Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-06-17

either case, or on either route, passing over
heights exceeding seven thousand FIVE hundred
| feet The surveys of Benton's route are not SO
! favorable, the pass in the mountains, even on
this side of the Rio Grande, being one mile and
taree-quarfers high This is the pass of Ell San
! gre de Christie, of which Colonies Benton and
i Fremont gave such glowing accounts; the latter
| from personal knowledge.
am satisfied that practicable route can be
had from Missouri to California. But as great
rivers rise in the neighborhood Of Coochatope,
| and flow in as many different WAYS as there are
cardinal points of the compass, it stands to reason,
as Senator Gwin has said, that this must inevta-
bly, be the highest part Of the Rocky Mountains.
| The mountains fall off to the north and to the
| south, and hence we find both the South Pass
and Albuquerque several thousand feet lower
than Coochatopc. But wish it distinctly under
stood that am in favor of the extension Of all
three roads up to the foot of the mountains; Ind
that then l am for the extension to California of
/ any one or more of the three which the SURVEYS
shall show to be practicable: and merit shall gov
eTn the decision.
Before passing to another point, would refer
| TO the third resolution adopted by county meet
ing in st. Louis, the 9th of January last,
| which meeting was composed of the confidential
| friends and mouth-pieces of Benton At that
meeting, Messrs w. v. N. Bay, Thomas L..
Price, b. Crafty Brown, A. Krekel, III. Dusen-
bury, and John A. Kasson, made the speeches.
l
tions, through F. p. Blair, jr., and said resolu-
tons We're, on motion of A. Kayser, unanimous
ly adopted, according to the report published in
1 Benton s organ. That resolution was as follows:
Resoired That we arein favor of the imme-
diae organization of territorial government for
| NEBRASKA, and that we regard all who oppose il,
upon acatepsr 1res11 as hostile 10 the best inter-
j ests of the State"
| Thus, out of the mouths of his own chosen
| witnesses, Colonel Benton stands condemned GAS
HOSTILE TO THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE STATE. -
The Douglas bill was western measure. 1t
was designed to add to the power and wealth of
thewest. The same political party which opposed
the organization OF Louisiana and Texas, and threat
ened to dissolve the Union if that acquisition was
made; that opposed the sending of forces to pro-
| tect western settlements during the early Indian
wars; that opposed the war of 1912, and rejoiced
| at the massacres in the northwest and mourned
over the trinmphs Of Macomb, and Brown, and
Harrison, and Jackson that in the Hartford
convention Matched freesoil, by resolving that
another slave State should never be admitted into
the Union; that caused the Missouri agitation,
and kept this State out of the Union for about two
years, and forced the passage of the so-caled Mis-
| souri, compromise; that denounced the war with
| Mexico; that concocted the Wilmot provlso !;
| that commended against the Indemnity for the
1 past and security for the FUTURE whereby New
| Mexico, Utah, and California were acquired !;
| that erected Buffalo platforms to defeat General
Casa party of sectional (and abotion)
CASTE, which has never failed to war against the
| West, the Constitution, and the honor of the
country Well might ST. Louis declare Benton
as hostile to her best interests; for no portion of
the country is to be so largely benefited by open
| ing Nebraska and Kansas to settlement ALI of
the railroad interests are largely interested, for
terminus on the Western frontier, blocked I'M by
an Indian wall, 10 very different from an indefinite
extension westward through new and rapidly
opening settlements. Every interest of st. Louis
was connected with this territorial question and
there can be no plausible excuse for the enven-
omed hostility which the st. Louis representative
has manifested since the Senate first commenced
to act on the subject, during the present session
OF Congress. His friends, even, had the sagacity
to see all this last January, and then to denounce
him, in advance, if he dared to betray those in
| terests, as he has since done.
In his recent speech against the Kansas and
Nebraska bill and the Administration. Colonel
Benton said he should obey the instructions Of the
legislature as passed in lS47. This is an after
thought for him. When the instructions to which
ne refers were in force, he voted against their re-
quirements, as he did against the known wishes
Of nine-tenths Of his constituents, when the Texas
annexation measure was before the Senate
The same legislature that elected him to the
Senate at the session Of 1S44-45, elected him un-
der distinct pledge given by his friends that he
would obey the Constructions which might be passed
Without that pledge he could not have been then
elected That legislature passed this instruction,
intended, as he and all others well know, express
ly for him:
5th resolution. "That, in the opinion of this
general assembly, great majority of the people
of this State prefer that Texas should be annexed
to the United States, without dividing her terri
tory into slaveholding and non-sayeholdng
States, out Learning The question to be settled BY the
people, who now, or may hereafter, occupy the
territory that may be annexed
Tins Mccorri y, -. -.
great doctrines for which commended, and on
which the Douglas bill was framed and AGAINST
which Benton has joined issue with me, with the
legislature, with the democracy of Missouri, with
Congress, and with the administration
Again: our State declares, through her legis-
lature, in 1849, the same doctrine to which no
one save Benton and few st. Louis freesolers
have ever dared openly to express any dissent in
our State. That doctrine, the same as that on
which Douglass bill and the Administration
stand, as well as the whole democracy of the
United States, was thus enunciated by a resolu-
ton of our general assembly:
!" RESOLVED, That the right to prohibit slavery in
any Territory belongs exclusively to the people there
Of, and can only be exercised by them in forming
their Constitution for State government or in
their sovereign capacity as an independent
State"
Benton has in this, as in most other matters,
shewn himself 6 hostile to the best interests of
Lie Stdlc ana 10 us cherished opinions. Ever
since he commenced counting freesoil support
he has turned his back upon Missouri and his con-
sttuents.
Fellow citizens, in the great contest which has
Just ended in Congress, upon the Kansas and
Nebraska bill, the whole Missouri delegation have
proved true to the instructions of the legislature,
to the Constitution, and to the rights Of self-gov-
eminent, except only the representative from ST.
Louis. Geyer, Phelps, Lamb, Caruthcrs, Miller,
Oliver, and Lndley, have stood up like men for
stitucnts.
d. R. ATCHISON.
WAsHMGroN, June 5, 1854.
DISAPPOINTMENT.
ON account of the burning Of the draw