The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-02-16

tion of State authority, to attack the Capitol
any other public property in this District, or to
seize the District. 1fit should be admitted that
any one of these organizations was hostile to the
Government, entertained unlawful purposes,
they are in no proper sense secret, and are not,
therefore, such contemplated in the resolu
tiOn of the House.
The committee are unanimously OF the opinion
that the evidence produced before them does not
prove the existence Of a secret organization, here
elsewhere, hostile to the Government, that has
for its object, upon its own responsibility, an at
tack upon the Capitol any of the public proper
ty here, interruption of any of the functions
of the Government.
The committee submit herewith all the testimony
taken on the subject, and ask that the same and
this report be printed and that the committee be
discharged from the further consideration OF the
subject.
Mr.. BRANCH's VIEWS.
Mr.. Branch IN. Co. from the same Committee,
presented his views, follows:
That he concurs entirely with the majority, that
the testimony does not establish the existence of
conspiracy, or combination, purpose on the
part of any persons to seize the public property, in
the District of Columbia, or to interfere with the
regular operations of the Government. He thinks
it has been established, notwithstanding the dii1i-
Guilty OF proving negative, that no such conspiracy
does exist, either in this District or elsewhere.
1t appears from the testimony of Lieutenant Gen
eral Scott that seven companies of artillery and
one company of sappers and miners, OF the regular
army, have been ordered to, and are quartered IN
this city, in close vicinity to the Capitol under
mistaken belief that the public property in the Dis
trict was or would be in danger, and the Commit
tee being unanimously of the opinion that no such
combination or conspiracy or purpose hostile to the
Government its property exists, the undersigned
would ask the passage of the following resolution:
ReSolred That quarterng of troops of the regular
army in this District, and around the Capitol, when not
necessary for their protection from hostile enemy and
during the session of gess mpotic and offensive
and if permitted, become destructive of civil liberty
and in the opinion OF this House. the regular troops now
iptF fowl, I,rpfI Otyalt nfrnr1
MICHIGAN AND THE VIRGINIA CONFERENCE.
DETROIT, Feb. H.-Governor Blair sent mes
sage into the Legislature to-day, accompanying
which was the joint resolutions of the New York
and Indiana Legislatures, for the appointment OF
Commissioners to the Washington Peace Conven-
tion. He says: "Being aware of the previous
action of the Legislature upon this subject, have
hestated before calling attention to it, butit seems
to me that the circumstances affecting the propri
ETY. of sending the Commissioners are so far chang
ed as to Justify further consideration of the ques
tion." 1t was believed that the Legislature would
reconsider its action and that Commissioners would
be appointed.
THE OBJECT OF THE SOUTHERN ooNFEDERACY.
The New Orleans Picayune of the 5th instant
says:
The Southern Confederacy will not be the work
of politicians. 1t will be the refuge of a people
who seek, beneath the shelter of their own govern
ment, the peace and equality which were denied
them under the old Union. They ask now, as then,
they entertain no aggressive feeling towards any
country. They would not, if they could, destroy
any of the property of the North, or abridge any
right that is theirs. They would part peace. and
whom they could not live together as one. They
have been driven from the common territory of the
confederacy; they have been denied their equal
right in the common Inheritance, and now they
have given up all, to settle down on their own soil
and surround themselves with institutions essential
to their we-being. Is such a people to be con.
quered? Will it be any easy matter to subjugate
them? Will the North undertake iH
Let those who love the Union so much that they
would be willing to undertake the most fearful of
all wars war of conquest. to preserve 1t, reflect
for moment that this Union was as dear to the
people of the South to themselves; and then let
them consider the amount of oppression and wrong
they must have suffered before resorting to dis
niOn as a remedy. If the Northern people give "a
thought in this direction they will come to safer
conclusions than any which calculation of the
cost of civil war is likely to suggest. They will
reverse their hostile action, sympathize with those
whom they have wronged beyond endurance, and
obtain, throuh the nstrumentalities of good neigh
borhood and kindness, what never yet pro-
cured for any one.
LINCoLN's SPEECH AT PITTsBURG.
The following is Mr.. Lncoln's speech, delivered
at Pittsburg, as published in the New York Tri
6lne:
''He said he would not give them speech, as he
thought it more rare, if not more wise for pub
lie man. He expressed his qualification and sur
prise at seeing SO great crowd and such bound
less enthusiasm manifested in the right time and
under such untoward circumstances to greet so
unworthy an individual as himself: This was un
doubtedly attributable to the position which, more
by accident than by worth, he had attained. He
remarked further that if all these whole-souled
people whom he saw this evening before him were
for the preservation of the Union, he did not see
how it could be in danger. Cheering, and cries
of Union and compromised He had intended
to say few words to the people of Pittsburg, the
greatest manufacturing city of the United States,
upon such matters as they desired; but, as he had
adopted the plan of holding his tongue for the
most part during the last canvass, and since
his election, he thought he had perhaps better
now continue to hold his tongue. [Cries of go
on, go on Well, am reminded that there is an
Allegheny city as well as an Allegheny county
the former the banner town and the latter the ban
county, perhaps, of the world. l glad to
see both of them, and the good people of both
That may not disappoint these, | will say few
words to you tomorrow to the peculiar interests
of Allegheny county"
AFFAIRS IN CHARLESTON.
Yesterday we published an editorial article from
the Charleston Mercdry of Tuesday, dissenting
from those enactments of the Provisional Govern
ment in which are embodied Tariff, and posi-
tive condemnation of the Slave Trade; and in the
Mercury of the succeeding day we find article
from the pen of Leonidas W. Pratt, the originator
and leading advocate of the proposition for reopen
ing of the Slave Trade, which is introduced with
the accompanying editorial comments:
We admit that the Government is but provision
al and temporary, therefore, and that the features
objected to may not be carried into the Permanent
Government, and probably were never intended to
be carried there. They were doubtless intended
to conciliate the Border Slave States, and induce
them to an early union; but the concern we have
expressed was not unwarrantaole. 1t may be
questionable whether, should the Border Slave
States be induced to union by such attractive tea-
lures of the Constitution, it would be proper to
propose a change. 1t is to be doubted whether,
when they shall have entered, it will be pos
sibe for the Cotton States to make any changes
to which they may except-and, as We would cer-
tany lament the final adoption of the policy ex-
cepted to-as we would lament Constitutional
recognition of protective policy, and Constitu-
tional brand upon the institution of domestic sa-
very-we think it eminently important that those
who deprecate these measures should make the
efforts necessary to defeat them.
ACCIDENT.
James G. Allen, member of the Abbeville Com
pany, stationed at Fort Moultrie, while playfully
chasing comrades through the corridors of
the Moutrie House, Tuesday last, came in con-
tact with bayonet on a gun in the hand of one of
his companions, and the weapon entering the right
eye penetrated to the brain and caused his death in
a few minutes. This melancholy accident, says the
Courier, has cast gloom over the cheerful hearts
that were prepared to lose their friends in noble
warfare, but were not readyto enc so promising
and so blessed with virtues thus rudely and sud-
denly smitten with the hand of the destroyer.
Even though we should be spared the necessity
of defending our rights at the point of the sword,
there hearts that will long bleed afresh at the
memory of the great movement which South Caro-
lima inaugurated.
Mr.. Allen was but nineteen years old. His char
acter without spot, and he was greatly be-
! loved by his brother soldiers.
DENIAL.
A "Lutheran pastor'' denies in the Courier the
statement which appeared in the Frostburg (Md. J
Gazette that Rev. DR.. J. A. Brown, President OF
the Lutheran Theological Seminary, in Newberry,
South Carolina, driven out of that section, be-
of his refusal to bear against the North
| The writer commends the zeal and ability of DR..
| Brown, and adds that, in common with all the
ministers of Newberry, that gentleman performed
patrol duty once in every two weeks, but he en-
phaticaly denies that DR.: Brown was solicited
to take up arms against the North, that any per-
son in South Carolina ever insuted him on account
| of his political opinions. His departure from
| South Carolina, the correspondent adds, was the
| result of his own choice and inclination, and moi
ofany elective measures the part Of the Seminary
| Board or the people of Newberry.
| WASHINGTON RUMORS
From the Correspondence of the Northern Journals.
| HOW THE GOVERNMENT CAN RAISE MONEY.
| Able inanciers here say that if Congress will
authorize the issue of treasury notes in sums o.
| $50 and Sl00 each, with per cent. per annum in
| terest, payable to order, with a stamped form or
| the back, so that single Endorsement will make
| them payable to bearer, and then will make then
| receivable for all Government dues after giver
| date, the Government will be speedily relieved
| from remotest danger of financial deadlock. A
| large class of Government creditors would prefer
l T. s.A h.