New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-02-18

Mousse Sunlnas lees 3He RGdicat Republican
Passy.-Ine 81. aair Flats and the Mouths Of
Tie Mississippi The AeTicdn Ts'edtg-P Pacific
haalrodd-7he House Officers, ete.
Special 10 the New Orleans Crescent
WASHINGTON, Feb. ii, 1860.
Ed. Crescent The legislative business Of Con-
gress has fairly commenced, and number Of i'm
portant bills have already been noticed The
Post Office Appropriation bill has been passed in
the Senate, with important amendments abolshing
the franking privilege, requiring the contractors e
accept payment Of interest their debt in full Of
all damages, etc. T is not likely that the popus
lar branch of Congress will ever consent to the
abolition Of the ranking privilege, although It
would saws the Government some two Of three
millions Of dollars, besides greatly increasing the
efficiency Of the postal service
There is a great deal of clamor here on the sub
ject of the arrangement of the Standing Commit
| tees of the House; and the Democratic members,
generally, declare that they will not serve under
the men Of opposite politics into whose hands are
submitted the most important legislative functions
Complaint is made that Mr.. Pennington has disap-
pointed the charitable expectations OF Conserva.
tive men, by giving almost every influential post
to an endorser Of the Helper Book. The Demo-
Gratis are discontinued, of course, at the provision
made for members OF the Southern Opposition,
although the few appointments very scanty
portion of the patronage at best-were conceded
to them only to compass the defeat Of the Admin
istration, and not, as Mr.. Buchanan's organ would
have us believe, as q display Of gratitude. Mr..
Gilmer, Of North Carolina, is Chairman of the
Committee on Elections; Mr.. Etheridge, of the
Committee on Indian Affairs; Mr.. Mallory, Of the
Committee on Railroads and Canals and Mr.. Hat
ton, OF the Committee on Naval Expenditures.
There are numbers Of uncertain rumors here as
to the change or modification of the Black Republic
can Presidential programme, since the defeat OF
Helperism and the twin atrocity of Sewardism in
the late Speaker contest. These rnmors, however,
are premature and silly, although their general
conclusion is freely admitted by all, that the
Seward e slate y for 1860 is rayed and broken The
fact is, the radical Republican party Is dead. The
party that proclaimed the doctrine Of irrepressible
conflict, inscribed its banner with bloody notices,
encouraged fanatical ideas Of the excison Of slay
cry by insurrectionary war, instigated the atrocy
of the Harper's Ferry raid. and elevated to the
ranks of a martyr an assassin with the crimson
signs Of his craft yet freshupon him, dead beyond
redemption, and buried beyond the hope Of resur-
ties, what new combinations of Black and Brown
Republicans, what unions of patriots and polite
ians, brief as woman's love,' what confusion
worse COMPOUNDED are to succeed, remain to be
seen.
President Buchanan is not pleased at the enter
tainment by the country of his latest bid for the
Presidency in the veto of the st. Clair Flats BILL
and is out in another message to show that he
knows no North or South, but nothing but the
common interest of the country, on the subject
Of internal improvements He alludes to the fact
as alleged, that s690,00O have been appropriated
by Congress for the purpose ofremoying the bar
aud distractions at the mouth of the Mississippi,
with but little, If any, practical benefit to its navi
CATION.
There is great interest felt here in the fate Of the
Mexican treaty and it is hoped that no doubts
will be longer entertained by any portion of the
Senate to the propriety Of it's ratification be-
cause Of the supposed inability Of the Juarez Gov
ernmdt to carry out its stipulations. Delightful
antcipations indulged of the resumption Of our
commercial intercourse with Mexico under the
stipulations of the treaty. The commercial re-
ports received from our consuls oft the State De-
partment represent the present state of industry
and trade in Mexico as deplorable in the extreme
Most of the large landed properties have gone to
waste for the want of labor to cultivate them; and
it is represented that even the invasion and con-
quest Of Mexico by the American army in 1S47,
had nothing like the destructive effect upon agri-
culture, manufactures ETC., that the civil war that
has ragged there for the last two years has brought
upon the country. These are official representa-
tons, and present important commercial consider
atoms in favor of the treaty, which, besides the
advantages Of its transit stipulations, offers others
even greater, in the intercourse Of our trade with
eight or ten millions consumers of our cotton goods
and our mechanical products and wares.
DR.. Wozencraft, the intelligent Commissioner
appointed ty the recent State Convention in Cali,
fornia, has left here for the South to bring before
the Legislatures of the different States the pract
cability and policy Of constructing the Pacific
Railroad.
The command Of the department Of Texas has
been assigned to Breyet Col Robert b. Lee I'd
Cavalry, who will repair to the headquarters of
the department. and assume command according
to his rank by breyet.
The rush for office at the Capitol continues ire
pressibIe ~ painful spectacle, indeed, to Wit
ness the degradation Of the scene and to see even
pointments at the hands of the newly elected off.
GERS of the House. & Mazeppan was never SO
pursued by the wolves, as Mr.. Forney, who com
pares himself to that romantic knaye, is hunted
down by small plaee-hunt ers. He says that he has
received more than five hundred applications for
appointments, although he has only some twenty
or 50 in his gift The pressure in the other depart
mens il similar. The passages around the hall have
for the last few days been filed with mobs Of
ofiee-beggars, containing persons of every condi-
ton, description and age down to the little boys
in their best roundabouts and cleanest dckeys,
who want to be pages or folders, and whom their
anxious mammas are willing to sacrifice on the altar
Of the public good for two dollars day. So far,
the new officers have been rather sparing of re.
moyals; but it is understood that clean sweep of
the late incumbents will be made in good time.
Speaker Pennington has made the most of his pro.
scriptive power by removing the restaurateur pc
low stairs, and putting in his place Black Repub
lican ehef dcuisiae to physc members with abo
lition broths Y
A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY.-The Journal de Char
ties relates terrible affair:
As little girl, ten years of age, was walking by
the side of road at Benneval, France, she was
suddenly attacked by an enormous mastf and
before her father could arrive, the dog, throwing