The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-01-31

General Assembly was called for the purpose of
passing resolutions Of censure against the petitioners
who were supporters Of what was dcnominated the
peoples constitution. On the 9Th inst the Senate,
by vote OF fifteen 10 nine, ordered the resolutions
thus passed to be expunged, and directed the Score
tary Of State to draw heavy black lines around each
page Of the same, and by writing upon the fa,e OF
each page the words "expunged by order Of the
General Assembly, at their session held by adjourn
ment, in January, A. ID. 1854"
BY telegraph we have accounts Of destructive fires
in Colchester, Conn.,, 0swego, Chicago, and Mont
real. In the former place large India rubber
mandatory was destroyed, and we regret to state
one of the overseers persisted in the flames. Five
hundred persons were thrown out Of work by the
calamity large fire also occurred in Washington
on Sunday night. The drug store on the corner Of
| Hand and Sixth streets was consumed, together
| with nine frame houses.
The democracy of the Eighth district of Pennsyl
yania have nominated j. Clancy Jones as their can
ddate for Congress- to fill the vacancy occasioned by
the death Of Mr.. Muhlenberg.
The great press of important matter this morning.
prevents us from giving usual resume of theatr
cal affairs, well a variety of local reports and
other reading. We viii, however, remark that the
theatres all well filed last night, and "a In be
seen by our advertising columns the !e.hcnts
for this evening INCLUDE material for all tastes.
sketch Of the brilliant ball of the Twelfth Reg
ment, given last evening at Niblo's theatre ADD
saloons, is crowded out this morning. It will APP
pear tomorrow.
The steamship Asia has now been out nearly seven
teen days from Liverpool for this port She will bring
| three days later vs..
| Mhcarriage or the Anti-Siavery Agitation.
| We fancy that the opponents of Senator
| Douglas Nebraska bill are satisfied by this
time that policy, as well as principle dictates
as close an approach to silence and resignation
as they can consistently attempt. The aboli-
tion meeting of last evening must be regarded
as failure even by the warmest supporters Of
| the movement. We call it an abolition meet
ing, and we do so advisedly for whatever be
| the political complexion Of the committee
| which called it and Of the presiding officers
and speakers who occupied the platform, the
audience gave unequivocal evidence Of its
affinity with the leading abolitonists of the
North. Thus when the letters from Senators
Seward and Chase were mentioned, burst of
applause Interrupted the secretary: Ger
rit Smiths adhesion was received with
unfeigned enthusiasm; and poor Mr..
Gerard was quite chilled by the death
like stiffness which followed his candid avowal
that he was not an aboitionist." There were
not many traitors assembled quite select cir
Gle considering the efforts which have been made,
and the auspices under which the meeting was
called. If Mr.. Gerard had us in the witness
box. and compelled us in his playful way to
make definite estimate of the audience, we
should say that the Tabernacle last evening
contained about half the number that assembled
within its walls when Lucy Stone last lectured
there Such is the party in New York which
intends to coerce Congress into retaining the
unconstitutional Missouri compromise in force
The speakers were well chosen. Neither
Judge Emmett nor Mr. Gerard are men
whom nature designed to head revolu-
tions or set rivers on fire. The former
strongly reminded US of the 'old Irish gentle
man" renowned in song. He was charmingly
good natured, and delightfully."- unconscious of
the nature Of the question before the meeting.
| He did not seem to know whether the north
west territory had been coded by Virginia or
Massachusetts,; and alluded to the Immortal
ordinance" indifferently as ''the ordinance of
1887" and the ordinance of 1897" Somebody
in the body of the meeting annoyed him dread
fully by asking him whether Congress had not
the right to repeal an unconstitutional or i'm
polite act; the poor old gentleman changed the
subject with rapidity which astonished his in
terlocutor Had he not spoken quite SO loag,
we are sure that his speech would have been
quite popular; for his grey hairs, venerable
head, and pleasant brogue were a safe
passport to the favor of good
natured audience. His successor Mr..
Mr.. Gerard, appealed less to human sympathy.
His debut was an announcement that he had
: fired the first gun" at Castle Garden in 1850;
and though he forgot TO explain how he came
to be quelling an anti-slavery agita ion then
and arousing it now, he referred to that pas
| sage in his career with obvious pride. We are
sorry that we cannot return him the compi-
ment he did us the honor to pay the HERALD.
| He spoke as gracefully, as readily as usual;
but ne failed in his attempt to shake off the
lawyer, and his logic will hardly bear the test
OF print. How came James W. Gerard. for in
stance to deny the right of Congress to repeal
the missouri compromise, on the ground
that it was a compact, in which the
North has already received their share
of the bargain We had hoped that
such arguments would have been the mo-
nopoly of obscure newspapers Are we to tell
lawyer of Mr.. Gerard's standing that the adj
mission of Missouri with her slave constitution
was no more concession to the South than it
was to he North That it was either constitu-
tional or unconstitutional if the former,
then that no section Of the country can pretend
to have derived any claim to special fee or
reward from the fact; If unconstitutional, that
il can even less confer any such rights? Has
Mr.. Gerard's cheek been furrowed in the exer-