Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1851-03-15
Close of the Thirty-First Congress.

SA0SS . eA0 ALL Iyk ASt SOIlSI6SS
We have at length, by telegraph, an &C.
count OF the closing acts Of the second session
OF the Ihlrty-First Congress. 1t is extremely
bret, OF course, and leaves a great deal tc
be filled up and explained, by details to be
furnished hereafter. But it gives intelligence
concerning some very important matters
which have been done, well or i'll, and of the
failure OF others in which the public have Z
great interest. The River and Iarbor bill
and the Fertilization bills, have failed. These
are heavy disappointments to large interests
The River and Harbor bills contained a LARGE
number Of appropriations for the completion OF
public works already undertaken, and the ma.
king of improvements in various places, par.
t%icularIy on the lakes and the upper rivers oil
the Mississippi Valley, to the amount Of more
than two millions of dollars. A great political
struggle was had upon these bills, both on the
constitutional question and as affecting the
purity of legislation. The strict construction.
lists opposed them on principle, and a consid-
cradle number resisted them as OF corrupting
influences in the manner in which they are
usually got up and passed. The practice of
combining local interests, by which a large
number of appropriations for different objects
is passed through by the joint vote of all the
friends of each, when few of them would pro-
badly secure a majority on their own single
merits, is severely denounced by q large mum
Der of members irrespective of the constitu-
tional question Of the power to make these APP
preparations, To these two influences anoth-
er may be added to aid in the defeat of these
bills.
The appropriations alreadysmade are e1-
tremely large, and there is 4 great doubt in the
minds 0 fmany, whether the revenues ofthe year
will be sufficient to furnish the money re-
quired. In the last days of the session men,
bers begin to look into the ways and means,
and, being afraid they had already voted away
too much money, feel economical, and with
hold grants which they might otherwise have
felt well disposed to make. The French Spo-
liation bill, which, som how or other, always
seemed doomed to be the order of some unex-
pected scruple or ONE financial embarrass-
ment.
The Cheap Postage bill has also passed.
The exact shape has not reached us; but the
reduction or postage to three cents, prepaid,
for all distances within the United States, not
exceeding three thousand miles, with double
and treble postage on double and treble letters,
each half ounce weight to be treated as 2 sim
gle letter, is ascertained to be the principal fea-
lures. When the bill left the Senate there
were some very Objectionable provisions in
those parts which provide for newspaper and
pamphlet postage. The bill was amended in
the House, to what extent we do not know, but
we hope so as to make it satisfactory. The
general principle Of cheap postage, as estab-
!ished in the bill, is a great popular reform.
Upon the whole, this session will be memora
Bile for what Congress has omitted to do do,
more than for anything which it has done; for
the projects which it has baffled, and the calcu-
%lationsi it has disappointed, rather than anything
positive in its acts.
The most significant of these omissions has,
however, something in it of a positive charac-
Ter, exhibiting a most important change of
temper upon a subject Of the gravest impor-
tance. The session has passed over without
any excitement worth mentioning ON the sla-
very questions-Without any attempt to dis
turb the compromise measures of the previous
session, and will. II settled current of votes and
acts, exhibiting the determination of a MAORI
ty of both Houses to discourage the removal
of any of the agitations of the preceding SEES
sion, and to treat the questions rs permanently
adjusted, not to DO re-opened. Every move
ment looking to the repeal or alteration ofthese
laws was disposed of at once, without eeremo-
ny, as a mischlcfous disturbance OF the peace
of the country, and an idle interference with
the business. The contrast between this
juliet and decided discountenancing of the anti
agitation, and the fiery passions and
desperate conflicts which distracted the same
body at the preceding session, is a gratifying
proof Of the healthful effect of the compromise
measures, in tranquilizing the country. Con
which, but a few months before, was the
;rater of volcanic passions, whose %eruptions
constantly eonvulsed and alarmed the. country,
las shown an example of peace and forbear-
lnce, which is at once the evidence of happier
of public affairs, and an example
which must prove extremely repressiye upon
he designs OF the discontinued spirits who are
ct cndeayoring to keep up a dangerous and
most proftless excitement in various parts of s
he Union. While the Federal Legislature OPP !:
oses such wise and prudent %inaction to the I
esigns of the outside enthusiasts and faction t
sts, we may be sure that there is a popular c
alignment against their course, so plain that the 1
themselves cannot mistake or re- i
to respect it.-N O. Picayune. 4
~ -