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150 Years Ago Today...Part 2

The Daily True Delta, New Orleans, La., Sunday, August 26, 1860...Part 2

The Capture of Truxillo.- The following letter, descriptive of the taking of Truxillo by Gen. Walker, has been handed us by a friend.

Fort Truxillo, Honduras, Central America, Aug. 12, 1860.

Dear Sir: I steal a few moments form my arduous labors to give you a few items of the fight of the 6th instant. Three hours before day, on the morning of the 6th, with eighty-seven men, rank and file, Gen. Walker disembarked form the schooner John A. Taylor, and after a hard row of five hours we landed in Honduras, three miles from the fort which we now occupy. The disembarkation lasted tow hours. We then took up the line of march for the fort, with Lieut. Parson I command of the advance, followed by Company A, Major J. V. Hooff in command; then by Company B, Maj. T. Dolan in command; the rear guard in command of Lieut. Martin. In the above order we arrived at the enemy’s picket in half an hour after the order to advance was given. The advance guard killed two- the rest ran. At the break of day we entered the town by the beach; the enemy sent their compliments, in the shape of a twenty-four pounder, at us; then was enacted a scene such as you have often witnessed. We were ordered to charge by Col. Henry, and the advance guard, instead of falling back to their company, kept on, and we were in possession of the town and fort in twenty minutes, the citizens say. There was a hundred soldiers in the fort, eighty on the beach, and five or six hundred militia in town under arms. They thought we were the advance guard, and that we had a large body of men. We had one wounded in Company A and two in Company B. I never saw men act so well for raw recruits. T. H.

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Is It Ignorance or Falsehood?

….a territory nine times as large as Alabama, and in which slavery had never previously existed, has legalized and established the institution. That Territory is New Mexico, the legislature whereof, with singular unanimity, legalized at its session last year, the establishment of African slavery. How does Mr. (Albert) Pike (of Arkansas) reconcile this established fact with his impudent, baseless assumption, that the people will not establish slavery in any future territory, unless a right of Congressional intervention, which never can be exercised for Southern interest, be secured? Douglas says, every sensible man says, the experience of the world in all ages and at all time says, that men are the best judges of their own interest; and that, if left to themselves, they will invariably do that best calculated to conserve than promote them….Mr. Pike must be utterly ignorant of the every-day political history of his country, or he would know and admit that, at the last session of Congress, New Mexico applied for admission into the Union with a slave constitution, and Kansas with a constitution inhibiting the institution. In New Mexico slavery never had existed previously; but the people perceived its advantages, and in the exercise of their Popular, (not Squatter) Sovereignty, engrafted it upon their organic law. Kansas, on the contrary, had tried it, and found it unsuited to her soil and climate, and by the exercise of similar power forbid it s existence as contrary to the interests and wishes of her people. Douglas says both should be gratified- the people of New Mexico and the people of Kansas; but the Yanceyites say no to the latter, and the Lincolnites say no to the former. Which, then, do the people of the South approve; the principles of Douglas, which will add New Mexico to the slave States and Kansas to the free; or those of the Yanceyites and Lincolnites, which would exclude both, by leaving them at the mercy of a dog-in-the-manger majority of either branch of Congress?
If the Yanceyites honestly entertain the opinions they express, why did they not admit New Mexico into the Union at the last session of Congress, agreeably to her application?
Mr. Green, one of their most violent champions, was chairman of the Committee on Territories; why then did he not report to admit New Mexico as a State, or deny the authority of her population to establish or inhibit slavery until they were admitted into the Union? If, as the Yancey faction maintain, the people of a territory have no right to legislate in favor of or against slavery within their borders; why, we categorically demand of their Pike neophytes, did not Green, the most obnoxious denouncer of the doctrines of Douglas in the secession camp, report against both the Kansas and New Mexico legislation upon the subject?

Men like Mr. Pike, untaught by years of experience, will still imagine the people to be fools; and we greatly fear the annihilation of their hopes in November next will fail to disabuse them of their inveterate hate of them or make them bow to the wisdom of the mass.
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Mr. Douglas at the South- From the Mobile Register, 23d- Our readers will remember that a number of invitations have been addressed to Mr. Douglas, urging him to visit the South. Several public meetings have forwarded to him resolutions formally inviting him. The State Convention of Georgia and that of Virginia passed unanimous resolutions declaring it to be the earnest wish of the National Democracy of those States that Mr. Douglas should come among them, and address the people of the South in person. Innumerable private solicitations have been received by him to the same effect.

We now have it in our power to state that Mr. Douglas has at length yielded to these repeated entreaties, so far at least as to consent to speak at several points during a tour to North Carolina, which for private reasons has been in contemplation since the death of a near relative of his first wife. He also intends to spend some time at the White Sulphur Springs. A private letter from a reliable source, which informs us of his determination, adds that Judge Douglas will be in Norfolk on the 26th inst., and thence will proceed directly to the Springs. If his health permits him to accept the invitation of the Georgia Democracy, he may be expected in Huntsville, Ala., in the course of a few weeks.
We rejoice at this reconsideration of Judge Douglas’ first determination, and hope that he may be prevailed upon to extend his tour still further South…..
Doubtless, a howl will be raised by the Breckinridge and Lincoln presses, that Judge Doulgas “degrades the Presidential dignity of stumping the country for his own election.” Fudge! Mr. Breckinridge initiated the practice when himself a candidate, and his party now claim it as one of his titles to Democratic suffrages. Mr. Lane has just returned from North Carolina. Mr. Buchanan opened the present campaign with a real stump speech, in manner and matter, from the window of the White House. Mr. Cobb, who is a paid servant of the people, leaves an important department of the public service to stump Georgia. We mention the course of these gentlemen to remind our opponents of the absurdity of making an outcry against what they consider quite proper in their own candidates, and not as affording precendent for Mr. Douglas….

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The Republicans papers complain that Douglas makes the same speech, or rather proclaims the same doctrine everywhere…

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The Disunionist- Their Warfare upon Judge Douglas- (President Buchanan backs Breckinridge)

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Emblematic- The rail-splitting bumbug was lately illustrated by the parade in New York of a company called the Rail-Splitters’ Battalion. The members were attired in a uniform consisting of black cap and cape, and each man carried a rail, on top of which was a lighted swing torch. The officers were similarly attired, but carried a colored hand lamp. Black dress, “dark lanterns,” and marching under the cover of night. How emblematic of the party whose cause they espouse!

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The slaver Thomas Alchorn. New York, Aug. 25.- The captain and mate of the alleged slaver Thomas Alchorn were brought up for examination, and, after a long trial, discharged.

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More Trouble With the Indians.- Two Indian Battles- 22 Indians Killed.- We take the following form the St. Joseph (Mo.) Gazette:

The Pony Express, which left San Francisco on the evening of the 8th, arrived in this city last evening, two days behind time. By the following note to the agents here, Mr. Frank Guckert, form the Pony Agent at Salt Lake, it will be seen that two more Indian fights have occurred:

This express was detailed by an Indian fight at Egan’s Canon, Between Lt. Perkin’s command and the Bannocks. Seventeen Indians were killed and three soldiers badly wounded. A fight also occurred at Shell Creek between the mail employees and the Pah Utah Indians, in which five Indians were killed. A. B. Miller.

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War In China.-…
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England Vs France.-…
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The Lord of Fashion.- Beau Brummel…

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David Upton

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