Southern shield., 1851-03-22
From the Washington Reublic. THE RIVER AND HARBOa BILL.

It was not the "nOlSe and confuSOn"| which prevented General Cassfrom doing his whole duty to the country the mat ter of River and Harbor Improvements, in the Senate, but it was his "conscientious scruples."
 The phrase in which he dechred his n- teniion of taking no part in voing or act ing after I2 o'clock Monday night, is likely to become quite as memorable as his allu sion to the "noiSe and confusioI' at Cleve- land
 "I'M MERE LooKER-oN,' s;id General Cass, when his name was called after the hour we have mentioned, and from that moment he was as mute as a; an oyster. His voice was weaker than it was at Cleveland, for it was not heard at all. The General sets up for a better conscience than other people, and goes in for the law as he understands it, without regard to the un- derstanding of his brother Senators. This matter of the termination of the session was put in it's true light in a single remark o1 Mr. Jefferson Davis-"Ve have to do not with the calender Sd of March, but with the political Sd of March, and we have a right to say when it ends; but let uS, jfr the hour." This is so in accordance with the uniform usage of Congress, and is so clear in itself, that we must confess we are sur prised that General Cass should not have seen it in the same light. But he is strict CT constructionist than even so straight laced person as MT. Jefferson Davis, and exhibits a most tender conscience on all his political as we'll as all his religious duties. On Saturday night, at l2 o'clock, he gave the go-by to the River and Harbor lm- provements on religious scruples. On Mon day night he withdrew himself from the contest on the ground of his political scru- ples. It is delightful to witness this maid en sensibility in man who has been so long engaged in the soaring strltes ot part- zanship. A conscience like this is as beau tiful as a rose in its morning freshness; but we fear that it is something too delicate for Baltimore Convention. They want a conscience of ''sterner stutf."
 "Pm a mere looker-o r-on," said the General, when the fight waxed warmeSt over the River and Harbor bill, and when it was doubtful whether the struggle would not occasion the loss of all the appropriation bills. It was no sort of consequence what was going on, the General was "only pas senger." His whole course on the bill has been precisely that which we ioreshadowed on Friday morning last. If anybody can tell whether he was for or against the bill, whether he desired its defeat or passage, or which side he was playing for, he is better at divining than we pretend to be. We watched all the proceedings of the day and night on this bill with the deepest interest, and shall lay them before the country in all their minutest details.
 The noble and decided bearing of Mir. Clay in this most important debate was matter of universal admiration. He did everything that gallant leader could do 10 secure the passage of the bill; but the rules of the Senate threw too much power into the hands of the minority, and he failed to gain for the people of the lakes and the Mississippi the trifling boon which he so- lcited with so much earnestness and zeal. the bill was lost in spite ot all his most strenuous exertionS--and when, d few min utes before the close of the session, Mir. Hamin, from the Committee of Commerce, caused a Lighthouse bill 10 be passed through all its stages by general consent, no man who heard Mr. Clay's emphatic ap- peal can ever forget it. ''i wish the cOun- try to take notice," said the senator from Kentucky, "of the facility with which a Lighthouse bill forthe Atlantic coast is pass ed through all its stages without objection while bill for similar purposes on the western waters is opposed and defeated by means the most extraordinary"
 As the debate on the River and Harbor bill is destined long 10 exercise an import ant influence on political affairs; and as the greatest disappointment will prevail at the defeat of this benihcent measure, we wish to remind the country that the present Ad- ministraton has taken the strongest ground in recommending the improvements which it contemplates to the attention of Con- gress. After the rhodomontade that we have listened to for the last two for three days on the subject of constitutional power in this behalf, it will be satisfactory, we doubt not, to all our Whig readers, to run their eye over the calm, quiet, and conclu- sive reasoning of President Fillmore, con- tained in the following paragraphs of his annual message. These words deserve to be printed in letters of gold:
 "I entertain no doubt of the authority ot Congress to make appropriations for lead ing objects in that class of works comprls- ing what are usually called works of inter- nal improvement. This authority l sup pose to be derived chiefly from the power of regulating commerce with foreign na- tions, and among the States, and the pow CT of laying and collecting imposts: Where commerce is to be carried on, and imposts collected, there must be ports and harbors: o. .noIl ar ,,,haruoc and cuSfnm hnuSeS If