BY DAVID OVER.
■jSoitf ij.
IF WE KNEW.
BT RUTH BENTON.
If wo knew tho cares and crosses
Crowding round our neighbor's way,
If we knew tho little loßses.
Sorely grievous, day by day;
Would we then so often chide him
For his lack of thrift and gain—
Leaving on his heart a shadow,
Leaving on out lives a stain ?
If we knew the clouds above us,
Held by gentle blessings there,
Would we turn away all trembling,
In our blind and weak despair?
Would we shrink from little shadows,
Lying on the dewy grass,
Whilst 'tis only birds of £den,
Just in mercy flying past ?
If we knew the silent story,
Quivering thro' the heart of pain,
Would our womanhood dare doom them
Back to haunts of guilt again ?
Life has many a tangled crossing;
Joy hath many a break of woe;
And the cheeks, tear washed, are whitest;
This the blessed angels know.
Let us reach into our bosoms
For the key to other lives,
And with love towards erring nature,
Cherish good that still survives;
So that when our disrobed spirits
Seai to realms of light again,
We may say, dear Father judge us
As we judged our fellow-men.
SPEECH or DANIEL WEBSTER,
In the United States Senate, August 12, 1848,
on the Ques*ion of Organizing the Territory
of Oregon subject to the Ordinance of 1787,
excluding Slavery forever therefrom.
There arc two or three political questions
arisiug in this case which 1 wish to state dis
passiouateiy ; not to argue, but to state. The
honorable gentlemaD from Georgia, [Mr. Ber
ricu,] for whom 1 have a great respect, and
with whom it is my delight to cultivate personal
friendship, has stated with great propriety the
importanoo of this question. He has said that
it is a question interesting to the South and to
the North, and one wbioh may very well also
attract tho attention of mankind. Ho has uot
stated any part of this too stroDgly. It is
such a question. Without doubt, it is a
question which may well attract the attention
of mankind. On the subjects iuvolved in this
■debate, the whole world is not now asleep. It
is wide awake ; and I agree with the honorable
member, that if what is now proposed to be
done by as who resist this amendment is, as he
supposes, unjust and injurious to any portion
of this community, or against its constitutional
rights, that injustice should be presented to the
civilized world, and we, who ooneur n the pro
ceeding, ought to submit ourselves to its re
buke. lam glad that the honorable gentle
man proposes to refer this question to the
groat tribunal of modern civilization, as well
as the great tribunal of the American people.
It is proper. It is a question of magnitude
enough, of interest enough, to all tho civilized
nations of tho earth, to call from those who
support the one side or the other a statement
of the grounds upon which they act.
Now, I propose to state as briefly as I can
the grounds upon wbioh I proceed, historical
and constitntional, and will endeavor to use as
few words as possible, so that I may relieve the
Senate from hearing me at the earliest possible
moment. In tho first place, to view the matter
historically. This Constitution, founded in
1787, and tho Government under it, organized
in 1789, recognized the existence of slavery in
certain States then beionging to tho Union, and
a particular description of slavery. 1 hope
that what I am about to say may be received
without any supposition,that I iutend the slight
est disrespect. But this particular description
-of slavery does not, I believe, now exißt in
Europe, nor in any other civilized portion of
the habitable globe. It is not analogous to the
ease of the predial or stave gtebce adscripti of
Russia, or Hungary, or other States. It is a
peculiar system of personal slavery, by which
the person who is called a slave is trans terrablo
as a chattel, from hand to hand. I speak of
this as a fact; and that is the fact. And 1
will say. further, perhaps other gentlemcu may
remember the instances, that although slavery,
as a system of servitude attached to the earth,
exists in various countries of Europe, I am not
at the present moment aware of any plaoe on
the globe in which this property of man in a
human being as a slave transferable as a chat,
tie, exists except in America. Now that it
existed, in the form in which it still exists, iu
certain States, at the formation of this Con
stitution, and that the framers of that instru
ment, and those who adopted it, agreed that as
far as it existed it should not be disturbed or
interfered with by the new General Govern
ment, there is DO doubt.
The Constitution of the United States recog
nizes it as an existing fact, an existing relation
ifctween the inhabitants of the Southern
States. Ido not call it ao "institution," bes
cause that term is not applicable to it; for that
seeius to imply a voluntary establishment.—
When 1 first came here, it wis u matter of
frequent reproach to England, the mother
coautry, that slavery had been entailed upon
the colonies by her against their consent, and
that which is now coQ"idercd a cherished ''in
stitution'' was then regarded as, I will not say
an em/, but an entailment on the colouies by
the policy of the mother country, against their
wishes. At any rate, it stands reooguized by
the Constitution. The Constitution was adopt
ed in 1788, and wSnt into operation in 1789.
When it was adopted, the state of the country
was this: slavery existed iu the Southern
States; there was a very large extent of un
occupied territory, which, it was understood,
A Weekly Paper, Devoted to Literature, Polities, the Arts, Sciences, Agriculture, &c., &c —Terms: One Dollar and Fifty Cents in Advance.
was destined to be formed into States; and
it was then determined that no slavery should
exist in this territory. I gather now, as a
matter of inference from the history of the
debates, that the prevailing motives with the
North for agreeing to this recognition of the
existence of slavery in the Southern Statc9,
and giving representation to those States found
ed in part upon their slaves, rested on tho sup
position that no acquisition of territory would
bo made to form new States on the southern
frontier of this country, either by cession or
conquest. No one looked to any acquisition
of new territory on the southern or southwest
ern frontier. The exclusion of slavery from
the Northwestern Territory, and the prospective
abolition of the foreign slave trade, were gen
erally, tho former unanimously, agreed to ; and
on the basis of these considerations, the South
insisted that where slavery existed it should not
be interfered with, and that it should have a
certain ration of representation in Congress.—
And now, sir, I am ono who, believing sueh
to be the understaudng on which the Con
stitution was framed, meau to abide by it.
There is another principle, equally clear, by
which 1 mean to abide, and that is, that in the
Convention, and in the first Congress, when ap
pealed to the subject by petitions, and all along
in the history of this Government, it was, and
has been, a conceded point, that slavery in the
States in which it exists is a matter of Stato
regulation exclusively, and that Congress has
Dot the least power over it, or right to interfere
with it. Therefore, I say that all agitations
and attempts to disturb the relations between
master and slave by persons not living in the
slave States, are unconstitutional in their spirit,
and are, in my opinion, productive of nothing
but evil and mischief. I countenance noDe of
them. The manner in which tho Government
of those States where slavery exists nre to reg
ulate it, is for their own consideration, undor
their responsibility to their constituents, to tho
general laws of propriety, humanity, and jus
tioo, and to God, Associations formed else
where, springing from a feeling of humanity, or
any other cause have nothing whatever to do !
with it, nor right to interfere in it. They have
never received any encouragement from mc,
aud they never will. In my opinion, they have
done nothing but delay and defeat their own
professed objects.
I have now stated, as I understand it, the con
dition of things upon tho adoption of the Con
stitution of the United States. What has hap
pened riuce? Sir, it has happened -that above
aud beyond all contemplation or expectation of
the original framers of tho Constitution, or the
people who adopted it, foreigD territory has beeu
acquired by cession, first from France, and then
from Spain, on our southern frontier. And
what has been the result? Five slavoholding
States have been created and added to tho
Union, bringing ton Senators into this body, (1
include Texas, which 1 consider in the light of
a foreign acqusiiion also,) and up to this hour
in which I address you, not ono free State has
been admitted to the Union from all this acquir
ed territory!
Mr. Berrien, (in his seat.) Yes, lowa.
lowa is not jet in the Union. Her Seuators
are not here. When sho comes in, there will
be one to five—one free State to five slave States
formed out of new Territories. Now, it seems
strange to me that there should be anj com
plaint of injustice exercised bj the North to
ward the South. Northern votes have been
necessarj, thej have been readj, and they have
been given, to aid in the admission of these five
new slaveholding States. These are facts; and,
as the gentleman from Georgia has very proper
ly put it as a case in which wo are to present
ourselves before tho world for its judgment, let
us see how we staud. Ido not represent the
North. I state mj own oase, and 1 present the
matter in that light in which lam willing, as
an individual member of Congress, to be judged
by civilized humanity. I say then, that, ac
cording to true history, the slaveholding inter
ests in this country has not been dis-favored
by the North. The North has concurred to
bring in these five slaveholding States out of
newly-acquired territory, which acquisitions
were not at all in the contemplation of the Con
vention which formed the Constitution, or of
the people when they agreed that there should
be a representation of three-fifths of the slaves
in the then existing States.
Mr. President, what is the result of this?—
We stand here now, at least 1 do, for one, to
say that, oonsidcriug there have been ah cad j
five new slaveholding States formed out of new
ly-acquired territory, and only ono non-slavo
holding State, at most, I do not feel that I am
called on to go further; I do not feel the obli
gations to yield more. But our friends of the
South say, "You deprive us of all our rights.
We have fought for this Territory, and you deny
us participation in it." Let us oonsider this
question as it really is; and since the honorable
gentleman from Georgia proposes to leave tho
case to the enlightened and impartial judgment
of mankind—and as I agree with him that it is
a oase proper to be considered by the enlight
ened part of mankind—let us see how the mat
ter in truth stands. Gentlemen who advocate
the cause which my honorable frieud from
Georgia, with so much ability, sustains, declare
that we invade their rights, that we deprive them
of a participation iu the enjoyment of territo
ries acquired by the common services and com
mon exertions of ail. Is this true? How de
prive? Of what do we deprive them? Why
they say that we deprive them of the piivilege
of carrying their slaves, as slaves, into the uew
territories. Well, sir, what is the amount of
that 2 They say that in this way we deprive
them of the opportunity of going into their ac
quired Territories with their property. Their
"property." What do tbey mean by "proper
ty?" We certaiuly do not doprive them ot the
privilege of going into these uewly-acquired
Territories with all that, in ike general estima
tionof human society, in the general, and com
BEDFORD. PA.. FRIDAY, MAY 18. 1860.
mon, and universal understanding of mankind
is esteemed property. Not at all. The truth
is just this. They havo, in their own States,
peculiar laws, which create property in per
sons. They have a system of local legislation
on which slavery rests; while everybody agrees
that it is against natural law, or at least against
the common understanding which prevails among
mon as to what is natural law.
I am not going into metaphysics, for therein
I sbonld encounter the honorable member from
South Carolina, [Mr. Calhoun,] and we should
find "no end in wandering mazes lost," until
after the time for the adjournment of Con
gress.
The Southern States have peculiar laws, and
by those laws there is property in slaves. This
is pure looal. The roal meaning, then, of
Southern gentleman, in making this complaint,
is, that they oannot go into the Territories of
the U. States, carrying With them their own
peculiar local taw, a law which creates property
in persons. This, according to their own state
ment, is ail the ground of complaint they have.
Now, here, I think gentlemen are unjust towards
us. How unjust they are, others will judge:
generations that will come after us will judge.
It will not be contended that this sort of per
sonal slavery exists by general law. It exists
only by looal law. Ido not mean to deny the
validity of that local law where it is establish
ed; but I say it is, after all, local law. It is
nothing more. Aud wherever that looal law
does not extend, property in persons does not
exist.
Well, sir. what is DOW tho demand on the
part of our Southern friends? They say, "We
will oarry our local laws with us wherever we
go. We insist that Congress does us injustice,
unless it establishes in the Territory, iu which
we wish to go, our owu locai law." This de
mand, I, for one, resist, and shall resist. It
goes upon the plea that there is an inequality,
unless persons, undor this local law, and hold
ing property by authority of that law, can go
into new territory, and there establish that local
law, to the exclusion of the general law. Mr.
President, it was a maxim ot the civil law, that
between slavery and freedom, freedom should
always be presumed, and slavery must always
be proved. If any question arose as to the
status ot an individual in Rome, he was pre
sumed to be free until he was proved to be a
slave, because slavery is an exceplton "to" tho
general rule. Such, I suppose, is the general
law of mankind. An individual is presumed
to bo free, until a law can be produced which
creates ownership in his person. Ido not dis
pute the force and validity of the local law, as
I have already said, but I say it is a matter to
be proved, and, therefore, if individuals go into
any part of the earth, it is to bo proved they
are not freemeo, or else the presumption is that
tLey are.
Now our friends seem to think that an ine
quality arises from restraining them from go
iug into the Territories, unless there be a law
provided which shall protect their ownership
in persons . The assertion is, that wo oreate
an inequality. Is there nothing to be said on
the other side in relation to inequality? Sir,
from the date of this Constitution, and in the
counsels that formed and established this Con
stitution, and 1 suppose in all men's judgment
since, it is received as a settled truth, that
slave labor and free labor do not exist well
together. I have before me a declaration of
Mr. Mason, in the Convention that formed the
Constitution, to that effeot. Mr. Mason, as is
well known, was a distinguished member from
Virginia. He says that the objection to slave
labor is, that it puts free white labor in disre
pute; thai it causes labor to be regarded as
derogatory to the character of the free white
man, and that the free white man despises to
work, to use bis own expression, where slaves
are employed. This is a matter of great in
terest to the free States, if it be true, as to a
great extent it certainly is, that wherever slave
labor prevails, freo white labor is exoluded or
discouraged. I agree that slave laber does not
necessarily exclude free labor totally. There
is free white labor in Virginia, Tennessee, and
other States, where most of tho labor is doue
by slaves, But it nocessarily loses something
of its respectability, by the side of, and when
assooialed with slavo labor. Wherever labor
is mainly performed by slaves, it is regarded
as degrading to freemen. The freemen of tho
North, theretore, have a deep iuterest in keep
ing labor free, exclusively free, in the new
Territories.
Bat sir, let us look further into this alleg
ed inequality. There is no pretence that
Southern people may not go into territory
which shall be subject to the Ordinance of
1787. The only restraint is, that they shall
not carry slaves thither and continue that re
lation. They say this shuts them altogether
out. Why, sir, there can be nothing more in
accurate iu point of fact than this statement.
1 understand that oue-half the people who set
tled Illinois are people, or descendants of peo
ple, who cuuio from the Southern States. And
1 suppose that one-third of the people of Ohio
are those, or descendants of those, who emi
grated from the South; and I venture to say,
that in respect to those two States, they are at
this day settled by people of Southern origin
ia as groat a proportion as they are by people
ol Northern origin, according to the general
number and proportion of people, South and
North. There are as many people from the
South, in proportion to the wholo people of the
South, in those States, as there are ftoui the
North, in proportion to the whole people of
tbd North. There is, then, no exclusion of
Southern people; there is only the exolusiou
of a peculiar local law. Neither in principal
nor in faot is there any inequality.
Tho question now is, whether it is not com
petent to OoDgrcss, in the exercise ' of a fair
and just discretion, considering that there have
been five slaveboldiDg Btates added to this
Union out of foreigu aovuisitions, and as yet
only one free State, to prevont their further
increase. That is tho question. I sec no in
justice in it. As to the power of Congress, I
have polhing to add to what I said the other
day. Congress has full power over the sub
ject. |lt may establish any such Government,
and such laws, in the territories, as in its dis
cretion it may see fit. It is subject, of course,
to the rules of justice aDd propriety, but it is
under no constitutional restraint.
I have said that I shall consent to no ex
tension of the area of slavery upon this conti
nent, por to any increase of slave representa
tion in the other House of Congress. 1 have
now stated lay reasons for my conduct and my
vote. We cf the North have already gone, in
this respect, far beyond all that any Southern
man could have expected, or did expect, at the
time of the adoption of the Constitution, I
repeat the statement of the faot of the crea
tion of five new slaveholding States out ot
newly acquired territory We have done that
which, if those who framed the Constitution
bad forseeu, they never would have agreed to
slave representation. We havo yielded thus
far; and we have now iu the House of Repre
sentatives twenty persons voting upon this very
question, aud upou all other questions, who
are only in virtue of the representation of
slaves.
Let uio conclude, therefore, by remarking,
that, while I am willing to present this as
showing my own judgmeut and position iu re
gard to this ease, aud I beg it to be under
stood that lam speaking for DO other than
myself, aud while I am willing to offer it to
tho whole world as my owu justification, I rest
ou these propositions: First, that when this
Constitution was adopted, nobody looked for
any new acquisition of territory to be formed
into slaveholding States; Secondly, that tho
principles of the Constitution prohibited, aud
wero intended to prohibit, all interference of
the General Government with slavery as it ex
isted and as it still exists in the States.
Aud then, looking to the operation of these
new acquisitions, which have in this great de
gree had the effeot of strengthening that iutcr
ost in the South by tho addition ot these five
States, 1 feel that there is nothing unjust, no
thing of whioh any honest man oan complain,
if he is intelligent; and 1 feel that there is uo
/ith which tip civilized world, if they
take notioe of so humble a person as myself,
will reproach me, when I say, us I said the
other day, that 1 havo made up my mind, for
one, that under no circumstances will 1 consent
to the further extension of the area of slavery
in the United States, or to the further increase
of slave representation in the-liouse of Repre
sentatives.
From the -V. Y. Tribune.
The Charleston Collapse.
"Did the militia stand fire?" asked George
Washington of the messenger who brought
him the first tidings of tho fight on Bunker
Hill. "Yes, they did," was the response.—
"Then, thank God, the liberties of America
are safe." It was not necessary that the pat
riots hastily rallied from their plows and their
firesides should have triumphed; it was essen
tial that they should have manifested the cour
age and tho will to look the Kings drilled mer
cenaries steadily in the efe without panic or
flight. That point socured, all boyoud was
but a question of time and cost.
Let us, theD, be grateful that, for the first
time in our history, a Democratic National
Convention has lookod the Slavery Propaganda
calmly in tho face, aud virtually said: "Wo
have conceded very much.to Jou, and we stand
to those concessions. We are ready to rostate
and reaffirm them; thus far and no further,
we will go; there, where you were so lately
glad to stand with us, wc will stand; you uiay
desert and defeat U9, but wo will not diseard
Dor deny our cherished principles, eveo at your
bidding, but will affirm and uphold them, be
tho cnesequenoes what they may." In this
stand of the Northern Democracy there is as
assuranoe that the bottom has been reached,
and that this Republic is to be at the worst no
more flagrantly false to the grand ideas on
Which it was founded, than it has been in the
past.
Let us look closely at the newly raised but
destined to be historic monuments that markod
the F irtiog of the Ways.
Hero is the Platform reported to the Con
vention by the majority (17) of its Grand
Committee of one from each State delegation
—said majority being made up of the repre
sentatives on said committee of every Slavo
State (15) with those of California and Ore
gon:
Resolved, That the platform adopted at Cin
cinnati be affirmed, with the following resolu
tions:
That the Democracy of the United States hold
these cardinal principles on the subject of Slave
ry in the Territories; First that Congress has no
right to abolish Slavery in the Territories, sec
ond, that the Territorial Legislature has no pow
er to abolish Slavery iu any Territory, nor to pro
hibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor any
power to exclude Slavery therefrom, nor any
power to destroy or impair the right of properly
in slaves by any legislation whatever.
Resolved, That the enactments of Male Legis
latures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fu
gitive Slave law are hostile in character, subver
sive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in
their effect.
Resolved, That it is the duty of Federal
Government to protect, when necessary, the
rights of person and property on the high seas, in
the Territories, or wherever else its Constitu
tional authority extends.
Resolved, That the Democracy of the nation
recognize it as the imperative duty of this Gov
ernment to protect the naturalized citizen in all
his rights, whether at home or in foreign lands,
to the same extent as its native born citizens.
Resolved, That the National Democracy ear
nestly recommend the acquisition of the Island
of Cuba at the earliest practicable period.
Whereas. That one of ihe greatest necessities
of the age, in a political, commercial, postal,
and military point of view, isa speedy commu
nication between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts:
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the National Democratic party
do hereby pledge themselves to use every means
in their power to secure the passage of some
bill for the construction of a Pacific Railroad,
from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean,
at the earliest practicable moment.
There is some intended vagueness in the
terms of this Platform, but none at all iu its
substance and spirit. The meaning of its first
aud third planks is just this: "Any slave
holder has the same right to take his slaves in
to any Federal Territory that he or any other
citizen has to take any property whatever thith
er; and Loth the Federal and Territorial Gov
ernments are under the same obligations and
have the same power to protect in said territo
ry such slaveholder in the use and enjoyment
of his slaves' labor as to protect him or aDy
other person in the enjoyment of any property
whatever." And this is in essence the ex
treme Southern platform, first propounded by
John C. Calhoun, since embodied in the Jeff
Davis resolves now before tho Senate, and
more logically set forth in those of his col
league, Alberg G. Brown.
Under ordinary circumstances this platform
would have been swallowed by the select office
holders and office-seekers in Democratic Na
tional Convention assembled, without cavil or
hesitation. The ruliog logic would have run
thus : "This platform is a more abstraction,
while Sixty Millions per annum is a solid pre
sent reality ; if we do not give way on the
platform, the South will not bolt en massie t the
Election will be lost, and with it our Sixty
Millions : so let us shut our eyes aud go it."
And go it they would.
But Mr. Senator Douglas happens to be a
candidate for the Presidency, backed by nearly
or quite half the delegates to this Convention ;
and he could not staod on this platform. Even
though his resolute and successful resistance to
the Leoompton fraud had not forbidden, he last
summer saw fit to plaoe himself deliberately
and clearly on the record by writing and print
ing this letter :
WASHINGTON, Wednesday, June 22, 1859
"MY DEAR SIB : I Cave received your letter in
■ quiring whether my friends are at liberty to present
1 my name to the Charleston Convention for the Pre
sidential nomination.
"Before the question can be fully determined, it
will be necessary to understand distinctly upon
what issues the canvass is To be conducted. If, as
I have full taith they will, the Democratic paity
shall determine, in the Presidential election of
1860, to adhere to the principles embodied in the
compromise measures of 1850, and ratified by the
people in the Presidential election of 1852, and re
affirmed in the Kansas Nebraska act of 1854, and
incorporated into the Cincinnati platform of 1856,
as expounded by Mr. Buchanan in his letter accept
ing the nomination, and approved by the people—
in that event, my friends will be at liberty to pre
sent my name to tho Convention if they see proper
to do so. If, on the contrary, it shall oecome the
policy of the Democratic party—which I cannot
anticipate—to repudiate these, their time-honored
principles, on which we have achieved so ruany
patriotic triumphs, and if, in lieu of them, the Con
vention shall interpolate into the creed of the party
such new issues as the revival of the slave-trade, or
a Congressional slave code for tho Territories, be
yond the power of the people legally to control it j
as other property, it is due to candor to say that, in ]
such an event, I could not accept the nomination
if tendered to me. Trusting that this answer will
be deemed sufficiently explicit,
"I am, very respectfully, your friend,
"S. A. DOUGLAS.
"To J. B. DORR, Esq., Dubuque, lowa."
Now, there oan be no need of arguing that
this letter is incompatible with the acceptance
of a nomination on the platform above given,
for that platform was devised and designed to
render either the nomination of Mr. Douglas
or his acceptance of it impracticable. Hence
the representatives on the Grand Committee of
sixteen Free States, easting a large majority
of the Electoral Votes of the entire Union,
united in reporting the minority Platform :
Resolved, That we, the Democracy of the Union,
in Convention assembled, hereby declare our af
firmance of the resolutions unanimously adopted,
and declared as a platform of principles by the
Democratic Convention at Cincinnati, in the year
1856, believing that Democratic principles are un
changeable In their nature when applied to the same
subject matters ; and we recommend as our only
future resolutions the following:
[lnasmuch as differences of opinion exist in the
Democratic party, as to the nature and extent of
the powers of a Territorial Legislature, and as to
the powers and duties ot Congress under the Con
stitution of the United States, over the institution
ol Slavery within the Territories;
Resolved, That the Democratic party will abide
by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the U.
States, on the question of Constitutional law.]
Resolved, That it is the duty of U. 3tates to af
ford ample and complete protection to all its citi
zens, whether at home or abroad, and whether na
tive or foreign.
Resolved, That one of the necessities of the age,
in a military, commercial, and postal point of view,
is speedy communication between the Atlantic and
Pacific States, and the Democratic party pledge such
constitutional Government aid as will insure the
tonstruction of a railroad to the Pacific coast at
the earliest practicable period.
Resolved, That the Democratic party are in favor
of the acquisition ot the Island of Cuba, on such
terms as shall be honorable to ourselves and just
to Spain.
Resolved, That the enactments of State Legis
latures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fu
gitive Slave law are hostile in character,.subversive
of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their ef
fect.
This Platform was substituted for that of the
majority of the (Joinonittee, by a direot vote of
the full Convention—Yoas 165, Nays 138—27
majority on a vote very nearly sectional, Hav
ing been thus substituted, the minority demand
ed and secured a vote on the adoption of its
several parts separately; whereon the preamble
and second resolve (givon above iu brackets)
were rejected by an almost unanimous vote.—
The jxplaoation of this vote is curiously inter
esting. The delegates from the Free States
bad framed aad presented it as a substantial
concession to tho South, which—bemgsotuuch
over aud above all that bad been bitherto con
ceded at Baltimore aud CiuciuQati—ought to
VOL. 33, NO. 20.
be recoived with satisfaction if not with grati
tude. But when the SoutLJcalled for a divis
ion, and proceeded either to vote by States
against this plank, or else sulkily refrain from
voting at all, the Northern Delegates said to
each other—"What use in burdening ourselves
with concessions which are rejected and spurn*
ed by those to whom we make tbem?" And
so Free State after State began to emulate their
Southern brethren by voting No; and soon those
which had already recorded- themselves in the
affirmative changed to the negative; until at last
but a few fragments of delegations, amounting
to next to nothing in the aggregate, were left
recorded in the affirmative. Thus the Platform
termed minority, but which was adopted by a
majority of the Convention, as ultimately adopt
| ed, Btands without any allusion to the Supremo
[ Court or its decisions; but is simply the old
i Cincinnati affair, with a little extra fillibuster
! ing negro-catching thrown iu byway of sauce.
The subsequent proceedings "of the Conven
tion— the conoertod bolt of eight or nine South
ern delegations because of the refusal of the
majority to adopt the Slave-Code Platform; the
fifty-seven ineffectual ballots for a candidate for
Piesident, wherein Mr. Douglas received on
every ballot a majority of all the votes cast,
and ou several a majority of the entire Elec
toral vote of the Union, yet was determinedly
j denied the two thirds declared requisite to a
nomination ail these are freshly in the public
mind. Toe majority bold fast to Mr. Douglas;
the minority would not allow him to be nomi
nated, and could not concentrate their votes on
any one else; thus nothing remained but an ar|-
jorumeut, which wa3 carried yesterday morning
by a vote of 166 Ayes to 88 Nays nearly two
thirds. So the Convention stands adjourned
ovor, to reassemble at Baltimore on the 18tb v
of June—a month after the nomination will
have been made at Chicago. Probably the
character of that nomination will greatly influ
ence the actiou and results of the adjourned
gathering at Bultimore. But fet the fntra
speak for itself.
! CALEB.
Inasmuch as the Hebrew language is not con
sidered essential to a fashionable education, our
readers will not leel offended if wo presume thai
they have not ail learned it—and proceed to left
them that the word Caleb signifies a dog. Pri
marily it was an imitation ot the yelping noise
made by * dissatisfied cur. This explanation
may serve to throw some light upon the snarling,
howling and barking exhibited iu the grand san.-
hedrim of Democracy at Charleston; for when
an illustrious canine is placed at the head of an
organization, it is not strange that smaller mem
bers of the body should exhibit a disposition
"To snarl and bite,
And play the dog "
The origin of the patronymic of the perma
nent President of the Dtmoeratic Convention is
also remarkable. CUSH was that son of Ham
who appears to have been the father of the
.Ethiopians, and the country whiph tbey inhabi
ted was designated by the'same name. This
may account for the disposition shown by this
illustrious personage to place himself upon the
dark side of Democracy.
If learned philologists would investigate this
subject, it is probable that they would be able to
discover many things of great interest to the sor
rowing friends of the defunct party; and inas
much as Democracy ROW is but a matter of his
tory, such investigation may be deemed appro
priate, and far less harrowing to the feelings of
the mourners, than the ruthless unfoldings of a
Committee of the popular branch of Congress.—
Daily News.
Tho Ooculation of the placet Venus, which
attracted so much attention on Tuesday even,
ing the 24th ult., will be followed shortly by
the ocoultation of the planets Jupiter and
Mars.
About midnight of Thursday, April 261h,
Jupiter was eclipsed in the northern part of
New Hampshire and Maine, and some of the
British pnmnees ; but in the Southern part of
New England, the least distance of the edges
of the planet and our satellite will be about
one-twentieth the diameter of the latter. The
third of these occultations will be that of Mars,
in the morning before sunrise of Thursday,
May 10th. It will be risible in a large part
of the United States and the British provinces.
As the moon will then be about five duys past
the full the emersion will take place on tho
dark side.- The color of Mars will be a fiery
red, as it will be quite near the earth j indeed,
at Mars' opposition to the Sun, on July 17th
next, it will be nearer to us than for several
years, with a high southern* deoliuation, thus
giving the astronomers at the Cape of Qood
Hope an excellent and rare opportunity of de
termining its parallax with greater precision.
The fourth of this extraordinary series of os
culations is that of Jupiter in the forenoon of
Thursday, May 24th, which also will be visible
in a large part of this country, but which tak
ing place whilst the Sun is above the horizon,
caunot be soen except with the aid of a very
good telesoope.
IMPOBTANT CHANGE.—The Iron City Col
lege has removed to the splendid halls in the
uew College Building, corner of Penn and St.
Clair streets, oppo.-ite the St. Clair Hotel.—
Prof J. C. Smith, A. M. for the past three
years the principal teacher in the College, is
now associate Principal and proprietor with F.
W. Jenkins in the Institution, and Mr. A.
Cowley is engaged as the permanent teacher of
penmanship. Tho College now occupies tho
largest and best rooms in the oil*.—Pittsburg
Evening Chronicle.
Wit is not the produce of study; it comes al
most as unexpectedly QU the speaker as on the
bearer; one ol the first principles of it is good
temper; the arrows ol wit ought to always be
feathered with smiles; when tney fail in that,
they become a sarcasm.
"1 am Dot fond of catnip," as the little girl
said, when pussy bit off a piece of her nose.