Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-03-13


gThere appears to be strong probability
that California will be allowed only one mem
Der in the next House of Representatives III
consequence of the failure OF the census OIL
GERS in that State to transmit full returns to the
Department at Washington. The Secretary OF
the Interior states in his report to the Presi-
dent. that complete ''returns have been receiy-
sd from nineteen counties in that State, and par
rial returns from five others, viz: Butte, Sacra
mento, San joaquin, Trinity and Tuolumne.-
From the remaining four counties, viz: KLAMATH
Santa Clara, Contra Costa and San Francisco,
no returns whatever have been received. lnfor-
nation has been communicated to the Depart
ment the effect that the census ofthese counties
was duly taken, but that the schedules were de-
stroyed by one of the confagrations which laid
a great part of the City of San Francisco in
ashes. No copies of these schedules were pre-
served, and there is no legal means of supplying
the loss occasioned by their destruction
The power vested in the Secretary of the Interior
to make the apportionment is entirely ministerial He
can only act after full shall have been received
and he must act upon the whole subject at once. He
only act upon the 0tciGt rtuTHS ana he cannot re-
secondary evidence to ascertain the population
of any State 1t is obvious therefore, that an lnsuper
able obstacle exists the performance of the duty de-
volved upon this Department and will be tor the wis
dom Of Congress to devise the remedy
The Judiciary Committee of the Senate have
made report on this subject, accompanied with
bill which provides that the Secretary of the
Interior proceed forthwith to apportion the Re-
representatives. among the several States in ac-,
cordance with the provisions contained in the
25th section of the act of the 23d OF May, 1850
according to the returns of population which
have been completed and returned to the CEN
sus office in the Department of the Interior, in
Guiding the population of the counties of San
Francisco, Santa Clara and Contra Costa, in the
State of California, according to the returns
made thereof by the census agent of California
to the Secretary of State of California, amount
ing to 1924.
The population of the counties from which re-
turns were received at Washington, amounts to
e2,59z. Add to this the population of the three
counties above mentioned as shown by the re-
turns deposited with the State authorities of
California, and we have III, 1921 as the total pop
ulation of the State. If, as proposed by the bill
of the Judiciary Committee, the ratio prescrib-
ed by the act of May, 1850, be applied, Califor-
mia will be entitled to one member, with frac-
ton of 24,40l.
We subion an able article from the Wash
ington Republic, on the subject of the interests
of our cotton planters, as connected with the
principle of protection not only by our own laws,
but likewise by those of the manufacturing ma
tions of Europe. But the political bearings of
such system of laws here, as would create in
our own country an extensive demand for
Southern cotton, always appeared to US as
being view of the first Importance. When
we call to mind the fact that the cotton looms Of
Christendom almost entirely supplied with
that production by the Southern members of our
confederacy, it cannot but be apparent to the
most careless and prejudiced observer, that this
circumstance cloathes them with an immense
deal of weight in the political balance. Indeed,
having in our hands this great source of supply
to many of the leading interests in the various
Countries of Europe, has most PROFESSIONALLY
redounded to the advantage of the nation in its
foreign relations.
1t has become necessity with European ma
tions to maintain friendly relations with this go
vernment. Millions in Europe draw their
daily support from the manufacture of cotton
which has been for years gradually grow
ing up in its most important kingdoms. Hol-
ding as we do in our own hands, the supply
for these widespread necessities, that have "a
mifed like a complicated netting through the
various classes and orders of trans Atlantic So
ciety, we have, to use homely figure, caught
the giant by the throat.
Our readers well remember the anxiety man
Tested by the English Government the English
Press, and more particularly by the cotton inte
rests of Manchester, in respect to the war cloud
that hung upon the Western horizon in the di-
rection of Oregon. Had awar taken place-and
such war may it never be our destiny z behold
and cut off the supplies of cotton, Engfsh Gre
dit would have received shock under Which it
would have reeled like drunkard.[
The true corrective for the FACING fever fof
war is not to be found in Peace Congresses and
Quaker meetings, but in the multiplied relations
ana conneT10nS O commerce.. NOW IL lilo lhid-
tuated blindness of South Carolina, and of her
political Dependencies, had not led her to resis
almost to the sword point the growth in the
Northern and Western States of an interest re-
senbling both in magnitude and kind, the great
Manchester interests in England, the South and
the North, the slave and the free States, would
have been bound together by commercial ties
which, coming in powerful aid of the political
relations which still subsist between them
would have indeed rendered the Union perpe-
tual The existence of such an interest would
most certainly have rendered the dependence
of the free States upon the slave States most alb
solute. But the sagaeity of Mr.. Calhoun !
would not behold this obvious truth,-he was lost |
in the extaey of his Ethiopian speculations. That