Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-11-28
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.


cessful Senator from California, the Hon. VIM.
N. Gwin, is already preparing to bring for
ward at the commencement OF the session.
These measures all aim to secure needful legis-
lation for the region of the Confederacy whose
interests are under Senator g.. care Among
them is one to establish the necessary terrific
rial government for the " Gadsden purchase,
which 10 not long hence destined to become the
most important portion of the territory under
the Government Of the United States not vet
included under State government The re-
ports of army operations in that immediate re-
gion we have published since the end of last
session, have embraced facts concerning that
terra fneognita (as it was almost up to that
time0 which in the proof they embrace show
ing it to be the very Eden of the North Amer
lean Continent, have astounded the country, as
1t were. Its mining facilities and advantages
have long been known, by tradition, to be near
ly, if not quite, equally valuable with those of
California. The success of the efforts to open
safe and prompt overland route to California
through that range of country having so soon
been complete, tits very certain that emigrants
will pour into it on the opening of the next
season. A territorial government must there
fore be promptly established for it er nscessi-
tate. ' .
Owing principally to the political exigencies
that brought California into the Union without
having passed through the usual transition
Territorial stage, the mines and land titles of
that State were not systematized under our
laws, as they should have been. As astonish-
ing as the progress of California has been, had
our laws duly secured to the honest and enter
prising settlers their property in reasonable
amount Of land, agricultural or mining, above
and beyond the claims under Mexican grants
that had laid dormant-had been practically
abandoned-for from ten years previous to the
annexation to a full century, her California;
progress would have been far more astonishing
We cannot doubt that Congress would have
passed the necessary legislation in Californis's
case, but for the disabilities and embarrass-
ments with which their early legislation for her
was hampered, as explained above.
In the case Of the Gsdsden purchase the case
is entirely different. Congress may easily begin
a system of laws for it ab initio; for it is even
yet almost entirely uninhabited, except by hos
tile savages. The Government purchased ju.
risdiction over it from Mexico, and has since
been literally forced to conquer it from the
Apaches and other hostile tribes who have been
its actual possessors for time longer than the
memory of generations runneth back. Never
theless, We have reason to believe that Spanish
claims las in the case of California; will be
brought forward sufficient to cover nearly
every foot of the territory worth having all of
which granted in the last half century have
never been attempted to be enforced by the
grantees; and those Of prior date having
g lapsed'' long since, through the fac. that the
original rights of the grantees went " the way
of all flesh when the territory was conquered
from Old Spain by the savage aborigines.
The idea Of respecting such claims and titles,
is carrying the joke much too far If regarded
by Congress, the result must be eventually to
make the hardy and enterprising settlers who
will go there to mine and cultivate the soil,
but hewers of wood and drawers Of water to
manufacturers and spectators in antique and
other Spanish grants. There may be excep-
tons to this general rule, but their existence
will only prove more clearly that such does
prevail in connection with the affairs of Ari-
IONA, as all the world knows it has existed in
greater or less degree in connection with the
affairs of California.
But the public may safely entrust Senator
Gwin with the arrangement Of the details of
the important bills which will be necessary to
insure that that Eden Of the North American
continent will hereafter be made the most Of
possible for the benefit of the whole Union.
whose property tits, emphatically, if ever ter
ritory was the common property of whole ma.
ton.
REFoRNERs.-The late condition of fnan-
cial affairs has had one good result, if no other.
That IS In the matter Of operating like buckets
OF ice water thrown on the new Light labor
ers Of the day-the men and women with pa
tent schemes for doing everything for every
body in the shortest possible time, and at less
than half price, nine-tenths Of whom base their
efforts to craze the popular mind upon the the
DRY that the received doctrines of christianity
are little more than mistaken dreams of old
foges, and essay to carry out that theory upon
the idea Of mans perfectibility; the more a
man becomes the worshipper of his own pas
SONS idiosyncracies and prejudices, the nearer
the state of entire perfectness they credit him
with having become.
We have repeatedly explained that the slave
holding States are not cursed with the presence
and exertions in their limits of such pseudo re-
formers or philanthropists, because the genius
and temper of the mass Of their population, and
consequently their Institutions do not encour-
age such persons to labor among them. Their
1.-THE South's) entire exemption from the nu-
sances and annoyances Of Millerism, Mormon
ism, Abolitionism, and all the rest of the brood
of isms which keep various Northern commu-
mites in perpetual hot water, producing moral
and other mischief without limit, which is real
lied by hundreds Of thousands in regions 80
afflicted, should prove sufficient to teach tho
latter the utter humbuggery of the SO fashion.
able crusade against the institution Of slavery
as it exists in this country.
But We have yet to hear or read of the first
case in this or any other country wherein ere
formers" after the fashion of the hour among
Us ever benefited society, though they have
spouted, fretted, and sweated for centuries.