The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-28 00:00:00

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, SATURDAY.
The Royal Mail steaff.-,lip Canada has arrived
with advices from Boston to the 16th, and $788,635
41c, in specie.
On -Wednesday, July 9, the Senate were occupied
with a debate on Kansas, in which there was a great
deal of personality. The debate lasted from mid-
day until 9in the evening. The house were occu-
pied the same day.with charges of fraud against
cl(,iks in the Treasury Department. The Senate
during the rest of the week have been occupied with
local matters. The houseliave been discussing the
Brooks and Sumner affair, nd on Monday, the
14th, voted to expel Brooks by 121 " Yeas" to 95
" Nays." Two-thirds being.necessary to an expul-
sion, Brooks was declared not expelled. After the
result was declared the following proceedings took

place :
" Mr. Brooks said Mr. Sumner uttered a slander on
his state and venerable relative, who was absent. Not
content with this he published alibel on ::is state and

blood. Whoever insulted South Carolina insulted him,
and he stood ready at all times, humbly and modestly,
as her son, to perform his duty. He should have for-
feited his self-respect and good opinion of his country-
men if be bad permitted the offence to pass unpunished.
It was a personal affair, and in taking redress into his
own hands he meant no disrespect to the .Senate or the
house, nor did he mean disrespect to Massachnsets. - He
was aware of his personal responsibility. He incurred it,
and was prepared to meet it. He knew he was amenable
to the laws which offered the same protection to every
citizen, whether a member of congress or in the private
walks of life. He did not believe he could be punished
by a emit of law and by a majority of the house at the
Same time. - If he had committed a breach of privilege
he was answerable to the Senate, which had no right to
present him to the house for punishment. The ques-
•tien not only initolved__ biol. and, ieieelrieeedneePuteetlen
whore house. If the consequences wericonfined to him-
self, he would be prepared to meet them here or else-
where. Others must not suffer for him. He had felt
more for his friends—Messrs. Edmundson and Keitt--
than himself. They are blameless. Each has proved
a friend who sticketh closer than a brother.' When,
he remarked, the people of the great north speak of
me as a bad man, they will do me the justice to
say that a blow from me at this time would be followed
by revolution, and they know it (applause, seemingly
confined to the gallerie-) ; but no act of mine shall fa-
vour revolution. lam not willing to see the constitu-
tion wounded through me. He would say to the house
that the axe applied over him may fall on them. He
bad only to say that he could not retain his seat consist-
ently with his self-respect and rights under the consti-
tution. During this very session a member from Penn-
sylvania charged a colleague with an attempt at bribery.
Where were the proceedings in that case ? By passing
it in silence the house has declared bribery is excu•able,
but simple assault and battery is not. He spoke of
Massachussets as being in rebellion against the laws and
constitution of the United State, while sitting in judg-
ment on him, and demanding his expulsion without a
hearing. He had never been called to order, nor had he
offended any officer, yet a vote has -been taken to-day
transmitting him to posterity as unworthy of a seat here,
because of disorderly behaviour, and in this connection
he spoke of Mr. Pennington, the prosecutor, as the
thumb paper,' the Falstaffian member,' &c., for which
the Speaker called him to order. Mr. Brooks said that
Mr. Pennington charged that the assault was murder-
ous, and that with a bludgeon I attempted to kill. Mr.
Sumner. My friend from Massachussets over there has
a pretty good•sized stick. I would thank him to raise
it and submit it to the inspection of the gentleman from
New Jersey—(Mr. De Witt., the gentleman alluded to,
held up the stick for a moment.--(laughter). Now, that
stick is double the size of the one used by me.
"Mr. Trafton of Mass., here rose, and asked that
the disorder in the galleries be quieted, or that they be
cleared. (Hisses from the galleries.)
"The Speaker said if the disturbance was continued
be.would give that order.
"Mr. Jones (demo) of Tenn—Why, I did not hear
any up there just now.
"Mr. Brooks (looking up)—lf I have friends in the
galleries I desire them-to be quiet. He then continued
—lf I desired to kill the senator from .Massachusets
why did I not do it ? You all admit that I had it in
my power. Let me tell the gentleman from New Jersey
that expressly to prevent taking life I used an ordinary
cane, prevented by a friend in Baltimore. I went to
the Senate deliberately. I hesitated whether I should
use a horsewhip or a cowhide ; but knowing that the
strength of the senator from Massachusets was superior
to mine, I thought he might wrest it from me. If he
had, I might hive done what I should have regretted
for the remainder of my life.
"A Voice—He would have killed him. •
"Mr. Brooks, resuming, said—Ten days ago, fore-
seeing what the action of the holm would be, my resig-
nation was put-into the hands of the governor of South
Carolina. He then replied to several members who had
said hard things of him, including Mr. Coming, quoting
the remarks that "Massaohusets would take her own
time ter the renesey out he would neve. rte.,' the
Statute of Limitations against the wrath of that states
He quoted from Mr. Woodruff's speech, so strongly
condemnatory of his conduct, saying he thought a gen-
tleman uttering such sentiments 'a foerean worthy of
his steel and related, in the language of his friend Col.
Savage, how Mr. Woodruff declined meeting Mr.
Brooks in the manner recognised by gentlemen. The
narration canned laughter. He said to Mr. Woodruff,
' Go, little wretch ; there is room enough in this world
for you and me.' In his judgment, the cock that crows
and does not fight, is despised even by hens and pullets.
(Laughter.) Alluding to the remark of J. W. Webb,
which has been quoted, that the act of assault deserved
death on the spot, he said if those who endorsed that
sentiment wished to play the game of chivalry, let them,
with their whole republican crew, come and take the life
which, hey say, is forfeited. If hisopponent were satis-
fied with the present state of the case, he was. He re-
turned his thanks to his friends, especially to good nor-
thern democrats and gentlemen who had the manhood
to stand by him—not forgetting John Scott Harrison.
Some gentlemen, he believed, bad voted against him,
contrary to their wishes, but were operated upon by
outside pressure ; and he spoke in commendation of
those who gave their votes without indulging in villifica-
tion. He concluded by saying, Mr. Speaker, I announce
to you and to the house I am no longer a member of the
Thirty-fourth Congress."
Mr. Oliver, of Missouri, from the minority
on the Kansas Investigation Committee made a
report on the 11th, in which he denied the con-
clusions of the majority, and asserted that Whit-
field was fairly elected and entitled to his seat.
The old Whigs are trying to organise themselves
so as to take a part in the coming election. A. con-
vention of this party in Maryland has declared
Fremont unqualified, Buchanan Objectionable in
consequence of the Ostend conference, and Fill-
more the only sound candidate. Fillmore's chances
are looking better.
The case of Mr. Herbert, the Californian mem-
ber of Congress, who killed a waiter, has been
submitted to the jury.
The Chamber of Commerce and the citizens ge-
nerally have united in raising funds for the relief
of the sufferers by the inundations in the South of
France. The Chamber of Commerce have also
again taken up the matter of the recovery of the
duties paid for goods burnt in the great fire in New
York.
The news from California is exciting. .The Vi-
gilance Committee have still possession of San
Veesooeeo with 0,000 muskets and 30 cannon.
Their place of meeting is fortified with sandbags.
The Governor has called Gut the militia, but the
San Francisco Militia refuses to act against the
committee. The Governor, with his forces, is en-
camped near San Francisco. The Vigilance Com-
mittee have issued the following proclamation
" TO THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA.
" The Coreseasee or Viiiiluuue, placed in the position
they now occupy by the voice and countenance of the
vast majority of their fellow-chizens, as executors of
their will, desire to define the necessity which has forced
this people into their present organisation.
"Great public emergencies demand prompt and vigo-
rous remedies. The people—long suffering under an
org,anised despotism which has invaded their liberties,
squandered their property, usurped their offices of trust
and emolument, endangered their lives, prevented the
expression of their will through the bellot-box, and cor.
rupted the channels of justice—have now arisen
tue of their inherent right and power. All po
religious, and sectional differences and issues have, given
way to the paramount necessity of a thorough a ad fun-
datnental reform and purification of the social a ad poli-
tical body. The voice of a whole people bas demanded
union and organisation as the only means of ma king our
laws effective, and regaining the rights of freespeech,
free vote, and public safety.
" ror years they have patiently waited and striven,
in a peaceable manner, and in accordance with the
forms of law, to reform the abuses which have
made our city a byeword ; fraud and violence
have foiled every effort, and the laws 'to which the
people loehed for protection, while distorted and
rendered effete in practice, so as to shield the vile, have
been used as a powerful engine to fasten upon us
tyranny and misrule.
"As Republicans, we looked to the ballot-box as our
vafegeard awl sure remedy. But so effectually and: so
tong was its voice smothered, the votes deposited i,n it
by freemen so entirely outnumbered by ballots thru st in
through fraud at midnight, or nullified by the false
counts of judges and inspectors of elections at flow iday,
that many doubted whether the mejority of the people
were not utterly corrupt.
"Organised bands of bad men, of all politi, a 1 pa.ruo
iir who assumed any particular creed frotu nierceme. and
corrupt motives, have parcelled out offictm.
--Ives, or sold them t 3 .the highest bidders ; them
Ve ore
vided themselves with convenient tools to obsy t' •
eel'. not ,
las clerks, inspectors, and judges of election ; •
have ern-
plord bullies and professional: fighters to d9,AroY t 117

•

lists bydorce, and prevent peaceable citizens from ascer-
taining in a I!Awful manner the true number of votes
polled at our elections ; and have used cunningly con-
trived ballot boxes, with false sides and bottoms, so pre-
pared that by means of a spring the spurious tickets
concealed there previous to the election could be mingled
with genuine votes.
"Of all this we have the most irrefrngable proof.
Felons from other lautls and States and unconvicted
criminals, equally as bad, have thus controlled puhlio
funds and property, and have often amassed sudden for-
tunes without having done an honest day's work with
bead or hands, and the fair inheritance of our city has
been embezzled and squandered, our streets and •=-halves
are in ruins, and the miserable entailment of au enormous
debt will bequeath sorrow and poverty to another gene-
ration.

"The jury box ba, been tampered with, and our
jury trials have b-en math, to shield the hundreds of

murderers whose red hands have cemented this tyranny,
and silenced with the bowie knife and the pistol, not only
the free voice of an indignant press, but the shuddering
rebuke of the outraged citizen.
" To our shame be it said that the inhabitants of dis-
tant lands already know that corrupt men in office, as
well as gamblers, shoulder strikers, and other vile tools
of unscrupulous leaders, beat, maim, and shoot down
with impunity as well peaceable and unoffeuding citi-
zens as those earnest reformers who, at the known
hazard of their lives, and with singleness of heart, have
sought, in a lawful manuer, to thwart schemes of public
plunder or to awaken investigation.
" Embodied in the principles of republican Govern.
ments are the truths that the majority should rule ; and
when corrupt officials, who have fraudulently seized the
reins of authority, designedly thwart the execution of the
laws, and avert punishment from the notoriously guilty,
the power they usurp reverts back to the people from
whom it was wrested. Realising these truths, and con-
...

fident that they were carrying out the will of the vast_
majority of the citizens of this country, the Committee
of Vigilance, under a solemn sense of the responsibility
.111stt-rosteLugAthean.,,Jaave calmly and dispassionately
weighed tha tvidences decreed--the"
death of some and banishment to others who by their
crimes and villanies had stained our fair land. With
those that were banished, this comparatively moderate
punishment' was chosen not because ignominious death
was not deserved, but that the error, if any, might Surely
be upon the side of mercy to the criminal. There are
others scarcely less guilty against whom the same punish-
ment has been decreed, but they have been allowed fur-
ther time to arrange for their final departure, and with
the hope that permission to depart voluntarily might
induce repentance, and repentance amendment, they
have been suffered to choose within limits their own time
and method of going.
" Thus far, and throughout their arduous duties, they
have been and will be guided by the most conscientious
convictions of imperative duty ; and they earnestly hope
that, in endeavouring to mete out merciful justice to the
guilty, their counsels may be so guided by that Power
before whose tribunal we shall all stand that in the
vicissitudes of after life, amid the calm reflections of old
age, and in the clear view of dying conscience, there may
be found nothing we would regret or wish to change.
" We have no friends to reward, no enemies to punish,
no private ends to accomplish.
" Our single, heartfelt aim is the public good ; the
purging from our community of those abandoned charac-
ters whose actions have been evil continually, and have
finally forced upon us the efforts we are now making.
We have no favouritism as a body, nor shall there be
evinced in any of our acts either partially for or prejudice
against any race, sect, or party.
" While thus far we have not discovered on the part
of our constituents any indications of lack of confidence,
and have no reason to doubt that the majority of the in-
habitants of the country endorse our acts and desire us to
continue the work of weeding out the irreclaimable cha-
racters from the community, we have with deep regret
seen that some of the State authorities have felt it their
duty to organise a force to resist us. It is not impos-
sible for us to realise that not only those who have
sought place with a view to public plunder, but also
those gentlemen who, in accepting offices to which they
were honestly elected, have sworn to support the laws of
the State of California, find it difficult to reconcile their
supposed duties with acquiescence in the acts of the
Committee of Vigilance, since they do not reflect that,
perbaps, more than three-fourths of the people of the
entire State sympathise with and endorse our efforts,
and as that all law emanates from the people, so when
the laws thus enacted are not executed, the power re-
turns to the people, and is theirs whenever they may
choose to exercise it. These gentlemen would not have
hesitated to acknowledge the self-evident truth had the
people chosen to make their present movement a _com-
plete revolution, recalled all the power they had dele-
gated, and reissued it to new agents under new forms.
"Now, because the people have not seen fit to resume
all the powers they have confided to executive or legisla-
tive officers, it certainly does not follow that they cannot,
in the exercise of their inherent sovereign power, with-
draw from corrupt and unfaithful servants the authority
they have used to thwart the ends of justice.
"Those officers whose mistaken sense of duty leads
them to array themselves against the determined action
cf the people, whose servants they have become, may be
respected, while their trrora may be regretted ; but
none can envy the future reflections of that man who,
whether in the heat of malignant passion, or with the
vain hope of preserving by violence a position obtained
through fraud and bribery, seeks, under the colour of
law, to enlist the outcasts of society as a hireling soldiery
in the service of the State, or urges criminals, by hopes
of plunder, to continue, at the cost of civil war, the reign
of ballot-bax stuffers, suborners of witnesses, and tam-
perers with the jury-box.
"The Committee of Vigilance believe that the people
have intrusted to them the duty of gathering evidence,
and, after due trial, expelling from the community those
ruffians and assassins who have so long outraged the
peace and good order of society, violated the ballot box,
overridden law and thwarted justice.
"Beyond the duties incident to this we do laot desire
to interfere with the details of Government.
" We have spared and shall spare no effort to avoid
bloodshed or civil war, but, undeterred by threats or
opposing organisations, shall continue, peaceably if we
can, forcibly if we must, this work of reform, to which
we have pledged our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
honour.
"Our labours have been arduous, our deliberations
have been cautious, our determinations firm, our counsels
prudent, our motives pure ; and, while regretting the
imperious necessity which called us into action, we are
anxious that this necessity should exist no longer, and
when cur labours shall have been accomplished—when
the community shall be freed from the evils it has so
long endured—when we have insured to our citizens an
honest and vigorous protection of their rights—then the
Committee of Vigilance will find great pleasure in re•
signing their power into the hands of the people from
whom it was received.
"Published by order of the Committee.
(Seal of the committee.) " SECRETARY."
Walker has deposed
.Rivas in Nicaragua, and
had himself elected President in his place. In
Costa Rica, General Mora, the Commander-in-Chief
of the army, and the Secretary of State, had all
died of the cholera. The Cuban dates are to the
6th inst. The yellow fever continued to prevail.