LATEST NEWS FROM THE EAST.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 236, 2 April 1866, Page 3

LATEST NEWS FROM THE EAST.

SPEECH IN FAVOR OF THE PRESIDENT'S POLICY ■■■ OF RECONSTRUCTION. ' In the United States Senate on the 17th, Mr Doolittle made an elaborate speech on reconstruction, and asked : "Is it of no practical importance whether eleven States, with ten millions of people, shall be taxed and governed without representation ? We must stand upon one side, supporting Lincoln's and Johnson's policy of mamtaining the Hnion to be unbroken, or we must stand with the Senator from Massachusetts, upon the other side, and maintain that the Hnion is broken." He repudiated the assertion, sometimes made, that President Johnson, by adhering to his policy of reconstruction, was not ready to uphold the Union cause or the great measures of the Union party, and said that, if the States lately in rebellion had gone out of the Union, they must have gone by one or more of three ways ; Eirst, by peaceful cessation — by voting and resolving themselves out; second, by successful revolution, by fighting their way out ; or, third, they must have been put out by Act of, Congress. It remained to consider only the third way, which/ for brevity, he would call the " Sumner " way. Mr _ Doolittle then showed that' the Southern States could not be out of Union, and to admit the right of the States to secede, or the power of Congress to expel them, would be to admit into our system a principle of selfdestruction. ARMY OFFICERS. The Secretary of War has laid before the Senate a statement showing that on the. Ist of January there were in the service 47 major-generals of volunteers, of whom 21 have since been mustered out, while of the remainder, 17 are commanding departments, three commanding | departments, three commanding districts, five on special duty, and one on leave of absence. At the same time, there are in the service 151 brigadier-generals of volunteers, of whom 102 have since been ordered mustered out ; of the remainder, 23 are commanding departments of districts, six on court-martiol duty, 10 engaged on special duty, six employed by the Ereeman's Bureau, and four on leave of absence. SHERMAN NOMINATED SENATOR. The Union caucus of the Ohio Legislature has nominated John Sherman (brother of the General) for United States Senator. The vote was : Sherman, 49 ; Schenck, 28 ; Bingham, 1. VANCOUVER'S ISLAND. Victoria, V.1., dates are to the 10th January. Erom the Chronicle, we condense the following items : - Government has extended the time for receiving tenders for the direct steam service, from the 12th to 81st instant. This extension is granted because it has been ascertained that the time required for communicating with parties in San Erancisco anxious to tenderfor the service, was too short. It is probable that a tender will be received from the steamship company just organised in San Erancisco. The runaway schooner Onward, fitted out at Victoria, for a prospecting cruise to Queen Charlotte Island, had arrived at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands. H.M.S. Scout, 52 days from Valparaiso, arrived in Esquimault harbor on the evening of the 9th. The war- vessel Alert, from Panama, arrived at the same time. Donald Eraser, correspondent of the London Times, and late member of the Legislative Council of the Colony, had arrived at Victoria. Mr Eraser is one of the largest owners of real estate in Vancouver's Island. Mr Kohlberg, late a citizen in Portland, Or., was frozen to death in the Cascades, while returnieg from Owyhee. Dates from William's Creed, Cariboo, were to the 4th of December. The thermometer was down to 40 below zero ; snow very deep, and mining nearly suspended.