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ARREST, NEUTRALITY, SLAVERY, and INTERNATIONAL conflict

The article offers worlds news briefs in January 1850. Spanish General Narciso Lopez has been arrested in New Orleans, Louisiana, awaiting trial on charge to violate the U.S. neutrality act of 1818. Both U.S. Houses of Congress are still engaged in arguing the different questions emerging out of slavery. The misunderstanding between France and England has grown out of the demands in the subjects of Great Britain against the Greece government.

UNITED States politics & government, INTERNATIONAL relations, and VIRGINIA. Legislature

The article offers news briefs related to politics in the U.S. House Representatives Honorable William R. King of Alabama and Honorable Howell Cobb of Georgia were called to help prepare the opening of the second session of the Thirty-first Congress. The U.S. government has made favorable changes to its foreign policy following its negotiation with Great Britain. The Virginia Legislature has assembled to tackle the Compromise measures of the Congress on December 2, 1850.

PRESIDENTIAL administrations, PROCLAMATIONS, and INSURGENCY

The article presents the editor's views on the program pertaining to the emancipation of rebels with their consent, compensation by Congress, and colonization beyond the limits in the U.S. He reacts that the proclamation of the program by President Abraham Lincoln only applies to such of them as shall persist in rebellion after the first of January 1863. He also looks at the three classes of states in which this proclamation will have no effect on the first of January.

PRINCIPLE of nationalities

The article presents the author's insights on the main points in the Articles of Confederation and Constitution. The author differentiates the frameworks of the two governments and reveals the differences between them. The author notes that the vote in Congress was taken by the States based on the Articles while vote is taken by members according to the Constitution. The author also stresses that the Constitution is considered as the organic law of a completed and developed nationality.

EMANCIPATION of slaves, SLAVERY laws, and U.S. states

The article offers information on the pecuniary aid offered by the Congress, recommended by the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, to abolish slavery within their boundaries on April 10, 1862. It mentions that the pecuniary aid is offered to loyal states to provide emancipation and compensation to slaves. Moreover, it states that the pecuniary aid eradicates evils, punishes crimes and accomplishes reforms.

FINANCE laws, CURRENCY question, NEGOTIABLE instruments, and LETTERS of credit

The article discusses the financial history of the Revolutionary government accepted and sustained by the people in the U.S. It states that there is no record of discussions of two million Spanish milled dollars in bills of credit to be released by the Congress in defence of the U.S. on June 22, 1775. It adds that on June 23, 1775, the denomination, form, and number of the bills were made into eight denominations which was decided by the Committee of the Whole.

CONSTITUTIONAL amendments (United States), POLITICAL reform, DESPOTISM, and SLAVERY in the United States

The article discusses the proposed U.S. constitutional amendment in 1864 which failed in its final passage in the U.S. House of Representatives. It says that only despotism could disregard the provision of the amendment. It mentions several reasons of the proposed amendment, which include the highest warrant as a measure of political reform it has, the necessity to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and to strike the root of slavery.

REVOLUTIONS, CONFERENCES & conventions, and CONSTITUTIONS

The article presents information about the book "History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the Thirty-Seventh and Thirty-Eighth United States Congresses, 1861-5," by Henry Wilson. Wilson's book records another and a brighter chapter in the history of the U.S. The rebellion of 1860-61 swept away in a moment the constitutional restrictions by which slavery had been so long protected, and the withdrawal of the Southern senators and representatives afforded an opportunity to the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses to expunge from the statute book the whole series of measures designed to strengthen and perpetuate slavery, and to propose to the Legislatures of several States an amendment to the Constitution abolishing and for ever prohibiting it on every part of the American soil.

FINANCE, PUBLIC finance, LOANS, PUBLIC debts, DEFICIT financing, and BANKRUPTCY

The article focuses on the financial conditions of the U.S., as of August 17, 1865. The recent statement from the Treasury put at rest, quite suddenly, the widespread predictions of embarrassment, which followed the closing up of the last 7.30 per cent loan. It was said that the borrowing power of the Secretary was at an end until the meeting of Congress; that his wants through the ensuing four months would be great; and that nothing short of "forced loans" or discreditable postponements, would save the Treasury from bankruptcy. The public debt was represented as having grown so rapidly since the termination of hostilities that the Secretary dare not make his statement to the country.

BANKRUPTCY, LAW, REVOLUTIONS, WORKING class, EMPLOYERS, EMPLOYEES, and AFRICAN Americans

The U.S. Congress cannot stop the action of the laws of political justice and political economy, though it may disturb their normal workings and so hinder the blessings they were ordained to secure from flowing to the returning rebels. The root of every human polity is the laboring class, from which it derives its nourishment and its strength; and its true prosperity and power are in just proportion to the moral and physical well being of that class. The revolution has completely changed the former relations of laborers and employers in all the rebel country. The essential element of the old state of things in the South, swept away by the storm of war, was the purchasable quality of the Negro.

UNITED States politics & government, CENTRAL-local government relations, FEDERAL government, EXECUTIVE power, CIVIL rights, and CONSTITUTIONAL law

The article discusses issues related to the U.S. government. It is universally expected that the present Congress will virtually settle both the time and the terms on which the States lately in rebellion may fully resume their dissevered relations with the national government. Their claim to participate as co-equal partners in that government having been totally forfeited by their own act of war, their re-admission to their old rights and privileges must depend upon such conditions as the government itself shall impose. These conditions have not been and cannot be determined by the executive branch of the government alone.

UNITED States politics & government, CONSTITUTIONAL amendments, LEGISLATION, LEGISLATIVE bills, SLAVERY, CONFERENCES & conventions, and LEGISLATIVE bodies

The article discusses issues related to the U.S. government. Never since legislation was, did a legislative body come together under such a weight of responsibility, and charged with duties of such far-reaching and long-enduring issues, as the Congress, which assembled at Washington. It is more than a legislative body. From the necessity of the case, it largely partakes of the nature of a constituent body. The Thirty-eighth Congress made itself immortal by the passage of the Constitutional Amendment abolishing and prohibiting slavery. The Thirty-ninth has much more arduous task of organizing the victory of the nation over its rebels into institutions assuring for ever the safety and happiness of all the inhabitants of that region, and the prosperity, honor, and glory of the whole Union.

INTERNATIONAL relations, UNITED States politics & government, CONSTITUTIONAL amendments, PROHIBITION of alcohol, LEGISLATION, SLAVERY, and BUSINESS

The article focuses on political conditions of the U.S. and around the world, as of December 14, 1865. Mississippi wants to accept one-half the Constitutional Amendment and reject the other; that is, she is quite willing that the Constitution shall prohibit slavery, provided Congress shall not have power to enforce the prohibition "by appropriate legislation." It is said that the Grand Duke of Baden is deranged. The Spanish Government continues its attention to the subject of the slave trade, while the journals discuss the question of abolishing slavery in the colonies.

FINANCE, BROKERS' loans, BANKERS, and STOCKS (Finance)

This article reports on several developments related to finance in the United States. Money is abundant at the financial centers, the rates being 6 to 7 per cent for call loans. Mercantile paper is not easy of sale. Bankers and financial men are generally unwilling to let their money pass out of their control until the Congress of the United States has determined the policy of Government. In another development, four railway dividends were announced last week. The annual report of the New York Central Railroad has been published .The report has discouraged many holders of the stock.

ASSASSINATION of Abraham Lincoln, 1865, PRESIDENTS of the United States, EXECUTIVE power, and PRINCIPLE (Philosophy)

The article reports on the assassination of the U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, which constitutionally led Andrew Johnson to succeed as the U.S. president. It states the executive power Johnson enjoys is not by design but by accident. It states Johnson belongs to the class of men, who act from moods, and not by principles.

INTERNATIONAL relations, PETITIONS, SUFFRAGE, WOMEN, LEGISLATIVE amendments, COMMISSIONERS, and FISHES

The article focuses on political and social issues of the world. A petition from the women of the U.S. to the U.S. Congress, asking for an amendment to the Constitution, "prohibiting the several States from disfranchising any of their citizens on the ground of sex," is in circulation. The social emancipation of women must precede their political emancipation. As long as they are socially dependent, as at present, on men and do not generally desire or seek independence, the assertion of their political rights will be difficult or impossible. The Massachusetts Fish Commissioners, after careful enquiry, reported that by means of fish ways, to aid their ascent of the Merrimac and Connecticut, the salmon and shad that used those rivers might be enticed back again.

POLITICAL autonomy and REVOLUTIONS

The article discusses the attitude of the U.S. Congress and its executive related to restoration of self-government to Savannah, Georgia. In 1864, the captain of the great march made over the city of Savannah and in effect, the Confederacy, as a Christmas gift to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Twelve month later the new President relinquishes the military control of the territory thus acquired and restores self-government, with compliments of the season, to States which were then in un-subdued rebellion. The U.S. Congress, finally, has declared that States which the President thinks capable of resuming their individual vitality and functions have as yet no claim to be represented in the national legislature. In this diversity of opinion the Executive has clearly the advantage and his recent action has altered materially the problem before Congress.

RAILROADS, ROADS, JURISDICTION, TAXATION, CONSTITUTIONS, SPEECHES, addresses, etc., and PRESIDENTS of the United States

The article focuses on railroads, which are national highways and hence should be under the jurisdiction of national authority. The President of the U.S. said in a speech that the U.S. Constitution confers the right to regulate commerce among the several States. It is of the first necessity for the maintenance of the Union that commerce should be free and unobstructed. Therefore it is best that while the country is still young and the tendency to dangerous monopolies still feeble, to use the power of the U.S. Congress to prevent any selfish impediment to the free circulation of men and merchandise. The principle thus announced is applied by the President to taxes imposed by a State on the transit of men and merchandise within its limits, or to the denial of a choice of route.

MINES & mineral resources, TAXATION, MINERAL industries, and LEGISLATIVE bills

This article focuses on the importance of mineral resources and discusses issues related to its taxation, in the United States. The great development which has taken place in the mining industry of the United States and the great influence which it is likely to exert on the currency of the United States and world, will make it a very prominent topic of discussion for some years to come. Its importance has been already recognized by the U.S. Congress in the introduction of a bill for the establishment of a much-needed Mining Bureau, and by several of U.S. principal colleges in the establishment of schools of mines, in which engineers can be trained in sufficient numbers to meet the probable wants of the great mining regions, without resorting to the European schools.

SCIENCE, PUBLIC lands, AGRICULTURE, CARBONIC acid, and INDUSTRIAL arts

The article presents information related to the field of science. The grant of public lands made by the U.S. Congress to the several states for the purpose of promoting instruction in agriculture and the mechanic arts, is beginning to bear fruit in the establishment of agricultural colleges and schools. A cheap mode of preparing carbonic acid is of importance, because of the many useful applications now made of this gas. A manufacturer of soda-water at Paris, M. Orouf, has recently perfected a method of preparing carbonic acid, which seems very simple and economical, and at the same time presents points of scientific interest.

UNITED States economy, STOCKS (Finance), GOLD, COMMERCIAL products, and SECURITIES

The article presents information related to financial conditions in the U.S. The feature of the week has been a heavy decline in gold, stocks, and produce. For many months, foreign merchandise has been, with few exceptions, bought and sold for gold, so that it has not felt the effect of the tumble in the gold room, indeed, in the coffee and sugar markets a somewhat improved enquiry is noted. No specific cause has been assigned for the sudden fall in gold. The increased demand abroad for securities, the prospect of conservative legislation in Congress, the failure of some speculators for the rise, and the abandonment of the game, in despair, by others, each of these causes had its influence in producing the result.

AFRICAN Americans and SUFFRAGE

The article presents information on the political developments in the U.S. and other parts of the world. U.S. Congress to the surprise of most people, has admitted the Afro-American to vote in the District of Columbia and without any qualification. One wish, it had insisted, when doing away with the color qualification, upon every man's knowing how to read before exercising the franchise. Great cordiality seems to exist between the Emperor of Austria Francis Joseph and the Hungarians. Francis Joseph has received deputations from the Diet at his Imperial residence of Buda.

SUFFRAGE, ELECTIONS, POLITICAL participation, and POLITICAL parties

The article presents information on the vote of the U.S. House of Representatives on suffrage in the District of Columbia. Whatever may be thought of the process by which it was carried, or of the propriety of refusing to impose an educational test in the very place in which of all others it is perhaps most needed-was an unmistakable indication of the resolute temper of Congress and is a signal rebuke to those adroit manufacturers of opinion, those pseudo exponents of popular sentiment, who, whether from party prejudice, hardness of heart, or honest conviction, have always been tacitly, as they are now actively, zealous to leave the work of the Republic half done. From those who avow such principles the cause of justice has little to fear.

UNITED States history, 1865-1921, UNITED States economy, INTEREST rates, MERCHANTS, GOLD, and INTERNATIONAL trade

This article presents information on the economic conditions of the U.S. Gold has not varied much during the week. Most of the leading operators are bears, but the prevailing uncertainty with regard to the financial measure before the U.S. Congress and the advance of the rate of interest on the other side have checked the decline. A leading authority figures a balance of $40,000,000 in gold due Great Britain by the United States on the interchange of produce and merchandise during the year 1865, and argues that the merchants of this country must be indebted to the merchants of England in some such sum. American credit is beginning to be understood in Europe, and the natural consequence is that money is flowing to the point where it is worth most. It is argued in some quarters that the advance of the rate of interest must tell on. the price of cotton.

LEGISLATIVE bills, ECONOMIC policy, BONDS (Finance), INTEREST rates, PUBLIC debts, and SECURITIES

The Committee of Ways and Means reported, on the 1st inst., a bill substantially the same as that which is known as the Morrill bill, empowering the Secretary of the Treasury to sell at any price, for any kind of money or securities, any quantity of the U.S. bonds, bearing any rate of interest not over 6 per cent, and running for any number of years not over forty; authorizing him further to sell such bonds either at home or abroad, but limiting the interest payable on foreign bonds to 5 per cent, and requiring him to withdraw and destroy all Treasury notes or money received in payment of such bonds, so that no increase in the public debt can by any possibility be effected. The newspapers are full of rumors touching the probable action of Congress upon the bill.

REVENUE, EXECUTIVE advisory bodies, MUNICIPAL services, CIVIL service examinations, and POLITICAL science

Want of space did not allow people, last week, to do more than allude to comments made by the Revenue Commission, in their report, on the present condition of the principal Custom house in the country that of this city and on the whole administrative system of the Government. The U.S. Congress has but to pass an act applying to all branches of the public service the rule suggested by the Revenue Commission with regard to the Custom House throwing open all places in the public service, except the highest, to everybody, male or female, above a certain age, possessed of a good character, capable of standing the test of a competitive examination both as to physical and intellectual qualifications.

BOOKS

The article presents a list of various books received by the periodical. Some of books are "Simplicity and Fascination," by Anne Beale, "A Youth's History of the Rebellion, "Mosaics of Human Life," by Elizabeth A. Thurston, "The Sahdow of Christianity or the Genesis of the Christian State," "Military Measures of the United States Congress," by Henry Wilson.

PRESIDENTS of the United States and GENERALS

Making due allowance for the motives of those whose visits to the White House are now daily chronicled for whom it may concern, it is thought that they are guilty of no little imposition on the President and the public. The absolute authority with which the President was invested could neither have been so effectively exercised nor with so little odium if he had refused to listen to the instructions, the complaints, and even the menaces from every quarter. The Congress could not for ever be taking recesses in honor of successful generals who are introduced there, and neither can the President be interrupted without a loss to the nation beside which his personal annoyance is of little account.

GOLD, GOLD markets, MONEY market, HEDGING (Finance), and SPECULATORS

The U.S. government has been a large seller of gold this week. Gold continues to be in active demand for delivery, but holders are no longer able lend their gold, as was the case last week. As usual, the downward tendency of specie brings into the market, as sellers for the fall, a large number of merchants who seek to protect their drooping merchandise by this "hedging" process. It is still pretty generally felt among speculators that if the Congress does its duty to the country, gold may sell at 125, or at least 130, by midsummer.

COMMUNICATION, REVENUE, BUSINESS, and LICENSES

The article presents information about political developments in the United States. The public will gladly sanction the action of the U.S. Congress last week in aid of the Russo-American telegraph. By it the Secretary of the Navy is required to lend one steam-vessel from the Pacific squadron to sound the opposite coasts and otherwise to assist in laying the submarine cable that is to bind hemispheres. That provision of the internal revenue act which requires licenses to be taken out for the pursuit of certain kinds of business was sought to be improved by the liquor dealers of Massachusetts to evade the liquor law of the State.

PRESIDENTS of the United States, CONFERENCES & conventions, SPEECHES, addresses, etc., ASSASSINATION, and PRESS

The article focuses on a recently delivered speech by the United States president at Washington D.C. As a piece of rhetoric it will hardly be expected that one should criticize it and what of argument there was in it had been already laid before the public in a much more forcible as well as more formal shape. That most extraordinary passage in which he reiterates against prominent members of the Congress of the United States men who, whatever their faults may be, enjoy the respect and confidence of a large portion of the community, a charge of suggesting or seeking or instigating his assassination, calls both from the press and public for something more than a brief and passing note of disapprobation.

PRACTICAL politics, PRESIDENTS of the United States, and LEGISLATIVE bills

The article focuses on a political conflict in between the U.S. Secretary of State, William Seward and U.S. President Andrew Johnson. People have heard of the Freedmen's Bureau bill before now and are tolerably familiar with all that can be said both for and against it and are hardly likely to be beguiled in one night into believing that the U.S. Congress is mostly composed of reckless fanatics bent on destroying the Union or nullifying the Constitution. The reconstruction problem has always hitherto been spoken of as one of extraordinary difficulty.

PRESIDENTS of the United States, EXECUTIVE succession, DEMOCRACY, and WAR

If a breach between U.S. President Andrew Johnson and the U.S. Congress was inevitable from the moment of the death of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, it could not have come at a better time than the present. One must do U.S. President Andrew Johnson justice. When he came into power, it was into a power of unusual and extraordinary growth, which the people were anxious to have used to further the great ends which the prospect of returning peace seemed to bring within their grasp. The President, however, wisely remembering that the Government was a democracy, not an autocracy, refused to call into action any further than was necessary, forces with which the people, accustomed to war, had become familiar and hastened to put off the strength that chance had clothed him with.

CONSTITUTIONAL amendments, CONSTITUTIONS, RATIFICATION of constitutional amendments, and PRESIDENTIAL elections

Since the formation of the Federal Constitution there have been four distinct and successful attempts to amend it, resulting in the addition of thirteen articles to the original instrument. The first ten of these belong together and were part of a batch of twelve which passed both Houses of the First Congress, at its first session but of which the remainder failed to be ratified by a sufficient number of States. Series of ten amendments already described, like the Constitution, was nearly two years in being adopted. The twelfth amendment only six months in ratifying and for a very good reason, a Presidential election was imminent and the amendment contained instructions which were designed to apply to it.