awarded seven thousand dollars by the Circuit Court in Bos- fen for injuries received by an accident on the Portsmouth, Saco and Portland Railroad. The rendi- tion of a few more such verdicts would probably have the effect of making railroad companies far more @areful than they have been of late. The cuit for a large tract of land in New Orleans, brought by the heirs of Gen. Lafayette against Ma- | dame Pontalba and others, has been decided in favor Of the defendants. By an arrival at New Bedford we learn that the gteamehip West Wind, which left this port with a Jarge number of passengers for Australia, some Months ago, succeeded in obtaining funds on bot- temry at the Cape of Good Hope, and would be en. abled to resume her journey early in March. The telegraphic synopsis of the proceedings of the Presbyterian General Assembly, in session at Buffalo, is qiit2 interesting. It will be seen that the first Monday in January, notwithstanding it will be New Year’s Day, is to be observed as a day of general fasting and prayer for the conversion of all the world. The assembly closed its labors till Monday by debating the slavery question. By reference to our telegraphic market reports, it will be seen that cotton was very quiet at New Or- Jeans last Wednesday. The stock at that port had Gwindled down to one hundred and twenty-three thousand bales, and the excess of receipts amounted to two hundred and forty-one thousand bales over those of the previous year at the same time. The excess at all the Southern ports reached two hun- dred and fifty-nine thousand bales, notwithstanding which fact the last advices from Texas state that there was a considerable amount of cotton still in that State awaiting shipment. Now that the canals are open, immense quantities of breadstuffs and pro- visions are beginning to find an outlet from the West, as we learn from our Buffulo and Albany despatches. The conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church concluded its sittings, yesterday morning, at the Allen street ehurch, after adopting a variety of reso- Jations and performing other business. The sixteenth anniversary of the Youth's Mission- ary Society was celebrated last evening at the above named church, when the yearly report was read, showing the prosperous state of the sasociation, and several addresses delivered. See reports elsewhere. For accounts of railroad and other fatal accidents, saicide of a Methodist clergyman in Ohio, &e., the reader is referred to the telegraphic head. The abolitionists are aguin in full play, and little Jane Trainer, the free colored child, whom we had hoped was allowed to depart in peace, is again on the tapis. Fred Douglass having passed away for a while from anti-slavery stage, black Jinney has become “the bright particular star” of abolition. ist attraction. When ghall we be done with this humbug, cant and mock philanthropy ? Several criminals were semtonced in the Conrt of General Sessions » Among them were Chauncy Larkin, Semuel J. Proper, Seth Diwoa, and James Hazard. The Tammany; Hall rioters would have been sentenced had it not been for the non-attendance of Aldermen Brisley and Francis, who were the members of the court that sat during their trial. The policemen, Kennedy and Smith, will probably be brought up to receive the sentence of the court this morning. Our inside pages to-day contain an unusual variety | of entertaining information, as will be seen by the following list of contents:—Political and Gossipping | Letters from our Quebec, Halifax, Texas and Con- stantinople Correspondents; Account of the Condi- tion of Sonora; The Chinese Laws, Customs and ' Commerce; Further News from Mexico; Abstract of the Annual Report of the American Baptist Mis- sionary Union; The Norwalk Calamity and the Railroad Law of New York; Miscellaneous Railroad Intelligence; Speech of Captain Hill at the recent Cuban Anniversary Meeting; Court Proceedings; Poetical Effusions; Financial and Commercial Re- views; General News Paragraphs, &c. ‘The Free Blacks—Northern Philanthropy vs. Northern Legislation—The Colonization Question. The future destiny of the free colored popu- lation of the United States is one of the most perplexing, although one of the most important questions of this age. It is abundantly mani- fest that in this country their position must un- changeably be that of a-distinct and inferior caste, with which it is impossible that the white race can ever amalgamate. It is equally evi- dent that the amelioration of the degraded con- dition of the free blacks of the North within the limits of this Union, always impracticable, has at length become almost utterly hopeless, The pressure of our European immigration is fast filling up even the more menial employments heretofore the conceded prerogatives of the co- lored man. If there were nothing else arrayed against him than the overwhelming competition of the European laborer his prospects in the North would be bad enough ; but this compe- tition is only one of the incidental disadvan- tages of his marked and proscribed race. The black man’s first and unconquerable dif- ficulty is the stamp of inferiority and servitude with which his Creator has marked him in his physical and mental organization. All the laws of society from which he suffers are but the in- evitable contingencies of this first inflexible law ofnature. From time immemorial he has been the slave of some higher type of the human family or but a naked barbarian, ina state of social and political independence. The very highest ad- vances in the scale of intelligence which he has made have resulted from the Southern insti- tution of slavery. The only promising attempt at selfgovernment with which the black man stands credited in history is the republic of Liberia, established and conducted by liberated slaves from our Southern States. And it has been doubted whether Liberia would continue to prosper as an independent State beyond the present generation were all supplies of regene- ration cut off from this country. If we are not mistaken, it was the opinion of Mr. Calhoun that the success of Liberia was entirely arti- ficial and delusive. for that the decease of the existing colonists from the South, and the failure to supply the vacuum for even a few years, would result in the rapid blending of the people of the said republic with the wild African savages by whom they are surrounded. But, whether the experiment might result thus or otherwise. experience has satisfactorily proved the marked inferiority of the African race. and that the only advances above bar- barism which they have ever achieved have been under the servitude or subjection of the white races. Now, from this view of the subject. we would conclude that the most eligible, appropriate, and humane disposition of the black man which has yet been made, is that of “the peculiar in- stitution of the South,” under which he is the unconditional servant and dependent of his master. And herein, to some extent. the Afri- can has solved the problem of ‘manifest desti- ny” for himself. Contrast the comparatively enviable condition of the slaves even of the rice plantations of South Carolina with that of the free black barbarians of the black despot of Hayti, or even with that of her Britannic Ma- jesty’s lately emacipated free colored subjects of Jamaica, and the testimony of all history will be affirmed in the practical illustration of the decree of servitude which attaches to the children of Ham. Our Northern philanthropists. however, have hit upon an expedient which must be success- ful in lifting the African to all the benefits of white soeiety, or which can only failin the bloody extermination of the African race from this continent. It is the immediate emancipa- tion of all the*slaves of the South, the imme- diate concession to them of equal rights and privileges with the whites, and the blending of whites and blacks together upon the platform of the French jacobins of “ Liberty, equality and fraternity.” To this end the agitation of the slavery question is to be re- vived; to this end the free-soilers are co-ope- rating with the more virulent abolitionists in the reorganization of their forces for resisting any further extensions of the area of Southern slavery; and to this end the underground rail- roads to Canada. for the benefit of fugitive slaves. are kept open. with their connecting stations from Mason and Dixon’s line to the St, Lawrence and Lake Erie. To this end, also, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Fred. Douglass, the Black Swan, the Duchess of Sutherland, the ladies of the Stafford House petition, and George Thompson and Company, are zealously working in the common cause night and day. And when the occasion shall arrive for practical political action we may expect to find all these piebald elements of abolitionism banded toge- ther in yet another crusade against the infidels of the South. In the meantime. the eondition of our free colored population is a more fitting subject for Northern philanthropy than Southern slavery; and before the aggregate of our free blacks is enlarged by the addition of three millions of slaves something should first be done in the way of philanthropy for that unfortunate class who, under the garb of freedom, are far worse off than Southern slaves. Illinois, Ohio, Penn- sylvania, Delaware, and other Northern States, have all their black laws, more or less strm- gent, for the expulsion of free negroes from their borders, or to shut out that species of im- migration. We believe that all the Southern States have their retaliatory laws of this kind. In a word, the “ free negro ’’ lives only by suf ferance in most of the States of this Union. If in philanthropic New York and New England he is not directly declared by law a vagrant, subject to expulsion, the schedule of his employ- ments is so limited that he can find but little to do. Placed between two fires—between the South and the North—what is to be the fature destiny of the free blacks of these United States ? Thurlow Wood suggests the establishment of a string of free colored colonies among the Ca- ribbean islands; but whether he proposes to make Hayti or Jamaica the basis of their govern- ment and confederation he has not informed us. Fred. Douglass, George K. Downing, the oyster- man, and others of the more intelligent free colored reformers, are dead against Liberia, This is their country, and here they intend to stay. And yet it is evident that the time willsoon arrive for something more definite, in the way of legislation upon free persons of color, than the retaliatory anti-free black laws among the several States. Canada itself has ceased to be attractive to the free colored man, for the whites, even there, are beginning to rebel against any further increase of his brethren. We know of nothing better, for the present, than Liberia for the relief of the free colored exile of this country. Liberia is the place for him. There the caste of color isin his favor. There he may rise to the highest official positions, and there he may increase and multiply, and extend the area of freedom indefinitely. The Caribbean islands are not the thing. They are appropri- ated. Liberia is the place. Cannot something be done—in the language of Mr. Clay, cannot something, and a great deal, be done to make Liberia attractive to the free colored man? Has Young America given him upand his cause? Why, now, should that great commercial and philanthropic project of the Ebony line of steamers be abandoned? Is not Liberia, and the African coast northward, rich in palm oil, coffee, sugar, cotton, tobacco, spices, dyewoods, gold dust, ivory, and many other articles of trade? It is to be hoped, for the sake of the free colored people of this coun- ry. and for their relief, that the administration will recommend some plan to Congress. This is the age of progress. And there is plenty of money in the Treasury. The Vote on the New Charter, on 7th Jane next. The citizens of New York have now seven- teen days left to make up their minds on the proposed City Charter. On the 7th June, they will be required to adopt or reject it; to decide whether the present state of things shall con- tinue for another year, or shall at once make place for a new, and, we sincerely believe, a sounder system. We have indulged the hope that no advice from us would be required to aid the public in a judicious exercise of the suf- frage; nor do we at this moment entertain se- rious apprehensions that it will be mis-used. Still, in view of the apathy which prevails among a large class of the well intentioned, and the formidable resistance which the defenders of the existing charter are preparing, we are induced once more to set before our readers a few practical reasons in favor of the adoption of the new act. We will preface our advocacy of the reformed charter with the frank admission that we glo not consider it perfect. Against more than one of its provisions grave objections may be urged; and many points which demanded reform have been left untouched. It is useless at this time to allude to these matters in detail ; and we pass them over the more readily, as neither errors nor omissions can possibly be productive of serious injury. They relate, without ex- ception, to matters of detail, and cannot at the worst give rise to much complaint. It will be, moreover, a very easy matter, if the charter is adopted. to remedy them by a brief act of the Legislature. On the other hand, the new act is replete with wholesome reforms. Under its provisions, the stigma of corruption will be wholly effaced from our city annals. This argument alone ought to ensure for the act the vote of every right-minded citizen. Whether those who have Inbored with such effect to cover our civic au- thorities with infamy, have or have not exag- gerated the state of the case, it is now a para- mount duty for us all to preclude the possibili- ty of such imputations being again brought for- ward. The government of the city of New York must be without reproach. Not even the most reckless party-scribbler must have a pre- text for” assailing the character of our civic rulers. This is, as we understand it. the unani- mous cry of the people; and no legislative enactment can answer the purpose more fully than the act we have now before us. Precau- tion can do more. We need hardly remind our readers of the heavy penalties it imposes on parties convicted of offering or receiving a bribe ; of the facilities it provides for the adduc- tion of evidence; of the safeguard contained in the increase of the number of councilmen. After it has become a law, an applfcant for city favors, who relies on corruption for suc- cess, will be compelled to bribe sixty council- men, elected from sixty different districts, and probably strangers to each other, and some twenty aldermen. All these persons will be well aware that, by accepting the bribe ten- dered, they are exposing themselves to a fine of $5,000, and an imprisonment for ten years; and that the very party who corrupts them may, at any future period, through reckless- ness, revenge, or malice, turn State’s evidence against them. If New York contains eighty men, or éven twenty, so bold as to risk these penalties for the sake of the small sum which the most liberal tempter would be enabled to offer, we doubt whether it contains one who would risk a similar punishment by offering a bribe to parties who would be just as likely to betray him as to become his partners in iniquity. We are desirous of placing the future dangers of corruption in the strong- est light at once, and, therefore, say nothing of the civil and civic degradation which de jure will flow from a sentence for bribery: though perhaps some who would risk a prison and a fine would be deterred from crime by the fear of public infamy. For the general mass of mankind, the dread of the former will be suffi- cient. Widespread as we are told corruption is in our midst, we cannot think that the rich will jeopardise their liberty or the poor their bread for the sake of a very modest gratification of their avarice. In a word, wedo not think that human in- genuity can frame 4 more comprehensive or more practical enactment against bribery than that contained in the new act. Nothing but the sheerest insanity would induce a council- man or a contractor toincur the penalties it pro- nounces, Whatever other offences may be laid to the charge of the officers who may be elected under it, we may be sure that no one with the slightest pretensions to veracity, will accuse them of corruption. Nor are ite provisions less wholesome on the subject of the public expenditure. A vote of three-fourths of the members of both boards will be required to sanction the expenditure of Public money for feasts, processions, or enter- tainments. Here we have at a single blow a monstrous abuse corrected—an inexhaustible ccurce of scandal aud calumny dsicd up. No} “extra allowances” will be allowed to con- tractors. This, again, will save thousands a year to the city, and for ever ruin the knavish schemes of a set of rogues who have fed on the public plunder for many a day. Leases and grants will be made pub- licly to the highest responsible bidder. We shall thus cease to hear that Mr. B. has obtain- ed such and such a property or privilege, through the corrupt influence of Mr. A., his brother or cousin, an Alderman, or by bribing the leading members or the board; and the real estate belonging to the city will produce areve- nue in just proportion to its value. Contrac- tors may save themselves the trouble of ten- dering for a contract, unless they can furnish “adequte security;” and thus the streets will cease to be blocked up, and other works aban- doned, by parties who have contracted to repair the one or perform the other at rates far below their legitimate cost. We might enumerate many other sensible changes which the new act will effect, but we have said enough, we are sure, to secure for it the vote of every patriotic citizen. To put a few of these in the clearest light, we will once more repeat that— 1. The new act will forever prevent corrup- tion, and rumors thereof. 2. It will prevent wasteful expenditure, and ensure economy in the disposal of the public moneys. 3. It will enable the city to derive a just income from the public property. 4, It will insure the punctual performance of public works by contractors with the city. 5. It will forever preclude favoritism in the dispoeal of leases, ferries, &c. And to these we may add, 6. It will deprive the aldermen of most of the judicial powers they have abused. 7. It will ensure to the city the services of a police force during elections. Here, it would seem, are reasons so weighty and so clear in favor of adopting the act, that the people might well be left to the exercise of their ownjudgment in the matter. But there are so many men in New York who are inter- ested in the preservation of past abuses—so many who have plundered the public in past times, and hope to do so again—so many who, blinded by political prejudice, are striving to make a party question of the bill, and enlist the whigs on the side of corruption and mis- chievous opposition to reform, that we cannot refrain from warning the public what counsel they seek on the subject. DANGER. OF hare CatrLe THRovGH THE Srrrets.—We had yesterday again another exhibition of the dangerous consequences of driving cattle through the streets of the me- tropolis. A bull became furiously enraged in his progress through the town, and taking the fashionable thoroughfare of Broadway for the display of his violent temper, he proceeded along and up that street, until near Grace Church; there he encountered obstruction or opposition from some street pavers, one of whom approached him with a heavy implement in his hands, to stay his progress; in an instant the maddened animal rushed against the man, goring him with his horns, and leaving him senseless on the ground. Another workman stationed himself with a pick, or shovel, before the advancing bull, who prepared to attack his adversary, seeing which, the man dropped his weapon. and precipitately fled. On went the bull. How and where his career ended, we did not learn. We would, again “age urge upon the Corporation to do something to prevent cattle being driven through the streets in the day- time; as not a day passes that large droves of cattle are not driven through the most fre- quented streets up town. In London, with two millions of people, and with a large cattle market held at Smithfield, near St. Paul’s Church, in the very heart of the city, no accidents from stray cattle are ever heard of. The reason is, that drovers are com- pelled to drive their cattle through the streets at night, between the hours of 12 and 4 A. M. When at Smithfield they are kept in pens—from whence they can only be removed at night. Let the same rule be adopted in New York. and we will hear of no more accidents from mad cat- tle. Genera Canepo’s Tour TuRroven Cupa.— Notwithstanding the glowing accounts given by the Havana papers, of the demonstrations of loyalty, devotion and respect, which greeted Captain-General Canedo at every point which he visited, on his reeent tour through .the Island, we have good reason to believe that there was little sincerity in such exhibitions. The wealthy Catalans, indeed, might have been sincere in their vivas and expressions of grati- tude for the honor conferred on them; but the oppressed and suffering Cubans had very little sympathy with these rejoicings, and manifested no great regard for the representative of Her Most Catholic Majesty. In Trinidad, some of the wealthy inhabitants entertained Senor Cane- do in great style, pledging the fidelity of the district towards the crown of Castile; but the patriotic portion of the citizens held aloof from the demonstrations, and showed their sentiments in the publication of a sort of manifesto, having for text the following sentence :—“ The ruinous condition of Cuba, and the humilating degrada- tion of her sons, proceed from Spanish despot ism, or from the selfishness of those Cubans in whose hands are deposited the wealth of the country.” The paper is written in a tone of great bitter- ness and hostility against the oppressor and his adulators, and shows the public sentiment as anything but favorable to the Spanish domi- nion. It is a eign of the times, and may prog- nosticate more revolutionary troubles a little ahead. We shall see. Talk on ’Change, Cotton was more active yesterday, with sales of 2,300 bales, without change in quotations. Breadstuffs were dull, Pork was firm, with small sales. Sugars were in fair demand, without change of moment in prices. There was some annoyance manifested among ship agents and owners on account of a strike among the rig- gers. They had now demanded $2 12 per day, and had refused to work unless their terms were acceded to. A merchant who had a vessel of 1,000 tons ready for sea was unable to have her sail on her voyage on ac- count of the rij ‘8 strike, Her detention was both in- convenient and expensi He had offered to accede to their new demands as far as this vessel was concerned; but they declined to work unless he would bind himself toa general agreement for the future, or until others could be brought into the arrangement The shipping interest has always shown @ spirit of liberality towards their employes, and have generally conceded all reasonable demands made both by sailors and riggers; but they consider that such large wages as those demanded by the latter come with a bad grace at the present moment, when their freighting business wasso dull and so much depressed. It wan stated by a gentleman that there must be some mistake about the times. Everybody said they were very 9003, and everything was advancing; yet to judse from the number of men seeking office in Washingten and in Mew York an eutsider would think they were never worse. It was stated that the applicants secking situa- tions in the Custom House amounted to some six or seven thousand; and, unfortusately, those most persevering, and in many cases most likely to succeed, were least qua- Hifiedto fill them. Some men were said to beseeking the appointment of appraisers, (which should be filled by merchants,) who had scarcely ever seen an invoice, or any other bills than their tailors, grocers, er bakers accounts. If times were so prosperous, business go good, and wages constantly on the advanee, why was it that whole regiments of men were approaching public officers, from the President down, with their hats in one hand and large bundles of papers in the other (called recommendations) for offices, which they may have to vacate in four years? It any scene was calculated to lower the manhood of man, or “‘ unman the man,” it was one like this. What man, however well qualified, who valued his love of honest independence, would thus bow down for office? Office dispensers might rest satis- fied of one fast, that the best qualified men, and those who in every sense were best entitled to fill offices, were in most cases not seekers, but if wanted would have to be sought after, and appointed to fill them. ‘The trial of the conspirators in the Martha Washington case at Cincinnati was one of much interest to under- writers in Wall street, whose offices were imposed upon to the large sum of $40,000 or $50,000. Hence the pro- gress of the trial when it comes on will be watched by them with a greal deal of interest. United States Senaters from Louisiana. A few days since we chronicled the election, by the Legislature of Louisiana, of John Slidell, to succeed Pierre Soulé as one of the Senators in Congress from Louisiana. We now give a table of the Senators who have represented that State since its admission into the Union, with notices of the most conspicuous Senators. The following is a list of the gentlemen who have been chosen Senators from Louisiana since its ad- mission as a State, in 1812:— Com’nt. of Term Expiration. of Term. Sept. 1812,...Allan B, Magruder... Do. N. Destrehan March, 1813. Resigned Oct. 1812 ‘App'd by Governor. larch, 1817. March, 1819, “Died, 1817. ‘March, 1823. ‘Resigned, 1828. ‘Resigned, 1824. March, 1829. March, 1825. March, 1881. Died May, 1888. ‘Resigned, 1831. March, 1835. ‘Resigned, 1836. “Resigned. 1835. March, i841. larch, 1837, Resigned, 1842. ied, 1846, larch, 1843. March, 1849. March, 1847. March. 1853. Resigned, 1863. March, 1859, March, 1855, The State of Louisiana, it is well known, com- prises the southern part of the extensive country which was purchased by the United States of France, in 1803, for the sum of fifteen millions of dollara. That part of the country now forming the State of Louisiana was separated from the rest in 1804, and called the Territory of Orleans, and by act of Con- gress of April 8, 1812, was admitted into the Union asa State. The State constitution was framed by a convention composed of delegates, a majority of whom were French Creoles or natives of Louisiana, at New Orleans, January 22, 1812. In 1810 the population of Orleans Territory was 76,556, of whom 34,311 were whites, and 34,660 were slaves. Free blacks, the remainder, 7,585. There was considerable opposition to the admis: sion of Louisiana as a State, both in Congress and in some of the Northern States, principally on the ground of the unconstitutionality of the admission. The federal party were generally opposed to the measure. In the United States Senate, however, there were but five or six negatives, and in the House of Representatives the act of admission passed 79 to 23. In the Legislature of Massachusetts, im- mediately afterwards, the act was condemned as un- constitutional, and in June, 1812, a committee of that body, of which Josiah Quincy (who is still liy- ing) was chairman, made a report on the subject, concluding with sundry resolutions, two of which are as follows, and are interesting, as showing the views entertained by the old federal party on the question of annexation:— Resolved, As the sense of this Legislature, that the ad- mission into the Union of States not comprehended with. in the original limits of the United States, is not author- ized by the letter or spirit of the federal constitution. Resolved, That the act of Congress passed the 8th day of April, 1812, entitled “‘An act for the admission of the State of Louisiana into the Union,” &c., is a violation of the constitution of the United States. The report of this committee declares “that the power assumed by Congress in passing this act for the admission of Louisiana, if acquiesced in, is plain- ly a power to admit new States into this Union at their discretion, without limit of place or country. Not only new States may be carved at will out of the boundless regions of Louisiana, but the whole extent of South America, indeed of the globe, isa sphere within which it may operate, without check or control, and with no other limit than such as Congress may choose to impose, in its own dis- cretion.” The senators and -representatives from Massachu- setts were instructed and requested to use their ut- most endeavors to obtain a repeal of the act of Con- gress admitting Louisiana into the Union; but the measure soon became to be considered as a wise one, and indeed an act of political necessity, and was finally acquiesced 'in by men of all parties., The political character of the new State was deci_ dedly democratic, or republican, there being no or- ganization of a federal party. On the first eleztion for Governor, in 1812, William C. C. Claiborne, who was Governor of the territory by appointment of the President from 1804 to that time, was now elected by the people. The votes stood thus : Claiborne, 2,750 ; Jacques Villere, 945 ; which election was confirmed by the Legislature, as then required by the State constitution, 33 to 6. The Creole population, al- though in a majority, it seems did not rally on Mr. Villere, one of their own number, but preferred Gov. Claiborne. Thomas B. Robertson was chosen to the House of Representatives in Congress. At the first election by the Legislature of Uni- ted States Senators Allan B. Magrader and John Noel Destrehan were chosen. Mr. Magrader had been a leading member of the State Con- vention which framed the constitution. As he drew the short term, he was only in the Se- nate one session, and was not re-elected. Mr. Destrehan was alsoa member of the State Conven- tion, and declined the appointment of Senator: Thereupon the Governor appointed Thomas Posey; but the Legislature refused to continue him in the Senate. In December, 1812, they elected James Brown, by 26 votes against 16 for Posey. The same body elected presidential electors in favor of James Madison, by 25 to 16, the latter havik probably been in favor of DeWitt Clinton, who was at that time a candidate, against Mr. Madison, for President. James Brown was born in Virginia, in October, 1766. After studying law he settled first in Tennes- see, then in Natchez, and was appointed by Presi- dent Jefferson Secretary of the Territory of Louisi- ana. This led him to New Orleans, which subse- quently became his home. He was appointed U.S. District Attorney for Louisiana, and rose to a high rank. He was elected to represent Louisiana in the U.S. Senate, as we have mentioned, in December, 1812, and was again chosen Senator in 1819. Being appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to France by President Monroe, in 1523, he resigned his seat in the Senate. At the French court he was highly es- teemed as the diplomatic representative of the United States; and his wealth and hospitality during his five years residence in Paris rendered him extremely popular witn his coun- trymen who visited that capital. After an ab- fence of five yeara he requested leave to return to the United States, and subsequently selected Phila- delphia as his place of residence, where he died, of apoplexy, in his seventy-third year, April 7, 1834. He was brother-in-law of Henry Clay. Euiyiug Fromenrin was of French origin, an ‘Henry Johnson.. James Brown... ‘Henry Johnson. «Pierre Soulé Solomon W. ‘ierre Soul resided in New Orleans. He was Secretary ef the Btate Convention which framed the constitution. Asa member of the United States Senate, he took an independent coutse, supporting the war measures, but voting against some of the recommendations ef the administration. In 1816 he voted with his col- leagues, and a majority of the demoeratic senatorg for the charter of the United States Bank. In May, 1821, he was appointed by President Monroe United States Judge for West Florida. While Gen. Jack~ on was Governor of Florida he had a diepute with Judge Fromentin, respecting the judicial conduct of the latter, but the result of the difficulty was unime portant. William Charles Cole Claiborne, who was elected to succeed James Brown, on the expiration of hia. first term, in March, 1817, died without taking hia seat. He was for many years a conspicuous publi¢ character in the Valley of the Mississippi. He re- presented the State of Tennessee in Congress for four years, viz., from 1797 to 1801, and gave the vote of the State to Jefferson, in the contest for the Preal- dency in 1801. It was expected by some that he would have ehanged his vote to Burr; but he remained firm, with the other democrats of the House, in supe porting Jefferson, and received from that President the appointment of Governor of Orleans Territory, in 1804, which office he held until elected the first Governor of the State by the people, in 1812. He was active in exposing the conspiracy of Burr, im 1807. Henry Johnson is, we believe, a native of Vir+ ginia. He has held various important trusts in Louisiana. In 1824 he was elected Governor of the State for a term of four years, having been previ ously United States Senator from 1818 to 1824. He was chosen for another term in the United Stated Senate in 1843. He was also a member of the House of Representatives in Congress from 1835 to 1839. Although elected by the whig party, he voted in the Senate, in 1845, for the annexation of Texas, in cor formity to what he believed were the wishes of the people of Louisiana. Dominique Bouligny was a native of Louisiana, of French origin. In the Senate he supported the administration of John Quincy Adams, and was particularly attached to Henry Clay as a political leader. Josiah §. Johnston was a native of Connecticut, but was taken by his father, in his infancy, to Ken- tacky, emigrated about the year 1805 to Louisiana, where he was appointed a judge, and elected one of the representatives in Congress in 1821. He wag transferred to the United States Senate in 1824, and continued a member of that body until his death, May 19,1833. He was killed by the explosion of the steamboat Lioness by gunpowder, on Red River, forty miles above Alexandria,(Lou.,) fourteen others being killed at the same time, and many other passengers wounded. Mr. Johnston was a man of fine talents, and highly esteemed by his numerous circle of ac: quaintance. He was a decided whig in his politics, and ardent in his support of Mr. Clay. Edward Livingston is a name conspicuous in American annals. He was of an old New York fam- ily, of Scottish origin, and was born at Clermont, Ca- lumbia county, N.Y., in 1764. He graduated at Princeton, N. J., in 1781, was admitted to the bat in New York, in 1785, and was in active prac- tice until he was elected to Congress, in 1794, by the democratic party of this city. When the administra- tion of Washington was formed, in 1789, the Living ston family were considered as federalists ; but the Chancellor, Robert R. Livingston, Brockholst and Edward Livingston, and other prominent members of the family, soon united with the republicans, and co-operated with the Clintons and Burr in opposing the federal party in power. Chancellor Livingston wasa zealous advocate forthe adoption of the United States constitution, in opposition to the views of George Clinton and his republican friends generally. The Chancellor, it will be recollected, was in the Continental Congress, and was on the committee of five, with Jefferson, Adams, Sherman and Franklin, who reported the Declaration of Independence, Robert R. Livingston’s name does not appear among the signers, for reasons not stated by hig biographers. We have the authority of Mr. Jeffer- son for saying that Livingston entertained similar views with Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, who, although in favor of independence, did not think the time appropriate. Mr. Edward Livingston, being con: siderably younger than his brother the Chaneellor,was not known in the early political questions which divi- ded the people immediately after the Revolution. He first appears in political history as a zealous re publican, and was one of the leaders of that party in Congress. On retiring from Congress he was ap: pointed by Mr. Jefferson United States District Attorney for New York, having also received the appointment of Mayor of New York, in 1801. The latter office he held but one year. In 1804 he re- moved to New Orleans, and thete pursued his pro- fession as a lawyer with great success. \When Louisiana was invaded by the British, in 1814, Mr. Livingston offered his services to General Jackson, and acted as his aid, and at the close of the war, also, at a later period, he received flattering testimonials of the friendship of the General. In 1823 Mr. Livingston was elected to Congress, and served as a member of the House until 1829, when he was transferred to the Senate. In 1831 he was appointed Secretary of; State, in Jackson’s second cabinet; and in 1833 he was ap- pointed Minister to France. In the ‘spring of 1835 he returned to the United States, and retired to his estate at Rhinebeck, on the North river, where he died, May 23, 1836, in his seventy-third year. Mr, Livingston’s talents as a statesman and lawyer are too well known to require detail in this article. Hia most prominent law work is the Code he prepared for the State of Louisiana. George A. Waggaman, who succeeded Mr. Living- ston as U. 8. Senator, had been a prominent member: of the State Legislature. He was a zealous whig, and took part in debates in the Senate. He died March 23, 1843, of a wound received in a duel a few days previous. Besides other distinguished trusts, he was Secretary of State for Louisiana under three administrations. Alexander Porter was born in Ireland, and his fa- ther having fallen a victim to the political disturb- ances of 1798, the son emigrated to America, and settled in Nashville, Tennessee. He at first engaged. in commerce, thenstudied law, and, removing to Lou- isiana in 1809, soon acquired distinction. He assist- ed in forming the constitution of the State, be- eame a judge of the Supreme Court, and was chosen a Senator in Congress in 1833. He resigned in 1836. He acted with the whig party, and was a man of cultivated taste and popular manners. Endowed with great natural abilities, a thoroughbred lawyer, and versed in political knowledge, he was long con" sidered one of the most eminent publie men of the State. He died at Attakapas, January, 1844, aged fifty-three. Charles A. Gayarre, a Creole gentleman, who has. figured as a literary man and a democrat, held the appointment of Senator a short time, but resigned and was succeeded by Robert Carter Nicholas, who, we believe, was of a Virginia family. He supported the administration of Van Buren. Alexander Mouton, of French origin, ‘waa also elected by the democrats to the Senate, and, on retiring from the Senate, was chosen Governor of Louisiana. He married a daughter of Col. Charles K. Gardner. Alexander Barrow, elected by the whigs, in 1841, was a native of Nashville, Tennessee, where he was admitted to the bar, and soon afterwards removed to Louisiana. Retiring from a successful practice at the bar he became a wealthy planter. He served several years in the Legislature of the State, and held other distinguished trusts, besides that of United States Senator. He died at Baltimore, De- cember 29, 1846, aged forty-five years. He was highly esteemed for his personal qualities and pub- lic usefulness. Charles M. Conrad we have noticed on former oc casions in the HenaLp. He was one of the late cabinet of President Fillmore, where he acted as Se