The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1847-03-08
ny II IA r. Ais.
WASHINGTON, March 8, lS47.
The TUenty- Ninth Con sress.

WARRINGTON, Marcn D, loH.
The T1enty- Ninth Congress
! The last sands OF the twenty-ninth Congress
have run out The council fires are extinguish-
ed The pulse of great body is still for ever
On "Wednesday night, or rather Thursday morn
ing, shortly after midnight-a time fitting for
such consummation-the voice of the presiding
officer in either house, spoke the spell OF di,solu
ton. The mighty body which three days ago
welded the destinies of the nercan people, is
now cold and lifeless. No time more fitting than
the present to enquire whether its deeds deserve
to be immoralized in marble, or consigned to the
dust OF oblivion.
No nconsiaerabe works has it accomplished.
this twenty-ninth Congress. War and peace it
has weighed in the hollow of its hand. Grave
and momepteus questions involving for good or
evil the destines of the people, has it decided
upon. The temple of Janus, closed for upwards
of thirty years, it has opened. 1t has received
into the national family new States, not allies.
but as sisters. to parake in common with the
older States, the rights of communion with the
great American family. 1t has passed upon
many grave questions Of domestic policy, and Of.
fected radical change in our financial and COM
mercial policy 1t cannot be said of it that il died
and made no sign. But whether, after a series of
years, Its acts will be marked in the calendar with
white or black pit bile, is not Tor mo- but for
for time, to determine
The twenty-ninth Congress will be marked in
history as the one during the existence of which
the American war originated Next in i'm DOR
lance will be the settlement Of the Oregon cues.
ton; but in connection with the domestic policv
OF the country it will be spoken of as the Congress
ofcabals Others preceding il have been marked
for their violence-their resistance to authority
their stormy debates, often interrupted by brawls
and personal combats but the one which has
Just expired, will be remembered for its COM
plcated intrgues, and, for that during its exist
ence, the two great political parties which had
hitherto divided the country, were broken up and
srumbled into small pieces. 1t will be remem.
bered for the establishment of no great principle
but one-free trade.
II may be that the doctrine of free trade and
the sub division and mingling OF parties, are but
the necessary consequences of the progress of in.
tellgence, and the spread Of liberal sent ments.-
similar and simultaneous change has taken
place in England, although it has been effected
by different agencies. 1t may therefore be looked
upon as one of those epochs in the progress of
mankind, which serve as the millstones of histo.
ry At the time that Sir Charles Bell, in En-.
gland, made his great discovery in anatomical
| physiology, similar discovery was made in Ita.
| ly by Signor Carlo Bella remarkable coinci.
dence, but not without many parallels. The FREQ
( trade principle would have triumphed if Mr.
Walker or Mr.. Golden had never lived; but both
names will go down to posterity, and deservedly,
as those of the architects Of the sy stem.
The man who shall write the history of the
twenty ninth Congress, must WELD a pen like
Banim's, dipped in the inmost recesses of the
human heart. The course Of its prominent
members on the Oregon question and the
Mexican war, it is difficult to scan without
being accused of unchar tableness but truth.
however rough its garb, is better than smooth.
tongued, syren falsehood, though trcked out
in all the finery OF courtly phrase and delicate
allusion. The honest Historian then, writing the
history OF the Congress which has just been dis.
solved, would say, that it was a continued strue-
gle Of antsgonisuc interess--that its action on
| great national questions was biased by petty
considerations OF individual and sectional advan.
tage-that in the decision of the Oregon question
one involving the title of the United states to q
portion of territory claimed by foreign govern
ment, the South threw Its weight into the scale
against the United States, in order to prevent An
accession OF strength 10 the West-that a great
statesman pposed the recognition of war while
our soldiers were being butchered by the Mex
cans on our soil, and afterwards charged that
wars inception on the President of the United
States, IN order to viDdicate the truth of his own
nexaton of Texas-that a great party because
the administration happened to differ with them
in politics, attempted to throw upon it the odium
OF having provoked and caused the MEXICAN
war-that the national interess were held cheap
by those DESTROYS OF the aggrandizement of GER
tain asprants for the Presldency-that the ample
OF discord was flung into the halls of Congress by
those who could never hope distinction or notice
save but In state Of morbid national excite
ment, like the Malay wreckers who pray to God
to drive the storm-beaten vessel on the rocks in
rHnry hoff ~
this, and much more, would the historian have TO
narrate, Who should attempt to pen the HISTORY of
the tWenty-ninth Congress But ], who assume
not to myself the province OF historian, must con-
tent me with brief notice of the res gesie OF the
two sessions OF the Congress which has Just ex-
pred.
Sectional aggrandisement and president making
entered largely into the Oregon question. The
South went for as little Of Oregon as it could with
| honor be satisfied with, as every square mile of
that territory would be an addition to the domain
OF the West, the growth OF which is the perpetual
nightmare OF the former. Those representing
| the commercial interests OF the North and East
joined the South to bring about an adjustment OF
dispute, which, while it lasted, produced an
awkward stagnation in business. Mr.. Calhoun's
friends, besides their opposition as Southern men
10 the .accessonlof territory to the West, except
such as was unavoidable, had another reason for
advocating an adjustment on the line of forty
nine degrees, in the fact that Mr.. Calhoun, when
Secretary OF State, had fully committed himself
10 that line. The Western men advocated the
assertion OF our right TO the whole Of Oregon
some from patriousm-others for popularity
They went into the contest with ardor, and when
worsted, they swore terribly. The administration
was III favor OF asserting our claims to the whole
of Oregon, but was obliged to succumb to the two
third vote Of the Senate 10 accept Great Britain's
offer of a compromise on the line of forty nine
degrees. The administration was the main-stay
OF the hty-our forty men, and when the Presi-
dent deferred 10 the senate, their wrath knew no
bounds. They are stnl hostile TO tho administra-
ton. Mr.. Calhoun triumphed in the negotiation
fthe Oregon question, and he won golden opin-
ions among the commercial classes OF all sections
of the Union. Yet, in the consde ration of that
question, / venture TO assert one man in twenty
did not regard the interests of the country. Ii
is idle TO talk Of 81 high considerations Of duty"
=" to save the country from an expensive war with
the greatest nation on EARTH" &c. &c. No such