Unsuccessful attempts to elect U. S. Senators have been renewed in New York, and Massachusetts. In New Jersey Commodore R. F. Stockton, Democrat; and in Ohio Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, Free Soil Whig, have been elected to the U. S. Senate.
In New Hampshire two Whig and two Democratic Members of Congress have been elected. There is a Democratic majority in the Senate; in the House parties are very nearly balanced, each, at present, claiming the majority. The Free Soilers, apparently, hold the balance of power. The Governor will be chosen by the Legislature, there being no choice by the people; the regular Democratic candidate has a decided plurality over either of his opponents.
In Virginia, the State election has been postponed from April to October. This has been done in consequence of the unsettled state of affairs growing out of the deliberations of the State Constitutional Convention. It is supposed that the draft of the New Constitution will be completed so that it may be submitted to the people at that time.
An Act to exempt Homesteads from sale on execution, has passed the General Assembly of Illinois, and is to take effect on the 4th of July next. It provides that in addition to property now exempt from execution, the lot of ground and buildings occupied as a residence by any debtor being a householder, shall be free from levy or forced sale for debts contracted after the above date, provided that the value shall not exceed one thousand dollars. This exemption is to continue, after the death of the owner, for the benefit of the widow and children, until the death of the widow, and until the youngest child shall reach the age of twenty-one years. Provisions are made for levying upon the amount of the value of property above one thousand dollars.
Upon the same day, a bill to exempt from levy upon execution, bed, furniture and tools, to an amount not exceeding one hundred dollars, becomes a law in Delaware. A license law, containing extremely stringent provisions, has been passed in this State.
A Bill has passed the Legislature of Iowa, prohibiting the immigration of negroes. They are required to leave the State after receiving three days' notice of the law, and in case of returning are liable to penalties.
Manufactures are advancing in some of the Southern States, especially in Georgia. A few days since a large quantity of cotton yarn was shipped from Augusta to find markets in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
Emigration from the Old World, and especially from Germany, is setting strongly into Texas, Houston and Galveston, with a population of 8000, have 2000 Germans. An effort is made to appropriate a considerable part of the ten millions received from the United States, to the purposes of popular education. Indian depredations occur along the western frontier. Two engagements, attended with loss of life on both sides, have recently taken place between the troops of the United States and the Indians. An expedition is to be organized against the Comanches.
Intelligence from the Boundary Commission has been received up to December 31st. The initial point from which the survey is to commence has been agreed upon by both sides. It is to be at a point on the Rio Grande in latitude 32 degrees 22 minutes. The precise point is to be ascertained by the astronomers, and will probably be about 20 miles to the northward of El Paso. The time of completing the survey is variously estimated at from one to three years.
From California there have been three arrivals since our last, bringing an aggregate of $1,700,000 in gold, and between 700 and 800 passengers. Our dates are up to the 1st of February. The intelligence of most importance is that of desperate hostilities between the Indians and the whites. The former seem to have determined upon a war of extermination, which of course meets with prompt retaliation; and the ultimate issue can be no matter of uncertainty. Seventy-two miners were attacked by surprise in a gulch near Rattlesnake Creek, and massacred to a man. A petition for aid was dispatched to the Executive of the State, and a force of 200 men ordered out. In the instructions to the commander, directions are given studiously to avoid any act calculated unnecessarily to exasperate the Indians. A daring attack was made on the 9th of January, by a company of 40 or 50 Americans, upon an intrenched camp, manned by 400 or 500 Indians. The position was so strong that a dozen whites might have defended it against thousands. Of the Indians 44 were killed, and the rancheria fired. Many of the aged and children were burned to death. Of the Americans two were killed, and five or six wounded. It is reported that all the Indians from Oregon to the Colorado are leagued together, and have sworn eternal hostility to the white race.