New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-02-06

/ Wahdyatcdt of lie Pennsylvania Fotes from
' sn q ~, e@lsea rs I, ia, Efci aa
nsinislation Gdnrdsstng for Breckenridge for
i The Sucesssi0n--Jdnaes Gordon Bennett at his
old ,cork- The President on a Horse case ~
| Theatrical q.
! Special to the New Orleans Crescent
WASHINGTON, January %, 1860.
The electric wire has ere this conveyed to you
intelligence of the crisis yesterday in the Speaker
i conflict in the House, and Of the defeat of MIR.
Smith of North Carolina, the national candidate,
i by shameful retraction of votes from him before
] the ballot was announced. This result was accom-
1 plished by the withdrawal of three PENNSYLVANIA
! votes, previously cast by E. Joy Norris George
w. Scranton and Benjamin F. Jenkin, for Mr..
Smith, the withdrawal being made only when it
had become certain that by the change of votes on
the part of the Northwestern Democrats the gen
i tleman from North Carolina had been elected,
waiting only the announcement of the ballot to be
declared Speaker.
/ AT this sudden reversion of the votes in the
| House, the scene was one Of most tremendous ex-
ctement-the galleries, black with human beings,
shouting and kissing, while members attempted,
amid deafening shouts of "order,n to make them
\ selves heard. All the circumstances combined to
1 make the contest one of most deep and suspensive
interest. AT the first calling Of the roll, Mr. Smith
had only received some ninety odd votes, but the
sudden and gallant change Of the Northwestern
| Democracy, with but two or three exceptions to
\ him. produced an instant impression on the House.
ana evidently gave sudden surprise to the Black
Republican members. As gentlemen on the Demo-
cratic side rose one after another to explain their
change to Mr.. Smith, it was still for considerable
4 time not supposed that there would be sufficient
/ i ala
tons are somewhat tedious, and members, although
interested in the proceedings, do not yet exhibit
any marked signs of excitement Mr.. Haskin, of
New York. the pistoldropping member, is conf
dent that no Speaker be elected, and expresses
an anxiety to 20 home to dinner. But it is no time
now for snch every day matters as dinner. As
member after member comes up, and pronounces
his change of vote, Mr. Smith nears the goal of the
| Speakers chair z..
/ The Black Republicans sit feebly smiling ina sort
| of blank dismay. The excitement on the anti
Republican side of the Hall is intense. As the
critical votes are given in, the breath of the vast
assemblage on the floor and in the galleries is
bound up in sudden, suspensive silence and as
each of the last few Democratic voters stands in
the aisle and announces his vote for the nationaI
candidate in words low and measured, yet heard
strangely clear and distinct the House rings with
sudden and tremendous applause, Gentlemen on
the floor and in the galleries are keeping record
of the vote. The whisper is caught up and passes
through the galleries that Smith is elected There
| is sudden illumination of faces. The vast assem-
/ bage is waiting to burst out into unresraned APP
| pause. Mr.. Sherman rises sharply and casts his
vote for Mr.. Corwin. Another pause. Three of
| the Pennsylvania members-three Of ''the peoples
| party''-three sheepish looking men, rise almost
| simultaneously to withdraw their votes from the
already elected Speaker! There is sudden fall
4 ing Of countenances in the galleries, and wither-
| ing hiss, hot with passion, intense with scorn and
disappointment and anger sweeps through the
1 House like a blighting curse. In vain the Demo-
/ cratic and American members seek to rally their
1 forces-in vain they speak wildly and at random
| to gain time while other of their fellow members
in the open spaces of the hall, in the cloak rooms
| and in the lobbes are begging Northern men to
reconsider and to come to their support, beseech-
ing them, gesteulating to them, and madly press
1 ing around them. All in vain The election is lost
1 for this day at least and the House adjourns.
4 This episode in the House Unjust leave to your COM
ments. I, however, communicate only fact when
state that the Indignation here is boundless at the
betrayal Of the national conservative parties by the
| Pennsylvania members referred to. MFR. Smith had
been recommended to them as in favor of what they
| paraded as their own hobby-protection; whilst
| his nationality was placed beyond all question by
repeated assurances that lie was man outside of
| all existing organi2atiOns-a Wing of the school of
Webster and of Clay, independent Of the American
and all other parties, and gentleman of integrity
and virtue in all the relations Of life. There is no
| hope ofreclaiming these Pennsylvania votes and
the only prospect that remains Of election by the
national parties in the House is in the divisions and
animosities of the Black Republican members with
respectte their new candidate. The events Of yes.
terday at least determined the defeat of Sherman,
| which many of the Southern members esteem to be
a victory in itself.
But TO pass to other topics, especially as the tel
| egraph may, even before this reaches you, give
you the ultimate result of the struggle for Speaker
which is now too confused and uncertain to haz-
ard an opinion upon. While contentious are occu-
plying Congress, the Presdent.makers and pipe
layers are not idle. 1t is well known here that
tremendous efforts are being made in the Middle
States to secure the Charleston nomination for Mr..
Breckenridge, as if is understood that Mr.. Blu
chanan has ultimately and finally adopted him as
the candidate of the Administration. In the mean
time the Douglas Central Club here is not idle, but
is strewing its documents over the country as thick
as autumn leaves.
| The House, in its present unorganzed condition,
is unable to take proper action upon the outrage
Gus attacks made by the New York Herald upon
one Of its members Mr.. Pryor, Of Virginia. 1t ap-
| pears that the Herald, in revenge of some recent
remarks Of Mr.. Pryor, is in the habit of nterpo-
lating, in the regular Congressional reports such
offensive and disgusting impertinencies as the fol-
lowing phrases, repeated at every paragraph:
Mr. Pryor the filthy liar and libeler, made no re-
mark -" Mr. Pryor, the beast and slanderer of the
benign mother of Presidents, silent etc., etc.
The charges of Mr.. Pryor upon the editor of the
Herald are scarcely of nature to be answered by
such obscene driyel as this, which can only bring
the paper into the lowest contempt.
1t has already been widely announced that the
erection of Mills equestrian statue Of Washington
is to be celebrated the I'D ultimo. It is to be
placed in what is known 81 the CIRCLE an arid
and mean little spot of ground between the Fede-
raj metropolis and the village Of Georgetown.
Would you believe it, the citizens of the latter
place feel SO seriously nsuted by the circumstance
that in the position of the statue the tail of the
horse will be turned toward the classic grounds OF
Georgetown, as to have presented remonstrance
| tn the President m the subiect They are MORALLY