Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-02-18
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.

WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.
No Pitch Hot-It is impossible to keep Sc
crets in connection with public affairs in Wash
ingtpn.> While there are 80 many pretty NO.
men to cajoe old Senators out of their wits, the
Senate had better give up holding executive
sessions unless by rule they prescribe that
pitch plaster shall be put on the mouth Of
every Senator. And then the angels would
manage to get it of, and their secrets would
soon be exposed.
The southern Wings Of Congress had eau
Gus on the day before yesterday, at which all
but three or four attended-Messrs Morton Of
Florida, Pearce of Md, Clayton of Del, and
Bell of Tennessee, boing, it is said the alb.
sentees. The National Mteifigeucer and its
course on the Nebraska question and slavery in
general were brought on the taps, and Sena-
tor Toombs of Georgia. offered resolution de-.
nouncing and repudiating that press, which
was unanimously adopted by all present. A
portion of those absent above named, it is
known, agree with equal oordiality to that
verdict. tt
Senator Toombs, Madame Rumor whisper.
eth, made speech dissolving-not the Union,
but-the good old Wing party. and to that end,
maintained the doctrine of secession with great
earnestness. 1t seemed on the canvass had at
this meeting, the state of the whole Whis
party in the Senate, that there is quartette
of Senators ito use the reported expressions of
Mr.. Tombs) "infected with the abolition itch::''
and it is reduced to a certainty in the present
state of the political atmosphere, that that dis
ease is not infectious nor contagious. Messrs.
Everett, Wade, Fish, and Seward, are those
gentleman-just enough to dance stag cotil.
lion. We hear that Mr. Toombs moved that
| the " shattered fragments or de6ris-to quote
him again-of the old Wing party, our venera-
BILE and highly esteemed contemporaries of the
Inteiltgencer (sacreligiously) included-should
be assigned, alienated, enfeofed, remised, re-
leased. conveyed and confirmed unto the said
Edward Everett and company, parties of the
last part, to the only proper use, and benefit
| and behoof of them their heirs and assigns for
| ever, in fee simple.
How all this leaked out, if Mr. Toombs in
quires, and we take fancy to answer, he may
be informed.
The Speech Of Mr.. Stephens, of Georgia,
delivered yesterday, upon the cry of "the viola
| ton of the Missouri Compromise was one of
the most conclusive arguments we ever heard
| in either House of Congress. We have heard
| Mr.. S. deliver every speech he has spoken in
| the House hall since his entree into Congress,
| and never before heard him so logical or more
| statesman-like in his views. Hereafter, he
| who pirates over the '' violation of the Missouri
| Compromise" as an excuse for voting against
the Nebraska bill, will be a laughing stock; so
| complete was his exposure of the badness of
that subterfuge for failing to stand by the
fundamental principle of all our institutions,
involved in advocating the propri ETY. of con-
gressional legislation to regulate slavery
| in United States territories. Mr. S. was
| listened to with profound attention, as he
pointed out the details of the action of the
North ignoring the binding force of the Mis-
| souri, Compromise, the final admission of
Missouri herself Of Arkansas, in making a
| territorial government for Oregon in 1947, in
| lS4S, and, again, in 1850. He showed that
the South contended as one man and with one
| will for the sacredness of the Missouri Com
promise through all that time, the North con-
stantly repudating it. And he further proved
| that the Compromise Of 1850 was the result
only of the knowledge of the fact ION the part
| of the North,) that unless the Missouri Compro-
mise, or a return to the constitutional principle
Of non-intervention acas consented to, the dis
solution of the Union was an inevitability
| the North choosing the latter, because al
that time it served her purpose of ostracising
the South from the territory in dispute-Cali-
fornia. His language was temperate, and, as
usual, well chosen. His speech will be as OK
tsnsively republished and read, probably, as
any effort ever spoken in the English language;
as it efectually disposes of the whole issu e
involved in the Nebraska question.
The Pitch Getting Hot.-street rumor insist.
that the Senate are in grievous trouble. Or
the day before yesterday-St Valentines day
or thereabouts-a young Senator is said &c
have offered resolution for a committee II
have up James Gordon Bennett, of the New
York Herald, Henry Raymond, of the Times
Morton McMichael, of the Philadelphia Nortl
american, the Editors of the National Intel
ligencer, and ourselves of the Star, for pub
fishing Senatorial secrets. Report all sayetl
that the publication of the Gadsden Treaty
the Presidents message included, and othe
like things, induced this motion. The conduc
of the Herald in this affair has been scanda
lous. The other papers, ourselves included
being comparatively innocent. The cele,
brated and illustrious case of Nugent, of tn,
Herald, put in limbo for publishing the treat,
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1913, is said to hav'
been the precedent proposed to be followed
willy old Senatorial fox or badger, we learn
said they'd had enough of that. He addee
that all which had come out of that affair
was that the Senate had footed the bill for hi
board at some six dollars per diem--champagn'
wine and canvasback ducks included-for tn
time he was in custody; had paid Rober
Beale. late Sergeant-at-Arms, two or thre
hundred dollars for fees and extras for hi
guardianship; and Reverdy johnson or Rich
ard S. Coke $500, more or less, for legal advice
in the premises. The sum and substance O
this willy old Senator's advice being, that non,