The one hundred and nineteenth anniversary of Washington's birthday was celebrated throughout the United States with more than the usual honors. In New-York City, a large military and civic procession was arranged, under the direction of the Common Council, succeeded by a brilliant illumination in the evening. An oration was delivered at the celebration instituted by the Union Committee, by the Hon. Mr. Foote, of Mississippi. At the dinner which succeeded, the Hon. Edward Everett made an eloquent speech on the American Constitution.
Considerable excitement has arisen in different localities of the Free States, on account of the seizure of colored persons claimed as fugitive slaves. The Boston case has become exceedingly complicated, through a series of counter-arrests, on the parts of State and U. S. officers. Mr. Elizur Wright, editor of the Boston Commonwealth, and six other persons, mostly negroes, are held for trial on a charge of aiding in the escape of the slave Shadrach. On the other hand, the U. S. District Attorney, Commissioner and Deputy Marshal, were arrested and held to bail in the sum of $10,000 each, on charge of arresting the fugitive, the suits being brought on the ground that the Fugitive Slave law is unconstitutional, and that the officers acted without authority. Several arrests of fugitive slaves have been made in various parts of Pennsylvania, but there has been no violent resistance to the law. The Governor of Pennsylvania lately made a requisition on the Governor of Maryland, for the delivery of a man charged with kidnapping a free black child five years old, born in Pennsylvania of a fugitive slave, and reclaimed with her. The Governor of Maryland refused to surrender the accused, and replied in a long letter sustaining his course by the authority of the Attorney General.
Few measures of interest have been passed by the several State Legislatures, during the past month. The State of New Jersey has abolished the freehold qualification. In the Legislature of Wisconsin a land limitation bill, fixing the limit at 640 acres, passed the Senate, but was defeated in the House. The Maryland Convention for the revision of the State Constitution, has adopted a clause abolishing imprisonment for debt, by a vote of 60 to 5. The Indiana Convention has completed a revised Constitution for that State, which will be submitted to the votes of the people. The Legislature of Pennsylvania has passed a joint resolution of thanks to the Hon. Daniel Webster, for his letter to Hülsemann, the Austrian Chargé d'Affaires.
Several severe storms have been experienced in the Western States. The town of Fayetteville, Tenn., was nearly destroyed by a tornado, on the 24th of February. The place was enveloped in impenetrable darkness, and many lives were lost in the crash of the falling buildings. Forty-two houses were blown down. A terrific gale passed over Pittsburg, tearing the steamers from their moorings, and injuring a great number of buildings.
The family of Mr. William Cosden, in Kent Co., Md.,—including himself, his wife, sister, sister-in-law, and a black servant, were murdered on the 25th of February. A small boy made his escape and gave the alarm. The murderers have not yet been taken.
The trials of the Cuban invaders at New Orleans have at last been brought to an end. After three unsuccessful attempts to procure a verdict in the case of Gen. Henderson, the jury in each instance being unable to agree, the prosecution was withdrawn. The trial of Gen. Quitman and the other persons who had been arraigned, was also relinquished, and the matter will be suffered to drop.
Jenny Lind has reached St. Louis, on her tour of triumph in the West. The proceeds of her thirteen concerts in New Orleans amounted to $200,000. On the 13th of March, she gave a concert at Natchez which produced $6,600, $1,000 of which was devoted to charitable objects.—A great meeting in favor of railroads in the Mississippi Valley, was held in New Orleans on the 24th of February.—The cholera has appeared in a mild form on some of the Western rivers. In the town of Franklin, Tenn., there have been already fourteen deaths from it.
Henry Clay sailed from New-York for Havana, on the 11th of March. He intends remaining a few weeks in that city to rest from the fatigues of the late session. He was received in New-York with great enthusiasm; thousands of persons crowded the docks to witness his departure.
The steamer Oregon, while on her passage from Louisville to New Orleans, burst her boiler near Vicksburg, killing and wounding about seventy persons. The boat afterwards took fire and burned to the water's edge. The surviving passengers were taken off by the steamer Iroquois, which fortunately happened to be in the vicinity. A steam-ferry boat at St. Louis burst her boiler on the 23d of February, killing about twenty persons. Several other slight explosions and collisions have occurred on the Western rivers.
A notorious person, named Wm. H. Thompson, (better known as "One-Eyed Thompson,") who was supposed to have been a confederate of various gangs of counterfeiters and burglars, was arrested on the 1st of March, on a charge of counterfeiting, and committed suicide the next day in his cell. He left a letter addressed to the Coroner and another to his wife, written in a style which shows him to have been a man of more than ordinary intellect. He stated that, being of no farther use to his family, he felt it his duty to die. He had always cherished a disposition to commit suicide, as he had no means of solving the mystery of life, and desired death, either as an explanation or as an eternal sleep.