:: pailg Etiegrapt HARRISBURG, PA FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 2, 1864 Bide for the Sale of the Public Lands De.. voted to Educational Purposes. Yesterday was the time fixed for opening the bids for the sale of the public lands ap portioned by Congress and set apart for edu cational purpbses. A largo number of bids have been received, but in the absence of the Auditor General, Mr. Slenker, (detained at home by sickness,) they were not opened. The commission charged with the disposal of the lands then adjourned until Monday next, and ordered a notice to be served on Mr. Blenker of the fact. THE Tosicco RUMNESS. —A. large meeting of people interested in, the tobacco business was held in Baltimore on Tuesday last, for the purpose of considering the subject of the tax on tobacco. Resolutions were adopted, reciting that under the present laws, the Gov eminent is defrauded of its revenue, and honest men injured, and that the continuance of the present system will make it impossible for any honest man to prosecute business suc cessfully. The meeting recommend, to over come these difllcuWes, that "the surest and simplest way to obtain the necessary revenue from tobacco, and the one least subject to frauds, is to tax the raw material when it goes into consumption in the United States, by compelling all the tobacco raised in the United States to be placed in bond, and ex acting the tax on its withdrawal for consump tion." Twelve delegates were elected to the general convention of tobacco dealers, job bers and growers, which assembles in New York on the 7th inst. THE PRESIDENT'S BizssAax.--A Washington dispatch says that the President will in his forthcoming Message take high commanding ground in vindication of the national effort to maintain its authority and integrity. He ad duces from the enormous increase of the popu lar vote at the last election over that of four years ago, that the people have given the strongest and most unequivocal evidence of their approval of the executive policy of sub duing the rebellion by force of arms; that this paramount expression of the popular will amounts to an imperious mandate to further combat the rebellion with all the power and resources of the nation, until armed and or ganized treason is crushed out. In fine, the message will be more in the radical vein than any of its predecessors. It and accompanying reports are now in the hands of the printer. A HIGH-TONED Guam --Major General Butler has issued the following terse and sharp order upon David B. White, late Major of the .81st New York Volunteers. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE JAMES, IN. THE FIELD, VA., Nov. 25, 1864. Special Orders, No. 372.-111. David B. White, late Major of the 81st New York Vol unteers, who has left the service, cannot be elected as sutler in this Department. Field officers leaving the service voluntarily cannot take the place of boot blacks here. If they have no more respect for the service which they have left, they will find that officers here have. David B. White will at once leave the Department. By command of • Major General BUTLER. ED. W. SMITH, Assistant Adjutant General. "lltrisraxrav ZsAr.."—The traitor organ in New York the Daily News, believes that the at. tempt to burn the city "was made by men identified with the Southern cause, and was prompted by a miltaken zeal in that direction." But the News attempts an elaborate .defence of the'Confederate authorities against the im putation of being concerned in the incendiar ism, notwithstanding the fact the Richmond newspapers proposed the very plan which its agents have endeavored to put in execution. The News is the only traitor organ that never finds fault with Jefi Davis. Commass.—Congress assembles next Mon day, Dec. sth. All necessary preparations are making for the appearance of the mem bers. It is said that President Lincoln will present his views, in his message, on the va rious propositions for peace, and the Admin istration policy on that subject. Nearly all the reports of the Cabinet Aecretaries, it is thought, will be ready for presentation when the session opens. THE Buz - moan CLIPPER comes to us in an enlarged form, and now presents a most at tractive appearance. The Clipper is one of those journals which have passed through the fury of a fiery ordeal, to emerge unscathed in loyal devotion to the old flag and the good Union. It deserves the' prosperity of which its 'enlargement is a sign. CENTURY PAPER.—The Hartford Courant was one hundred years old on Saturday, Oc tober 29th. The Publishers sent out with their regular sheet.on that day a fae simile irt paper and type of the first number of the paper, published October 29, 1764, and it is a curiosity. TEE Central and Northwestern States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, lowa, Michigan, Wis consin, Minnesota, Missouri and Kansas, have given an aggregate Union majority of about 225,000. This is rather discouraging to the scheme for a Northwestern Confederacy. THE BROWNSVILLE CLIPPER says there is some probability that John K. Ewing, lately appointed President Judge of the Fayette Judicial District, will not accept the position. He is induced to resign on account of im paired health. Ea-GOVEBNOB SAM. MEDABY, of Ohio, who recently departed this life, was a native of Pennsylvania, having been born in Mont gomery county. Boanns for the examination of officers of the Commissary, Quartermaster and Pay De partments have been established in different' parts of the country. The Progressive Tendencies of Politics Among Intelligent Men. There is something strange and really won derful in the progression of political senti ment for the last four yeaas. But, when we look at the matter fairly, the progress in this direction is not more startling than in others, in paths affecting men's social and personal condition. •It is certainly not more surpris ing to see a conservative, a genuine dough face Democrat, heretofore a believer in and a worshipper of slavery, become a fierce, intoler ant and uncompromising radical, than it is to see a comparatively poor man, one dependant upon his daily toil, become a millionaire. Yet these are common occurrences. The poor man of yesterday, is the man of opulence to-day. We could name a dozen men, who, six months since, were not worth a hundred dollars, but who, to-day, count their pecuni ary-possessions by the hundreds ,of thousands. Thl Lese vast possessions, too, were fairly made. Every dollar thus . accumulated, may be re garded as the fair exchange for the valuable products of the earth. Take the oil specula tion as an instance—at least that pit of the speculation confined to the actual production of this article, and the accumulation of real wealth exceeds that of any similar 'venture since men began to penetrate the bowels of the earth in search of riches. But let us not wander from our subject. That which is now most wonderful and which is most arresting the attentive admiration of all true men, is the grand progressive change which dis tinguishes the political predilections and sen timents of the American people. After four years of fierce battle—after a contest for a principle such as was never before involved in a civil war, individuals as well aa,the nation at large, are becoming purified, elevated, re generated. Four years ago, no greater insult could have been offered to many men, than to charge them with being aboli tionists. The same, men, to-day, are in the front ranks of the most radical abolition ism. Four yeais ago, the slave influence ruled in Congress, was potent and all power ful in the Cabinet, controlled the army and navy, and had completed what was deemed a perfect plan for the overthrow of the Ameri can Government. So thorough was the or ganization of the slave-holders for the subver sion of the rule of freedom, that it embraced the highest Federal officers then in power, intimidating the Chief Magistrate and cor rupting the Chief Justice of the country. Now mark the progress. The wrongs which the slave influence at first sought to inflict on a nation, has not merely rendered that bar barity odious to all loyal men, but its abso lute failure to accomplish its own darling ob ject of destroying the American Union, be gins to render the institution obnoxious to those who first cherished it as the sole sign of theirpower. The slave-holders themselves now offer to abolish slavery, if they can get, in return, recognition for their Government. If this offer is not a progress in improvemerit, it is at least an acknowledgment that slavery is wrong, that it stands in the way of a people who de sire to gain a sort of false independence in exchange for a real nationality out of which the purest freedom the world ever beheld has grown. —The progress of the politics of the times is the surest and the ,best evidenCe that the nation is bound to live. If a different inspi. ration had seized the people; if, while we were fighting with armed traitors, we had re solved to compromise with the cause of re bellion, and settled the war by securing to slavery not only its old but new political rights and franchises, good men would have de spaired for the life of the Union. As it is, however, we are safe. Nothing now can change the destiny of the American people, for good, but an act of folly on their own part. If the people continue to progress as they have progressed for the past four years, they must become politically pure and nation , ally-strong. I t EGALITY OF THE SOLDIERS' VOTE Opinion of Attorney-General Meredith IN THE CASE GROWING OUT OF THE ELECTION IN THE StETEESTH ArDICILL DISTRICT, OPINION The election of Judges is provided for by the act of the 15th April, 1851. The sixth section of that act provides that in case of the election of President Judge of any Judicial District composed of two or more counties, the clerks of the return judges of each county shall make out a fair statement of all the votes which shall have been given at such election within the county for every person voted for, which shall be signed by said judges and at tested by the clerks. This statement is re quired to be produced at a meeting of the re turn judges of the district. The duty of the return judges of the district is set forth in the seventh section, which provides that they shall cast up the several county returns, and make a sufficient number of copies of a gene. ral return of all the votes given for such office in said district, all of which they shall certify, and one of which they shall transmit to the Secretary of the Commonwealth in the Dian ne; provided in the act. The tenth section of the act requires the Governor to grant com missions to the persons elected. The district return judges of the 16th Ju dicial District, composed of the counties of Franklin, Bedford, Somerset and Fulton, have transmitted to the Secretary of the Com monwealth a return, in which they state that they have not included the Bedford county return of the soldiers' votes, a copy of which they annex, and they assign as the reason for not including it, that sell return was not cer tified to by nine of the return judges of Bed ford county. The return in question is sign ed by thirteen of 'the county return judges, forming, therefore, a majority of the whole number. The reason assigned for not includ ing this return is probably insufficient. As the authority of the return judges concerns matters of a public nature, a majority may act at a meeting lawfully assembled, and their meeting is presumed to be lawful in the ab sence of proof to the contrary. The clause in the 79th section of the act of 1839, providing that the returns shall be signed by all the judges present, does not govern the present case, and if it did, it would, Ist, be construed as directing, merely ; and, 2d, it would be presumed that the return was signed by all the judges then present, in the absence of proof to the contrary. If the said soldiers' vote of Bedford county be included, Alexander King has a majority of all the votes in the district and is elected President Judge. The question on which the Governor re quests my opinion is, whether it is the duty of the Governor to include the said soldiers' vote in ascertaining to whom the commission should be granted. The district •return judges have stated in their return that Francis M. Kimmell, having received the highest number of votes, is duly elected. This statement is of no effect whatever. The law gives them no authority to declare who is elected. Their duty is simply to cast up the county returns, and make a general re turn of all the votes given for the office. In this respect the act of 1851, regulating the election of judges, differs from the act of 1839, the 82d section of which, relating to the elec.- tion of members of Congress, and of the State Senate and 13