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.