AMERICA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 586, 16 June 1858, Page 4

AMERICA.

By the English papers we have American news up to the 4th of March, thirty one days later than the last received via Sydney. The majority of the Kansas investigating committee of the House of .Representatives had agreed upon the admission of Kansas with the Lecompton Constitution.

The steamer Eliza Battle had been burnt at Dernopolis, Alabama. Thirty or forty lives were lost, and a thousand bales of cotton con-

sumed.

A bill had passed the Lousiana Assembly, authorising a company to import 2500 free blacks from Africa.

The projected general bankruptcy law was to be submitted to Congress on the 4th, March. New York stock market continued active and buoyant

Cotton dull, and slightly lower;. breadstuffs firm.

A bill is now pending before the Legislature of Virginia, providing for the enslavement of all free negroes who shall be found in that State three years after the passage of the act. The bill proposes to hire out for a period of three years all negroes found in the State after the passage of the law—the proceeds of their hire to be appropriated to their transportation else • where—at the end of the above term, all remaining are to be sold into slavery, and the proceeds of the sales to be deposited to the credit of the State. Strange as it may seem, the only opposition which has as yet been made to this inhuman proposition came from a few members who preferred that the time given to the negroes in which to expatriate themselves should be five years.

The news from the army of Utah is more encouraging than was anticipated. The troopg are still posted near Port Bridger, and are j n j comfortable quarters with plenty of forage j Letters from the camp say the Mormons,are as' fierce as ever for wari and that they are still ■ inciting the Indians to the committal of out.! rages upon all " Americans" who may fall j n j their way. Dr. Hurt, the Indian agent, is j- | possession of positive proof of the complicity 0 f; the Mormons with the Indians in the massacre' of the one hundred California emigrants near i Cedar City. The outrage was committed by a j party of Pi-edes, under the lead of a Mom*, on ' named J. D. Lee, together with the Bishop 0 f j Cedar City. Dr. Hurt was told by one of the I Indians that the number of killed was 100 • 1 that their throats were all cut; that some 15 or 20 small children were saved, and taken by tho Bishop, who also took all the stock (1000 head) belonging to the emigrants, and a large amonnt of money. Five volunteer companies had been formed, chiefly from M'Graw's teamsters, and ! incorporated with the army. Col. Johnston would begin to march about the middle of April, and make an effort to enter Salt Lake City, either by the northern "or southern route, i The Colonel believed he would have to fight I his way there. i Gen. Walker, while at Mobile, made a speech I in which he says that while in Washington last | summer, he had an interview with a Cabinet j Minister, who, while endeavouring to dissuade ! him from his Nicaragua evpedition, advised him i to proceed to Mexico, to stir that government i up to a war with Spain, and then make a de- i cent upon Cuba. He was given to understand j he said, that while means would be taken to ] stop him if he preserved in the former enter- ! prise, there would be no hindrance offered to : the latter scheme, and no lack of means. He ' rejected the proposition with scorn, asserting his right and determination to proceed to Nicar- I aqua. There has as yet been no response at Washington to this damning disclosure of the \ great filibuster. ; Our Californian news'are .only to the 25th February. A horrible case of poisoning occurred at Grass Valley, on the 21st February, when a man and his wife poisoned themselves and three children. The name of the father was Michael Brennan, late president of the Mount Hope Mining Company. A grand banquet was given at San Francisco, by the French .Republican Union, on the 24th February, in honour of the French revolution of 1858.

Dr. Bates, ex-State-Treasurer had been tried on a charge of having failed to pay over to the State 47,947 dols. 87 cents, and was acquitted. The circumstance excited much indignation ; throughout the country. The following remarks j from the' Daily Call' appear to express general feeling upon the subject:—The acquittal of the late State Treasurer can- : not fail to strike people everywhere as a mockery of justice. That the State had been defrauded, we presume was not denied by the counsel for the defendant; but in the face of this fact, a jury fresh from the ranks of the people bring in a r. verdict of "not guilty!" Notwithstanding all ; this, it will not be denied by the most devoted friend of Dr. Bates that the State was robbed, and that the great acquitted was a party to the robbery. Whether it was legally proven that the ex-treasurer was guilty of felony, we, of course, do not know; but that he was morally guilty of the crime for which he was tried is the ! conviction of every intelligent man in the State. It is the failure to punish wholesale criminals like Bates that brings the law into contempt, and so often leads to summary punishment in the hands of an excited people. Had Dr. Bates been a fpoor man, and stolen the merest trifle wherewith to provide for his more pressing wants, the chain gang or county gaol would long since have been his portion; but being a gentleman, and having robbed to the extent of hundreds of thousands, his trial is postponed from term to term, and at last when the traps are all set, he is put through the form of a trial, and ushered forth upon the world by what must have been a packed jury as an innocent maa. In the face of this verdict we ask, is there an impartial man in the State that does not believe Bates robbed the treasury, and that if he had his dues ! he would now be atoning for his crimes at San > Quentin?

At Saoramento, the new Sunday law had been occupying the attention of the Senate, and was to take affect on the Ist June, 1858.

Mr. Merritt's bill, repealing the law authorizing married women to transact business in their own names as sole traders, was passed on the 25th February, by a vote of 18 to 13,

The Sacramento river had risen 19 feet above low water mark. Throughout the Northern and Middle counties, severe storms had occurred, and many of the valleys were inundated. News from San Diego and LosAngelosto the 23rd had reached San Francisco.

The exploring expedition up the Colorado, under the command of Lieutenant Ives, had been unsuccessful, the steamer in which they were embarked having struck on a sunken rock and gone down, within 40 miles of Fort Yuma. The southern frontier has received several additions of troops from the United States. News from the gold fields were very encouraging. At Sonora and Tuolumne, quartz veins of unexampled richness had been lately discovered. A shocking affray had taken place at Auburn, on the 18th February, between a man named Barney Murphy, and a negro named Bracy, which resulted in the former receiving a mortal blow from a pickaxe. Bracy, the murderer was taken into custody, but the next morning a crowd assembled in front of the gaol, and with sledge hammers and other implements, they forced an entrance. He was then carried to a place a mile off, and hung to the limb of a pine tree. The sheriff and his deputies were seized,

and held while this summary, justice was being The seat of Government of Canada has been definitely fixed by the Home Government at Ottawa City, formerly Bytown, instead of Montreal, Toronto, or Kingston, as was expected. The decision creates much alarm and dissatisfaction. A rebellion against the Government of the Hudson's Bay Company has broken out in the Bed River country. We noticed the fact a short time since, that a public meeting had demanded annexation to Canada as the means of saving the country. The immediate occasion of this last outbreak was the imprisonment of a trader by the Company, who, were compelled to release him.

The' Times' gives the following account of the notorious fight that took place in Congress in February.

The United States' Senate was not in session on the sth, having adjourned over from the 4th until the following Monday. In the House it was the most exciting day of the session thus far. It was voted inexpedient to allow further time to take supplementary testimony in the Ohio contested election case,«' Vallandigham v. Campbell." J. D. Williamson, the witness in the tariff investigation, submitted his amended _nswer, and, it then appearing that he had answered all the committee's questions promptly, he was, on the motion of Mr. Stanton, the chairman of the committee, discharged from custody. The Lecompton question then came up. Mr. Harris, of Illinois, withdrew the resolution he had previously submitted for sending the Message and Constitution to the Committee on Territories, and submitted another in its place, calling for a select committee, with the view of obtaining all the information possible relative to the formation of the Lecompton Constitution— the committee to consist of 15, to he appointed by the Speaker, and to have power to send for persons, and-papers. The Speaker decided that the resolution could only be offered as an amendment to the motion of. Mr. Hughes, of Indiana, for a select committee of thirteen, whereupon Mr. Harris unexpectedly, acquiesced in the ruling of the Speaker, and in order, as he said, to ascertain the fact of his resolution at once moved the previous question. This was the signal for the utmost confusion. Mr. Harris was in vain appealed to, to withdraw his resolution, and moved a call ofthe House. Counter motions, motions to adjourn, and motions for almost every conceivable purpose, were then the order—this being the method taken by the factious Lecomptonites, who found themselves in a decided minority, to stave off a direct vote. Up to 4 o'clock on the morning of the 6th, the House was sitting,and there was no immediate prospect of a vote being taken on any of the questions connected with the Kansas message. About 2 a.m., just as the proceedings were getting very dull, and about one tenth of the members being either asleep or nodding in their seats, others smoking cigars and visiting the refreshment rooms, the House was thrown into a violent state of excitement by a scene of which the reporter of the 'New York Herald ' gives the following amusing sketch,—

" Mr. Grow was walking down the aisle on the democratic side of the hall, when Mr. Keitt and a friend approached him. A squabble quickly took place between Mr. Grow and Kelt. Mr. Keitt struck Mr. Grow, when'the parties were separated by friends. They then exchanged words in an evidently excited and menacing manner, when Mr. Keitt again dealt a blow at Mr. Grow, the latter knocking him down. The respective friends of both parties rushed to the rescue. Various members on each side engaged in the fight, which took place in the area fronting the clerk's desk.

" Mr. WaSQburne of Illinois, was conspicuous among the Republicans dealing heavy blows. "The Speaker loudly and imperatively demanded order, and called on the Sergeant-at-Arms to interfere.

" That functionary, carrying his mace of office, together with his assistants, hurried to the scene and crowded into the thickest of the fight, in which at least a dozen members were engaged. " Some minutes elapsed before this truly fearful contest was quieted. "The members having reluctantly returned to their seats there was a dead calm in comparison with the scene just enacted. "Mr. Quitman proposed that they now adjourn, and take the question on the reference of the Kansas message on Monday, at one o'clock. " Emphatic and general responses from the Republican side,'No, no, no!' "The confusion began to break out afresh, when the Speaker said he would direct the Seargeant-at Arms to put under arrest those who disregarded the order of the House. Mr. Campbell said, he foresaw that disagreeable feelings would result here from the exciting questions connected with Kansas.

"Mr. Barksdale.—l call the gentleman to order.

"Mr. Campbell wished the gentleman from Mississippi (Barksdale) to know that he (Campbell) was his peer."

A member of Congress, who was a witness to the difficulty in the House between Mr. Grow and Mr. Keitt, gives the following particulars:—

" Mr. Grow objected to Mr. Quitman's making any remarks. Mr. Keitt said,' If you are going to object return to your own side of the House.' Mr. Grow responded, ' This is a free hall and every man has a right be where he pleases.' Mr. Keitt then went up to Mr. Grow and said,.'l want to know what you mean by such an answer as that?' Mr. Grow replied,' I mean just what I say—this is a free hall, and a man has a right to be where he pleases.' Mr. Keitt (taking Mr. Grow by the throat) said, ' I will let you know that you are a black Republican puppy.' Mr. Grow knocked up his hand saying 'I shall occupy such place in this hall as I please and no nigger-driver shall crack his whip over me. Mr. Keitt then again grabbed Mr. Grow by (the throat, and Mr. Grow knocked his hand off, and Mr. Keitt coming at him again Mr. Grow knocked him down. The fight took place at 20 minutes to 2 o'clock. Further difficulties are apprehended."