Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-01 00:00:00

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

.'ADMISSION OF OREGON INTO TIIE
POPULAR EXULTATION ; RETRENCH-
MENT ; THE TARIFF QUESTION ; ECONOMY
DEMANDED; ANNEXATION OF THREE NEW
TERRITORIES; EXPANSION OF THE CONFEDERA-
TION ; ANNEXATION IRRESISTIBLE. PARDONING
POWER OF STATE GOVERNORS : PROPOSED RE-
STRAINTS UPON IT. THE INVENTIVE GENIUS
kMERICANS : ENORMOUS NUMBER
IMPROVEMENTS IN BREAD-

CONGRESS

ISOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT,

UNION;

OF
PATENTS

MAKING

SUBSTITUTION OF MACHINERY FOR MANUAL

LABOUR.

The great act of the session of Congress, judging
from the rejoicing which its accomplishment has
occasioned at Washington, is the admission of
Oregon into the Union. There was an ebulition of
popular political feeling on the occasion in which
both the President and Vice-President of the
United-States did not scruple to take part—making
speeches which were by no means free from vitu-
peration of those who had opposed the measure in
question. It would be thought strange, would it
not—something mitre if not worse—for the First
Magistrate, or even the First Minister, of England,
to join an exciting and extravagant jubilation over
a party triumph in the great council of the nation
Yet so it is in republican America. Oregon, next
rto.fiexas, will be the largest State of the Union.
It is more than four times the size of the State of
New York ; and you may form some more correct
idea of it when I tell you that New York is nearly
•as large as England. But though possessing so
extensive an area, Oregon has yet only a scanty
population—not at present exceeding, I believe,
some fifty thousand. The only other business of
much popular interest in Congress, is the work
of retrenchment in the national expenditure. So

far, however, the proceeding is ioo crude and
incomplete to •be judged of aright. It will give
great dissatisfaction, it is evident, to all who have
hitherto had to do with the expenditure—and who,
of course, have failed not to profit by it so enor-
mously.

The Tariff question has continued to agitate the
community, more or less, in most of the States,
both as a matter of commercial and of political
interest. There is certainly a strong aversion
among all parties to increase the duties on foreign
exports ; and the idea appears to have grown
more and more nopular, that by reasonable
economy such a reduction of the public expendi-
ture might be effected as would render any
increase of such duties quite unnecessary. It has
been shewn, indeed, that the revenue of the
present fiscal year would exceed, by several
millions, the report submitted by the Secretary of
the Treasury. At the same time, while showing
this, it is contended that there are numerous items
of expenditure that might be reduced, among
which the following are enumerated,-litho-
graphing and engraving, the binding of public
documents, the public printing, cutting off the
Congressional Globe, the branch mints, the coast
survey, &c. ; reducing the army estimates to the
amount' of several millions, the navy about
$3,000,000; by suspending the work on the public
buildings, by reduction of the franking privilege
to two ounces, diminishing the number of the mail
routes to California, making ocean mail service
self-sustaining, and cutting off lighthouses, sup-
porting them hereafter by tonnage duties. There
is no doubt, I believe, that great_extravagance is
indulged in some of these things, and that
expensive jobs are often perpetrated in conducting
them. But then there are so many party and
personal interests involved in their disposal, under
the present political system, that it would be
extremely difficult to accomplish a thorough
reform. So long as politics continue a trade or
profession, so long as there are private, pecuniary,
and family interests to be politically served—there
cannot be much economy or retrenchment
expected.
The attention of Congress has been diverted
from the subject of finance by •r,overal interebtiug
matters—among others, the generally popular one
of the national expansion by the formal annexation
of new territories. Three of these are sought to
be added to the Confederation—namely, Arizona,
Jefferson, and Dacotah. The Committee on Terri-
tories of the House of Representatives has
reported favourably on the petitions for organisa-
tion presented from all three, and there is no
doubt that they will be similarly received in the
Senate. Their admission may therefore be re-
garded as certain. The first of these territories,
Arizona, was but yesterday a deserted Mexican
province. To-day it is, in population and wealth,
.a thousand times better off, needing only the pro-
tection of a territorial government to make it the
most thriving of the new territories. With
respect to the resources of Arizona, agricultural
and otherwise, it is stated by one whO has
travelled over that portion of the country by the
Rio Mimbres, the old deserted branches of San
Bernardina and San Pedro, to the settlements at
Santa Cruz, Tucson, to the Pimo villages; that he
found climate mild, grazing good, and many rich,
beautiful, fertile valleys, capable of producing
corn, wheat, rye, oats and vegetables sufficient to
subsist a large population,—and, moreover, that it
is rich in gold, silver, copper and other valuable
minerals, and decidedly the best grazing country
on this continent, capable of subsisting millions of
cattle without the aid of man. The territory of
Jefferson embraces Pike's Peak, and the adjacent
country, where, it is said, gold and silver exist in
great quantities. This, it seems, is the universal
report of all the prospecting parties who have
returned from the mining regions ; and it is not
thought that these reports, though almost incre-
dible, are exaggerated. They who ask for its
admission into the Confederation contend that it
will pour into the States during the coming and
succeeding years millions of gold and silver,
restoring animation again to commerce, manufac-
tures, trade, and business generally. The third
proposed new territory, that of Dacotali, is
formed of five organised counties on ceded
lands, together with a large Indian tract
within the limits of the former territory of
Minnesota, and that portion of Nebraska Territory
lying north of about latitude 431 degrees, and
south of British America. Its boundaries are the
.Rocky Mountains on the west, Minnesota and
lowa on the east, the British possessions on the
north, and lowa and Nebraska on the south.
Its natural resources are also most favour-
ably reported upon. When these additions
are made, the Confederation will consist of thirty-
two States and nine Territories, covering an area
of about 3,300,000 square miles. It is boastingly
'.remarked, that, " taking into account the youth of
our republic and the trifling cost of blood and
treasure at which this immense empire has been
secured, we think that we have reason to congra-
tulate ourselves on havincr proved to the world
that the propagandism of principles is more fruitful
of tfiil
of
of results than that • the sword., But then it is
affected to be forgotten that there has been nothinc,
to resist it—nothing rciatlly to require any " co-it of 6
blood and treasure."abouls all nonsense, therefore,
to talk as they do
thae. influence of great
fundamental principles, th‘e‘ancieffusion of liberal
ideas, and the carefill avoid armed aggres-
sion against the rights of others' What did the poor Indians know about such
yieldid eas ,
to
how in the
the world could they ever
Novhiacnhy could
influence as that of "principles "
not comprehend, and to which theywereiNensi-
ble ? The Mexicans, it is true, were in a d
position but then, having deserted the i d 'strr.ent
icts
from sheer incapacity to retain them with
advantage, they have fallen without resistance
into other hands—or those of a more energetic
and enlightened people.
Public attention is being called in sonic of the
tates, more particularly New York and Massa_
hussetts, to what is denominated " the pardoning
ower," with which the State Governors are in-
vested, or which they possess by virtue of their
sub-national office. This power is not unfrequently
much abused; nor can this excite much surprise,
when it is remembered, that the. whole governor-
ship - the whole executive through out,—is generally
an affair of party politics. And should ' the
connection, by blood or by marriage, of any