New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1859-12-16
NUMBER 242.
One Day in Advance Of tile Mails

Holse.-Mr. hickman, OF Penn, moved an
amendment TO the Journal as no mention lad
been made therein Of his resolution for the adors
ton Of the plurality rule
The clerk said that the resolution was merely
read for information. - - ~
Mr. Hickman insisted that he had the right to
offer the resolution, which took precedence Of all
other questions. He asked for decision Of the
question
Messrs. Grow, of Pa. and Washburne Of Ne.
concluded that Mr.. Hickman had the right TO intro.
duee the resolution.
Mr.. Houston, of Ala, took the opposite side of
the question.
yield the floor, to which he was entitled, the reso-
luton could not be entertained now as other
questions were pending.
Mr. Regan, of Texas, took occasion to say that
the plurality resolution was designed to enable
men to vote indirectly for Black Republican,
when they would not come up like men and vote
directly for such nominee.
Mr. Hickman replied that the remark did not ap-
ply to him. He should vote for Republican in
preference to any gentleman who sustains this
side, nterminged with Kisses from the other side
Mr. Reagan said nobody doubted the gentleman
ocrat He repeated that the object of this unlaw-
iui attempt to act upon that resolution was to
shield gentlemen from the responsibility of doing
indirectly ar ~ what they wonld not do directly.
Mr. hickman have never conceded anywhere
what my ultimate action would be. prefer the
election OF sound Democrat By that mean
democrat opposed to this Administration an anti
Lecompton Democrat. have endeavored for
week TO elect such man, but am beginning to
fear that shall be unable to consummate that
work. believe that either friend of the Admin.
lstratlon or Republican is ultimately to be elected
Speaker. :.
am frank to say, in that event. have decided
on the choice of the latter. have offered this
resolution for the purpose Of reaching an organiza
.ioh n the administration party succeed. trust
shall submit in becoming spirit. l am perfectly
willing that every in the country should know
my views. Let the motion to amend the journal
| be put to the House to decide.
Mr.. VIM. Smith, of Va, said that the motion
was unnecessary on his view Of the subject. If the
gentleman means to vote for the Republican nomi-
nee, he and those thinking with him can do 50, and
thus ends the question. No man who has witnessed
that gentlemans course for the last two years could
doubt that he would at last land in the Republican
| ranks. He says he wants a sound Democrat
elected, and yet will vote with the Republicans
| Who does he fool by such doctrine as that?
The members of the Democratic party are here
to perform high and holy duty to their country.
want him to be understood as Black Republican,
| who only takes the name of Democrat for the pnr-
pose OF hoodwinking and misleading. Let me ask
him. would he vote for Mr.. Bocock to-day if he
would rise and say that he was opposed to the Ad-
mnistraton?
Mr.. Hickman frankly and unequiyocally replied
| that he would not, because Mr.. Bocock sustained
the Administration in everything it has done; that
he (Hickman)was not a believer in eleyenth-hour
repentance. GLaughterl He would continue to
regard himself as a Democrat notwithstanding the
remarks Of the gentleman from Virginia. 1t is a
question that will be decided BY the whole country
whether James Buchanan or those who hold to tile
sentiments of the Cincinnati platform in its integ-
rity embody the Democratic sentiment.
lengthy discussion ensued between Messrs.
| Horace Z. Clark, of New York, and VIM Smith, of
Virginia, on political principles
MIR. Clark said he never was and never would be
a sectional man. He was representative of the
great city Of New York-a city which could not af-
ford to send sectional man to Congress. He did
| not regard the Republican party as an Abolition
party, he defined Abolitionisis as those who would
interfere by violence with the relation of master
| and slave.
The recent affair at Harpers Ferry furnished a
strong illustration of practical Aboltonism in its
most hideous form; there were Abolitionists who
| would contribute money or otherwise to make
compensation to the master for the service of his
slave and In consideration of the surrender of his
title; he knew there were thousands of them at
| the North. e
| Mr.. Smith said he was well acquainted with Mr.
Clark, and did not believe there was an Abolition
feeling in his heart or drop of Abolition blood in
| his veins. He said Mr.. Bocock was not put up be-
cause he was an Administration man, but because
| he had been long an honored Democrat. He de-
| nounced the Inconsistency of Mr.. Clark's conduct
in being elected as Democrat, and refusing to act
| with the party. In answer to an inquiry put by
Mr.. Clark whether he would vote for dissolution
! Of the Union if he should find the people of the
| North combined as sectional party against the
people Of the South, Mr.. Smith replied that when
| ever the combination of majority is formed for
the purpose of warning on the constitutional rights
| of any section of the Union, he was out ZAP
| pause.]
Mr.. Clark am I, sir, but you have not an
| swered my question.
Mr.. Smith said he would not undertake to say
that if any particular should be elected Presi
dent, he would Immediately favor dissolution of
the Union: Sufficient unto the day is the evil
| thereof.'
MIR. Curry, of Alabama, made lengthy speech on
Abolitionisnl. He did not propose to hold the Re
publican party responsible for eNeesses committed
by men holding anti-slavery opinions; he did not
intend to charge that party with completely in the
raid lately made into Virginia; lie was willing to
allow the mantle of ignorance to cover the act of
the signing OF the recommendation of nncendary
pamphlet. But he made this averment, that the
ideas and principles and politics of the Republican
party are necessarily hostile to the Constitution
and to the rights and interests Of the South for tile
recent invasion made into Virginia, although disa-
vowed and repudiated, and, as he had no doubt
honestly and conscientously, by most of the gen
tlemen on the other side, was in his Judgment the
necessary logical and inevitable sequence of their
principles and doctrines. He proposed to show
the effect and the necessary consequences of this
anti-slavery agitation and feeling.
The Republican party had been driven by events
into the assumption of doctrines from which few
years ago they would have shrank. Mr.. Curry re-
terred to the law in some of the States giving
negroes the right of suffrage, to the operation OF
underground railroads. and to the frequent resist
ance of the fugitive slave law and argued that the
South had good reason to be under apprehension,
lie asked: If you had the power of the govern
ment to abolish slavery, and render slave property
insecure, would you do it
Mr.. Kilgore, of Indiana replied-No, not in the
Southern States.
Mr.. Curry-Why, in the free States no legisla-
ton would be necessary on the subject. But you
would gradually narrow and limit our ground,
until all would have to fee from the country of
our occupancy and residence. | say, boldly, that
the animating principle of the Republican party is
opposition to the extension of slavery in the Ter
ritories. This is the lgament which binds the
heterogeneous mass together; without that, you
recent speech, had suggested that every Govern
ment official should be person imbued with anti.
slavery doctrines, and that that principle should
be one of the tests for getting appointments. If
the North elected Seward, or Chase, or any other
member of the Republican party on sectional
platform, such an election was to be resisted to
the disruption of every tie which binds together
this great confederacy. [Applause from the
Democratic benches.l
Nh. Curry referred to the recent Union demon.
strations ut the North. He said though they were
more or less gratifying, as evincing returning
sense of justice of the North, yet they amounted
to nothing. They were not the true index of public
opinion. The test of public opinion was through
the ballot-box, and looking to this test he found
that New England stood here arrayed in solid
phalanX against the constitutional rights of the
South; that New York stood here with but four or
five representatives disposed to befriend the South
or Southern interests. The same was true to
greater or less extent, In regard to Pennsylvania,
Ohio and other States. When he looked ut these
I,a tn I,o l,ll nd ,