Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1865-12-12
CONGRESS.

Both houses of Congress re assembled yesterday af
| ter their four days vacation In the Senate, Mr.
Wilson presented the petition of $500 coored citizen
of the District of Columbia for the right of suffrage
The petitioners set forth that large proportion
| the colored citizens property holders and pay
large amount of taxes, and they claim that thel
are sufficiently intelligent to build and sustain
churches and institutions of learning, and t.
accumulate property, they are sufficiently in
eligent to vote. President Foster laid before thu
Senate memorial from the Union State Contra
Committee of PENNSYLVANIA, asking, among othel
amendments to the Constitution, that Congress shall
repudiate the debt contracted by the Genera
Government provision prohibiting any State Legis
lature or Convention from assuming paying any
portion of the rebel debt; and that State shall be
allowed to withdraw from the Union without the con-
sent Of all the rest.
The most important feature of the proceedings OF
the day preamble and series of resolutions in
troduced in the Senate by Mr. Wade, and the House
by Mr. Schenck, of Ohio. in rea ton to the
pursued By the Emperor of the French and the En-
peror MaXimilian in the affairs of Mexico and the
indicated policy of Napoleon in declaring that it was
his intention to establish monarchy in Mexico
The preamble cites among other acts contrary to the
spirit of the the decree of the socaled Emperor
Of Mexico, in reesablishng slavery in his dOmnOns.
The resolutions contemplate the present condition
Of affairs in the Republic of Mexico with the most
profound solcitude: sets forth that the attempt
subvert one Of the Republican governments of this
continent by foreign power, and to establish its
ruins monarchy, sustained solely by European bay
onets opposed to the declared policy of the United
States Government and offensive to the spirit of our
institutions; and call upon the President of the
United States to take such steps concerning this
grave matter will indicate the recognized policy
and protect the honor and interests of our Govern
ment.
These resolutions were referred to the Committee
on Foreign Affairs, and ordered to be printed.
Speaker Colfax announced the standing commit
tees of the House of Representatives. Mr.. W ash
burne, of Illinois. is chairman of the committee on
the death of President Lincoln and retains his place
as chairman of the Committee ON Commerce. General
Schenck is appointed chairman of the Committee
of Military Affairs. while Rice of Massachusetts, is
retained as chairman of the Committee on Naval
Affairs General Banks has the first, and Raymond.
of New York, the second place on the Committee on
Foreign Affairs. Morrill,, of Vermont, presides over
the Committee Of Ways and Means. and Hooper, OF
Massachusetts, is second on the list.
OF the Committee on Appropriations which s
really the Committee of Ways and Means, Thad.
Stevens is chairman, and the remaining members.
Raymond. Blow, KassOn, Voorhees,, Farnsworth,
Spaulding Highly and Wright are experienced and
capable men. Pomeroy, Of New York, and Hooper,
of Massachusetts, occupy the first and second places
the Committee on Banking and Currency.
The selections for the various committees in the
main, arc regarded as iudicious and proper. Mary
land is represented the Judiciary Committee and
the Select Committee on Bankrupt Law, by Frank
Thomas: by John l.. Thomas. Jr. on the Committee
on the death of President Lincoln, Committees on
Commerce and Revolutionary Claims; and by Hiram
Mccullough ON the Committee on the District of
Columbia. In another column give the charmen
of all the Committees.
GENERAL NEWS.
Eighty-two deaths occurred in the city last
week. The sanitary condition of the city is excellent
The Richmond papers pay their compl-
ments to Gen. Butler without conscience the report
of Gen. Grant furnishing the text
At the Watervleit Arsenal twenty five hun
dred men were employed during the war. The num-
Der is to be reduced to less than two hundred
General Sherman was at Memphis on the
18th inst and was to leave the next day for Little
Rock, Arkansas, on a tour of inspection.
Major General Howard on Sunday left Sa-
vannah for Brunswick. Ga. Gen. Prince Salm Salm
has been relieved of command at Fort Pulaski and
is on his way to this city,
The Indiana Senate has defeated the bill so
amending the State Constitution as to strike out the
thirteenth article prohibiting negroes from entering
the State.
Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont, is now ma
king tour through the Southern States for the pur
pose of delivering lectures in behalf of such charit
able objects the citizens of the different points at
which he speaks may designate.
Mr.. T. Fl. Stafford, Jr., the famous mathe :
matician and at present the chief astronomer at the
Cambridge Observatory. has been chosen astronomer
in-chief of the new Chicago Observatory.
The North Presbyterian Church was organi-
zed in Washington last Sabbath. Drs. Tustin and
Gurley, and Rev. Mr.. Fox and Taylor participating
in the exercises.
Mr.. Chauncey NJ. Depew, Secretary of State
of New York. has declined the position of Minister
to Japan, to which he was some time ago appointed
by the President
Senator Morgan is preparing bill granting
the pensions to sailors as are now granted t
soldiers. As the law stands, sailors who have los
both arms or both legs only receive s. per month
while soldiers who have lost two limbs receive 81
per month.
The wreckers have raised large portion OF
the famous rebel iron-clad. the Mcrrimac. which
sunk off Norfolk. The composition wheel of Mint
TONS fifty feet of the stern and section of the shat
were brought up at one lifting and have been car
ried to the navy-yard.
Mayor Wallach, of Washington, says The
avenues which under the care of Congress are
quagmires and mud holes, while the streets unde
the management of the city being we'll paved
The Chronicle lays all the blame of Washington muC
upon the City Fathers and altogether it is quite
mud die.
The Presidents of the Wool Growers Asso
citation. to meet at Syracuse on Wednesday next ar
as follows The Hon. Henry S. Randall New
York; the Hon. R. NJ. Montgomery, Ohio; Eli Stitson
Esq. Wisconsin: Daniel Kelly, Jr.. Esq., Illinois;
W. Colburn, Esq, Vermont G.. B. Loring Esq., New
| England.
Gold sold yesterday at 1451 and 145 regu
lar way. and at 14434. twenty days. Dealings at tn
| Stock Board were almost exclusively in gold Gov
ernments strong for all the SERIES the sales foot
ing up $4,000. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad closeC
at S11119 and S21 for City Passenger Money wa
| offering freely at COZ.
Edwin Forrest has taken steps to be re
married to his former wife, She sometime since pro
cured decree of divorce, and large allowance GU
of her husbands estate but he has recently taken al
appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States t.
have the decree annued. The effect of a reversal
the judgment of the court below would of course,
to reunite the parties in the holy bonds of wedock
In the City Circuit Court, yesterday morn
| ing Judge Alexander delivered his opinion in tn
cases of the two young men held by General Wool
ley as deserters-Luther S. Sands and Alexande
Kirkland. He was of opinion that they were not lie
sally held by the Government and therefore ordere
their discharge. General Woolley complied with tn
order and the boys restored to their parents.
The Mayor of Louisville has been impeach
ed and is to be tried before the Board of Aldermen
to-day. He had refused to sign an ordinance grant
ing the right OF way to street railroad company
when the Council passed it over thesveto. A mas
meeting OF the citizens, however was held on Satur
day. and resolutions passed heartily endorsing hi
| course.
The Legislature of Vermont has transmit
ted to the Kentucky Legislature resolution latel
adopted by that body, the object of which is to se
equal rights without respect to color to all cti
zsns residing in the seeded States including the
Of the elective franchise" Gov. Bramlstte OPPOSE
very strongly the adoption Of such resolution an