Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-02-07
SPIRIT OF THE MORNING PRESS,

Inc dntsfftgsncer, commenting on the oppo-
Eitien made in the Senate to the resolution Of
Mr.. Clayton, spp-spriating 81, 500 to purchase
wood for the suffering poor of Washington,
says:
Mr. Clayton forcibly advocated its passage,
and was opposed by one or two Senators, on
principle certainly, but with what seemed to
rs some deficiency Of accurate knowledge. "A
prisoner once, when safely ensconced within
the walls Of o French fortress, exclaimed,
'Only to think that for the ten years have
lived here never had the curiosity to examine
the plan Of this prison. ~ Wethink that more
than one Senator might use some similar ex-
clamation as often as any subject connected
with this city is before the Senate for discus
sion. 1t il to be regretted that gentlemen
who have filed seats in Congress for years
should exhibit such indistinct ideas of the re-
lations Of Washington to the General Govern
ment. A little investigation, the materials
for which have been amply afforded them,
ought to satisfy all that tie various phantoms
which start up before them whenever any ap-
preparation for the National Metropolis Is
mentioned, either exist in their own imagina-
tions, or, when closely approached, subside
into much more natural and comprehensible
objects. The suficing reply of many gentle
men to any bin to expend money in W sshint-
ton Is, that all other cities of the Union make
their own streets and light them, furnish their
own water, erect their own public buildings,
DC. 1t would be easy enough to adduce a
brief and conclusive answer to such hasty ar.
guments, but we desire only to suggest to hon.
orable Senators that they should recollect, be-
fore they attack a city as a community of de-
pend ants, that it has no one present whose
duty and pleasure it would be to defend and
justify them"
The Union argues that the action of the
Northern Know Nothings on the final vote for
aSpeaker demonstrates the fact that the ex-
istsncs of national party among the Know
Nothings Of the non-slaveholding States, is a
mere myth. In enforcing that idea, the editor
quotes as follows from the New York Herald
"And what is the result to the American
party? 1t is a definite congressional division
Of 1t into two hostile sectional factions Not
solitary northern know-nothing voted for
Aiken-not one. Thus the vote which elected
the Speaker discloses to the South Ameri-
cana so called, the lamentabIe truth that, in
Congress at least, their nationality as a party
Is limited TO the south side of Mason Dixon's
line and the Ohio river; that their northern
brethren, even of national type, incline to
frsternize rather with Giddings, of Ohio, than
with the Marshalls, of Kentucky.
The question which next recurs is, How is
tbs condition OF things to be mended at the
Philadelphia national councils of the 18th and
I'D of February? The work there to be done
Is the practical reorganization of the American
party throughout the Union, or its formal dis
solution among the sectional and local factions
and loose materials Of the country. The re-
suit OF the late struggle at Washington ad-
monishes Us to prepare for the latter alterna-
i've. They may, perhaps, do better They;
cannot do worse. We shall see''
Commenting on the flor those gentlemen)
remarkable position assumed by Messrs. Sew
ard and Foot on the Central American cues
ton in issue with Britain, the Union also
says:
The eagerness with which Messrs. Seward
and Foot have come forward in the Senate to
proclaim their readiness to sustain the Ad-
mlnistration in its controversy with the British
cabinet as to the Central American question
has been the subject of good deal of surprise.
The earnestness, almost approaching to vehe-
mence, with which they have repealed the
pretentious construction of the CLAYTON Bull.
wer treaty by Great Britain, has made the inn.
preston that they are determined not to be
behind in taking the side of their country in
the event Of war"