The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-11-19

.no onoiso against nrs Mliilon, which resulted
In his discharge. The case of Mr.. Putney
was postponed until the 18th instant, and the
defendant required to give bail in five hundred
dollars.
The Famine reported to prevail in Stearnes
county and other parts of Minnesota is positive.
ly contradicted by the St. Paul Times of the 4th
instant. 1t says that the grasshoppers did de.
stroy most of the crops in portions of Stearnes
county. No necessity existed for calling for
aid outside of the county where the destruction
was visible, nor for going outside of the Terri.
tory. The committee who did so was selfcon-
stituted, and considerably more scared than
hurt We quote: "We have never known
the crops of Minnesota to yield so plentiful
harvest as during the past season. In the
Minnesota valley and in the southern part of
the Territory our farmers speak in the most
enthusiastic terms of the crops; and had not the
grasshoppers committed depredatons in some
OF the northern counties, we should have been
able to say, that never before had Mnnesotians
been better prepared to supply themselves with
the necessaries of life than during the years
1878. AS it is, those who have been IN.
fortunate can easily be cared for By the resour-
ces within our own reach. So do us the Justice,
gentlemen of the press, to say that we are not
starving, but that we are in smiling and
prosperous condition, aside from the general
cramp caused by the financial pressure"
The Washington correspondent of the Phila.
delphia Press, who seems to speak from the
card, writes of the forthcoming message thus
{" 1t is rumored that Mr.. Buchanan, in his
first annual message to Congress, will take bold
ground on the currency question; that he will
resfhrm the principles laid down 30 clearly in
his celebrated speech on the Independent
Treasury Bill He believes that it was the in
tention of the trainers of the Constitution to
establish hard money currency, and that the
action of Congress since has been steady de.
parture from that intention. 1t will be his OBJ.
ject, then, to retrace the false steps taken, and
to bring the Government back to the true
ground.
|" The issue will be made in the next Con-
gress, whether State banks have the constitu-
tional power to issue circulating promises to
pay There will be a large party to take the
negative of the argument, who will not, it is
said, yield until decision has been given on
the question by the Supreme Court of the Uni
ted States. general bankrupt law for the
banks will be presented for action. This will
provide fixed legal course for putting into
liquidation insolvent banks all over the Union"
The trial Of David Watt, of Adams county,
Ohio, for harboring slaves, in violation of the
provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act, came up
before Judge Leavitt, in the U. s. District
Court, Cincinnati, on the 10Th. The indictment
charges Mr.. Watt with unlawfully harboring
eight slaves-a man named Lewis, his wife,
and six childrenAin September, 1856, and sub
sequently aiding and abetting their escape to
Canada, the fugitives being claimed as the
property of Squire B. Million, of Rowan county,
KY. The defence attempted to show that the
slaves were voluntarily sent into a free State by
their master, to avoid an execution for debt,
and that Mr.. Wait only gave them such accom-.
mediation at his house as he would have given
to any other traveller, and that he had no agen-
cy in their being sent to Canada.
A meeting of the working men of Philadel-
phia was held in Spring Garden, OIL the 10TH
Resolutions advising the issue of four million
dollars of city warrants, to be legal currency
for the payment of debts due by or to the CITY,
were passed. Several speeches full of the
=" pith and marrow of the times" were made
Good order was preserved throughout.
The Prairie Farmer speaks of the produc.
ton of butter at the West, as business destin.
ed to become great and Furnishing. Probably
few Eastern folks have thought of this. We
get breadstuffs, pork, hams, &c, from the
West, as the main source of supply, while the
butter we use is entirely Eastern. In view of
the immense prairies of the West it is singu-
lar that butter has not become staple there
If attention is now directed to the subject by
newspapers and agricultural periodicals and
authorities of the West, we may probably ex
pect cheap butter from that quarter before
many years. The Farmer and the Chicago
Press both admit that at present the prairie
butter must be considered an inferior article:
but they attribute the deficiency in quality to
the lack of care in the business.
The Republic of Mexico is no more. Oscil.
lating between despotism and anarchy. distract
ed by internal feuds and the ambition of rival
leaders, subject continually to intestine wars.
consplracies, and revolutions, il is of little
moment to the wretched inhabitants whether
her form of Government be republican or mon
archical. 1t has been a despotism continually
to the party happening to be in the minority.
The telegraph has already informed us that
President Comonfort has been clothed with the
dictatorial powers. The recent conspiracy in
the city of Mexico the incipient signs of revolt
throughout the Republic, and the rumors of a
Spanish invasion, are the causes leading to this
extraordinary vestment of power in the hands
of ono man.
1t Comonfort shall succeed in ouieting the
Republic, harmonizing the discordant elements,
and reinvigorating the resources of Mexico, it
will matter little whether he be President sim
ply, or Emperor. Should the reported invasion
by Spain take place, it will lead to important
consequences, and may involve our own Gov
eminent. 1t will present our flibustering ad
venturers fine opportunity to league with TIE
Mexican cause in a raid upon Cuba--the res1lt
OF which may be the wrestling of that coveted
island from the authority of Spain. 1t would |
be virtually, for it would happen inevitably, its
annexation to the United States.
Proceedings in the case of Miss Anne Bas. |
sett Smith, the young lady who has been kept
in the Insane Asylum at Flushing, L. l., for
the past seven years, were commenced on the |
lob, at the private residence of Judge Davies, |
in New York.
One thousand two hundred and ten persons
were committed to the Jail of Philadelphia |
which were for murder, and one hundred and |
thirty seven for robbery.
On Sunday, the 1st instant, the cotton facto.
ry in the Penitentiary of Mississippi was de. |
stroyed by fire. The loss is estimated at from
100000 to $4,000. The State had no in.
surance.
A lunatic once informed his physician, who
was classifying cases OF insanity, tina. be had |
lost his Wits by watching a politician, whose
course was so crooked that it turned his brain.
The returns of the banks of Georgia, in com.
pliance with the Governors proclamation, for
October lst, 1857, show an aggregate of
Sl,32O,429 in specie, and circulation of
81, 944 1853.