The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-11-05

bat declined, and elected delegate Of their own
An election Of officers under provisional govern
ment, based upon squatter sovereignty principles
had been held, but the result was not definitely
known when the mail left, although Il was believed
that Mr.. Steel had been chosen Governor. :
A brief despatch from New Orleans states that
another extensive conAagraton was raging at
New Orleans on Wednesday night and Thursday
morning, and that the fremen were unable to ex-
ungutsh the flames from lack Of water. The
burnt district comprises seven squares. extending
from Washington to Ninth street. in the Fourth
district The loss is estimated At quarter Of !
million dollars,
Tho sales Of cotton yesterday embraced 1900 bales,
about 800 Of which made In transitu The market
closed with seadiress at the quotations given another
column The Americas came 70 hand at late
an hour In the day 10 produce any upon the market
Flour without change OF The market closed
with less buoyancy for moet descriptions while the de
mand steady and the sales fair Wheat was in good
demand but sales light, the prices demanded BY
holders checked sales Corn inactive, and sales
limited at rates given in another place. Pork was heavy
aud easier though with doing the concession;
mess sold at SIS rs SIS 81 and prime $40 So Sugars
were firm, with sales Of 500 hhds at rates given in
another place. Coffee Arm, while sales were limited
Freghs were steady but engagements were moderate
The Progress or Revolution-The Begin-
ming of the Fad.
In another page Of this days issue of the
HERALD the reader will fno some extracts from
our contemporaries, North and South, giving ex-
preston, not only to their own opinions, but
to the sentiments of the population among
which they circulate. The lecture deifying
John Brown, copied from the Boston Atlas, is
particularly deserving of attention. Washing
ton, and the other heroes of the Revolution of
the last century, are but small potatoes beside
the hero of the second revolution. William
Tell is but faint type of him; while his prose-
cutors are compared with Plate, Gesler and
the Inquisition. Even the cunning and cautious
anti-slavery Washington Era predicts fearful
servile massacres in the Gulf States; while the
pro-slavery Southern journals are preparing
their readers for the worst, and declaring in
favor of immediate secession and separation,
in order to avert bloody civil war.
But blood is already shed; civil war is begun,
and the Southern journals as we'll as the
Northern, are tanning the flames. Wendell Phil
lips and the other panegyrists of Brown insist
that Harper's Ferry is the Lexington
of the revolution of 1859, and will bear
to it the same relation in the page
Of the historian as the event at the little town
in Massachusetts, bore to the seven years. war
| of Independence Brown has been called i'm
| prudent by some Of the organs Of the second
| revolution; but they only mean that he is un-
wise in the same sense that the volunteer leader
of the forlorn hope, who attempts to storm
fortress and is moved down, is considered i'm
prudent by the army who are to follow him
and carry the works. John Brown is only
foolish because he is drawer than his fellow
conspirators, and not wicked and criminal
because of his treason and murder On the
contrary, his cause is, according to them, good
and righteous, and if he had only succeeded
IN his attempt he wuuia not vuly be Woo,
but greater than Washington himself.
He is thus but few steps in advance of
those revolutionary journals and leaders who
are following in his track, baud passibus equis,
not with the same impetuosity with which he
has charged, but still making steady progress
in the same direction. He has led the
way, they are on the road. He is the leader
of the advance guard-they are leading the
| main body and the rear. Their time for the
| assault is not yet come, but it is coming fast
Under the battle cry of Harper's Ferry,
and with the name of John Brown
inscribed on their banners and reechoed
through their ranks, they intend to carry the
State of New York in the ensuing week, and
that is the captured bridge that leads Seward
to the White House, as the passage of the
bridge of Turbigo over the Ticino on the Sd of
June led to the victory of Magenta, and opened
Louis Napoleon's way to Milan. With the
higher law prophet inaugurated in the Capitol
on the 4th of March, 1861, second Solferino
would follow. Even if he were disposed to
adopt moderate counsels, at variance with his
Rochester manifesto, his disciples would not
permit him They would force him forward, as
an eager, impetuous crowd impels onward by
irresistible pressure all who stand in front of
them.
The Harper's Ferry affair is, therefore, but
the sharp skirmish before the general battle.
1t would indeed be very unimportant and
contemplate affair II 1T stood isolated and
alone. But it does not so stand. 1t is the be-
ginning Of the end; the first act Of war; the
first of series of hostilities, the end of which
may be the dissolution of the Union and the
division Of the country into two or three
fragments. From the tone and temper of the
Southern journals. and of the population which
they represent, it seems likely that the South
will not quietly wait till Mr.. Seward is seated
in the Presidential chair. If battle is not given
them before that event, they will probably
take the initiative, cut loose from the North,
and form Southern confederacy, contract
alliances with foreign nations, and sell their
cotton in every market but that of the Northern
States; and "the irrepressible conflict of an
tagonistic and enduring forces" which Mr..
Seward announced, may prove to be of longer