Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1859-01-14
Gaatrhmau & Stair Journal
BY F. P WALTON.
MoNrPELIER,JAN. IA, 1859.
FROM WASHINGTON.

Day was exceedingly unlaNorable lot inc az
customed receptions" consequently COM
paratively few attended upon the President
and Heads of Departments and private citi-
zens and, as another consequence, there was
more sobrioty than usual The pleasantest
scene witnessed was procession of orphan
children. under the direction of nuns, who
are their teachers The children were plainly
hut neatly dressed, and were very happy. A
lady Of this city had invited them all to
New Years dnner-thus following custom
which the ladys mother had adopted in her
fe-timo. There are two associations here
for the support Of orphan children, one Cath
Ollie and one Protestant, and both were sup
ported, last year, at least, by common contri-
buttons.
On Tuesday both branches of Congress
reassembled, a quorum appearing in both
Houses
Netc Senate Hail.
The Senate met on Tuesday morning in the
old room, and after farewell speeches from
Senator Crittenden and the Vice President,
the Senate took possession of its new hall
This room is in the north building Of the
capitol extension Its size is eighty feet by
forty-eight, exclusive Of the galleries-above
the galleries. one hundred and twelve feet by
eighty. The walls and ceilings are all of iron,
except about two-thirds of the ceiling over
head, which, with the roof, is of glass,
through which the room receives all its light
i'm the night by thousands of gas-lights.
placed between the ceiling and roof. In the
adornment of this room there is all the mag
nifcence Of expense for which the hall Of the
House is notorious, but everything is in inf
nitely better taste Instead of the bright
red and superintendent gold, which gives the
House nashy hue, neutral colors prevail in
the Senate. lightly relieved with gold The
seats Of the Senators are arranged in three
semicirces, with passage through the three
circles in front of the Vice Presidents chair to
the center door. When this door is opened and
the intervening ones there is an uninterrupt-
ed view and passage from the chair of the
Vice President to the chair of the Speaker Of
the House--a distance of nearly six hundred
feet being the distance from the north to the
eouth end Of the Capitol. Some Of the ad-
joining rooms to the hall of the Senate are
much more deliberately ornamented than the
hall itself. In one of them, designed for the
use of Senators, the walls and ceilings are of
polished Italian marble, and others are rich
and gay with paintings and gold. Through
out the Capitol, the grand fault is an almost
utter lack Of good taste-pure and simple
The plain but exquistely neat finish of the
old Capitol of Vermont was infinitely better
than this and will add that as grand as
are the proportions of this pile, there is not,
and will not be, any where about it. any thing
so grand, so perfect in proportions, or so
striking as the portico Of our State House.
Every portico here There are TO be eight, |
think is small, comparatively and the whole
building, on the exterior, is cut up into small
spaces, and filled with small ornaments, so
that there is no one thing about it in keeping
with the dimensions Of the whole Even the
pedments arc to be filled with statuary, which
will look like pigmies.
The Slave Trade
Is topic which is just now agitating the
politicians, and especially Southern men, more
than any thing else. At the last session, Mr.,
Walton offered resolution instructing the
Judiciary Committee to report upon this sub
ject, especially with view of meeting the
new DISCUSSES in which the slave trade is hid
den-as coolies and apprentices - but
the chairman of the committee Mr. Houston
of Alabama) objected, and the resolution
could not be received. At the present ses-
sion. Mr.. Blair of Missouri offered the same
resolution, and Mr.. Houston again objected.
The prospect now is that some similar prop
osiiion will again be made, and with Southern
support-perhaps coming from Southern
man. The signs Of the times, on this topic,
are remarkable. When the "Wauderor' land
ed its cargo on our shore, the slave-tr was
in fact ro-opened, and subsequent occurrences
thus far show that it was sustained by public
sentiment in the region where the slaves were
landed. Hence the organ of the Administers
ton lthe Union salyed over this modern
specimen of piracy on the broad assertion
that neither in the North nor the South can
the laws of the land be executed that North
ern sentiment will not punish runaway slaves,
and Southern sentiment will not punish the
piratical slave-traders. Now, discussion has
ensued in the newspapers. the people have
begun to think and talk, and statesmen, es-
peeially Southern statesmen, are gravely re-
heciing upon it. When Senator Hammond
OF S. c. declared against re-opening the slave
trade. as Speaker Orr had done before him. a
large class of Southern men-the most pow
ertnl class, think-were truly represented.
While, for political purposes, Southern dem
agogues have proposed a renewal of the trade,
1t is to be noticed that this has been in the
main where new cotton and sugar lands are
waiting for culture. The older cotton States
and the Slaye-produeing States, have not YET
spoken. An increase Of slaves and a cheap.
ening OF them is, of course, for the immediate
interest of new States, and of men without
capital in all the States where slave labor i,
profitable; but it is quite as much against the
interest Of VIRGINIA Ma.,,io,l U.t