THE UNITED STATES.
Both political parties are already moving with reference to the choice of a Presidential candidate for the coming campaign of 1852. The demonstrations thus far, however, have been principally local, and give no clue whatever to the probable choice of the National Conventions of the parties. In Boston, a paper nominating the Hon. Daniel Webster for the Presidency, on the ground of his devotion to the Union and Constitution, has been circulated for signatures. The Democrats of New Hampshire have declared their preference for the Hon. Levi Woodbury. The Whigs of Pennsylvania manifest a strong predilection for taking up Gen. Scott. A considerable class, who advocate the freedom of the Public Lands to actual settlers, have formally adopted the Hon. Isaac P. Walker, of Wisconsin, for their candidate.
The President and Cabinet reached Buffalo on Friday afternoon, the 17th of May. Here they were received by an immense concourse of people, and publicly welcomed by the city authorities. On the following day the President went to Aurora, to visit his father's family, and Secretaries Graham and Crittenden took the opportunity to visit Niagara. The distinguished guests left Buffalo on the following Tuesday morning, dined at Rochester, where a public reception was given to them, and were greeted at Syracuse, where they arrived at midnight, with a torchlight procession.
The next day they visited Rome, Oneida and Utica, where they remained all night, and were received in Albany on Thursday afternoon, the 23d, with a grand military and civic reception. From Albany they returned directly to Washington, making no stop at any intermediate point. Mr. Webster, who had been detained at Dunkirk by the illness of his son, remained at Buffalo a few days after the departure of the Presidential party. On Wednesday evening, the 21st, he was complimented with a dinner from the citizens, at which he made a familiar speech of some length. The following day he addressed the citizens of Buffalo. His speech was an explanation and defence of his course with regard to the Compromise measures, and the questions which have recently agitated the country. It is regarded as one of the most able and effective addresses he has made for some time past. On his return to Washington, Mr. Webster delivered another speech at Albany on the 29th.
The Government has received information from Chihuahua, that claims to the amount of twenty millions of dollars, for damages done to Mexican property by the Indians from the American side of the Rio Grande, have been filed with the Mexican authorities for presentation to our Government under the Treaty which provides that this country shall prevent Indian depredations. Much damage has unquestionably been committed since the Treaty, but the amount has been enormously exaggerated.
The Postmaster General has announced an arrangement, to take effect after the 1st of this month, by which letters to the West India Islands, ports in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Atlantic Coast of South America, can be sent through the United States Post Office, on prepayment of the American postage to any of the British ports, with the addition of the British postage, when destined for ports belonging to other Governments.
M. de Sartiges, the newly appointed French Minister to this country, presented his credentials to the President on the 29th of May. Mr. Paine, who claims to have invented a process for manufacturing gas from water, is in Washington endeavoring to procure a contract from Washington for the illumination of light-houses. The pendulum experiment, exhibiting the rotation of the earth, has been tried in the Capitol, with the most satisfactory result.
The projected expedition for the invasion of Cuba, has, it is believed, been completely broken up. The Steamer Gaston, after searching the coasts and rivers, returned to Baltimore with twenty-five men under arrest. A camp of three hundred men, near Jacksonville, had been broken up just before the arrival of the Steamer. Upwards of fifteen hundred persons had visited the place since the invasion was projected, but after squandering their funds, they again dispersed. The U.S. revenue cutter Fancy went on a similar cruise, a week after the Gaston, and succeeded in discovering an encampment on a branch of the St. John's river. The three officers and leaders of the company were arrested and taken to Savannah; the men were ordered to return to their homes.
There has been considerable stir in State politics and legislation during the past month. In the Virginia Reform Convention, the violent debate on the question of representation, on which the members of the eastern and western parts of the State were arrayed against each other, has been settled by the adoption of a compromise. The difficulty was in relation to slave representation. The committee to whom the subject was referred, reported a plan providing that the House of Delegates shall consist of 150 members, eighty-two to be chosen from the West and sixty-eight from the East, making a Western majority of fourteen; the Senate to consist of fifty members, thirty from the East and twenty from the West, making an Eastern majority of ten. It is also made the duty of the General Assembly, in the year 1865, to re-apportion the representation in both Houses. The people of Maryland have adopted the new State Constitution by a large majority. Its prominent features are—the ineligibility of clergymen to seats in the Legislature; the disqualification of persons engaged in duels as principals or seconds, from holding office; the extension of the Governor's term to four years, at a salary of $2,600 per annum; the election of judges by the people; the abolition of lotteries and of imprisonment for debt, and the exemption of the homestead, to the value of $500, from legal process.
The Massachusetts Legislature adjourned on the 24th of May, after a session of nearly five months. A bill for the aid of the proposed European and North American Halifax Railroad, was debated at considerable length, but was finally referred to the next Legislature. The message of the Governor of Maine, which was delivered to the Legislature on the 19th of May, contains a strong complaint against Massachusetts for her policy in regard to her claims in Maine lands, and especially for refusing her aid in the construction of the Aroostook Road, which passes through the territory claimed by Massachusetts. The election in Texas for Governor and Members of the Legislature, is exciting great interest. Unusual importance is attached to the election, as the disposition of the Ten Millions received from the United States will be in the hands of the successful candidates. Mr. Foote, U.S. Senator from Mississippi, has been nominated by the Union Convention of that State as candidate for Governor, which nomination he has accepted.
The secession excitement is on the decline in South Carolina, and no further action on the subject is anticipated. In Georgia, the secessionists held a State Convention at Milledgeville, on the 28th of May. A series of resolutions was adopted, declaring that the rights of the South had been violated, and advocating the extension of the line of 36° 30', as the limit of slavery, to the Pacific Ocean. The Union Convention of the same State met on the 3d of June, and after re-adopting the resolutions of the Georgia Convention, nominated the Hon. Howell Cobb, late Speaker of Congress, as candidate for Governor.
An important law-suit, which, has some resemblance to the late agitation on the Slavery question, has been pending in the United States Circuit Court, in New-York. The suit was commenced at the instance of the Southern Methodist Conference against the Trustees of the Methodist Book Concern, in New-York, for the establishment of a claim to a large amount of property now in the hands of the Trustees. A division of the American Methodist Church took place in 1845, on account of a difference in relation to the ownership of slaves by the ministry of the Church. The Southern members formed a separate organization, called the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and have since then claimed a division of the funds of the Book Concern. The Northern Church, in their defence, maintained that the separation was a secession on the part of the South, and therefore that the Church was not entitled to any share in the establishment. As the property of the concern is valued at nearly a million of dollars, the case assumed an important aspect, and the ablest counsel were employed on both sides. Daniel Webster and Reverdy Johnson were engaged by the plaintiffs, and Thomas Ewing and Rufus Choate for the defence. The case has not yet been decided, but in the mean time proposals for arbitration and compromise have been made, which may prove successful.
The elections in New-York to supply the vacancies in the State Senate, created by the resignation of twelve senators, for the purpose of defeating the bill for the enlargement of the Erie Canal, by leaving that body without a quorum, took place on the 27th of May. Six of the former senators were returned, and five others, favorable to the enlargement, in place of those who had resigned: the vote in the 26th District was a tie. The special session of the Legislature met on the 10th of June. The election secured to the Senate a quorum of the friends of the Canal Bill, and therefore insures its passage.
The Seventh Census of the United States has been published. The total population amounts to 23,267,408, including 3,179,470 slaves. The whole number of Representatives to Congress based on this population is 233.
An attack of "gold excitement," on a small scale, has appeared in Maine. It is reported and generally believed that the precious metal has been found in the Northern part of the State, in the streams which flow into the west branch of the Penobscot and into Moose River. The country is a high plateau, near the Canadian boundary, where, also, the tributaries of the Chaudiere take their rise. On the latter streams, it is said, the Provincial Government of Canada has been quietly carrying on mining operations for two years past. Several companies of adventurers from the towns of Maine and New Hampshire have started for the Northern Eldorado.
Several of the Western States have been visited by violent and destructive tornadoes. In the city of St. Louis, upwards of one hundred buildings were injured. The regions about Louisville, Ky., and Pittsburg, also suffered severely. During the last week in May an immense amount of rain fell in the Northern part of Illinois; occasional great freshets in all the rivers. The flood was greater than had been known for many years; the mill-dams and mills were swept away, and a great amount of property damaged. Two viaducts on the Indiana Canal were entirely destroyed. The grain crops of the Middle and Western States promise an abundant harvest. The cotton crop in South Carolina, the northern part of Georgia and the Tennessee Valley, has been considerably injured by the coldness of the season.
A serious riot occurred at Hoboken, near New-York, on Monday, the 26th of May. It was the holiday of Pentecost, and the German residents of the city, to the number of near ten thousand, crossed the Hudson to celebrate the day according to their national customs. They were beset in the afternoon by a company of rowdies, between whom and a German society of gymnasts an altercation arose, resulting in a general fight, in the course of which the Germans were grossly injured by their antagonists. Two persons were killed, and forty or fifty badly wounded. The rowdies all escaped, and of fifty Germans who were arrested, only ten were found to have participated in the affray. The riot, after lasting till 9 o'clock at night, was finally quelled by calling out the military. The inhabitants of Hoboken have organized a company for the prevention of disorder in future.
During the month of May Jenny Lind gave fourteen concerts in New-York, without any diminution of her wonderful success, the last concert realizing upwards of $18,000. At the close, the termination of her contract with Mr. Barnum, at the hundredth concert, was announced. On giving her first concert at Philadelphia, however, a new agreement was made, by which the contract was at once broken off, Miss Lind having then sung ninety-three times, on condition of her forfeiting the sum of $25,000. The concerts in Philadelphia, given on her own account, were very successful.
Several large defalcations in public officers have lately come to light. The Postmaster of Macon, Ga., failed for the sum of $50,000, part of which was the Post-office funds. He escaped by flight. The late City Collector of Baltimore is charged with a deficiency of $30,000 in the accounts of the Custom House, but has surrendered his property in trust, and expresses his desire to have the subject investigated. A man named Brown was recently taken to Washington by the Marshal of Michigan, on a charge of forging Land Warrants. A company of Mormons, under the government of a man named Strang, on Beaver Island, in Huron River, have got into difficulty with the authorities and the American citizens. They recently attacked two men by the name of Bennett, who were known to be hostile to their claims: killed one, and dangerously wounded the other. Strang and some of his companions voluntarily delivered themselves into the hands of the authorities, and are awaiting their trial.
In the Lake Superior region business of all kinds has become very active. The steamboats on the Lake are crowded with passengers and freight, and the country about the mines is improving rapidly. Lands are being cleared, roads laid out, houses built, and the region rapidly assuming the appearance of a permanent settlement. Several new mines of unusual richness have been discovered, and all the old shafts deepened and extended, with the most successful results. The prospects of the mines on the Ontmagon are equally favorable. Hostilities have again broken out between the Sioux and Chippewa Indians. Several of the latter tribe were murdered by the former, who formed into war parties, and marched against their enemies.
The first Centennial Celebration of the Pennsylvania Hospital took place on the 3d of June, in Philadelphia.—The cholera still appears at intervals along the Western rivers. There were 13 deaths in New Orleans during the week ending May 31st.—In the case of Scott, indicted at Boston for the rescue of the fugitive slave Shadrach, the jury were unable to agree upon a verdict. Although agreeing as to the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law, they stood equally divided on the question of convicting the prisoner. A new trial has been ordered.
A personal combat took place in the streets of Lynchburg, Va., on the 5th of June, between Mr. Saunders, a member of the State Convention, and Mr. Terry, Editor of the Lynchburg "Virginian." Five shots were exchanged, and both parties so severely wounded that they died shortly afterwards.
The emigration across the plains has commenced, but will be much smaller than that of last year. It is calculated that 300 wagons will cross during the Summer, three-fourths of which will go to the Salt Lake and Oregon, and the remainder to California. Grass is abundant on the plains, but the snow is reported to be very deep in the mountains beyond Fort Laramie.
Advices from Texas give accounts of the rapid improvement of the lands on the Brazos River. The troubles with the Indians still continue. A battle between a small company of Texan militia and a band of Indians, took place near the head waters of the Lema River, on the 24th of May: Six Indians were killed, and the remainder driven off. An expedition has been ordered by Gen. Harney, to aid the Indian agents in their demand for the release of white prisoners in captivity. A train, composed of 170 wagons, with a large escort, left San Antonio for El Paso on the 7th of May. A company of Americans, while crossing the Rio Grande to attend a ball at Rima, were fired upon by a party of Mexican soldiers. Two of the American soldiers were severely wounded, and the Mexicans apologized for the act on the ground of its being a mistake.
News from Santa Fe to the 1st of May has arrived. On the 2d of April, Governor Calhoun consummated a treaty with Francisco Chacon, principal chief of the Apaches east of the Rio Grande. The savages agreed to give up what stolen property had been in their possession for the previous eight months, and to settle in towns, provided teachers and implements of husbandry were furnished them. As might have been expected, this treaty was broken within three weeks of its adoption, although Chacon bound himself to maintain the peace, on penalty of forfeiting his head. Fifteen companies of the U.S. troops were to leave Santa Fe on the 10th of May, upon a campaign against the Navajo Indians. This movement was considered necessary, on account of the serious injury which the health of the soldiers had sustained from the inactivity of their mode of life.
Governor Calhoun issued a proclamation on the 23d of April, appointing the 19th of May for the election of members of the Legislative Assembly. The first session of the Legislature was to commence at Santa Fe on the 2d of June. The Mexicans were well pleased with the new Government, since it removed the power from the hands of the military. Business was very brisk at Santa Fe, and a number of mills were in the course of erection in the neighborhood. The census of the territory, taken by direction of the Governor, shows a population of 56,984, in addition to the Indians. The Boundary Commissioners were on the Rio Grande, near Dona Ana, and had decided to place the corner-stone six or seven miles below that place.
The news of the formation of a Territorial Government for Utah, and the appointment of Brigham Young as Governor, was first received at the Salt Lake, by way of California. The General Assembly of the Church for the State of Deseret, have transferred all their powers to the Territorial Government, and adjourned. The "Quorum of Seventies" had agreed to erect an extensive rotunda in the Salt Lake City, to be called the "Seventies' Hall of Science." The Mormons have established a colony in Iron County, about 250 miles nearly south of the Salt Lake City. Several families, with 130 men and supplies of all kinds, under charge of Elder Geo. A. Smith, left on the 7th of December, and when last heard from, they had 1600 acres cleared, and 400 sown with grain. Elders Lyman and Rich left early in March with 150 wagons, to form another settlement on the Colorado, on the Californian line. The Mormons design establishing a continuous line of stations on the Pacific on this route.
The steamers which left San Francisco on the 15th of April and the 1st of May, carried away $3,000,000 in gold dust, nearly all of which was shipped to the Atlantic States. The news from all parts of the gold region is unusually favorable. The rains which came on towards the end of March continued for two weeks, and furnished an abundant supply of water for the dry diggings. The piles of earth which had been heaped up during the winter, were yielding excellent returns. In the higher ranges of the mountains there had been heavy falls of snow, which had cut off the supplies of some of the remote diggings, and several persons were frozen to death near the head waters of Feather River. The rich placers discovered in this region have attracted many thousands of miners; and the trail through the snows was lined with the carcases of mules which had perished from the cold. On account of the scarcity of supplies, board had risen to $56 per week.
Important discoveries have been made in Shaste Valley, in the northern part of the State. One thousand acres were tested, and found to yield ten cents to the panful of earth. The first discoverers averaged $80 apiece daily. The diggings differ from all others in the circumstance of all the earth containing gold down to the bottom rock, which is struck at a depth of four feet. The gold is found in coarse grams, interspersed with large lumps. An extensive emigration had already set towards the new placer. The Volcano diggings continue to give large returns; while there is no diminution in the yield of the old localities on the American Fork, the Stanislaus and the Mariposa. The quartz veins on the latter river and in the neighborhood of Nevada City, give proof of astonishing richness; but the gold is generally found in such fine particles, that not more than half of it can be collected by any machinery which has yet been brought into use. Veins of silver ore, which promise to be very rich, have been discovered on Carson's Creek.
The Californian Legislature adjourned on the last day of April, after a session of four months. Among its last acts was the passage of a law, exempting homesteads and other property from forced sale in certain cases. It also passed a Usury Law, fixing interest at ten per cent., and allowing eighteen per cent. by special agreement. Party politics have attained a height scarcely known in the older States at present. The City election in San Francisco was very hotly contested, but finally resulted in the choice of all the Whig candidates, except two. Both parties are marshalling their forces for the coming State election. The prominent candidates for Governor, are Major Roman, the present State Treasurer, with the Democrats, and Major Pearson B. Redding with the Whigs.
A body of Indians have been committing depredations on the Salinas Plains, near Monterey. They have killed three persons near the town of San Luis Obispo, robbed all the ranches, and driven away the horses from San Antonio to San Miguel. According to the treaty made with the Nevada Indians by the U. S. Commissioners, six tribes, numbering in all 1500 persons, have been removed to a tract of land twelve miles square, between the Merced and Tuolomne Rivers, which is secured to them for ever. In the vicinity of Los Angeles, the tribes still continue their depredations. Lynch law still remains in force in all the mining districts. A band of five Mexicans, who had been detected stealing cattle on the San Joaquin River, were tried in a summary manner, and all executed.
A project has been started to supply San Francisco with water from a lake called "Mountain Lake," a few miles from the city. It is described as a body of pure water, a mile in circumference, and 153 feet above the sea. A line seventy-five feet long, was dropped into the centre without finding bottom. It is estimated to furnish twenty-five millions of gallons of pure water daily. In the neighborhood of San Francisco, San José, Sacramento City, Sonoma and Bodega, large tracts of land have been brought under cultivation: and the harvest of grain and vegetables will this year go far towards supplying the wants of California. Nearly all kinds of vegetables attain a size and flavor which are not equalled in any other part of the world.
It is rumored that an expedition is about being raised in the southern part of California, for the purpose of invading the Mexican province of Lower California. A certain Gen. Morehead is said to have left with a force of two hundred men, well armed and provisioned. There is also talk of similar movement, having reference to the State of Sonora.
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company have made their depot in Oregon at Pacific City, on Baker's Bay. The coast region of Oregon, from the mouth of the Umpqua to Vancouver's Island, is rapidly filling up with emigrants. Another steamer, of 100 tons burden, has been placed on the Williamette, to run from Oregon City to the mouth of the Columbia. Gen. Lane, the ex-governor of the Territory, has been nominated by a convention of the people, irrespective of party, as a candidate for Congress.