The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-07-31
ST.. LOUIS, July 81, ls49 Co

OF. LOUIE, July II, l649
IL is with me renewed source Of gratitude to
have It In my power 70 announce the continued
decrease OF deaths from cholera in our city A
few more days decline as great we have been
favored with for the past three days, and the pes
thence will have left US entirely. A great change
Is already perceptIble in the countenances and re-
newed energies of our citizens; and but for the
desolation of the heart made sud and grievous
by the loss of the cherished objects of their fondest
hopes, our business men would soon again be pur-
suing with their usual flow of spirits their respect
i've commercial operations. Along the Illinois river
the epidemic has entirely disappeared from the
towns, but from intelligence by the last boats from
the Missouri, regret to say that the "noisome
peshlence" has reappeared in the different towns
along that river with increased malignancy. Boom
vile, which heretofore has boosted of its exemption
from the scourge, is at last visited by it, and its
citizens seized with panic similar TO that which
has taken hold of every other community where il
has appeared.
The interior of Illinois is still suffering from it.
and at Alton and Bellville the mortality has been
almost as great in proportion to the number of
their inhabitants, in this city From the first of
June to this writing, Alton, with population of
2,7O0, has had near a hundred deaths and Bell
vile, with about four thousand inhabitants, has bu-
ried hundred and seventy from cholera attacks.
In st. Louis, since the Cd day of January to the
18th instant, the aggregate number Of interments
reported to the city register by the sections of the
thirteen different cemeteries is 6, 1885, out of which
4, lSO were deaths from cholera. Our last census
taken by virtue of the city authorities few months
since, showed population to number 7342 souls;
so that within six months and eighteen days we
have buried just one-tenth of entire population
The fact is appalling as it appears incredible,
but yet the official reports which from day to day
and week to week have been published in all of our
city papers, leave no room for doubt conjecture
| tno M n.x-k r. 80
Buchanan, esq, buried to day, leaving heart
broken husband and seven children to deplore her
irreparable loss. She was one of the brightest or
naments of our female society, and numbered in
the wide circle of her acquaintance as many warm
devoted friends and admirers that Of any other
person who has exchanged the troubled scenes of
earth for the abode of the just made perfect beyond
the grave.
Scarcely had closed my last letter to you, be-
fore the mail from northern Missouri came in,
bringing US the speech of Col. Benton made by him
at Lexington, in this State, on the 7th inst. Ii WILL
in all probability, have reached you by the time
this does, and you judge for yourself of its
merits. He spoke for upwards of two hours, di-
viding his subject into two branches. The first po-
stion taken by him was that the antislavery clause
or Wilmot proviso was clearly and unquestionably
constitutional exercise of power that had been re-
cognsed and enforced by our Government for sixty
years, receiving the official sanction and approba-
ton of the best and wisest statesmen our nation
ever produced. The Colonel asserted that he had
favored and urged the ENGRAVING of this prohibitory
clause upon the Oregon bill for the express pur-
pose of assisting, in the most unqualified terms,
the unlimited power of Congress over the subject
of slavery In the territories now free; and that
Mr.. Polk, with the full knowledge of this fact APP
proved the Oregon bill with the full assent of
his entire cabinet If this is SO, it is an import
ant historical fact in the political history of
country, not before made public. And from the
personal relations of Col. Benton towards the late
administration, suppose his statements in this re-
spect will not admit of being questioned. Col.
Benton to sustain his argument that the anti
slavery clause in the Oregon bill was the most ex-
plic and unconditional exercise of the prohibitory
power by Congress that had ever been made by
the two Houses, and approved of by the Execu-
tive-refeIred to Mr.. Cahoun's course in the
vention of southern members of Congress, that con-
vened at Washington during the late session Cal
houn, he said, urged the adoption Of ultra
upon the South for the reasons he Calhoun, assert
ed, that the anti-savery clause in said bill was in
his opinion, 1.-THE strongest oppression by Congress
upon the subject that had eper been made" And that
Calhoun declared cit more fatal TO the interests
and rights Of the slape States, than amy other that had
preceded u, because the bill contained no compromise,
no concession, no equivalent to the South" Benton
further insisted that so full and unconditional
the recognition of both Houses Of Congress- as
well as by President Polk, by the passage >nd
proval of the Oregon bill, OF their Unlimited power
to prohibit slavery in the territory of the United
States by Legislative enactment, that when the bill
establishing the Territory of Minnesota came up
its passage in Congress, Calhoun and his friends
yielded the question by not lnteIposlng any OBJ
lection to its passage. This the gist Of Col.
Benton's argument in support of his first position
in his Lexington speech.
The second branch of this effort was confined to
d,ec, of he nf IN.
structons their Senator's in Congress- passed the
last session ofthe legislature of this State and to the
consideration Of the principles avowed In those
solutions. Col Benton compared them word by
word, and line by line, with the resolutions drawn
by Calhoun in lS47, and which looked TO division
Of the Union into northern and southern confed-
eracy. He insisted that notification and disunion
run throughout the whole of them, which, IN his
opinion, if carried out, amounted TO nothing
less than the rankest treason 10 the Government of
the United states and that the author and abetors
favoring them were as amenable to the violated laws
of the nation as were those who gave rise for the
necessity of Gen. Jackson's proclamation. Benton
said that, in that crisis, he was found sustaining
General Jackson; and, if perchance General Taylor
should be driven to similar emergencies, he. Ben
ton, would only be found sustaining the Presi-
dent, but that he would pledge them the approval
and support of the State of Missouri This part of
Benton's speech received with great applause
by the vast concourse he addressing
Mr.. Benton said that one Charles Jackson and
Judge .Napon, of the Supreme Court Of this State,
were competitors for the nfamy Of being the au-
thors of these resolutions, but, as he has already
shown, neither of them were entitled TO this unen-
viabe distinction, as they were but copy Of Cal
houn's resolutions. He however said that Judge
Napton was the copyist of them, and il was meet
and proper he should be so, as Napton was OPP
posed to General Jackson's proclamation, and in
favor Of Calhouns notification OF the laws of Con-
gress And that by palming them off upon Jack
Of this State and securing their passage through
the Legislature Of Missouri by fraudulent and de-
ceitful representations, he was favoring the same
reasonable designs that General Jackson repulsed
by his celebrated proclamation against the South
Carolina nuIifers. That, a freeman, and friend
of the Union, he would obey no such instructions,
believing that when fairly explained to the people
of Missouri one in ten could be found but what
would repudiate the principles and doctrines they
contained
Bentons friends are very much elated since his
Lexington speech reached here, although the EVIL
dent crawfshing OF the St Louis Union had pre-
viousIv caused some disheartenino AMONG them