The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-01-25
MoNsIGNoR BEDiNI IN THE SENArE.-Gene-

MoYsIGNoR BEDiNI IN THE SENATE.-Gene-
raj Cass is naturally apprehensive lest the
| maltreatment to which the Papal Nuncio
| has been subjected in the West should be
avenged upon his son, our Charge at Rome.
His motion for the correspondence led to a de-
bate in the Senate in which most Of the leading
members were drawn out, and many sensible
things said. With one exception, all the speak
ers concurred in condemning the outrages to
which the Legate's visit to the West has given
rise : with greater or less distinctness all, save
Mr.. Weller, Of California, united in pronounc-
ing The Cincinnati riots and the the Baltimore
threats to be disgrace to the character Of the
American people. Without wishing to dissent
from the ground taken by Senators Cass, Mason,
Douglas, Butler, or Everett, we must say that
Senator Dawson, of Georgia, seems to us to
have been the only speaker who really probed
the affair to the bottom and told the truth to
the country He was right in stating that the
native citizens of the United States have had
little or nothing to do with the Bedini disturb
ances, and that the great majority, If not the
entirety of the rioters, were individuals foreign
birth. Nothing can be truer than this, and no
truth requires more imperatively to be placed
before the public. The people of this country
are essentially law fearing race; they have
lived for near century almost without legal
restraint and have never shown by their con
duct that they were unfit for this large share
Of liberty. With our foreign population the
case is different. These mainly Irish and
Germans-come here from a soil on which
they were little better than serfs and.
finding themselves suddenly elevated to the
rank of freemen, they grow dizzy from the
change. and not unfrequently lose their balance
altogether. Liberty, in their eyes, signifies the
right OF being turbulent, noisy, des tructive, and
unruly-the privilege OF indulging all those
vicious propcnsities which bayonets and po-
licemen's sticks repressed in the land of their
birth They are of two classes: the igno-
rant Doors, who were constantly in dread of DO
lice and soldiery in Europe, and who strange
to the absence of these formidable overseers in
this country, cannot resist the temptation of
doing wrong. just to convince themselves of the
reality of their freedom and the phlosophic
revolutiouares of continental Europe who
having been expelled from their native home
come here to practise socialism, aud waste their
energies in attempts to convince the American
people that they would be happier were they
to share the fruits of their toll with idle theo
rists like the philosophers themselves. Both of
these classes arc always ready to get up riot
more especially if they fancy it will injure one
Of their old oppressors or annoy European
traveller. Such ara the authors of the Bedini
down much more rapidly than they are if it
were not for two causes to one of which Mr.
Dawson adverted in his speech. In the first
place, there exists in this country a contempt
ible desire on the part of politicians to curry
favor with our foreign population, in order TO
secure their vote and to gain this purpose
they will throw mantle over many faults
they condemn, and endeavor to excuse in for
eigner crimes which they would insist on having
| punished in q native born citizen. We are ali
aware of the sympathy which was attempted TO
be reused in this city in favor of the Fourth Of
July rioters; politics had q narrow escape GA
that occasion of defeating the ends of justice
entirely. In the second place, the penalty of
crime-whose foot is said by poets to be lame-
/
country. We are long-suflering to degree:
| parcel Of rowdies may shock our ears aud
| offend against our sense of right for days and
weeks before we are sufficiently reused to act
Senator Dawson was quite right also in stat
| ing that such occurrences as have taken place
| at Cincinnati could not have occurred in Geor-
| gia. 1t is due to the South to admit the truth
IF ba oAp thafx
| no controversy ii our previous statements are
| admitted. New Orleans alone excepted. South
! ern cities are not filled with troops of foreign
ers either untitled for liberty by Ignorance or
impelled to license by the dictates Of a licen-
tious philosophy. There are fewer isms and
| higher law theories at the South Than at the
North. The true American character is per-
baps more fairly developed there than in our
portion of the country.
We hope that the speeches of Senator Dawson
and his colleagues win be widely read through
out the country. General Cass' evidence is
surely worth as much as Signor Gavazzis; aud
whether or no Dedni be guilty of the offences
laid to his charge it does not beft us to assume
the part of executioners.
THE COMPTON OF TIE STREETS PRoBABIIl-
TY OF An ErIpEMIc.-The Board of Aldermen
have adopted resolution calling for the names
of the contractors for cleaning the streets. the
names of their sureties &c. and also requesting
the Comptroller to state why the contractors
have been paid for duties which they have not
performed. When this last question is satisiacto-
rily answered we hope the Board will proceed
to inquire why the commissioners for opening
| the streets are paid thirty thousand dollars
| year for services they have never performed
why the Counsel of the Corporation receives
| from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars year
| for services not performed, or which he has no
! right to perform-why we pay eight hundred
| thousand dollars q year for policemen who ara