The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-02-21

on the following Saturday, for the dissolution of
the injunction in the New Almaden case. As the
injunction is based on the charge of fraud in the
title, which charge both Judges have declared in
their opinions to be without foundation, the injunc-
tion has been dissolved, as a matter of course.
The following despatch has been received in this
city,
SAN FRANCIsCo, Saturday, January &c.
The Almaden injunction has this day been dis
solved, on the ground that the title is valid.
EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH MADE BY HON.
JOHN s. PRESTON, COMMISSIONER FROM
SOUTH CAROLINA, BEFORE THE VIRGINIA
CONVENTION.
The speech of the Hon. John S. Preston, Com
missioner from South Carolina, before the Virginia
Convention, on Tuesday last, was one of remarka-
BILE eloquence and power. We regret that the great
pressure upon our news columns prevents from
giving more than the following extracts:
After recalling, for the consideration of the
| Convention, historical facts bearing on the
relation of the States to each other and to the Fed
eral Government, he reviewed the history of the
anti-slavery movement, and the policy of the Re-
publican party, which he characterized as wholly
destructive to Southern interests. He recounted
the various efforts which South Carolina had made
to avert the peril which she had long foreseen was
approaching, and the grievances for which she had
in vain sought the means of redress within the
| Union. He then proceeded to say:
| Notwithstanding all the wrongs which he had
endeavored to group before his bearers, his State
(he proceeded) throughout the country and
throughout ChristendOm, has been charged with
rash precipitancy Was it rash precipitancY to
step out of the pathway when you heard the crash
| OF the falling avalanche? ? Was it rash precipitan-
cy to seek a shelter when you heard the Kissing of
| the coming tempest and saw the storm-cloud close
| down upon you? Was it rash precipitancy to
raise your hands to protect your heart? APP
| plause. Never since Liberty came to be an insti-
tuition among men, have people borne more pa
tiently, forborne more patiently, than the people
of the Southern States with their relations of con-
| federation with the North. As long as it wore the
| form OF silly tanaticism or prurient philanthropy,
we did not complain. As long as we submitted to
partial taxation, save with one convusive struggle
we bore it patiently Even the violations of the
Constitution, the robbery of property, the
murder of our citizens, and every species of fraud
all were borne and we continued to give them our
blood and our treasure to build up the grand edi
! flee and maintain the power of that Republic.
| When all that mad ianatcism could invent was
| hurled against us, we gave them our blood and
sweat offered them our hands and called them
! brothers. This was no fancy picture. Every one
who heard him could attest its truth. But when
at last the mad ianaticsm in its thirst for rapine,
had seized the Constitution itself and distorted it
to ensure ruin, then to delay longer seemed to
us not only base Cowardice, but absolute faulty
| Applause. In South Carolina, at least we felt
that if a son of South Carolina sire could give
counsel to such submission as this, there not
hill from Eutaw to the Cowpens but would have
fallen to crush him for his base ingratiude. Re-
| newed applause.
lie had referred particularly to his State, be-
cause she was much spoken OF, though not much
praised in her career. He was here as a commits
siORer from those peOple-certainy not as their
euogist They had sent him here because he had al
ways with some pride claimed to have sprung from
this soil, and because they thought he would tell
plain story of their wrongs.
Never had mighty drama been opened with
Purer moral subimity than had been manifested in
this revolution in which we were now engaged.
Scarcely had the decree of our subection been
borne to their on the Northern breeze, when,
as if from the very cayerns of The earth. heard
the voice of the people Of South Carolina shouting
back "Resistance to the deatb!' The Legislature
caught that spirit, and with one voice only pro-
claimed "Resstance to the death!' The people of
the State in sovereign counsel, you are now,
with one voice, and one only, ordained "Resstance
to the death! And now there is not in the borders
of that little State, man from l6 to 60, who is not
armed and ready for 'Registance to the death!'
[Appause.l We are very small-we very,
very weak; but il now or in after time that ferv
storm shall fall and consume us; if then, the pill
grim of Liberty from this land shall search beneath
the ruins of Charleston he shall find the sentinel
standing at the sea-gate.
| The speaker prayed his hearers not to believe
or be persuaded that in taking the step of seces-
sion, his people had been forgetful of those things
SO cherished here forgettul of the great and hal
lowed past or reckless of their duty as citizens
1t is that they have memory of the greatness of
| the past that has nerved their arms to this task
They had paused and raised the curtain with their
own hands, and gazed back upon the great and hal
lowed past-upon that temple in which they had
thought Liberty would forever find a shrine; that
temple which Washington and his great compatri-
OTIS had built for them and their children to dwell
in fOrever-that temple which they had deemed
the Palladium of human right; that refuge of the
patriots hope all over the world. They paused,
| and with reverence and piety gazed back on ali
these things Yet with their own hands they had
dragged them down to the earth, and with their
feet trampled on them. Yet they not appalled,,
for their confidence in the God of Justice and
in the God of Truth. They ready to drop the
curtain, and move onward in the path of duty and
of honor. They shouting mob-no fester-
ing fanatics.
With them, liberty was not painted strumpet
dragging herself through the streets. They were
a calm, grave, deberating, religious people. They
were fighting for Liberty, fighting for their faith
ers graves; and in this fight, for days and weeks,
his little State stood alOne-hat little State, around
whose border the guns fired at her capital might
| almost be heard-so small, weak so few, they
began to tight alone against the millions, and had
millions been piled upon millions, in this fight they
would have triumphed The God in whom they
trust, cares for Liberty and for Justice. But they
were now no longer alone. Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, to their side;
and now, young Texas had raised her giant form,
and marches to the right of the column, to frame
| this cOnederated sovereignty. And whenever
a Virginan spoke, his voice listened to, be-
cause it was known he spoke in the tongue of his
mother. He of the humbest of
her sons, but he told them that before the spring
produced grass enough to chapet of
victory, there would be heard one sound of mighty
hosts Of men, and be seen floating over them that
banner whose whole list of c0nquests is glorious,
without one blot stain; and the voice that from
| those hosts came up would be the same that thun-
dered in the ears Of your patriot sires-"Give me
liberty, or give me death ~ Great applause. i
| On that banner would be but one word, and that
| the honored Of Virginia. lie believed he
| had not promised too much. lie believed she would
come and take her place in the front rank of Lib.
! erty and Justice. 4
In conclusion, Mr. Preston said: And now, gen.
| temen, believing that interests which have
| been invaded, and onr rights which have been
| violated, are identical with Virginia, to
! renew our ancient amity and our common glory.
| The people of South Carolina have ordered me to
ask, earnestly and respectfully, the people of Yr-
ginia to unite with her, and her cOnfederated
sisters, in the protection Of those rights and those
interests have thus performed my mission and
have only now, in the name of my government, to
return to this convention my profound acknowl-
| edgements for the honorable courtesy with which
! that mission has been accepted; and on my own
behalf my sincere and honest thanks for the kind
ness and courtesy with which you have listened to
the delivery of my address.
MAYOR CowHIDED BY WoMAy.-A rather lu-
dicrous scene, says the Wheeling hteJgeacer, took
place in Wellsville, on Wednesday, which it is said
created considerable amusement for those who
witnessed it. 1t appears that the Mayor of that
| place, few days since, received anonymous
letter. rejecting slmew hat severely the charac-
ter Of woman named Linton. 1t seems that he
showed the letter to a number Of his friends and
that the matter the principal topic of CONVEX
saton among the inhabitants for some time FL
nally it came to the ears of the woman in question
and she Immediately resolved to have revenge
| Aiming herself with cowhide, she started in
search OF the offending magistrate in terrible
rage, and it only after she had inflicted four or
i've lashes that her arm was arrested by some By
ISLANDERS. The Mayor took it very coolly.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS, the Vice,Presi-
dent of the confederate States of America" is
thus described by Montgomery correspondent OF
the Charleston Courier:
"The personnel of Mr.. Stephens is very striking
He has the appearance of having undergone great
bodily anguish, and his advanced age and gray
hairs contribute to give to his eye restless nerv-
Gus movement. His size is medium and figure re-
markably slim. His forehead is much wrinkled
and his locks flow over the shoulders, which stoop
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