The New York Herald Newspaper, January 7, 1860, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD. | JAMES GORDON BENNETT, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. OFFICE N. W. CORNER OF NASSAU AND FULTON STS Tt be at the TERMS, cash in ideas, Money sent by mail wi CE eas conten, Postage amps not received as 81 ere THE DAILY HERALD, to cons per TUE WARRLY UERALD. cory Satarslay, ol ie cnt or ee meas fr ones foamy part of 6 oy dress Bruin, oP FL Continent, hota, to sed ahd ef ech weonlh ah tex cont Pabst ‘tena om Wednesday, at four cents per ON PN FRY 0 iy CORRESPONDENCE, containing important ewe, solicticd ter of the ‘world; 4 wsed, Medlt be Jug paid for wat Gon Ponan Couxsaroxvuire 480 Panic0LaRLy BuQuesrmp To Sea ALt Larraus axD PACK< ENTS renewed every day; verted én ry eon hg trol Fauiy RINTING i coeaee ‘ith naatness, cheapness and de- AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. etre Munars— NOME. BLO'S. GARDEN, pris or Maoni>-Bas ‘FRE. Bowery.—Dancinad Map hee Ror —Ermoriax VERTUGEMRNT—TWO OF Bors—a ‘Covonsp 5 I. street.— re SF ~ Broatvay. opposite Bond SEED, THEATER, Broadway.—Hossaxp TO LAURA THEATRE, 6% Broadway.—Greex Busaxs—A Pursomanon ix 4 Suck FRoce. NEW BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Wi.ow Corss— Damon any Prenias—A-Lap Ut-a-Laur, ernATAE FRANCAIS, 685 Broadway.—Le Fus Na- Barer. AMERICAN MUSEUM. Broa¢wa’.—Afier- moon and Evening—Cuaaias Tux Szoonp—Fouty fuinves. BRYANTS' MINSTRELS, Mechantos’ Hall. 472 Brosdway— Buuszeques, Sones, Dances, &c.—New Yeas's Carts. NIBLO’B SALOON. Broadway.—Gro. Onnrsty’s Mix- stants uw Soncs, Dances, Buniasques, &c.—Mus. Dar’s New Yuax Cais rom 1360. POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, Brooklyn.—Matinee at Two O'Clock—Drartox's Paxton Orrxas—Senor Otiviens. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Saturday, January 7, 1860. The News. Our reports from Washington afford no hope of @ spéedy organization of the House. Several Schemes, however, are said to be on foot with a view to a coalition of the democrats and Southern opposition; but it is improbable that they will prove successful. In the House yesterday, Mr, Miles, of South Carolina, proposed to select a temporary Speaker, pass the appropriations ne- Cessary to carry on the government, and dissolve the House, each member resigning his post, in order that an immediate and direct ap- peal may be made to the sovereign people for a settlement of the political questions which @ause so much disturbance. He proceeded to dis- ‘onss the differences between the North and the South, and depicted the horrors of a fratricidal war between the two sections. Another ballot for was had, which resulted as those pre- viously taken. Mr. Briggs, of this city, defined his Position, and as his course has excited considerable comment, we refer our readers to his remarks in our report of the proceedings. ‘The Legislature, so far, has made but slow pro- gress. The resolution for a Select Commit- tee on the Pro Rata Freight bill was debated by Messrs. Fiero, Goss and Prosser in favor of the Committeo, and Mr. Spinola against it, and finally adopted. Among the bills noticed ‘was one to restore railroad tolls, also one to provide means to complete the ca- nals, one to raise the duty on salt, one to authorize the Judges of Appeals to appoint a Supreme Court reporter. The Senate then adjourned to Monday @vening at seven o'clock. Inthe Assembly,among the petitions were several for a Pro Rata Freight bill. The reports of the Police Commissioners and Harbor Commissioners were received. Among the bills noticed was one to repeal the Equalization law, one to repeal the Registry law, so far as it re- fates to the city of New York, and one to repeal the act abolishing railroad tolls. A resolution Offered by Mr. Moulton, requesting the State Asses- Bors to report whether the existing law needs amendment, was agreedto. Leave of absence was granted to several members, after which the House adjourned to 7 P. M. on Monday. The first annual report of the State Assessors is regarded as among the most important which will come before the Legislature this session. It is in two parts, the first giving the proceedings of the Assessors in regard to equalizing the taxes the past year, and embracing a large amount of interesting Btatistics; the second recommends an entire and Tadical change in the present assessment laws, so as to equalize the taxes upon all the property of the State, by adopting the gross income, rather than property, as the basis for taxing. Aseuming that there are but three sources for revenue, land, capital and labor, it proceeds to develope a system that shall, by an equitable adjustment of valuation, reach all property or incomes in such a manner as to compel the payment of taxes only in proportion to the ability of the taxpayer, and not by the pre- sent arbitrary method. Governor Morgan has appointed B. W. Bonney, of this city, Judge of the Supreme Court, vice Judge Davies, elected to the Court of Appeals. Senator Seward passed through this city yeater- @ay, on his way to Washington, and stopped for a short time at the Astor House. During his brief stay he made himself as prominent as possible by receiving calls from every one who saw fit to make them, and afterwards took his departure in the six P.M. train for Washington to take his seat in the Benate. The Ohio Democratic State Convention met at Columbus on Tuesday last, and appointed delegates to the Charleston Convention. Resolutions in favor of Judge Douglas for the Presidency were adopted by a large majority. Our European files to the 2lst ult, brought by the Bohemian, at Portland, reached this city last night. They do not contain anything of impor- tance that was not embraced in our telegraphic Summary published yesterday morning. We have from time to time devoted consider- Bble space to descriptions of works of high art in She Dusseldorf gallery, Bryan's gallery, the Acade- my of Design, &c., and this morning, in another part of the Hsnaxp, we give a series of graphic sketches of the works of art in what is appro- priately termed the Rogue's Gallery, an institution connected with the Police Department of this city The sketches referred to are portraits of such burglars, pickpockets and swindlers as have ac quired sufficient notoriety in their various walks of rascality and crime to entitle tkem to the par- ticular regard and lasting remembrance of the po- lice detectives. Quiet citizens may perhaps find it to their advantage to study the features of the Chevaliers d’industrie who are described. We publish elsewhere a mass of matter bearing tpon the great question of the day—the irrepressi- ble conflict between the North and the South. Among the articles are a letter from Senator Wilkon fo Henry C. Wright, a letter from Rev. Theodore Parker on the John Brown foray, anda letter from Gen. Henningsen in reply to the views of the French red republican, Victor Hugo, on the Har- per’s Ferry affair. The Police Comrhissioners met yesterday, and, ©ontrary to general expectation, conducted their NEW YORK “HERALD, SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1880.—TRIPLE SHEET. for the cireutation of the Canadian banks in we pa ‘Wilson Defining His Positions | ever, were devoid of importance. Mayor Wood | was present. Our special despatch from Albany | gives a brief synopsis of the contents of the annual | report of the Commissioners. ; By the overland mail we have news from San Francisco to the 16th ult. Business was very dll, with little prospect of a revival for some time to come. The general news is unimportant. The democratic politicians were warmly discussing the subject of appointing delegates to the Charleston Convention. Colonel Fremont had taken posses sion of all the mines adjudged to him without col- lision with the squatters on his property. Advices from Japan state that the British and Russian agents had obtained from the Japanese authorities a promise that the onerous restrictions imposed upon commerce should be removed. The sales of cotton yesterday embraced about 1,500 bales, including 350 in transitu. The market closed steady, on the basis of about 113/c. for middling uplands, on the spot. Flour was without change of importance in prices, While sales were made to = moderate extent, including ‘some transactions on speculation, while little or nothing was done for export. Southern flour geld to a fair extent, Dut closed with come less buoyancy, while prices wore unchanged. Wheat was more firmly held, which tended to check sales. A small lot of choice Kentucky white sold at $1 55, and of another do. of choice white Canadian at $1 45. Corn was without change of importance. Sales of Jersey new yellow were made at 86}¢c. a87c., and ofnew Southern do. at 880. a 80c., and Jersey new white at 633<c° ‘Sic. Pork was rathor better, but sales were light, at 16 123 9 $16 25, and prime at $11 608$11 62};. Sugars were firm, with sales of about 200 a 300 bhds., and of 900 boxes, at rates given in another column, Coffee was firm, Dut quiet. Freight engagements were moderate, and The Election of Delegates to Charleston by the Union Democracy. The elections which are about being held, for delegates to represent properly the various districts of this State, at the National Conyen- tion at Charleston, prove, unmistakably, that the masses of the democracy are aroused to the keenest indignation at the perfidy, fraud and brutality, with which certain corrupt monopo- lists have debased the party for so many years. Not a shadow of doubt remains in the minds of thinking men, who have studied the history of late State Democratic Conventions, that an organized conspiracy has long existed, having for its object to keep federal and State patronage in the hands of a few barnburner, free soil demagogues; and that these latter have played into the hands of the Seward fac- tion, whenever they have found it for their interest todoso. The atrocious sale of Gov- ernor Wise’s letter for twenty dollars and the violence with which Wieting Hall was occu pied, and the regularly organized Convention driven out, in September last, were only the two latest phases of a systematized scheme of iniquity, which has continued since the great Van Buren treason of 1848. The true, Union democracy are everywhere flocking, therefore, to the polls, and are determined to restore New York to its pristine position, as a conservative member of the American confederacy. That they will succeed in their efforts, and that their delegation will be received with open arms at Charleston is as certain as that the sun will rise in that city, on the 234 day of April next. The character of the gentlemen thus far nominated in the districts, is one of the surest guarantees of the purity, integrity and patriot- ism with which the primary elections have been carried on. No State has, anywhere, been made up. No monopoly olique has assumed the power, as Cagger, Richmond, Cassidy, and their free soil confederates did, at Syracuse, to pack a delegation; but every opportunity has been afforded for a fair expression of the will of each individnal, and the choice of the ma- jority-has generally been so wise, as to be cheerfully acceded to by all. Were the South- ern delegates to the National Democratic Con- vention, to receive into their midst the rene- gades of 1848, who are Cagger’s emissaries, they would stultify themselves, make them- selves the scorn and byword of the country, and virtually endorse a body of men, whose creed for thirteen years—ever since the Mexi- can war—is best expressed in the language of the Wilmot proviso—“that, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory, by the United States, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory.” Among the barnburner traitors in 1846; the disorganizers, at the Herkimer Convention, a year later; the seceders from the Baltimore Convention, by which General Cass was de- feated in 1848; the tricksters, who, under false pretences, deceived the hunkers, in 1849; the brutal ruffians, who broke up the Syracuse Convention, and drove the anti-free soil portion of the delegates to Brintnall’s Hall, in 1853; were, in each instance, to be found numbers of those whom Confidence Cassidy & Co. placed upon their slate, for delegates, in September last, and who compose the inside works of the debased and rotten machinery of the Regency. They are the same old ruffians, who are too cowardly and politic to strike themselves, but whose pugilistic condottieri are always in train- ing, and never fail to resort to blows, where arguments, regularity and majority, fail to pre- vail. And it must be remembered that, so deep has this treacherous Cagger-Cassidy Regency sunk into the mire, that they invariably de- ceive their allies, and even throw overboard, in the face of the most solemn pledges, their less available friende. Thus, at the late Convention at Syracuse, it was thoroughly understood, between certain friends of Mr. Daniel S. Dickinson, short sighted enough to place faith in the profes- sions of desire for the union of the party, made by the Regency Iscariots, that the delegation to Charleston should consist of one-half hards and one-half softs. The weaker bards, including Mr. Dickinson himself, were for the moment, bamboozled into shutting their eyes to the atrocities which Cagger’s bullies had perpetrated in ejecting the regularly or- ganized State Convention from Wieting Hall, and trusted to the representations upon the subject of the Regency faction. And, although not one of these gentlemen was present when the intrusion of Mr. Cagger took place, they were induced to sign a paper, giving a false view of the facts, which most of them have since expressed sorrow for having put their names to. But how were they rewarded? Why, the compact was violated, and the ten or twelve hards whom Richmond, Cagger and Cassidy reluctantly admitted into their packed gang, have become so disgusted at the falsehood and meanness with which they were treated, that they will, in all likelihood, give up their places onthe bogus delegation. They certainly are favoring the Union democracy movement at pre- sent. Even the friends of Cagger, who re- mained in his bolting convention, many of them protested, after it had adjourned, against the unblnshing impndence and hypocrisy which Dusiness with closed doors. The proceedings, how: ! they had witnessed; and the document signed by Messrs. Robert Dunlap and Elijah Mather, genuine responsible men of Niagara, will not be forgotten, when the time for settlement comes. ‘These free soilers, 0 signally defeated at our late municipal election, where two of their oldest standard bearers were disgracefully nominated, and afterwards signally defeated, will be scouted out of Charleston with scorn, and we should not be surprised, in view of the antecedents of some of them, if their persons and baggage were examined by the police, to discover if Helper’s pamphletjwere not being smuggled into the city by them for’ distribu- tion. The Union demoogacy will take their places in theConvention unquestioned. There will not be a man among their delegates, whose character, antecedents, and energetic support of Union principles—such principles as Charles O’Conor s0 nobly announced in his recent speech—can be questioned, and it will be by the aid of their votes that a nomination will be made which will command the support of the whole country. We give in another column the manifesto of Rev. Theodore Parker to the anti-slavery and. revolutionary republican party, of which some two hundred thousand have already been cir- culated in the Central and Northwestern States from one of the treason shops in this city. This reverend ruffian is one of the religious and philosophical instructors, as Seward is one of the political instructors, Helper one of the moral instructors, and John Brown one of the practical instructors, of tactics in the aboli- tionized republican party. In the pulpit, as well as on the rostrum, he and others have been urging on their affiliated republican lead- ers till they have brought the party full and fast into the arms of the abolitionists. Seward proclaims the waging of an “irrepressible conflict” till the last slave has ceased to work in the cotton, sugar, tobacco and rice fields of the South. Helper, a renegade agrarian from North Carolina, announces that the abolitionized republicans are determined to carry their ends, “peaceably or by violence,” no matter what consequences may follow; and if the Southern whites do not like these they may go elsewhere, which senti- ment is endorsed and commended by sixty- eight republican members of the last Congress, forty of whom are members of the present one. John Brown carries out the holy text with pike and gun, and the Zribune implores the party not to permit bis epitaph to be written until not a single slave shall exist in the valleys of Virginia. Some of the republicans who still cling to the party are endeavoring to shirk these doctrines and to avoid the issue with the conservative and common sense impulses of the, people. But the facts are indelibly fastened upon them, and cannot beremoved. There stand Seward’s brutal and bloody speech at Rochester, Help- er’s incendiary book endorsed by the republi- can members of Congress, the republican apotheosis of John Brown as a martyr anda saint, ‘and now we have one of their philoso- pbical thinkers throwing off all disguise, and giving us the logical formula throngh which tie republican party is led from admitting the equal right of the negro to the assertion of the duty of the white man, and finally to its exercise, to murder every slaveholder who resists the black republican theories. For the printing and circulation of these doctrines, treason shops are established in New York, and the republican party is called upon to con- tribute; and it does so in such a manner that we find the names of Cassius M. Clay and David Dudley Field, Francis P. Blair, Jr., and Edgar Ketcham; Governor Morgan, of New York, and Lewis Tappan, Thurlow Weed and Horace Greeley, John Sherman and Hinton R. Helper, with many others, ostentatiously paraded to- gether as givers, endorsers and recommenders of the installation of the revolutionary reign of terror and blood. To make the fact that the republican party is completely abolitionized, and that it accepts that condition, the republican members-of the present Congress have for a month clung to and voted tor John Sherman as Speaker of the House, mainly on the ground that he is the rep- resentative man there of the Seward “irre- pressible conflict,” the teachings of Helper’s book, and now, we may add, of the philosophi- cal postulate by Rey. Theodore Parker, of the abolition republican doctrines. They are in a minority, and cannot elect him; but the majo- rity, consisting of democrats, self-styled anti- Lecompton men, remnants of the old Know Nothing party, and debris of the old whig party, are so taken up with their own petty and personal feuds, that they lose sight of the great national issue at stake, and refuse to unite on a national man. Some of the anti Lecomptonites have given way so far to their personal spite that they have already sold them- selves to the revolutionary republican party for a share in the Clerkship of the House. The election of Sherman as Speaker will be the first step in the inauguration of the revolu- tionary reign of terror in all the South, the only end of which will be blood, blood, and more blood, spilt in the North as well as in the South. Those who wish to save the country from such a terrible ordeal do well to oppose the election of Sherman. They should oppose it to the end, and let the whole Union see who are the traitors that shall dare to lend them- selves to the carrying out of the treason and bloody revolution preached by Seward, Wen- dell Phillips, Sherman, Theodore Parker, Helper, Horace Greeley and John Brown. Let the conservative men of Congress insist upon putting on record the name of every man who, in any way, at this momentous crisis lends his vote to the election of Sherman. His election will mark the beginning of the dire history of our country, and those names will be recorded on its pages by the side of those of Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr. Tue Sreakrrsuip—Proproskp WITHDRAWAL OF Suenwan.—It is reported that Mr. W. H. Seward advises the withdrawal of Sherman as a candi- date for the Speakership, and the substitution of some other man, who is not committed to the doctrines of Helper’s book. Itis also stated that he is going on to Washington with.a view to have this movement carried éut, and thus whitewash the republican party. It will be as eary for him to do this as to divest himself of his ultra political views, and on his appearance in the Senate to get rid of the responsibility of his “irrepressible confligt” speeth delivered at Rochester. . Imsecurity of the Banks—The Superin- temdent’s Report amd the Governor's Message. The report of the Superintendent of the Banking Department of the State of New York, just made to the Legislature, is pub- lished in another column, and is in some respects a very suggestive document, while in others it is lamentably deficient in the instruction which might be expected from such an official. The facts and figures are well calculated to alarm, and the Superintendent himself appears to be some- what alarmed. The excessive expansion of the banks, and the excessive importation of foreign goods, with another fact to which the Superintendent does not advert—the diminished and diminishing demand of the South—are ominous of coming disaster. The banks, it appears, are doing an immense and profita- ble business, and therefore there is danger. It was 80 before the last panic. The Superinten- dent ssys:—“ The year ending in June, 1857, was the most profitable yaar enjoyed by the banks during the past ten years.” He lays down a principle taught by experience, that “when the line of investments of a bank reaches beyond, say seventy-elght or eighty per cent of its capital deposits and circulation, it is stimulating the business of the community around it beyond a healthy and steady action, and extending itself beyond a prudent and safe use of its capital and credit.” Now, what are the banks doing at the pre- sent moment? Let the Superintendent an- swer:— discounts within the smallest sent year. the city York, particularly, should carry a firm and stoady line of discounts, ‘based their capital, deposits and circula- tion, and ‘should remember that, while it is easy to ex- nd in apparently good Omen, the necessary contraction ity meet the changes of ou! certain periodical con- vulsions in the market will only aggravate the difficulty under which the banks and their borrowers labor, when a necessity for such contraction exists, always created by a previous expansion. We should say that the banks have already exceeded the point of prudence, were it not that they have an interest in creating a panic, particularly when they have Judges in this city so lenient that they will not carry out the law: and place them, the moment they suspend specie payment, in the hands of a receiver to wind them up. It is clear that the Superin- tendent apprehends danger, but he has no remedy to suggest to the Legislature. On the contrary, he says “it is idle to invoke legisla- tive aid to control capital in the business of banking.” Yet depositors in the banks of New York have no security whatever. So profita- ble is banking in this State that the capital in- vested in it increased from forty-four millions in 1849, to nearly one hundred and eleven mil- lions in 1859. This capital is employed by three hundred banks. Now let us see what is the security of the noteholders. It appears that the total amount of securities held in trust by the government for banks of this State is upwards of twenty- eight millions of dollars ($28,068,336), and consists of the following:— and a half millions of dollars ($26,490,632), while it appears that the amount of circulation issued to banks under special charter is up- wards of ten millions ($10,000,644), and for that there is no security to the billholders; nor does the Superintendent suggest any legisla- tive provision to remedy the evil. It is worthy of remark that while Governor Morgan sent a message to the Legislature on Tuesday, which occupied seven columns of the Heratp, and while he descanted at great length upon a variety of subjects, some of which were better omitted, and others were of comparatively small moment, he dismissed the important subject of the banks in a few lines, in which he gave some statistics, but avoided giving the public other information which would enable them to understand the value of the figures. This is the more unaccountable as Mr. Morgan has been a New York merchant, and therefore ought to be thoroughly conversant with the subject. One would suppose that it is the duty of the Governor of the State to warn the people of the insecurity of nearly one- third of the bank notes of the State, and we further think it would not be amiss to recom- mend a change in the law, compelling these charter banks to come under the general bank- ing act. Nor would the Governor exceed the limits of his obligation, or of a apund discre- tion, by cautioning the community against Ca- nadian money, which is exactly in the same predicament as the notes of our charter banks, or Safety Fund. The example of the failure of two Canadian banks during the year, flooding the northern part of this State with their worth- less and unredeemed paper, might have sug- gested to Governor Morgan the propriety of some salutary observations on the subject. There is a general impression on the public mind that all the notes of banks of the State of New York are as good as gold to the hold- ers. That, however, is not the case with all the banks, and in the late panic two banks of this State failed whose notes are selling at a large discount, those of one of them only realizing from twenty to twenty-five cents on the dollar. They belong to the class of banks called “Safety Fund;” but that designation is no longer appropriate. These banks are very far from safe. : In this State there are two kinds of bank notes—those issued by banks under charter, and those issued by banks under the general law, which are known as free banks—that is, they do not require any special act of the Legislature to enable them to become banks, but are free to come into existence if they comply with the general law enacted for. the public security. The charter banks are the oldest, and the Safe ty Fund are of that class. The notes are not secured by stocks or any other security, nor do the billholders get a preference, as in the case of the free banks; but the assets are applied equally to the payment of depositors as to the redemption of the notes. Canadian bills are for the most part of the same character. No paper money stood better in this country than the issues of the Canada banks till the last few failures, just’ as was the case with the bills of the United States Bank upto the time of its failure The recent burst- ing tp of the Colonial Bank and the Interna- tional, which wete considered perfectly sound, has startled the community; and well it may, the United States, particularly »." the towns all along the Lakes, is immense, and »%¢ greater part of these banks are just as rotten AS the two which have exploded during the past year. There is no security whatever for the notehold- ers, and it is unsafe to have much of such paper on hand. In Canada banks are of two kinds—one the close charter, and the other the free banks, The former are not secured, the latter are, The total circulation of the close charter banks in Canada is $9,921,900—close upon ten mil- lions of dollars—which is far beyond the wants of the Province, and is of course intended in great part for the United States, and here un- doubtedly it“finds its way. To redeem this vast circu'ation there is little or nothing but “fog” paper. The circulation of the free Canada banks, amounting to $351,905, is se- cured by debentures deposited with the Re- ceiver General to the amount of $770,503, and the notes are therefore perfectly safe; but how small a proportion do they bear to the others! This is information which we think Governor Morgan ought to have given the people of this State in order to caution them against being victimized by a paper money so utterly inse- cure, and he ought to have advised the Legis- lature to apply a remedy as far as the rotten banks of this State are concerned, which would have been @ far more becoming course than precipitating the danger of a panic and the bursting of all the banks, by observations calcu- lated to exasperate the South and to drive away from New York what now remains of the fast failing Southern trade. The Critical Condition of the Country— The Duty of the National Members of Congress. The course which the republican members in Congress have chosen to pursue with regard to the election of Speaker at this exciting politi- cal and commercial crisis calls for an expres- sion of public indignation. While the democratic members, anxious to organize the House, and let public business proceed, have abandoned their nominees from time to time, in the hope of facilitating the elec- tion of Speaker, the republicans, with impu- dent obstinacy, persist in forcing upon Con- gress for the third most important office in the country—and, in case of the death of the Presi- dent and Vice President, President of the United States—Mr. Sherman, who endorsed Helper’s book, the aim and object of which are to create a negro insurrection in the South. They persist in this course, too, in spite of the imminent danger which threatens the commer- cial interests of the whole country, and of the North more particularly, with the most serious disasters, if not with total disorganization. There is no disguising the fact that the pre- sent political agitation between the North and South is even now disorganizing and destroy- ing the commerce of both sections. Witness the banishment of Northern business agents from the Southern cities; the withdrawal of North- ern manufactures from Southern markets; the Union movement of the Connecticut manufac- turers to save their Southern trade from ruin, and the discharge of hundreds of clerks and salesmen by firms in this city whose principal business is done with Southern merchants. And if such alarming results herald the very outset of this agitation, what will the conse- quence he when Sherman is elected Speaker, an event which must be looked upon as equiva- lent to a declaration of war against the South, the endorsement of Helper’s infamous plan for aservile insurrection, and the continuation of Seward’s irrepressible conflict upon the rights and interests ef the Southern States. The republican members have repeatedly at- tempted to assure their Southern colleagues that they do not sympathize with Brown’s raid; yet they insist upon electing Mr. Sherman, who is the very embodiment of the idea of war upon the South, the endorser of Helper, and thé irrepressible conflict leader of the republican party in the House. There are other men in the republican ranks whom they might support besides this most obnoxious one. There are one hundred and thirteen republican members in the present Congress; of these forty endorsed Helper’s incendiary book. The other endorsers of this infamous pamphlet were members of the last Congress. Out of the re- maining seventy-three members of this Con- gress, cannot the republicans select a candi- date whose election may be acceptable to the country? A democratic member proposed, the other day, to accept Mr. Corwin, of Ohio, a republican, and formerly Secretary of the Treasury under a whig administration; but the republicans refused, and insisted upon still forcing Sherman upon the majority. Sherman is clearly a vainority candidate, for out of the 237 votes in the House he can only get 109 or 112; yet in the very face of impending com- mercial ruin and disunion, these few obstinate politicians continue to press his election upon the majority, not alone of Congress, but of the country. In this emergency it becomes the positive duty of the opposition members—Anti-Lecomp- tonists and South Americans—who have refused to vote for Sherman, not to allow themselves to be tired out or driven into supporting the plurality rule. This course, we think, they are bound in duty to the country to pursue, and we trust that they will continue in it, and resist to the last the election of Sherman. And what is the duty of the public in this crisis? They should at once protest against the policy of the republicans. The merchants of New York should initiate the movement by calling an indignation meeting, condemning in the strongest terms the action of the republi- cans in Congress, and insisting upon the sub- stitution of some less obnoxious man for Speaker than the champion of Helper’s bloody doctrines, the sympathizer with Brown’s attack upon Virginia, and the representative of Sew- ard’s brutal sentiments of the irrepressible conflict between the North and the South. This course should be followed by similar meetings in all the commercial and manufac- turing cities in the Northern and Eastern States, until such a voice would be raised in protest against the country being plunged into a commercial revulsion, to gratify a few obsti- nate partisans in Congress, that Mr. Sherman should be abandoned, and some man who re- spects the peace and prosperity of the Union, and the rights of the South, be substituted in his place. He must be blind indeed who does not see in the signs of the times the foreshadowing of 4 terrible disaster, arising out of the present excitement, which will assuredly be intensified and hastened on by the disgraceful course of the republicans in Congress. Anti-Slavery Sentiment of the Nerth, In another page of this day's paper we pub- lish a letter of Mr. Wilson, United States Sena- tor of Massachusetts, in reply to the letter ad- dressed to him by a Quaker, Henry C. Wright, which recently appeared in our columns, Im this letter Mr. Wilson produces evidence to convict Wright of gross misrepresentation am@ sneaking meanness, which, indeed, are charaé- teristic of the abolition party; and, as far as the meeting at Natick is concerned, the Senator has the best of the argument. But this does not end the matter. We have something far- ther to say about the reply of Mr. Wilson, whose position as United States Senator gives weight to his words, and will not permit us to pass them eg without comment. ‘While this gentleman repudiates the action of John Brown and the overthrow of slavery by violence and bloodshed, he declares that he abhors slavery, pities the lot of the bond- man, and that his (Senator Wilson’s) position is that of peaceful, legal and constitutional opposition to human slavery in America. Now herein lies the very essence of the danger which threatens the existence of the Union. It makes no difference to the South whether the North abolish slavery by force of arms, or by a law of Congress when- ever it has a majority to carry that measure. Either mode is equally objectionable and ob- noxious to the South, for either strikes at its domestic institutions, violates the sovereign rights of its States, but, above all, breaks the compact made when the Union was formed and the constitution signed by the representa- tives of the several States. At that time ala- very existed in all the States, and not only the non-interference of Congress with it is guaran- teed, but the attive assistance of the several States to restore all fugitive slaves to their owners. To attempt, therefore, to get rid of slavery in any way by the action of Congres, against the will of those States who think pro- per to retain it, is a direct breach of faith. To attempt even to circumscribe its expansion by indirect means is an infraction of the spirit of the solemn league and covenant made between all the States; and when the spirit of the in- strument is violated the letter is good for no- thing. It is impossible to keep the States united if the compact on which the Union is founded is not observed. The constitution of the United States will become waste paper—a violated treaty instead of a bond of union. By all nations covenant breakers and. violators of treaties are justly abhorred, and if the North break faith with the Southern States, it will become abhorred, at least in their eyes, and that is sufficient to render the Union impoasi- ble. To compel the South to remain in the Union against its own will is an absurdity and a contradiction, for in that case it would be no longer a Union, whatever else it might be called. Mr. Wilson would not abolish’ slavery by violence and war, but he would do that which would inevitably lead to both, or break up this confederacy. The beggar in Gil Blas asks alms on the highway with « musket in his hand, and he receives them because the travel- ler has no option left. If the South submit to the will of the North when the North inti- mates that slavery must be abolished by peaceful means, it is because the South has no other alternative. But the South is not likely thus to submit to spoliation, nor. is it exactly in the position of the unfortunate wayfarer stopped by. the mendicant of Le Sage. The unarmed man robbed of the silver in his pocket may not be materially injured by it, and it is hardly worth his while to risk his life im ite de- fence. But the South regards its domestic institution of slavery as vital to its exist- ence, and will not only resist, but is prepared to do so. It is in the position of a man well armed in his own house, attacked at night by burglars. If he has any pluck he will defend it to the last, and give the invaders « warm reception. There is, therefore, a self- contradiction in the position assumed by Sena- tor Wilson. Equally inconsistent is he when he says that “the people of the North deeply sympathize with the personal attributes of John Brown, and that they admire the rare heroism of cha- racter manifested by him no one can doubt.” It is this very sympathy with John Browo— this admiration of his character—this elevation of him to a “hero” go “rare” as to make him a demigod, which we have charged against the republican party of the North, and which ren- ders their attitude and sentiments so alarming to the South and so menacing to the Union. And what is the “rare heroism” which Mr. Wilson and the people of the North s0 admire in John Brown, the horse thief, cutthroat and convicted murderer? Dozens of such heroes might be found in the State prison of Massachu- setts. For what is it that they sympathize with him so deeply and admire him so great- ly? Because he attempted to overthrow slavery by armed violence in Virginia, murdering both white men and black. This Senator Wilson calls “rare heroism,” and challenges for it the admiration of the North. Surely the South can take but small consolation from such explanations as this. If John Brown’s act. stood isolated and alone, it would be of no more importance than any. other deed of violence and blood; but itis the admiration which it elicits at the North that _ renders it truly formidable. Against Senator Wilson personally we have nothing to say; he is eloquent, highly popular ’ ay in his native State, and commands attention im “ and out of Congress. But his political senti- ments, like those of Wm. H. Seward, are atro- cious, infamous, and fraught with death and destruction to the great system of government established by the wisdom of our ancestors. To attempt to change this by force is treason; to attempt to change it by any other méans is revolution, leading to the disruption of bond which unites the States, and ending at in one of the bloodiest and fiercest civil wars on record—worse than the wars of the Roses in England, or than the border wars between that country and Scotland, which for so long a series of years wasted those States and lavish- ed in fratricidal strife oceans of treasure and of blood. Does not the Senator shrink aghast at the picture of ruin which must result from a persistence in the political action which he and his party are now pursuing at the North? - Toe Investioatinc Commrrree ox Tar .Har- per’s Ferry Treason.—What are the Investf> gating Committee about? What witnesses have they examined? There are plenty of witnesses here—among others, Greeley, and Forbes, and Hystt, who knew what was going to-take plage 4