The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-22 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES.

(710 X 01:1 OWN -COI

NIW YORK, JAN. 8.
The " City fathers," se they sometimes ample_
aptly call themselves, or, as the citizens irreverently
designate them, " those scoundrels the common
councilmen; have been busily engaged daring the
past week in extending " the hospitalities of the
city" to Senator Douglas, and Mr. Orr, the
Speaker of the House of Representatives. This
ceremonial has now become such a farce, and is so
often indulged in, that it only excites laughter
amongst the rest of the public. The usual moths,
operindi consists, first in the appointment of a joint
committee of the two branches of the principal
legislature, who wait upon the celebrity lampoon u he
reaches town, and invite him to receive his fellow
citizens in a large room in the City-hall. The day
being tired, the unfortunate victim takes his stand at
the upper end, and all the pugilists, grogabop.
keeper,, and other " ward politicians," as they
are called, assemble in force, and shake
hands as they defile past the lion. When
Mohammed Pulls, the Tartish envoy, was
here, some sherry and ham sandwiches were brought
in at this part of the performance, and the Milo-
meta grandees duly requested to regale themselves
thereon. la the case of Messrs. Douglas and Orr,
the Committee of RA caption simply presented them
with " the freedom of the city," and did not offer
any refreshment. What the " freedom of the city "
is, it would he difficult to say, and nobody appears
to know. It confers no right, privilege, or franchise
whatever, not even a vote at the municipal elections,
and in fact is simply a ludicrous retention of the
name of au old custom, when all meaning has long
left it. Mr. Douglas was pursued to his hotel by
a Sage crowd of his admirers, mainly "roughs
however. He received their deputation as usual in
company with his wife, who flatters the deinocrac7
by her graciousness of demeanour, and has, it
is said, done her husband good ureice in this
way. She comes into the room leaning on
kis arm, he smoking rigorously while the
speeches are made, and then follows a sort of
general presentation, Mrs. Douglas extending her
left hand occasionally to some of the more favoured
visitors, who grasp it with unction. Dough. is
evidently the rising sun, and many of thou who
were loudest in denouncing him in the earlier period
of his defection now help to swell the chorus of
sycophants who are singing his praises all over the
country. A deputation of Philadelphia merchant'
came on hate to take him in charge, and received
him with great Ida! from the hands of the New
York Committee ; and he is now delighting the eyes
of his admirers in the Quaker City. Douglas is is
some respects an excellent specimen of theAmericaa
seltmade man, but in others an execrable one, sad
notably is his manners and personal appearance.
He began life, as you probably know, as a journey-
man cabinet maker, having entered Chicago, of
which he is now one of the wealthiest
citizen., with one shilling in his pocket, and
a spare shirt wrapped up in a pocket-hand-
kerchief. Ile boasts of this constantly in his stump
speechee—tells how his old " bens," or master,
thought he excelled most in bureaux, though his
chairs were not so bad either," and ea many other
anecdotes of the same sort as he can scrape together,
in order to bring more vividly before the mind. of his
audience the extent of his rise. Unfortunately,
however, he did not change his manners and habits
with his position, and until hie late marriage was
notorious for the badness of his clothes, and the
general slovenliness, not to say dirtiness, of his ap-
pearance, in addition to which he excelled in the
art of spitting. His marriage has, however, effected,
to some extent, an external reform ; but he can
never look worthy of his honour*. lie is short,
stout, ungainly, coarse-featured and very red faced,
and, in fact, is the last person in the world whom an
American, sensitive about appearances, would like
to have put forward as a specimen of the United
States senator. In these respects, as well as in the
general style of his oratory, he offers an unfavourable
contrast to most of the " self-made" men of the
Pew England States, who all take a moth film
polish in pushing their way up, and have generally
Use preserved hy the austerity of a puritan educa-
tion from contracting the striking grossness of habit'
and demeanour by which nearly all the Western
politicians are characterised.
The comments with which the English papers are
filled upon Mr. Buchanan's Fort Duquesne letter, in
which he utters such gloomy forebodings touching
the future of this country, are exciting a great deal
of attention here, but the general feeling is one of
amusement at the amount of importance which is
being attached on your side of the water to the
epistle in question. I know it is difficult to

Make ',pa.* who are accustomed to attach

CaWeight to opinions of prominent in-
llus's, and to seeing official eminence accom-
panied with great dignity, caution and reserve, es
well as with great influence—understand the
utter contempt with which the sayings and doings
of political leaders are often regarded here. Still
more difficult is it to convey to an English reader,
familiar though he may be with the proverbial un-
seropulonenees of partisans, an idea of the reck-
lessness of language to which an old American poli-
tician will resort an order to serve a temporary pur-
pose. Mr. Tombs, for instance, last summer declared
openly in the Senate that he earneetiy desired a war
with England, and bad desired it for ten years; but
it would be ridiculous to suppose, prominent" and
able a man as Tombs is, that he represented any
large or respectable portion of the national
sentiment. Any of the senators, even Seward,
will now and then my anything, however absurd
or preposterous, to create • temporary impression
about hie own real. Here the mass of th:r.pululic
estimates all this buncombe pretty fairly. li
puts into letters what the senators put into speeches,
and the Fort Duquesne letter was simply an ex-
pension in the only way open to him, of sentiments ,
which, had he been in the Senate, he would have
thrown into a clap-trap discourse. Besides, there is
one feature in the letter which here is inexpressibly
ludicrous, though the English public is not in a posi-
tion to appreciate it. Bochanan's own administra-
tion has been the most notoriously corrupt and pro-
fligate which has ever been in office. This is not a
vague piece of denunciation, but has luta proved in
facts and fiAurse by investigations before cow
mittees of Congress, to which I referred is
some of my former letters. Mr. Buchanan
himself left no means of corruption untried to
carry the Lecompton Bill last winter. He descended
to a personal canvass of the members, which I believe
none of his predecessors his ever done, and need
his patronage unscrupulously and lavishly. It is
no!y when he Ends the same machinery put u3to °ps-
i gown against himself, and to his utter disoonafiture,
that he begins to utter lamentations; but it is ridicu-
lous to sttach any political importance to them.
'lhe civil war still continues in Kansas. Two bands
of partisans, one pro-slavery, headed by Brows
and one free-eoil, headed by Montgomery, range thi;
territory, and fight when they meet, and harry and
imprison their political opponent, unscrupulously.
A small town was captured the other day, and to
some extent sacked, by the hcc-soil party, in order
to rescue one of their friends, who wee, es the,
*Beg.d, u- justly held in confinement by their
enerntes. The result is, that Governor kledary is
about to call out the militia to put down the dis-
turbances. Hut there is a wide difference between
calling the tailitiaout and getting them to come, as I
fear the Governor will hod before he goes much
farther.

The examination of the crow of the Wanderer still
cootioues, with but moderate success on the part of
the procreation ; but the excitement about the re-
opentog of the slave trade is undiminished. The
Washangion Union, the official organ, is vigorous is
denunciation of it, sad yesterday devoted a long
article to inveighing against what it alleges to be
• wide-spread and desperate conspiracy in the South
against the authority of the laws, constitution, sad
goverement." It is arassiagly bitter ia its denoncia.
toms t Walker sad the filibestere.

The Mq. seatei daMtAMp ef the 19th int. states
that tter oe atelier la Hyde mod Ito Holy Lead are at as
sad.