News and Miscellany

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 7, 1867

News and Miscellany.

Can ye not discern the Signs of the Times? Matt. xvi, 3.

—New Haven, Conn., manufactures the fish-hooks. There are turned out every year, by the American Fish-hook and Needle Company, not less than 180,000,000 fish-hooks.

—The Catholics held an immense Fair in New York city the 1st of May. Considerable feeling has been excited by the fact that the city government granted permission to erect buildings for the purpose at Union Square, a favor which would not have been granted to any Protestant denomination.

Jefferson Davis.—Mrs. Davis went from Fortress Monroe to Washington, Thursday evening for the purpose of applying to President Johnson for the release of her husband.

On Wednesday last, Mr. Geo. Shea, of counsel for Jefferson Davis, presented a petition to the U. S. Circuit Court of Virginia, and moved upon it before Judge Underwood for a writ of habeas corpus directed to General Burton, commanding at Fort Monroe, to have Jefferson Davis before the court at Richmond on the second Monday in May. The judge after hearing the argument from Mr. Shea, and some deliberations, granted the writ, which was placed in the hands of a U. S. Deputy Marshal for immediate service.

If Mr. Davis is not released on bail by Judge Underwood next week, the President, it is said, will order his liberation.

Chief Justice Chase sees nothing, it is said, in the condition of Virginia under the Military act to warrant him in departing from his former course of declining to preside at the trial of Davis. He will hold no court in the South until civil authority is so far established as to cease being dependent on military power.

The Union Pacific Railroad.—The cars of this road are now running three hundred and five miles west of Omaha, and the work of grading and laying rails has recommenced. The Rocky Mountains will be reached this summer. The company then propose to put a second force to work at Salt Lake City, building the road eastward.

The distance from Sacramento to Salt Lake, along the proposed route, is about 625 miles; from Omaha to Salt Lake, 1,055. The distance from New York by the railroad route is 3,129 miles, of which 1,887 miles have been completed and are now in successful operation, leaving but 1,252 miles yet to be built.

Studying these figures, the Salt Lake Vedette is confident that the road will be completed within two years.

—The receipts of customs at New York for the month of March foot up sixteen millions of dollars—five millions more than any month for a year past.

—The last dispatch from the English Government to our Government in reference to the pirate Alabama claims is very unsatisfactory.

OUTBREAK IN CALIFORNIA.

The Indians on the Hoop[a] reservation, California, have declared war against the whites, killed Sub-agent Robert L. Stockton and two employees, and burned all the Government property. The whites on Klamath River are fortifying and preparing for defense.

—During the next month so many United States Senators have taken berths for Europe, that should there be necessity for a special session in July, it is probable that there would be no quorum of that body in the country.

—The New York Tribune’s Washington special says: “The Department of State to-day received voluminous dispatches from our Ministers in England and France. While they do not contain as late advices as are daily brought by the cable, they represent pretty fully the condition of affairs, and show conclusively that a general European war can scarcely be averted. The Emperor Napoleon has been engaged for several months making gigantic naval and military preparations, and it is alleged that the feeling is now so universal among the French people for a collision that it has passed beyond the Emperor’s control.”

Earthquakes.—A severe shock of an earthquake was felt at St. Joseph, Mo., at three P. M. Buildings shook and swayed with a rapid motion, causing much alarm, but no damage, so far as known. Two distinct shocks were felt at St. Louis about five minutes before 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon. The vibration was from north to south, lasting about five seconds. Articles of furniture, crockery, etc., were shaken quite vigorously, but no harm done.

A severe shock was felt at Junction City, Kansas, at half past 2 o’clock.

A heavy shock of earthquake, lasting half a minute, was felt at Kansas City, Mo., at 2:40 yesterday afternoon, causing people to rush out of their houses in alarm. A portion of the plastering was shaken off in one or two houses, but no serious damage was done.

The shock of an earthquake was felt April 24, throughout Iowa, Kansas and Wisconsin, extending even to Chicago.

—Late advices from Mexico state that Maximilian and his garrison at Queretaro had attempted to cut their way through the Liberal lines, but were repulsed. Vera Cruz is strongly invested by the Liberals, and all its communications cut off. Provisions in the city are very scarce. Beef was selling at a dollar a pound.

What is the matter with the Animal Creation? The careful observer must be struck with the frequent instances reported in almost all the papers of the day, of fatal maladies now prevailing among different classes of animals. Within six months past we have had the cattle plague in Holland, the cattle plague in England, disease and death among cattle in various parts of this country, the hog cholera, disease among horses, chicken cholera, the oyster plague, &c. We now have a new sheep disease, and trouble among the chickens in Iowa. We commend a careful consideration of the question how long it is proper to make use of that which is so rapidly falling into disease, as an article of food.

New Sheep Diseases.—Some of the best sheep raisers of Mayfield are losing large numbers of valuable sheep by a new disease hitherto unknown to this section of the country. Its symptoms are not unlike those of the hog cholera. Mr. Colton lost thirty; Mr. Jesse Allen, Mr. Hubbard, Henry Joiner, and others, have lost considerable numbers.—Sycamore (Ill.) Republican.

The Cedar Rapids Times says that the poultry of that region is dying off with the chicken cholera, and adds, very significantly, that the “market is at present well supplied with dead poultry.”

Exegetical Nonsense.—The following is another specimen of the wild fancies of some professed expositors. With such as this, the people are, or ought to be, disgusted; but the evil of the matter is, that by these exhibitions, they lose confidence in those prophetic expositions which are sound and reasonable.

“According to a new book on the prophecies by Rev. Mr. Baxter of Canada, the time is near when Napoleon is to unite under himself the ten kingdoms of Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Algeria, Tripoli, Egypt, Greece, Syria and Turkey. Napoleon will capture Jerusalem, commence a general persecution of Christians, confiscate the Romish church property, institute public worship of his own image, imprint his name on the people’s foreheads and hands; then famine for eighteen months, a great smoke for three weeks, five months of locusts, horsemen and horses breathing brimstone, and various other equally probable events too numerous to mention.”—Springfield Republican.

England.—Minister Adams has been instructed to decline the offer of the British government for arbitration on the Alabama claims. This leaves the whole matter open again, with no proposition pending from either party. Hints are said to be given out from the British legation at Washington that the next proposition may be to trade off British Columbia for the claims. If Mr. Seward can bring this about, and so secure our entire control of the Pacific coast, and at the same time settle all outstanding accounts with Great Britain, he will be ready to retire with honor from the state department.

France and Prussia.—A late paper speaking of the prospect of war between these two powers, says, that in strength and resources they are about equally matched; and when the contest comes it will be one of giants which will shake the world.

Drunkenness in the U. S. Senate.—The following paragraph indicates the painful necessity for such efforts to promote temperance among congressmen as Senator Wilson and others have engaged in during the past winter:—

Mrs. Saulsbury appealed personally to senators not to press the resolution expelling her husband, promising to take him home to Delaware. No man could resist such an appeal. It is impossible to think of such an incident without emotion. Mr. Saulsbury is a man of very marked abilities,—one of the ablest, most cogent and effective speakers in the Senate, of fine personal appearance, tall, erect, dark complexion, with piercing black eyes and jet black hair, courtly and impressive in his manner, and of noble and generous impulses. But for the disease which afflicts and overmasters him, he would be one of the most influential public men of the Senate and the country. Yet he is saved from ignominious expulsion only by the sympathy felt for his noble and devoted wife. Another senator, whose term has just expired,—a man of clear intellect, finished culture and fascinating manners, but turned by the same affliction, was tolerated in the Senate only from a similar motive. One of the most touching sights to be seen in Washington during the session, was the presence in the gallery of his wife and daughter, waiting night after night, often till long past midnight, anxious and distressed, to accompany him to their home. It may be said to his credit, that whatever he may have been to the rest of the world, he was never anything but respectful, obedient and tender to them.

The Indians on the Plains.—Gen. Wessel, who is at Fort Phil. Kearny, thinks the Crow Indians can be kept quiet by the presence of the large force of troops now at that point. A large number of Sioux are encamped on Powder River, opposite Fort Reno. A correspondent says the Cheyenne village, where our troops have been camped for several days, was burned on the 20th inst., involving a loss of about $100,000. Gen. Custer was still pursuing the Cheyennes, who had fled northward.

The Public Debt—Another Reduction.—The workings of the Treasury for the month just closing will show another large reduction of the National debt. In the next statement, Secretary McCulloch hopes to reduce the total debt to about $2,500,000,000, at which point he believes it must remain stationary so long as the present rate of Government income and expenses is maintained.

Peace Conference in Europe.—London, April 29.—The European conference, which is to meet in London next month to settle the dispute between France and Prussia in regard to Luxemburg, will consist of representatives from Great Britain, France, Austria and Russia, and the king of Holland, as Grand Duke of Luxemburg. It is understood that the following terms are agreed upon as a basis for the deliberations of the conference: 1st. France is not to enlarge her present boundaries. 2d. The fortifications of Luxemburg are to be evacuated and dismantled. 3d. The future political status of the Grand Duchy is to be ascertained and determined by the conference. 4th. The final decision of the conference is to be guaranteed by all the governments participating therein.

France.—The panic among the working men still continues. The tailors’ strike has not succeeded in producing as yet any very beneficial results to that class of operatives, and the subject is still bitterly agitated between masters and employees.

In all cases where a man dares go to work at the old price, he is hardly dealt with by his comrades, and it is only a day or two since one unfortunate man carrying to an employer a new coat which he had made, was set upon by an enraged group, beaten, and his piece of work torn into shreds, and scattered in the street. It was thought the discharge of the 10,000 workmen from the Champ de Mars last week, would cause trouble, but Napoleon has set them all at work upon the city improvements. New strikes are occurring constantly. In many cases, too, whole quarters of the city are the scenes of violent protestations against the raising of rents. Two days since, there was a meeting of 4,000 students in the Latin quarter, and the whole body threatened to leave their apartments at once if their “layer” was augmented. So the proprietors are compelled to leave students and grisettes in undisturbed possession.

The South.—THE POLITICAL PERIL OF THE FREEDMEN. An estimate of the voting population of the ten reconstructing states gives an aggregate of 661,000 white and 412,000 colored voters. In Mississippi and South Carolina the negroes are in the majority, the former having 58,000 black to 56,000 white voters; the latter 50,000 black to 44,000 white. In the other eight states the white voters decidedly outnumber the black; in Alabama 81,000 to 56,000; Arkansas, 51,000 to 14,000; Florida, 12,000 to 8000; Georgia, 90,000 to 58,000; Louisiana, 48,000 to 23,000; North Carolina, 94,000 to 45,000; Texas, 80,000 to 35,000; Virginia, 105,000 to 66,000. These figures make it clear that we cannot leave out of account the white population of the South in our party efforts and our calculations for the future. It is important to secure the colored vote, but we want also a large share of the white.

If parties should divide in the South on the line of color, or so nearly there that only the few whites who call themselves radical, vote with the freedmen, there would be a chance that the colored voters would control the elections only in South Carolina and Mississippi. It will be unfortunate for the colored voters and for the republican party if the line is thus drawn. For this reason every intelligent republican must depreciate the evil influence of the white men who are instigating the negroes to demand confiscation and the division of the property of the South among themselves, as at the Richmond convention of Thursday. No such measure could be adopted without establishing perpetual war in the South, certain to end at last in the destruction or expulsion of the weaker race. But it will not be attempted, and it is a cruelty to the negroes to delude them with such false hopes. Politically nothing more mischievous can be conceived, for the threat of such agrarianism will tend to consolidate the white vote in hostility to the freedmen and the republican party. Of similar influence is the demonstration at Mobile, where thousands of freedmen went armed to a political meeting, and defiantly fired off their guns and pistols at its close.

Gen. Wilson and other republicans who take the stump at the South, and the congressional committee conducting the canvass, should use their influence to counteract these tendencies to wild and violent measures, and to save the freedmen from the control of the narrow-minded and fanatical men who are misleading them. The freedmen must be assured of equal rights and protection in person and property, but they must not be deluded and led into excesses by the false notion that it is now their opportunity to avenge centuries of wrong by the robbery and humiliation of the white population. Only by the establishment of mutually just and friendly relations can the highest welfare of the freedmen be secured, and those who stir them to hostility and vengeance are their worst enemies. The republican party cannot countenance any course so false and ruinous.—Springfield Republican.