AMERICA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 433, 27 December 1856, Page 4

AMERICA.

[From the ' Times,' September 6.] The American crisis is by no means over. Tho last news from the United States represents the struggle as still going on. The houses of Congress have again met. An alarmist message from the President solemnly puts before them the frightful but inevitable consequences of the existing collision unless sonie^ thing is done to relieve it —the pay of the Federal army stopped, the contracts for enlistment consequently broken; the disbandment of the army; the suppression of the whole Ordnance department; the arsenals shut up; all sea and land fortifications abandoned; the exr posure of a national frontier of more than four thousand miles in extent to the attacks of predatory savages, who will retaliate for the check in which the Federal forces have hitherto kept them by rapine and murder, and every sort of aggression iipon a thin undefended border population; the " striking of the national flag on the battlements of the fortresses which defend the maritime cities against foreign invasion ; the violation of the public honour and and good faith, and the discredit of the United States hi the eyes of the civilized world." Such, says the President. •" will be the direct and immediate effects of the refusal of congress, for the first time in the history of the Government,to grant supplies," The argument is a strong, an irresistible one; but, unfortunately, it cuts two ways, and admits of two directly opposite applications. Such being the consequences of standing out, one side must give way, but which side is to give way ? ■ That is the question. The President and the Senate say, the House of Representatives must give way. You must relieve the Army Appropriation Bill from the proviso respecting Kansas, says the Senate; You must accept the proviso appended to the Army Appropriation Bill, says the House of Representatives. That is the present position of affairs then, and neither side has hitherto given way. In the meantime Cassandra notes are heard, and old General Cass takes upon himself the melancholy office of the ancientbard, and sings the dirge of the Ameri r can Union ; he gives it as his deliberate opinion that the days of the Republic are numbered. The Republic, however, will probably get over the hitch this time by a forced concession made by one of the two opposing parties. Appearances favour the' triumph of the House of Representatives, and the forced acceptance of the Kansas proviso by the Senate. The House of Representatives, with its addition of eleven votes gained on the Republican side by the absence of members whom the extraordinary summons had not recalled to Washington, stands firm to the Kansas proviso, but the Senate shews signs of giving^ way, and Mr. Hunter's motion to adjourn, which is equivalent to a resolution not to accept the proviso, seems to require more courage, or more rashness for its adoption than the Senate possesses.

Should this be the upshot of the present crisis, then the United States will have surmounted this particular trial; but at the same time, two most important consequences will follow from the mode in which the crisis has Been surmounted, one affecting the balance of parties :in the "Union, the other affecting the constitution of the Union. The South, and North—the slaveowner and the opponent of slavery, whether as an Abolutionist or ZsToh-extensiohist—have hitherto stood on equal ground, and neither party could claim the Union on their side. But such a victory as this will alter this balance, and give a supremacy to the antislavery party which the opposite side will have much difficulty in resisting. The one side will feel itself the conqueror, the other the conquered, and anti-slavery enthusiasm will gain boldness and strength, while the slaveowner, feeling himself beaten, will henceforth fight the battle of slavery with less confidence. He will I'eel his weakness, and in proportion as he feels weak he will be sullen and angry: he "will grow disaffected to the Union, and his thoughts will more and more recur, either secretly or openly, to a separation as to the ultimate defence for slavery and security for property. He scorns at present to depend on the direct favour of the Executive for his position; when left to himself, anti-slavery enthusiasm is too strong for him, as the triumphant career of the Free-state party in Kansas at this moment, even with the Federal forces against them, sufficiently shows. "When the House of Eepresentatives has once tied up the hands of the

Executive, his position will indeed be a poor one. This will be one consequence, then, of such an upshot of the present struggle—a change of the balance of parties in the United States. Another consequence will be a modification of the Constitution of the Union. The Senate has on the present occasion placed itself in opposition to the House of Representatives^ on the slavery question, and attempted to throw - its shield ovor the slaveowner. What is it which makes the Senate more favourable than the Lower House to slavery, and gives it these Southern sj-mpathies, it might be difficult to say. Perhaps the reason may be that the Senate is a more oligarchical and therefore a more conservative body than the other House. It is just one step removed from the popular suffrage, and has a barrier which protects it from the purely Representative character. _ It is a body, therefore, naturally more considerate to property, and more cautious against the danger of'rupture than the more popularly constituted House. It is less liable to be carried away by party spirit and entire siasm. Bat whatever may be the reason why the Senate has opposed itself to the House of Representatives oh the present question, if the Senate opposes that House, and is obliged to give way, the Senate must necessarily lose in power, as a part of the American Constitution, and the relation in which it stands to the popular House will be affected, This is just one of those precedents which determine subsequent action ; if a body give way once, it must on a similar occasion give way again; that will be expected from it, it will be considered its proper and constitutional line; opposition to the House of Representatives will be considered unconstitutional, at least on all important subjects. It seems absurd to talk of the Constitution of the United States becoming more popular, and yet such a' triumph as this on the part of the House of Representatives will tend to make it so ; it will give the House pf Representatives more of an exclusive position as an exponent of the national will—more, in its attitude to the President and Senate, of that relation which our own House of Commons has to the Crown and the House of^Lords. The American De Lolme will have to modify his accurate outline of the American Constitution, and confess that time and facts, the growth of precedent, the formation of political wisdom and understanding, have altered its original and designed proportions. Such a crisis as the present one, then, however for the time it may be got over, must be expected to leave traces behind it. We cannot hear the prophecy of a rupture of the Union made in the very Senate House of the United States without apprehension, for it must take a great deal to make an American prophesy anything opposed to American strength and glory. The difficulty of keeping the conflicting elements, of which the Republic is composed in order is evidently becoming greater every day, and danger seems only to be staved off by means which make the Federal principle in the country weaker, and sp the danger on the next occasion of collision. greater.