Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-01-09
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP

among the puDIiC hEou VI INC Country now con-
gregated here, by the President message sent
to the Senate on the day before yesterday, be .
fair criterion Of its probable effect upon the
American popular sense of right and wrong, it
is destined to tell with more power upon the
future policy of the United States than per-
haps any other State paper that the exigencies
of any period has brought out from under the
hand of an American Executive. With the
exception of a handful of gentlemen who have
committed themselves to very extreme views
upon up the flibuster question, its every sug-
gestion meets the entire approval Of all now in
national public life at the Federal Capital
and where dissentients are found to any portion
OF 1t, as far as We can perceiye, they dissent
not to the general conclusions as to his duties
in the premises to which President Buchanan
has arrived, but rather to isolated points in the
policy of his Administration on the subject
That is to say, not to the ends he seeks to at
tain, whether with reference to the suppression
OF flibustering, or as to the legitimate progress
Of Americanism over the North American CONT
nent, which, as he so forcibly explains must
proceed hand in hand. But rather to his views
Of particular points of law involved in the
general question. Thus some distinguished
gentlemen, while admitting it to be his duty to
repress the sailing of unlawful military expe-
ditions from ports of the United States, con-
tinue to contend that he must effect that object
before they get beyond a marine league from
our shores
We can only urge them to study more closely
not only this the powerful State paper on which
we are commenting, but the law bearing on the
subject, in the hope that they, too, will soon
come TO comprehend that the trainers of our
neutrality statutes and the Interpreters of the
laws of nations for centuries past intended, in
prescribing the rights and duties of Govern
ment in the premises, to accord to it Govern
ment) the power to enforce those rights and
discharge those duties.
But we are DEPRESSING somewhat The Mes
sage is hailed all around US as driving the last
nail in the coffin of flibusterism, while it can
not fail to concentrate American popular SEN
tment upon the true plan of making American
principles and institutions, in due time, the
blessings to the rest of the North American con-
tinent they now are to that portion within the
jurisdiction of this Government. All who have
been attentive observers of the signs Of the
times know we'll that we have arrived at that
inevitable point in our existence as a nation
rapidly progressing in population, commerce,
wealth, the arts science, literature and national
power-at which the principle of expansion be-
comes an almost irresistible element Of our
national character. So it has been with every
nation that has rapidly become great from
small beginning, if history, ancient and modern,
is to be relied on.
1t is useless, all history tells, to essay to re-
press the national bent to which we refer above.
1t can and should be wisely and philanthrop
ically guided, as President Buchanan proposes
His eloquent and forcibe views on the subject
are hailed by the public men of all parties here
as likely to turn the Southern popular mind
from the wild propensity to violate law, rights
justice and common honesty to give vent to the
natural mania for expansion, and to lead it
into the channel wherein it can surely accom-
plish its purpose not only soonest, but under
circumstances wherein it will prove a real
blessing rather than a curse to the races whose
condition and future it proposes thus to i'm
prove.
The BETTER STATE OF SoCIErY-The North
ern journals, in their accounts of actual occur
FENCES around them, are constantly in the
habit OF disproving the allegations and argu-
mcnts Of those Of them written with the erro-
neous idea that the institution of African sla-
very Is a positive injury to the white laborer
dwelling in its midst. We have, many a time
and oft, combated that notion, in the Star's
columns, but never SO effectually as it is COM
bated IN the police and other similar reports
and accounts which we often End ia newspapers
most given to editorial Misrepresentation Of the
state of society at the South.
Below, we extract from the New York Times
graphic picture of Broadway on New Year ;
Day, which tells a tale of truth concerning the
condition of the poor in the "better ordered
North such as will hardly be credited by per
sons at the South who only know the condition
Of society there, where actual want is a thing
utterly unknown by any one anywhere from
Mason DixOn's line 10 the Rio Grande's
eastern bank:
BROADWAY MEyDrCaSrs The r stivities and
ightness of New Years Day were not Little
married Ivy the great numbers OF bepyar, yhn
availed themselves of the general niIaTitv to
make their appeals for charity. Gay callers,
as they hurried fIom house TO house were beset
w swdiiis OF ifnpOftundte little uendicants, WHO
had the perseverance, Of sturdy veterans u their
busin ,ss. These little creatures abounded i'm all
the principal streets and avenues but IL was I'm
Broadway where all beggardom held hiyh carni-
val, and strove to excite sympathy by the exhi-
tions Of woe and wretchcdness Thee was one
particular style Of appeal which WAS specially
monopolized by the Cinnamon, who are wonder.
fnl experts In the arts Of mendacity One OF
them coiled himself up on the SUNNY pavement
with placard attached to him. on which was
inscribed " This Chinaman Is starving" while
a short distance from him was another Of his
countrymen with paper before him, on which
was written in perfectly good English 81 am
starving ~ from which we should infer that
starving for living was d rather prosperous bu-
siness, for there is always at least one Chinaman
on the sidewalk Of Broadway In that condition
w hen one Of them goes home to his rice and
chop-sticks he Is probably relieved by partner
who takes his place and enacts his part In truly
artistic manner.
The weather was so warm and genial IL at Il
was no wonder the poor and miserable should
take the opportunity Of coming out from their
wTetched holes to bask In the sunshine But
there was no occasion for them to ma ke such an
osteniatious display Of their inf mites in the
crowded highway AZ they did on New Years
Every miserable Pauper in the city who had any