The Express.
London, England, 1850-04-03 00:00:00

-7Orty pilkished
e jr*ts

THE UNITED STATES.

a eremite received by

telegraik _ a brought iy a-- Canada, Capt.
Harrison: The Canada's New York dates ars to the
.20th ult.' she sailed from Halifax on the 23rd,
passed Holyhead about 3 p.m. on Monday the let
east., and entered the Mersey about midnight. The
Canada had a large number of pawngass oa board.
The discussion in the senate at Washington on Mr.
Clay's compromise reeolutions was still in progress.
Mr. Badger, of North Carolina, was heard on the 20th
ult. He declared himself willing to receive California
into the union as she presents herself, to aid in abo-
lishing the slave trade in the district of Columbia,
apse °sedition that the north wilt abandon the Wil-
mot proviso, and aid in passing " proper " laws for
the re-rapture of Nide° slaves.)
The only speech delivered in senate since the
despatch of the previous mail, to which equal im-
trel, with the speeches of Messrs. Clay and Cel-
i attached by the American public, is that
of Mr. Daniel Webster. It was delivered, as was ex-
pected on the 7th ult. Mr. Webster commenced by
declaring :—" I wish to speak today, not as a
Mainschneette man, nor as a northern man, bat as an
American, and a member of the senate of the United
Statrre." After an eloquent and rapid sketch of the
agitation which pervades the American public he
aided, " I speak, to-day, for the preservation of the
union." To this end Mr. Webster enlarged upon the
differences between the south and north on the sub-
ject of slavery. He admitted faults on the side of
both, but declared unequivocally for the progressive
extinction of slavery. He even went so far u to
indicate measures by which he thought this object
might be promoted. With regard to California he
was against incorporating any declaration either for
or against slavery in its constitution, on the ground
that slavery in that country was by a law of nature
impossible. His remarks on this subject were as
follows :
Now, sir, as to California and New Mexico, I hold slavery
to be excluded from those territories by a law even superior
to that which admits and sanctions slavery in Texas—l mean
the low of nature—the law of physical geography—the law
of the formation of the earth. That law settles for ever with
a strength beyond all terms of human enactment, that sla-
very cannot exist in California or New Mexico. U. derstand
me, sir I mean slavery as we regard it—slaves in gross, of
the coloured race, transferable by sale and delivery as other
lroperty. I shell not contest the point. I leave that to the
earned gentlemen who undertake to discuss it; but I sup-
pose there ale no slaves of that description in Mexico
now, and suppose there never will be. I understand
that this sort of feudal servitude in which men or, sold
for debt, exists in California and some parts of Mexico.
Hut what I mean to say is, that the existence of
African slavery, as we see it here among tr., is as utterly
impossible to find itself or to be found in Mexico, as any
other natural impossibility upon anything el-e. Why, sir.
California and Mexico are Asiatic in V sir formation and
their scenery. They are comp, sed of vast ridges of moun-
tains of an enormous height, sometimes broken by ikep
valleys. The sides of these mountains are barren—entirely
barren. Their tops are capped by perennial snows. Thrre
may be in California, now made tree by herconstitution, and
there are, no doubt, some tracts of valuable tenet; but it is

much leas valuable when you get into New Mexico. Pray,
what is the evidence upon this subject which any gentleman
hoe collected by informati .n sought by himsel, or stated b.
others ? I have read all 1 could read, and learned all I could
learn on the subject. What is there in New Mexico that
could by possibility induce anybody to go there with a slave
There are soma narrow slips of tillable land upon the bor
den of the riven ; but the men tLemselees cry up before
midsummer. All that the native people can do is to
raise some little article—some little wheat and other
grain fur their own use, and all that by irrigation. Who
eaoects to see a hundred black men cultivating tobacco, corn,
cotton, rice, anything on lands in New Mexico, made fertile
only by irrigation ? I leek upon it, therefore, as a " fixed
fact"—to use a current expression of the day—that both Cali-
fornia and New Mexico ere destiled to be free, so far as
they ars settled at all—which I believe, especially with
regard to Ntw Mexico, will be very little for a great leneth
of time—fne by the arrangement of things—by the powers
above us. And I have, thcref re, sir, to say in this respect
also, that this county is fixed for freedom to as many per-
sons as shall ever live there, by an irrepralable law—a more
irrepealable law than the law which appeals to the right of
holding slaves under legal enactments. And I well say,
further, sir, that if a resolution or a law were now bet.-re
us to proei to a territorial; government for New Mexico, I
would vote to put into it no pr ihibition whatever. The use
of such a prohibition would be idle, as it respects any effect
upon the territory. I would not take pains to reaArra an
ordinance of nature nor to re enact the will of God. I
would put in no Wilmot proviso for the purpose of a taunt
and reproach—an evidence of superior viral or superior
power—to wound the pride, even—whether a just and
rational pride or no irrational pride—to wound the pride of
the gentlemen and the people of the 9•uthern Stater. I have
no such object and no such purpose. They would thick it
a taunt and an indipity. They would think it to be an act
taking away from them what they regard as a proper equa-
lity of privilege. Whether they are expected to realise any
benefit from it or not they wduld feel that at least a theo-
retic wrong—something defog eory in some degree more or
Least° their character—had taken place. I need not inflict
any such wound upon the feelings of anybody, unless in a
ease where something essentially important to the country
and etfitient to the preservation of liberty and freedom is to
be effected. Therefore I repeat, sir, and I repeat it because
I wish to be understood about !it—l do not propose to ad.
dress the Seaate often upon this subject. I desire to pour out
all my heart as plainly as possible. I say, therefore, sir, that
if the proposition were !now here for a government for New
Mexico, and it was moved to insert a provision for the piro
bibition of slavery, I would cot vote for it. Now, Mr. Pre-
sident, I have established, so far as I propose to go into any
obsetvations to establish the proposition with which I set out
—upon which I mean to stand or to fall ; that is that the
whole territory in the states of the United States, or in
newly acquired territories of the United States, has a fixed
and settled character, now filed and settled by taw, which
cannot be repealed, in the cue of Texas, without violation
of public faith, and which cannot be repealed by any human
power in regard to California and New Mexico. L oder one
or the other of these laws, every foot of territory in the
S•ates or in the territories has now received a fixed and
decided character. Sir, if we wore now tasking a govern-
ment for New Mt xico, and any body should propose the
Wilmot proviso, I should treat it exactly as Mr.
Polk treated that propo.ition for excluding slavery
from Oregon. Me. rclk was known to be in
opinion decidedly adverse to the Wilmot proviso:
but he felt the necessity of a law (or the go-
vernment of the territory of Oregon. And thouah
the Wilmot proviso was there, he knew that it would be a
perfectly nugatory proviso ; and since it must In entirely
nngatory—since it took away no describable, estimable,
weighable, or tanaible right of the south, he said he would
sign the bill for the sake of enacting a law fir the gen m-
meat of the territory, and let that entirely uselea—and. in
that connexion, entirely senseless—proviso remain, Fur
myself I will say—we hear of the annexation of Canada—if
there be any man, any of the northern democracy, or any of
the free soil party who suppose it necessary to insert a
Wilmot proviso in the territorial g ivernment of NOW
Mexico, that man will, of course, be of opinion that it is
necessary to protect the everlasting snows of Canada from
the foot of slavery by the same overpowering wing of an act
of Congress. Now, sir, wherever there is a practical good
to be done—whoever there is an inch of land to be stayed
back from becoming slave territory, I am ready to ins-rt the
principle of the exclusion of slavery. I am pledged to that
from 1837—pledged to it again and again—and I will per-
form those pledges. But:1 will not do a thing unnecessarily
that wounds the feelings of others or that dots disgrace to
my own understanding.
The new French minister, M. Bois Le Campte, was
officially presented to the President on the morning
of the 18th of March. The interest which attaches
to the relations of two republics whose historical
connexions have been so important warrants our
giving the speeches delivered at the interview entire.
The steam-ship Georgia arrived from Chagres at
New York on the 15th of March, bringing on the
gold, mails, and passengers who had arrived at
Panama from California in the Panama steamer. The
Georgia brought eight days' later intelligence from
Chagres and two weeks later from California. The
passage made on this occasion by Mr. Decree, the
nail agent, is the quickest on record. lie left San
Francisco on the let of February, reached Panama in
19, and Chagres in 23 days ; Harannah from Chagres
in three days and 14 hours, and New York from Ha
vannah in less than four days. The time en roide
from San Francisco to New York was 33 days ; the
number of actual travelling days 27.
The manifest of the Georgia shows gold dust to the
value of 693,594 dollars, and about 500,000 dollars
additional was understood to have been brought in
gold dust by the passengers.
A correspondent of the New Iliek Herald gives the
following items of Californian news :
On the lath of December, both branches of the legislature
met, but for the want of a quorum, adjourned over to the
17th, on which day the Senate met, and elect. d 1/r. R. li.irby
Chamberlin, of San Diego, President pro. tempore, and Dr.
White, of the Assembly, from Sacramento city, was elected
Speaker of that body. By the steamer of the lat presume
you have learned all this, u well as the result of the election
of Visited States senators. The exact political strength of
the legislators, however, has since beets decided as follows :
in Semite, one whig and fifteen democrats ; in the Assembly,
ten whip and twenty four democrat*.
The Senate of California, composed of sixteen members, all
intelligent-looking men, has bat three married men in it,
and bat one who has not been ensued either in the Mexi-
can, Texien, or Californian war. Gee. Green, the father of
the Senate, and the hero of tbo " Mier Fight," is • married
man, and Dr. Chamberlin, late surgeon to the boundary
line commimien and a surgeon in the United States army in
the Mexican war, is a widower. Messrs. Bidwell, Benham,
Lippincott, Post, Robinson, Taylor, Woodworth, and Ver-
mule, wen all engaged in the Calitonia war, as were
Messrs. Yallsjo and De la Guerra (though the last-men-