AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 13, 4 January 1845, Page 4

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

Letters have recently been received at St. Louis, from the western emigrants destined for the Oregon territory. These letters were dated above the Kansas. When all the companies meet on the Platt, they will number 1200 persons, 193 waggons, and 2000 head of cattle. The emigrants were all in good health and high spirits. ' Since the date of my last, several most distressing and melancholy circumstances have afflicted the people of the United States. Deeply interesting, in a national point of view as these incidents are, I shall but briefly refer to them, because the most voluminous details are to be found in the public journals which accompany this letter. The first and most disastrous is the flood in the western States, caused by the rising of the Mississippi and the- Missouri, and their tributary streams. It is impossible (without the appearance of great exaggeration) to give you a correct idea of this mighty inunHouses almost without number have been floated away, small towns on the batiks of the rivers have been inundated numerous lives have been lost, cattle drowned, and, generally, ; property to an immense amount totally destroyed. Notices like the following are to be found in many of the western papers :—: — " About ten houses passed down the Mis- ! sissippi at St. Lou's on the 23rd of June. In one of them a cradle was seen from a steam-boat passing near, and the cry of a child heard, thought to be four or five months old." The St. Louis Republican of the 23rd of June says :— " The flood is still going down, though at a tedious rate. Last evening it had fallen nearly four feet, not, however, by any means leaving the cross streets free from this incurabrance." Below the raft, and on the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers, the inundations have covered 150,000 acres of cotton land, which are from two to eight feet under water, and cannot be replanted this season. The estimated loss of cotton is from 150,000 to 200,000 bales. The Mormon prophet, Joe Smith, and his brother, Hiram Smith, are both dead. They were murdered in th,e debtors' prison at Carthage, on or about the 25th of June. In my letter of the 30th ult., I gave you a statement of the Mormon difficulties, so far as an account of them had been received in this city. From that statement the most direful consequences were to be apprehended. Those apprehensions have been realised. The circumstances attending the* death of these men are very differently represented by the parties for and against them. It is said by their enemies, that the Smiths, while within the prison, fired with pistols upon the guard, and then attempted to escape, whereupon the guard returned the fire, and that they were then both slain. I have taken some trouble to ascertain the facts, and I have come to the conclusion that the fallowing statement is as near the truth as anything that has yet appeared in print, but I may be mistaken. On a solemn pledge given by Qovernor Ford, of Illinois, that their perspns sould be protected from injury by a mob, Joe and Hiram Smith, with others, suffered themselves to be arrested, and were removed to the gaol at Carthage, there to await a trial for any crime they might be charged with having committed. Everything appearing to be peaceful, only a small guard was left to protect the prisoners from being injured or from escaping. On or about the 25th of June, a mob, consisting of sixty or seventy armed men, all disguised, rushed past the guard, in strength numbering only six or eight, into the gaol, and immediately commenced firing through the door of the room in which the prisoners were confined, wounding the Prophet ; whereupon he and his brother fled to a window, and were in the act of jumping out, when Joe received three balls in bis body and fell dead upon the ground. Hiram fell inside of the prison, having received ten or twelve balls through his body. These were the only Mormons, killed. One or two others were wounded. The dead bodiea were removed to Nauvoo ("the holy city ") to be interred with great solemnity. The followers of Smith were greatly exasperated, but but kept in subjection by their leaders. Smith's mother i« said to possess a controlling influence, which was exerted in the preservation of order, *nd the suppression of violence. At the last accounts every thing was tranquil. The city of Philadelphia has experienced another violent outbreak, in which 50 or 60 were killed or wounded. Very few Irish were engaged in this riot ; yet they were the moving cause. Some trifling difficulty having occurred between them and the Native Americans, they forthwith commenced arming a Catholic Church, fearful, as it was said, that the Church might be attacked. The natives required that the Cnurch should be searched, which was accordingly done, and 70

stand of arms, with the necessary accompaniments of powder and ball, found and removed. The building was left under the protection of the police, and, very inconsiderately, a military company of Irishmen called the Hibernian Greens, commanded by the brother of a Catholic Priest, was stationed in it. This exasperated the natives, and they demanded the expulsion of the Irishmen, which was at first refused ; but, finding that the Church was about to be attacked with cannon, they were ordered out and disbanded ; but by this time the riot had commenced, and presented an alarming aspect. A large body of the military were on duty, and an action ensued, in which fifty or sixty persons were killed or wounded. The rioters, well armed, assembled on the disputed ground, and refused to disperse, threatening to renew the attack if the military came within certain designated limits, but offering to the sheriff to disperse if the military were withdrawn. This officer, foreseeing a terrible slaughter if an action took place, the parties being nearly equal and well armed, notified to the military that there services were no longer required, as he could disperse the rioters. The military, as subordinate to the civil power, were accordingly withdrawn. All is now quiet. A general and state election has just terminated in Lousiana. The result is not accurately known here, in the present Congressional House of Representatives there are four Locofoco and no Whig members. At the late election, the Locofocos elected two members, the Whigs one — probably two. It is also believed that the Whigs have a majority in the State Legislature ; but whether they have or have not, the triumph is a Whig triumph, and more especially when it is considered that Louisana is on the borders of Texas, and that the Texas party have lost ground in that State, where many supposed they would be all-powerful. — 2V;n«, July 80.