Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-02-18
WASHING TON NEWS AND GOSSIP

and yesterday proceedings in Congress.
WASHING TON NEWS AND GOSSIP.
The PARTY TEST The Lecompton Consti-
tuition question has become a party test Not
through the determination of the Democratic
party to make it so; but in a great measure
through the influence of its own Importance.
1t was not conceived for party ends by the Ad-
ministration or the Democrats Of Congress.
The issue arose out Of circumstances beyond
the control of parties. Upon it men divided
for the most part strictly upon the political
principles they protested previously. Thus,
all the Republican party-without a single ex-
ception-instantly and intuitively took ground
against the admission of Kansas into the Union
on 1.-THE LecOmpton Constitution-because
to do that thing must prove the death knell of
their political organization. The Democrats,
on the other hand, knowing well that under
our system of Government Kansas had the right
to speak through her constitutional convention,
and that IL any of her citizens failed to be repre-
ssnted in that body. the cause thereof was their
own contunacy-and knowing further that the
admission of the Territory into the Union on
the Lecompton Convention fully, finally and
at once forecloses the Kansas question as a ma
tional issue, as naturally and as promptly took
the other side of the question. Thus, the i'm
Portance Of the matter and Republican party
ism combined, made the subject party issue
not the Democracy or the Executive That it
II such an issue is evident in all the opposition
do or say with reference to it in Congress and
their newspapers. Nay, is it not the issue On
which our opponents base all their hope of be-
Ing able to defeat US in the next Presidential
election
Under such circumstances, what shadow of
just right have any whose shields are locked,
upon it, with those of the Republican party
who step forward as the leaders and chosen
champions Of the anti-Democratic-p party side of
this particular lifs-and-death issue-to claim
that the blows Of their stlettos, striking deeper
and faster at the heart of the Democratic cause,
Shall be regarded with affection, as coming from
political friends? The idea is too preposterous
to require a serious argument to refute it. 1t
has been more fttingly answered by the recent
action OF the President in the appointment of
new postmasters at Chicago, H., and Colum-
bus, Ohio. In the name of the Democracy, he
has accepted the party issue which Republican
psrtyism has rendered, and has thus proclaimed
that those standing under" who would escape
the falling bricks had better get beyond their
range, with as little delay as possible.
The GOVERNMENT AQUEDUcr-We under.
stand that the work upon this aqueduct has
been pushed with great vigor during the pres
emit favorable winter. There is now force of
some 800 or ZOO men, and stock in propor-
tion, employed upon the work.
L. II
mile of the distributing reservoir, in all omen
Gus ana emoankments, Is nearly finished.
Upon the receiving reservoir, contractor
Stone has about eighty men and forty horses
ut work
All the tunnels headings are fully manned,
and are worked night and day. Three tunnels.
one Of them 500 feet in length, have been
pierced through, and about four hundred feet
of this last have been arched with masonry. n
the rock is unsafe and not water tight. The
headings in two other tunnels, one of them 700
feet long, will meet in another fortnight.
All the culverts on the part of the aaueduct
In montgomery county, except one, are I'm
ished Some of them are very large and heavy
pieces of work.
Two of the bridges have their arches turned
and the greater part Of their sur erstructure
finished.
As there has been q difficulty in procur;no
sufhcientsupplies of brick in time, explorations
were made for stone, and auarries have been
opened at many points along the line, and
large quantities of stone have been hauled to
the ~oik and deposited along the edge of the
trench excaVated to receive the aoueduct. |
enough mas been thus collected 10 secure. with
proper energy on the part of the contractors.
the completion of the aqueduct masonry NV Lat
December next
Within the District some legislation f. n.aa.a |
to enable those in charge to secure s,,;.f...o
titled to certain lands held by minors O, ab,.r
tees; and If this is granted early it is bel;.v.a
that the water will be here next winter
Large quantities Of cast iron pipes have bsen |
delivered BY the contractors, and they are he. |
ing proved 10 q pressure OF two hundred pound. |
per square inch at the pipe-yard in W ashins-
ton
INTERPRETATION CORRECTED. Few
occurrences in .his city were ever so misrepre-
sented-and what transpires in Washington |
among public men has been the theme of per- |
sistent misrepresentation for quite decade
rs the anair In the House that occurred during
the last ail-night session, wherein Messrs. Keitt
and Grow were accidentally the principal &c.
tore. The Union of yesterday morning sets
many Of the misrepresentation concernipo
that affair at rect, in the following brief publ.
cation:
CORRECT SrATExENT.-The mapy fal.. |
and exaggerated statements that have been nnh |
iished relative 10 the recent personal COLI ion In
y: House q Representative seem u call Cor