The Express.
London, England, 1858-09-21 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES.

(71011 WI OWN

NEW YORK, Sam 7.
There was a slaver captured a week ago off the
coast of Cuba, when on the point of landing a cargo
of three hundred negroes, by the Coiled States brig
Dolphin. The negroes were landed at Charleston,
South Carolina, and placed in the custody of the
United States Marshal, who confined them in a fort.
They had hardly arrived when the Virginia and
South Carolina papers began to suggest the pro.
priety of offering them for sale by auction or other-
wise, so that instead of being returned to barbarism
and misery in their native country, they might be,
in a state of Christian slavery, civilised and educated,
and "brought into the way of life." This was fol-
lowed up by a number of the citizens of Charleston
waiting on the sheriff of that place, and
bringing to his official cognisance the fact
that a number of fine negroes had been introduced
within the limits of the State in contravention of
the law, and calling upon him to do his duty in the
premises by seizing them. The sheriff, however,
took the precaution to ask the opinion of the State
Attorney-General, who decided that he had no claim
upon the Africans whatever, that they were not
within the limits of the State, inasmuch as they
were confined in a fort belonging to the United States,
and that, moreover, they were not " free pogrom',
within the meaning of the act; whereupon the sheriff
desisted from any further proceedings in the matter,
but not until he had formally demanded them
of the United States Marshal and been refused. We
were all waiting here at the North with some anxiety
for the issue of the affair ; as many people were of opi-
nion that this opportunity would be seized of virtually
reopening the slave trade with the connivance of the
federal government. All that the latter had to do,
was to oppose a feeble resistance to the State claims,
allow the negroes to be disposed of, and then the
test was very simple! The slavers would hover off
the American coast, throw themselves in the way of
United States cruisers, submit to capture, be carried
into a southern port, have the slaves disposed of by
the State authorities for the benefit of the owners,
and the captain and crew would of course be duly
acquitted by a South Carolina jury. However, it
turns oat that Administration is for the nonce deter-
m,ned to obey the law. The Niagara is under
orders to take the unfortunates back to the place

from whence they came, and so the matter
will end, much, no doubt, to the dissatisfac-
tion of many of the extreme politicians, both
at the North and at the South. The former would
have been very glad to have had the Administration
commit itself to the slave trade, es it would have fur-
nished the Republicans with a tremendous weapon
in the next election " campaign ;" and the latter are
too eager for the accomplishment of anything which
tends to strengthen the institution, or to extend it, to
care much about any other consequences. The com-
ments of the Southern papers upon the subject, how-
ever, exemplify in rather an amusing manner the
prevalent tone of feeling about it south of Mason
and Dixon's line—there is a sort of barbarian sim-
plicity about the way in which they urge the duty
of evangelising the poor captives by making slaves
of them for life.

The Atlantic Telegraph here in New York is for
the present almost forgotten in the excitement which
prevails about the recent burning of the Quarantine
buildings sod the exposure of the sick at Staten
Island, to which I alluded in my last letter. The
public indignation against the perpetrators of the
outrage has reached boiling point; a large force of
armed police has been sent to the spot; temporary
shelter for the sick has been erected, and there is
rumour to-day that the governor is about to declare
the island in a state of insurrection, and call out the
militia. Whatever palliation there may be for riot,
in shape of danger from infection or injury to pro-
perty, the affair has inspired great uneasiness
amongst a large portion of the thinking public, with
regard to the future of the state as well as of the
country at large. Factions resistance to the law,
or factious supplementing of the law, are now no
longer confined to new disorderly communities like
California. Last year, in this very city, the mayor
refused obedience to an act of the legislature de-
clared constitutional by a judgment of the Supreme
_ .

Court, and employed the police force in aiding him
in resisting an arrest by the sheriff'. During the
spring of this year New Orleans was seized and held
for several days by an armed mob, under pretence
of reforming the municipal administration. Now,

a large body of respectable men rise in the night
and deliberately destroy, under circumstances of
great atrocity, a public institution, legally esta-
blished, for no better reason than Its being, in their
opinion, injurious to the health and property of per-
sons residing in its neighbourhood. It is quite ob-
vious that if the practice were to grow up of effect-
ing praiseworthy objects vi et arnsia, the practice of
effecting iniquitous ones would soon follow. If vi-
gilance committees are resorted to by honest
men as a means of accomplishing that which they
are unable to accomplieh any other way, the rogue
will soon learn to make use of the same expedients,
and we should see vigilance committees formed
every year to oppose the law as well as to enforce it.
In any other country occurrences like these would be
the beginning of the end; but here,sach is the resas-
citating power of public opinion that the mischief
must be very grave indeed which is not remediable.
The campaign in Illinois continues with unabated
vigour. Douglas is assailed by two formidable
stump orators actually in the field, Lincoln and
Trumbull, and the Washington Union, the organ
of the government, devotes nearly a coltima a
day to abusing him and warning the dr
mocracy to leave hint to his fate. It is
supposed that the main secret of Bachanan's
implacable hostility to him is to be found in
the fact that he sees in Douglas a possible rival
for the next presidency; but the ways of rulers,
and, above all, of partisans, are mysterioes—os who
knows ? The rival candidates in the West generally
" stump the State," as it is called, and travel round
and canvass together, often in the same vehicle, and
address the same meetings, and share all the ex-
penes.. The reason is, that in thinly peopled die-
uiets it would be impossible to get the inhabitants
to attend many meetings, or make frequent loaf
journeys. At each meeting the possible members
address the crowd alternately, who hugely enjoy the
sparring and abase which usually takes place. The
hitting between Douglas and his antagonists has been
unusually hard, and so far the Little Giant has un-
doubtedly had the worst of it ; so much so that he
has already been driven into espousing &boat fight-
ing one of his antagonists. Trumbull has plumply
charged him with having conspired to fora, a canal-
tution on the people of Kansas against their will so
early as June, 18&8, and declares that Douglas's
" glorious stand" of last year was made nodes the
influence of the terror inspired by the Fremont vote
lin the autumn of the same year. A bill was intro-
duced for the admission of Kansas, one clause of
which provided for the ratification of the cattail:a-
tion by the people. A committee of the Senate, of
which Donees was chairman, struck this clause oat,
and Douglas himself reported the bill without it.
This is " a crusher;" and, though it has been before
the world for some weeks, Douglas has not met it.
The weather is delightful, and town is filling fist.,