The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-03-11

In the Senate yesterday General CAss took occa-
sion reply to an editorial article in the Republic
in reference to his course on the River and Har-
Dor bill. The official report of his speech has
been withheld from us till late hour Of the
night, to enable the honorable Senator to correct
the proof, and our own reporter, from Difference
to the honorable Senator, has left us to
rely upon the official and revised version for the
tenor of his observations. We regret this, be-
cause we are authorized by the assertion of Mr..
JEFFERSON DAVIS, on the floor of the Senate,
to say that the official reports do not always
present accurate versions of senatorial speeches.
and because General CAss, in his agitated in
tervals, says and does things which in his
calmer moments he does not distinctly remem-
Der.
While we are waiting, therefore, for the re-
vsed and corrected report of the Generals
speech, we will merely reaffirm the substance
of our article of yesterday, with the remark that
a more moderate, just, and unexceptionable
paragraph never appeared in the columns of a
public journal. We will further say, that we
have been disposed to render, and have rendered,
entire and ample justice to General CAss for the
course that he has pursued on the measures of
Compromise. We have abstained for many
months from any allusion to the points in which
we consider his public character vulnerable,
and have treated him uniformly with degree
of kindness and consideration which he had no
right or reason to expect from aWMe antagonist
On this ground we have been reproved by some
of our Vine friends, with whom we have diff
fered on the measures wherein we have agreed
with General CAss; but we are quite as inca
pable of seeking unnecessary grounds ofcensure
against political adversary, as we arc of sus-
tanning in our friends policy Of which we dis
approve.
Since writing the above, the revised proof
Of the Generals remarks has been placed in
our hands, half an hour before midnight. 1t
will be found in another column. We are
amused by it, and are not surprised to learn
that the Senate were equally amused. That
it was received with daughter, as it purports
to have been, we have no doubt; but the
laughter was at the speaker, and not with him.
1t contradicts nothing that we said in our
article. In truth, not word of the article ls
susceptible of successful contradiction. The
speech confesses the scruples, religious and
constitutional. 1t pleads guilty to the Chicago
letter, admits the genuineness of the letter to
the Hollanders," and does not deny the ex-
istence Of the " noise and confusion" Mt Cleve-
land. The intimation, therefore, that there
was sentence, word, or letter in our article
that was not strictly and conscientiously
accurate, is the suggestion of an untruth.
General CAss did not intend to equivocate, but
he has not happy way Of making himself dis
tinctly understood. He calls his speech of yes
terday, for instance, an explanation" but
what it explains Heaven only knows. II GER
tainly throws no light on his views Of river and
harbor Improvements; and the comparison
which it institutes between his own moral
and mental qualifications and those which
he impugns is, in our judgment, any thing
but satisfactory. We think the article decid-