Washington, Feb. 18th, 1861. Editor Bulletin: There is no chance whatever for Crittenden's proposition. North Carolina must secede, or aid Lincoln in making war on the South. T. L. CLINGMAN. SMASHING OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE. The following is part of a special telegram to the Charleston Mercury, dated at Washington, Feb. 21st: resolutions, declaring the rebellion in the Resolved, By the Assembly, the Senate "The only hope now is in the smashing up of the Peace Congress and getting Vir-plished by a successful resistance to the ginia out." FALSE DESPATCHES.-The Fayetteville (North Carolina) Observer, referring to false telegraphic despatches sent out from Charleston, says: "They are of a piece with the stories circulated in Georgia to affect the election in that State; that which preceded the mission of the Wilmington Committee to Raleigh; and that which resulted in the treasonable seizure of Fort Caswell, whither no troops have been or will be ordered. It does not answer the purposes of those engaged in disunion schemes to allow any period of rest from excitement. The 'Southern heart' must be fired,' that the South may be precipitated into secession.'" Other Secessions Proposed. December 24th, 1860. Mr. John C. Burch offered the following resolution, which was referred to the Committee on Military affairs: That the Secretary of War be, and is hereby, directed and required to issue to the State of California quotas of arms for the years 1850 and 1851, equal to the quota issued to said State for the year 1852. of such description as the authorities of said State may require. From California. Fort Kearney, Feb. 5th.-The Pony Express from California on the 19th has arrived. The Governor's message is strong for the Union. The letters from Congressmen Scott and Burch, advocating a Pacific Republic, are severely denounced by the papers. whole power of the United States. Second. Decent respect to the opinions of the people of the civilized world, and the instinct of self-preservation demands that the United States Government should use all the power necessary to enforce obedience to its laws and to protect its property. Third. The people of the State of California will sustain and uphold the constitutionally-elected officers of the United States Government, in all constutional efforts to preserve the integrity of the Union, and to enforce obedience to the acts of Congress and the decisions of the courts. After the laws have been enforced, and the power and authority of the Constitution and Government of the United States recognized and acknowledged, every feeling of nationality and brotherhood demand that such compromises as are consistent with justice shall be made for the purpose of restoring that harmony which should characterize the people of a common country. The majority vote was given by moderate Douglas Democrats and Republicans, the minority by Breckenridge men, who did not conceal, but on the contrary loudly boasted their approval of the secession of the South, and spoke with the utmost enthusiasm of the Southern Confederacy and President Davis. California is more intense than elsewhere, The conflict of feeling on this subject in because it is between Northern and Southern men who are contending for ascendancy in refuse to accept the disunion issue, and dethe State. Many of the latter, however, clare their intention to fight the battle of the South in the Union. The result was received with most hearty applause, proving the devotion of our people to the Union, and their love of country. Considering the outrageously-treasonable speeches that have been made during the sessions, and the symptoms of approval elicited by them, chiefly from secessionists in the employ of the State, this evidence of patriotic feeling is especially gratifying. A PACIFIC REPUBPLIC.-The Shasta Hermatters, says: ald, of Saturday, in discussing political "If disunion does come, neither North nor South need look for aid and comfort from the Pacific coast. The Almighty has piled up the elements along these shores for a great empire, and if it needs he can make it one. To which the San Francisco Bee responded in opposition: We have frequently mentioned the existence of an organization in California, having for its object the establishment of a Pacific Republic on this coast, in accordance with the treasonable recommendations of Scott and Burch. We should have taken some pains to learn the names of the leaders of the movement, that they might be held up to the scorn and ridicule of a union-loving people, had we not been satisfied, as we now are, that the scheme would be frowned down the moment it was openly advocated. But two of the ninety journals in California have ventured to offer a word in favor of the movement, and they were actuated, we imagine, more by a spirit of bravado than a hope of success. Aside from a few disappointed office-seekers, there are not to be found to-day in California, outside of the State prison, a thousand voices to give encouragement to the treason. With less to thank the Union for than any other portion of the Confederacy, the people of the Pacific are prepared to make any sacrifice to maintain it to suffer every neglect rather than sever their connection with it. Still a Pacific Republic is talked of, and a conspiracy, with the focus in San Francisco, is poisoning the land. One of its leading branches, we learn by the Appeal, is in Marysville. It is a secret organization, and is "forming," says the journal, " in a section of country lying back of the Buttes, with a view to establish a military company, pledged to the maintainance of a Pacific Republic. They will apply to the State for arms under the covert pretence of an organization under the State militia law. These misguided men have been deluded into the belief by their leaders that the Union is irretrievably gone to pieces, and the only hope for California is the immediate establishment of an independent government." The raising of the bear flag," at Stockton, some days since, was probably a part of the programme. We are anxious to see the faces of some of these revolutionists-to note the mark with which treason brands its votaries.-San Francisco Mirror. SOUTH AND NORTHWEST. The Cincinnati Gazette, in the winter of 1860, states: We are most reliably informed that there are agents of the Gulf States now in the city endeavoring to create a sentiment MAYOR WOOD'S RECOMMENDATION OF THE To the Honorable the Common Council: It would seem that a dissolution of the Federal Union is inevitable. Having been formed originally on a basis of general and mutual protection, but separate local independence-each State reserving the entire and absolute control of its own domestic affairs, it is evidently impossible to keep them together longer than they deem thenselves fairly treated by each other, or longer than the interests, honor and fraternity of the people of the several States are satis fied." Being a Government created by opinion, its continuance is dependent upon the continuance of the sentiment which formed it. It cannot be preserved by coercion or held together by force. A resort to this last dreadful alternative would of itself destroy not only the Government, but the lives and property of the people. If these forebodings shall be realized, and a separation of the States shall occur, momentous considerations will be presented to the corporate authorities of this city. We must provide for the new relations which will necessarily grow out of the new condition of public affairs. It will not only be necessary for us to settle the relations which we shall hold to other cities and States, but to establish, if we can, new ones with a portion of our own State. Being the child of the Union, having drawn our sustenance from its bosom, and arisen to our present power and strength through the vigor of our mother-when deprived of her maternal advantages, we must rely upon our own resources and assume a position predicated upon the new phase which public affairs will present, and upon the inherent strength which our geographieal. commercial, political, and financial preeminence imparts to us. With our aggrieved brethren of the Slave States, we have friendly relations and a common sympathy. We have not participated in the warfare upon their constitutional rights or their domestic institutions. While other portions of our State have unfortunately been imbued with the fanatical spirit which actuates a portion of the people of New England, the city of New York has unfalteringly preserved the integrity of its principles in adherence to the compromises of the Constitution and the equal rights of the people of all the States. We have respected the local interests of every section, at no time oppressing, but all the while aiding in the development of the resources of the whole country. Our ships have penetrated to every clime, and so have New York capital, energy and enterprise found their way to every State, and, indeed, to almost every county and town of the American Union. If we have derived sustenance from the Union, so have we in return disseminated blessings for the common benefit of all. Therefore, New York has a right to expect, and should endeavor to preserve a continuance of uninterrupted intercourse with every section. It is, however, folly to disguise the fact that, judging from the past, New York may have more cause of apprehension from the aggressive legislation of our own State than from external dangers. We have already largely suffered from this cause. For the past five years, our interests and corporate rights have been repeatedly trampled upon. Being an integral portion of the State, it has been assumed, and in effect tacitly admitted on our part by nonresistance, that all political and governmental power over us rested in the State Legislature. Even the common right of taxing ourselves for our own government, has been yielded, and we are not permitted to do so without this authority. * * * Thus it will be seen that the political connection between the people of the city and the State has been used by the latter to our injury. The Legislature, in which the present partizan majority has the power, has become the instrument by which we are plundered to enrich their speculators, lobby agents, and Abolition politicians. Laws are passed through their malign influence by which, under forms of legal enactment, our burdens have been increased, our substance eaten out, and our municipal liberties destroyed. Self-government, though guaranteed by the State Constitution, and left to every other county and city, has been taken from us by this foreign power, whose dependents have been sent among us to destroy our liberties by subverting our political system. How we shall rid ourselves of this odious and oppressive connection, it is not for me to determine. It is certain that a dissolution cannot be peacefully accomplished, except by the consent of the Legislature itself. Whether this can be obtained or not, is, in my judgment, doubtful. Deriving so much advantage from its power over the city, it is not probable that a partizan majority will consent to a separation-and the resort to force by violence and revolution must not be thought of for an instant. We have been distinguished as an orderly and law. abiding people. Let us do nothing to forfeit this character, or to add to the present distracted condition of public affairs. The Much, no doubt, can be said in favor of the justice and policy of a separation. It may be said that secession or revolution in any of the United States would be subversive of all Federal authority, and, so far as the Central Government is concerned, the resolving of the community into its original elements-that, if part of the States form new combinations and Governments, other States may do the same. California and her sisters of the Pacific will no doubt set up an independent Republic and husband their own rich mineral resources. Western States, equally rich in cereals and other agricultural products, will probably do the same. Then it may be said, why should not New York city, instead of supporting by her contributions in revenue two-thirds of the expenses of the United States, become also equally independent? As a free city, with but nominal duty on imports, her local Government could be supported without taxation upon her people. Thus we could live free from taxes, and have cheap goods nearly duty free. In this she would have the whole and united support of the Southern States, as well as all the other States to whose interests and rights under the Constitution she has always been true. It is well for individuals or communities to look every danger square in the face, and to meet it calmly and bravely. As dreadful as the severing of the bonds that have hitherto united the States has been in contemplation, it is now apparently a stern and inevitable fact. We have now to meet it with all the consequences, whatever they may be. If the Confederacy is broken up the Government is dissolved, and it behooves every distinct community, as well as every individual, to take care of themselves. When Disunion has become a fixed and certain fact, why may not New York disrupt the bands which bind her to a venal and corrupt master-to a people and a party that have plundered her revenues, attempted to ruin her commerce, taken away the power of self-government, and destroyed the Confederacy of which she was the proud Empire City? Amid the gloom which the present and prospective condition of things must cast over the country, New York, as a Free City, may shed the only light and hope of a future reconstruction of our once blessed Confederacy. But I am not prepared to recommend the violence implied in these views. In stating this argument in favor of freedom, "peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must," let me not be misunderstood. The redress can be found only in appeals to the magnanimity of the people of the whole State. The events of the past two months have no doubt effected a change in the popular sentiment of the State and National politics. This change may bring us the desired relief, and we may be able to obtain a repeal of the law to which I have referred, and a consequent restoration of our corporate rights. FERNANDO WOOD, Mayor. January 6th, 1861. Personal Liberty Laws. Among the grievances mentioned by the South Carolina Convention was the existence in Northern States of "Personal Liberty Laws." We give from the National Intelligencer of December 11th, 1860, a summary of these laws, except that of Massachusetts, which has been condensed more accurately than was there published: MAINE. The laws of this State provide that no sheriff, deputy sheriff, coroner, constable, jailer, justice of the peace, or other officer of the State. shall arrest or detain or aid in so doing, in any prison or building belonging to this State, or in any county or town, any person on account of a claim on him as a fugitive slave, under a penalty not exceeding one thousand dollars, and make it the duty of all county attorneys to repair to the place where such person is held in custody, and render him all necessary and legal assistance in making his defence against said claim. NEW HAMPSHIRE. The law of the State declares that slaves, coming or brought into the State, by or with the consent of the master, shall be free; declares the attempt to hold any person as a slave within the State as a felony, with a penalty of imprisonment of not less than one nor more than five years; provided, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to any act lawfully done by any officer of the United States, or other person, in the execution of any legal process. VERMONT. This State, by her several acts of 1843, 1850 and 1858, provides that no court, justice of the peace or magistrate, shall take cognizance of any certificate, warrant, or process under the fugitive slave law; provides that no officer, or citizen of the State, shall arrest, or aid, or assist in arresting, any person for the reason that he is claimed as a fugitive slave; provides that no officer or citizen shall aid or assist in the removal from the State of any person claimed as a fugitive slave; provides a penalty of one thousand dollars, or imprisonment five years in State prison for violating this act. This act, however, shall not be construed to extend to any citizen of the State acting as a Judge of the Circuit or District Court of the United States, or as Marshal or DeputyMarshal of the District of Vermont, or to any person acting under the command or authority of said Courts or Marshal. Requires the State's attorneys to act as counsel for alleged fugitives; provides for issuing habeas corpus and the trial by jury of all questions of fact in issue between the parties; and ordains that every person who may have been held as a slave, who shall come, or be brought, or be in the State, with or without the consent of his or her master or mistress, or who shall come, or be brought, or be involuntarily, or in any way, in this State, shall be free. It is also provided that every person who shall hold, or attempt to hold, in this State, in slavery, or as a slave, any person mentioned as a slave in the section of this act, relating to fugitive slaves, or any free person in any form, or for any time, however short, under the pretence that such person is or has been a slave, shall, on conviction thereof, be imprisoned in the State prison for a term not less than one year nor more than fifteen years, and be fined not exceeding two thousand dollars. MASSACHUSETTS. That of 1860. The Governor to appoint commissioners in each county to defend alleged fugitives from service or labor, who shall secure to them impartial trials by jury: and the alleged fugitives may have the services of any attorney whose assistance may be desired. The penalties prescribed by the two preceding sections not to apply to any act of military obedience performed by an officer or private of the militia. All the expenses of the defence of alleged | prison for not less than one nor more than fugitives to be paid by the commonwealth. two years. Persons holding office under this State not to issue process for the arrest of alleged fugitives, nor to serve the same, nor to do any official act in furtherance of the execution of the fugitive slave law of 1793 or that of 1850. Any justice of the peace offending against this provision to forfeit not exceeding one thousand dollars, or be imprisoned, in jail, not exceeding one year, for each offence. The jails and other prisons of the State not to be used for the detention or imprisonment of any person accused or convicted of any offence created by either of the said acts of Congress; or accused or convicted of resisting any process issued under either of them, or of rescuing or attempting to rescue any person detained under the provisions of either of said acts; nor for the imprisonment of a person arrested on mesne process or execution in a suit for damages in consequence of aid rendered to any fugitive escaping from service or labor. Whoever removes from this State or assists in so doing, or comes into the State with the intention of removing or assisting in the removing therefrom, or procures or assists in procuring to be so removed, any person who is not "held to service or labor" by the "party" making "claim," or has not "escaped" from the "party" making "claim" or whose "service or labor" is not "due" to the party making "claim" within the meaning of the words of the Constitution of the United States, or the pretence that such person is so held or has escaped or that his service or labor" is so "due" or with the intent to subject him to such "service or labor," shall be punished by fine not less than one thousand nor exceeding five thousand dollars, and by imprisonment in the State prison not less than one nor more than two years. And any person sustaining wrong or injury by any proceedings punishable as aforesaid, may maintain an action and recover damages therefore. Sheriffs, deputy-sherffs and others, state, county, city, district and town officers, and officers of the volunteer militia forbidden to arrest, imprison, detain, or return, or aid in so doing, any person for the reason that he is claimed or adjudged to be a fugitive from service or labor, shall be punished by fine not less than one thousand and not exceed ing two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment in the State prision not less than one nor exceeding two years. The volunteer militia not to aid in the seizure, detention or rendition of a person for the reason that he is claimed or adjudged to be a fugitive from service or labor. Any member thereof offending against this provision, to be punished by fine not less than one thousand nor more than two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment in the State The preceding sections not to apply to fugitives from justice. United States judicial officers not to hold any judicial office under the constitution and laws of this State, except that of justice of the peace. No justice of the peace, while holding the office of a Commissioner of the United States Circuit Court, shall have authority to grant any warrant or to issue any process, civil or criminal, other than summons to witnesses, or hear and try any cause, civil or criminal, under the laws of this State. ACT APPROVED MARCH 25TH, 1861. Sec. 1. Writ of habeas corpus returnable before the Supreme Judicial Court except in cases mentioned in Sections 30 and 32, Chap. 144 of General Statutes. Sec. 2. On a trial upon a writ of habeas corpus, under sec. 19 of same act, issues to be framed under direction of the court, and rules of evidence, etc., to be those of the common law. Sec. 3. A person not to be taken by writ of habeas corpus out of the custody of the U. S. Marshal, or his deputy, holding him by legal process issued by court of competent jurisdiction, provided, that the Supreme Judicial Court may investigate and determine upon the validity and legal effect of any process which may be relied upon to defeat the writ, or any other matter properly arising. Sec. 4. No person to be punished, who, without any false pretence or unlawful intent, claims another person as a fugitive from service or labor. Sec. 5. The right of any officer or court to call out the militia for the prevention or suppression of any riot or mob, is not prohibited by the 144th chapter aforesaid; the officers or members of the volunteer militia not excused from obeying any lawful order, or liable to any penalty for executing the same; provided, that the militia shall not be used to hinder the service of any lawful process of this commonwealth. CONNECTICUT. The State of Connecticut provides that every person who shall falsely and maliciously declare, represent, or pretend that any free person entitled to freedom is a slave, or owes service or labor to any person or persons, with intent to procure or to aid or assist in procuring the forcible removal of such free person from this State as a slave, shall pay a fine of $5,000 and be imprisoned five years in the Connecticut State prison; requires two witnesses to prove that any person is a slave or owes labor; denounces a penalty of $5,000 against any person seizing |