DECLARATION OF WAR.- We all have a lively recollection of the election movements this time four years ago, how Slidell the immaculate, and Wise the bold, had prepared the hearts of the people of this region for war, in the event of the election of Fremont, a Carolinian by birth, a Southerner by education, to the Presidency of the United States. No act of disloyalty to the Union, no invasion of our territory, no infringement of our rights, no war upon our institutions or our peculiar property, was deemed necessary or required upon his part to justify the hostilities Slidell, Wise, Davis, and a host of other braves of equal proclamation renown, declared themselves prepared to wage, should a majority of the people of this Union, wisely or unwisely, loyally or traitorously, see fit to elect him to the Presidency. He, Fremont, the aforesaid, had committed himself to principles, in the opinion of these immense patriots and conservators of Southern rights, which utterly disqualified him for the great post, and, in their high determinations, they had resolved him unworthy, unfit and ineligible for the Presidential office. Like a great many others, at the time of which we write, we looked on and laughed at the fun, well knowing, never doubting, that the whole was one of those farcical displays which the higher artists in the political arena know so well how to produce when the interest of their audience in the performances begins to flag, or when the chance for a successful stimulation of the jaded appetite of the public is presented. The election passed over at the time, however, by the success- how obtained Slidell the heroic can explain- of the present imbecile and corrupt incumbent of the place, and in consequence Wise perpetrated no rape of the National treasury, nor Houmas John any bombardment of Washington, both of which great exploits consequently were lost to an expectant world. The celebrated letter of our Houmas friend, written upon that occasion, has slipped from the pigeon hole in which usually are deposited such astounding productions for future reference, otherwise we should now present it to our readers as an illustration of the astonishing change of opinion and strategy four short years can produce in men so important and powerful as Slidell, Wise, Davis, and their ten thousand fellow-generals, without privates, are in their own estimation. Then, as we have said, Wise was not to wait for the inauguration, but was forthwith to seize upon the Federal treasury, while the Brigadier Bombardier of Houmas was to leave the Federal city in ashes, Davis and the lesser military lights extinguishing at their leisure the rank and file of the free State abolitionists and dough faced Democrats indiscriminately. Providentially or otherwise the country escaped the vengeance denounced against it by these men of valor by electing James Buchanan, an old public functionary, and in due course putting Slidell, the modest, at the head of the table, Davis at the side eating place, and our staunch and peppery Virginia Governor an outside watcher for crumbs or comfort, where during the four years which have elapsed, he has nearly famished from hunger and cold. Singularly enough, however, the same actors precisely are again on the stage, Slidell as usual (finger in mouth) leading the innocent sucklings in his wake; but this time the war dodge has given way, and instead the most dulcet whining is heard to emanate from throats once resonant of war. The chief of the irrepressible conflict is now occupying the place of the soldier Fremont, the author of the most savage declarations against the institutions of the South, is now in nomination for the first executive office of the nation; but where, it will be eagerly demanded, are the banded warriors who, sword in hand, were ready, nay eager, to resent so grievous an insult to the South four years ago? And echo answers, where? A voice, as if palsied by age, or choked with the nightmare, is occasionally heard deploring the fate of the nation from the imminence of abolition success, but its owner responds to the enquiry of the alarmed, of, what is to be done? That he is himself the supporter of the opposing faction which has no hope of success, and his principles compel him thus indirectly to aid the enemy, rather than vote for or support a friend of the Union, who is capable of defeating the foe were it not for the infidelity in his own camps. Not a syllable of armed opposition to the elevation of Lincoln, the father of the irrepressible conflict, now is whispered by the indignant conservators of Southern honor and Southern institutions of four years ago, even while these sincere upholders of our national rights are directly and indirectly aiding in the elevation of a man who, if they are to be believed, the South should perish rather than submit to his administration.
Fortunate for the nation is it that all this humbug has been so conspicuously exploded; that the Bobadil nonsense of the political charlatan and the rhodomontade of the inflated enthusiast are thoroughly exposed, and that the people have learned that it is upon their own exertions, and not upon traders in public office, they must rely for the preservation of their laws, the maintenance of the constitution and the stability of their system of government. If such a calamity should befall us as the election of Lincoln, by the Abolitionist of the North and Secessionist of the South, the people need not despair. It is still in their power to unite, forgetting all minor differences, and send new and better men to the national councils than those who have betrayed and deceived them. Already it is seen, before a Black Republican calamity has overtaken them, the people of Oregon, California, Missouri, and other States, have so changed their legislative bodies, that Lane, Smith, Green, Gwin, Bright, Fitch and others, shall no more forever abuse their confidence or defy their wishes, and in this way it will not be long again before Douglas and other faithful men in the Senate of the nation will stand, as they long stood, the ramparts of the Constitution and the defenders of the people, irrespective of geographical or sectional distinctions. Should the conspiracy succeed in electing Lincoln, it will only the more certainly unite as one man every true man in the nation, and as the national candidate is young enough to wait four years more, we can at once commence the campaign again for the election of Douglas in 1864.
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Naval.- The United States ship Preble sailed on the 21st inst. From the Pensacola Navy-yard for Boston.
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The London Chronicle, of the 9th inst., in an article on the slave trade, has the following language: “If the Republican candidate for the Presidency of the United States succeeds, England may hope for a more genuine and genial cooperation against the slave trade than has yet been obtainable. It is not improbable that terms may be agreed upon for a mutual right of visit, to the great advantage and the honor of the American flag.”
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The Boston Atlas says: We have seen a letter from Geo. F. Brokley, K. G. O., dated at Richmond, August 3d, addressed to a large manufacturer of arms in this State, giving an order for arms in large quantities to be delivered at Matamoros, opposite Brownsville in Texas, by the first of October, 1860, and offering to pay for them in cash on delivery at that place.
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Turned Lecturer.- Miss Delia A. Webster, who has gained wide-spread notoriety by her efforts in running off slaves from their masters in Kentucky, has lately been lecturing to sparse audiences in Cincinnati.
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The Weather and Crops In England.- The London correspondence of the New York Commercial writes on the 8th inst:
The state of the weather still continues the most interesting topic, and it is as perplexing as interesting. The temperature is lower, and the fall of rain more continuous than at any similar period in memory. Every ray of change proves only temporary. A solitary morning of partial sunshine is almost invariably followed by a drenching day of cold rain…the belief is still general that if a fortnight or three weeks of dry warmth should arrive at last, the yield (crops) will be far form unsatisfactory….
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Decline of the California Trade.- In no department of commerce has there been so great a decline shown as in the California trade for the past year, and especially since January, 1860. New York, that used to send her eight or ten ships per month, now sends three or four, and Boston averages now about two a month, instead of four as formerly….this important business, which now for nearly two years has been so unfortunate to Atlantic shippers. California, with each succeeding year, will need less and less of our bulky articles, such as provisions and breadstuffs, and shipments should be regulated accordingly…
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How Much Wheat Will England Require?-
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Judge Douglas In Newark, N. J.
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JUDGE DOUGLAS IN NORFOLK- Brilliant Reception and Great Enthusiasm-…In answer to a question the Judge said: “I think the President of the United States should treat all attempts to break up the Union, by a resistance to its laws, as old Hickory treated the Nullifiers in the plot of 1832.”
The people shouted with excitement, and Roman candles and sky rockets were discharged without regard to expense.
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Commander B. J. Totten, who recently returned form the African station in command of the sloop-of-war Vincennes, and was tried by court martial at Boston, has been suspended from duty for eighteen months, the first six without pay, in accordance with the sentence of the court.
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Political Apathy- The American Presidential Election- From the London Times, August 8th…
...Although our atmospheric conditions have been the same, we having the coldest and they the hottest summer known for thirty years, the political temperature of the States is about on level with our own…In 1856 the Union was convulsed by the struggle between Buchanan and Fremont, the supposed representatives of the two parties which were fighting a duel to the death in Kansas. The South threatened a disruption of the Union, as it does regularly every four years; but what made the matter serious was that the North seemed to be prepared for this catastrophe. A portion of the Free States, struck with horror at the proceedings in Kansas, and at the threatened extension by force of slave institutions over all the Western territory, seemed to have made up their minds that the experiment of joining in one federation communities so different was a failure, and that it would be better for the two sections of the Republic to divide what was common to them, and live under independent though friendly Governments. How weak such impulses are, how little the most determined talk about disruption is to be regarded, how deep the attachment to the Union is in every heart, will, we think, be more clearly demonstrated every year; but in 1856 the separation of North and South was as seriously talked of as it has ever been since the foundation of the Republic. Nothing has occurred since to lessen the animosity of either of the two parties. On the contrary, legislation and the course of events have renewed the feud with more than its former bitterness. The South has been energetic in Congress, and victory has rewarded its exertions. The institution of slavery may now be adopted in any part of the United States territory….life has been taken; first the lives of the white Virginians attacked by Brown, and then the lives of Brown himself and his confederates.
The Southerners have worked themselves into an apparent frenzy against their opponents, whom they have accused of plotting the destruction of themselves, their families and their properties; while the Abolitionist, through their newspapers and their chief spokesman in the Senate, Mr. Sumner, have denounced the Southern people as barbarians, as unfit to share the privileges of citizens, or even the rights of men, and as only receiving their due reward when persons like John Brown rouse their slaves to rebellion.
Now for the vanity of all political wisdom! For four years the election of 1860 has been looked to as a most momentous crisis, which should decide the fortunes of the Republic. A few months ago some of our English newspapers were full of the impending disruption of the States. The hour has come at last, and the fight at Harper’s Ferry was the outbreak of an American civil war. Across the Atlantic the language was the same. Even Mr. Seward, a respectable politician, spoke of the “irrepressible conflict which was approaching.” …in our opinion, the American people did not share the disunionist principle of either party, and were fully determined to control them both. The event has justified these views. The most striking feature of the present Presidential contest is the comparative apathy of the American public. They cannot be raised to the requisite degree of enthusiasm either for Breckinridge and Lane, or Bell and Everett, or Lincoln and Douglass, or any other man or pair of men. The old secession cry of South Carolina, raised by Mr. Keitt, a legislator of the Brooks school, fall as dead as the ‘screamers” of the New York Herald. In fact, the United States are suffering, if it may be called so, from the same political lassitude as ourselves. The over-strained attention paid to great national questions for a number of years past, has ended in a reaction towards the enjoyment of private life, and in a conviction that great questions will work themselves out in their own good time. Whether negro slavery is to flourish or to die out is a problem for the future; neither a Lincoln nor a Breckinridge can affect it mush during his four years of office. Why should a good citizen fret himself when Nature is taking things cooly and fate is in no hurry?
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Dead- Fatal Result of a Duel- (Mr. Frank Yates died of his wounds from the fourth shot from a dueling pistol fired by Captain Chandler, master of a riverboat.)
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David Upton