The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-02 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1841.

A MERICAN NE WS.

The greater part of the following appeared in an early
Second Edition of The Sun of yesterday afternoon
PRESIDENT'S:—
MESSAGE.
VETO No. 11.

TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF
THE UNITED STATES.

It is with extreme regret that I feel myself con-
strained by the duty faithfully to execute the office of
President of the United States, and to the best of my
ability " to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu-
tion of the United States," to return to that House in
which it originated, the Bill " to provide for the better
collection, safe keeping, and disbursement of the public
revenue by means of a Corporation to be styled the
" Fiscal Corporation of
..the United States," with my
written objections.
.In my message sent to the Senate on the 16th day of
August last, returning the Bill " to incorporate the sub-
scribers to the Fiscal Bank of the United States," I dis-
tinctly declared that " my own opinion has been uni-
formly proclaimed to be against the exercise of the power
of Congress to create a National Bank to operate per se
over the Union," and entertaining that opinion, my main
objection to that Bill was based upon the highest moral
and religious obligations of conscience and the Consti-
tution.

I readily admit that, while the qualified veto with
which the Chief Magistrate is invested, should be
regarded, and was intended by the wise men who
made it a part of the Constitution, as a great conser-
vative principle of our system, without the exercise of
which, on important occasions, a mere representative
majority might urge the Government, in its legislation,
beyond the limits fixed by its framers, or might exert
its just powers too hastily or oppressively, yet, it is
a power which ought to be most cautiously exerted,
and perhaps never except in a case eminently involving
the public interest, or one in which the oath of the Pre-
sident, acting under his convictions, both mental and
moral, imperiously requires its exercise. In such a case
he has no alternative. He must either exert the negative
power entrusted to him by the Constitution chiefly for
its own preservation, protection, and defence, or commit
an act of gross moral turpitude. Mere regard to the
will of the majority must not, in a constitutional repub-
lic like ours, control this sacred and solemn duty of a
sworn officer.

The Constitution itself I regard and cherish as the
embodied and written will of the whole people of
the United States. It is their fixed and fundamen-
tal law, which they unanimously prescribe to the
public functionaries, their mere trustees and ser-
vants. This their will, and the law which they
have given us as the rule of our action, has no guard,
no guarantee of preservation, protection and defence,
but the oaths which it prescribes to public officers—
the sanctity with which they shall religiously observe
those oaths, and the patriotism with which the people
shall shield it by their own sovereignty, which has made
the Constitution supreme. It must be exerted against
the will of a mere representative majority, or not
at all. It is alone in pursuance of that will that
any measure can ever reach the President ; and
to say that because a majority in Congress have
passed a Bill, the President should therefore sanction
it, is to abrogate the power altogether, and to render its
insertion in the Constitution:a work of absolute superero-
gation. The duty is to guard the fundamental will of
the people themselves from—in this case I admit unin-
tentional—change or infraction by a majority in Con-
gress ; and in that light alone do I regard the constitu-
tional duty which I now most reluctantly discharge.
Is this Bill, now presented for my approval or disap-
proval, such a Bill as I hare already declared could not
receive my sanction ? - Is it such a Bill as calls for
the exercise of the negative power under the Constitu-
tion ? Does it violate the Constitution by creating a
National Bank to operate per se over the Union ? Its
title, in the first place, describes its general character.
It is " An Act to provide for the better collection,
safe keeping, and disbursement, of the public revenue,
by means of a corporation, to be styled the }ls-
' cal Corporation of ,the United Stays.'" In style,
then, it is plainly national in its character. Its powers,
functions and duties, are those pertaining to the collect-
ing, keeping and disbursing the public revenue. The
means by which these are to be exerted is a Corporation,
to bo styled the "Fiscal Corporation of the United
States." It is a Corporation created by the Congress of
the United States, in its character of a National Legisla-
ture for the whole Union, to perform the fiscal purposes,
meet the fiscal wants and exigencies, supply the fiscal
uses, and exert the fiscal agencies of the Treasury of the
United States. Such is its own description of itself. Do
its provisions contradict its own title? They do not.
It is true, that by its first section it provides, that it
shall be established in the district of Columbia, but the
amount of its capital—the manner in which its stock is
to be 'subscribed for and held—the persons and bodies
corporate and politic by whom its stock may be held—
the appointment of its Directors, and their powers
and duties—its fundamental-' articles, especially that
to establish agencies in any part of the Union
—the corporate powers and business of such
agencies—the prohibition of Congress to estab-
lish any other corporation with similar Powers, for
twenty years, with express reservation, in the same
clause, to modify or create any bank for the district
of Columbia so that the aggregate capital shall not ex-
ceed five millions—without enumerating other features
which are equally distinctive and characteristic—clearly
show that it cannot be regarded as other than a bank of
the United States, with powers seemingly more limited
than have heretofore been granted to such an institu-
tion. It operates per se over the Union, by virtue of
the unaided, and, in in my view, assumed authority of
Congress as a national Legislature, as distinguished
from a bank created by Congress for the district of Co-
lumbia, as the local Legislature of the district.
Every United States Bank heretofore created has
had power to deal in bills of exchange as well as local
discounts. Both were trading privileges • conferred,
and both exercised by virtue of the aforesaid power
of Congress, over the whole Union. The question of
power remains unchanged without reference to the
extent of privilege granted. If this proposed corpo-
ration is to be regarded as a local bank of the Dis-
trict of Columbia, invested by Congress with general
powers to operate over the Union, it is obnoxious
to still stronger objections. It assumes that Con-
gress may invest a local institution with general or
national powers. With the same propriety that it
may do this in regard to a bank of the District of
Colombia, it may as to a State bank. Yet who can
indulge the idea that this Government can rightfully, by
making a State Bank its fiscal agent, invest it with the
absolute and unqualified powers conferred by this Bill ?
When I come to look to the details of :the Bill,
they do not recommend it strongly to my adoption. A
brief notice of some of its provisions will suffice :
Ist. It may justify substantially a system of dis-
counts of the most objectionable character. It is to
deal in bills or exchange drawn in one State and
payable in another, without any restraint. The bill
of exchange may have an unlimited term to run, and
its renewability is nowhere guarded against. It may,
in fact, assume the most objectionable form of ac-
commodation. It is not required to rest on any actual,
real, or substantial exchange basis. A drawer in one
place becomes the acceptor in another, and so in
turn the acceptor may become the drawer, upon a
mutual understanding. It may, at the same time, in-
dulge in mere local discounts, under the name of
bills of exchange. A bill drawn on Philadelphia on
Camden, New Jersey—at New York on a border
town in New Jersey—at Cincinnati on Newport, Ken-
tucky, not to multiply other examples, might, for any
thing in this Bill to restrain it, become a mere mattor of
local accommodation. Cities thus relatively situated
would possess advantages over cities otherwise situated,
of so decided a character as most justly to excite dissa-
tisfaction.

Second. There is no limit prescribed to the pre-
mium in the purchase of bills of exchange, thereby
correcting none of the evils under which the com-
munity now labour, and operating most injuriously
upon the agricultural States, in which the inequali
ties in the rates of exchange are most severely felt.
Nor aro these the only consequences ; a resumption
of .:specie payments by the banks of those States
would be liable to indefinite postponement—for, as
the operation of the agencies of the interior would
chiefly consist in selling bills of exchange, and the
purchases could only be made in specie or the notes
of banks paying specie, the State banks would either
have to continue with their doors closed, or exist at the
mercy of this national monopoly of brokerage. Nor
can it be passed over without remark, that, whilst the
district of Columbia is made the seat of the principal
bank, its citizens are excluded from all participation in
any benefit it might afford, by a positive prohibition on
the bank from all discounting within the district.
These are some of the objections which promi-
nently exist against the details of the Bill ; others
might be urged of much force, but it would be
unprofitable to dwell upon them. Suffice it to add,
that this charter is designed to continue for twenty
years without a competitor—that the defects to which I
have alluded, being founded in the fundamental law of
the Corporation, arc irrevocable—and that if the objec-
tions be well-founded it would be over-hazardous to pass
the Bill into a law.
In conclusion, I take leave most to
respectfully say,
that I have felt the most anxious solicitude to meet
the wishes of Congress in the adoption of a Fiscal
Agent, which, avoiding all constitutional objections,
should harmonize conflicting opinions. Actuated by
this feeling, I have been ready to yield much, in a
spirit of conciliation, to the opinions of others. And
it is with great pain that I now feel compelled to
differ from Congress a second time in the same Session.
At the commencement of this Session, inclined from
choice to defer to the Legislative will, I submitted to
Congress the propriety of adopting a Fiscal Agent
which, without violating the Constitution, would ,
separate the public money from the Executive con-
trol, perform the operations of the Treasury, without
being burthensome to the people, or inconvenient or
expensive to the Government. It is deeply to be re-
gretted that this department of the Government can-
not, upon constitutional grounds, concur with the
Legislative department in this last measure proposed
to attain these desirable objects. Owing to the brig f
space between the period of the death of my lamented
predecessor and my own installation into office, I was, in

fact, not left time to prepare and submit a definite re-
commendation of my own, in my regular Message; and
since, my mind has been wholly occupied in a most
anxious attempt to conform my action to the legislative
will.

In this communication, I am eonfined by the Con-
stitution to my objections, simply to this Bill, but the
period of the regular session will soon arrive, when
it will be my duty under another clause .of the Con-
stitution " to give to the Congress information of the
state of the Union, and recommend to their consi-
deration such measures as I shall judge necessary
and expedient." And I most respectfully submit, in a
spirit of harmony, whether the present difference of
opinion should be pressed farther at this time, and
whether the peculiarity of my situation does not entitle
me to a postponement of this subject, tcy of more aus-
picious period for deliberation. The two Houses of
Congress have: distinguished themselves :at this ex-
traordinary Session, by the performance; of an im-
mense mass of labour, at a season very 4nfavourable,
both to health and action ; and have passed many laws.
which I trust will prove highly beneficial to the interes,3
of the country, and fully answer its just expectations.
It has been my good fortune and pleasure to con-
cur with them in all measures except thin. And why
should our difference on this alone be pushed to ex-
tremes ? It is my anxious desire that it should no:
be. I, too, have been burthened with extraordinary
labours of late, and I sincerely desire time for deep
and deliberate reflection on this the greateA diffi-
culty of my Administration. May
until a more favourable time, when, with the most
anxious hope that Congress and the Executive madcordially unite, some measure of finance may be deli-
berately adopted, promotive of the good of air common
country ? we not now pause,

I will take this occasion to declare that the con-
clusions to which I have brought myself, are those
of a settled conviction founded in my opinion on a
just view of the Constitution. That in arriving at it,
I have been actuated by' no other xi-m*or desire,
Than to uphold the institutions of eountry;' as
they have come down to us from the hands of our God-
like ancestors—and that I shall esteem my efforts to
sustain them, even though I perish, more honourable
than to win the applause of men by a sacrifice of my
duty and my conscience. JOHN TYLE It.
Washington, Sept. 9, 1841.

CABINET RESIGNATIONS.
(From the New York Commercial Advertiser.)
Well : the evil hour has arrived. The machinations
of the conspirators who hare been labouring for three
months past to separate the President from the Whit
party, and to drive from the public service " those ster-
ling patriots and sound-headed statesmen, whom public
sentiment and his own knowledge of their merit induced
the lamented Harrison to place in charge of the several
branches of the Executive Government," have been so
far crowned with success, that the Cabinet is broken,
Messrs. Ewing, Bell, Badger, and Crittenden sent in
their resignations on Friday, and successors in their
several departments were nominated to the Senate on
Saturday. The Madisonian of Saturday morning
states, as the impression then prevailing, that the Post
Master General would remain at the post which he has
filled with so much honor and general favor. But sub-
sequent advices assure us that in the course of Saturday,
Mr. Granger gave the President notice that his com-
mission would be placed at his disposal on Monday
(to.-day).

. .
Thus, of that Cabinet which was not only the pride of
the venerable patriot who formed it, but of the na-
tion, Daniel 'Webster only remains. His position,
it is not to be denied, is critical, but he does not
remain without having fully surveyed it, and calcu-
lated its responsibilities. We know, and he himself
knows, that he will be assailed for not having relin-
quished his post with his late associates. His motives
will be impeached by some and questioned by more. But
in the belief that duty to his country, in the present cri-
tical position of our foreign relations, requires him to
remain in his present position, at least for a time, at the
special and urgent solicitation of the President he will
remain. And those who know him need no assurance
that having arrived at a conclusion founded upon the
basis of public duty, hewillstand

- Like Atlas firm,
•
Though storm and tempest thunder on his brow,
And ocean roll her billows at his feet.
The determination of Messrs. Ewing, Bell, Badger,
and Crittenden to resign, was formed at a meeting on
Thursday evening, at which Mr. Webster was not pre-
sent. There was a wide difference of opinion among
the Whig members of Congress, as to the course Mr.
Webster ought to pursue. The younger and more ar-
dent politicians demanded his resignation also. Not so
the abler and more experienced men. Most, if not all,
of the Eastern Whig members, particularly from Mas-
sachusetts, as we'are advised, insisted on his remaining
in office. Mr. John Quincy Adams was particularly
urgent upon this point—believing, as he affirmed, that
the question of peace or war with England, in a measure,
hangs upo►t his continuance in. the Stale Department.
The President himself is equally anxious upon this
subject.
For the present, therefore, at least, Mr. 'Webster re-
mains, being determined not to act rashly, or in anyi► iso
to compromise the interests of the republic by a mea-
sure of mere party policy. And we have strong confi-
denee that time will show the wisdom of his determina-
tion. In this city, so far as we can gather the evidences
of public Opinion, that opinion among those who have
substantial interests at stake, and who look more to the
welfare of the country than
,to the influences of party
politics, is strong and clear in favour of the course upon
which Mr. Webster has decided.

speaker. He is descended from an ancient Ilugue-
-1 not family, which emigrated (to South Carolina dur-
ing the age o' Protestant persecutions in France. Be-
ing a supporter of General Jackson, he was sent as the
first American Charge to Belgium. On his return, in
1836, he was elected to Congress from Charleston, in op-
position to H. C. Pinckney, the candidate of the Nulli-
fiers. lie separated from the administration of Mr. Van
'Buren on the Sub-treasury question, and went out of
Congress. During the late political campaign he was
one of the ablest and most efficient orators before the
public in this and other States ; and inasmuch as we
are obliged to lose Mr. Crittenden, we rejoice that the
President has fining( Hugh S. Legere.
Charles A. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, succeeds Mr.
Granger at the head of the Post Office Department,
We know less of this gentleman than of either
of his associates in the Cabinet. He came into Con-
gress in the early part of General Jackson's administra-
tion, as his political friend and supporter. Disgusted,
however, with the usurpations and horrible corruptions
of that administration, Mr. Wickliffe soon left the Jack-
son ranks, and has since been acting with the Whigs in
the local politics of Kentucky. He is a man of energy
and ability, and is understood to be rather opposed to,
Mr. Clay. He cannot make a better Post-master than
Frank Granger ; but we trust he will make as good.
Such, with Daniel Webster at its head, is the new Ca-
binet of President Tyler. It is strong in character and
talent, and thoroughly Whig in its principles. The Op-
position, therefore, who have been laying " the flattering
unction to their souls" that they were to gain by the
change they have been labouring, with certain conspira-
tors in our own ranks, to produce, are doomed to bitter
disappointment. And in regard to such a Cabinet, with
characters and capacities such as has been briefly
sketched, what is our duty ? Deeply as we lament the
course ,which the President has pursued on the Bank
question, we can nevertheless perceive no good reason
for giving countenance to opposition to his administra-
tion, with such a Cabinet.

A ROW IN CONGRESS.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Thursday, Sept. 9.
The House went again into Committee of the whole.
Mr. Cushing hoped the amendment of the Senate
would not be agreed to.
Mr. McKeon hoped the amendment would be adopted.
Mr. Cushing replied, and was followed by Messrs.
Wise, Adams, Ingersoll and Stanly ;- the latter making
some remarks which reflected on Mr. Wise, that gentle-
man moved to the seat of Mr. Stanly, when they were
soon engaged in a personal encounter, Mr. Wise striking
the first blow.
The Speaker having ;resumed the Chair, and order
being restored,
Mr. Wise got up and said that he rose, perfectly cool,
to make acknowledgments to the House for having vio-
lated its dignity, and asking its pardon, submitted him-
self to the inflictiou of any punishment which its judg-
ment might dictate. He had suffered his feelings to
overcome him, on the utterance of a word from the
gentleman of North Carolina, which he could not brook,
either in this House or elsewhere, and had struck him.
He had gone to his seat to remonstrate with him.
Mr. Stanly said the gentleman had not attempted to
remonstrate with him, but had attempted to browbeat
him, as he does every one who dares to differ with the
high-souled Virginian. He began to warn me. I told
him I wanted none of his warning. He asked me to go
out with him. I told him to go himself, I wanted no-
thing to do with him. He said that what I had said
placed me beneath his contempt. I told him he was a
liar—with that he attempted to strike me, but he failed ;
and if the House had not interfered, I would have given
him that punishment which his insolence deserved. He
(Mr. Stanly) would Isk no pardon of the House, and
if he was in the position of the gentleman from Virginia
he would resign, or submit to the punishment of the
House in silence.

Mr. Ingersoll was not acquainted with the mode of
proceeding in such cases, but offered a resolution that a
Committee be appointed to inquire into the circumstances
attending the affair, and to recommend such punish-
ment as they might think proper.
Mr. Andrews hoped the resolution would not be
adopted, as it was found at the last session, when such
an affray had occurred, that they could not agree on a
salutary and proper punishment. He would therefore
move to lay the resolution on the table, and move farther
that Henry A. Wise be immediately expelled from the
floor of the House.

Mr. Hopkins moved the previous question on Mr,
Ingersoll's motion, which was seconded, and his resolu-
tion was agreed to. The Committee was ordered to
consist of seven members.

A more minute account of the " scene," is given by
the reporter of the Intelligencer, as follows :
While Mr. Fillmore was in the midst of a sen-
tence, the reporter (who had noticed Mr. Wise cross
over to the seat of Mr. Stanly, and had observed
those two gentlemen in conversation, apparently of
a very excited character) saw Mr. Wise raise his
hand violently, and aim a blow at the face of Mr.
Stanly, who as instantaneously met Or retu'r'ned it:
A violent fight followed, and in less time than it
can be described in this report, a scene of mingled
uproar and fight, such as the reporter in many years'
experience has never witnessed on the floor of the
House, ensued. Messrs. Wise and Stanly were lost
to the sight of the reporter in the general rush, while
Mr. Arnold, of Tennessee, and Mr. Butler, of Ken-
tucky, were noticed in a violent personal struggle,
striking at and grappling with each other. Mr. Dixon
H. Lewis and Mr. Gilmer, and others, were seen
in the midst, endeavouring to quell the disturbance,
which had now reached a point at which it seemed
impossible to arrest its progress. The members had
rushed from all parts of the hall, some rushing over
and others standing upon the tables, literally piling
themselves one on the other, and several canes were seen
by the reporter raised up as if in the act of striking. The
Speaker during this time had resumed the chair in-
formally, but no one paid the least regard to his voice,
and he called in vain on the officers, none of whom were
observed by the reporter, with the exception of the door-
keeper, who was endeavouring to close the doors and
windows against the crowd from without, who attempted
to rush within the hall.

The general melee (of which the reporter was taking
notes) continued from two and a half to three minutes.
It then subsided, as it appeared, though by what direct
process the reporter could not understand ; but he heard
the voice of Mr. Wise, who had returned to his scat, ad-
dressing the chair.

MR. WEBSTER'S LETTER.
WASHINGTON, SEPT. 11, 1811.
My Dear Sir—You will have learned that Messrs.
Ewing, Bell, Badger, and Crittenden have resigned their
respective offices. Probably Mr. Granger may feel
bound to follow the example. This occurrence can
hardly cause you the same degree of regret which it
has occasioned to me ; as they are not only friends,
but persons with whom I have had, for some time, a
daily official intercourse. I could not partake in this
movement.

It is supposed to be justified, I presume, by the differ-
ences which have arisen between the President and Con-
gress, upon the means of establishing a proper fiscal
agency, and restoring a sound state of the currency, and
collateral matters growing out of these differences. I
regret these differences as deeply as any man ; but I have
not been able to see in what manner the resignation of
the Cabinet was likely either to remove or mitigate the
evils produced by them. On the contrary the only reliance
for a remedy for those evils has been, and is, on the union,
conciliation, and perseverance of the whole Whig party,
and I by no means despair of seeing yet accomplished,
by these means, all that we desire. It may render us
more patient under disappointment in regard to one'
measure, to recollect, as is justly stated by the Presi-
dent in his last message, how great a number of impor-
tant measures have been already successfully carried
through. I hardly know when such a mass of business
has been despatched in a single session of Congress.
The annual winter Session is now near at hand ; the
same Congress is again soon to assemble, and feeling as
deeply as I ever did the indispensable necessity of some
suitable provision for the keeping of the public money,
for aid to the operation of the Treasury, and to the high
public interests of currency and exchange, I am not in
haste to believe that the party which has now the pre-
dominance will not, in all these respects, yet fulfil the
expectations of the country. If it shall nut, then our
condition is forlorn indeed. But for one, I will not give
up the hope.

My particular connexiga with the AdministratiGn,
however, is with anotheFdepartment. I think very
humbly—none can think more humbly—of the value
of the services which I am able to render to the public,
in that post. But as there is, so far as I know, on all
subjects affecting our foreign relations, a concurrence
in opinion bet Ween the President and myself ; and
as there is nothing to disturb the harmony of our in-
tercourse, I have not felt it consistent with the duty
which I owe to the country, to run the risk, by any
sudden or abrupt proceeding, of embarrassing the Exe-
cutive, in regard to subjects and questions now imme-
diately pending, and which intimately affect the preser-
vation of the peace of the country.
I am, dear Sir, with constant regard, vours, &c., &c.,
(Signed) DANIEL WEBSTER.
11. Ketchum, Esq., New York.
ANOTHER LETTER FROM. MR. WEBSTER.
The Secretary of State has addressed the following
latter to the Editors of the National Intelligencer :
Washington, Sept. 13,,1841.
_ _ •

Gentlemen—Lest any misapprehension slwul►i exist
as to the reasons which have led me to difThr from the
course
.pursued by my late colleagues, I wish to say that
I remain in my place, first, because I have seen no suf-
ficient reasons for the dissolution of the late Cabinet, by
the voluntary act of its own members.
I am perfectly persuaded of the absolute neoessity of
an institution, under the authority of Congress, to aid
revenue and financial operations, and to give the country
the blessings of a good currency and cheap exchanges.
Notwithstanding what has passed, I have confidence
that the President will co-operate with the Legisla,
ture in overcoming all difficulties in the attainment
of these objects : and it is to the union of the 'Whig
party—by which I mean the whole party, the Whig Pre-
sident, the Whig Congress, and the Whig people--that
I look for a realisation of our wishes. I can look no-
where else.

In the second place, if I had seen reasons to resign
my office, I should not have done so without giving the

PRICE 5d

President reasonable notice, and affording him time to
select the hands to which he should confido the delicate
and important affairs now pending in this department.
I am, Gentleman, respectfully, your obedient servant,
DANIEL WEBSTER.
It will thus be seen that, notwithstanding all that has
passed, Mr. Webster has strong confidence that the diffi-
culties that have arisen upon the Bank question will yet be
surmounted, anti that at no distant day. Most anxiously do
we hope that thi,a confidence may not prove fallacious. The
country needs a fiscal agent, (or rather a national bank, for
we hate the substantial name), and its wonted prosperity
cannot return, its business cannot be transacted with the
same facility and profit as before, until such an
institution, in some form, shall be organised. Mean-
time, we trust that the exhortations of Mr.
Webster for the union and harmony of the Whig
party—" the entire Whig party"—may not have been
uttered in vain. We regret deeply the entire break-
ing up of the Cabinet, for we must again repeat that
we have seen no good reason why, upon this bank ques-
tion, the Secretaries of War and the Navy, and the At-
torney and Postmaster General, were required to resign.
The resignation of Mr. Granger, we are told, was not
expected by the President ; and the act was beyond
doubt forced upon him by his Whig friends in the New
York delegation—most unwisely, in our opinion.

RIOT IN CINCINNATI—SEVEN LIVES LOST.
BALTIMORE, AUG. 9.—The Western mail this morn-
ing brings accounts of a riot which took place in that city
on Tuesday night. It had its origin in a fight which took
place on Thursday night, in Columbia-street, between a
few negroes and some whites, in which one of the whites
was stabbed so severely as to make his life long pre-
carious. On Friday night from two to three thousand
persons collected around the negro houses on Sixth, east
of Broadway. and the negroes having armed themselves,
' fired upon the crowd. The riot now commenced in
earnes'. A cannon was brought to the scene, loaded
with slugs, and several times fired down Sixth street, rak-
ing the whole street, and it is supposed with effect. The
Mayor went on the ground, and succeeded at length, with
the aid of the military, which he called out, in restoring
order. The Mayor supposes there were two whites and
two negroes killed, and from 15 to 20 persons wound-
ed, principally whites. On Saturday morning the ex-
citement still contiimed, an extra meeting of the City
Councils was called for ten o'clock, and a town meet-
ing the citizens was about to be held.
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT THE BAY OF CHALEUR.—
The Pictou Mechanic and Farmer of the Bth instant
mentions on the authority of a passenger in the Uni-
corn, who came on board the Unicorn steamer at
Gaspe, that the whole extent of the forest along
the Bay of Chalcur was on fire, that a great portion of
the new town of Bathurst was burnt down, and that four
or five of Mr. Cunard's vessels were burnt on the stocks.

PUBLIC DEBT OF TELM—The Austin Gazette gives
the following as the amount of the National liabilities of
Texas, exclusive of the bonds sold by the Loan Cora-
ioners

Audited Drafts Funded $795,351 68
Promissary Notes funded, previous to the
Ist of July.lB4o,in Ten per Cent. Fund 781,379 00
Land Scrip Funded 80,348 32
Eight per cent. Bonds 849,900 00
Promissory Notes 2,944,988 62
Navy Drafts
Interest on 10 per Cent. Funded Debt to
Ist November, 1841 188,685 05
Interest on 8 per Cent. Bonds to Ist No-
vember, 1841 71,394 00

:5,827,009 67
BANK OF THE UNITED STATES.—We learn from the
New York American, that the Bank of the United States
at Philadelphia has made an assignment of all its pro-
perty for the benefit of its creditors. The stock of the
Bank was sold at New York on Saturday, to a large
amount, at 9 to 10 dollars per share.
TREASURY NOTEB.—The amount of Treasury notes
outstanding on the Ist inst. was 7,264,640 dols.
The New York Commercial Advertiser states, on the
authority of a private letter, that the sum paid
by the Belgian Government for the steamer British
Queen was 70,0001. It does not appear to what use this
vessel is to be applied.
FROM YI7CATAN.—Our dates from this new Republic
are to the 3d ult. A Congress was soon to assemble
under the new Constitution, who would have power to
make a treaty with Mexico, and to decide whether the
province should maintain her independence, or unite her-
self again with the mother•country. The election of
Senators had just taken place.

CASE OF MR. APLEOD AND THE BOUNDARY

LINE.
(Further Particulars received by the Britannia.)

11i:‘Leod's trial will come on at the session which

begins at Utica on the 27th of September. Chief Jus-
tice Nelson will preside at the trial. The prosecution
will be conducted by the Attorney-General, and the de-
fence of the prisoner by Mr. Spencer. The United
States Government have taken measures to prevent his
maltreatment by private violence.- - Mr. Webster has ad-
dressed letters to the Sheriff and First Judge of the
county in which the prisoner is confined, informing them
that he had received intimation from parties entitled to
belief, that an attempt would be made to execute upon
M'Lcod the summary process of Lynclh•law, and direct-
ing them to be on their guard to defeat any enterprise
of the kind. The authorities, upon receipt of this in-
formation, immediately organised a patrol, which is con-
tinually on the watch. The Governor of the State also
appears to have taken the affair into his hands. lie or-
dered out the military companies of Utica, who consti-
tute the night guard, and a body of one hundred men are
furnished with arms and ammunition, and are ready to
turn out at a moment's notice in case of alarm.

The subject has been again debated in Congress, and
certainly in a better spirit than on former occasions.
Mr. Floyd's resolution, submitted some time since, has
been brought forward for discussion. Mr. Barnard,
of New York, took occasion to express his
views on the merits of the case. He commented
with great severity upon the weakness indicated by
visiting on a subject the consequences of the acts
performed in obedience to the command of his Sovereign,
and cited from Mr. Stevenson's despatch to Lord Pal-
merston, on the 22d of May, 1838, as evidence of the
nationality of the transaction. It was then and there
charged by the American Minister as "an invasion of
the territory and sovereignty of an independent nation,
by the armed forces of a friendly power." Mr. Barnard
gave Mr. Justice Cowan a severe reprimand, for having
taken occasion to deliver from the Bench an extra judi-
cial opinion, which ho justly considered as a most
grievous fault, and as forestalling public opinion in the
very neighbourhood in which the prisoner was to be
tried by an attempt to controvert the very positions on
which his defence rests.

Mr. Ex-President Adams stated that he was opposed
to multiplying issues with Great Britain. We had
one issue with that country (he was understood to
refer to the boundary question) where we were clearly
in the right and she was clearly in the wrong ; and,

. .
if we mint fight, we had better fight about such
a question than about one where we were in the
wrong ; for he desired to declare, in the face of the
country and the world, his opinion, that, in regard to
the affair of the Caroline, a due consideration of all the
circumstances might lead to the conclusion that we were
in the wrong. The question was, and always would be,
who struck the first blow ? The British, it is true,
burnt the boat and killed a man. But the ques-

tion is, what was the boat about, and what was the man
doing in the boat ? The boat was engaged in hostile
acts against Great Britain, it was employed in transport-
ing men and arms to Navy Island, in aid of an insurrec-
tion against the British authorities in Upper Canada.
We might go to war on this matter ; and, after the
blo..id and treasure of the nation had been expended in
support of it., we should have a peace. And what then ?
The question would still be, who struck the first blow ?
And were we sure we could find among all the Chris-

tian nations an umpire who would not say that we had
been all the while in the wrong ?

Mr. Adams then spoke of another issue which had
been attempted to be made—viz., in relation to the par-
ticular case of M‘Leod. He spoke of the opinion deli-
vered by Judge Cowan, of the New York Court, in this
case, and declared his dissent from that opinion in strong
terms, and he alluded to the sentiments expressed by
some of his forty friends from New York on that floor,
to the same purport and effect as that opinion, with em-
phatic disapprobation. New York had been called the
Empire " State, but he said Delaware is as much an
" empire " State as New. York ; and he regarded it as
both wrong and dangerous, when persons were heard to
declare on that floor, and in the other end of the
capitol, that New York would try M'Leod, and, if
found guilty, would . hang him ; and all because
New York was the "
interfere Empire " State ! Nobody had pro-
poSed to with New York, or the Courts of New
York ; but, by some process, NPLeod ought to be re-
leased, and the President had done no more than his duty
in sending the Attorney-General into New York on this
subject. There was not an enlightened nation on earth
that would not decide against this idea of holding indi-
viduals responsible in a case like this. And the manage-
ment of the whole ease belonged to this Government ;
for it was .a national matter, and, if a war grew out of it,
it was not New York that was to maintain war, but the.
blood and treasure of the whole nation must maintain it.

There is no confirmation of the reports relative to
any collision between the parties engaged in the
boundary surveys. Mr. Adams's speech seems to
show the opinion generally entertained on the subject
of the north-eastern boundary question. The
matter has not been made the subject of Congres-
sional action. The Bangor Whig of a late date states that
the United States troops have started to occupy the posts
at the Aroostook and Fish River. The first detach-
ment are said to be provided with all the necessary im-
plements for clearing the roads and erecting suitable mi-
litary quarters and barracks. The same paper expresses
a hope that as the United States will soon be upon the
territory, there will be no " backing out" until the mat-
ter is settled. Accounts of the Maine election
rendar it almost certain that the democratic candidate
for Governor would be elected. This same Fairfield was
Governor when the last serious difficulties occurred.
his return to power does not augur well for popular
measures, but we must hope that the actions of the
single State will be controlled by the Government at
W time, forty-two years of age---a
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at
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