Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1854-07-29
Affairs at Washington,

"Maison Rouge" the Washington correspon-
dent of the New Orleans Bee, under date of the
18th inst, writes as follows:
The Senate is still engaged in debating the
so-caled Homestead bill; bill which many
believe to be fraught with greoter evils than
we're ever let out of Pandoros tabled box. 1t
NAV be denominated with great propriety, ga
hill to defraud American citizens of their rights
to rob them of their Inheritance, in order to
bestow it on the otf-scourings and outcasts of
Europe-ejected paupers, exiled felons, and all
such as leave their country for their country
good and to offer bounty for the ingress of
Migrants and criminals into the United States"
It is the most thoroughly agraran measure
ever brought forward in Congress, and has the
appearance of being more deeply dyed with
demagogueism than any other within my knowl-
edge, not excepting the Nebraska bill. Still,
however appearances are sometimes deceptive !;
o man is sometimes only acting ignorantly,
when we may suppose him to be acting knaye-
ishly.
The measure has boen opposed in the most
strenuous and able manner, chiefly by Southern
Senator's but as strenuously, and if it were not
disrespectful 1 would say doggedly supported.
Mason, Hunter, Brown, Broadhead, Pratt,
Pearce and Evans Among its its advocates are
Seward, Sumner, Chase, Wade, Walker, the
two Dodges, Weller, and Douglas, of course. 1t
is nothing more nor less than q grand bid for
foreign votes.
The House to-day passed the River and Har-
Dor bill, and took up the Indian Appropriation
bill.
Your remarks under the caption of "Why
don't they ADJOURN" in the Bee of the 9th,
have attracted attention here, and elected COM
mendation. They are as true as they are forci-
BILE. Such lectures from the Press calcula-
tad to bring members to their senses, and to
awaken right feeling among the people.
have now lying before me a letter addressed
to Southern member of Congress by one of his
constituents, q man of much eminence in his
own State, and who has ample means of know
ing the public sentiment upon all important
questions from which | am permitted to make
the following extracts. promising that the letter
was private one and not, of course, intended
for the public eye. He says:
ssThe speech Of Rockwell presenting the
Boston petition to repeal the fugitive slave law,
showing the depth of feeling among Union
Wings and conservative Northern men, is but
another pawerful proof that the serpent was in
the garden of our national councils when the
bill (Nebraska) was concocted and introduced ::
and declare know not the depth of my regret
that the South did not put her whole foot on his
neck at the first exhibition of his falsely fair
face.
The fact is, the South never wanted the bill.
The South is not now satisfied with it. The
South to-day, if it could forget that it was OPP
posed by Sumner and Seward, would reverse it,
if it could be done without agitation. Such is
my deliberate conviction-such is my latest
Judgment The politicians were scared; they
c,,DDocod tho peopla ha6 loco iudpment and rn-
Election than they have They supposed that
under the auspices of sctional slave prejudices,
they could perpetrate anything without rebuke;
and let me tell you, sir, that nothing has saved
these men from universal rehuke but that kind
of prejudice. They may well rejoice that Sew
ard and Sumner are odious here: that odium is
the best protection they have, and behind that
bulwark land how poor and humiliating shelter
it isl they are defended here.
IL
"To be candid with you, the Senate is a de-
cidedly little body. 1t is no more like the Sen
ate with Cato at its head that France under
Charles X was like France led by Napoleon.
thought knew the value of Clay and Webster:
l often exclaimed, what will the cnuntry do
without them? But was inclined to think that
I over estimated their worth and necessity to
the well being of the country Inclined to do
so till the first great crisis came and then there
was neither courage nor wisdom nor honesty at
the helm, nor courage nor wisdom among the
crew. ..
Such are the views of very prominent man
in his own State, and who is not unknown out of
it. It would be well that such men would speak
out more often, and more publicly than they do.
The Sentinel here is scarcely able to find Ian
gdage sufficiently strong and copious enough to
express its utter detestation and horror at the
language and the tone of the North in regard to
the Nebraska subject; and yet, in the outset Of
the Nebraska discussion, that paper declared
that these who should oppose it would &c deserve
scitheriag scorn and blasting anathemas." Papers
who thus deal "withering scorn and blasting
anathemas'' in advance, should object to no
language or acts from its opponents, however
inconsistent with wise moderation and . calm
Judgment. Men who habitually deal in lofty
and threatening superlatives have no right to
object to the use of them by others High
sounding and irritating words call forth others
of a similar character.
It is said that the project of Sending two
commissioners to Spain has been given up.