The New York Herald Newspaper, February 24, 1861, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD. JANES GORDON BENNETT, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. OvPICE N. W. CORNER OF FULTON AND NASSAU ers. mERMS cash én advance. Money sent dy mail wilt ba at the rior the Sender, None but Bank bills current in New York LILY HERALD, wo conte per copy, $T per annum, ‘é IERALD, every Sa it six rents ier the Buropert ry Wednesday, perannum (> any part of Great Britain, the Continent, beth to include postage; the ruled in favor of purchasers. Pork was drm, | Seieere of Arms for With moderate sales at $17 26 for mess, $16 75 for thin ‘mess, and $13 for prime. Sugars were active and firmer, with sales of about 2,200 bhds. and 1,650 bores, with e ‘small lot of melado, Coffee was firmly held, with mode. rate sales. Freighis were steady, while engagements for breadstufls were moderate. The heaviest shipments making to English ports were in provisions, chiefly bacon and lard, while some 500 bales of square and 400 do. Sea Island cotton were engaged for Liverpool at full rates, The Journey of a Night—The President Elect Incog. “it Alition on the Ist, AUth ‘andl 21st of each month, at sie py, oF $1.80 per ann MILY HERALD, om 4M Y CORRESPONDE containing important vom @ny Guarter Of lds if sed, WA he paid for. Kap OUR FORRLGN OORRRSPONDENTS ARE aur ReQOuSTED TO Ska ALL Lutes AND PAcK- U3, ve Tree takén of anonymous correspondence. We do not ted comsngnications. TING executed with weatness, cheapness and de- A hundred years hence the night journey of the President elect of the United States, in the year of grace 1861, from Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, to Washington, the capital of the United States, will be read by wondering schoolboys, with all the circum- stances and dreadful rumors and apprehen- sions resulting in this expedition, in the same frame of mind in which the rising generation of our time ponder over the flight of Mahomet or the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor. The Rerticulars of this remarkable journey between ‘Wp days, as far as received, are before our Yeners in the various despatches on the sub- ject which we publish this morning. It will be observed that, with all the facts thue placed before us, we are left a wide margin of conjecture as to the precise cause of this mysterious journey, and as to the time when it was arranged. Our Harrisburg cor- respondent tells us that, although not divulged to Mr. Lincoln till yesterday, as some say, the whole plan was arranged days ago; but the special sensation despatch‘ from the same quarter to a republican cotemporary says that “on Thursday night (at. Philadelphia), after he had retired, Mr. Lincoln was aroused and informed that a stranger desired to see bim on a matter of life and death;” that Mr. Lincoln ‘declined to admit him unless he gave his name,” which being given accor- dingly, ‘such prestige did the name carry, that while Mr. Lincoln was yet disrobed he granted an interview to the caller;” that “a prolonged conversation elicited the fact that an organized body of men had determined .that Mr. Lincoln should not be inaugurated, and day, at four cents per Volume XXVI. AMUSEMENTS TO-MORROW EVENING. AQADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street-—Inazian Ork- Bi—Ux Bacto or Mascumma. NISLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Jsce Caps. WINTER GARDEN, Broadway, opposite Bond street.— Cuvee Twi, BOWERY THEATRE, ‘ORLD. rery.—A Nicut ix Woxper WALLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway.—Cuwreat Pann. LAURA KEBNE'S THEATRE, No. 6% Broadway.— Sivkn Sistana, : NEW BOWERY THEATRI Puxxvom—Hapaquin Jaex—Ni BARNUM’S AMERICAN MUSEUM, Broadway.--Day and Evening—Woman ix Waitx—Lavine Coniositixs, &c. Bowery.—Brarnpay_ or SoLpiEg. BRYANTS’ MINSTRELS, Mechanics’ Hall, 472 Broad- ‘way.—Borunsques, Soncs, Danexs, &c.—Jack Capz. HOOLEY & CAMPBELL'S MINSTRELS, Niblo’s Saloon, Broadway.—Ermortam Sones, Dancxs, ae ac.— Sounes at PHALON’S. CANTERBURY MUSIC HALL, 663 Broadway.—Tigut Rors, Sons, Danoxs, BuRLEsquEs, &c. MELODEON, No. 539 Broadway.—Sones, Dances, Bur- Tusques, do. VOL VARDEN, Bowery.—Sonas, Dances, &0.—Farry Wuear Sucar. CONTINENTAL HALL, Paterson.—Cunisty's MinsTReLs xn Eruiortan Sons, Burtesques, Dances, &c. New York, Sunday, February 24, 1861. The News. The city was thrown into great commotion yesterday by the receipt of intelligence that Mr. Lincoln, the President elect, had unexpectedly appeared in Washington city. Our despatches from Harrisburg on Friday night reported Mr. Lincoln quietly housed at that place, resting him- self after the fatigue of his day's journey from Philadelphia and his reception at the Pennsylva- nia State capital. It will be seen, however, from the accounts given in another part of to-day’s paper, that Mr. Lincoln's friends apprehended that an attempt would be made to do him per- poual injury, either on the route to or upon his arrival at Baltimore, and they therefore persuaded him to change the programme of his journey. Accordingly Mr. Lincoln, accompanied by one of his suite only, left Harrisburg early on Friday evening, reached Washington at k yesterday morning, and quietly pro- to Willard's Hotel. All our reports from re strenuously deny that there was the slightest ground for apprehending any indignity to Mr. Lincoln in that city. Arrangements had been made to give hima proper reception, and ns had been taken to prevent any popu- vance. The real cause for Mr. Lincoln's sudden departure from Harrisburg yet remains to be revealed. Mr. Lincoln yesterday visited Mr. Bochanan and General Scott, and dined with Senator Seward. In the evening he held a recep- tion, when the members of the Cabinet, the Peace Commissioners, and @ large number of ladies and gentiemen waited upon him to pay their respects. Mrs. Lincoln, and the party comprising the Presi- dential suite, reached Washington early last evening. The Peace Convention at Washington yesterday did not succeed in agreeing upon a plan for set- tling the troubles of the uation. It is believed, ever, that in spite of the opposition of the republicans, the Convention will eventaal- ly adopt the Guthrie plan of adjustment. The bids for the United States six per cent loan of eight million dollars were opened at the Trea- bury Department at Washington yesterday. A complete list of the names of the bidders, and the ms bid by each, may be found in the money E: ,in another column. The aggregate amount offered was $14,355,000. It is stated that bids be- low 90 15,100 will not be accepted. In Congress yesterday the Senate took up the Post Route bill, and after some discussion on a motion for a Committee of Conference, the subject was postponed. The bill for the payment of ex- penses incurred in suppressing Indian hostiliti in California was passed. A similar bill for sup- pressing Indian hostilities in Utah in 1853 was passed. The Miscellaneous Appropriation bill was taken up. Several amendments were offered. Among them one by Mr. Dixon, of Connecticut, appropriating $100,000 for the Charleston Custom House, Some discussion ensued, and the amend- ment was ruled out. The bill was finally reported complete, and the Senate adjourned. In the House the Oregon and Washington War Debt bill was passed. The House, in Committee of the Whole, then took up the Tariff bill, and concurred in the Senate's amendment reducing the govern- ment loan. There was some opposition to con- tinuing the discussion on the bill, but the Chair man of the Committee of Ways and Means pressed the subject, and it was agreed to resume its con wideration on Monday. By the arrival of the overland express at Fort Kearny yesterday we have news from San Fraa- cisco to the afternoon of the 9th inst. Business had somewhat revived. No additional failures had eccurred, and the money market was compara- tively easy. It was expected that the treasure shipment on the 11th would be a lightone. The Califernia Legislature was actively engaged on the question of choosing a United States Senator, but the two houses could not agree upon a day for holding th ction. All the werkmen employed upon the public works in California have been dis- charged for lack of fands. The steamship Karnak, Captain |e Messurier, from Havana and Nassau, with dates from the latter port to the 18th instant, arrived at this port yesterday. She brings no news of importance. The Spanish war steamer Velasco, Captain Caraussa, arrived in our harbor late on Fri- day night, having on board Senor Don J. Francisco Pacheco, ex-Minister to Mexico from Bpain. A sketch of the ex-Minister is given in another column, The Velasco is a very fine vessel. The Naval General Court Martial assembled yesterday in the Lyceum of the Navy Yard, Brooklyn, L.1., all the members being present. ‘The minutes having been read, as there was no Husiness of importance ready for the action of the court, an adjournment was agreed upon The wills of Mary Campbell, Rossavn \ioraun nd Blizabeth C. Farquhar have been adnitiod to probate. They distribute a large amount of pro perty, but contain no provisions of public in derest ‘The cotton market continued firm yesterday, though less notive, The sales footed up about 1,700 a 1,900 bales, clo: Sing within the range of 110. a 120. for middling uplande ‘Tue tour market closed with jess buoyancy and activity, ‘while prices were without change of moment, The de: mand for export continued rair, while quotations were a May avai, Baltimore. But some stance, it sets of Wheat wae also lees without change of Porn wae in fir demand, while prices tt he should never leave the city of Balti- more alive, if, indeed, he ever entered it.”’ And hence this mysterious night journey to Wash- ington. There may be something in this report of the stranger’s call of Thursday night; for on the next day, in Independence Hall, Mr. Lincoln declared that he would rather be “assassinated on this spot”’ than abandon the cardinal prin- ciple of the Declaration of 1776—a remark which indicated, perhaps, that his mind had been preoccupied with assassins and treasona- ble conspiracies. But this extraordinary mani- festation of firmness on the 22d contributed not a little to intensify the public excitement, curiosity and astonishment, at the news that the President elect, under cover of the night, had doubled upon his track, and had slipped through incog to Washington. It appears, too, that he was ingeniously disguised in a “long military cloak” and a “Scotch cap,” the better to accomplish the secretive purposes of this adventure. The “Scotch cap,” we dare say, was furnished by Gen. Cameron, from his relics of the Highland clan of his ancestors, and the military cloak was probably furnished by Col. Sumner. Admitting the expediency of the enterprise no objection can be made to the costume. His- tory is full of remarkable escapes of this sort. Charles the Second escaped the clutches of Cromwell, and got out of England disguised as a servant; Louis Philippe escaped from the French revolutionists of 1848, and got out of France in a sailor’s pea jacket; and Louis Na- poleon walked out of the prison of Ham as a laborer, with a plank on his shoulder. Nor can we undertake to say that this night journey of Mr. Lincoln was ill-considered or injudicious. “Caution is the parent of safety.” Since last autumn there have been threats and rumors that he would never be inaugurated; and re- ported conspiracies to cut him off from the White House have resulted in the concentra- tion at Washington, by General Scott, of a thousand disciplined men of every arm of the regular army, to make good the approaching inauguration. These things, together with the fearful revo- lutionary spirit and movements which have made a military camp of the seceded States, were calculated to impress the mind of the Pre- sident elect with a sense of danger, although we have not a doubt that his journey to Washing- ton, according to the programme, would have been a continuous ovation all the way through, including a very flattering reception at there might have been unpleasant manifestations. For in- appears that two or three scheming Baltimore politicians were anxious to monopolize the coming man; and, after the squabble between the Governor and the Levislature at Albany, we apprehend that \ ancoln thonght it eminently desirable to avoir any more annoyances of that descrip- tion, We ©. also, every reason to suppose that Ge » advice had something to do with this ride by the light of the moon. Cer- tainly bis military precautions at Washington have been calculated to give a degree of plausi- bility to the wildest rumors of dark conspira- cies levelled at the incoming administration. For the present, we are constrained to with- hold any judgment against this strange and startling incident and the circumstances attend- ing it. Mr. Lincoln has the reputation of a calm, courageous man. It seems, too, that he was burried off from Harrisburg somewhat against his will, and that there was an urgent voice in the matter which, as a true man, he could not disregard. In any event, we dare say that afler that night's quiet trip incog, his only regret on reaching Washington was, that he had not started in his Scotch cap and mili- tary cloak incog from Springfield, by a special express train, andso to the end of his journey, Give Tuem Rore Exovcn.—The Sabbatarians are endeavoring, by the aid of a strong lobby, to increase the stringency of the Sunday enact- ments of last winter. Two bills have been in- troduced on the other side with a view to de- feat their efforts. This is a mistake. In the present constitution of the two houses nothing can be done by counter legislation. The bet ter plan would be to let these zealots have their fall swing and pase whatever measures they please. Tanaticism always kills itself by its excesses, ood it will not be long before the ad vocates o! Sunday restrictions wil create such @ storm of indignation against their ty rannical interference with the rights of con- science that both themselves and their en- actinents will be swept away like cobwebs be- fore the reaction, NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1861. ~ Reprisals, We are informed, by telegraph from Savannah, that, in consequence of the refu- sal of the police authorities of New York to give up the eight cases of muskets illegally taken from a vessel lying in this port and bound for Georgia, Governor Brown, of that State, has seized several New York ships and detained them in the harbor of Savannah, to the great damage of their owners. As a matter of course, the republican presses will make a great tirade against Governor Brown, but it is not easy to see how he could have pursued any course other than that which he has adopted. The action of the police of New York was alto- gether unjustifiable, and the refusal of the General Superintendent to give up the arms isa flagrant abuse of power. We take it for granted that whatever may be the case at the South, the North is still at peace with all man- kind. No foreign Power menaces us, and itis hot presumed that the Southern people are com- ing here to fight with us any more than that we are going there to whip them. Under such cir- cumstances, we all have certain rights which cannot be infringed. One of these is the right to keep and bear arms; another, to be secure in our persons, houses and effects against un- reagonable searches and seizures—all searches and seizures to be made by virtue of a warrant issued upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and’ the person or things to besearched. We have been careful to quote here the exact words of the organic law of the land, as the republicans claim that they will support the constitution as itis. Under that constitution the Police Commissioners have been guilty of an offence which can only be propertly named by the use of a very disa- greeable term—to wit, piracy. We are told that the Governor of the State disavows all conneotion with the mat- ter, and throws the blame upon the Police Commissioners. Kennedy, the Superin- tendent, has been very officious in this affair, but his motive probably is to curry favor with the Commissioners, whose pliant tool he is. They (the Commissioners), in the absence of any declaration of war, had no more right to seize upon the arms and declare them contra- band than they would have to enter the house of a private citizen and take away his fowling piece or revolver. Latterly, the Metropolitan Police seem to have assumed despotic func- tions, and to have instituted a sort of martial law over all of us. They seem to forget that there are any such things as laws, and ignore altogether the Bill of Rights. They assume powers which even the Paris police, the most arbitrary in the world, never pretended to have, except in revolutionary times. In the South there is a revolutionary movement, sanc- tioned by the popular voice; but the people of this Metropolitan Police district have not declared themselves as opposed to the laws of the land. This is the whole gist of the matter:—The powers of the police do not extend beyond this district; they are strictly defined by law, and they have no more right to go one step beyond them than the President has to declare war against England to-morrow. So far as local matters are concerned, the conduct of the police, the favoritism and cor- ruption in the department, the rudeness and brutality of the pets of the Commissioners, have made it sufficiently unpopular without this last and most outrageous step. Not only do’ we have to pay, an immense sum fora notoriously ineffici@gt, lazy and impertinent body of men, who are secure in their berths, and who snap their fingers at public opinion, but it appears that our intercourse with Southern ports is to be suspended, in order to make a little capital for the republicans in the rural districts. Now, the duty of the Police Commissioners clearly is to compel Kennedy to subside, to restore the arms to their rightful owners, and to stop the disgraceful and unlawful espionage over vessels bound for the Southern ports. We believe that there is still a United States government quite capable of exercising all proper powers and duties under the constitu- tion—a document which we recommend to the especial attention of the Police Commissioners. If they do not understand their duty, Gover- nor Morgan, who appointed them, may as well fill their places with men who have not bidden an eternal farewell to the first principles of common sense, equity, justice and law. Frexcu ExrnvstasM vor American Lygrrru- tions.—We published on Monday two speeches of distinguished men of England, which enabled the reader to form some opinion of the estima- tion in which English statesmen hold the Ameri- can confederacy, and how much more thorough- ly they appreciate our institutions than many among ourselves. We publish to-day a speech from France. The learned Abbe Lacor- daire, in presence of one of the most brilliant assemblies in the world, at his inauguration as an Academician of the French Academy in place of De Tocqueville, who wrote a book about the United States, describes the country as a people, for the first time in the history of the world, “flourishing, industrious, peaceful, rich, powerful, respected abroad, pouring forth each day into vast solitudes the quiet wave of its peeple, yet having no other master than itself, admitting no distinctions of birth, free as the Indian, civilized as the Euro- pean, religious without either excluding or giving the preponderance to any form of faith and worship, and, in short, presenting the astonished world with a living drama of liberty the most absolute, together with the most per- fect equality.” Well may the eloquent Domini- can friar exclaim, “Society without example!” For “the United States of America have real- ized over an immense territory what neither Athens nor Rome could ever do, and what Eu- rope seems to seek in vain through toilsome and bloody revolutions.” Such is the beauti- ful theory of our government; but a party has now arisen, constituting only a minority of the people, but, from a combination of acci- dental causes, obtaining possession of the gov- ernment, who propose to give this theory the lie in practice, to subvert the American system, and, for the fivet time in the history of the re- public, to substitute physical force for public opinion—to rest the mighty structure, not on the hearts of the people, but on the points of bayonets, the vulgar worn out system of Euro- pean despots, which the people beyond the At- lantic are everywhere rising in their might to overthrow. It received its first fatal blow in the Declaration of American Independence and the suecess of the Revolution. It has never re- govered that shock, and one nation after another the South—Georgta | in Europe has been making steady inroads upon it, and now united Italy has laid it in the dust, while, strange to say, the party now ia power in the United States is coming to its aid to give it new lease of life, as if all that our Revolution- ery fathers fought for and all that they estab- lished were to be overthrown, and that we were to make a retrograde movement in the direction of a military despotism, Even John Quincy Adams, the father of the anti-sla- very agitation in Congress, rejects as absurd, and subversive of the whole theory of our gov- ernment, the doctrine of coercing a seceding State into the Union by force of arms, or inau- gurating war between the States under any pretext whatever. Mr. Lincolm on the Declaration of Inde- pendence, On Washington’s birthday, in the city of Philadelphia, in Independence Hall, the vene- rable and sacred edifice in which the Declara- tion of Independence was signed on the Fourth of July, 1776, the day which the people of this country delight to honor, Mr. Lincoln, the Pre- sident elect, thus declared his sentiments:— Thave never had @ fesling ly that did not spring from the sentiments embodied tn the dence. 1 have often ome over the which were incurréd by men who assembled here, and fremed end adopted thas Docket ien. 0 Lads pondionon, I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the ofticers and soldiers of the army who achieved that inde- Teese chases Bat kat the ontiness mien or was se long to- gocher. It wag not the mere matter ot the separation of the colonies from the mother land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to peo ple of this country, but { hope to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of ali men. This ‘is @ sentiment embodied in the Declaration . Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis! Aft can, 1 will consider cp igh (oman y apelorye! in the world if I can help to save wt. If i! ‘te saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about SS ee ee ee ler tt. If Mr. Lincoln, when he spoke in Indepen- dence Halt, understood the Declaration of In- dependence as the men who drew it up and signed it understood it, as history understands it, and as the Supreme Court of the United States in the light of history interprets it, then his words ought to be written in letters of gold, and, as far as he is concerned, the whole diffi- culty between the republican party and the Southern States is settled. But if Mr. Lincoln understands the Declaration of Independence as the Chicago resolutions have expounded it, that African negroes are created equal to white men of the Caucasian race; that they are enti- tled to “liberty,” and that those who govern the negroes only “derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,” surely there never was so inconsistent a document sent forth to the world by any political body of men; and so far from commanding the respect of civilized nations, as we know it did, it ought to have doomed them to everlasting infamy. If Mr. Lincoln understands the Declaration of Independence as his party platform explains it, never was so bitter a satire in so few words pronounced upon the founders of the govern- ment; for that they themselves held negro slaves at the time and to their death, and that all the colonies then held slaves and continued to hold them throughout the war of independence, and, with the exception of Massachusetts, till after the constitution was adopted, is notorious mat- ter of undisputed history. According to Mr. Lincoln and the Chicago platform the struggle was for the emancipation of the negro slaves; and yet they did not emancipate them during the war, nor after the war, nor even till the Northern States discovered that slaves in their cold climate, and for their particular kind of labor, were not so profitable as the labor of white emigrants or poor natives. Nor did the pious Puritans even then set them free, but sold them to the Southern States, and con- tinued for many years to furnish them with a further supply by importation from Africa. The highest legal tribunal known in our politi- cal system, the Supreme Court, the authorized expounder of the constitution and the laws, thus pronounces upon the question in the case of Dred Scott, in 1856:— It is too clear for dispute that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this declara- Hon; for it the language, as understood in that day would embrace them, the conduct of the distinguished men who framed the Declaration of Independence would have been utterly and flagrantly inconsistent with the principles they ; and instead of the sympathy of mankind, to which Uiey s0 confidently appealed, they would have deserved and received universal rebuke and reprobation. Yet the men who framed this declaration were great men—high in literary acquirements—bigp in their sense of honor, and incapable of asserting nci- ples imoonsistent with, thoseon which, they were acing. \ey perfectly understood the racaning of the language they used, and how it would be understood by others: and they knew that tf would not in any part of the civilized world be supposed to embrace the negro race, which, by com mon cmsent, had been excluded from civilized governments and the family of nations, and doomed to slavery. They spoke and acted according to the then catablistied doc- trines and principles, and in the ordinary language of the day, and no one misunderstood them. The unhappy black race were separated from the white by indelible marks and laws long before established, and were never thought of or spoken of except as property, and when the claims of the owner or the Mite of the trader were supposed to need protection. This state of public opinion had undergone no change when the constitution was adopted, ag is equally evident from its provisions and lan- pee ee of the Court in the case of Dred Scott, foward’ ts, p. 410. Mr. Jefferson, who made the rough draft of the paper, expressly says:— ‘The two races, equally free, cannot live in the same g; vernment. Nature, habit, opinion, have drawn indeli lines of distinction between them. In the debates in the Convention which formed the first confederation, five years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Mr. Chase says “the negroes are property, and as such cannot be distinguished from the lands or personalities held in those States where there are few slaves; and not only does Mr. John Adams, of Massachusetts, together with the whole assembly, acquiesce in this assertion, but Mr. Ad@ms further says:— It is of no consequence by what name you call your people, whether by that of freomen or of slaves, la some countries the laboring poor are called freemen, in others they are called slaves; but the difference as to the state is imaginary only. The condition of the laboring poor in most countries, that of the fishermen particularly of the Northern States, is as abject as that of slaves. Mr. Lincoln will find this in vol. i., p. 28 of Jefferson’s works, immediately following his autograph draft of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. There is no gainsaying these facts and argu- ments, The parties to the Declaration of Independence were the white men of the colonies, and they asserted their equality with the white men of Great Britain who attempted to enslave them. They did not assert the equality of negroes, for if they had.done so they would have been ridiculed by all the world, There is no complaint in the Declara- tion of Independence that negroes are held in bondage. But there is a complaint that the King had, by his agents, done what the anti- slavery party have been so long doing, and now propose to do ona large scale, rivalling in.atrocity the bloody deeds of St. Domingo that he bad excited insurrections of the slaves “he has excited domestic insurrection amongst us.” Thus it is impossible for Mr. Lincoln to stand with one foot upon the Declaration of ad with the other upon the Chicago platform. So wide are they asunder that he could as easily stand in the two cities of Philadelphia and Chicags at one and the same moment of time. At the time of the Declaraijion of Iudepend- ence negro slaves were property by thacommon law, and none disputed the fact. They are so re- garded by the constitution, formed eleven years after, providing that slave property should be a basis of direct taxation and also of represen- tation, by allowing five negroes to count a* three white men; and, above all, by the provi- sion for the rendition of fugitive slaves. Thus the Declaration of Independence Is a statement of the principles on which the Revoiu tion is based. It does not recognise negroes un- less as legitimate property. It resulted in Inde- pendence, and answered its purpose. The con- stitutgon speaks in the same language, and ne- groes are nowhere recognized by it as citizens or parties to the instrument which resulted in the Union, The constitution also answered its pur- pose. The Chicago platform is another historical document marking a new era ia the history of the country. It undoes the Declaration of In- dependence, the constitution and the Union; but as it was only intended to result in the election of Mr. Lincoln, it has served its purpose and will be thrown aside. The question is, what is to be the new instrament which is to reconstruct the dis- united States upon a permanent and solid basis? We shall look out for some indications of it in the inaugural on the 4th of March, notwithstanding his declaration ‘that he would rather be assassinated on the spot than sur- render the principal plank in the Chicago platform, “even to save the country.” As for that Western boast and the President elect’s “back bone,” it is effectually settled by his circuitous flight from Harrisburg to Washing- ton, by way of Philadelphia. But if he is not willing to yield the Southern States their con- stitutional rights, there is one principle in the Declaration of Independence which we hope he will respect—a principle that runs through every line from the title to the signatures—the principle of self-government—‘“governments deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;” and when any government, in the opinion of any people, “becomes destructive of those ends, the right of such people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new govern- ment, laying its foundation on such principles as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” Prussia and the Schleswig-Hoistein Dit- ficulty—Its Consequences to Europe. When a King of Prussia, on ascending the throne, delivers an address in which he calls upon his generals to prepare for a great strug- gle, in which the kingdom must sustain her former prestige, and conquer or suffer destruc-, tion, we naturally look around to ascertain the cause of such an apparently uncalled for and unexpected announcement. For Prussia, above all nations, to assume this threatening tone, is remarkable, and presents a strong contrast to the peace policy she has been hitherto pursu- ing. We are told by the continental journals that it is the intention of Prussia to make war against Denmark, with a view to the final se- tlement of the Schleswig-Holstein question, by which the national rights and liberties of the Ger- mans resident in those Duchies will be secured from the despotism of the Danish government. The present King of Denmark ascended the throne in 1848, and took the coronation oath according to usage as Duke of Schleswig-Hol- stein, accepting at the same time the con- ditions named in the original compact. Shortly afterwards, however, the democratic party at “Copenhagen petitioned the King urgently to sunder the Duchies and incorporate Schleswig; and this the King did, to the great indignation of the Anglo-Saxons of both Schleswig and Holstein. The illegality of this act is too evi- dent to need explanation; but it was replied to by an equally illegal act—that of the Frank- fort Parliament passing a decree incorporating Holstein with Germany. The Schleswig-Hol- steiners by this time took the matter into their own hands, and commenced a war against the King for the purpose of forcing him to adhere to the terms of his coronation oath. This con- tinued—Prussia having meanwhile concluded a peace with the Danes till 1851—with con- siderable damage to both sides, but no advan- tage to either. Just then Prussia and Austria, acting in conjunction, came in as arbitrators at the invitation of Denmark, and compelled the troops of the Duchies to lay down their arms, in consideration of receiving from the German Conféderation a guarantee of the union of the the Duchies. After this a convention was en- tered into between Prussia, in the name of Ger- many, and Denmark, for the future govern- ments, in detail, of the Duchies, which were restored. This convention the Prussians now declare to have been treated with open defiance by the Danes, both in its political and social bearings. Instead of giving to each Duchy, as agreed, an independent political existence- by the creation of a local Assembly, having control over its own taxation, and allowing perfect liberty in the use of the German language, the Danish government has used every means to blot out the nationality of the German Schleswig-Holsteiners by all sorts of harassing restrictions. Danish clergy have been substituted for German clergy, against the the will of the inhabitants, and the teaching or speaking of the German language has been entirely prohibited up to within the last few weeks. These social grievances have natural- ly aroused a strong feeling in Northern Germa: ny against the Danish oppressors. And as the convention was entered into at the instance of Prussia, at a time when the Schleswig-Holstein- ers occupied military positions which enabled them to keep their oppressors at bay, Prussia now feels bound to deliver them from the yoke. Whatever may be the advisability of Prus- sia reviving this old quarrel, or whatever the probability of its proving disastrous to her- self, we cannot but admit that she has good ground for complaint and interference. It would be well for Denmark to comply with the demand of the German Confederation before the expiration of the six weeks allowed for conside- ration, and so obviate war altogether. The block- ade of the German ports by the Danish fleet, an immediate consequence of the war, would make the question no longer a purely German, but a European one, and Prussia, without a navy, would be powerless. This would be the moment at which Louts Napoleon world step in, and, aided by Sweden, and pos tussia an England, espouse the Danish cause; and the pas sage of the Fyder wight prove wore destrug- es tive to Prussia than that of the Pruth was te the Muscovites or that of the Ticino to the Austrians. That Prus:ia, however, knows the perilous nature of the contemplated struggle is evident from the words of the King to the ge- nerals and officers of his army—* Let us not deceive ourselves, gentlemen. If I do not succeed in averting the contest that threateas us, it will be one in which we must ei'ther con- quer or perish.” Republican and Monarchial Institutions Compared by British Statesmen. Let those among us who are in love with’ @ “strong government” instead of a strong pet ple—those who have never yet felt the weight" of a military despotism on their own backs bowing them to the earth—reflect on the speeela of Mr. Bright, a member of the British Partie- ment, published in our columns this week, and learn a lesson of wisdom from the experience of the English people in the kind of system which it is now sought to substitute for that which we received from our fathers. What is the taxation for the present year upon the im- poverished people of England—a people among whom a few are wealthy in the extreme, while the masses are steeped in poverty? The enory mous sum of £76,000,000, equal to $380,000,000— @ sum twice as great as the whole of labor in the cultivation of the soil of Great Britain and Ireland, a sum exceeding the valee of all the cotton imported into England, and all that raw material manufactured into cloth— greater than the whole produce of the most gigantic industry that the world has ever seen. Now, whatare the wages of labor in England? Mr. Bright sanswers:—The average wages of the million of laborers who cultivate the soil in England and Wales (and it is much higher than in Ireland) is ten shillings sterling ($2 50) per week, or forty-one cents per day. What would a free born American think of having, not only to live himself, but to support a family, om forty-one cents per day? But still more mise- rable is the condition of the factory classes. The past year has been regarded as one of prosperity in Lancashire. But, says Mr. Bright, “there are clouds, clouds particularly in the West, and I believe that every thoughtfal man at this moment is deeply anxious as to the future, and the question is passing from mouth to mouth, how long will the Chancellor-of the Exchequer be able to raise seventy millions of pounds per annum on the industry of the country?” The clouds in the West to which Mr. Bright refers are clouds of war in Amerioa, clouds which may intercept asupply of cotton, and, as from four to five millions of the Eng- lish population are depending on the manufao- ture of that fabric, clouds which, wafted by the winds over the Atlantic, may burst in the thunders of revolution over the British empire. It is no wonder British statesmen fee] anxious now. Mr. Buxton, whose speech our readers have recently seen, consoles his audience with the thought that they may perhaps get one-third or one-half the usual supply of cotton in the event of war in America. But would that be sufficient to prevent revolution in England? By no means; and if civil war should be kindled im the country the Buxtons and the Broughams cannot but feel that they and their Exeter Hall party have greatly contributed to the result. As if foreseeing the coming tempest, Buxtom says:—“I feel no doubt myself that in the long run the prosperity of the world would be largely increased by any event that would hinder the production of cotton in the United States, and thus stimulate its production by free labor in other portions of the “globe.” But what would be the present effect? Let Lord Palmerston’s organ, the London Post, answer:—“The cotton trade will be paralyzed, and the sword abroad and terror within will tell with disastrous effects in Lanca- shire.” And again:—“Manchester will feel the effects of this state of things, notwithstand- ing its desire to get cotton from India or Natal. England, therefore, independently of all higher considerations, has a selfish motive in preserv- ing the peace and prosperity of the United States.” But on how weak a foundation does the pros- perity, the very existence of a people rest, when it depends on peace in a foreign country over which they have no control, and distant from them thousands of miles. This could never have been but for the oppression of the mo- narchical and ferdal systems, which prevent agriculture from being the basis of national wealth, and which swallow up the whole indus- try of the nation by taxation to support regal splendor, a numerous aristocracy, armies, navies and wars, whose results are that there are three millions of the people receiving parish relief every year. At the time of the English revolu- tion the taxes were less than two millions of pounds. By wars which have made the govern- ment “strong” in the possession of standing armies, while the people are ruined, the taxes have increased to seventy millions of pounds. Well does Mr. Bright observe, “There is no country in the world where there is a self- governed people where this vast expenditure isinourred.” How far England is self-governed may be estimated from the fact that in the gene- ral election of 1852 the number of vetes polled for members of the popular branch of Parlia- ment was 341,830. Mr. Bright points to the self-governed republics of Switzerland and the United States as “the most cheaply governed of civilized and Christian countries’ How long one of these countries is to be self-governed and to possess cheap government is a problem which is now in the course of solution. According to Mr. Buxton, abolitionist though he is, the falling asunder of the States of our confederacy, after being united for less than a century, is “one of the saddest and most mortify- ing events that has ever occurred in our time.” A greater disaster would be war among us, which excites the most gloomy apprehensions in-England. Much of the alarm is, no doubt, on account of cotton and the disastrous effects which a failure in the supply would produce on the condition of the British people; but we must give English statesmen some credit for the sorrow they express at our suicidal course im wantonly destroying, for the sake of an ab- straction, the greatest political fabric ever erected by human wisdom. Tax SQuaBe.es OF THE Stare any Crry De mocracy.—It seems generally understood that the Albany Regency and the Mozart Hall fac- tion of our city democracy, have formed an alliance offensive and defensive. How long it will last, or whether it is a mere ad hoe ar- t, does not appear clear; but that the jon will smash up the dirty old wig- wam, and reduce the corrupt set of savages who inhabit it to starvation, can scarcely be doubted. The prestige of Tammany and the Coal Hole is departed. The hangers gn of (ue